Barry buddies (From The Northern Echo)

Barry buddies

10:37am Thursday 26th November 2009

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Gavin And Stacey (BBC1, 9pm); The Culture Show (BBC2, 7pm); Jess: Britain’s Youngest Sleepwalker (C4, 9pm).

ONE of the BBC’s most popular sitcoms returns for a third and final series and, in the first episode, Gavin starts his new job and the move to Barry Island means big changes for the whole family.

Pam and Mick have to adjust to an empty nest, while Gwen’s got a full house again.

Stacey is in her element, but will this finally be the solution to the couple’s long-distance problem?

Meanwhile, Smithy questions their friendship along with his own role as father – and with Dave Coaches on the scene and now engaged to Nessa, will Smithy find himself pushed out of the frame?

That remains to be seen, but one thing we can confirm is the viewing figures should go through the roof.

Of all the BBC sitcoms in recent years, this had perhaps the most stratospheric rise.

There was a time when the BBC didn’t have much faith in a little sitcom about Gavin, an Essex lad who fell in love with a Welsh girl called Stacey.

Tucked away on BBC3, this series slowly built a devoted following, and when awards started flooding in, the big cheeses at the Beeb rushed a second run into production which finally wound up on BBC1.

Last Christmas, fans were treated to a seasonal special as entertaining as anything that had gone before, and now we see if writers and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones will tie up all the loose ends.

So, Ms Jones. We’re not being funny, but what’s occurring with series three?

“Well, the biggest difference in this series is that the later episodes are set in the summer, so we get to see Barry Island in the sun. And there’ll be a whole episode set on the beach which was really fun to film.”

Ruth says: “Loads of people were there watching, so it was a real party atmosphere.

And we were so lucky with the weather – later on in the shoot we had torrential rain and the place where we were filming nearly flooded. So those beach days... the gods of Barry were smiling down on us then.”

And what’s been happening in Nessa’s life?

“She’s been living in Dave’s caravan down Sully since he proposed at Christmas and has carried on working. She takes Neil the baby to work with her which is nice.

“She and Dave are getting on fine, even though it is a bit cosy in the caravan. And things are about to get even cosier when Nessa’s dad turns up in episode one for Neil’s christening and needs somewhere to stay.”

Has Barry’s worldly-wise siren changed much?

“Nessa’s attitude to life pretty much stays the same,” explains Ruth. “She’s never in a different mood, always the same one. And she takes whatever life throws at her in her usual measured way.”

The excellent cast includes Mathew Horne and Joanna Page as the eponymous lovers, along with Corden, Jones, Rob Brydon, Larry Lamb, Alison Steadman and series newcomer Pam Ferris, who plays Smithy’s mum, Cath.

AT a time when people increasingly interact with each other via a computer screen rather than actually talking, the Culture Show reveals the demise of the British pub, the one time communications hub for many communities.

Lauren Laverne investigates the past and present of the pub industry. More importantly, with an average of 50 pubs closing each week in the UK, she tries to find out what the future holds.

Sting is in the Cumberland Arms, the heart of Newcastle’s folk scene, to perform from his new album, If On a Winter’s Night. And Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy performs a piece which celebrates and laments the pub.

THREE-and-a-half-year-old Jess has a condition that has baffled every doctor she has seen.

For the past two and a half years she has been living a double life: during the day she is a bright and happy girl, but at night she spends hours sitting in a trance, acting out elaborate scenes. She describes the “friends” who visit her, who hit her and who won’t go away.

The problem could be sleepwalking, night terrors, or sleep apnoea, but nobody even knows whether Jess is dreaming or awake.

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