Gavin & Stacey is a British television comedy series, following the lives of the title characters Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Stacey (Joanna Page). Stacey lives in Barry, South Wales. Her best friend is Nessa Jenkins (Ruth Jones). Gavin lives in Billericay, Essex. His best friend is Neil "Smithy" Smith (James Corden). During the first two series Gavin lives with his parents Mick (Larry Lamb) and Pam (Alison Steadman). In the third series, he has moved in with Stacey and Stacey's mother, Gwen (Melanie Walters). Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon) lives directly opposite.
Characters = Main cast (credited) = Recurring cast = Guest cast
Character Portrayed by Series Series 1(2007) Series 2(2008) Series 3(2009–10) Special(2019) Special(2024) Main Gavin Shipman Mathew Horne colspan="5" Stacey Shipman (née West) Joanna Page colspan=5 Neil "Smithy" Smith James Corden colspan=5 Vanessa "Nessa" Jenkins Ruth Jones colspan=5 Michael "Mick" Shipman Larry Lamb colspan=5 Pamela "Pam" Shipman Alison Steadman colspan=5 Brynfor "Bryn" West Rob Brydon colspan=5 Gwen West Melanie Walters colspan=5 Recurring Dawn Sutcliffe Julia Davis colspan="3" colspan=2 Peter "Pete" Sutcliffe Adrian Scarborough colspan="3" colspan=2 Jason West Robert Wilfort colspan="3" colspan=2 Doris "Dor" O'Neill Margaret John colspan=3 colspan=2 Dirtbox Andrew Knott colspan="1" colspan=2 colspan=1 colspan=1 Budgie Russell Tovey colspan="1" colspan=2 colspan=1 colspan=1 Fingers Samuel Anderson colspan="1" colspan=1 colspan=1 colspan=1 colspan=1 Dave Coaches Steffan Rhodri colspan=1 colspan="2" colspan=1 colspan=1 Chinese Alan Dominic Gaskell colspan=3 colspan=1 colspan=1 Gary Jason Gregg colspan=2 colspan=1 colspan=1 colspan=1 Simon Daniel Jeffrey colspan=2 colspan=2 colspan=1 Ruth "Rudi" Smith Sheridan Smith colspan=1 colspan="2" colspan=1 colspan=1 Deano Mathew Baynton colspan=1 colspan="2" colspan=2 Neil Noel Edmond "the baby" Smith Scarlett Humphreys rowspan="6" colspan=1 colspan=1 rowspan=3 colspan=3 Lewis Merchant rowspan=2 colspan=1 Cari Kiernan Ewan Kennedy rowspan="3" colspan=1 rowspan="2" colspan="1" colspan=2 Oscar Hartland colspan=2 Rocco Romanello colspan=1 colspan=2 Catherina "Cath" Smith Pam Ferris colspan=2 colspan="1" colspan=1 colspan=1 Neil "the father" Jenkins Ifan Huw Dafydd colspan=2 colspan="1" colspan=2 Sonia Laura Aikman colspan=3 colspan=2
Main characters Gavin Shipman (Mathew Horne) – Gavin is an only child, and still lives with his loving father and doting mother in Billericay, Essex. He works for a company called ICB and spends his spare time with his best friend Smithy along with his other friends Gary & Simon, Dirtbox, Fingers, Budgie, Swede, Chinese Alan and Jesus. He is a big fan of Tottenham Hotspur (as is Horne) and is often seen wearing his Spurs shirt. In the course of his job, he had to deal with a company called Bedmores, based in Barry. The Bedmores representative he had to correspond with was a woman called Stacey West, who was asked to order Thermal Fins for the company computers, as described in the show's supplementary book. The pair found they got on very well and after months of talking and flirting, they decided to meet in London. They agreed that Gavin would bring his best friend Smithy, and Stacey would bring her best friend Nessa. They met up, went clubbing and had sex. When Stacey and Nessa boarded the coach back to Wales, Gavin took a taxi home, jumped in his car and drove to Barry from Essex, meeting Stacey when her coach arrived in Barry. The two quickly told each other that they were in love and, within nine weeks, they were engaged and married. Gavin, along with his father Mick, often play the "straight men" in the series, baffled and frustrated by the antics of their family and friends. Gavin's main personality flaw is that he is slightly spoiled, possibly due to being an only child, and gets irritated when he does not get his way. He is not always sensitive; when Stacey, who is very attached to her hometown, gets depressed and homesick upon moving to Billericay, Gavin is more dismissive and confused than he is concerned. Gavin is also less willing to discuss his private life than his wife. He finds it odd that Stacey is so eager and ready to spill intimate details to Nessa, Bryn, her mother and her brother. Despite these differences, Gavin loves Stacey enormously, demonstrating this by finding a job in Wales so he can move to Barry, despite previously expressing a dislike for it. In Series 3, he agrees with Stacey to try to have a baby, only to discover she had not been on the pill for a year. Although he is very angry about Stacey not telling him the truth, he becomes much more depressed when he learns that he has fertility problems. They decide to carry on trying to conceive for a few months, and they should start looking at alternatives afterwards. In the final episode, Stacey discovers she is pregnant, and Gavin is just as thrilled as she is. In the 2019 Christmas special, Gavin is now a father of three children, son Harri and daughters Caitlin and Megan, living in Barry with Stacey. Stacey Shipman (née West) (Joanna Page) – Stacey is 26 and is from Barry, near Cardiff. Her father, Trevor, died three years ago, and she lived at home with her mother in Barry until her marriage. Her gay brother, Jason, lives in Spain. She had been engaged five times before meeting Gavin Shipman, something she preferred to forget and kept from him. She is very bubbly, excitable and full of conversation but also slightly fragile and prone to overreacting. An example is her misreading Gavin's sudden businesslike tone during a call from work when his boss appears over him, immediately thinking he is trying to break up. Gavin then has to drive all the way to Barry to patch things up. She confides frequently in her best friend, Nessa. Stacey