James Corden & Ruth Jones

Oh, what’s occurring? We’ve only got Ruth Jones & James Corden - aka Smithy & Nessa - joining us for dinner! The creators and stars of hit and beloved comedy, Gavin & Stacey popped round to tell us all the exclusives about the upcoming Christmas special and final ever episode. After binging the entire 3 series in a week, I have a lot of questions. We found out that James & Ruth secretly started writing the episode years ago, Ruth loves going on a literary cruise, how they boiled eggs in kettles when travelling, that Ruth surprised James at his 40th birthday in Mexico, how Ruth was hypnotised to hate chocolate, that James is loving living back in London, and you really, really don’t want to miss Nessa & Smithy giving us their ‘last supper’! We are so excited to see what our favourite residents of Barry Island and Billericay have been up to for the last 5 years. The Gavin & Stacey finale will be on BBC1 at 9pm on Christmas Day - oh, don’t miss it! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

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• 1:07Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table Mamas. I'm here in Clapham and we are very excited for our guests today.

• 1:14Speaker 03

  This is the best Christmas present.

• 1:17Jessie Ware?

  Lenny is very tired.

• 1:19Speaker 03

  Tired.

• 1:20Jessie Ware?

  And the voice is nearly gone.

• 1:21Speaker 03

  The voice is nearly gone.

• 1:22Jessie Ware?

  I put her on voice rest today.

• 1:23Speaker 03

  And yesterday, darling.

• 1:25Jessie Ware?

  Lenny's gonna sound croaky on this one. I'm sure a couple of wines will make the voice...

• 1:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think limokeyed with wine.

• 1:32Jessie Ware?

  Limokeyed, exactly.

• 1:32Speaker 03

  Or champagne.

• 1:33Jessie Ware?

  We have...

• 1:34Speaker 03

  Oh, well, let's just excite people a little bit more.

• 1:39Jessie Ware?

  Go on then.

• 1:40Speaker 03

  It's five years since the last special.

• 1:42Jessie Ware?

  And where it was left...

• 1:44Speaker 03

  Cliffhanger.

• 1:45Jessie Ware?

  What, Nessa on bended knee?

• 1:48Speaker 03

  There they were. Him with his new girlfriend.

• 1:52Jessie Ware?

  Oof, she was a wrongo.

• 1:53Speaker 03

  Who didn't like her. The baby upstairs.

• 1:56Jessie Ware?

  Neil, the baby that was 12.

• 1:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:58Jessie Ware?

  Who is now 17.

• 2:00Speaker 03

  And her unbended knee. And what did she say? What were her words?

• 2:05Jessie Ware?

  I loves you.

• 2:05Speaker 03

  I loves you.

• 2:06Jessie Ware?

  I always have to have to love you. I've watched, Mum, can I just tell you? Firstly, I can't do a Welsh accent very well, but it has been the greatest pleasure watching Gavin and Stacey back to back, three seasons, two Christmas specials in a week. It has aged like a fine wine.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  I don't think it has aged.

• 2:25Jessie Ware?

  It's great.

• 2:26Speaker 03

  I think it's fabulous.

• 2:27Jessie Ware?

  It's just been such a pleasure to watch it.

• 2:29Speaker 03

  Will we find out what went on that night with Uncle Bryn?

• 2:34Jessie Ware?

  The fishing trip. We, we have James Corden and Ruth Jones coming over for a special, well, especially Tabor Man is where I guess we're going to be talking all things Gavin and Stacey.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  I'm laughing a lot, I hope.

• 2:45Jessie Ware?

  Now, we actually know James's wife, Julia.

• 2:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:50Jessie Ware?

  And I think, she says she was very excited that he's doing it tonight. She texted me and I said, I'll save you some lamb. So let's tell everybody what you're cooking.

• 2:57Speaker 03

  You said, make it easy for yourself, Mum. Do something you're comfortable, confident with. Yeah, I've done my Lebanese lamb.

• 3:06Jessie Ware?

  We love it.

• 3:07Speaker 03

  Which we all like, with the warm aubergine and spinach salad.

• 3:13Jessie Ware?

  It's a deliciously ella one that we've done for Sandy Toxfig. Can't remember who else we've done it for. Whenever we do the Lebanese lamb, we do this. And it's been a while. I don't think we had Lebanese lamb in the last season, so it's come back. I've made the same potatoes that Mum liked that I did for Sharon Horgan.

• 3:29Speaker 03

  They were so delicious.

• 3:30Jessie Ware?

  And so, so sue me.

• 3:31Speaker 03

  And I think they'll go with this dish.

• 3:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, it's the whipfeta with yogurt, with crusty potato. Crusty? Are they crusty?

• 3:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:39Jessie Ware?

  Crunchy.

• 3:40Speaker 03

  Crunchy.

• 3:40Jessie Ware?

  New potatoes that you kind of smash down, capers, lemon. And then I'm going to chop some, sorry, I've got a jingly.

• 3:47Speaker 03

  You could have actually put some anchovies on. I've just realised if you needed more salt.

• 3:52Jessie Ware?

  Back off.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 3:54Jessie Ware?

  That's what Nessa would say. She'd be like, back off, Lenny. Well, I don't know.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  That's because she lives in Barry.

• 4:01Jessie Ware?

  Oh, Barry. I really want to go to Barry.

• 4:03Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 4:04Jessie Ware?

  And then for pudding, what have you done?

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Sticky toffee pudding. I had some dates, followed Nigella's recipe.

• 4:10Jessie Ware?

  Was it hard making sticky toffee pudding?

• 4:12Speaker 03

  Actually, you know, I don't really like cooking.

• 4:15Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  It was a real pleasure.

• 4:17Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 4:17Speaker 03

  I really enjoyed making it.

• 4:19Jessie Ware?

  Hell, frozen over.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  I don't know what it was. I think it was the combination of the treacle and the butter.

• 4:25Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yum.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  And then you soak the dates and then you mush them in. It was a nice recipe and easy and satisfying.

• 4:33Jessie Ware?

  How good. Has she got, really got tattoos? I don't think so, but I'm going to ask that now. Ruth Jones and James Corden coming up on Table manners.

• 4:59Speaker 04

  Cheers.

• 4:59Speaker 03

  Cheers, darling.

• 5:00Jessie Ware?

  Cheers, cheers.

• 5:01Speaker 05

  And cheers to you guys.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  Cheers to Gavin and Stacey.

• 5:05Jessie Ware?

  Well, no, Smithy and Nessa, let's talk about that. Where are we? Are we going five years on? So baby Neil, Neil the baby's going to be 17 now. And we don't know whether you're married yet. You're not going to give anything away now, are you?

• 5:18Speaker 04

  We're really going straight in.

• 5:19Jessie Ware?

  I just, I'm very excited.

• 5:21Speaker 05

  I'm literally trying to work out what you're going to say in the press. And we have said that it's five years later, haven't we?

• 5:26Speaker 04

  The show picks up five years after we left off.

• 5:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, when Nessa was on bended knee.

• 5:35Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 5:36Jessie Ware?

  Saying I love you.

• 5:36Speaker 04

  And then, and then with all my heart. Isn't she amazing? Isn't she amazing in that? Isn't it honestly one of the best?

• 5:43Jessie Ware?

  I'm going to cry.

• 5:44Speaker 04

  It's one of the best pieces of acting. What she did in that with that character, we all talk about it, the whole cast. Because, because Nessa is this like, you know, she's had this unbelievably chequered life. And you find out a bit more about that in this new special. Some really, some really fun bits that we wrote.

• 6:05Jessie Ware?

  Like past work experience?

• 6:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that reminds me of when I was, yeah, that sort of stuff. And because she's that person and... I think there's been moments where you've seen certainly out the, you know, out of the four of them Gavin, Stacey, Smithy and Nessie. You've seen Gavin be quite vulnerable when they were like trying for a baby.

• 6:23Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:24Speaker 04

  You've seen Stacey be vulnerable when she wasn't happy living in Essex.

• 6:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:27Speaker 04

  You've seen Smithy be vulnerable when he had that fear, like moment of terror where he felt like Nessa might marry Dave Coaches, like the, the two thousand eight Christmas special when he said, don't marry him, I'm not saying marry me. And then again, in the end of series three, so all of the, the, out of the four characters, you've seen that and Nessa has always had this quite stoic. Um hardened exterior, really, nothing really hurts her, nothing really phases her. And then, like, when we wrote it, I remember thinking this is gonna be really powerful. And then the joy of like watching Ruth do it, I, I honestly think it's when she says with all my heart.

