Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, review: James Corden and Ruth Jones reunite to remind us of a kinder sort of comedy

The writing is not notably trim but those with fond memories of the original will find the goods they ordered

Back to Barry we go, for the first new Gavin & Stacey (BBC1) in a decade. The whole band are reunited to celebrate Christmas and remind viewers of a kinder, gentler kind of comedy, one of BBC3’s standout triumphs. Since the regular series finished in 2011, co-creator James Corden has become a superstar in America courtesy of his chat show, and in particular its carpool karaoke section that routinely sends him viral. Ruth Jones, his writing partner and co-star, has had six series of Stella on Sky One. Rob Brydon continues to be Brydon, with a new series of The Trip coming out next year. Others in the cast may have been easier to pin down.

The titular couple (Mathew Horne and Joanna Page) are still happily married, although the pressures of parenthood have taken some of the zip out of their relationship. Smithy (Corden) and Nessa (Jones) have their own son, Neil (played by Oscar Hartland, who was the baby in the original series), and an occasional romantic relationship that’s under threat from Smithy’s new girlfriend, Sonia (Laura Aikman).

Gavin & Stacey was always lifted by its superior supporting cast, especially Larry Lamb and Alison Steadman as Gavin’s parents, Mick and Pam, and Brydon as Stacey’s cautious, protective Uncle Bryn. It would be easy for this clash-of-cultures comedy to tend to a sharper kind of humour, but it always had a warm squishy heart, offset by Corden and Jones’s more acerbic and wacky lines. At one point, Sonia mentions a fat club where advice on binge-eating can be sought. It’s a social death knell for her character, the show’s way of alluding to a crueller universe and instantly rejecting it. But most of the episode is reunion-by-numbers, with the highlight an entertaining cameo from Julia Davis and Adrian Scarborough as Mick and Pam’s intense friends Pete and Dawn.

The writing is not notably trim. There’s an over-extended plot about Bryn’s preparations for the Christmas lunch, and an unnecessary performance of almost all of “Fairytale of New York”, including the now-verboten “f****t” line. Characters singing entire numbers rarely works in the middle of regular TV or film: dialogue’s rhythm is too brisk, especially in the relatively quickfire Gavin & Stacey universe. Not that it matters. Those with fond memories of the original will find the goods they ordered, and a touching final scene leaves the door open for more in the future.

It’s Gavin & Stacey’s misfortune that it comes in a year stuffed like a cheap goose with remakes, reunions and re-adaptations. There’s A Christmas Carol, Dracula, Mrs Brown’s Boys – all relatively low-risk festive programming. Of all of them, Gavin & Stacey proves that playing it safe is not always a bad thing. It’s a way of spending an hour with people we’ve known a long time, and we are happy to see, but probably only once a year at most. Truly, the Christmas spirit.