Ruth Jones doesn’t know how many times she has to say it. “It’s not coming back,” she tells me, verging on exasperation. I’ve asked her the question we’re all clamouring to know the answer to: are there any plans to bring back Gavin and Stacey, the cosy BBC sitcom that she co-wrote and starred in with James Corden? The 2019 Christmas special ended on a notorious cliffhanger. Do Nessa and Smithy get married? We must be told. But… no. “I’m really hugely complimented that people love it so much. But it is quite an extraordinary thing… it’s almost like you mention the words Gavin and Stacey and people assume it’s back.” And then, to firmly underline the point, she adds, “But it’s not.”
Since then, Jones has tended to do her own thing. She was nominated for a Bafta for Stella, a comedy-drama that she co-wrote and starred in, about a single mum with a chaotic love life. But more recently, she’s struck out alone as a bestselling author and is now on her third novel, Love Untold, released today. She specialises in the complex dynamics of family, friends and romantic relationships, writing about betrayal, forgiveness and misunderstandings with comic aplomb. Her novels don’t quite have the laugh-out-loud factor of her TV shows, but they are full of the same warmth and humour – and loveably flawed characters. She’s been a firm part of the comedy landscape for years; as the lesbian barmaid Myfanwy on Little Britain from 2003 to 2007, serving up Bacardi and coke to her mate Daffyd Thomas (Matt Lucas), the village’s self-pronounced only homosexual, and, as Linda, in the BBC’s exquisite black comedy Nighty Night from 2004 to 2005, playing the moronic PA to narcissistic sociopath Jill Tyrell (Julia Davis).