• 7:09Speaker 04

  It's so good, it makes me tingle now, it's as good a piece of acting as, as certainly as, as I've ever seen, like, close up in the flesh. And it's, I'm so proud of you for it.

• 7:21Speaker 05

  Very lovely, but you know what, the reason that I feel that that was very emotional, that moment was because James and I have been on this journey for a long, long time, we've known each other since two thousand.

• 7:33Speaker 03

  Where did we meet?

• 7:34Speaker 05

  Doing Fat Friends, when we were doing Fat Friends. And because we've known each other that long, and because Gavin and Stacey has been such a massive part of our lives. And that, to all intents and purposes, was gonna be the last episode of Gavin and Stacey. You know, it, it kind of was, and so that scene, we filmed it in the middle of the night, because it was, we were filming at summertime, but it had to be Christmas. So it had to be dark and we were there, just the two of us, on that road that had meant so much to us. And I just, as Ruth was looking at my dear friend James and I, when I said, I loved you with all my heart.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  Don't, I'm going to cry.

• 8:18Speaker 05

  But I was saying it to you.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 8:21Speaker 05

  Oh, stop your crying, will you? I love it.

• 8:31Speaker 05

  Well, let's talk about the beginning and how we met. And and what memorable meal from around that time, what kind of made you realise that you two were going to be friends forever?

• 8:41Speaker 04

  Well, I think we've just always committed to health food really. A lot of sort of bone broth.

• 8:50Speaker 05

  We probably, we would have shared something off the off the Crown Plaza menu would have been our first meal.

• 8:57Speaker 04

  I would say, and I feel pretty confident in this, that outside of our partners, we have probably, you're, I think, each other are the people that we've eaten with the most. We have, in fact, a lot of our meals are us, because when we're writing, we're actually.

• 9:20Speaker 05

  So where do you write?

• 9:21Speaker 04

  Oh, where haven't we written?

• 9:23Speaker 05

  So do you go to, do you live in Wales? No, I live in London. Okay. London and Wales, really, so. So you've been writing in Wales, in London?

• 9:32Speaker 04

  Well, we've written all over, honestly, we have written, genuinely, the series one, we wrote, we'd go half a week down in Ruth's house in Cardiff, half a week on my flat that was above a Chinese in Beckingsfield. And we just split the thing, Ruth would sleep on my sofa bed, I'd go in her spare room. And that's where we wrote, but then a lot of series was, in fact, episode one was, episode one of series one was written in a hotel. Because we, a lot of the show's been written in various hotel rooms, offices, offices to rent. We wrote episode six of series one in New York. We did the rewrites sat in Central Park, because I was in a play in New York at the time.

• 10:12Speaker 04

  We wrote the twenty nineteen Christmas special entirely in Los Angeles.

• 10:19Speaker 05

  Because you were living there by that point.

• 10:21Speaker 04

  We wrote this special, um, in, in fact, we, we, we made a decision. We wrote the two thousand and eight Christmas special in a hotel. It was kind of around the corner from Selfridge, so that was two thousand and eight, so that's sixteen years ago.

• 10:37Speaker 05

  And can I just say, when we were there, we were trying to save money by not, we didn't want to spend loads of money on food because when we had our lunch breaks, so we tried to boil some eggs in a kettle. Which was.

• 10:50Speaker 04

  We both fancied boiled eggs. We both fancied boiled eggs and so we bought some eggs.

• 10:56Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 10:56Speaker 04

  And we tried to boil them. Well, first we tried to boil them in the ice bucket.

• 11:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 11:01Speaker 04

  We thought if we pour boiling water on them and leave them in there long enough, it'll be okay. We then opened it and it was the single most horrific smell anyone ever had. So then we tried to boil them in the kettle and then we just gave up on the notion of boiled eggs.

• 11:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, but going back to the hotel.

• 11:15Speaker 04

  When we wrote this new special, we went, we had this decision. We were like, let's go back to the hotel. That we wrote the two thousand and eight one in, this.

• 11:27Speaker 05

  Cause it felt like magic. Yeah.

• 11:29Speaker 04

  It was great.

• 11:31Speaker 05

  Is it still there?

• 11:32Speaker 04

  It's, it is tired now. Those sixteen years have not been kind. I think it's under new ownership. We got there, we lasted just about an hour.

• 11:42Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 11:43Speaker 04

  And then went to a different hotel.

• 11:44Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  And do you lock down for a week and write it?

• 11:50Speaker 05

  No.

• 11:51Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 11:52Speaker 05

  It's a really weird. I'm actually quite amazed that we ever get any writing done at all because. We talk a lot, don't we? We, we usually sort of start off the, the session by talking. About like kind of gossip or not even, or about life stuff.

• 12:10Speaker 04

  Just how we're feeling.

• 12:11Speaker 05

  Feeling, yeah. And, and, and sometimes that can go on for quite a long time. And then we'll kind of get a little bit of work done and the day needs. A lot of ingredients. It needs naps and it needs food and it needs chocolate. So in amongst all that, I don't know quite how we get any writing done.

• 12:33Speaker 04

  I think, I think that what we do do though is commit to the whole process. So we.

• 12:43Speaker 04

  We almost, we we start at nine thirty, ten. We'll go till lunchtime, then we'll leave. And we always like walk somewhere like the other, the other day we went and got something, we went back to get back and then, and then. Then we'll do that till the afternoon. And then actually, when we were doing this one, we did quite a lot of late nights. Do you remember? We would do like ten till ten or eleven, actually, just in these long.

• 13:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:12Speaker 04

  Processes of just, cause really, I think. With Gavin and Stacy, we sort of both feel like we are. Like we're as, when people would come up to us or used to come up to us and say, oh god, you know, we can't wait to. What's gonna happen? We'd often go, no, we're excited to find out too, we don't know. And really, what it feels like some days. Like, I think it's probably very similar to kind of writing a song in a way. It's what you need to do. Is just open a sort of portal.

• 13:43Speaker 05

  Um.

• 13:44Speaker 04

  And wait for the characters to arrive and tell you what's gonna happen. And that's.

• 13:50Speaker 05

  And I think also, we, over the years, we have. Like, so say between the end of series three and when we did that twenty nineteen special, cause we never planned to do the twenty nineteen special. But over those sort of nine, almost ten years, we would often text each other with, oh, imagine if. Bryn did X Y and said, oh, I've got a great line for Nessa. I mean, I can remember. One time, I was coming back in a taxi and. The radio was on and it was Adele's Hello was on. And I was just listening to her. I got back in the house and I think, and you were, were you living in L A then? Yeah. And I just changed the words and and and.

• 14:34Speaker 05

  And I wrote it out and sent it, sent it as an email to James and it was kind of like, aren't I? It's me, it is.

• 14:44Speaker 05

  Uh, and it was all like Barry, I've been Barry Island dreaming.

• 14:47Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:48Speaker 05

  Um, and and so we would often sort of exchange little things like that. And what happened was James turned forty, we hadn't seen each other for for quite a while and we'd both gone off and done different things. We'd sort of stayed in touch, but not as intensely as we had before. And um, I think that was probably the turning point, wasn't it? It was when I came to your forties.

• 15:14Speaker 04

  Well, my Jules, my wife, she organised a

• 15:18Speaker 05

  In London.

• 15:18Speaker 04

  No, well, she, because we were living in L A, she organised a surprise party for me in Mexico.

• 15:24Speaker 05

  Oh, wow, that's that's quite a task.

• 15:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, and so she, like, so lots of people came and like, my oldest friend, Richard Shed, who I've known since I was five. He flew in from New Zealand with his wife who I'd never met. And then, and basically, I was just, we were there and it was, I felt like something was going on, but it was me and Jules and the kids and my really dear friend Ben. Uh, who came to L A, Ben Winston, who came to L A with me and and ran the show. Uh, the Late Late Show that we're doing and his family. And I was like, this is amazing. This is great. And that was a surprise in itself. And then suddenly, uh, this door opened and just swathes of my friends came in all wearing sombreros, with a mariachi band.

• 16:09Speaker 04

  Well, it was amazing. And we were all just thinking, and then, and then like my friend, Richard Shed, came in and uh.

