Any fears that Gavin And Stacey’s long-awaited return might be a comeback too far disappeared after around two minutes.
That was when Mick and Pam arrived on screen and I actually found myself cheering out loud.
I mean, it was nice to see Gavin and Stacey in the opening scene too. No one ever watched Gavin And Stacey for Gavin and Stacey though.
The big draws – Mick and Pam, Smithy and Nessa, Uncle Bryn and Gwen, and Pete and Dawn – were all back, and it was like they’d never been away.
It looked like Smithy (James Corden) was even wearing the same tracksuit top he had back in 2010.
Nothing wrong with that, of course. I recently said a final goodbye to a Travis T-shirt I’d been wearing since 2001.
This one-off reunion may not have recruited many new fans but it had everything you could have wanted from a Christmas special: big laughs, seasonal sentimentality and its very own Christmas miracle – come on, as if Smithy would ever pull a girl like Sonia.
It also had a cliffhanger ending that could have come straight out of Walford. In case you were in a food coma by 9pm, I won’t reveal what it was. Let’s just say it left the door open for another series.
So if James Corden could somehow find time in his busy schedule to co-write and co-star in one, then that would be just tidy.
