THE QUEEN OF COMEDY

RUTH IS WONDERFUL, JONES HILARIOUS, BRILLIANTLY TALENTED AND, BEST OF ALL, BRINGING GAVIN & STACEY BACK TO OUR SCREENS. HANNAH BECKERMAN GETS THE LOW-DOWN

Our cover star, Ruth Jones, talks about life as a bestselling novelist, her relationship with James Corden and the return of Gavin & Stacey

Ifirst met Ruth Jones almost two years ago, when we went on the road together to promote her debut novel, Never Greener. At every event where I interviewed her, the audiences were full of adoration. There would be huge rounds of applause the moment she walked on stage and the longest signing queues I’ve ever witnessed; people wanted to share their personal stories with her, and Jones was unfailingly generous with her time, spending hours chatting with fans and signing books. With a soft Welsh lilt to her voice and deep reserves of empathy, she couldn’t have been further removed from Nessa, the potty-mouthed TV character in Gavin & Stacey for which she’s become most famous. It was during those events – and even more so on the lengthy car journeys where we bonded over family anecdotes and our mutual love of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers – that I realised why Jones has such broad appeal: her natural warmth and humour combined with her down-to-earth demeanour make us feel like she is one of us. In spite of the fame, awards and incredible success she’s achieved,

I got the distinct impression back then that she hadn’t changed much since she first hit our TV screens 20 years ago, and today, that feeling remains unchanged. It’s the morning after her Red cover shoot, and she arrives to meet me for breakfast at a pub, just a stone’s throw from the London bolthole where she and her husband, David, stay when they’re not at home in Cardiff. It’s 8.30am, she’s make-up free and still has none of the airs and graces that one might expect from someone who’s written and starred in one of the genre-defining British comedies of the past two decades.

She’s refreshingly honest about having been ‘initially nervous’ when donning billowing gowns in the middle of Hyde Park the previous day, despite the sheer excitement of it all.

Because the 53-year-old actress, writer and producer has never been motivated by fame or public adoration. ‘I don’t think I do what I do to be famous,’ she confesses. ‘I do what I do because I enjoy the process of creating something out of nothing, that sense of having an idea and watching it come to fruition.’

It was in Kay Mellor’s ITV drama Fat Friends that Jones first came to public prominence. Roles in cult comedy classics

Little Britain and Nighty Night followed, but it was Gavin

& Stacey – the BBC comedy drama that she co-wrote and starred in with James Corden – that propelled her into the celebrity stratosphere, as well as viewers’ hearts. Her portrayal of Nessa saw the character become one of TV’S most iconic faces and, when the show ended in 2010 after three series and two Christmas specials, fans were heartbroken.

For the past 10 years, Jones and Corden have insisted they wouldn’t write any more episodes but, earlier this year, they let the cat out of the bag: they’d secretly been working on a one-off special to air on Christmas Day. So why now? ‘Ever since it finished in 2010,’ Jones tells me, ‘we’ve always said [to each other], “Do you think we’ll do another one?” Sometimes we’d just text each other and go, “I have a really good idea for Bryn.”’

‘I once wrote out all the lyrics to Adele’s Hello but as Nessa, so instead of “hello” it was [Jones slips into her Nessa voice] “alright”. I sent James the whole song, but we never told anybody because we knew that if we said we were thinking about it, we’d never hear the end of it.’

It’s funny to think of Jones and Corden keeping these characters alive between them, all cloak-and-dagger, for all these years. I’m curious, though, as to why it took them so long to write another episode. ‘There were obviously things getting in the way, like geography, work and finding the time to do it. James was often the one who’d say, “Shall we do another one?” and I’d say, “But how can we?”

I was always head girl being practical. But then we took a serious look at our diaries and realised we could do it.’

The writing process was, inevitably, shrouded in secrecy. Jones flew to Corden’s home in LA and the pair spent a week writing the script. ‘It was a bit strange initially,’ she admits. ‘Although we’d seen each other over the years, we hadn’t spent any great length of time together. But what’s nice about the way we write is that we just act out the characters ourselves, so it’s just like playing, really. We make each other laugh a lot.’

The Christmas special, she says, catches up with the characters a decade on from where we left them. She’s under strict orders to keep schtum about the storyline, but reveals that Gavin and Stacey’s son is now 10 years old, while Nessa and Smithy’s child is 12, and the episode sees Bryn cooking Christmas dinner for 13 people, which obviously won’t be plain sailing. I press her to give away just a few more details.

‘I ONCE WROTE OUT ALL THE LYRICS TO ADELE’S HELLO BUT AS NESSA… SO IT WAS “ALRIGHT”’

‘All I’ll say is that it’s cheery, warm-hearted, Brexit-free and very, very Christmassy,’ she laughs.

When the script was finished, Jones and Corden called all the cast members personally to ask if they’d appear in the special. ‘They were lovely phone calls. Everybody was over the moon. Jo Page [who plays Stacey] was almost hysterical!’ Everyone said yes immediately, but when it came to booking the crew for the two-week shoot in Barry, Wales, Jones didn’t reveal to anyone what the show was until they’d signed up for it. ‘I didn’t tell anyone,’ she laughs. ‘I didn’t tell my mother, I didn’t tell my sister, I didn’t tell anybody at all!’ I’m beginning to realise that she would be a good person to confide your secrets in.

