Gavin and Stacey: Why do Welsh people love the show so much?
2025-02-09
Category: entertainment

From the bumper cars on Barry Island to the nightclubs of Cardiff, Wales has played an integral role in the hit TV show Gavin & Stacey.It may be no surprise then that Welsh people are the sitcom's biggest fans, with over half (59%) of Wales' population watching the Christmas Day finale - compared to just 32% of those in rest of the UK - according to BBC viewing figures.Welsh people are also twice as likely to have watched the finale twice, compared to viewers in the rest of the UK.So, truth be told, when all is said and done... why do Welshies love the show so much?
Across the UK, 2.8m (4%) have watched the Christmas Day episode more than once,  but in Wales that figure is 245,000, equivalent to 8% of the Welsh population.Keen re-watcher Laura Davenport, 39, is on her fifth time watching the finale and said the figures come as no surprise to her.Born in Barry, where the show is set, and the founder of Scoop ice cream store in Barry Island, she said for many people in Wales the characters reflect those they know and love in their own lives. "People may not like to admit it, but we all see a bit of ourselves in the characters," she said. "Some people get quite offended and think it makes us look stupid, but it's Welsh humour and our ways of speaking."Everyone knows a Gwen, who is very particular about things, while everyone knows a Nessa, someone who you would call if you were in trouble."Laura said there are no other comedy shows that represent Wales with quite the same impact, and re-watching the show still makes her emotional now."It was the absolute perfect ending, especially with the thanks to the people of Barry. I was bawling my eyes out on Christmas day," she said. Laura said she can see people re-watching the show for years to come. 
If you're in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, and the surrounding areas, the figures also suggest you're 29% more likely to have watched the finale on BBC iPlayer.Parent blogger Cathryn Scott, 46, grew up a stone's throw away from Gwen's house in Barry and said the show is popular among Welsh people because it epitomises life in south Wales, through its "real and raw" characters. Being married to an Englishman, she also considers herself one of the real-life Staceys, and said many can relate to either side of the coin. "The show captures the crossover between Welsh and English culture perfectly, something which many people can relate to," she said. Cathryn said lots of TV is often filmed in Wales, but pretending to be somewhere else. "Although there have been some brilliant dramas which have been successful nationally, such as Keeping Faith and Hinterland, we don't often see comedy series based in Wales," she added. "Too often a Welsh person is made to be the joke, whereas with Gavin and Stacey, the Welshness is integral to the whole thing. "We have never seen anything quite like Gavin and Stacey that reflected life like we know it in south Wales."
And we can expect a fresh cohort of Gavin and Stacey fans in the future, as the show is currently being studied by GCSE Media students in Wales.Run by the WJEC exam board, learners look at the representation of Wales on TV through place and cultural identity."I was so proud my daughter got full marks," Cathryn laughed, adding: "I was blown away it was being studied at GCSE."When I first watched it, it was a BBC Three show no-one had heard of." Gavin and Stacey tour bus host, Linda Bailey Dale-Greaves, from Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said people of Wales love it because it's filmed in Wales, "especially the people of Barry, they really appreciate it". Linda, who has been running the tours around the iconic filming locations in the Vale of Glamorgan for 14 years, said the viewing figures surprised her as around 80% of fans travel from outside of Wales. 
She said people are often unaware just how little of the series is filmed in England, with Mick and Pamela's house actually in Dinas Powys and the Southampton docks featured in the finale actually being filmed in Newport. The tour host was invited to act as an extra in the finale and said she regularly jokes to customers that she is Nessa's second cousin - and they tend to believe it. "For many superfans, it's real to them, it's real people," she said. Linda added that the humour is "tongue-in-cheek, the Welsh accent and the Welsh banter, people absolutely love it".Having watched the show four times already, Linda said she has no doubts people will keep on talking about it. 
The 17-year comedy show is the best performing single BBC Wales programme on record, with 8.7m views across the UK. If you haven't already, you can watch all three series of Gavin and Stacey and The Finale on BBC iPlayer. 