Gavin & Stacey co-creator James Corden has revealed that he believed the show’s reunion to be “dead”, after he and Ruth Jones found themselves out of ideas.
Jones previously revealed that the show, a Christmas special which arrives almost exactly after the BBC show finished at the end of its third season, was nearly scrapped after her and Corden couldn’t come up with the right ideas.
Now, speaking to The Sun, Corden has explained how the show was “brought back to life” after the pair believed it would never be made.
“In a 24-hour period the show was dead – then brought back to life,” he said, with Jones visiting Corden’s home in Los Angeles twice to work on ideas for the show.
“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…” Corden continued.
“There was a very real moment where we had written maybe 40 pages. We recorded it just to see how long it was and we both knew probably halfway through, but we soldiered on. We both finished, and Ruth went, ‘What do you think?’ and I said, ‘We haven’t got it. It just doesn’t feel like Gavin & Stacey.’
“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.’”
However, the show came back to life when, as Corden explains, suddenly this scene arrived.
“I sound like Mystic Meg, but it 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.”
The NME review of the new Gavin & Stacey Christmas special calls the reunion “a near-perfect celebration of everything that made the show great in the first place,” adding: “Die-hard fans might have minor quibbles with a lack of character progression, but it’s clear Corden and Jones have resurrected their beloved baby with hugely successful results.
“Time will tell whether a more permanent return to Barry is on the cards, but without saying anything else, we certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”
