The bar half way around the world which had a team building day watching Gavin & Stacey finale
While Gavin & Stacey: The Finale may have been watched by over 12 million people in the UK on Christmas Day, the biggest Christmas Day viewing figures in over a decade, it also drew in some viewers from further afield. A group of staff from The Welsh Dragon Bar in Wellington, New Zealand, spent their Boxing Day watching the finale half way across the world.
Beth Angharad, manager at The Welsh Dragon, is originally from Ceredigion and lived in Bangor for 15 years, but is now based in New Zealand. The pub offers a "slice of home" to Welsh travellers and expats in New Zealand - the walls are lined with Welsh memorabilia and many of the staff members are Welsh.
To celebrate the finale and the end of a busy Christmas season, a group of Beth's friends got together to watch Gavin & Stacey, with the three 'Welshies' - Beth, Jordan and Hannah, grabbing a picture to mark the 'team-building' occasion. Beth said it was a special experience to be able to watch the show with her fellow country people so far away from home.
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She said: "It was an emotional episode. I was blubbering the whole way through. It was lovely and really special to be able to watch the last one together.
"People all over the world love Gavin & Stacey but I feel if you're from Wales there is this unique connection to it. It's a feeling unique to Wales because we're not on the world map as much as other countries are and I just think Gavin & Stacey has put us on the map. The humour, the jokes, everything about it is so spot on. We've waited a long time for the finale so to watch it in New Zealand with my fellow Welsh was just lovely and special."
For the last Christmas special in 2019, the pub even opened up early to show the episode. Surprisingly to some, it is not only Welsh expats watching Gavin & Stacey in New Zealand. Beth explained: "It's more known here than I would've thought it would be. It's obviously not reached the heights that it has in the UK, but it's definitely popular enough with the Kiwis.
"We watched it on TVNZ which is a Kiwi TV channel and we were surprised it was on there. All of the Gavin & Stacey episodes are on there too so we have started watching it again from the beginning." For the latest Welsh news delivered to your inbox sign up to our newsletter
The Welsh Dragon Bar now also has a piece of Gavin & Stacey memorabilia to add to its collection. A person who takes on casual shifts and is a regular at the pub is actually Joanna Page's cousin and managed to get two signed photos of Stacey, Joanna's character, for The Welsh Dragon Bar to proudly hang in the pub.
