Ruth Jones wishes she was more like Nessa

Ruth Jones has admitted that when she is feeling nervous, the TV star tries to be more like her Gavin and Stacey character Nessa Jenkins.

“What I love about Nessa is she doesn’t care what anyone thinks,” Jones told the BBC at the Gavin & Stacey finale premiere.

“I wish I could be a bit more like that in real life. I just love her directness. If I’m feeling nervous about something, I often channel my inner Nessa to be able to say ‘Oh, love, back off’.”

Jones will play Nessa for the final time in the feature-length Gavin & Stacey Christmas Day final episode on BBC One at 21:00 GMT.

“I just love playing her, I really do,” added Jones. “I love the history of her life and the things that she’s done, which are quite phenomenal.”

Gavin & Stacey debuted in 2007 on BBC Three and as well as co-creating the series with James Corden, Jones has played the role of Nessa ever since.

Nessa – famous for saying “Oh!”, “What’s occurring?’ and “Tidy” – has had a range of occupations including a truck driver, BBC producer and a goalkeeping coach at Coventry City.

Mathew Horne and Joanna Page play the title roles of Gavin and Stacey – and Page, who plays Nessa’s on-screen best friend, has admitted nerves about returning to the iconic role for the final show.

“It was quite daunting in the beginning,” she told the BBC.

“I said to my mum before we started, ‘oh my gosh, I first played Stacey when I was 29 – I’m now in my forties, I’ve got four children, am I going to be able to play this bubbly, energetic and fun sort of character again?’

“I’m still exactly the same as I was when I was like, 17, so yeah. There was a slight thing of ‘oh my God, am I going to play her differently?’ but then, my God, meeting up with the gang, getting back on set, having a laugh, and just slotting back into where we all are in the family – it was just wonderful.”

The upcoming finale sees Gavin, Stacey, Smithy, and Nessa getting back together one final time – after the 2019 Christmas special finished with Jones’ character Nessa proposing to Smithy, played by Corden.

“It may sound like complete nonsense, but it doesn’t really feel like we’re in charge of writing it,” said Corden.

“I feel like we just have to be together and we sort of open a portal and the characters arrive and they tell us what they want everybody to know.”