When the news finally broke in May, Corden posted a photograph of the new script on Twitter, and social media went into meltdown. ‘It was absolutely astonishing,’ she

recalls, clearly delighted by the response. ‘People’s reactions were just gorgeous. It was on Radio 4’s Today programme and the lunchtime news on the BBC and ITV. Everybody was so thrilled. You know when you give somebody a present you know they’re really going to like? It was like that.’

I wonder what it was like stepping back into Nessa’s shoes after all these years. ‘It’s great because when I’m Nessa I get to be really rude and bossy,’ she laughs. ‘Being back in Barry again, wearing that leather skirt and being down the arcade or in Gwen’s house was just bliss. It was surprisingly easy and very familiar; it was like I’d never been away. What’s lovely about the Christmas special, though, is that we get to see a softer side to Nessa in her love for Neil, her son. She’s not a conventional mum, but she’s very loving.’

This time around, Gavin & Stacey was produced in part by Tidy Productions, the company set up by Jones and her husband, TV producer David Peet, back in 2008. The couple met in the early 1990s and married in 1999, bonding over a shared sense of humour. She smiles simply by mention of his name. ‘He’s the funniest person I’ve ever met. We love making each other laugh, especially if we catch each other unawares.’

Together they co-wrote and produced the much-loved Sky TV series Stella, which ended in 2017 after six series. Working with your partner can be a notoriously difficult balancing act, but Jones is upbeat about it. ‘I think we know that we always have each other’s backs,’ she says. ‘It’s great to work with somebody who you can be absolutely 100% honest with, and who you can share your worries or doubts with, knowing that it’s not going to go any further. I think that’s a real gift.’

Are there not times when the professional and domestic begin to blur? She laughs. ‘We do reach a point, particularly during filming, when one of us will say, “Can we stop talking about this now because it’s 10pm and that’s a work question.” We both have to keep an eye on that sometimes. But, generally, it’s great.’

Not content with being an award-winning screenwriter, actor and producer, Jones published her first novel, Never Greener, in 2018. It tells the story of a love affair revisited after a 17-year absence, and tackles ‘what ifs?’ and regrets. She’s the first to admit that she suffers from the latter herself. ‘Pretty much all of my regrets have been to do with confidence and not believing in myself, then afterwards thinking, “I could have done that,”’ she says.

When I ask if the book was a success, she replies in typically modest fashion: ‘It’s done quite well.’ I have to laugh. The novel has, in fact, been a huge bestseller, spending 15 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list – including three at number one – and selling more than 200,000 copies.

She’s now writing her second novel, Us Three, due to be published in May 2020, about a trio of female friends over the course of three decades. ‘I’m blessed in having very long-term, solid friendships,’ she says. There’s something so joyous about remembering things we’ve done in the past. I hope we’ll be in our 80s saying, “Oh my God, remember when we were 55?” I have friends I’ve had since I was a child, and those friends are the same people who came to my 18th birthday party, my wedding and my father’s funeral.’

It was while filming a Tesco advert two years ago that Jones received a call telling her that her father had died. Although he was elderly, it came as a shock. ‘I know other people go through horrendous losses with their parents,’ Jones acknowledges. ‘My dad was 89. He used to joke and say [she adopts a strong Welsh accent], “Ruth, I’m in the departure lounge now, I’m waiting to go.” He died suddenly of a heart attack, and I think that’s the way he would have wanted to go, because he used to say, “I don’t want to linger.” I’m glad for him that he went that way.’ She becomes visibly more thoughtful and sombre. ‘I still can’t get my head round the fact he’s not in this world. Even now I go to tell him something and realise I can’t. Sometimes it slightly panics me that he’s not here because I think – and I know this sounds like an obvious thing to say – there’s something so final about somebody dying. I miss him terribly.’

Before turning 50 three years ago, Jones confesses to having felt that ‘it’s definitely downhill from now on – I’m eligible for Saga holidays’, but these days she’s a lot more

‘BEING BACK IN BARRY AGAIN, WEARING THAT LEATHER SKIRT, WAS JUST BLISS’

philosophical. ‘It’s weird. The saying “you’re only as old as you feel” is true.’ She lowers her voice a notch. ‘I might as well tell you that I’m going through the menopause. I quite like the hot flushes, I find them quite entertaining. I find it fascinating that they’re happening because it’s hormones doing it, so that means there’s still something going on!’

There is clearly a lot going on for Jones right now. In addition to the new novel, she and Peet are also developing a new TV show for Jones to star in. I ask if she’s ever been tempted to follow in Corden’s footsteps and try her luck in LA? Jones shakes her head. ‘I find LA fascinating because it’s a completely weird world. Weird in a nice way; I can honestly say that I love visiting, but I’m very glad to come home. I couldn’t live with all that relentless sunshine.’ Jones bursts into full-throated laughter before becoming more serious. ‘I want to be near my mum. My home town, Porthcawl, still means a lot to me; my family are all there.’

Our time is almost up, but I can’t let her go without asking the 64 million-dollar question: is there more Gavin & Stacey to come? She looks thoughtful and chooses her words carefully. ‘We will never again have the effect that we’ve had this time around, having said for 10 years that we’re not doing any more and then announcing a special,’ she says. ‘I think it would be churlish of me to say there won’t be any more. The honest truth is there are no plans, but I don’t think I could ever say never.’

The Gavin & Stacey Christmas special airs on BBC One on Christmas Day