Gavin & Stacey co-creators tease Christmas special will look at Nessa's 'chequered life'
Gavin & Stacey co-creators Ruth Jones and James Corden have teased that the Christmas special will look at Nessa's "chequered life". The two were guests on the latest episode of the Table Manners with Jessie & Lennie Ware podcast on Wednesday, December 18.
The duo spoke about their favourite food, their over two-decade long friendship and the upcoming Gavin & Stacey Christmas special. The two, who created the hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, will reprise their respective roles as Nessa and Smithy in the upcoming Gavin & Stacey: The Finale.
The Christmas special episode is only a few weeks away, with many fans feeling excited to find out how their beloved comedy series comes to an end. Last time we saw the Gavin & Stacey characters was five years ago, back in another Christmas Special, which aired in 2019. Gavin & Stacey fans can now watch a sneaky preview of the finale for this year's Christmas Day (Wednesday, December 25) on BBC iPlayer. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.
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On the Table Manners podcast, the co-creators discussed the fact that Gavin & Stacey: The Finale would be focusing five years on from when we last saw the Shipman and West families. Although presenters Jessie and Lennie quickly realised that Corden and Jones weren't going to give much away on what would happen in the final episode.
"I’m literally trying to work out what we are allowed to say to the press," Ruth said. "And we have said it's five years later, haven't we?" Then James added: "The show picks up five years after we left off." He then showed his adoration to Ruth in the final scene of the 2019 Christmas special, in which her character Nessa got down on one knee and asked his character Smithy to marry her.
But the episode concluded on a cliffhanger, cutting to credits before we got to hear Smithy's response. On the podcast, Corden noted that what made the scene so special was how vulnerable Nessa was in that moment, which was a little bit out of character. James described Ruth's character as "stoic" and "hardened", who had lived a chequered life and added that this would be explored in the upcoming special episode.
Referring to the ending of the 2019 Christmas Special, he said: "Isn’t she amazing in that? Isn’t it honestly one of the best pieces of acting? What she did in that, with that character, we all talk about it - the whole cast, because Nessa is this like - you know, she's had this unbelievably chequered life, then you find out a little bit more about that in this new special - some really, fun bits.
"Because she’s that fun person, I think there’s been moments where, you’ve seen the four of them - you've seen Gavin being quite vulnerable when they were trying for a baby, you’ve seen Stacey be vulnerable when she wasn’t happy living in Essex, you’ve seen Smithy be vulnerable when he had that moment of terror, that moment of fear when Nessa might marry Dave Coaches in the 2008 Christmas Special - he says: 'I’m not saying marry me, just don’t marry him'. And again then, in series three.
"Out of the four characters, Nessa has always had this sort of stoic, hardened exterior really. Nothing ever really hurts her, nothing ever really phases her. And then, when we wrote it, thinking this was going to be really powerful, then the joy of like watching Ruth do it - I honestly think when she says 'with all my heart', it’s so good - it makes me tingle now, it’s a good a piece of acting as certainly as I’ve ever seen in the flesh. I’m so proud of you for it."
Ruth was taken aback by James' comments and said that the two had known each other for a "very long time", having met while filming Fat Friends, which was aired in 2005. The Welsh actress confirmed that initially the 2019 Christmas Special was "going to be the last".
During the filming of the last scene of that special episode five years ago, Ruth emotionally recalled: "That scene, we filmed it in the middle of the night because we were filming it in the summertime but it was meant to be Christmas, and it had to be dark. And we were there just the two of us, on that road, that had meant so much to us and I, just as Ruth, was looking at my dear friend James. And I said: 'I loves you, with all my heart', but I was saying it to you."
