Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - James Corden & Ruth Jones

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

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 for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Mothers. 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 gonna sound croaky on this one. I'm sure a couple of wines will make the voice clear. Yeah, I think Lulimcate with red wine. Exactly. Or champagne. We have.

Oh, well, let's just excite people a little bit. Go on then. It's five years since the last special. And where it was left. Cliffhanger. What? 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. Yeah. Who is now 17. Oh wow.

And her on bended knee. And what did she say? What were her words? I loves you. I loves you. I always have to, have to loves 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 table manners

where I guess we're gonna 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 yourself mum do something you're confident with. Yeah I've done my Lebanese lamb, we love it, which we like, with the warm aubergine and spinach salad.

It's a deliciously Ella one that we've done for Sandy Toxvig. I can't remember who asked 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 So soon they'll go with this dish. Yeah, it's the whip Feta with yogurt with crusty potato crusty Are they crusty? Yeah crunchy crunchy potatoes that you kind of smash down capers lemon And then I'm gonna chop some Sorry, I've got a jingly you could have actually put some anchovies on.

I've just realized 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 Barry. Oh, Barry.

I really want to go to Barry. 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's a nice recipe and easy and satisfying.

How good. Has she got really got tattoos? I don't think so but I'm going to ask. Ruth Jones and James Corden coming up on Table Manners. Cheers. 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 gonna be 17 now and we don't know whether you're married yet. You're not gonna give anything away now are you? I'm already going straight in.

I just am very excited. I'm literally trying to work out what you're allowed to say 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 saying, I love 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 be crying. 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, some really fun bits that we wrote. What little like past work experience? 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, you know, out of the four of them, Gavin, Stacey, Smithy and Nessa, you've seen Gavin be quite vulnerable when they were like trying for a baby. Yeah. You've seen Stacey be vulnerable when she wasn't happy living in Essex. Yeah.

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 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 gonna be really powerful, and then the joy of like watching 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 Very lovely but you know what the reason that I Feel that that was very emotional that moment was because James and I've been on this journey for a long long time we've known each other

Since 2000. Where did you meet? 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 it was, 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 I when I said I loved you Don't, I'm going to cry But I was saying it to you Aww Oh stop you're both crying we haven't even had the dinner

No I feel good I love it! I love it! 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. We would have shared something off the off the Crowne Plaza menu. 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...

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. Okay. So you've been writing in Wales. In London. Well, we've written live, honestly.

LA? We've 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 Beckinsfield, and we'd just split the thing. Ruth would sleep on my sofa bed, I'd go in her spare room. And that's where we were, but then a lot of series, 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. We wrote the 2019 Christmas special entirely in Los Angeles. Because you were living in it by that point.

We wrote this special in, 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. 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 break so we tried to boil some eggs in a kettle which was we both fancied boiled eggs we both fancied boiled eggs and so we bought some eggs yeah 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.

It was nostalgic. Yeah. It was great. Is it felt like magic. It was nostalgic. Yeah. It was great. Is it still there? 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. Okay. 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 like kind of gossip or not even about life stuff. Just how we're feeling 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. I think what we do do though is commit to the whole process. So we almost, we start at 9.30, 10.

We'll go till lunchtime, then we'll leave. We'll always walk somewhere. Like the other day, we went and got something, we either 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 yeah processes of just because really I think with Gavin and Stacey we 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 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 is what you need to do is just open a sort of portal and wait for the characters to arrive and tell you what's gonna happen. And that's...

And I think also over the years, we have... So say between the end of series three and when we did that 2019 special, because we never planned to do the 2019 special. But over those sort of nine, almost 10 years, we would often text each other with, oh, imagine if Bryn did X, Y, and Z, or 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 listening to her and I got back in the house and I think and you were you living in LA there yeah, and I just changed the words and and and And I wrote it out and sent it as an email to James and it was kind of like a are I it's me it is And it was like Barry I've been Barry Island dreaming

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 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 I think that was

probably the turning point wasn't it was when I came to your 40th. Jules my wife, she organized, no well she because we were living in LA she organized a surprise party for me in Mexico. Oh wow that's quite a task. Yeah, and so she like, so lots of people came 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 Jaws 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 and a mariachi band. I bet you were crying then. Mariachi band. You bet you were crying then.

