James Corden has flown back to England to watch Gavin and Stacey with his family on Christmas Day
JAMES Corden has flown back to England to watch Gavin and Stacey with his family on Christmas Day.
The Late, Late Show host has returned home from Los Angeles to celebrate his show's comeback as he teases it as one of the best episodes he and Ruth Jones have ever written.
Despite fans calling today "Gavin and Stacey Eve", 41-year-old James insists he's barely recognised for his role as Smithy in America.
So while the show’s comeback is all anyone in the UK will be watching on Christmas Day, its reception in the US — where James lives with his wife Julia and their kids — is very different.
He told The Sun: “I don’t bump into people who ask me about Gavin & Stacey every day. It’s weird that everyone back home (in Britain) is so excited.
“It’s hard for me to gauge, I feel so far away from it. We’ve made this show, I just want people to enjoy it and I hope they do. I hope generations of families will sit down together and enjoy it for many different reasons.”
When the series first aired in 2007 it was shown on BBC Three. But as its ratings grew and grew, it transferred to a primetime slot on BBC1.
It's now set to be the most-watched TV show this Christmas.
Fans have been waiting since 2010 for a Gavin & Stacey reboot since the last episode went out on New Year’s Day.
More than ten million people tuned in as James and Ruth’s characters Smithy and Nessa were seemingly a happy couple living in Barry, while Gavin and Stacey, played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, were expecting their first child.
Fast forward a decade in the new one and our TV favourites are celebrating Christmas together once again.
But tomorrow night's episode was very close to never happening.
James revealed him and and Ruth, 53, met in secret to work on a new script at his LA home.
But after taking a week off from hosting The Late, Late Show to discuss ideas and storylines, they realised what they had written was not good enough.
The dad-of-three said: “In a 24-hour period the show was dead — then brought back to life.
HOW IT ENDED LAST TIME
WHEN the third and final series of Gavin & Stacey came to an end in 2010, more than 10.2million of us tuned in.
In the show Stacey revealed she was expecting Gavin’s baby. The couple had been having fertility issues and after hearing the news Gavin proudly proclaimed: “My balls work!”
They celebrated the happy news just before Nessa was due to tie the knot with her on-off partner Dave Coaches.
But in the dying moments Smithy burst into the church and begged Nessa, mum of their son Neil, to reconsider.
Nessa, who was caught in two minds, finally decided to call off the wedding for good.
Dave admitted he realised Nessa never really loved him and as he left the church he told her: “It’s been a blast, sugar t*ts.”
The episode cut to six months later and the last thing fans saw was Gavin, Stacey, Nessa and Smithy laughing and joking by the Barry Island seaside.
MOST READI N TV AND SHOWBIZ
“It was deeply depressing. It was the second time Ruth had flown out. That’s a long way to go. I was working on my days off, so that is essentially time you’re not with your children."
And thankfully for die-hard fans and the writers themselves, an idea “landed in the room”.
James said: “It’s probably the quickest scene we’ve ever written. And I think it’s the best scene Gavin & Stacey has ever had.
“Suddenly this scene arrived, I can’t tell you, I sound like Mystic Meg, but it landed in the room.”
- Gavin & Stacey, Christmas Day, BBC1, 8.30pm.