James Corden & Ruth Jones
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Hello and welcome to Table Mamas. I'm here in Clapham and we are very excited for our guests today. This is the best Christmas present. Lenny is very tired. Tired. And the voice is nearly gone. The voice is nearly gone. I put her on voice rest today. And yesterday, darling. Lenny's going to sound croaky on this one. I'm sure a couple of wines will make the voice better. Yeah, I think lubricated with wine. Lubricate, exactly. Or champagne. We have...

Well, let's just excite people a little bit more. Go on then. It's five years since the last special. And where it was left. Cliffhanger. Nessa on bended knee. There they were. Him with his new girlfriend. Oof, she was a wronger. Luke didn't like her. The baby upstairs. Neil, the baby that was 12, who is now 17. Oh.

And her unbended knee. And what did she say? What were her words? I loves you. I loves you. I always have loved 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. I don't think it has aged. It's great. I think it's fabulous. It's just been such a pleasure to watch it. Will we find out?

What went on that night with Uncle Bryn? The fishing trip. We have James Corden and Ruth Jones coming over for a special, well, a special Tobermanners where I guess we're going to be talking all things Gavin and Stacey. I'm laughing a lot, I hope. Now...

We actually know James's wife, Julia. Yeah. 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. You said, make it easy for yourself, mum. Do something you're confident with. Yeah, I've done...

My Lebanese lamb. We love it. Which we all like. With the warm aubergine and spinach salad. It's a deliciously Ella one that we've done for Sandy Toksvig. I 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. They were so delicious. And so, so sue me. And I think they'll go with this.

Yeah, it's the whip feta with yogurt, with crusty potato. Crusty? Are they crusty? Yeah. Crunchy. Crunchy, crusty. New potatoes that you kind of smash down, capers, lemon, and then I'm going to chop some, sorry, I've got a jingly top. You could have actually put some anchovies on. I've just realised if you need more salt. Back off. Okay. That's what Nessa would say. She'd be like, back off, Lenny. Well, I don't know. That's because she lives in Barrie.

I really want to go to that one. Me too. And then for pudding, what have you done? Sticky toffee pudding. I had some dates.

followed Nigella's recipe. Was it hard making sticky toffee pudding? Actually, you know I don't really like cooking. No. It was a real pleasure. Oh. I really enjoyed making it. I don't know what it was. I think it was the combination of the treacle and the butter. And then you soak the dates and then you mush them in. It was a nice recipe and easy and satisfying. How good. Has she really got tattoos? Yes.

I don't think so Ruth Jones and James Corden coming up on Table Mat Cheers Cheers to you guys Cheers to Gavin and Stacey 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? We're really going straight in. I just am very excited. I'm literally trying to work out what we've been told in the press. And we have said that it's five years later, haven't we? The show picks up five years after we left off. Yeah, when Nessa was on bended knee. That's right. Saying I loves you. And then...

With all my heart. Isn't she amazing? It was so beautiful. Isn't she amazing in that? Isn't it honestly one of the best? Don't cry. 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 Nessa is this, like, you know, she's had this unbelievably checkered life.

And you find out a bit more about that in this new special. Some really fun bits that we wrote. What little past work experience. Oh, that reminds me of when I was, yeah. I can't wait for that. That sort of stuff. And because she's that person and I think there's been moments where

You've seen, certainly out of the four of them, Gavin, Stacey, Smithy and Nessie, you've seen Gavin be quite vulnerable when they were trying for a baby. You've seen Stacey be vulnerable when she wasn't happy living in Essex. You've seen Smithy be vulnerable when he had that moment of terror where he felt like Nessie might...

Dave coaches, like the 2008 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 those, out of the four characters, you've seen that. And Nessa has always had this quite stoic, hardened exterior, really. Nothing really hurts her. Nothing really fazes her. And then, like when we wrote it, I remember thinking this is going to be really powerful. And then the joy of like watching Nessa

Ruth do it I honestly think it's when she says with all my heart it's so good it makes me tingle now it's as good a piece of acting as certainly as I've ever seen like close up in the flesh and it's very lovely to say that it's 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

Where did you meet? Doing Fat Friends. When we were doing Fat Friends. And because we've known each other that long, and because Gavin and Stacey's been such a massive part of our lives, and that, to all intents and purposes, was going to be the last episode of Gavin and Stacey. So what happened? You know, it kind of was. And so...

