{"id":642765,"date":"2026-05-14T14:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642765\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:14:09","slug":"james-corden-reveals-his-least-favorite-episode-of-gavin-stacey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/642765\/","title":{"rendered":"James Corden Reveals His Least Favorite Episode Of ‘Gavin & Stacey’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJames Corden<\/a> was in brutally honest mood this afternoon as he reflected on his least favorite Gavin & Stacey episode at the BBC Comedy Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a very very very bad half hour,\u201d he said of Season 1 Episode 2 of his beloved BBC sitcom. \u201cIt\u2019s an awful episode.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo why is Corden so damning? <\/p>\n

\n\tHe said he and co-creator Ruth Jones<\/a> \u201cbacked ourselves into a corner\u201d by making Gavin propose to Stacey at the end of Episode 1. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt had this very romantic end, so you can\u2019t do another romantic proposal [in the next one],\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\n\tEpisode 2 of the first series sees a huge misunderstanding on the phone cause Gavin to have to drive to Wales to resolve his relationship. At that point in their earlier careers, Corden and Jones didn\u2019t realize Gavin & Stacey was \u201cnot a sitcom but closer to a comedy drama,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were conscious of this half-hour comedy thing and I don\u2019t think we trusted that actually the characters will be the thing that will be funny,\u201d he added. \u201cWe tried to instead say we needed something funny in the scenes so we had Gavin jump the barriers when proposing, and be covered in lasers. In our head we were making a sitcom but we weren\u2019t, we were making a character-driven story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking alongside Corden, Jones joked that there is \u201cvery little Nessa\u201d in Season 1 Episode 2, hence the failure.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only saving grace of the ep, Corden added, was that iconic characters Dawn and Pete, played by Julia Davies and Adrian Scarborough, were introduced. Corden said today the pair were possibly their greatest creation, along with Pam, played by Alison Steadman.<\/p>\n

\n\tCorden used his Comedy Festival appearance to argue passionately for comedy commissioners to take bigger risks on shows and greenlight double-season orders.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow do platforms today crack comedy?,\u201d he questioned. \u201cI feel like the only way is to commission two series and say, \u2018We believe in this and it\u2019s going to take time and you can\u2019t rely on overnight ratings\u2019. There is an element of ownership and discovery to comedy that we the audience want to find comedies and share them with our friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGavin & Stacey was given a double-season order before it had premiered but Corden questioned whether this would happen in today\u2019s climate. \u201cThey said it doesn\u2019t matter how many people watch this, we believe in it and want to commission it again,\u201d he said of the BBC. \u201cCommissioners have to treat comedy in a different way. It can create stars overnight but audiences need time and don\u2019t want to be force fed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou also need a fair bit of luck, Corden added. \u201cIf [Gavin & Stacey] came six months earlier or later there\u2019s a chance it doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are so programmed to think about success but success is about timing, mood, culture, and there is such an element of luck in it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tGavin & Stacey\u2018s finale was 2024\u2019s most-watched TV show in the UK, concluding on Christmas day to an eventual audience of more than 20 million people.<\/p>\n

\n\tCorden and Jones have since swapped the BBC for Apple TV with The Choir<\/a>, which rolls cameras this year and sees them star as brother and sister Ben and Lisa, reunited after Ben returns home from abroad to a quiet English town. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair were speaking at the BBC Comedy Festival just after top British comedy commissioners and before the writers of Amandaland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Corden was in brutally honest mood this afternoon as he reflected on his least favorite Gavin &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[277618,88,277619,15047,171925,277620,92],"class_list":["post-642765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc-comedy-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-gavin-stacey","tag-james-corden","tag-ruth-jones","tag-the-choir","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}