'I tried Smithy's infamous takeaway order from Gavin & Stacey and it completely broke me'

Who can forget the scene where Smithy list his Indian takeaway order? "Chicken bhuna, lamb bhuna, prawn bhuna, mushroom rice, bag of chips, keema naan and nine poppadoms... and a saag aloo."

Smithy's Indian order from Gavin and Stacey - delivered in one of TV's most memorable rants after he's faced with the risk of sharing his food - is so well-known that it's now sold on tea towels, t-shirts and mugs across the UK, especially on Barry Island in the Vale of Glamorgan.

For our reporter Ben this was clearly too much food for one person to eat. To attempt, would be ridiculous, perhaps even impossible, which is exactly why he decided to try and eat it!

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Of course, you can order the items from any Indian takeaway across the country if you're bold enough, but it took a special deal to tip Ben over the edge. In 2023 Meghna Balti Express in the Adamsdown area of Cardiff offered the above items as a special "Smithy's Indian Takeaway!" deal for £36, so our reporter felt he had no choice but to give it a go.

"When I ordered it on Just Eat, the restaurant automatically applied a 20% discount bringing the total to £29.30," Ben explained. "For three curries and more sides than one person could possibly need, that felt pretty reasonable. The mushroom rice was a large, by the way, in case the order wasn't big enough already.

"It arrived promptly in an actual crate, like greengrocers use to transport fruit and veg. On a wet evening in Cardiff, the rain had threatened to pierce the poppadom packaging, but the goods had survived. Once unpacked, it was a daunting sight; a mountain of food to get through."

Following a quick photoshoot of the dishes that were on offer, Ben and his housemate Andrea got stuck into the feast. "I wasn't ambitious that I'd get the whole thing finished, to be honest," he said. "Once again: three curries. So, I had my housemate Andrea ready and waiting to attack anything I didn't get to - and she was already eyeing up my bhunas."

According to Ben, the best course of action in his opinion was to load up his plate with "a bit of everything" amid the "charcuterie board of grease". He added: "It's been done before, but only (as far as I can tell) by a YouTuber and professional eater who does this stuff for a living. I am not a professional eater.

"Let's start with the bhunas. The chicken tasted fine enough but was really dry and chewy, which didn't make my job any easier. The prawns were miniscule and seriously difficult to actually find in a sea of the sauce, which was disappointing - a king prawn version would work much better.

"The lamb was bloody lovely, and easily the highlight for me. In general, the quantity of meat in the curries felt relatively stingy, but I wasn't complaining - partly due to the price, partly because it meant less for me to get through." However, Ben was not entirely impressed with the dishes on offer.

He said: "Since moving to Cardiff I've been won round to ordering my curry 'arf 'n' arf' but in this case the chips just added more carb-y challenge to a crowded plate. Dipping them, and the keema naan, in curry sauce helped significantly. The mushroom nice was also absolutely fine, but surprisingly, the poppadoms were the hard bit. They were the unwanted child- the fifth Beatle. I could conquer the rest, and there'd still be a stack of poppadoms staring back at me."

Ben came to the conclusion that had he ordered this as a normal takeaway, alongside two or three people, it would've been "perfectly nice". Additionally, its £29.30 price tag for the whole order was "reasonable". "But I had a task to complete," he continued. "And I'd already conceded a mental own-goal far too early on.

"Looking at what I'd already eaten, and what was still left, I allowed my housemate to start loading up her plate. Thinking it would be an insurmountable task to finish what was in front of me, I felt bad for letting her sit there with the food getting cold. Do I think I would've finished it all if I'd stayed strong and tried to eat the lot? Absolutely not. Do I feel a deep, searing guilt at letting myself (and you, dear reader) down by effectively admitting defeat this early? Yes - it genuinely kept me up at night."

Defeated, Ben said he had given it a "bloody good go" but felt "pretty ill" towards the end. He said: "I had a headache, and needed a lie down after eating. I'd been meaning to make a GP appointment for a little while and the reasons became clearer as I tried to digest the mega-curry. As I'm writing this now, almost a full day on, I'm not feeling 100%.

