James Corden thanks Gavin and Stacey fans after beautiful reaction to Christmas show

The finale of the iconic British comedy aired on Christmas Day.

Corden, who co-created the BBC comedy alongside Ruth Jones, wrote an emotional farewell to the show, which according to overnight figures, drew an average audience in the UK of 12.3 million on Christmas Day.

Sharing a carousel of photos from the show's filming, the former talk show host wrote: "Here’s some behind the scenes photos from the special.

"Thank you so much to everyone who watched last night.

"It means more than you’ll know. All my love, James xx."

The series originally aired from 2007 and 2010, and followed the long-distance love story of title characters, played by Joanna Page and Mathew Horne.

In 2019, it returned for a special episode, which until now, held the record for the highest overnight Christmas ratings since 2008 with an overnight audience of 11.6 million.

Fans of the show were more than impressed with the final episode, with one calling the final scene 'the best one and a half minutes of TV I've watched in a long time'.

Another wrote: "Seventeen years later, and they still delivered perfection."

Gavin and Stacey is now available to stream on RTÉ Player.