That scene, we filmed it in the middle of the night because we were filming it 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 when I said, I loved you. Don't, I'm going to cry. But I was saying it to you. Stop, you're both crying, we haven't even had the dinner. I'm crying.

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

committed to health food relief a lot of sort of bone broths and we probably we would have shared something off the crown plaza menu I would say and I feel pretty confident in this that outside of our partners we have probably 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... So where do you write? Oh, where haven't we written? So do you live in Wales? No, I live in London. London and Wales, really. So you've been writing in London? Well, we've written all over, honestly. We've written... Genuinely, Series 1, 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 Beaconsfield. And we just split the thing. Ruth would sleep in my sofa bed. I'd go in her spare room. And that's where we, but then a lot of series was in fact, episode one was episode one of series one was written in a hotel. Cause we, a lot of the show has been written in various hotel rooms, offices, rooms,

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. We wrote the 2019 Christmas special entirely in Los Angeles. Because you were living there by that point. Yeah, we wrote this special and...

In fact, we made a decision. We wrote the 2008 Christmas special in a hotel that was kind of around the corner from Selfridges. So that was 2008. So that's 16 years ago. And can I just say, when we were there, we were trying to save money. 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.

We both fancied boiled eggs. We both fancied boiled eggs. And so we bought some eggs and we tried to boil them. Well, first we tried to boil them in the ice bucket. Yeah. 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. Yeah, yeah. But going back to the hotel. 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 2008 one in this because it felt like magic yeah it was great is it still there it's it is tired now those 16 years have not been kind i think it's under new ownership we got there we lasted just about an hour and then went to a different hotel yeah

And do you lock down for a week and write it? No. OK. Um...

It's 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 usually sort of start off the session by talking about kind of gossip or not even... Life stuff. Just how we're feeling. Just how we're feeling, yeah. And sometimes that can go on for quite a long time and then we'll 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. I think what we do do, though, is commit to the whole process. So we almost, we start at 9.30, 10.00.

We'll go till lunchtime. Then we'll leave. And we'll always, like, walk somewhere. Like, the other day, we went and got something. We went back, took it back. And 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, 10 till 10 or 11, actually. Just in these long processes of just... Because, really, I think...

With Gavin and Stacey, we sort of both feel like we are... Like, 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 going to 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...

I think it's probably very similar to writing a song in a way. What you need to do is just open a sort of portal and wait for the characters to arrive and tell you what's going to happen. And I think also, over the years, we have...

So say between the end of Series 3 and when we did that 2019 special, because we never planned to do the 2019 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 Z. 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 and I got back in the house and I think, and you were, were you living in LA then? Yeah. And I just changed the words and, and, and, 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. Yeah.

and it was all like barry i've been barry island dreamers yeah yeah um and and so we would often sort of exchange little things like that and what happened was james turned 40 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 fortier. Well, Jules, my wife... How was it? She organised... In London? No, well, she... Because we were living in LA, she organised a surprise party for me in Mexico. How do you feel... Oh, wow, that's quite a task. Yeah, and so she, like... So lots of people...

And like my oldest friend, Richard Shedd, 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, who came to LA with me and ran the show, 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 this door opened and just swathes of my friends came in all wearing sombreros. I bet you were crying. Mariachi band. I bet you were crying then. Well, it was amazing. And we were all just... And then my friend Richard Shedd came in and... Like this is your life, basically. Kind of, yeah. In Mexico. Well, yeah. 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 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 get back in a room together not tell anybody with no pressure and

We don't tell the BBC, we don't tell the cast. Let's just see if there's a story that's still there.

And that was August, wasn't it? That was August 2018. August 2018. And then you filmed it in 2019 in the summer. And it was on that Christmas day. You came over about three times, right? Yeah, February, September and then again in 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 out to LA. Yeah, I'm 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 are you going out again? Oh, well, we just really liked it. She loved it. Yeah.

