Did you watch it? The gavin and stacey finale?

[MumOfOneAllAlone]

I'm in tears. Maybe I'm just emotional but can't believe how much the show means to me

And the ending... tidy!

I loved it.

I thought it was obvious Smithy wasn't marrying Nessa at the beginning, couldn't see her shopping in John Lewis 😂

My DH said 'Why don't they just use their phones?' just before they said it. 😆

But why oh why wasn’t it Christmas?
Given that it aired on Xmas Day why was everyone in dodgy fake tan, t shirts and summer dresses????
Really ruined it for me that it wasn’t set at Xmas time.

They said it wasn't going to be set at Christmas.

I didn’t read anything about it before watching it.
Just really shocked it wasn’t Christmas time. Especially given that the last episode had been. It would have made more sense given it was aired yesterday and would have felt more festive/celebratory.

Loved it.

I agree with a PP that it started slowly - I think (sadly) it felt a little forced with Pam and Mick at the beginning - like someone acting the characters, rather than the actual characters iyswim. It felt like both Alison & Larry settled into the characters again though and by the end they seemed more like themselves.

Pam, Mick, Dawn & Pete definitely felt the most ‘aged’ which was poignant for me - my parents are a similar age to Larry & Alison and I have seen them age considerably in the last 5/6 years. Dawn was not pleasant to watch - the cheekbones were ridiculous.

I loved that the Smithy storyline was explored further. Smithy has always just been searching for a stable family - hence Sonia in the first place and his disgust/disapproval of Nessa who was always quite chaotic. I think Sonia wanting Smithy was a bit of an odd storyline but if she’s a similar age then she’s late 30s at least and not married and has found a man she can totally control - I don’t think it was ever a ‘love match ‘ for either of them, but provided them each with what they wanted/needed - a stable family for Smithy and a domain to control for Sonia.

Smithy’s character is def the one we have seen grow and mature the most over the last 17 years and I loved hearing Mick speak about how they viewed him as a second son, and how hearing that affected Smithy - that was the catalyst for him breaking up with Sonia for sure - him seeing how much he was loved and accepted by others meaning he didn’t need Sonia to fulfil that need for him.

I think it’s only now that they have co-parented for 16 years that both Smithy and Nessa are mature enough to be content with each other. Smithy can see that Nessa can be the stable family he’s always been searching for, and Nessa is finally able to “settle down” because she’s realised that she is fulfilled as a mother and a friend in a way she never was in her many previous adventures. Neil the Baby is the fertiliser that has allowed them both to grow into healthy individuals.

Neil the baby was magnificent - the musical performance at the wedding made me tear up.

I didn’t mind Gwen and Dave - DH thought it was going to be Dick Powell - I think Dave was more believable.

'if you want to drink tomorrow, drink today'

😄

Isn't it weird though how none of the children - apart from Neil the Baby - have any sort of personality beyond being on their screens? They're like cardboard characters.

That's like Motherland though. The story is about the adults - the kids (even Neil the Baby) are just supporting characters.

I really enjoyed it. To be honest, when it started I was cringing a bit as I felt the acting was wooden and forced from a few (felt like watching am dram) but it massively improved.

I’ve got zero interest in children in this. There’s enough going on already without random kids to bring into it.

Fair enough. I'm just questioning how children are represented, generally. But that's just me.

Yes, thinking back the episode was a bit wooden at first. Then, once we saw the dreadful Sonia in John Lewis it got better - it then went to Nessa and her Apple Pay bra, followed by the harmonica nonsense which is peak Nessa.

Loved that Nessa was the only one who didn’t pull a face after drinking that Swedish stuff.

I’ve been meaning to watch Archie (the Cary Grant biopic) on ITVX and having just found out that the fab Sonia actor is in it, I’m going to watch this weekend. She portrays Cary’s wife Dyan Cannon (the actor who played Whipper in Ally McBeal).

I literally didn’t even notice that it was nothing to do with Christmas, until I watched the behind the scenes this morning 😆 made no difference to me clearly!

Ah, a world without financial constraint or mobile phones. You can walk out of a fifty grand wedding without apologising to anyone and soon be whooping in a bus with randoms from Wales who have absolutely no connection to you. My eyes rolled out of my head. Couple of funny gags, mind.

The tans were weird. Were they real or bad makeup or bad fake tan? It seemed strange that so many characters had the same going on ?

…you do understand that it wasn’t a documentary, yes?

But that’s life. Kids generally have little influence over how things pan out. It’s why being an adult is better.

Random from Wales who have no connection?? I take it you've never seen the previous three series??

I’d give it 2.5/5. It could have been half as long and still got the message across. The stag, hen and KFC all a bit flat. It was obvious what was going to happen but I don’t think that really matters. I just felt it had no edge? I guess when it came out on bbc3 those people have grown up it just felt a bit watered down for bbc1 Christmas Day.

Ah but it's been 5 years 2 of which were covid so they wouldn't have been around each other as much
and generally people don't tell people when they're in an awful relationship even when abuse is involved their friends and families tend to avoid it being discussed so this is entirely plausible

I agree with you @Parkrunmum10 But to be fair, I thought what @yorktown said originally. Why was he with her so long?! But yeah as you say, 5 years isn't that long really, when you take into account COVID. The 2 years of Covid seemed like a blur in many ways, like we were all frozen in time.

Yes I watched them all. The Welsh contingent are Smithy's best mates in laws. He's been with his gf long enough to plan a wedding and he lives in Essex so it's a hell of a reach imo.

I loved it. I cried a lot. Surely there is scope for more episodes to be made .I didn't want it to end but what an ending. We didn't find out a few things that is why I want a few more to be made. Surely they could do even just one a year!