Gavin & Stacey Friends". Corden claims to have been inspired by the story of his own real life best friend Gavin, who met his wife over the phone at work, and arranged to meet. They presented it to the BBC as a one-off play, but the BBC instead asked for a full series. The roles of Gavin and Stacey were cast through an auditioning process, but were almost immediately given to Mathew Horne and Joanna Page on the strength of their chemistry together. The roles of Nessa and Smithy were written by Corden and Jones for themselves. Some roles were written with certain
In Which We Meet Mr. Jones the "next chapter" in the story. Pinkner further described the episode as "foundational," as it will set up "a lot of things will be set up which will come to pay off over the next several weeks". The character David Robert Jones is a reference to English musician David Bowie, who was born with that name. "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" was the first appearance of the character. When actor Jared Harris was first cast for the part, he was told Jones was "possibly a major, important character", as indicated by the episode's title. Whether his character would make