• 16:16Speaker 05

  Like, this is your life, basically, in Mexico.

• 16:19Speaker 04

  Well, Ben, yeah, and then, um, and then Jules said, there's one more person who's here. And the doors opened and Ruth walked in and I just burst into tears. I I was like so emotional that she was there and we hadn't seen each other because I lived there and she lived here and and I was so, we were just hugging and I was crying. And then over that weekend, we were just getting, we just like clicked back in and we were laughing so much and and then I was like. I think we should.

• 16:56Speaker 04

  Get back in a room together. Not tell anybody. With no pressure. We won't tell the BBC, we won't tell the cast, let's just see. If there's a story that's still there. And.

• 17:11Speaker 05

  And that would have been, that was August, wasn't it?

• 17:14Speaker 04

  That was August twenty eighteen.

• 17:16Speaker 05

  Eighteen, yeah.

• 17:17Speaker 04

  August twenty eighteen.

• 17:19Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 17:20Jessie Ware?

  And then you filmed it in twenty nineteen in the summer.

• 17:22Speaker 04

  In the summer.

• 17:23Speaker 05

  Yeah, so I went over.

• 17:24Speaker 04

  You came over about three times, right?

• 17:27Speaker 05

  February, September, and then again, sort of in the October, but what was funny was that, because we weren't going to tell anyone that we were doing this. I'd say to my friends back home, I'd say, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm going, going back to LA, um, I'm going, yeah, going to see James, and they go, oh, that's nice, yeah, yeah. And then, because I had to go out again, they go, why, why are you going out again? Oh, well, we just really liked it. Yeah, and they were going, you're going to do the studio tours, yeah, yeah, probably, and of course we were just stacking doors, writing.

• 17:57Speaker 04

  Yeah. And it was, it was pretty magical, actually, that time of coming, we, we always felt we knew how it was going to end.

• 18:05Speaker 03

  Ruth, are there people in South Wales that speak like Nessa? Who's almost a bloke, really. She's, you know, she drives a lorry, she wears leather.

• 18:19Jessie Ware?

  She's very matter of fact.

• 18:20Speaker 03

  Millions of tats which you don't have.

• 18:22Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  I was waiting to see if you had them.

• 18:24Speaker 05

  No, they are actually.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  They must take hours.

• 18:28Speaker 05

  No, no, no, they, they, they take seconds.

• 18:30Speaker 03

  Oh, good.

• 18:31Speaker 05

  You put them on with a flannel, cold flannel, and then they, they get peeled off.

• 18:35Speaker 03

  Like the kids have.

• 18:36Speaker 05

  Yeah, the kids' parties, yeah. But the problem is, you remove them with oil, and I had one, Nessa's got some Chinese symbols on her back. And.

• 18:45Jessie Ware?

  What do they mean? Do we know what they mean?

• 18:48Speaker 03

  Probably James in Chinese.

• 18:49Speaker 05

  I think it's, I think it's John Prescott.

• 18:52Speaker 03

  Oh, you're kidding.

• 18:53Speaker 05

  I think it's, I think it's JP.

• 18:55Jessie Ware?

  Well, we have to take a moment for John Prescott, because he had a little cameo in the last Christmas, as did Noel from here, so, which I loved.

• 19:02Speaker 04

  Um, and that's really.

• 19:04Speaker 05

  I know.

• 19:05Jessie Ware?

  That was one of my favourite Nessa anecdotes.

• 19:08Speaker 04

  I knew on that day that punch was meant for me.

• 19:12Speaker 05

  I knew I'd say that.

• 19:13Speaker 04

  Yeah, the wicked sense of humour, Dave.

• 19:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 19:15Jessie Ware?

  Can I also ask you about like some, I'm surprised you got away with. Did you have to apologise to Richard and Judy?

• 19:23Speaker 05

  No.

• 19:23Speaker 04

  What was the Richard and Judy?

• 19:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it was so good. You haven't, Nessa was making love to Richard.

• 19:27Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:28Jessie Ware?

  And Judy was on the, on the booze and

• 19:33Jessie Ware?

  and it was so good.

• 19:34Speaker 04

  I'd forgotten, I'd honestly, I'd genuinely forgotten all about that.

• 19:38Speaker 05

  It was because there were so many, Nessa's had so many lovers. Like the whole of Goldie Looking Chain, for example.

• 19:45Speaker 04

  Not any of Goldie Looking Chain?

• 19:46Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 19:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:47Speaker 05

  They weren't the father, yeah.

• 19:49Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Um, yeah, I think it, it just gets lost in the sort of melee of lovers that she's had. But, I mean, to go back to what you were saying about her persona.

• 19:59Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 20:00Speaker 05

  And, and the tattoos, I went and had a massage and I forgot to tell, and I hadn't removed the two on her back. And I forgot to tell the masseuse. And she said to me, I was doing your back. And I was rubbing the oil in and suddenly your tattoos were just, and she didn't know they were Nessa's tattoos, she thought they were mine. And she was like, oh my god.

• 20:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, just a good massage, yeah.

• 20:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, but I think she's, I think the thing about Nessa is she's got a great masculine femininity.

• 20:32Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 20:32Speaker 05

  She's, she's very confident sexually. And she knows her way around both a male and female body. And, um, just nothing kind of, nothing phases her really.

• 20:44Jessie Ware?

  You're right. And when she, you know, she comes out in the wedding dress and they go, you look amazing. And she goes, thanks. I feels it.

• 20:50Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 20:51Speaker 04

  And she's very, the, the, one thing I do quite like about the show i- is the how like sex positive it is. Like, they're really just.

• 21:01Jessie Ware?

  The toilet brush.

• 21:02Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's all sort of, well, also I think,

• 21:06Speaker 04

  you know.

• 21:08Speaker 04

  On TV or films or whatever, like you, you, you very, very, very rarely will see people that look like Ruth and I fall in love, right? You just don't. In, in any other, really, we are the people like, I'd be dropping off a TV to Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones and Ruth, Ruth's like working on a newsstand when someone buys a newspaper or whatever, like you just don't see it. And what I really like about the, the show really is like this, these two, it's so messy, it's so complicated, it's so complex, which love is.

• 21:47Speaker 04

  And they just clearly, I mean, we've never really talked about what they get up to, but it's just undeniable that they clearly have fantastic sex.

• 21:56Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 21:56Speaker 04

  And I quite, I really quite enjoy that.

• 21:59Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, I think.

• 21:59Speaker 04

  That confidence in it, really.

• 22:00Speaker 05

  The first time that they had sex was obviously in very first episode when they went into the bathroom. And I think because we didn't quite know what the show was then, we were probably being slightly sitcom about it, with the sort of noises off. And what on earth they're getting up to and they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh, you know, and all that kind of ooh, uh, misses. And, and then him the next day mentioning the toilet brush. And is that something that normal people, that just Welsh people? It's a Welsh thing, yeah. So I think with that, and then the next time you, you realise that they've had sex is when they go up to, when the Welsh lot go up to Essex. And Nessa comes in and she, and Stacey goes, Ness, your back's covered in mud. I know, I fell over.

• 22:43Speaker 05

  And then Smithy comes in and his knees are in, are muddy and he goes, and they all look at his knees, goes, I fell over. What? I fell over. They're kindred spirits. That's the thing. They're the same. And you just think, how did they, what happened in that garden? That's what.

• 22:55Speaker 04

  But you know, that image, that is based on, that is based on, I'm not going to say his name. I'll say it, which is when I was about seventeen or eighteen, I used to go to this like nightclub called The Orchard, which is in Holm Green. Which is near High Wycombe. And it's basically like this sort of weird, it's kind of brilliant. I had so many great times there, but it, and it's got this farmland like next to it. It's in the middle of nowhere, countryside. And, and we're all there. And this guy comes over and goes. You guys got any Johnnys? And we're like, why don't you go see, I just did condoms, you got condoms, we're like. And somebody, I think a guy I didn't know, it's like, yeah, you know, I've gone, took condom out of his wallet, gave him a condom.

• 23:39Speaker 04

  And he disappears and we're all like, okay, and then about twenty minutes later. I saw this. Per- this, this lady walked past me and her back's covered in mud. And he comes in and the cuffs of his shirt and his knees are also covered in mud. And they but they walked in and just went separate ways in the club. And I remember going, that is an extraordinary image. That tells a story which is undeniable.

