I don’t know if it’s just me, but Christmas television this year hasn’t felt as special or as inspiring as it sometimes does. There’s no Christmas Doctor Who special, and no superb films finally showing on TV, so that the only thing to look forward to seemed to be Gavin & Stacey.

Wait a minute, Gavin and Stacey returning after a decade?? Yes! Many, many, many of us were looking forward to this welcome return to the twin worlds of Billericay and Barry Island, and thank goodness it was a perfect episode that wasn’t ruining anything that went before.

We so almost got a resolution to the fishing trip story but thank goodness it wasn’t revealed - if we ever did find out at this point, it could only be a disappointment. And the ending! I won’t spoil it but somehow the ending of this special didn’t upset me the way the ending of Car Share did, even though both were supposed to be the final episodes and ending on a horrible cliffhanger.

What was especially fun about this episode was that Mr C watched it with me and was flabbergasted at the amount of time spent talking about service stations. Oh boy, what a glory it is to have the minutiae of motorways discussed with such a lovely group of people. When Jason arrived and told of his two motorway stops, resulting in a cheer, I mean what is better than that?

So never mind that normal Christmas TV seemed to be disappointing. This one was worth everything and I’m so glad we got that extra glimpse into the extended Shipman and West families. The nod to Doris, the fact that he’s still called Neil the Baby, Bryn wearing his Greece t-shirt, it was wonderful from start to finish.

On the one hand, I want more because it’s brilliant and to know what happens next would be fab. But equally, if this is all we get, I’m glad we got this sneak peek into life ten years on. Here’s to the next ten, whether we see it or not!