Becoming Pam again made me go crackers
GOING back to Gavin & Stacey made actress Alison Steadman the most nervous she has ever been in her glittering career.
The 73-year-old was horrible hostess Beverly in Abigail’s Party and madcap Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. But reprising the role of Pamela Shipman was a real challenge.
She says: “I was nervous as my hair is so different, I am older and fatter. I kept thinking, ‘Can I get the Essex voice back, can I get into character and will I remember the lines’.
“But as soon as I got Pam’s sparkly jumper and leggings on, it felt so good to be back in the Gavin & Stacey world. By the time we got to Cardiff, I was on track again. It was like a family getting back together.”
DOTING
In the decade since we last saw the characters, Stacey has had three kids. And, like Pam, Alison is now a grandmother.
“My eldest son Toby had a boy called Freddie two years ago and I’m very much the doting grandmother,” she says.
“I love the fact I only live 20 minutes away and I go around as much as I can. I always take him a gingerbread man!”
Alison was wed to director Mike Leigh for nearly 30 years and as well as Toby, 41, they have son Leo, 38. She has been with her current partner, Welsh actor Michael Elwyn, for the past two decades.
Alison says she was in tears in her final scene as Pam but says: “It ends on a cliffhanger, so fans will be desperate for another instalment.”
And she adds with a laugh: “Builders shout ‘Pamelaaah’ in the street. But it always puts the biggest smile on my face and that says it all.”
■ Alison has partnered with Oxfam to encourage people to buy their sequins second-hand at the charity’s online shop.