THEY are some of the nation’s most beloved TV characters, but for one of the Gavin & Stacey cast it was nearly a very different story.
James Corden and Ruth Jones, who wrote the BBC One hit and starred as Smithy and Nessa, have revealed a key member of their lovable roll call almost became a villain — as they planned for Gavin, played by Mathew Horne, to have an affair.
James Corden and Ruth Jones, have revealed a key member of their lovable Gavin & Stacey roll call almost became a villain[/caption]
The show launched on BBC Three in May 2007 and ran for three series plus two Christmas specials, with last year’s finale watched by 19.3million people[/caption]
The pair have told how they considered the controversial plotline, which would have left the show’s central couple in tatters and Stacey, played by Joanna Page, devastated.
Musing over the storylines which didn’t make it to air, James admitted: “We had a sort of weird idea for the 2019 special, didn’t we?”
Ruth replied: “Oh, about Gavin having an affair.”
James continued: “Yeah, or that he wasn’t having an affair but there was someone at his work who he liked.”
Ruth added: “It just felt like it wasn’t true to the show.”
Thank God for that.
The series launched on BBC Three in May 2007 and ran for three series plus two Christmas specials, with last year’s finale watched by 19.3million people.
That last 94-minute special was the most-watched scripted show in more than two decades, with 12.3million tuning in live to find out whether Smithy accepted Nessa’s proposal and to see how their story ended.
However, they were almost tempted to turn it into a cinema blockbuster.
Ruth confessed: “With the second special — the finale — we did consider making that as a movie because we wanted to do something different from what we’d done before.
Bathful of beans
“But then when we read it, we went, no, it really belongs in people’s living rooms on Christmas night, when everyone’s eaten too much turkey and Chocolate Orange and they’re sat with friends and family.”
James agreed: “Lots of people kept saying, ‘You could make so much money. The Inbetweeners movie did this much money . . . ’
“But we couldn’t shake that these people belong in the corner of your living room.”
Gavin and Stacey got lost and ended up in the Blue Peter garden and decided to have sex
James
It turns out there was almost another special years earlier.
It would have seen Gavin and Stacey romping in the Blue Peter garden, all in honour of Comic Relief.
In the end, only James’s character ended up being involved in the charity skit, which eventually saw Smithy berating the England team for their performance in 2009.
James and Ruth made a joint appearance at the London Palladium on Monday for an event called When Gavin Met Stacey, to celebrate the release tomorrow of a book of the same name, telling stories from behind the scenes.
Recalling the idea for the sketch, James said: “We had this idea that the whole cast were going to go to watch Comic Relief in the studio.
“Like, Mick had got some tickets because someone at work had spent the week in a bathful of beans and he can’t go, and do the Barry lot want to go?
“They got a minibus and it was going to be all this stuff like Gwen ended up on a cookery programme showing Jamie Oliver how to make an omelette.
“Gavin and Stacey got lost and ended up in the Blue Peter garden and decided to have sex.
“Bryn ended up on one of the phone-in Loose Women-type shows giving people advice on what to do.
“And Nessa keeps bumping into people that she’s slept with. She’d turn a corner and go, ‘Oh God, not another one,’ and it would be Dermot O’Leary going, ‘You never called me back!’”
Ruth and James wrote the BBC One hit Gavin & Stacey[/caption]
James and Ruth made a joint appearance at the London Palladium on Monday for an event called When Gavin Met Stacey[/caption]
James, who went on to become a big star in the US after the success of the sitcom, fronting The Late Late Show for eight years, continued: “Part of the idea would be that Smithy would end up on the set of Match Of The Day and some of the England team would be there.
“He’d tell them that they’re a disgrace because they hadn’t qualified for a big tournament.
Because I write novels, I had to go on the Richard and Judy book club podcast. I sort of felt a little bit freaked out because I was thinking, ‘Does Richard realise Nessa has had sex with him?’
Ruth
“But when we got into it, people’s dates were impossible. Ruth was filming, Alison [Steadman] was filming away, Mat was doing a play and there was no way to do it.
“I was like, I still think this England team thing could be quite funny.”
Nessa’s celebrity conquests were often referenced in the show, with everyone from former deputy prime minister John Prescott to actor Nigel Havers and all of Welsh comedy rap group Goldie Lookin Chain.
