Gavin & Stacey and the trouble with sitcom revivals
Much-loved series to return for Christmas special but is TV's past best left behind?
A final episode of the comedy series "Gavin & Stacey" will air on Christmas Day, James Corden and Ruth Jones have announced.
"It's official!" wrote the actor and former chat show host on Instagram, "we have finished writing the last ever episode of 'Gavin and Stacey'".
It will hit our screens five years after the most recent, one-off instalment of the series and a full 14 years after the third series ended. But as many writers have discovered, reviving a comedy long after its heyday isn't always met with praise.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
'Bad cover version'
The 2015 reboot of "Arrested Development" left some feeling that the show was best left where it was. "Trying to recreate the past is almost always impossible", said Vox, and the show felt "half finished". It was "fun in places and laboured in others, sometimes in the same scene".
"The show must not go on," said Entertainment Weekly. The episodes were a "low point for the once-great series, recycling gags, reheating limp characters" and "swirling complicated narrative strands without the old snappy grace".
Released 13 years after "The Office" ended, the cinematic reboot "David Brent: Life on the Road" could "never quite escape unfavourable comparison to that first, unimprovable finale" and "mostly feels like a faint photocopy of what we've seen before", said Empire.
This "bad cover version", said The Guardian, was a "patchy comedy that lacks discipline". Variety said it was "meandering". Not so, said The Telegraph, Ricky Gervais was "at his toe-twistingly funny and poignant best".
'Grave-robbing'
The idea of the 1970s BBC prison comedy "Porridge" without the "comic brilliance" of Ronnie Barker "would have once been unthinkable", said Digital Spy. But, 39 years on from its last episode, the writers "struck gold" with Kevin Bishop, who played the Barker character's "cyber-criminal grandson" in 2016.
But The Guardian wasn't so happy. "This will tarnish the memory of the original", it said, and "some things are best left as that – a memory". The one-off revival of another Barker sitcom, "Open All Hours", also fell flat for some and "felt like a sad relic from another era", said The Telegraph.
Perhaps Corden and Jones have less to worry about because when "Gavin & Stacey" returned for a Christmas special in 2019, it pleased many. "Those with fond memories of the original will find the goods they ordered," said The Independent, while The Guardian said it was "absolutely crackin'" and Den of Geek said it was "full of love and laughs" and "back at its best".
But some will never been won over to the television reboot. "Resurrecting the dead and buried" has "always been part of television's business model", but in the past few years, "the grave-robbing industry has blossomed", said Vice in 2016. "Stop rebooting TV shows, you lazy ***holes."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Today's political cartoons - November 2, 2024
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - anti-fascism, early voter turnout, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Geoff Capes obituary: shot-putter who became the World’s Strongest Man
In the Spotlight The 'mighty figure' was a two-time Commonwealth Champion and world-record holder
By The Week UK Published
-
Israel attacks Iran: a 'limited' retaliation
Talking Point Iran's humiliated leaders must decide how to respond to Netanyahu's measured strike
By The Week UK Published
-
Threads: how apocalyptic pseudo-documentary shocked a nation
In the Spotlight The rarely shown nuclear annihilation film will reappear on TV screens this week
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Alma's Not Normal, season two: 'hilarious' sitcom is 'pretty much perfect'
The Week Recommends The second instalment of Sophie Willan's semi-autobiographical comedy is a 'triumph'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Wolfs: 'comedy thriller' stumbles despite George Clooney and Brad Pitt
Talking Point While the crime caper might 'pleasingly pass a Saturday night' its star-studded duo cannot ultimately salvage it
By The Week UK Published
-
'Ludwig': David Mitchell's new quaint and quirky British detective drama
The Week Recommends The BBC's new cosy crime drama is the 'role of a lifetime' for Mitchell
By The Week UK Published
-
All the comedians to see on tour this fall
The Week Recommends Put on a sweater and get ready for some knee-slappers
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
Colin from Accounts, season two: an 'absolute joy to watch'
The Week Recommends The second series of Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall's hit TV comedy is 'every bit as good as the first'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
'Only Murders in the Building,' series four: 'screamingly funny'
The Week Recommends Eva Longoria and Eugene Levy join star-studded cast in latest instalment of 'compelling' whodunnit
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Daddy Issues: a 'potent blend of wit and charm'
The Week Recommends Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey have 'easy chemistry' in this 'touching' tale of a pregnant woman flatsharing with her divorced dad
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published