• 24:10Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  And then when we were writing, it was like, what if they just come in and like, we'd have to discuss it. They know in the living room.

• 24:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 24:18Speaker 04

  And everybody at home knows what's happened.

• 24:21Speaker 05

  When Neil the baby was conceived.

• 24:22Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:23Jessie Ware?

  And now I'm sure everyone's asking this, but like, okay, fine, Gavin and Stacey, this is where it finishes, okay?

• 24:28Speaker 05

  Are you sure?

• 24:29Jessie Ware?

  Definitely.

• 24:30Speaker 04

  Definitely.

• 24:30Speaker 05

  Definitely.

• 24:31Speaker 04

  It can't carry on.

• 24:32Speaker 05

  When you see it.

• 24:33Speaker 04

  When you see it, you'll know.

• 24:34Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 24:35Jessie Ware?

  But couldn't you two carry on doing something else? Or do you feel like you've told your story now, you can just remain and reminisce and have this wonderful time re- remembering making probably some of the greatest. Comedy, I mean, it, li- li- watching it back this week. And I've done in ten, like, I've done, you know, three seasons, two Christmas specials, it's been a total joy. And I think such respect to you, it's, it's kind.

• 24:58Speaker 05

  Hmm.

• 24:59Jessie Ware?

  And I think, yeah, Pam has a bit of a flare up and she's a bit in competition with Gwen sometimes. But there's a kindness and a gentleness to it that you. You know, sometimes with comedy, it's taking the piss out of somebody else. And I think that is so charming and special and quite unique. And I just kind of feel like we should see more of your stuff together. But do you think you could do something else? You, do, i- is it just, is this your story and?

• 25:24Jessie Ware?

  That's it?

• 25:24Speaker 04

  I, I, I, well, look, we don't, we don't know if we have another idea in us. No, no, no, we're like, but, I mean, I, I can honestly say that if.

• 25:39Speaker 04

  For, for me personally, if, if I, if we didn't attempt to try and even just explore the idea of writing together. Then.

• 25:51Speaker 04

  I, I'd be so disappointed.

• 25:52Speaker 05

  I couldn't bear it.

• 25:54Speaker 04

  The idea of not doing it or the idea of doing it.

• 26:00Speaker 05

  No, I I can't, I mean, whether anything actually comes of it, but I love being in the room with you.

• 26:07Speaker 04

  It's the best.

• 26:08Speaker 05

  Because it's such good fun and.

• 26:11Speaker 04

  It's joyous and it's and you're right that it's kind and it.

• 26:14Speaker 05

  I think the kindness, though, comes from certainly at the time when we wrote, started writing it. There was probably quite a lot of cynical stuff on TV. I mean, there still is. And I always say with comedy, thank goodness, there's a a plethora available, something for everybody. And, you know, there's no hard and fast rule about what you should and shouldn't like, or what is and isn't funny. But I think what perhaps what we share as as people, not just necessarily as writers, is um is a kindness to a love of other people. We just find other people fascinating, don't we?

• 26:55Speaker 05

  And I think that that there is a joy in seeing day to day life and seeing those little nuances. Yeah. And and, you know, sometimes when you get a bit despairing of the of the bigger world picture. I always think all you can do is be kind to somebody on a day to day basis. And I think that's maybe what we share in our attitude to creating something.

• 27:19Speaker 04

  I also think there's we're all, I think we're all sort of led to believe that, you know, there's just conflict everywhere and drama and all those things. But like fundamentally, as far as I can work out, most people, most people love their friends. Most people, they might not always get on with their families, but they love their families. And most people, when they come together and they're with their families, it's a magical, special and treasured time. And for some reason, that is not always reflected in TV and film. Um.

• 28:03Speaker 04

  But we're we're sort of influenced by the same stuff. We're drawn towards the same things. And like if someone came to us and said, and and in the past, like, you know, people sort of have in a way like, tried to sound us out for writing something like the idea of the two of us trying to write like a, I don't know, a superhero Marvel movie would just be insane. But what we really, really both fundamentally believe is there is nothing more, there is nothing more incredible, actually, than when somebody meets someone and goes, but I don't think I can live without you.

• 28:42Speaker 04

  And I don't want to see my future unless you're there. And I love you. And here's my family and let me meet yours. That is to both of us more extraordinary than anything, really.

• 28:53Jessie Ware?

  Let's talk about both your families and what was around the dinner table. Let's start with you, Ruth. Like when you were growing up, who was around the dinner table and what were you eating?

• 29:02Speaker 05

  Um, so I'm one of the four children and my mum and dad, uh, you know, quite a sort of standard family, really. Um, my mum uh, is retired now. She's eighty seven. Uh, she was a G P. Uh, my dad is uh, no longer here. God rest his soul. Um, he died seven years ago, but we, when we were growing up, so they, my dad did uh, legal conveyancing, um, at the steelworks.

• 29:31Jessie Ware?

  So it's this South Wales.

• 29:33Speaker 05

  South Wales, yeah.

• 29:34Jessie Ware?

  Were you best friends with Michael Sheen?

• 29:36Speaker 05

  I was at youth theatre with Michael Sheen. Yeah, I was on youth theatre with him. So, um, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, and and and so it was, you know, they were at work and we'd come home. But my mum, I don't know how she managed it, but she always cooked. We had, we we used to eat at half past five, six o'clock every night.

• 29:53Jessie Ware?

  Love that.

• 29:53Speaker 05

  No, uh, do you know what? I was, I remember being really surprised as I got older, when I went to other people's houses. I don't know what it was like for you, but. I was really surprised that people ate at sort of seven, eight o'clock. Cause we used to eat at half past five, at six o'clock.

• 30:10Speaker 05

  What about you, James? Do you eat? What time do you like to eat? What time do you?

• 30:13Speaker 04

  Well, if I'm going out to eat.

• 30:15Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:15Speaker 04

  I wanna eat later.

• 30:16Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:17Speaker 04

  But no, if we're at home, we would often just eat with the kids, which is, yeah, at like five thirty, six.

• 30:22Speaker 05

  But what did you, when you were growing up, what did you do? What was it like at home? Cause my mum used to cook the meal from scratch. It was, we never had, I mean, I'm older than James, obviously, but we didn't have that sort of like convenience meals particularly, so it was always from scratch.

• 30:38Speaker 04

  Turkey, Bernard Matthews, turkey burgers, nuggets. Well, cause my mum was a social worker.

• 30:44Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:44Speaker 04

  So she'd walk in, yeah, now my sister works in, in social care as well, but, but she, mum would walk in. It'd be throw, the only time we probably ever really ate like a, well, what would I say, like a properly cooked meal was on a Sunday, we'd always have a roast dinner.

• 31:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 31:00Speaker 04

  Sometimes mum would do like, I don't know, like a spaghetti bolognese or, or something like that, but, but really it was, it was, yeah, that was it.

• 31:08Speaker 05

  Do you know what though? My, my dad retired early, cause he, he, his health wasn't great. And so he became like the, the homemaker, right? But whereas my mum just used to get on with it, my dad almost wanted to be praised for anything that he made. And I don't know if that's a kind of a male thing or a thing of its time, but I remember me and my brother going, oh god, he's made sausage balls again tonight. Sausage balls. Sausage balls, they were lethal, cause it was like, they were sausage meat. And they were sort of like, but they were, they were like kind of meatballs, but sausage meatballs, but there was always a lot of oil in there.

• 31:47Speaker 05

  And they were really heavy, they were really heavy. And that was, that was a bit of a struggle, but I think he did always feel that we should praise him for, whereas my mum used to just do it and, you know, that was just part of the course.

• 31:59Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 32:00Speaker 05

  She would just get on with it. But you know, we'd go on camping holidays, right? And. It wasn't like, you know, no, you go on a camping holiday, everything's set up for you. We used to do it from scratch, you'd sort of put the tent up, all that kind of thing. Tiny little two-ring stove. My dad would make corned beef hash, that was what.

• 32:19Jessie Ware?

  Did you like that?

• 32:19Speaker 05

  I loved it, yeah.

• 32:21Jessie Ware?

  Have you had it, when was the last time you had a corned beef hash?

• 32:23Speaker 05

  I'll tell you exactly when it was.

• 32:24Jessie Ware?

  Go on.

• 32:25Speaker 05

  I went on a cruise recently.

