Gavin and Stacey star's touching tribute after tragic death
Mathew Horne stepped into the character of Gavin Shipman once again this year for Gavin and Stacey's final episode, 17 years after the sitcom began. And the actor took away a very sentimental gift from the show's set as an ode to his late mum, who passed away in 2019.
After wrapping up filming, Mathew was given an engraving of daffodils from character Gwen's house by the show's production designer to remember his mum, as her favourite flower was daffodils. While Mathew's souvenir had a deeper meaning, he wasn't the only star to take home a piece of the BBC show, with many of his co-stars nabbing items from the set to remember their iconic characters.
Joanna Page, who plays Stacey Shipman, took her character's ornamental duck, Nessa actress Ruth Jones took Gwen's egg holder and Rob Byrden took Bryn's clothes home with him. Even Oscar Hartland, who played Neil The Baby, took his character's white converse home with him.
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Mathew's mum, Glenis, passed away in 2019, months before the penultimate episode of Gavin and Stacey aired on Christmas Day that year. In an interview with The Guardian to mark the episode coming out, Mathew said his dream dinner party guest would be his mum. "My mother. Just me and her. She passed away this year," he emotionally said in answer to the dinner party question.
He also said at the time that 'grief creeps up on you' and admitted it had been an emotional year. Not only was grief tough for Mathew, but also saw the actor putting himself in danger, as he admitted in 2019: "Last Christmas I was clipped by a train. Mum was dying so my head was elsewhere. I was walking home and had to cross one of those crossings that say, 'Stop, look and listen.' I didn’t do any of those things, and I had my headphones in so I couldn’t even hear the train. It clipped my left elbow."
This Christmas Day, Mathew returned to Gavin and Stacey for the show's final episode, which was the most-watched programme on Christmas Day with a whopping 12.5 million viewers excitedly tuning in. It has surpassed the show’s 2019 Christmas special – which had an overnight audience of 11.6 million – by more than half-a-million viewers.
Gavin and Stacey fans got the shock of their lives when the festive episode opened with wedding bells. But it was a curveball; instead of Nessa and Smithy tying the knot, it was Smithy about to say 'I do' to his girlfriend Sonia, played by Laura Aikman. However, Gavin, portrayed by Mathew, brought the wedding to a dramatic halt in a heart-stopping moment during the ceremony, resulting in Smithy and his gang leaving Sonia standing at the altar.
This allowed Smithy to rush off in a bid to prevent Nessa from setting sail, confessing his love for her before the pair finally got together and tied the knot.
