Gavin and Stacey: BBC Comedy

What happens when a girl from Wales hooks up with a boy from Essex? Cracking comedy with cultural differences, that's what!

Gavin and Stacey is less of a relationship comedy and more about how people from different backgrounds have to make allowances because of love. It is also quite the social commentary about the way culture and identity travels across county lines all the way to border. Mostly, it is about two people being in love and the people around them having to make adjustments to their prejudices because of that.

Written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, it is a 2007 BBC comedy which became the most nominated comedy show at the British Comedy Awards of that year. Corden and Jones also star in the show as the best friends of Gavin and Stacey

Gavin (Matthew Horn) works as a computer expert for a local company in Essex. Stacey (Joanna Page) works in accounts for a local company in Barry, Wales. They met over the phone because their employers do business together. Business conversations had turned into flirtations and that turned into a full length long distance relationship- without having met each other.

After six months of exchanging heart to heart conversations, Gavin and Stacey decide to meet at a neutral venue. Barry is on the west coast of Britain, and Essex is on the East coast of England, so these two lovebirds can claim to have the entire island (not to mention two countries) separating them. So they decide on a neutral venue, halfway between: London.

Just to be on the safe side, they each bring their best friends with them. Gavin brings Smithy, a burly builder who is very fond of beer (well who isn't?). Stacey brings her friend Vanessa, a woman who apparently has seen it all and is subsequently jaded about men.

Hilarity ensues as Stacey's uncle Brian (pronounced “Brin”) (Rob Brydon)equips her with a rape alarm for protection. The Welsh distrust of the English is not going away very soon as is the English misconception about the Welsh. But I'll tell you this for starters, other people's prejudices are hilarious to watch!

Gavin and Stacey hit it off and after a coupe of false starts, so do Smithy and 'Nessa. An awkward situation happens when the four of them have to share one room- but it is soon resolved. One can understand that being a best friend is about being able to ignore the fact that your friend is having very noisy sex four feet away. It does not hurt if you're doing the same as well.

As far as relationship comedies go, the comedy is centered more around the people in the lives of the two protagonists. Stacey's family is rather insular and very overprotective of her- not surprising since her father had passed away recently. Gavin's mother Pamela (Allison Steadman) is a typical Essex girl (presumably retired) who is very much your poor man's Hyacinth Bucket. Just imagine what could happen when these two clans meet. Here's a clue, I'm still laughing.

If you are looking for a non-formulaic comedy show that would actually make you laugh, you may want to give this one a try.