Our dinner party was a disaster – but it saved Gavin & Stacey
THE return of Gavin & Stacey to our TV screens after ten years away will be one of the must-see shows on Christmas Day.
But it nearly didn’t happen after its stars and writers, James Corden and Ruth Jones, deemed an early draft of the script so ‘awful’ that they decided to pull the plug.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine, the pair reveal that they had an awkwardly subdued dinner together after making the decision to abandon the comeback – but over the meal they came up with an idea to save the show.
Jones, 53, who plays Nessa, says: ‘When we did our first read-through it just wasn’t working. We just stopped everything. It was a horrible feeling… it felt absolutely awful.
‘We both had to admit it was over. So we sat down to dinner with our partners after making the decision to stop. Obviously the mood wasn’t great, and we had this very pedestrian conversation as we sat around the table.
‘But within two or three hours, we’d worked up that exact pedestrian conversation into this perfect Gavin and Stacey scene. Then James started crying because it was a completely unexpected breakthrough and it was just perfect. I cried too.
‘It was very emotional because somehow we’d got it back. We knew we could make it happen. And then – bang! – we were on a roll. Everything just worked and we had that spark back.’
Corden, who plays Smithy, adds: ‘There was a moment, a very long moment, when we thought there was absolutely no way we could bring it back.’
The show’s return was a surprise given that Cordon, 41, is now a successful daily talk show host in America.
And he refused to be drawn on whether the Christmas special would be the last we will see of the show, replying: ‘Let’s just see what people think.’