James Corden and Ruth Jones to be on Hits Radio Breakfast at Christmas
Gavin and Stacey stars James Corden and Ruth Jones will join the Hits Radio Breakfast show team for a festive special to be broadcast Christmas Day.
During the chat with Fleur East, James and Matt, James and Ruth describe how they felt filming the final scenes as Smithy and Nessa, and why the show simply can’t continue.
“It can’t carry on, it genuinely can’t,” James said. “And you’ll realise that there’s certain moments that happen in the episode, which make it very, very clear that the show cannot carry on.
“We as writers wouldn’t know how to carry on that story. We feel very, very proud of it. We’ve really given it everything we could have given it.
“It’s all come with quite a lot of pressure, the idea of being so definite and announcing that this is it, it’s going to end. And trying to get it right. Trying to serve the characters, serve the audience. And make sure that everybody feels satisfied by it.
“I think right now in this moment, of course there’s nerves. You hope that people just feel that this is the right way to say goodbye to these characters that have been in our lives for so long.”
James remained tight-lipped about the show’s storyline, but he did reveal one surprising detail, which goes against the grain of the last two Christmas specials: “We can tell you it isn’t set at Christmas. And it’s five years on from where we left off. We were running out of Christmas music that we could use,” he said.
One thing he did say though, was that the infamous fishing trip ‘certainly comes up, for sure’, but when asked if close friend Adele knows what happened on the trip he asked why would he tell her?
“I wouldn’t tell her a thing – she’d be on stage going ‘I’ll tell you what happens’,” he said.
When asked what a normal Christmas looks like for them, Ruth said: “I think Christmas Day is always dependent on the weather; the way that you enjoy Christmas. The good thing is, if it’s rubbish weather you just kinda cootch up and stay indoors. And if it’s sunny you go for a nice brisk walk – and say Happy Christmas to everybody.”
James said it’ll be the first Christmas his family will wake up at home for a decade, because of work commitments in America. He also revealed he’ll be watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special with co-writer Ruth on Christmas Day, just like they did for the last one in 2019!
You can listen to the full Christmas Special episode with James Corden and Ruth Jones on Hits Radio on Christmas Day, from 10am.