Ruth Jones admitted they almost wrote a shocking affair into ‘Gavin & Stacey’.
The 53-year-old star and her collaborator James Corden – who together co-wrote and created the beloved BBC sitcom – have admitted they almost took the main characters’ relationship in a surprising direction for the upcoming Christmas special.
She told heat magazine: "Yes, we had an idea where we thought we should do something quite dramatic with Gavin and Stacey [played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page] – like he was having an affair, perhaps – but then that felt really soapy."
James, 41, agreed that the idea "didn’t feel right", and explained how the duo spend some time trying to get back to the root of the characters.
He said: "And then, in about 90 minutes, we wrote a scene between Gavin and Stacey that comes right in the middle of the episode.
"And as soon as we’d written that scene, we both got quite emotional because we thought, ‘There they are, there’s the characters we love’.
"After we’d written that scene, there was no option really. We just thought, ‘Right, we have to do this now.’ "
Meanwhile, Joanna has discussed the show’s popularity and joked that the reaction from eager fans when Rob Brydon – who plays Uncle Bryn on the show – turned up on set was like seeing Beyonce.
Appearing on ITV’s ‘This Morning’, she laughed: "Rob turned up on set one day, he got out of the car – it was like Beyonce had turned up, it was hilarious!"
The sitcom – which aired on the BBC for three series, plus a Christmas special, from 2007 to 2010 – stars Mathew Horne and Joanna Page as the titular Gavin and Stacey.
The cast will be back together on screen this month, with Larry Lamb (Mick), Melanie Walters (Gwen) and Alison Steadman (Pam) all reprising their roles for the upcoming special.