It’s the biggest telly event of the season – the return of one of our most beloved sitcoms.
Yep Gavin & Stacey , the cross-generation-pleasing cosy show starring some of our most precious acting talent, is back providing (full turkey) belly laughs to households across the land.
And there’s quite the pressure on writers Ruth Jones and James Corden – in fact James pretty much broke Twitter when he posted a picture of the script in May.
They’re keeping the plot under wraps. ‘All I’ll say is that it’s cheery, warm-hearted, Brexit -free and very, very Christmassy,’ says Ruth.
But what we do know is that it’s set 10 years later, there are children involved (Baby Neil is now 12!), and Uncle Bryn is in charge of the turkey.
Ruth Jones, 53, who plays the glorious Nessa, and the rest of the cast chat about their return to Barry and Billericay...
So, what took you so long?!
Well, a little thing called geography, the fact James and I live on different continents. And schedules. And also, more than anything, we wanted to be sure, if we did bring it back, that it was good.
Every now and again one of us would say, ‘Do you think we could do another one? Do you think we could do a special? Could we do a series?’ And we kind of both thought, ‘No, there’s no way we could do a series’ because it takes so much time both to write it and to film it.
Everybody else has gone on to all these great things that getting their availability was a big thing.
How on earth did you manage to get it all together?
Obviously James does The Late Late Show every day so we had to find time for him to take a few days off.
I went out there and we mapped out the story. Then I went out again and there were times during that week where we thought, ‘Oh this isn’t happening, let’s not do it’ until we realised it was about telling a story about Gavin and Stacey 10 years on.
James gave up his summer holiday to come over, then we had to find out if everybody was available.
We managed to find a two-and-a-half-week period where everybody could commit to it, and that felt like a little bit of a good luck omen.
Thank God they all said they could do it. I don’t know what we would have done, because we had written the script by then.
How did you feel about putting Nessa’s costumes back on?
Well, one of the skirts I wore was the original skirt – little bit of trivia for you there.
I just absolutely adore Nessa, because when I’m playing her I feel brave and so at ease.
Lots of people would come and watch us film in Barry, but sometimes you couldn’t get up the road or we needed someone to be quiet, and I was able to go out there, and rather than as Ruth Jones go, ‘Would you mind ever so being quiet while we film this?’ I was able to go out and go, [in Nessa’s voice] ‘Oh! We’re trying to film in there now, come on, have some respect!’ and as Nessa I can go, ‘Oh love, don’t manhandle me, who do you think you are?’
Do we see another side to her?
We see how she’s developed as a mother and I think she’s a really lovely mum, because she seems to retain that Nessa-ness, but has a great relationship with Neil the baby.
James Corden
‘I’m really nervous about it, terrified. Of everything I’ve ever done in my career, this means the most, because it was really the start of everything.
I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m going to be in England on Christmas Day watching the show with everyone else, just waiting for all the texts and messages to come in.
Me and Ruth will be texting each other non-stop as it goes out on air. All we want is for people to love it as much as we do. I have a relationship with Ruth that is like no other.
We can say terrible things to each other, but we have each other’s back, which is such a rare thing in this business. If anyone did anything to Ruth I’d walk through fire to sort them out.’
Alison Steadman
‘It’s the best fun. When I’m in the character of Pam, I feel so happy.
And I love Mick. And I love the fact it doesn’t matter how many times she shouts at him, and goes, “Oh Mick, what are you doing?” or whatever, underneath they love each other. And it just warms your heart.
I had a lump in my throat when I watched it.’
Rob Brydon
‘I didn’t think they would do any more because they’d gone out on a high, and Ruth was doing Stella, and James was off in America.
I get asked all the time, “Will there be more?” and suddenly I thought they could see in my face I was lying.
It’s the happiest job I’ve ever done. I know when you hear casts say how much they like each other you probably raise an eyebrow, because it’s not always the case, let’s be honest. It was so lovely.
I got in on the first day and it was just joyous. I had tears in my eyes.’
Joanna Page
‘Ruth got in touch with me on every form of social media and I’m not very good at getting back to people, I'm terrible.
So I didn’t respond for a bit because I was busy with the kids and everything, then I suddenly thought, “My God, she’s WhatsApped me, emailed me, texted me and phoned me” and my first thought was, “This is either something really, really good – is the show coming back? – or something really, really bad.
Is she going to tell me there’s some dodgy photos of me that are going to hit the newspapers?”. And I would like to add there are no photos.
Then I thought, “Why would they go through Ruth to tell me that?” And then I thought, “For God’s sake, just phone her” and oh my God I was so excited.
Then the script was emailed through and I sat in a car park for a couple of hours reading it, just sending emails to Ruth and James quoting their own lines back at them; “I love this, I love this”.’
Mathew Horne
‘My initial reaction was relief because I thought, “Thank God James has got some work”. I was so worried about him, that he just wouldn’t be able to eat.
Then the nerves kicked in. I was very, very anxious but after day one of filming everything settled down because we realised it was going to happen with all the love that it happened with before.
I actually think it’s the best episode we’ve ever done. It’s absolutely sensational.’
Gavin & Stacey is on Christmas Day, 8:30pm, BBC1