And they were going, are you going to do the studio tours? Yeah, yeah, probably. And of course we were just stuck indoors writing. And it was pretty magical actually, that time of coming. We always felt we knew how it was going to end. Ruth, are there people in South Wales that speak like Nessa? Who's almost a bloke really. LAUGHTER

She drives a lorry. She wears leather. She's very matter-of-fact. Millions of tats which you don't have. I was waiting to see if you had them. No, they are actually... They must take hours. No, no, no. They take seconds. Oh, good. You put them on with a flannel, cold flannel, and then they get peeled off. Like the kids have. Yeah, the kids' bodies. But the problem is you remove them with oil. And I had one. Nessa's got some Chinese symbols on her back.

And what do they mean? Do we know what they mean? Probably James in Chinese. I think it's Neil. I think it's John Prescott. Are you kidding? I think it's JP. We have to take a moment for John Prescott because he had a little cameo in The Last Christmas, as did Noel from Here Say, which I loved. And that's really... I know. That was one of my favourite Nessa anecdotes. I knew on that day that punch was meant for me. LAUGHTER

I knew that day that was going to be me. He had a wicked sense of humour, Dave. Yeah. Can I also ask you about, like, some I'm surprised you got away with. Did you have to apologise to Richard and Judy? No. What was the Richard and Judy? Oh, it was so good. Nessa was making love to Richard. Oh, yeah. And Judy was on the booth. And it was so good. It was so good.

I'd forgotten. I'd honestly... It was so good. I'd genuinely forgotten all about lovers. Because there were so many. Because there's so many. Like the whole of Goldie Looking Jane, for example. Not any of Goldie Looking Jane. Yeah. They weren't the father. Yeah. Yeah, I think 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 and the tattoos I went and had a massage and I forgot to tell 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 as... She didn't know they were Nessa's tattoos. She thought they were mine. And she was like, oh, my God. I'm just going to get a good massage. Yeah. But I think the thing about Nessa is she's got a great masculine femininity. She's very confident sexually. And she knows her way around both the male and female body.

and just nothing kind of, nothing phases it really. 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 know. I feels it. Yeah. Yeah. And she's very, one thing I do quite like about the show is the, how like sex positive it is. Like they're really just the toilet brush. Yeah. It's all sort of, well also I think, you know, on TV or films,

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

It's so messy. It's so complicated. It's so complex, which love is. 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. Absolutely. And I quite, I really quite enjoy that, that confidence in it really. The first time,

that they had sex was obviously in the 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. We were 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, a missus. 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 so I think with that and then the next time 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 Stacey goes Ness?

Max kept getting mad. I know. I fell over. And then Smithy comes in and his knees are muddy and they all look at his knees and go, I fell over. What? I fell over. They're kindred spirits. That's the thing. They're the same. What happened in that garden? You know that image. That is based on... I'm not going to say his name.

I'll say it's the witches when I was about 17 or 18. I used to go to this nightclub called The Orchard, which is in Holmer Green. Where's that? Which is near High Wycombe. And it's basically this weird... It's kind of brilliant. I had so many great times there. And it's got this farmland next to it. It's in the middle of nowhere, the countryside. And we're all there. And this guy comes over and goes...

You guys got any johnnies? And we're like, why don't you go see how to do the condoms? Have you got a condom? And somebody, I think a guy I didn't know, was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I took a condom out of his wallet, gave him a condom, and he disappears. And we're like, okay. And then, about 20 minutes later, I saw 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 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. And then when we arrived, I was like, what if they just come in and like, we don't have to discuss it. They know in the living room. Yeah.

And everybody at home knows what's happened. And that's when Neil the baby was conceived. Yeah. And now I'm sure everyone's asking this, but like, okay, fine. Gavin and Stacey, this is where it finishes, okay? Are you sure? Definitely. Definitely. It can't carry on. When you see it, you'll know. But couldn't you two carry on doing something else? Or do you feel like you've told your story and now you can just remain and reminisce and have this wonderful time remembering making probably some of the greatest...