‘Freaked out’
However, Ruth did grow to regret claiming her character would “make love, sometimes for whole Sundays” to Richard Madeley — especially when the star became an author in real life and ended up being interviewed by him.
She squirmed: “It’s quite funny because I sort of forget and then for example, because I write novels, I had to go on the Richard and Judy book club podcast.
“I was sitting there and I sort of felt a little bit freaked out because I was thinking, ‘Does Richard realise that Nessa has had sex with him?’”
James and Ruth met when they appeared opposite each other in the sitcom Fat Friends, then came up with the idea for the show in a hotel bar, after James had been to a wedding in Barry.
James said: “At that time we were both perhaps feeling slightly undervalued as actors, in that we just weren’t really getting seen for the sorts of parts that we perhaps wanted to play.
“And I remember Ruth saying, ‘James, we should absolutely write this’, and I sort of went, ‘Yeah I know that’s a good idea’, and Ruth was so adamant, she was like, ‘No, no, we ARE going to do it’.”
The show frequently had random storylines, particularly involving Nessa, who once worked as a mime statue in Barry town centre.
Ruth recalled: “I was so grumpy that day. I had a cold, I was covered in silver paint and I had a pregnancy bump and was fat.
“It was so uncomfortable and I had to stand in the middle of the town square. I’m not a physical actress who does all that mime stuff and I had to learn. I was so cross but it was worth it.”
But there was one storyline which was never tied up . . . What really happened on that fishing trip with Bryn and his nephew Jason?
James said: “The answer is no, we don’t know what happened.”
They had shot flashback scenes to the fishing trip for the last episode of series three, to show VHS footage of the pair which would have cut out before the mystery dalliance. However, it ended up being cut due to the episode’s time constraints.
The pair recounted tales about the iconic show on stage at book launch[/caption]
The pair told stories from behind the scenes[/caption]
Ruth added: “I was really, really upset at the time but now, looking back, it’s great to know that footage existed. It’s amazing the theories that have come out. People say, ‘I think I’ve worked it out,’ and it does make me go, ‘People’s minds are really strange’.”
They both insisted the show is done for good, although Ruth has now flown to New York to spend time writing with James on a new comedy for Apple TV+.
Keeping schtum about the concept, he said: “It’s that freedom of not having pressure which we’ve really just tried to do all the time.
‘Went one better’
“Even now, this new show that we’re writing for Apple, we are trying as best we can to just sit with the characters and wait for them to tell us where the show is going to go, what it’s going to be and when should we film it. We don’t know yet.
“Writing to a deadline, if you’re really just trying to conceive an idea, is an unnecessary amount of pressure. The more you can push that to one side and remain in the environment that we’ve always been in, which is a packet of Post-it notes and pens, a laptop, a nap and chocolate, the better.”
It is clear they both still have a roaring time when they get together, despite spending years apart when James lived in the States.
At my 40th, Ruth said to the band, ‘Do you know Wild Thing?’. Then she got up on stage and sang it like her life depended on it. It was so good. Harry Styles said to her, ‘How did you do that?’
James
In fact, it was at his surprise 40th birthday party in Mexico in 2018 that they reconnected and decided to bring Gavin & Stacey back, after Ruth impressed him with a performance.
He recalled: “Ruth didn’t give me a physical present that year for my birthday — she went one better than that.
“One of my greatest regrets is that I wasn’t at Ruth’s wedding and the reason I wasn’t at Ruth’s wedding was because we didn’t know each other then.
“But Ruth’s got this amazing story that she got really drunk at her own wedding and got up off stage and sang Wild Thing in her wedding dress. And then at my 40th, we went to this restaurant and there was a little band playing.
“Completely without my knowledge, Ruth went over and said to the band, ‘Do you know Wild Thing?’.
“Then she got up on the stage and sang it like her life depended on it. It was so good. She left the stage and Harry Styles said to her, ‘How did you do that?’.”
After 25 years of friendship, Ruth, who recently divorced her husband David Peet, who she wed in 1999, has made it clear how special her co-star and co-creator is.
She added: “We do argue and James really gets on my nerves and I really get on his nerves.
“But there have been times in my life where James is the only person I can turn to and he has completely saved me, so his friendship is massively valuable.”