• 32:27Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah?

• 32:27Speaker 05

  And.

• 32:28Jessie Ware?

  And you got corned beef hash on a cruise?

• 32:29Speaker 05

  They was available in, you know, you go up and you've got this sort of buffet.

• 32:34Jessie Ware?

  I've never done one, where did you go on your cruise?

• 32:36Speaker 04

  She loves, she is never.

• 32:39Jessie Ware?

  You're like a gay man.

• 32:41Speaker 04

  No, no, she, it's a miracle she's here, because she, I'm joking, I'm kidding.

• 32:45Jessie Ware?

  Come and tell me.

• 32:47Speaker 05

  No, what it was, I've never been on a cruise. What it was, I've never been on a cruise in my life. But mum and dad used to go on cruises and I thought it would be nice for my mum if I took her, because she hasn't, she never really went away after my dad died. So I thought, right, I'll take my mum on a cruise. I found the perfect one, ten days from Southampton back to Southampton, didn't have to fly anywhere.

• 33:09Jessie Ware?

  Going where?

• 33:10Speaker 05

  Portugal and the Canaries.

• 33:11Jessie Ware?

  Oh, nice.

• 33:11Speaker 03

  Lovely.

• 33:13Speaker 05

  So that's what we did. But I had also booked myself to do a literary cruise, which was about two weeks after I got back.

• 33:21Speaker 04

  Obsessed with cruising.

• 33:23Jessie Ware?

  So you got off the boat and then you got back on a boat?

• 33:25Speaker 05

  Pretty much, yeah.

• 33:26Jessie Ware?

  Wow, what's a literary cruise?

• 33:28Speaker 03

  The Cheltenham. With literary people.

• 33:30Speaker 05

  Yes, the Chel- the Cheltenham Literary Festival.

• 33:33Speaker 03

  Oh, wow, they do a cruise?

• 33:34Speaker 05

  It's the festival at sea.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  This sounds perfect.

• 33:37Speaker 05

  In Conjunction of the Sunday Times.

• 33:39Speaker 03

  Because you can never get in at the, in Cheltenham.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  No, I'm sure she really can, but.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  Well, I'm sure you, she, you can, you can't get into any accommodation, that's the problem.

• 33:47Speaker 05

  Well, it was great and I went with my best friend, um, who was just great fun. And so for us to get to, when did, you know, my best friend I've known since we were like seven, I have not spent that amount of time with her for, well, God knows, since when. I say best friend, we, there's a lot of us, close friends from home. Um, and, uh, yeah, she was just, she was just brilliant, brilliant company.

• 34:12Jessie Ware?

  I, um, I wanna know, with your beautiful friendship that you've got, what, what's the best meal, has, has James ever cooked for you?

• 34:21Speaker 05

  Oh, do you know what I remember that you did really beautifully was the um the chicken, the lemon chicken and you did the carrots. Do you remember the carrots you did?

• 34:33Speaker 04

  So Jamie Oliver carrot that, have you done his carrot, have you done his carrots?

• 34:37Speaker 05

  No, no.

• 34:38Speaker 04

  Oh my god, the greatest carrot recipe that has ever done.

• 34:42Speaker 05

  Which book?

• 34:43Speaker 04

  I can't remember actually, but one of the naked chefs is you get tin foil and you sort of double it so you work out what you need. So you you turn it and then you get it out and you, so you've got your sheet of tin foil here and then enough there to make. Just peeled and cut into like a batter and you put your carrots, salt, pepper. What I normally do is a clove of garlic for each, for however many people are eating. So there's us four, four cloves of garlic.

• 35:12Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:12Speaker 04

  Four knobs of butter.

• 35:13Speaker 05

  Mm.

• 35:14Speaker 04

  Four sprigs of thyme.

• 35:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:17Speaker 04

  And then you run a bit of butter down this side, a bit of butter down this side of the foil and you fold it over. And crunch up this side and crunch up the other side. So that's basically all sealed except for the gap at the top.

• 35:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 35:30Speaker 04

  You then put about a glass of white wine in.

• 35:34Speaker 04

  Seal the top and you put that on a baking tray for about forty minutes.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  That sounds great.

• 35:38Speaker 04

  And they are so delicious, so gorgeous. And then that juice that you've got in there, the buttery, whiny juice. That goes in your gravy and it's fantastic.

• 35:49Speaker 05

  I know what you did with the chicken, you put the butter under the skin.

• 35:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, butter, garlic, under the skin.

• 35:55Speaker 05

  Are you a good cook then James?

• 35:56Speaker 04

  I love cooking, I love it. I really, well, I tell you what, because I, cooking is just just another form of like creative expression really, so it's all I really love doing. I I think cooking actually is the same as what we do when we write the show, which is you're creating something in the hope that people will enjoy it and and devour it. That's all you want people to do. On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day, what we want, what you want people to do is enjoy this show, feel full of it. Feel full of the joy and the love and the kindness of it. And that's what I think cooking is. So I love doing a a do a good beef wellington. I like that.

• 36:43Speaker 04

  Do a good, uh, I do mean omelette. I've done you an omelette, I've done you an omelette.

• 36:50Speaker 05

  Okay, is this why Gwen's thing?

• 36:54Speaker 04

  Yeah, I didn't even think of that.

• 36:55Speaker 05

  Where did the omelette come from?

• 36:57Speaker 04

  I'll tell you what happened, the first, see, when we wrote, here's the truth, when we wrote episode one, we really, really didn't know what we were doing.

• 37:04Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 37:04Speaker 04

  We, in truth, if I'm being completely honest, right now, this last special, I think is the first time in the history of the show that we may have felt like we knew what we were doing. We have never known before that. And the omelette thing, I can't remember, like, she goes around and she says, you know, you want an omelette? And then we were writing episode two, and we said, oh, Gwen can say, you know, do you fancy an omelette or anything? And then we thought, oh, what if in every episode, she just mentions an omelette somehow?

• 37:36Speaker 05

  And then when Jason turns up in episode five and sees one, she goes, oh, I guess you told me you'd come in, I got nothing in, I got ham, I got a bit of cheese, I got eggs. I could do an omelette.

• 37:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:48Speaker 05

  Can I, can I just tell you though, I wrote a book called Omelette.

• 37:51Speaker 04

  Oh, right.

• 37:52Speaker 05

  Which is a food, I mean, they call them food was, a food memoir.

• 37:56Speaker 04

  It's a food was.

• 37:56Speaker 05

  And it's because my mum always offers an omelette.

• 37:58Speaker 03

  But that's always offering omelette.

• 38:00Speaker 05

  So when I saw it, I was like, I, it was just so. But as Delia Smith says, an omelette is the healthiest takeaway, a fast food you can ever.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  Yeah. Have you ever seen the one in The Bear? Have you watched The Bear?

• 38:12Speaker 04

  I, but I haven't watched The Bear.

• 38:13Speaker 03

  She makes the omelette.

• 38:14Speaker 04

  Yes, but I haven't seen that one.

• 38:15Speaker 03

  And she does it in the most beautiful way.

• 38:17Speaker 04

  Really?

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:18Speaker 04

  How do you do your omelette?

• 38:20Speaker 05

  Just, I love you and you are a great chef, but your omelette isn't like the most considered, but it's just a thing where there's a crisis. There's a crisis and she's like, I'll make an omelette. It's like just been the thing.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  That's only because it's easy and quick.

• 38:33Speaker 04

  But do you add any milk or anything or?

• 38:36Speaker 03

  Some, I used to add milk.

• 38:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, I don't.

• 38:38Speaker 03

  But I don't now.

• 38:39Speaker 04

  No.

• 38:39Speaker 03

  You should not add milk, you should only add milk, scrambled eggs and water to omelette.

• 38:45Speaker 04

  Oh, I don't add water any.

• 38:46Speaker 05

  Here's the thing, right? Here's the thing about omelettes.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:49Speaker 05

  I.

• 38:50Speaker 04

  Get ready, guys, there's a bombshell coming.

• 38:52Speaker 05

  No, right, okay. Do you make it with butter or with oil?

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Butter.

• 38:58Speaker 04

  Both.

• 38:59Speaker 05

  Ah.