I mean, watching it back this week, and I've done three seasons, two Christmas specials, it's been a total joy. And I think such respect to you. It's kind. 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. You know, sometimes with comedy, it's taking the piss out of somebody else. And I think that is so...

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? Is this your story and that's it? Well, look, we don't know if we have another idea in us. No, no, no. I mean, I can honestly say that if...

For me personally, if we didn't attempt to try and even just explore the idea of writing together, then I'd be so disappointed. I couldn't bear it. The idea of not doing it or the idea of doing it. LAUGHTER

No, I can't. I mean, whether anything actually comes of it, but I love being in the room with you. It's the best. Because it's such good fun. It's joyous and you're right that it's kind. I think the kindness, though, comes from certainly the time when we 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 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 perhaps what we share as people, not just necessarily as writers, is...

a kindness, a love of other people. We just find other people fascinating, don't we? And I think that there is a joy in seeing day-to-day life and seeing those little nuances. Yeah. And...

You know, sometimes when you get a bit despairing 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. I also 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. But 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 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 incredible, actually, than when somebody meets someone and goes, well, I don't think I can live without you. 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...

than anything really 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 um so I'm one of four children and my mum and dad uh

you know, quite a sort of standard family, really. My mum is retired now. She's 87. She was a GP. My dad is no longer here. God rest his soul. He died seven years ago. But when we were growing up, so they, my dad did legal conveyancing at the steelworks and

So is this South Wales? South Wales, yeah. Were you best friends with Michael Sheen? I was at Youth Theatre with Michael Sheen. Oh, wow. Yeah, I was on Youth Theatre with him. So, yeah, yeah. Yeah, 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 used to eat at half past five, six o'clock every night. Lovely, love that. Do you know what I remember best?

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 7, 8 o'clock because we used to eat at half past 5 at 6 o'clock Jessie does I love it what about you James do you eat what time do you like to eat and what time do you well if I'm going out to eat yeah I want to eat later yeah but no if we're at home

We were often just eating with the kids, which is, yeah, at like 5.36. But when you were growing up, what did you do? What was it like at home?

Because my mum used to cook the meal from scratch. We never had... I mean, I'm older than James, obviously, but we didn't have that sort of convenience meals particularly. So it was always from scratch. Oh, we were... Bernard Matthews turkey burgers. Oh, really? Well, because my mum was a social worker. So she'd walk in... Yeah, now my sister works in social care as well, but mum would walk in, the only time we probably ever really ate like a...

well, I'd say like a properly cooked meal, was on a Sunday, we'd always have a roast dinner. Sometimes mum would do like, I don't know, like a spaghetti bolognese or something like that. But really it was, yeah, that was it. Do you know what though? My dad retired early because his health wasn't great. And so he became like 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. Because it was like, they were sausage meat. Sausage meat.

And they were sort of like, they were like kind of meatballs, sausage meatballs, but there was always a lot of oil in there. And they were really heavy. They were really heavy. And that was a bit of a struggle. But I think he did always feel that we should praise him. Whereas my mum used to just do it and, you know, that was just part of the course. Yeah. She would just get on with it. But, you know, we'd go on camping holidays, right? And...

It wasn't like, you know, now 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. Did you like that? I loved it, yeah. When was the last time you had a corned beef hash? I'll tell you exactly when it was. Go on. I went on a cruise recently. Oh, yeah? And you got corned beef hash on a cruise? It was available in, you know, you go up and you've got this sort of buffet. I've never done one. Where did you go on your cruise? She loves, she is never not on a cruise. You're like a gay man. No, no, she, it's a miracle she's here.

I'm joking I'm kidding come and tell me no what it was I've never been on a cruise what it was right 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 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, 10 days from Southampton back to Southampton, didn't have to fly anywhere. Going where? Portugal and the Canaries. Oh, nice. Lovely. So that's what we did. But I had also booked myself to do a literary cruise in

which was about two weeks after I got back. I'm obsessed with cruising. So you got off the boat and then you got back on a boat. Pretty much. Wow. What's a literary cruise? The Cheltenham Literary Festival. With literary people. Yes. The Cheltenham Literary Festival. Oh, wow. They do it on a boat. It's called the Festival at Sea. Shh. This sounds...

