TV star Ruth on raunchy debut novel
Ruth on new book and why hit sitcom won’t be returning
Gavin & Stacey creator Ruth Jones talks about her first book and why hit show won’t be returning.
SHE’S best known for creating and starring in one of TV’s best-loved comedies but now Ruth Jones is turning her hand to a different kind of writing.
Jones, who co-wrote Gavin & Stacey with James Corden, has launched her debut novel Never Greener, a tale of extra-marital lust.
But she is quick to point out it isn’t based on her life – the 51-year-old is happily married to producer David Peet.
Jones said: “Of course I’ve been in love and I married the man that I love.
“It was love at first voice because I spoke to him on the phone before I met him. I did fall in love with his voice.
“But I have had to imagine a lot of the intensity and the destructiveness (in the book).”
The novel features a young woman who has an intense affair with a married man, which ends in heartbreak.
Fast forward 17 years and their lives have moved on. She is now a successful actress, married with one child, he is a teacher still married to the same woman, with three children.
Chaos ensues when the actress bumps into him again and the spark re-ignites. Jones sets the scenes in different timelines, like David Nicholls did in his novel One Day, building up the sexual tension between the lovers.
So, a fair amount of the book centres on lust and whether its power is greater than true love.
“Is it beautiful sex? No, it’s not. It’s very hedonistic and ego driven. What’s interesting is that it means something different to both of them,” Jones said.
And the story resonates in the social media age, although things have changed massively from 2002 when it first emerged from a screenplay which never made it to TV.
At that time, many people were getting in touch with old pals through Friends Reunited. “You heard all sorts of stories about people leaving their long-
term marriages to set up with people that they were going out with when they were 17. And a lot of those second attempts went wrong,” said Jones.
Not that she has anything to do with social media.
“I couldn’t handle it if somebody said something nasty,” she said. “But I have read comments people have received.
“James [Corden], for instance, gets horrible comments from people. I’ve seen the stuff that’s been said and I just couldn’t handle it if people were being directly abusive.
“The world is c**p enough without adding to that vitriol. People say it’s just like the modern day graffiti on toilet walls in the pub, or when you’re in a car and have road rage.”
Jones doesn’t envy Corden his US stardom and shies away from celebrity events.
“Well, I live in Cardiff and we haven’t got many ‘paps’ in Cardiff.
“If I’m doing a charity event and I’m there because that will give the event interest, then fair enough. People should be able to have their selfies and autographs.
“But the other day, I was in the car and my husband was just getting in when this guy came out, looked at me and literally pushed my husband out of the way.
“He said, ‘Excuse me, are you that woman from Gavin & Stacey?’ and my husband was left standing there. I just went, ‘No, not me’. Sometimes people don’t realise they’re being rude.”
“I don’t know how real celebrities deal with it. For James and his wife Julia, if you’ve got three small children and you’re out and about, it must be tricky.”
Jones insists there is no going back for Gavin & Stacey – in which she played Nessa Jenkins – although she has fond memories of it and is still pals with Corden.
“We used to talk about maybe doing a special, but if you look at the logistics of it – James lives in America and I don’t know long he’ll be out there for. He’s so busy,” she said. “Even if we did write something, when would we film it? James and I still have little conversations about what Nessa’s doing or what’s happened to Neil the Baby, who is now about 10. “I saw him last Christmas and we were crying with laughter just remembering the process of writing. “James would drive down to my house in Cardiff which had a leaking roof. We’d sit in the lean-to with the heater on, or I’d go to his flat and we’d sit there with a Chinese takeaway in Beaconsfield. “Looking back, we have such affection for that time – and maybe that’s what made the series what it was. We started writing it 13 years ago. Would we still have the same innocence to put into the characters? I don’t know.” Jones and Peet run a production company and co-created Stella, in which she played the title role. They made 58 episodes – but there won’t be any more. “It took over our lives. We’d storyline the next series in August when we were still filming the previous series, so there was never a break,” she said. “We loved it … but we knew we’d have to move on.
“I always say, ‘Never say never’ but it’s very unlikely.”
She met Peet while working on a comedy pilot in the 90s. She has three grown-up stepchildren from his first marriage and seemed to take being a stepmother in her stride.
“There wasn’t a moment when I thought, ‘I’ve become a stepmum now’,” she said. “We were really lucky. Our three were just gorgeous human beings.
“We never had any difficulty with teenage angst and now I’m looking forward to becoming a stepgrandmother at some point.”
Jones is under contract to write a second book after her novel attracted a bidding war.
“I’m nervous about how my debut novel will be received because there’s always that feeling somebody might say something negative,” she said. “I say I won’t read reviews but I probably will. But just because somebody says something negative, I don’t have to believe it.”
Never Greener by Ruth Jones is out now, Bantam, priced £12.99.