“I would love to come back every year, but I genuinely don’t think there will ever be any more and I can really see why”
Gavin And Stacey star Joanna Page has said she “can see why” there will be no more episodes following the final show of the BBC sitcom on Christmas Day. But Page, 47, who plays Stacey Shipman, said she would like to “come back every year” for further Christmas specials, despite saying she does not think there will be any more episodes.
She told the Radio Times: “I would love to come back every year, but I genuinely don’t think there will ever be any more and I can really see why.” Mathew Horne, who plays her on-screen husband Gavin Shipman, added he was glad co-writers James Corden and Ruth Jones were “finishing on their own terms”.
Page went on to say that when she got the script for the Christmas special she was concerned she would leak the series’ ending with her daughter keen to find out what happened. She added: “I’d just done a job and had stopped at a services to get a burger on my way home, I looked down at my phone and it said, ‘Gavin And Stacey read-through script’.
READ MORE: Gogglebox star shares reason for leaving show and new careerREAD MORE: Coleen Rooney heads home with sons after making Wayne revelation
“And then I looked underneath the bed and saw that she’d (11-year-old daughter, Eva) hidden an iPad under there to record everything. Even in my own house I had to be careful what I said! The thought of being the person who cocks up and reveals something is absolutely terrifying.”
She described the final episode as “classic Gavin And Stacey”, while co-star Horne said it was the “perfect ending”. Speaking about stepping into her character one more time, Page said: “Just before we started, I did say to my mum, how am I going to play Stacey? I’m 47 now, I’ve got four kids and I don’t look the same as I used to look. So how can I still be that really excitable, bubbly girl?
“She’s (Stacey) grown in the way that I’ve grown, so I didn’t overthink it and I just went and had a laugh.”
The hit TV series aired between 2007 and 2010 and returned in 2019 with a one-off festive special that ended on a cliffhanger when Nessa proposed to Corden’s character Neil “Smithy” Smith. Gavin And Stacey: The Finale will air at 9pm on Christmas Day on BBC One and iPlayer. The documentary Gavin And Stacey: A Fond Farewell will be shown at 7pm on New Year’s Day on BBC One and iPlayer.
The full interview can be read in the Christmas issue of Radio Times.
