Filming Gavin and Stacey was like 'being Beyonce'

Almost 10 years to the day since we left Gavin, Stacey, Smithy and Nessa on the Barry seafront, we're about to find out how the 2010s have treated them.

BBC1 has put Gavin and Stacey's return at the heart of its Christmas Day schedule with fans wondering what's happened since Stacey discovered she was pregnant and Nessa ditched Dave Coaches on their wedding day.

Creators James Corden and Ruth Jones came up with the ideas for the reunion during meetings in LA where James now fronts the Late, Late Show on CBS.

He told Newsbeat: "We were like it's 10 years on, shall we just, in secret, scratch this itch and see if there's anything there?"

"Ruth and I have lived with it for the past two years, the entire cast has lived with it since spring this year.

"It feels like we've been holding onto this thing and we're about to just hand it over to people and we really hope that they like it."

Newsbeat's been talking to the cast members about the new show. Here's what we learnt - without any spoilers (we've not seen it yet either).

The first bit of gossip comes from Ruth Jones aka Nessa, who says Neil in the new episode is one of the original baby Neils.

"Originally I think we had three different baby Neils. You can't have the same baby all the time because of hours. Purely by chance, the boy who's been cast as Neil the baby was one of the original babies. He's Oscar Hartland and he was magnificent. Everybody said he looked like the love child of Ruth Jones and James Corden. I'll quash the rumours now - he's not."

One more thing - Nessa has a new tattoo. Ruth says: "I shall leave it to the beady-eyed viewer to see if they can see where it is. It is on view."

Bryn had a MySpace account 10 years ago. Now? Rob Brydon told us: "I think when he did it even, by then, MySpace was on the way out. He was catching up with it.

"He does mention another platform. I'm not saying what it is.

"You see he's got an iPad in a holder in the trail."

Joanna Page, aka Stacey, told us that filming in Barry a decade on was very different: "Honestly it was like being Beyonce or something. You'd get out of the car and people would scream. You got so much love and support from everyone coming to watch. You'd have to sign people's handbags and body parts so it was a different experience!"

We hear what Pam's friends are up to, according to Alison Steadman.

"They do get a mention. She's still mates with them."

"Japanese Margaret is going to some sort of exercise class and you'll get an update on Fat Sue. There are some relationships going on."

And Alison tells us that Pam is still trying at the vegetarianism with "a bit of meat now and again."

Mathew Horne says the invitation to play Gavin again came out of the blue: "I got a message from Ruth saying 'I've just spoken Jo Page and she's hysterical. I just told her something and she's gone hysterical.' I was like 'what has happened to her?" She said "We've got a script." I didn't really believe it until James dropped the Twitter bomb.

Larry Lamb returns as Gavin's Dad Mick and thinks the comeback will be a crowd pleaser: "Fans are going to get what they want. I think 10,000 people have asked me personally over the last 10 years. It's the perfect Christmas gift for millions of people. It's even better than something coming up in the middle of the year."

However, James Corden seems pretty certain this will be a one-off.

"We don't ever want to make the show that makes people think 'they've ruined that'", he said.

"There's absolutely a world where this is the last ever episode. I don't know. We haven't even talked about any more.

"I would be so surprised if we ever made another series. I think that would be pushing it slightly."

Gavin & Stacey is on BBC One on Christmas Day at 2030 GMT.

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