• 38:59Speaker 04

  So I do a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of butter, because if you just have olive, you don't want the butter to clarify. So a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of butter, you let that go. Pour in the eggs, let them sit for a minute, and then with the back of the spoon, just drag it around, just drag it, drag it, take it off the heat. Drag it, drag it, drag it, then your cheese, then your ham, bit of spinach, all your mushrooms. Fold it, fold it again, so what you want is an envelope.

• 39:27Speaker 05

  Well, do you know what, one of my very early food memories. Yeah, I do, I think we're getting a little hot and heavy. Potatoes, okay, fine.

• 39:33Speaker 03

  I don't know how to do them.

• 39:34Speaker 05

  One of my, my earliest food memories is being in France, my father had a pen friend, Pierre Guzou. Who he met when he was eighteen after the war, nineteen forty six, when my dad was eighteen. He got the uh flesh, uh, yeah, the flesh door train, so he was the golden arrow. From London to Dover, and then you pick up the flesh door, which is golden arrow in French. Um, and it takes you down to the south of France, where he met his friend Pierre, he was eighteen years of age, nineteen forty six, which I thought was quite brave, actually. And he stayed friends with him for up until their eighties, we, you know, go to each other's children's weddings, all of that kind of thing.

• 40:15Speaker 05

  It was a really lovely friendship. Anyway, the reason I'm saying this is because we used to go camping as a family when we were younger. And we would often go to France and we would often go and visit Pierre and his family. And I remember going to a restaurant in France, and I must have been about seven years of age. And the adults were all eating whatever, there was this lovely French restaurant, and they gave me an omelette. And I remember the taste of it, and the only time I've ever uh found the same taste is when it's an omelette made with oil. I don't get it, I don't get it with as with an omelette made with butter. So with oil, there is a specific taste to it.

• 40:56Speaker 03

  It was just the egg.

• 40:57Speaker 05

  Yeah, it was just, it was just a plain, plain omelette, yeah, but I always, and I can always remember that, being in that French restaurant when I was, when I was a little girl. Yeah, it's funny, isn't it, our food has a sort of, you have a kind of like a muscle memory with it.

• 41:10Speaker 04

  This looks amazing.

• 41:11Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 41:12Speaker 03

  I hope it is.

• 41:13Speaker 05

  Thank you so much. Yeah, it's lamb, there's masses of lamb, so do help.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Potatoes with like.

• 41:19Speaker 05

  A whipped feta. You were asking about with the, with the, the cooking and about James doing. Yeah, I, I'm more of a baker.

• 41:27Speaker 04

  She loves.

• 41:29Speaker 05

  I do love a baker. Oh, do you mind? Thanks darling, thanks. Um, yeah, I do. So I did make.

• 41:34Speaker 04

  She loves a good bake.

• 41:36Speaker 05

  Didn't I like?

• 41:37Speaker 04

  Yeah, she does a good bake.

• 41:38Speaker 05

  See, Jane, are you a baker?

• 41:40Speaker 04

  No.

• 41:40Speaker 05

  I can't do it.

• 41:40Speaker 04

  I'd like to.

• 41:41Speaker 05

  Improvising in the kitchen, I like doing all that and the baking is too methodical for me.

• 41:45Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 41:46Speaker 05

  And I'm really impressed.

• 41:46Speaker 04

  It's too exact.

• 41:47Speaker 05

  It's chemistry, isn't it? Yes, please darling, thanks darling.

• 41:50Speaker 04

  Is that good?

• 41:51Speaker 05

  Right. Help yourself to this. This is like aubergines, um. Oh, wow. Sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts.

• 41:58Speaker 04

  Land coming over.

• 41:59Speaker 05

  Oh my god, so we're going kind of a little bit Middle Eastern. We are, yeah.

• 42:14Speaker 00

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• 42:42Speaker 01

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• 43:19Speaker 05

  Can I just say, these potatoes are immense.

• 43:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, Jessie, thank you.

• 43:24Speaker 05

  Are they Cyprus potatoes?

• 43:26Jessie Ware?

  No, they're not, but that would have been really good. That would have been good. I'd smash them.

• 43:30Speaker 05

  A Cyprus potato is the best. I used to go out with a Greek cypriot that you knew.

• 43:34Speaker 04

  Did you?

• 43:35Speaker 05

  Yeah, we're still friends.

• 43:37Speaker 04

  What?

• 43:38Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 43:39Speaker 04

  I never heard this, ever. You've never... I'm good right now, thank you.

• 43:42Speaker 05

  Still friends with his family and his mum used to cook the most amazing cypriot. Oh, I used to love it. So I used to go to his house in North London and his mum would just cook this amazing food. The baglava, the calabria, all of that stuff. But she'd do the chicken, like the lemon chicken and the bibberia. And the lamb soufflaki, it was just the best. Loved it, absolutely loved it.

• 44:14Jessie Ware?

  Now, I did get, and we don't have to have it, but just to celebrate the first Christmas special, I did get some mint Baileys.

• 44:22Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, I'll have a mint Baileys, for sure.

• 44:24Jessie Ware?

  And a white Toblerone, we found it. So if you fancy it, we've got it.

• 44:28Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 44:28Jessie Ware?

  But we also have sticky toffee pudding that I just made. I'll just get it on the table.

• 44:32Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 44:33Speaker 05

  I'm not gonna have a mint Baileys.

• 44:36Speaker 04

  I've just never had one. I've never had a mint Baileys.

• 44:39Speaker 05

  I just think a mint Baileys...

• 44:41Speaker 04

  No, here, I'll just put it in here, this is fine.

• 44:42Speaker 05

  The mix... No, I mean, I'm sorry, no offence. No offence to Baileys, but that looks gross.

• 44:49Speaker 04

  You don't stop. I think it's gonna be great.

• 44:54Jessie Ware?

  Oh, it's going in. Do you want a glass? Do you want an ice?

• 44:56Speaker 04

  A little cube, yeah.

• 44:58Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I'm gonna get a cube.

• 44:59Speaker 04

  You know what might be nice, actually, is this.

• 45:02Jessie Ware?

  What?

• 45:02Speaker 04

  On top of that ice cream. That's what I'm gonna do. Pass that ice cream.

• 45:08Jessie Ware?

  He's gonna make an affogata out of a mint Baileys.

• 45:10Speaker 04

  No, I think a tiny... This is...

• 45:13Jessie Ware?

  You don't need the ice then, what?

• 45:15Speaker 04

  No, I think this is gonna be good.

• 45:16Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 45:17Speaker 04

  Watch this, look.

• 45:19Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, it's green.

• 45:20Speaker 05

  It's literally Christian.

• 45:21Jessie Ware?

  It is.

• 45:23Speaker 04

  Wait, wait.

• 45:25Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 45:27Speaker 05

  I'm sorry, no.

• 45:28Jessie Ware?

  You want some?

• 45:31Speaker 05

  Well, Emin, have we, Bailey's. Have we got a new Christmas guest? Oh, he's, he's, no? No.

• 45:40Speaker 04

  It's not for me.

• 45:44Jessie Ware?

  Are you a kind of double cream ice cream person? Are you gonna go both or not? Are you just gonna go ice cream?

• 45:49Speaker 05

  Oh, I think, I think I'm okay with the ice cream. I mean, I know what you mean, but it does sound quite tempting. Just sitting there and just do it, do it, really. I'll do a little bit. Last supper. Um, you both need to think of a starter, a main. Oh, my gosh. A hood, a drink of choice. Mm, by me. Mm, this is delicious. That is amazing.

• 46:11Speaker 04

  It's very good.

• 46:11Speaker 05

  Mm. So is this the Nigella recipe? Yeah. That's amazing.

• 46:15Speaker 04

  It's very good.

• 46:15Speaker 05

  Your sauce, is that her recipe as well?

• 46:17Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I added a bit more cream.

• 46:19Speaker 04

  Undeniable, happy that is.

• 46:21Speaker 05

  You know what? I think I'm gonna make that because we're having Christmas dinner at my sister's. I think I'm gonna offer that up for a dessert.

• 46:28Jessie Ware?

  He says serve it with salted caramel ice cream.

• 46:31Speaker 05

  Oh, no.

• 46:32Speaker 04

  No, that's too much.

• 46:33Speaker 05

  Because you've already got that kind of combination.

• 46:35Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:36Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 46:36Speaker 04

  You want a straight vanilla there?

• 46:38Speaker 05

  Yeah. What's your order at a fish and chip shop?

• 46:42Speaker 04

  It's just straight fish and chips, that's it. I don't really mess around.

