Why is Gavin and Stacey so popular? Larry Lamb gives the answer
Gavin and Stacey star Larry Lamb - who played Mick Shipman in the sitcom - believes the secret to the show's massive success is that the viewers feel as though they are part of a family.
Gavin and Stacey star Larry Lamb believes the secret to the sitcom’s success is that the viewers feel as though they are part of a family.
The 78-year-old actor played Gavin’s dad Mick Shipman in the BBC comedy which ended last year with a Christmas special that was watched by an astonishing 19.3 million people and the series is still constantly being repeated and streamed.
Larry believes Gavin and Stacey connected in a way a lot of other shows don’t is because the person watching at home feels as though they are one of the Shipman clan and are mates with Gavin (Mathew Horne), Smithy (James Corden), Stacey (Joanna Page) and Nessa (Ruth Jones).
Discussing why he thinks the show is so popular, Larry said: “It’s because it’s all about love.
“When Ruth and James wrote Gavin and Stacey they created a family that everyone can belong to. Because everybody wants to be part of a big, loving, extended family, and you can belong to this, right?
“And that's what it was, it was totally inclusive, because it wasn't about people who are, you know, who are pretending to be something. There was no pretending there at all. It was so carefully put together with all those characters, and people would say, ‘Oh, it always feels like it's real.’ And that's the skill.
"Another one of these totally unknown skills is that people have to put together a cast of people. They think they just get a bunch of actors. But it's about slotting those people to go in it.
“Finding that couple for playing Gavin and Stacey, who had to fall in love on camera, and you had to believe them falling in love. And if you didn't believe them, there was no story there. Well, finding those two people who didn't know each other, never been in a room together, and get them together, and then looking at them thinking, ‘Yep, that's it, we've got Gavin and Stacey there.’ That’s extraordinary.
“They just got it right because they are so canny those two (James and Ruth).”
Larry admits his favourite scene to film and look back on is the last scene of The Finale which shows the characters celebrating Smithy and Nessa’s marriage after years of will they, won’t they.
Larry insists what made it so special was the fact that all the cast and crew knew that it was going to be the last scene on the last ever day’s filming, something that rarely happens.
He said: “I'm asked a lot about what my favourite scene ever in Gavin and Stacey was. And that last day of filming that end, when nine times out of 10, when you're doing a TV series, the first thing you're going to do is the end and the last thing you can do is the beginning, right? Because they just do it all according to the locations. But they'd engineered that so that we would be filming the last day and we always knew we'd be filming the last day on the last day of work.
"And it was just extraordinary because they figured, okay, let's make it easy. Nobody has to be learning lines, worried about whether they're going to drop the ball. You know, what we're going to do is we're going to make this like a party. And it was absolutely unforgettable for everybody. And you could feel it, because like when you've been around the crews, you couldn't always get the same crew all the time, but there was a sort of a core, the director and the first assistant director and the second assistant director were always the same people. They were always the core of it right there. And then each time the crew came together, they all became a part of this ever extending family. And so, you know, halfway through the day, most people are ready to cry.
“And as it ticked on, ticked on, ticked on, all towards the end. And then, you know, clearly the audience don't see, but when the dancing scene happened, it was like, come on, so all the crew were in there. They were all dancing around and having just the best time.
“So yeah, I mean, it was, that whole thing was unforgettable.”
