Gavin and Stacey fans were left wanting more after Nessa’s shock proposal to Smithy at the end of the Christmas Day special.
Smithy’s new girlfriend Sonia made a hasty exit from Barry after being unimpressed with Gavin and Stacey’s family, leading Nessa to tell Smithy she is in love with him.
Nessa got down on her knees and presented a ring to Smithy and the episode ended immediately ended immediately after she asked: ‘Marry me?’
Shock: Gavin and Stacey fans were left wanting more after Nessa’s shock proposal to Smithy at the end of the Christmas Day special
Viewers took to social media in their droves after the cliffhanger to express their shock at how the episode ended.
The episode also saw fans introduced to Smithy’s new girlfriend Sonia who disliked Gavin and Stacey’s family when she met them in Barry for Christmas.
James reportedly flew back to the UK from Los Angeles to watch the special alongside his family, according to The Sun.
It is thought that James, his wife Julia Carey and their three children have all returned to England for Christmas and the special.
Cliffhanger: After Smithy’s new girlfriend Sonia made a hasty exit from Barry after being unimpressed with Gavin and Stacey’s family, Nessa told Smithy she is in love with him
Reaction: Viewers took to social media in droves to express their shock at the proposal
James revealed that the long-awaited Christmas special was saved after he and Ruth Jones wrote the ‘best scene ever.’
The Late Late Show host told The Sun that they decided to scrap the script they’d secretly written in LA, it was brought back to life after an idea ‘landed in the room.’
Speaking on Radio 2, James explained that he and Ruth met last year to try and write something new for Gavin and Stacey, but after writing 40 pages they agreed it wasn’t good enough.
He said: ‘We decided, ”OK, well, thank goodness we didn’t tell anyone. Thank the Lord we didn’t. We’ve scratched this itch that we thought was there, and it isn’t, so no harm done. No one will ever know”.’
Surprise: Nessa got down on her knees and presented a ring to Smithy and the episode ended immediately ended immediately after she asked: ‘Marry me?’
James then revealed that the Christmas special finally came together after an idea for a scene just ‘landed in the room.’
‘It’s probably the quickest scene we’ve ever written. And I think it’s the best scene Gavin & Stacey has ever had,’ he added.
‘Suddenly this scene arrived, I can’t tell you, I sound like Mystic Meg, but it landed in the room.’
James was tight-lipped about the nature of the scene, although co-star Mathew Horne hinted on Radio 2 that it involved himself and Joanna Page, as he said it was the first scene they filmed when production began on the special.
James and Ruth admitted they had wanted to write more for a few years but logistically, had found it hard to get together following James’s move to LA.
The last series ended on New Year’s Day in 2010 when Smithy interrupted Nessa’s wedding to Dave Coaches and Stacey announced she was pregnant.
Ahead of the 2019 special airing, Ruth defended the word ‘f****t’ being used in the episode when the characters perform a rendition of Fairytale of New York.
The song’s lyrics: ‘You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap-lousy f****t’ have proved controversial with calls for the homophobic slur to be censored from the track.
However, Ruth told The Sun that while the Christmas special is being shown in a ‘different climate’ to the original series which wrapped in 2010, she felt she was staying true to who the characters are by keeping the song uncensored.
She said: ‘It is a different climate. But we have to remain true to the characters, to who they were.
‘Characters in Gavin & Stacey are kind and big-hearted, I believe. So I think no one is going to be intentionally hurtful.
‘But by the same token, they’re not necessarily going to be completely politically correct or be aware of political correctness.’