• 46:45Speaker 05

  Somebody said no mushy peas out of you two. You.

• 46:47Speaker 04

  Well, I don't like mushy peas either.

• 46:49Speaker 05

  Don't you? I didn't know that. Do you? Yeah, I really like them. I like them. I mean, I'm not like thinking about them all the time. In fact, I hate them, I hate them to such a degree. But when I tried to give up chocolate many years ago, well, which is a time.

• 47:04Speaker 04

  You've got a story about that.

• 47:05Jessie Ware?

  Shall I get more ice cream out?

• 47:06Speaker 04

  No, no, I'm good.

• 47:07Speaker 05

  So I, right, I have, I hate the word struggled with my weight, but I have been in a battle with my weight all of my life, as long as I can remember. I can't ever remember being slim. One of my attempts to lose weight was to go to a Paul McKenna workshop. I hit my assist. Oh, wow. And, um, one of the, the techniques that he showed in this workshop was to, uh...

• 47:33Speaker 05

  He said, do you want to, what's your, what's your aim? And I said, look, if I could stop eating chocolate, I would be fine. Which is ridiculous, really, because I mean, you know, I'm eating that now, aren't I, which is not chocolate. But chocolate was my main thing. So he said, in the workshop, okay, I'm going to show you all a technique, how, if you want to stop eating it. This is, this is going to stop it for good. And I was a little bit cynical. Anyway, did this whole process. And one of the elements of that process was, I guess, aversion therapy, kind of aversion therapy, right? So they said, we want you to think of something that you would hate eating. And you, what you do is you think of eating that, eh eh, and then you think about eating the chocolate and you keep alternating.

• 48:16Speaker 05

  So my thing was mushy peas. So mushy peas, I, I, the thought of it, I mean, I, I can even remember, remember when they were on the menu in school dinners. I just couldn't, the smell of them, the taste, the texture, all of that, bleh. So I used that as my aversion. Anyway, it worked completely. So you don't eat chocolate? No, there's more to this story.

• 48:37Speaker 04

  Get ready.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  So I did not eat chocolate for five years. Five years, right?

• 48:46Speaker 04

  Couldn't stand the smell.

• 48:47Speaker 05

  Couldn't stand the smell of it. And when James and I were writing, some of the hotels that we'd stay in, because I think as things progressed, we went to slightly better hotels, didn't we? Sometimes they would put a little bit of complimentary chocolates, yeah. And what I used to do was I always used to test myself to see if I was still not wanting to eat the chocolate, so.

• 49:09Speaker 04

  And there's one hotel, it's a little box with four chocolates in it, four little things.

• 49:13Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 49:13Speaker 04

  And this was happening quite a lot, we could smell it and she'd go, no.

• 49:15Speaker 05

  No, don't want it. I mean, James used to do things, but he used to do things, like he would get Maltesers and he'd go, go on, just stick them in your mouth.

• 49:22Speaker 04

  Just see what happens.

• 49:23Speaker 05

  No, I don't want it, don't want it. So anyway, this will happen. Then one day, when you join up with anything, you get on, you get put onto an email list, don't you? And I was getting emails from this workshop, uh, company. And I thought, oh, I don't need, you know, I'm sorted, I don't need these emails. So I unsubscribed. Swear to God, the next day, we were writing, there were chocolates on the bed in this hotel room. I picked them up.

• 49:52Speaker 04

  Went into the bathroom, went for a wee, came back.

• 49:55Speaker 05

  She was eating.

• 49:56Speaker 04

  Oh my god. There was just chocolate hanging out of the mouth.

• 49:59Speaker 05

  Why are you doing the impression? Because that looks really bad.

• 50:03Speaker 04

  That's what you were doing.

• 50:06Speaker 04

  You were holding them near your mouth and you're going.

• 50:08Speaker 05

  You make me sound.

• 50:09Speaker 04

  You were going.

• 50:09Speaker 05

  Ill.

• 50:10Speaker 04

  No, you were going, oh my god.

• 50:11Speaker 05

  Ruthie put it.

• 50:12Speaker 04

  And I was like, what? This is insane. And then it was the day after that, we'd had, we had a bit of an argument, didn't we? We had a bit of a fallout about something. And we decided to go for a walk and we bought.

• 50:25Speaker 05

  Easter eggs.

• 50:26Speaker 04

  Two giant Cadbury's Easter eggs. We lay on the bed in this hotel room, open them and just lay. With the chocolates on our faces.

• 50:37Speaker 05

  The, the eggs.

• 50:38Speaker 04

  Yeah. And then it was shortly after that that we wrote Dawn and Pete's vows.

• 50:43Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 50:43Speaker 04

  When she changes the words to Ben.

• 50:46Speaker 05

  So there was a whole thing connected with mushy Pete.

• 50:49Speaker 03

  Chocolate's great though.

• 50:50Speaker 04

  Chocolate's amazing. Chocolate is.

• 50:53Speaker 03

  What's your favourite choc?

• 50:53Speaker 04

  Honestly, just a straight dairy milk, like.

• 50:56Speaker 03

  Cadbury's.

• 50:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, I love a roses.

• 50:58Speaker 05

  I love a lint milk.

• 51:00Speaker 04

  A ball.

• 51:01Speaker 03

  Ball.

• 51:02Speaker 05

  No, just a straight lint.

• 51:03Speaker 04

  Straight lint milk.

• 51:04Speaker 05

  Straight lint milk or.

• 51:05Speaker 03

  Do you like dark chocolate then?

• 51:07Speaker 04

  I like dark chocolate.

• 51:08Speaker 05

  No. I like a li- I, I will eat it, but in terms of an actual enjoyment factor, I like the lint with the hazelnuts. That's the best.

• 51:17Speaker 04

  It's like, they say, they brag about how many nuts are in it, don't they? Seventy percent hazelnut. They really go on about how many nuts are in it. Makes, I think, makes a whole nut feel quite inferior.

• 51:27Speaker 05

  Did you used to get people bringing stuff over to LA, like dairy, dairy milk or can you get it there?

• 51:32Speaker 04

  Kind of get it now, is the truth. It's all, it's all sort of.

• 51:35Speaker 03

  Do you miss LA?

• 51:36Speaker 04

  I don't actually. I mean, I miss, I'm not one of those people that's. It seems, it was quite trendy, I think, for people to kind of be a bit like down on LA and be like, oh, and I'm, I'm not, I, I, we're, we're such a. Such a sort of magical time there.

• 51:54Speaker 05

  You must miss the weather though.

• 51:55Speaker 04

  Well, that's the thing. Yeah, but what I keep telling myself is.

• 52:02Speaker 04

  Everything comes at a cost, right? There's not everything, good and bad, every single thing comes at a cost, so. You're over there, the weather's great, but it's coming at a cost because.

• 52:15Speaker 04

  There's no real architecture, you can't really go to the theatre, it's a one industry town, it's. You're, it's quite an isolating existence, a lot of the time you're in a car, driving around, just suddenly you're not like walking anywhere. And so that's the cost of that, then you're here and it's kind of gloomy and it's four o'clock and you're like, well, I don't have the weather, but. I've got the, I mean, if I, you know, truly, like, I said this really quite, quite a lot, like. Since, I would say, we've been back just over a year now and like. Hon- honestly, every day, either at the school gates or a cab driver or someone like that, somebody will go. God, you know, pissing down with rain and they'll go, oh god, I bet you glad you came back to this.

• 52:58Speaker 04

  And I sort of want to shake him really and be like, I wish, I wish you could see it from a distance. Like, I wish you could see, I wish you could see what Britain looks like from a distance. Cause it's, I, as far as I'm concerned, it's magical and it's flawed as everywhere is. And its imperfections are glaringly obvious, but, but at its core. It's only when you've been away from it for like eight years and you can really see what it has and what it's got to offer. It's, it's like a, a magical, glorious, beautiful place, full of.

• 53:40Speaker 04

  These incredible, interesting people and I love it. So I don't miss LA. Cause I'm so in love with Britain.

• 53:51Speaker 05

  And I think, do you know what? Without wanting to sort of jump on your bandwagon. I think that is a lot of what we like about Gavin and Stacey and about the right, about our writing is that. It's about British people. Yeah. It's British life, you know, I think tho- those characters are, aren't they? And I think that's probably why you're, you're so good at observing um those characteristics, actually.

