Gavin & Stacey Christmas special viewers point out glaring continuity error

Viewers spotted blunder during Smithy’s stag night

Gavin & Stacey viewers have noticed a glaring continuity error in the Christmas Special finale.

The show returned for a final time on Christmas Day this year, with the much-anticipated episode finally answering the fate of Nessa and Smithy’s relationship, picking up from 2019’s cliffhanger that saw Nessa get down on one knee.

Viewers were quick to spot a continuity mistake during Mick Shipman’s touching speech to Smithy on his stag night. The tear-jerking scene showed an emotional Mick describing Smithy as a second son, after he and his wife Pam struggled to conceive another child after having Gavin.

However, one fan pointed out on TikTok that during the scene, Mick’s pint appeared to go from full to half-full and back to full again.

They captioned the post: “Who else noticed Mick’s pint?”

“I spotted it right away,” said one viewer, as another joked: “Mick showing he can still drink the younger blokes under the table.”

A continuity error is a discrepancy in a scene or storyline that breaks the believability of the storyline. They can be subtle, like a character’s clothing being changed, or something disappearing from a table.

In the lead-up to the special’s release, the show’s co-creator Ruth Jones admitted that she noticed a mistake in the plot of the 2019 episode, which involves a blunder over the amount of Christmas puddings that were misplaced at the pub.

Mick giving a speech at Smithy’s stag night in ‘Gavin & Stacey’ (BBC)

The episode, which ended on a cliffhanger with Jones’ character Nessa proposing to Smithy (James Corden), became one of the most-watched Christmas specials in the UK in 2019, with 17 million people watching the programme.

Speaking to Magic Radio about noticing the mistake, Jones explained: “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?”

“Then Jason arrives and he’s 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 didn’t seem fussed by the error – pointing out that it isn’t specified in the episode how many Christmas puddings either character had bought.

The ‘Gavin & Stacey’ cast (BBC/Toffee International Ltd./Tom Jackson)

He told Jones: “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.”

The pair got into the technicalities of the pudding debacle, with Jones arguing that she thought the puddings were individual desserts rather than large ones. But Corden pointed out that the bag appeared to be heavy, which suggested it contained larger puddings.

The show returned to BBC One on Christmas Day this year with a 90-minute, one-off festive episode, marking the first time fans had been reunited with Gavin, Stacey, Smithy, Nessa and co since the last Christmas special in 2019.

In this year’s episode, many were shocked to see Smithy preparing for a wedding with Laura Aikman’s Sonia instead in a surprise twist.

James Corden, Mathew Horne, Joanne Page and Ruth Jones in ‘Gavin & Stacey’ (BBC/Baby Cow Productions/Neil Bennett)

Their wedding came to an abrupt stop, however, when Mathew Horne’s Gavin stood up to say he thought his friend was making a mistake, and eventually, Smithy decided to leave Sonia at the altar.

Smithy then rushed to Nessa to declare his love to her and propose on one knee. “We’re messy and not perfect,” he told her, “but I love you Nessa and I always have. Well, not always, but most of the time... I love you, will you marry me?”