Nov 25, 2009
Two Welshmen, Gavin & Stacey and a guy in black
This week sees the return of the BBC’s flagship sitcom Gavin and Stacey. That the show is the BBC’s flagship comedy is more a sad indictment on the state of the current output of television comedy in this country than it is praise for the show itself. At the risk of sounding like a bitter, hateful bastard, I like Gavin and Stacey. But I like it in the same way that I like Friends. It’s watchable, fairly harmless and it raises a few chuckles, but it’s rarely brilliant.
That said I will be watching on Thursday night when the third series kicks off. It’s one of the few programmes my girlfriend and I both like (she likes it more than me, admittedly). It’s the televisual equivalent of a rom-com feel-good film, which is no bad thing. It just isn’t as good as most people think it is. One thing about the programme which is brilliant, however, is Rob Brydon.
The simple fact is that Welsh people are funny. They just sound funny with their daft accents, don’t they? Brydon is the latest in a long list of hilarious Welsh comedians that includes Max Boyce, erm, Rob Brydon, and, erm, well I’m sure there are loads more. (Check out this exhaustive Wikipedia list of Welsh stand-up comedians, which you will note, is comprised of three names, two of which are women. WOMEN!).
I have a love/hate relationship with the Welsh. On the whole, it’s fair to say I hate them, but I love their daft accents. To prove this, I suggest you find an Englishman and a Welshman, get them to say the following two phrases, and see which sounds funnier:
- “Wales — it’s alright when it’s not raining.”
- “Ratatouille — it’s the best meal you can have.”
In particular I love the two Welsh lads I knew at uni, the stars of two of my favourite anecdotes of all time.
Exhibit A: Guto Jones
Guto by all accounts had led quite a sheltered life prior to university. He grew up in The Valleys in Wales, and I can still recall the astonishment on our faces as he told us they didn’t have a TV and he’d never eaten pizza. He was a proper Welshman, fluent in their silly language and — by his own admission — not so fluent in English.
One day we decided to have a Star Wars marathon. (This was back in the day when there were only three Star Wars films.) So, a few of us settled down in Big Steve’s room to watch The Star Wars Triology: Before Lucas Fucked It Up. We sat through Star Wars and most of The Empire Strikes Back before Guto — bless him—turned to us and said, “Who’s the guy in the black?”
The guy in the black, in case you didn't get that
An absolute star. Legend has it, the owner of a two-foot cock. Half-Welsh-half-English (much to his own disappointment), but as Welsh a Welshman as you could ever wish to meet (or avoid).
Towards the end of the first year at uni, Hywel decided to run for a position on the Hall Committee — Food and Social Rep or some ridiculously jumped-up-sounding role. To prove his desire and in an attempt to garner votes, he had to do a series of forfeits and challenges, one of which I recall was streaking around the football pitch in the middle of a game, naked but for a Wales flag around his waist.
The final thing he had to do was get up on stage before a room full of his hall-mates and present his manifesto (traditionally this was the last chance for the candidate to beg for votes, and it was the crowd’s last chance to volley abuse). After a few minutes of heckling from a hostile-if-jokey crowd, Hywel snapped and, abandoning his nicely-nicely vote-for-me approach, instead decided to scream “OH, FUCK OFF YOU ENGLISH CUNTS” before storming off stage.
He didn’t get voted in, surprisingly.
He is, however, 34 today. So happy birthday Hywel Adams you mad Welsh bastard. It’s a shame it’s (supposedly) the final series of Gavin & Stacey, because I think the inclusion of Hywel Adams, playing himself, could have turned it into a truly great programme.
Hywel Adams (centre)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! All seems like a very long time ago now but still as funny!
Thing the blog just highlighted possible 2 of the better things to come out of Wales apart from the M5 or the A20!
Loved reading this. Brought back many happy memories. Joanna Page (Stacey) is my ideal girl. So here’s hoping for another series after the new one.
Sorry if this does seem a little all over the shop but I have been out celebrating my 34 birthday.
Love you Gaz. You have to come and visit Wales, myself and the statue of your name sake soon. Begood.xxxLove and Hugs from Cymru.x
I know this post isn’t really about Gavin & Stacey, but I can’t help feeling that you’ve either missed or mis-represented the point.
Firstly, I don’t believe that Gavin & Stacey is “BBC’s flagship comedy”. It is undoubtedly one of the Beeb’s flagship light entertainment shows, but I don’t think its writers or producers would ever position it as a piss-your-pants comedy show. There’s more to it than that. You almost hit the nail on the head when you talk about rom coms – it is meant to be funny in part, but it’s also meant to capture some of the more meaningful events and emotions in life, as well as some of the banality. And I think it does that very well indeed. To call it “a sad indictment on the state of the current output of television comedy” is to judge it by the wrong benchmark, I think.
Secondly, let’s be honest – you’re maybe not “target market” for Gavin & Stacey. In fact, you’re maybe not target market for much of what appears on BBC 1. The channel has to be a bit more generalistic, a bit more approachable, and certainly a bit more watered down. That’s why Channel 4 (and to a lesser extent BBC2) exist – for the punks.
You draw a comparison to ‘Friends’. The same Friends that is one of the world’s most prolific, commercially successful and marketable TV programmes. It’s also funny. Don’t get me wrong, I agree it’s unlikely to make you laugh out loud in the way that a good stand-up will. But the comedy writing is superb.
I agree with you that there are a lot of stupid people in the world, and that these people can sustain terrible TV programmes. But I don’t think that either ‘Friends’ or ‘G&S’ are good examples of this. They are well written and well acted. And they are funny.
And I agree with Hywel – Jo Page rocks. Without G&S the world may never have known her. And without ‘Friends’, well, I think you know where I’m going with this…
With the greatest respect I think you’re being a little naïve if you think that the writers of G&S don’t think it’s a “piss-your-pants comedy show.” Two words: James Corden. And as for television comedy (specifically on BBC1), Outnumbered is outstanding. But I take your point.
Friends is good, but it’s not much better than that. It peaked around the third series (the Ross-and-Rachel-going-out-then-splitting-up era), then became a victim of its own success, in my opinion, due to all of the things you mention. It stopped pushing boundaries, it stopped being relevant (originally about 6 twenty-somethings all at their own individual crossroads in life), and the characters grew more annoying and became caricatures of themselves (prime example: who would want to be friends with someone as annoying as Monica or as weird and downright stupid as Phoebe?). It’s fast food TV. I’m not saying it’s shit – far from it. It’s vanilla ice cream, it’s chicken korma, it’s mass-market formulaic feel-good TV, the comedy equivalent of ‘Easy Listening’ music (if such a section still exists in those big music shops I feel too old to go into these days).
And whilst I appreciate your comments on the above please note that it was all just a tenuous link to my Hywel Adams story, and my intention was never to slag off arguably the most successful sitcom of our generation or this country’s current most popular thing.
Now, ‘Two Pints Of Lager…’ is a different story altogether.