Knock-off Nessa rides high on Gavin and Stacey hype

A carer has said her life has been turned upside after embracing a striking resemblance to one of the UK's best-loved TV characters.

Kaz Barrett, from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, said her hairdresser believes Gavin and Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones must have based the character of Nessa on her.

After beginning work as a professional impersonator in 2019, she said demand has exploded in recent months as Gavin and Stacey mania sweeps the nation ahead of the show's final episode.

Her bookings include Barry Island coach tours and pub crawls, student club nights and even one upcoming funeral.

"It’s been immense, my life has been completely turned upside down," said Kaz.

The show, created by stars Jones and James Corden, is currently filming scenes in Barry ahead of a final Christmas special, to be aired on Christmas Day.

Kaz first became Nessa in 2019, when the real Ruth Jones visited Barry to turn on the Christmas lights.

Such was the interest in seeing the star, Kaz described the event as "a disaster, an absolute logistic nightmare".

"It's only a small square, and over 5,000 people turned up," she said, joking: "They're not even allowed to invite her back up again."

But the massive popularity of the evening was the spur for Kaz's unlikely new role.

"I was running a little local charity cafe on the high street... so I dressed up as Nessa as a joke and ran up and down the street," she said.

"The video went viral, everybody loved it, and I thought ‘oh, hang on a minute, there's something, here'."

Knock Off Nessa was born, and she since amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media.

Kaz, 47, who still works as a carer, said after the viral video, she was approached by a lookalikes agency.

For her first ever Nessa job, she landed a role as a Nessa stand-in for a BBC iPlayer promotional video.

"It was a campaign they did called Like Nowhere Else... it was really odd," she said.

"They had one where [EastEnders character] Ian Beale was like the sun from the Teletubbies.

"I was in one, as a voiceover and body double for Ruth... they never aired it."

Now, five years into the role, she hosts tours for two companies in character, and does events and appearances, including some more unusual than others.

"I got a funeral to go to on Friday," she said.

"I said yes because the guy who passed away was a massive Gavin and Stacey fan.

"He always used to say to me ‘can I be Bryn, can we sing Islands in the Stream?’. So when he passed, I said to his sister that I'd love to come down and do it for him."

She added that the show is still so popular with young audiences she’s often asked to do nightclub appearances, often for students.

"I turned up to a nightclub in Bristol and the event was for me to throw burgers at the students off a fire escape," she said.

"When I got down on the fire escape, they were all going ‘I saw the way to threw that burger at me Ness, it was lush’."

However, she said during the last six months since the final episode was announced, things have gone "absolutely mental".

"Everyone is like ‘oh, can I have photos with you? Will you do a little skit for me?’," she said.

“I’ll not even be dressed as Ness.

"The buzz in Barry is electric. The last time I’ve seen it this busy was the Radio 1 roadshow when they came to Barry with Kylie.

"The current hype, I can only compare it to that."

Despite her work, and even filling in for the real Ruth Jones for the BBC, Kaz had never met the woman herself until last week.

"It was immense. I was shaking - star struck," she said.

"All I could say to her was ‘alright, what's occurring? You good?’ and she just looked at me and laughed."

She said she has also emailed and offered her services as a Nessa stand in for the show - but hasn't heard back yet.

"Even if she just needs me as a decoy around Barry I'll go do it," she said.

Kaz said the positive impact the show has had on Barry is unmeasurable.

"I just want to give a lot of credit to Ruth and James, if I'm honest, because what they've done for Barry has been immense," she said.

"There's no one in the world, anywhere in the world, that's not heard of Barry - and that's because of them."

Putting her Nessa hat on, Kaz dampened the anticipation for how Nessa's cliffhanger proposal to Corden's Smithy in 2019's Christmas episode will pan out.

"Don't break something that's not broken," she said.

"They're fine, we don't need a wedding - Dave's gonna turn up and spoil it... it'll open a can of worms.

"Think of all the men that will be devastated turning up at the church because she's getting married."

She also said she has inside information on what happened on Uncle Bryn's and Jason's fateful fishing trip.

"What I can tell you is, it was cold that night, it defied the laws of the gravity, but it was legal in Wales so we'll leave it there," she said.