As I said in our preview, I missed the first series of Gavin and Stacey - I'm afraid that flashy advert they obviously spent a few quid on put me right off. But the opinion of people I trust seems to be that it's great, and the clips I've seen in the run up to this second series have made me laugh.

Normally when I get my hopes up, I tend to be disappointed. Especially when BBC Three's involved, let's face it. But this time my expectations and fulfilled, and then some.

The new series started off with the titular characters coming back off their honeymoon, and moving in with Gavin's family. His mum is played by Alison Steadman and, yes, she's just being Alison Steadman but she's no worse off for that; entertaining, over the top and pure Essex. Her line of the evening came close to the end, as she worked how people 'become' gay: "Don't get on with the mother, lesbian gay; don't get on with the father, gay gay."

The show as a whole is blessed with a superb ensemble cast, in fact, and it is this, as much as the carefully judged script which makes Gavin and Stacey such a joy to watch. As well as Steadman, Stacey's Uncle Bryn, played by Rob Brydon, is another brilliant character. Optimisitic, dim, and eager to please, he's not a million miles from Brydon's own creation Keith Barret, but he gets some fabulous lines, and puts in some scene-stealing performances.

The person that had me laughing the most, though, was Ruth Jones as Stacey's best friend Nessa. Nessa is one of those brilliant characters, like Phoebe on Friends (the similarity doesn't stop there, by the way) that you can do absolutely anything with, and despite this being a rather realistic show, it never feels out of place. She was in the original line-up of All Saints apparently, and agreed to marry a man who went on to die during the process of faking his own death. The rest of the group don't bat an eyelid. Jones's performances is as dead-pan as they come, and a real change from the rest of the group. Best line? "She can be a cruel mistress, the M25."

I mentioned Friends there, and while I keep hearing the phrase 'cutting edge' used in reference to this sitcom there is absolutely nothing cutting edge about, but neither is that a bad thing. Like Friends, it relies on a great ensemble cast, an impressive script, a touch of soapiness to the whole thing, real emotions, and a big beating heart. (And Gavin and Smithy are essentially Chandler and Joey, of course!). But then it also has elements more akin to The Royle Family in its Britishness and realism. Draw a Venn diagram of the two programmes and Gavin and Stacey can be found right in the middle, where they overlap.

The writers Ruth Jones and James Corden (Smithy) need to make sure that in their quest for warmth, they don't get too sugary sweet, but if the performances stay this strong - even from cameos such as (TVScoop favourite) Julia Davis last night - and Nessa stays this off-beat, their show can only go from strength to strength.