Gavin and Stacey fans get shock fishing trip clip
A video showing the infamous fishing trip has been shown in a Gavin and Stacey documentary
A new Gavin and Stacey clip has given fans their first ever glimpse of Uncle Bryn and Jason on the long-discussed fishing trip.
“I think it’s blown a few people’s minds,” said Robert Wilfort, who plays Jason. “It’s a lovely little Easter egg and a really fun way to finish the whole adventure.”
Appearing as part of the new BBC iPlayer documentary, Gavin & Stacey: A Fond Farewell, the short clip shows Uncle Bryn and Jason in a home video.
The long-running gag involves an incident that happened between Uncle Bryn and Jason many years ago… and has been kept (mostly) between themselves ever since.
The clip gives us our first ever look at the fishing trip itself, with both Brydon and Wilfort appearing as younger versions of their Gavin and Stacey characters.
“Who do we have here?” says Uncle Bryn, played by Rob Brydon in the short clip.
He then gestures towards Jason, played by Robert Wilfort, who is seen holding a large fish. “No one will go hungry in this camp tonight,” says Brydon, before adding: “Enjoy your soup!”
The clip itself was filmed back in 2009 and was part of the last episode of series three.
“Jason discovers Bryn watching a video of the fishing trip which Bryn has kept after all these years,” explained Wilfort. “We see little clips of it on the TV during the scene, but in true Gavin and Stacey style the awful secret is never revealed.”
BBC/Toffee International Ltd./Tom Jackson
The Gavin and Stacey finale attracted an average of 12.3 million TV viewers – the largest Christmas Day audience in more than a decade
“We filmed the actual fishing scenes at a lake right at the end of the shoot, I shaved the beard off and Rob had an awful wig. Unfortunately the scene was cut as the final episode was running about ten minutes too long so I never saw the finished scenes.”
The clip was shot on a camcorder, with Rob Brydon filming some of it himself.
“I remember it being a bit of a rush,” said Wilfort.
“I think Rob Brydon only had an hour or two free to shoot it. But it was fun to actually make footage of this legendary event. It was an odd but enjoyable way to film what I thought then was my last ever scene on the show.”
The soup on the campfire is one of the scarce details we know about the fishing trip, as well as that it was very cold, and that what happened “isn’t illegal” in the UK.
But that’s about it.
BBC/Toffee International Ltd./Tom Jackson
Robert Wilfort also returned as Stacey’s brother, Jason in the finale of Gavin and Stacey
Much of the comedy in the long-running joke is in the fact that we will never find out.
“It’s so much better that way,” said Wilfort. “Any reveal would only have been disappointing. The joke has always been that you never know.”
The fishing trip has been teased since the very first series of Gavin and Stacey, with characters often hushed at the last minute before they reveal anything.
That is what happened to Dave Coaches in the show’s finale.
“He will take that to his grave,” said Steffan Rhodri, who plays Dave Coaches. “That was the one chance you were going to get to hear it.”
At least now, we’ve seen a brief glimpse of it.
