Gavin and Stacey fans are only just discovering this sinister Easter egg-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

Gavin and Stacey fans are still finding out about one subtle joke (Picture: BBC)

*Warning: Contains discussions of murder, serial killers, and suicide.*

Gavin and Stacey might be 17 years old now – but fans are still discovering new things about the comedy series after all this time.

The James Corden and Ruth Jones sitcom, which started in 2007, follows the story of Gavin Shipman and Stacey West – a long-distance couple who bring their families from Essex and Barry Island together.

Acclaimed and celebrated from the word go, Gavin and Stacey has won several awards and millions tuned in for the Christmas special back in 2019.

With just weeks to go until the very final episode, set for Christmas Day in 2024, it turns out some fans are still only just discovering one of the biggest Easter eggs in the series.

It’s something quite a lot of viewers have spotted down the years, but, other than one reference in the script, it’s a subtle Easter egg that’s gone unnoticed more than you’d think.

On Reddit, user @JustaBlipinTime posted on the Gavin and Stacey forum: ‘There’s a joke about the Wests and Shipmans in the [wedding episode] about whether its worse to be named like Fred West or Harold Shipman.’

The Wests were named after 70s serial killers Fred and Rose West (Picture: BBC/Baby Cow)

Fred West, along with his wife Rose, was a serial killer from Gloucester who was responsible for the deaths of 12 young women between 1967 and 1987.

Harold Shipman, nicknamed Dr. Death, was a serial killer GP who exploited his position to murder an estimated 284 people over a period of around 30 years.

Fred West and Shipman both died by suicide in 1995 and 2004 respectively, while Rose West – now aged 70 – is incarcerated in HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire.

The Wests were responsible for the murders of 12 young women over a 20-year period (Pictures: Getty)

Stacey’s family were named after GP murderer Harold Shipman (Pictures: PA Wire/Getty)

The Reddit user then revealed they’d noticed something else: ‘I realised that Dawn and Pete also have a serial killer surname [Sutcliffe] which was the last name of the Yorkshire Ripper.’

Dawn and Pete are two friends of Gavin’s parents Pam (Alison Steadman) and Mick (Larry Lamb) who appear as recurring characters in the series.

Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, was convicted of murdering 13 women – and trying to kill seven others – between 1975 and 1980.

Sutcliffe died in 2020, aged 74, after suffering a heart attack and complications from diabetes.

User @AdvisoryNecessary9051 said: ‘Never noticed it, but good catch! The writers probably realised they had more than one serial killer surname with the Wests and Shipmans, so maybe they just played into it and added another.’

In the final episode of the first season, the serial killer surnames are referenced in the script during a conversation between the West’s neighbour Doris and her friend Griff.

Ruth Jones and James Corden started the sitcom back in 2007 (Picture: BBC/Baby Cow)

Doris says, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Shipman. I mean, that’s bad luck by anyone’s standards. Stacey lives for the day she can change her name from West, what with all the connotations and what have you, and what does she become? A Shipman.’

Griff then wonders which surname is ‘worse’ but concludes that it’s ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other,’ to which Doris hilariously responds: ‘It was more than half a dozen, Griff. It was in the hundreds.’

The Gavin and Stacey 2024 Christmas special broadcasts on Christmas Day, and will pick up from the 2019 special’s cliffhanger ending that saw Nessa (Ruth Jones) propose to Smithy (James Corden).

That episode drew a whopping 18.5 million viewers, a huge jump of 11 million from the end of season three, which had been broadcast nine years earlier.

However, Larry Lamb, who plays Mick in the beloved series, has said he doesn’t think the 2024 Christmas special is really the end that everyone thinks it is.

Instead, the actor, 77, has suggested James and Ruth will likely return to Barry Island over and over in years to come, with more specials teased.

‘It’s like those old rock ‘n rollers who go round the world on their “last tour”,’ he told the Daily Star.

‘What are you going to do, kill it? What’s the point? They’re too canny, those two. We could be rocking this thing out when I’m about 104.’

Gavin and Stacey returns to BBC One on Christmas day. All episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

Entertainment – MetroRead More