"Maybe that's a sign of my own weakness. Maybe I'd had too much water and filled up on that. Maybe you'd have done better. Maybe it's just an absolutely silly amount of food for one person. I sat back in my chair, bitterly disappointed. My housemate - and, by this point, another housemate and a friend who had gathered to watch my efforts - waited eagerly in the wings, and I gave in, letting them at the remainder of the leftovers."

Although bitterly disappointed with his attempt, his appreciation for Gavin & Stacey was unwavered. He said: "Let's be very clear. I desperately wanted to succeed at this because I like Gavin and Stacey way, way more than I should (I once wore a 'My Niece Went to Greece and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt' t-shirt to a house party and recreated Bryn and Nessa's karaoke scene).

"I absolutely love 2000s comedy - it's probably my favourite genre of TV - but lots of it has slowly died a peaceful death. Black Books is still great but it's more of a cult favourite. Miranda is still relatable but nobody's referencing it 24/7. Some others are still quoted across the internet on a daily basis, but there's almost always a self-deprecating edge. Peep Show is immensely quotable but surprisingly dark and mostly depressing. The Office and I'm Alan Partridge are both mainly about mundane people being idiots, so screenshots of those programmes are usually deployed to make fun of a mundane person being an idiot.

"Gavin and Stacey is warmer, more homely and familiar, so why has it endured? What's different about it? Why do we all know Smithy's takeaway rant by heart, why are 30,000 GIFs of Pam posted on Facebook every minute, why did the All Blacks pay a visit to the Barry terrace where it was filmed, and why is it impossible to reluctantly go on a night out in Cardiff without first saying: 'There's no way you're getting me out in Cardiff tonight'?

"The easy answer is: "Because it's f***ing funny," even if it has its share of detractors, even if James Corden has become an unrecognisably Americanised mega-celeb now, and even if some of the jokes haven't aged as well as others. But it's also relatable. Some shows are relatable, but not as quotable (Outnumbered) or quotable and relatable, but not as funny (Friday Night Dinner - sorry). Gavin and Stacey is the perfect combination, and most people have at least one of a Pam, Mick, Bryn, Smithy, Nessa or Gwen in their family."

He continued: "The bickering in the iconic takeaway scene is scarily familiar, and joins a roster of scenes which create a perfect but gentle satire of family life - and you remember them, in the same way you look back at pointless arguments and hilariously embarrassing moments in your own family, so the 20-minute episodes are a comfort blanket. And that's without even going into the Welsh connection.

"All that to say, I failed miserably to finish Smithy's takeaway order and I'm trying to come up with excuses. So here's my excuse: the huge crate of food being carried through to the kitchen, the frantic unpacking and - once I admitted defeat - the arguments over who got to eat what... it was a perfect reflection of what was being mocked on the Gavin and Stacey episode.

"Art imitates life imitates art - I'd created in my own kitchen what James Corden and Ruth Jones parodied all those years ago. If there's anything that I'll accept is a British tradition worth preserving, it's the humble takeaway, and the experience of ordering and eating one with a group of friends, and one way or the other I experienced that in the course of my challenge.

"It's a rubbish excuse. I did not succeed. It turns out it's not a good idea to base your takeaway order off a line from a sitcom. But sharing the takeaway got me through it - so maybe Smithy was wrong and Pam was right: sharing a takeaway is the way to go, 'because it's nice'."

The Christmas special episode is only a few weeks away, with many fans feeling excited to find out how their beloved comedy series comes to an end. Last time we saw the Shipman and West families was five years ago, back in another Christmas Special, which aired in 2019. Now, Gavin & Stacey fans can watch a sneaky preview of the finale for this year's Christmas Day (Wednesday, December 25) on BBC iPlayer. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.

Gavin & Stacey: The Finale will air on Christmas Day at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.