Cult classic

I may have put the kiss of death on The Thick of It but lightening won’t strike twice. I second Liz Anderson’s praise of Gavin and Stacey; It’s a must record if you can’t watch it.

The brilliance of Cordon’s and Jones’s gag-writing and slow paced drama is in rescuing characters that would otherwise be clichés. I’ve been on the receiving end on Smithy next to the quiz machine in every provincial Wetherspoons I’ve ever been to. Rob Brydon’s cardigan wearing valley caricature is preposterously hackneyed, and Allison Steadman has played the same person for 35 years, interrupted by occasional changes of regional dialect or socio-economic circumstances. I think it’s an underrated show, but the failure of Horne and Cordon’s sketch show makes me convinced that the real star of Gavin and Stacey is Ruth Jones.