It sounds perfect. In conjunction with the Sunday Times. Because you can never get in at the, in Cheltenham. No, I'm sure she can. Well, I'm sure you can. You can't get into any accommodation. That's the problem. Well, it was great. And I went with my best friend 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 there's a lot of us close friends from home um and uh yeah she was just she was just brilliant brilliant company I um I want to know with your beautiful friendship that you've got what what's the best meal has James ever cooked for you

Yeah. Oh, do you know what I remember that you did really beautifully was the chicken, the lemon chicken, and you did the carrots. I remember the parma ham. Do you remember the carrots you did? I love a good... You did them in... It's a Jamie Oliver carrot, that. Have you done his carrots? No. Oh, my God. The greatest carrot recipe that anyone's ever done. Okay, tell everyone. Which book? I can't remember, actually, but one of the Naked Chefs is you get tinfoil and you sort of...

Double it so you work out what you need. So you turn it and then you get it out. So you've got your sheet of tinfoil here and then enough there to make an envelope. Just peeled and cut into like a baton. 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. Yeah. Four knobs of butter. Four...

sprigs of thyme. Yeah. 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, crunch up this side and crunch up the other side. So that's basically all sealed except for the gap at the top. You then put about a glass of white wine in.

seal the top and you put that on a baking tray for about 40 minutes. That sounds great. And they are so delicious, so gorgeous. And then that juice that you've got in there, the buttery, winey juice, that goes in your gravy and it's fantastic. I know what you did with the chicken. You put the butter under the skin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Butter, garlic under the skin. You were a good cook then, James. I love cooking. I love it. I really... Well, I'll tell you what, because cooking is just...

just another form of like creative expression really. So it's all I really love doing. I think cooking actually is the same as what,

We do and we write the show, which is you're creating something in the hope that people will enjoy it and devour it. That's all you want people to do. On Christmas Day, 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 good beef wellington. I like that. That's tough as well, James. Do a good...

I do mean omelette. I've done you an omelette. I've done you an omelette. Okay, but is this why Gwen's thing is that she... I didn't even think of that one. I'll tell you what happened. The first... When we wrote... Here's the truth. When we wrote episode one, we really, really didn't know what we were doing. Okay. 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. She goes around and she says, do you want an omelette? And then we were writing episode two and we said, do you fancy an omelette? And then we thought, oh, what if in every episode...

She just mentions an omelette somehow. And then when Jason turns up in episode five in series one, she goes, oh, I guess you told me you would come in. I've got nothing in. I've got ham. I've got a bit of cheese. I've got eggs. I could do an omelette. Yeah. Can I just tell you though, I wrote a book called Omelette. Oh, right. Which is a food, I mean, they call them food-was. A food-was. It's a food-was. And it's because my mum always offers an omelette. Always offer an omelette. So when I saw it, I was like, I, it,

But as Delia Smith says, an omelette is the healthiest takeaway. Fast food you can ever make. Have you ever seen the one in The Bear? Have you watched The Bear? I have watched The Bear. And she makes the omelette. And she does it in the most beautiful way. How do you do your omelette? I love you and you are a great chef, but your omelette isn't the most considered. But it's just a thing where there's a crisis. Yes.

There's a crisis and she's like, I'll make an omelette. It's like just been the same. That's only because it's easy and quick. But do you add any milk or anything? I used to add milk. Yeah, I don't. But I don't now. No. You should not add milk. You should only add milk, scramble eggs and water to omelette. I don't add water. Here's the thing, right? Here's the thing about omelettes. Yeah. Get ready, guys. There's a bombshell coming. No. No.

Right, okay. Do you make it with butter or with oil? Butter. Both.

