Gavin and Stacey's 'glaring continuity error' addressed by Ruth Jones after episode airs
Gavin and Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones spotted a “glaring continuity error” in the show’s 2019 Christmas special.
The festive edition, featuring the cliffhanger of Ruth's character Nessa's proposal to Smithy (played by James Corden), was tuned into by 18.49 million people at the time, meaning the episode was the most-watched non-sporting event in over a decade, and the most popular televised comedy in 17 years.
It led to a final episode being broadcast yesterday (December 25), which pulled in around 12 million viewers. But, five years after the 2019 special aired, Ruth says she has now spotted an error in one of the popular gags.
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Speaking on Magic Radio, Ruth admitted: “I watched the 2019 Christmas special the other night and I noticed a glaring continuity error. You know Pam leaves the Christmas puddings behind and forgets to take them because they have been otherwise occupied and they are mortified?
“And Mick, being the calming force of the family, the voice of reason, says ‘it’s okay, we can go to a shop, there’ll be one open’. So they go to get them on the way to the pub. Then Bryn turns up and he’s got the Morrisons bag with the Christmas puddings in, and I think there were nine of them for dinner.
“Then Jason arrives and he stopped at the shop and he’s picked up Christmas puddings as well. So the next morning, when they haven’t got the Christmas puddings, one of them, and I can’t remember who it is, says ‘have we left nine Christmas puddings in the pub?’ There’s 18, there’s double.”
Co-creator James Corden, however, was not sold on the error, pointing out it isn’t specified how many Christmas puddings either character had purchased. He told Ruth: “Does Bryn say that they have bought nine? No.
“Nobody says how many they’ve bought, and also, you don’t have a Christmas pudding each on Christmas Day. What I thought that happened is they’d bought four or five and then Jason turned up and bought four.”
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Ruth argued the puddings were smaller “individual” desserts instead of a larger one. However, James pointed out that the bag appeared too heavy to contain the smaller puddings.
This year’s festive episode of Gavin and Stacey drew in an overnight audience of 12.3 million people, reports the BBC. It made the programme the most-watched non-sporting event of 2024.
The second-most viewed programme on BBC One was Wallace and Gromit with 9.38 million. The audience for the sitcom's finale is, however, expected to increase.
It comes after the 2019 figures grew over the subsequent 28 days, when BBC iPlayer views were factored in. King Charles’ Christmas speech was the third most watched programme this year on Christmas Day, with around five million people watching as he delivered his annual message.