• 54:17Jessie Ware?

  Last supper, you can either choose to answer as Smithy. Or James Corden and you can choose to answer as Nessa or as James.

• 54:26Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 54:27Jessie Ware?

  This is my trick. Okay, okay.

• 54:30Speaker 05

  All right, as Nessa, I'm gonna go for ossobuco.

• 54:33Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 54:33Speaker 05

  Because I tell you what I loves about that. You've got, you've got the bone, you've got the marrow, you scoops it out. It gives you a lot of nutrition, but you've also got a lot of taste. You also can't go wrong with some fish and chips from Ruffey's. And, uh, I'm not gonna lie, I do like sticking my teeth into a good ribeye.

• 54:56Jessie Ware?

  Is that before the ossobuco or after the ossobuco?

• 54:58Speaker 05

  I love the ossobuco as a starter.

• 55:00Jessie Ware?

  Where's the fags coming?

• 55:01Speaker 05

  You have a fag break and then you go in for the ribeye. It has to be rare.

• 55:08Jessie Ware?

  What are you drinking, Nessa?

• 55:10Speaker 05

  Always a pint of wine.

• 55:19Jessie Ware?

  That was amazing. Um, pudding, Smithy.

• 55:24Jessie Ware?

  You're gonna have a bit of Smithy?

• 55:25Speaker 05

  I don't go near the, the sweet stuff. I'm always a cheese, cheese eater. I likes a good selection. Uh, I'll go for the hard, I'll go for the soft. You know, I don't want to intimidate anybody. I like them all to feel comfortable.

• 55:41Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, let this not be the end, for god's sake.

• 55:46Speaker 05

  I would say for me though, personally, I would go for, um, I would love a lovely sashimi as a starter. And I would go for probably, um, what's the lovely steak they do where they kind of?

• 55:59Jessie Ware?

  Steak tatata?

• 56:00Speaker 05

  No.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  Oh, teriyaki steak, no?

• 56:03Jessie Ware?

  Wagyu?

• 56:04Speaker 05

  Wagyu.

• 56:05Speaker 03

  Wagyu.

• 56:06Speaker 05

  Yeah, from rocker.

• 56:08Speaker 03

  Oh. Was it good rocker? I've never been.

• 56:11Speaker 05

  And then, you know, and then I'd have for the dessert, the, the chocolate.

• 56:14Jessie Ware?

  So you're going to rockers?

• 56:15Speaker 05

  The fondant thing with the green tea.

• 56:17Speaker 04

  Yes, the matcha box thing.

• 56:19Jessie Ware?

  Now, James, are you gonna give Smithy's?

• 56:22Speaker 04

  Smithy's would be, uh, lamb booner, chicken booner, prawn booner, mushroom rice, bag of chips, keema naan and nine popadoms.

• 56:31Jessie Ware?

  And a sagaloo.

• 56:32Speaker 04

  And a sagaloo please, Nick.

• 56:35Speaker 04

  For dessert, look, I don't care what you say, make up what you want about it, I just like vianetta.

• 56:43Speaker 04

  It's like vinaigrette. Leave it out. Leave it out, but let it, let it stand, that's the problem, that's the problem. No one lets it stand, you're impatient, he lays down and then he get the crack.

• 56:56Speaker 05

  And what's. But if you leave it too long, you don't get the crack.

• 56:59Speaker 04

  I'm not gonna leave it too long, am I now?

• 57:00Speaker 05

  What's, um, what's Smithy drinking? He's going vodka red vallation, isn't he?

• 57:05Speaker 04

  Uh. No, I think he'd have, uh, he would have a pint.

• 57:09Speaker 05

  Yeah, and a vodka Red Bull.

• 57:10Speaker 04

  Pint, and then if he's going out, after that vodka Red Bull.

• 57:13Speaker 05

  Yeah, nice.

• 57:14Speaker 03

  How did Uncle Prin get so drunk on archers?

• 57:18Speaker 04

  Cause he doesn't have a drink alcohol.

• 57:20Speaker 05

  So anything, not to.

• 57:22Speaker 04

  So anything just knocks it to six.

• 57:23Speaker 03

  Is archers still a thing?

• 57:24Speaker 04

  Archers and lemonade.

• 57:25Speaker 05

  I know.

• 57:25Jessie Ware?

  That's what I drank when I was like fifteen.

• 57:27Speaker 04

  Yeah, same.

• 57:27Speaker 03

  But do they still serve it?

• 57:28Speaker 04

  I imagine so, yeah.

• 57:30Speaker 05

  In Baria. Yeah. And guys.

• 57:32Speaker 04

  If it was me for real, I'd have smoked salmon.

• 57:34Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 57:35Speaker 04

  To start, beef wellington and, uh, I love a profiterole.

• 57:42Speaker 03

  Oh, you too.

• 57:43Speaker 04

  Honestly.

• 57:44Speaker 03

  You should have told me, I'd have done that.

• 57:45Speaker 05

  Homemade.

• 57:46Speaker 04

  I don't really care where it comes from, it doesn't bother me, yeah.

• 57:50Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 57:51Speaker 04

  A good, solid profiterole.

• 57:53Speaker 03

  And like, an eclair if you're in a bakery, sure.

• 57:55Speaker 05

  Oh, I could.

• 57:56Speaker 04

  I rarely pick up an eclair.

• 57:57Speaker 05

  Really, oh, I've, I've.

• 57:58Speaker 04

  Your gift is you can eat a, an eclair.

• 58:01Speaker 05

  In a, in a car wash.

• 58:02Speaker 04

  With one chew.

• 58:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 58:03Speaker 04

  You can, you can actually consume a whole eclair without chewing it.

• 58:09Speaker 05

  And.

• 58:10Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 58:11Speaker 05

  I have been known to sit in a car wash with an eclair.

• 58:14Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah.

• 58:15Speaker 05

  Or, or maybe four.

• 58:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 58:16Speaker 05

  I, and that is my idea of heaven. Sit in a car wash.

• 58:19Speaker 04

  All of our shame meetings happen in car washes. I ate a yard of dairy milk in a car wash once.

• 58:27Jessie Ware?

  Guys, you have been such, it's been such a treat speaking to you. You are obviously the bestest of friends. We can't wait for the finale. Uh, we're sad about it, but thank you so much for sharing all these beautiful moments with us. It's been such a treat and thank you.

• 58:44Speaker 05

  The treat has been ours, because I've had the best time.

• 58:46Speaker 04

  Come anytime.

• 58:47Speaker 05

  Yeah. Can we come back?

• 58:49Jessie Ware?

  Yes, you can both.

• 58:49Speaker 04

  Does anyone want a mint, ladies?

• 59:08Jessie Ware?

  Wow, that was a lot of Gavin and Stacey and I was here for it.

• 59:12Speaker 03

  I know darling.

• 59:13Jessie Ware?

  Um, James Corden.

• 59:14Speaker 03

  Are you writing a thesis on it?

• 59:16Jessie Ware?

  I actually feel like I just offered up my thesis on it.

• 59:19Speaker 03

  PhD in Gavin and Stacey.

• 59:21Jessie Ware?

  Um, James Corden and Ruth Jones, what a pair that love each other so much, like family.

• 59:28Speaker 03

  Made me cry.

• 59:28Jessie Ware?

  I know, they were crying on like the first question.

• 59:31Speaker 03

  I know, but I was crying too and then you.

• 59:34Jessie Ware?

  But maybe it was that bottle of champagne that they had at lunch, I don't know.

• 59:36Speaker 03

  Maybe it was, yeah, maudlin, yeah.

• 59:38Jessie Ware?

  Gavin and Stacey is out on Christmas Day. I.

• 59:42Speaker 03

  Well, everyone must have their recorder on that.

• 59:45Jessie Ware?

  And for people that maybe haven't watched Gavin and Stacey, where have you been? And please go and watch it. Um, you have a week to watch it. I did it in a week. It's doable and it's completely and utterly charming. So yeah, the finale, the final, final piece to the Gavin and Stacey puzzle will be done. We will be saying farewell to Gavin and Stacey on Christmas Day, but thank you to James and Ruth for being such great guests. It was just like so clear how.

• 1:00:13Speaker 03

  Just a bit disappointing.

• 1:00:14Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Their tattoos.

• 1:00:18Jessie Ware?

  Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

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