Jayne gave me a box set of Gavin and Stacey at Christmas.  I was quite pleased by this because everyone raves about it but I had not seen it – or rather I had seen one episode from the middle of it and didn’t get much out of it because I didn’t know who anybody was or what was going on.  It was the barn dance episode, and I can remember thinking that I ought to catch up from the start one day.Unsurprisingly, Jayne had not seen it either, so the other night we sat down and started on disc one.  We ended up watching the whole of season one and half of season two in one session before realising it was very, very late.  I went off to bed but Jayne carried on and watched another disc or two.  What I didn’t realise was that the box set contained episodes that had not been shown yet on TV, so from being behind the rest of the world I ended up watching the last episode only a day after it was broadcast.  If I had pulled my finger out a bit I could have even watched it before the ‘proper’ broadcast.

I enjoyed the programme, though not as much as Jayne did.  She seems a little bit obsessed by it and I am half expecting her to suggest a visit to Barry Island this year.  We already go to Billericay a couple of times a year – which I have to say looks nothing like the Billericay shown in Gavin & Stacey.

The real issue is how I managed to avoid this for so long.  I am sure it has been repeated a couple of times but somehow I just never felt like seeing it.   At least it was only about ten or eleven hours to catch up on, which is manageable, like the Office, Father Ted or Extras.  There are other programmes I have never seen and think I would probably like, but they all went on for a bit and the box sets are a daunting prospect – Battlestar Gallactica, the West Wing, the Sopranos, and so on.  I did try watching the Wire when it was shown again from the start but I just couldn’t get into it.

Maybe I should start on something less epic like Peep Show.  Surely that can’t be too large an undertaking?