So I do a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of butter, because if you just have olive oil, 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 well do you know what one of my very early food memories yeah i do i think we're all getting a little hot and heavy what potatoes okay fine i don't know how to do them one of my my earliest food memories is being in france my father had a

pen friend Pierre Goujoux who he met when he was 18 after the war 1946 when my dad was 18 he got the flesh 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 and it takes you down to the south of France where he met his friend Pierre he was 18 years of age 1946 which I thought was quite brave actually and

And he stayed friends with him up until their 80s. We would go to each other's children's weddings, all of that kind of thing. 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 together.

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 found the same taste is when it's an omelette made with oil. I don't get it. I don't get it with an omelette made with butter. So with oil, there is a specific taste to it. It was just the egg.

Yeah, it was just a plain omelette. Yeah. But I always, and I can always remember that, being in that French restaurant when I was a little girl. Yeah. It's funny, isn't it? How food has a sort of, you have a kind of like a muscle memory with it. This looks amazing. Yeah. I hope it is. Thank you so much. Yeah, it's lamb. There's masses of lamb, so do help yourself. Potatoes with like,

A whipped feta. You were asking about with the cooking and about James doing... Yeah. I'm more of a baker. She loves... I do love a bake. But you want me to serve you, darling. Oh, do you mind? Thanks, darling. Thanks. Yeah, I do... So I did make... She loves a good bake.

Yeah, she does a good bake. See, James, are you a baker? No. I can't do it. I'd like to. I'm improvising in the kitchen. I like doing all that. And the baking is too methodical for me. Yes. And I'm really impressed. It's too exact. It's chemistry. Do you want a bit of the jus? Yes, please, darling. Thanks, darling.

Is that good? Right. Help yourself to this. This is like aubergines, tahini, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts. Oh, wow. Land coming over. Oh, my God. So we're going kind of a little bit Middle Eastern. We are. We are. We are.

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Can I just say, these potatoes are immense. Oh, Jessie, thank you. Are they Cyprus potatoes by any chance? No, they're not, but that would have been really good. That would have been good. I love it. I smashed them. A Cyprus potato is the best. I used to go out with a Greek Cypriot at university. Did you? Yeah, we're still friends. What?!

Yeah. I've never heard this ever. Yes, yes. You have never. I'm good right now. Thank you. Still friends with his family. And his mum used to cook the most amazing. You have never told me this ever. Oh, I used to love it. So he used to go to his house in North London. And his mum would just cook this amazing food. The baglava, the gala de burka, all of that stuff. But she'd do the chicken, like the lemon chicken. And the biberia. She was always a wee cat food.

And the lamb souflakia, all that. It was just the best. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Now I did get, and we don't have to have it, but just to celebrate the...

The first Christmas special, I did get some mint Baileys. Oh yeah, I'll have a mint Baileys, for sure. And a white Toblerone, we found it. So if you fancy it, we've got it. But we also have sticky toffee pudding that was made. I'll just get it on the table. Sure. I'm not going to have a mint Baileys. I've just never had one. I've never had a mint Baileys. I just think a mint Baileys... No, here, I'll just put it in here. The mix.

No, I mean, I'm sorry. No offence. No offence to Bailey, but that looks gross. You don't stop. I think it's going to be great. Oh, it's going in. Do you want a glass? A little cube. Yeah, I'm going to get a cube. You know what might be nice, actually, is this on top of that ice cream.

That's what I'm going to do. Pass that ice cream. He's going to make an affogato out of a mint bailey. No, I think a tiny... You don't need the ice then? No, I think this is going to be good. Watch. Watch this. Look. Oh my God, it's green. It's literally Christmas. It is green. Wait. Wait. Okay. I'm sorry. No. Jessie, do you want some? Well, a mint bailey. Have we got a new Christmas...

Yes. Oh, he's... No? No? It's not for me. Are you a kind of double cream ice cream person? Are you going to go both or not? Are you just going to go ice cream? Oh, I think I'm okay with the ice cream. I mean, I know what you mean, but it does sound quite tempting. It's just sitting there. Just do it. I'll do a little bit. Last supper. You both need to think of a starter, a main. Oh, my gosh. A hood, a drink of choice. Buy me.

