Gavin and Stacey | Top 5 British Shows You (Probably) Haven’t Seen

What is it about?

English Boy. Welsh Girl. £5.10 to get into Wales. Remembering to put www. in front of everything on the internet with this: Women Wearing Wings. Or, Whiskey With Water. Or, more conveniently, World Wide Web. These are the things that Gavin and Stacey is about.

Gavin and Stacey is my ultimate favorite British TV show. It is also the one that I have recommended to exactly one other American person in my entire life (mom). To give you some perspective on this, I have told approximately 12 billion other people about how amazing Doctor Who is.

I love Gavin and Stacey because it is a love story- not just about two lovebirds who get married super quickly (seriously, they meet in episode one and are engaged by episode 2. No joke.). It’s also a love between families story. There is very little in terms of flashy plot in this show. Everything stems from the ordinary, but lovely relationships between these people. Often what we’re left with is an episode that is 99% discussion of what to order from the curry take away, and 1% drama. In other words, real life.

I love Gavin and Stacey because it is so Welsh. Wales is my home away from home. I miss it everyday and my heart fills with nostalgia when I watch this show.

So why don’t I tell people about Gavin and Stacey? Is it because I want to keep it a secret? So I can be hipster cool? Like, how I am still trying to convince North Americans that cider doesn’t exist so it can be my special thing?

No.

It’s because I am deathly afraid that Americans won’t get it. The entire premise of the show is based on the silly little differences between Wales and England. Even more specifically, between Barry and Essex. Both of these places

It’s so regional. Even I don’t get all the jokes, and I have lived in Wales. How is an American with zero to very little experience with Wales supposed to appreciate it? I’m going to bank on the idea that family and love are a more powerful theme than funny regional differences. I am also going to bank on the idea that even if you don’t get the comedy in these particular regional differences, you do get the idea of regional differences in comedy in general and can translate it to regions that are more applicable to you.

So now, I am officially recommending Gavin and Stacey. Because James Corden has a TV Show in America and people seem to love it when he drives around singing with celebrities in his car. So there you go. That’s your “in.”

Why is it great?

This show is great because it manages to be heartwarming and funny and compelling despite the fact that nothing extraordinary happens. Standard plot lines in this show include visiting family for the weekend, going to a wedding, having a baby, ordering take out, starting a new job, and throwing a surprise birthday party. These are standard life things that happen to everyone. This show finds the joy, comedy, and love in these ordinary moments in these ordinary people’s lives. It’s heartwarming, but not too mushy. I mean, cm’on, how mushy can a show be when there is a sex joke involving bums and a toilet brush? It does get a bit blue.