One of the much loved British television series Gavin and Stacey follows the long distance relationship between Gavin (Matthew Horne) who lives in Essex, England and Stacey (Joanna Page), from Barry, Wales.
Written by James Cordon, who also plays Gavin’s friend Smithy and Ruth Jones, who plays Stacey’s friend Nessa, it has won the Best TV Comedy award in the British Comedy Awards of 2008.
While it is essentially about an Essex boy and a Welsh girl falling in love, it’s also about two different nationalities coming together, and often clashing.
While Gavin and Stacey are the main characters, I believe their best friends, Smithy and Nessa are the ones who bring in the biggest cultural stereotypes on England and Wales, along with the supporting characters such as Smithy’s sister, Rudi and Stacey’s Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon).
Smithy brings in his love of the West Ham football team, paintballing and beer. And his sister, although she loves her brother, projects the typical ‘chav’ image. Nessa portrays the ‘uninspired’ representation of a small town Welsh person; she is fierce and defensive and has a strong friendship with Stacey.
These characters, although cringe-worthy and lewd at times, are lovable. They depict the realistic attitudes and persona of the typical Welsh and English, and the audience can’t help but laugh along with them, and very often laugh at them. It often makes me think, are there actually people out there that are this extreme? And then when I really think about it, of course the answer is yes, I even know a few (and no I’m not going to name them!)
So my question is, are there stereotypes fair? Or do they take the small nutty points in people’s personalities and push them to the max to make a really great comedy?
But the other side of that argument is that these presentations are not just necessarily stereotypes, but of the ‘real people.’ Yes they are often crazy, loud, totally idiotic, and a little scary (let’s not forget often very embarrassing to our countries!) but they are also devoted, hilarious and undeniable sweet people at times. This aspect just proves why the show has become so popular, because they have taken the everyday and realistic people from the cities and small towns and made them the stars.
Some of the great one liners;
Nessa: ‘Alright, ‘ow’s it goin’?’
And; Stacey’s Mum – “Be careful he might be grooming you………He might be a paedophile”
Stacey – “Well he wouldn’t be interested in me then would he”
Check out Gavin and Stacey’s best bits on The Humour Blog!
Captains of Comedy 