This is delicious. That is amazing. It's very good. So is this the Nigella recipe? Yeah. That's amazing. Very good. Your sauce, is that her recipe as well? Yeah. I added a bit more cream. Undeniable how good that is. Do you know what? I think I'm going to make that because we're having Christmas dinner at my sister's. I think I'm going to offer that up for a dessert. She says serve it with salted caramel ice cream. Oh no.

No, that's too much. Because you've already got that kind of combination. You want a straight vanilla there. Yeah. What's your order at a fish and chip shop? Straight fish and chips, that's it. I don't really mess around. Somebody said no mushy peas out of you two. I do. Well, I don't like mushy peas either. Do you? No. I don't know that. Do you? Yeah, I really like them.

I mean, I'm not thinking about it all the time. In fact, I hate them to such a degree that when I tried to give up chocolate many years ago, which is a time of year. You've got a story like that. Should I get more ice cream out? No, no, I'm good. 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.

a hypnosis right and um one of the the techniques that he showed in this workshop was to uh 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 hot 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 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 what you do is you think of eating that. And then you think about eating the chocolate and you keep alternating. So my thing was mushy peas, right?

So mushy peas, the thought of it, I mean, I can even 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. So I used that as my aversion. Anyway, it worked. It completely worked. So you don't eat chocolate anymore? No, there's more to this story. So I did not eat chocolate for five years.

Five years, right? Couldn't stand the smell. 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 chocolate. And what I used to do was I always used to test myself to see if I was still...

And I did. Not wanting to have the chocolate. She'd smell it. And there's one hotel, there's a little box with four chocolates in it. Four little things. Yeah. And this was happening quite a lot. Ruth would smell it and she'd go, no. No, don't want it. Gross. I mean, James used to do things. You did all that. And I did them. But he used to do things like he would get Maltesers and he'd go, go on, just stick them in your mouth. Just see what happens. And she'd go, no, I don't want it. It's gross. So anyway, this will happen. Then one day, when you join up with anything, you get put onto an email list, don't you? And I was getting emails from this workshop company saying,

And I thought, I don't need, you know, I'm sorted. I don't need these emails. So I unsubscribed. I swear to God, the next day we were writing. There were chocolates on the bed in this hotel room. I picked them up. Well, I went into the bathroom, went for a wee.

came back she was eating oh my god why are you doing the impression because that looks really bad that's what you were doing you were holding them near your mouth and you're going you make me sound ill no you're going oh my god and i was like what this is insane and then it was the day after that we've 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... Easter eggs. 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. The eggs. Yeah. And then it was shortly after that that we wrote Dawn and Pete's vows. Yeah. When she changes the words to Ben. So there was a whole thing connected with mushy peas. The chocolate's great though, isn't it?

Chocolate's amazing. What's your favourite chocolate? Honestly, just a straight dairy milk. Capers. Yeah. I love a roses. I love a lint milk. A ball. Ball. No, just a straight lint milk. Straight lint milk. What, do you like dark chocolate then? I like dark chocolate. No.

I will link it, but in terms of an actual enjoyment factor, I like the lint with the hazelnuts. That's the best one. Don't they say, they brag about how many nuts are in it, don't they? 70% hazelnuts.

They really go on about how many nuts are in it. Which makes a whole nut feel quite inferior. Did you used to get people bringing stuff over to LA? Like dairy milk? Or can you get it there? You can kind of get it now is the truth. Do you miss LA? I don't actually. I mean, I miss... I'm not one of those people that's... It feels quite trendy I think for people to kind of be a bit down on LA and be like... And I'm not. We had such a...

such a sort of magical time there. We must miss the weather though. Well, that's the thing. Yeah, but what I keep telling myself is 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 there's not a massive culture. There's no real architecture. You can't really go to the theatre. It's a one-inch street town. It's quite an isolating existence. A lot of the time you're in a car driving around. You're certainly not 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 truly like...

I said this really quite a lot, like, since... I would say we've been back just over a year now, and, like, 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'm really glad you came back to this. And I sort of want to shake them, really, and be like, yeah, 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. Because it's, 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 magical, glorious, beautiful place full of

these incredible, interesting people. And I love it. So I don't miss LA because I'm so in love with Britain. 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 our writing is that it's about people.

