Actor explains baffling Gavin and Stacey joke that's had fans confused for 15 years

It’s nearly the big day. The day we’ve been waiting for after months and months of build-up. After little teases of what we can expect and making plans ready for it.

Christmas Day is just less than two weeks away now and that means, it’s nearly the day of the final episode of Gavin and Stacey.

I’ll be honest, that’s a big part of Christmas for me this year.

And to prepare for the big special finale, you might also be rewatching the previous episodes and reminding yourself of the classic jokes and the huge mystery.

But there’s one baffling joke that’s had fans confused for the past 15 years and the actor who delivered it has thankfully explained it.

Back in November 2009, the first episode of season three aired on the BBC and saw Gavin trying to get used to working with his new Welsh colleagues while Stacey was just buzzing to be back in Barry.

Mathew Horne’s character is introduced to Owain Hughes who ‘heads up the website’

“Hi, nice to meet you. [I'm] Gavin Shipman," Gavin says in his new Cardiff office job.

"Owain Hughes," responds Owain, adding: "And before you ask, no I don't!"

Owain Hughes, the man of mystery (BBC)

While his colleagues laugh away knowingly at this, Gavin looks absolutely baffled, trying to understand what on earth they’re on about. He even goes on to tell his family and friends about it to try and get an explanation.

But most of us viewers have been just as confused, long wondering what the gag actually is.

And Steven Meo, who played Owain, told the BBC it’s ‘always on the tip of his tongue’ when he meets Gavin and Stacey fans.

“So it’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Steve, there’s no joke’,” he said.

Yep, he explained that it was actually not even a joke at all, it was just in there to annoy us.

Same Gav, same (BBC)

“You can get on these threads and there’s so many people know exactly what the joke is,” Meo said, referencing people’s theories about it being ‘a play on wine’ or that you’ve ‘got to speak Welsh’ to get it.

He even said his mum once rang him from Tesco where the manager had said anyone who could explain it would get ‘a free bottle of wine’.

“I went, ‘I can’t say mam’,” Meo laughed.

And he really can’t because: “It was literally just a red herring designed to wind people up.”

Well, that’s that mystery solved. Now, WHAT HAPPENED ON THAT FISHING TRIP?