Mathew Horne thought Ruth Jones was ‘on holiday in LA’ when she was writing Gavin and Stacey special

Gavin and Stacey finished in 2010 but is returning for a Christmas special
1/33
Tobi Akingbade26 November 2019
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Mathew Horne said he thought Ruth Jones was “having a holiday in Los Angeles” when she went to write Gavin and Stacey with James Corden.

Speaking at the Samsung KX’s Thread Talks, Horne, who played Gavin Shipman in the hit series, told the audience that reuniting with the cast for the upcoming Christmas special was “amazing”.

He explained: “It was amazing to get back together, it was really nerve-wracking but it was really, really wonderful to get back together with everybody.”

He admitted that he was initially out of the loop about the exciting news as Jones and Corden did not reveal that they were working on a new script.

Horne as Gavin and Joanna Page as Stacey
Baby Cow

“I first found out from Ruth actually,” Horne said. “I think they divided up between themselves, James and Ruth sort of said ‘I’ll take this half and you take that half’”

He added: “And Ruth Whatsapped me saying we’ve got this script, we’ve written this script and I had no idea even though I’d been talking to both Ruth and James all of last year and I’d known she’d flown out to LA to see him but I thought she was just visiting for holiday (because she loves a holiday) turns out they’d written a script and then we all got together to read it for a big read through in July, late June or July I think and it was.”

Gavin and Stacey finished in 2010 and the final episode saw the title characters expecting their first child, while their friends, Nessa and Smithy (played by Corden and Jones) eventually got together as a couple.

The show is set to return on Christmas Day for a one-off special.

On Monday, the BBC leaked a snippet of the new episode on iPlayer.

The sneak preview of the new Christmas special appears after the final episode in the last series on the streaming platform.

BBC bosses have previously said the episode will show the characters catching up while having a Christmas dinner at Bryn's house in Barry Island, Wales.

Gavin and Stacey filming their 2019 Christmas Special - In pictures

1/16

The leaked preview shows Bryn, Stacey's uncle, rushing round a kitchen trying to organise it while Wizzard's hit track, 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday', plays in the background.

He then checks an iPad and speaks frantically into a walkie-talkie, saying: "Gwen, Jason, anyone. The table should've been set 37 minutes ago. And the plates are still at Stacey's."

Bryn then screams as he drops a bowl of food on the floor, making a large crashing sound.

Stacey and Nessa then rush in to help, to which Bryn responds: "Stacey, would you kindly inform everyone that dinner will be ever so slightly delayed?"

Corden and Jones announced in the summer that they were writing a new episode nine years after the series three finale.

He previously told GQ magazine that the duo juggled writing the new episode with their transatlantic lives.

"We wrote the new script over FaceTime," he said. "I would get up at 4am, and work with Ruth until it was time to take Max to school … We didn’t tell anyone we were doing it, certainly not the BBC.”

Horne's Thread Talks event took place at Samsung's new King's Cross experience space KX, which will host tech tutorials, health and wellbeing sessions and other classes.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in