has never been away from Barry before she visits Gavin, and becomes very homesick when she marries him and moves to Essex. After a few months of finding no work, she tells Gavin she can no longer live in Essex and will be moving back home. During the course of their separation, Stacey decides their selfishness about where they live means they are not meant to be together and is on the verge of giving her wedding ring back when Nessa goes into labour. After Nessa gives birth, they make up and resolve to find a way for both of them to be happy. A few months later, Gavin decides to get a job in Cardiff so he can move to Barry Island to keep Stacey happy. Stacey discovers she is pregnant in the final episode of Series 3, after desperately taking a large number of pregnancy tests. In the 2019 Christmas special, Stacey is now a mother of three children, son Harri and daughters Caitlin and Megan, living in Barry with Gavin. Neil Noel Edmunds "Smithy" Smith (James Corden) – Smithy is 28 and Gavin's best friend, and they've known each other since primary school. He is a self-employed builder and decorator. He is very protective of Gavin – he is disappointed when Gavin gets engaged to Stacey and when Gavin and Stacey go on honeymoon, he calls Gavin every day for the 3 weeks they are there, and gets angry at Gavin for leaving his phone off. He loves Gavin's parents more than his own, and has an unseen girlfriend called Lucy, who, according to Smithy, is seventeen and three quarter years old. He loves unusual beer, paintball and West Ham United. When Nessa gives birth to their son they name him Neil after Smithy himself and Nessa's father. In the series finale, Smithy stops Nessa's wedding but far from declaring his feelings for her he says that if she needs a father for Neil he's there and thus she doesn't need to marry unless she loves Dave, thus causing Nessa and Dave not to get married. He is shown to have obvious similarities to Nessa, such as: refusing to share food, being very upfront, protective of their best friends, and they like most of the same food and drink, such as KFC, corn on the cob, and Irn-Bru. Smithy wears his heart on his sleeve and is given to intense public displays of emotion, and will cry or sulk with little provocation. Smithy eats, drinks and smokes to excess and is overweight. At the time of the 2019 Christmas special he has a girlfriend Sonia though this relationship disintegrates over the course of the episode. At the end, Nessa proposes to him. In the 2024 special, it is revealed that Smithy went through with proposing to Sonia and left Nessa hanging. However, five years later, Smithy realises how much he loves Nessa instead and proposes to her after running out on his own wedding. Nessa accepts and the two are married. Vanessa Shanessa "Nessa" Smith (née Jenkins) (Ruth Jones) – Nessa is Stacey's best friend, also from Barry. She discovers she is pregnant in the fourth episode of Series 1 and it is later revealed that Smithy is the father following the second time they were intimate at Pam and Mick's house. She speaks fluent Italian and Welsh, has several tattoos, most notably a large red dragon on her right upper arm. She is a chain smoker (except during her pregnancy) and was one of the original members of All Saints (but didn't get along with Shaznay). She works at the Barry Island Amusement Arcades or "The Slots". Nessa regularly recalls strange and often lewd experiences with celebrities. She gives birth to baby Neil in the finale of Series 2 and becomes engaged to Dave Coaches in the 2008 Christmas special. In the series finale, Smithy declares his feelings for Nessa at her wedding, and Dave accepts that Nessa never really loved him, always replying "I Know" when he told her he loved her, and that he was the father figure that Smithy will now be. Nessa's age is unknown throughout the show until the 2019 Christmas Special when it is implied that she is 55 years old. Her catchphrases include "Ohhhh", "Tidy", "Genuine", "Truth be told", "Immense", "I'm not gonna to lie to you", "What's occurring?" and on occasion "What's Appertaining?" In the third series, it was discovered that she is an Aston Villa fan. She has jet black bob-style hair and wears Gothic style make up. She is serious, outgoing, and surprisingly intelligent at times. She has had a number of interesting occupations including being a BBC radio producer, a roadie for "The Who", and driving trucks for Eddie Stobart (who gave her two trucks to keep when she left,) and a running feature of the programme is her wide range of impressive occupations, abilities (apart from speaking fluent Italian she is an excellent ten pin bowler) and acquaintance or relationships with various famous people. In the 2019 Christmas Special it appears Nessa's life has continued in much the same way throughout the 2010s as it did during the original series' while bringing up her son. She proposes to Smithy at the end of the episode. However, it is revealed in the 2024 special that Nessa was left hanging and Smithy proposed to his girlfriend Sonia. Five years after the proposal, Nessa decides to leave Barry Island as she can't deal with Smithy getting married. However, Smithy calls off his wedding to Sonia after realising he loves Nessa and she is approached by him and their friends as she is about to leave. Smithy proposes to Nessa who accepts and they are married. Michael "Mick" Shipman (Larry Lamb) – Mick is Gavin's father; a down-to-earth bloke, like his son. He's happy with his life – running his own company, playing golf and going to the pub quiz every Tuesday. He genuinely loves his wife, Pam, his stability and cool head contrasting her often frantic and scatter-brained approach to life. That said, he's not above finding some wry enjoyment in Pam's self-made disasters unfolding in front of them both.