James Corden could apparently imagine a scenario in which his Gavin & Stacey character, Smithy, wound up with his fiancée Sonia, rather than his true soulmate, Nessa.

In the much-hyped Gavin & Stacey finale, which millions of us tuned in to watch on Christmas Day, viewers saw Smithy and Nessa take their complicated romance to the next level when they finally tied the knot.

However, speaking to Radio Times, other members of the cast revealed James had an unusual take on his character’s other major relationship.

“I remember James saying he thinks if Smithy and Sonia didn’t have any other family, it was just them, they’d probably be fine,” said Robert Wilfort, who plays Jason in the award-winning comedy.

Robert added that because of this “whole other world” that Smithy inhabits, he couldn’t make it work with his fiancée, with Laura Aikman – who played Sonia – agreeing: “There’s this whole other world that she can’t assimilate into. She cannot do it.”

As a result, in the final episode, Smithy runs away from his wedding to Sonia to find Nessa.

Laura’s character was first introduced in the 2019 Christmas special, and her appearance in the most recent finale was kept completely secret.

To stop the news of Sonia and Smithy’s engagement from leaking ahead of Gavin & Stacey’s return, Laura stayed at a different hotel to the rest of the cast during filming, kept her role secret from her family and even had to source her character’s wedding dress online to avoid anyone seeing her in a real-life bridal shop and getting ideas.

All three seasons of Gavin & Stacey, as well as its stand-alone specials, are available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.