Jayde Adams knows how to derail an interview. From bursting into Christmas carols (“I do love a bit of God and Jesus at Christmastime”) to video-calling celebrity mates (her Alma’s Not Normal co-star Sophie Willan), shouting headlines into the dictaphone (and simultaneously vetoing them), it is a joyous and unpredictable time – full of so many gags that I need to keep wiping my eyes.
It might also have something to do with the bottle of Prosecco on the table of the Guardian’s grotto. Or the dangerous amount of white tulle and sparkly makeup she’s wearing for the festive shoot. “This is how I do Christmas,” says Adams. “It’s all about aesthetics, it’s all about vibes.” She then lists every tacky Christmas tree decoration she owns – an aubergine, a croissant, Anna Wintour – and recalls the year she turned up to Christmas dinner with six lobsters given to her by Rick Stein’s son.
This year, she’s invited her pal Grace to spend the big day at her house in Bristol: “I’m going to give her the Christmas of her dreams, she doesn’t even realise.” Adams loves hosting simply because “I like making people’s lives lovely”. It also helps that she has had a bar built in her home.
These “vibes” are exactly what you expect from Adams. After working call centre and restaurant jobs in Bristol, she moved to London in 2010 to pursue acting and comedy, starting in east London’s drag scene. She did a great Adele act and was nearly part of the viral clip in which the real Adele wore prosthetics, called herself Jenny and joined a group of tribute acts at an audition, before revealing herself. Adams clocked on to something fishy happening and left. Does she regret not meeting her idol? “No! I don’t want to meet Adele while I’m dressed as her, that would be so embarrassing.”
She did see the singer at last year’s Hyde Park shows, though, perfectly (or cruelly) timed after breaking up with her longterm partner: “I hadn’t really grieved the breakup … so I went to Adele and just cried my eyes out.”
Adams pivoted to standup comedy in 2011, after her sister Jenna told her to (Jenna died of a brain tumour that year – “My sister died at Easter, like she’s Jesus,” she cackles, always finding the laugh). She has since won multiple comedy awards for her shows, appeared on every panel show and podcast going, got a Prime Video comedy special and written her own ITV2 sitcom Ruby Calls. But she is best known for playing the best mate everyone deserves, Leanne – who has “the mannerisms of a truck driver and the rock’n’roll sex appeal of Debbie Harry” – in Alma’s Not Normal, the Sophie Willan-created comedy whose second and final series aired this year, and received a five star review from this paper (“pretty much the perfect comedy”). Fans won’t be surprised to hear that Adams and Willan are just as good friends in real life.
“Something in the cosmos wanted us to meet,” she says, remembering a gig in Camden in 2014. “I was singing Time to Say Goodbye, dressed as a fishmonger (which actually features on Alma). We went in the car park and overshared [while smoking] about 25 fags. Our relationship has been a beautiful journey to having a real comrade … She was the first person to give me a reoccurring role, and that will always mean the world to me.”
Why did Alma – the story of a working-class woman from Bolton who grew up in care and aspires to be a star – connect with audiences so deeply? “I think it’s life-changing. The compassion and empathy that she has for human beings is going to change the way [we] handle people who are like the women portrayed on the show.”
In between filming for the two Alma series, Adams took part in Strictly Come Dancing, and created Grazia’s “Strictly moment of 2022” with her Lycra-clad dance to Flashdance with Karen Hauer. “Dancers come in all different shapes and sizes,” she said. “You don’t have to look a certain way in order to make people feel happy. Two women with very different physiques, dancing together and nailing it.”
“That was like a real milestone for me,” she says. “It’s one of the biggest entertainment formats in the country, and I got there.”
Adams took her foot off the gas pedal after Strictly, settled back into Bristol (“I had to move to London to follow my dreams, but you can be in Bristol to follow your dreams now”) and relaxed at home with her cat. But now she’s back, and ready to focus on the real goal: “I want to be an actor, but because I’ve got no nepotism available to me, I’ve had to do it via standup.”
Her next project is Tiddler, the BBC’s Christmas Day primetime family special, which boasts a cast including Hannah Waddingham, Rob Brydon and Lolly Adefope. The lovely underwater animation is based on Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s book, and Adams lends her voice to a number of marine characters.
“Full disclosure: I’m an unmarried, un-babied woman, so when this came through, I didn’t know what it was.” says Adams. Unsure of whether to take it, the response from her friends with children was clear: “‘You have to do this! The kids are gonna go nuts!’ Anything that brings kids joy – there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“It’s dead cute and it’s by a super popular author,” she adds. “I’m gonna be like, so famous to children. It’s gonna be unbelievable.” She’ll certainly win a new generation of fans. “I’m so thrilled I’ve got Gen Alpha coming up the rear.” A realisation. The grotto is full of laughter. “Oh, I can’t say that. I can’t say ‘Gen Alpha coming up the rear’. Don’t put that in, Guardian, strike it!”
Moving swiftly on, there’s another reason why this year is a big one: Adams turns 40, days after our interview. “This is a huge deal, because my sister never got to 40,” she says. “It’d be amazing if that’s not the title of this, by the way: My Sister Didn’t Get to 40 – Here’s Tiddler.”
I can barely breathe through the laughter at this point, but Adams continues to tell her extravagant celebration plans: “We’re going to a mansion, 30 of us – fully catered, with cocktails. And we have not one but two musical theatre composers and a grand piano.” It’s amazing, she adds, because, “I’m not a married woman, and married people get to have those special days, and my friends have given it to me – without the toxic partner.”
What happens after 40? Adams is tight-lipped about potential projects in the works, but she’s put a lot of thought and research into her new year resolution. “I think I’m going to follow in Rebel Wilson’s footsteps and have a year of health,” she says. “You’ve got to think about the way that these things are said very carefully – people are on their own journeys. But that’s definitely my plan for next year.”
On actual New Year’s Eve, she will bring in 2025 by doing “something very witchy, with tarot, crystals and magical thinking vibes. I’ll get the coven together, brew some potions, manifest our desires for the next year, and just bring about feminism and screw the patriarchy.” A final request for the dictaphone: “No, don’t put that in there … I don’t want to alienate the men.”
Tiddler is on BBC One on Christmas Day at 2.35pm.
