The tearjerking Gavin and Stacey finale had numerous references from previous episodes – including one which you may never have noticed.
Forget Wallace & Gromit or the King’s Speech as Gavin and Stacey: The Finale was the biggest star of Christmas Day TV, with over 12 million viewers tuning in at 9.00pm to catch the 94-minute special episode.
An episode which has received rave reviews from critics, the final Gavin and Stacey outing saw the series’ will they/won’t they couple Smithy and Nessa finally commit to each other after 17 years of avoiding their feelings.
Not only did the finale leave all of the characters where they needed to be but we were also treated to various callbacks and references from previous episodes, such as Owain Hughes, KFC corn-on-the-cob, the legendary fishing trip and Nessa substituting a toothbrush for Tic Tacs.
However superfans, eagle-eyed viewers or anyone who recently finished a rewatch ahead of the finale (myself included) may have noticed a tiny reoccurring detail which features in several shots of Barry Island.
Can you guess what it is?
We are of course talking about the Border Collie dog which can be seen running across the promenade of the Welsh seaside town.
Now a split-second clip of a dog running across the screen is completely irrelevant to the wider plot of the series, however we can’t ignore the fact that our four-legged friend pops up in numerous episodes – which means it certainly isn’t a coincidence.
If, like me, you spent your most recent rewatch of the series pausing the episode every time the pooch ran on-screen to make a point to friends and family then don’t worry, as you’re not the only person to have spotted the detail.
One viewer pointed out recurring moment in a recent Reddit thread and asked other fans if they had any idea why this was the case.
Several users pointed out that the dog is most likely Peroni, the Border Collie belonging to the real-life owners of Marco’s Cafe.
“It’s the dog that the owners of Marco’s own in real life. I’ve not been to Barry in about ten years but it was still there then,” one user commented, while another revealed the pooch even had his own Facebook page at one time.
“Peroni the dog died back in 2015. He was indeed Marcos dog and had free range of the shop and promenade. He was lush, even had his own Facebook page, Peroni Pup,” a second user added, which would suggest the dog’s appearance in the 2024 and 2019 specials was either reused footage or another pet belonging to the owners.