British people. Yeah. It's British life, you know? I think those characters are, aren't they? And I think that's probably why you're so good at observing those characteristics, actually. Last supper. You can either choose to answer as Smithy or James Corden, and you can choose to answer as Nessa or as James.

Okay. This is my trick. Okay, okay. All right. As Nessa, I'm going to go for osso bucco. Okay. Because I tell you what I love about that. You've got the bone. You've got the marrow. You scoop 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 Bufi's. And I'm not going to lie, I do like sticking my teeth into a good ribeye.

Is that before the osso bucco or after the osso bucco? I love the osso bucco as a starter. Where's the fags coming? You have a fag break and then you go in for the ribeye. It has to be rare. What are you drinking, Nessa? Always a pint of wine. That was amazing. Pudding? Smithy. You're going to have a bit of Smith. I don't go near the sweet stuff. I'm always a cheese eater. I like a good selection. Yeah.

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. My God, let this not be the end.

For God's sake. I would say for me, though, personally, I would go for, I would love a lovely sashimi as a starter. And I would go for probably, what's the lovely steak they do where they kind of. Steak to tart? No. Teriyaki steak? No. Wagyu? Wagyu. Wagyu. Yeah, from Rocca. Oh, is it good Rocca? I've never been. And then, you know, and then I'd have for the dessert the chocolate.

So you're going to roll with the fondant thing with the green tea? Yes, the matcha box thing. Now, James, are you going to give Smithies last summer? Smithies would be lamb buna, chicken buna, prawn buna, mushroom rice, bag of chips, kemanan and nine poppadoms. And a sagaloo. And a sagaloo, please, Mick. For dessert, look, I don't care what you say. Make up what you want about it. I just like a viennetta. I just like a viennetta. Leave it out.

Leave it out, but let it stand. That's the problem. That's the problem. No one lets it stand. You're impatient, but you let it stand. And then you get the crack. But if you leave it too long, you don't get the crack. I'm not going to leave it too long, am I, now? What's Smithy drinking? He's going Vodka Revolution, isn't he? Uh...

I think he'd have a pint. Yeah, and a vodka Red Bull. Pint, and then if he's going out after that, vodka Red Bull. Yeah, nice. How did Uncle Bryn get so drunk on Orchers? LAUGHTER

Because he doesn't ever drink alcohol. He doesn't touch anything. Is Archer still a thing? Archer's a lemonade. I don't know. That's what I drank when I was like 15. Yeah, same. Do they still serve it? I imagine so, yeah. In Barry, yeah. And if it was me for real, I'd have smoked salmon to start Beef Wellington and I love a profiterole. Oh, thank you.

You should have told me I'd have done that. Homemade. I don't really care where it comes from. It doesn't bother me. Good, solid profiterole. And like an eclair if you're in a bakery, sure. I rarely pick up an eclair. Really? Your gift is you can eat an eclair with one chew. You can actually consume a whole eclair without chewing it.

And I have been known to sit in a car wash with an eclair. Or maybe four. And that is my idea of heaven. Sit in a car wash. All of our shame eating is happening in car washes. I ate a yard of dairy milk in a car wash once. 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 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 the treat has been ours because I've had the best time come any time yeah can we come back yes you can both does anyone want a mint face I can't

Wow. That was a lot of Gavin and Stacey, and I was here for it. I know, darling. James Corden. Are you writing a thesis on it? I actually feel like I just offered up my thesis on it. The PhD in Gavin and Stacey. James Corden and Ruth Jones, what a pair that love each other so much. Adore. Like family. You made me cry.

I know. They were crying on like the first question. I know, but I was crying too. And then you... But maybe it was that bottle of champagne that they had at lunch. I don't know. Maybe it was. Maudlin, yeah. Gavin and Stacey is out on Christmas Day. I... Well, everyone must have their recorder on that. And for people that maybe haven't watched Gavin and Stacey, where have you been? And please go and watch it. 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 they're a bit disappointing why their tattoos thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week

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