Well, it was amazing and we were all just, and then like 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 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 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 And that would be that was August, wasn't it? That was August 2018 18 yeah August 2018 Yeah, yeah, and then you filmed it in 2019 in the summer So I was on on that Christmas day you came over about three times. Yeah 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 out to LA. Yeah, I'm going to see James. And they'd go, oh, that's nice. I'd go, yeah, yeah. And then, because I had to go out again, and they'd go, why are you going out again?

Oh, well, we just really liked it. She loved it. Yeah. And then we're 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. She's, you know, she drives a lorry, she wears leather. She's very much her fat. Millions of tats which you don't have. Yeah. I was waiting to see if you had them. No, they are actually transfers. They must take powers. 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 buy them. 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 John Prescott. Oh, you're kidding.

I think it's J.P. 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. 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.

I knew that day that punch was meant for me. Yeah, the wicked sense of humour, Dave. Can I also ask you about like some I'm surprised you got away with. Did you have to apologise to Richard and Judy? What was the Richard and Judy? Oh, it was so good. Nessa was making love to Richard. Oh yeah. And Judy was on love to Richard. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Judy was on the, on the booze and it was so good. I'd forgotten. I'd honestly, I'd genuinely forgotten all about it. It was because there were so many, Nessa's had so many lovers. Like the whole of Goldie looking chain, for example. Not any of Goldie looking chain. Yeah.

Yeah, not a child. Not 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, 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 as when she didn't know they were Nessa's tattoos she thought they were mine and she was like oh my god

just a good massage yeah yeah but I think she's, I think the thing about Nessa is she's got a great masculine femininity. Yeah. She's very confident sexually and she knows her way around both a male and female body and just nothing kind of, nothing phases her 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. And she's very, one thing I do quite like about the show

is 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 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 show really is like 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 really quite enjoy 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 just 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, Mrs. And then him the next day mentioning the toilet brush. And is that something that normal people, that just Welsh people feel?

It's just a Welsh thing. It's a Welsh thing, yeah. So I think with that, and then the next time you realize 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. And then Smithy comes in and his knees are muddy

and they go, and they all look at each other and say, he goes, I fell over, what? I fell over. They're kindred spirits, that's the thing. Yeah, they are. And you just think, how did they, what happened in that garden? That's what.

But you know that image, that is based on, that is based on, I'm not gonna say his name, I'll say his name, which is when I was about 17 or 18, I used to go to this nightclub called The Orchard, which is in Holmer 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's in the middle of nowhere 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, I just need condoms, you got condom? And somebody, I think a guy I didn't know, was like, yeah, you know, I've got, took 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 walk past me and her backs 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, so it was like, what if they just come in and like we'd have to discuss it. They know in the living room 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. Definitely definitely that can't carry on when you see 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 now you can just remain and reminisce and have this wonderful time remembering making probably some of the greatest comedy 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 Charming and special and quite unique. 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 is it just is this your story and? That's it Well look like we don't we don't know if

We have another idea in us. Fair enough. No, no, no. But, 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. Oh, I couldn't bear it. The idea of not doing it or the idea of doing it.

Yeah. 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. I love it because it's such good fun. And... It's joyous and you're right that it's kind. And it...

I think the kindness though comes from, certainly at 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 what perhaps what we share as people, not just necessarily as writers, is a kindness to, 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.

And 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 there's, 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. 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, 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 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. Let's talk about both your families and what was around the dinner table. Let's start with you, Ruth. When you were growing up, who was around the dinner table and what were you eating? So I'm one of the four children and my mum and dad,

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, but when we were growing up, so they, my dad did a legal conveyancing at the Steelworks. And- So is this South Wales? South Wales, yeah, in Portcourt. 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 had, we used to eat at half past five six o'clock every night. Love that. 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 because we used to eat at half past five at six o'clock. What about you James? What. Because we used to eat at half past five, like six o'clock. Jessie does, I love her. What about you James, what time do you like to eat? What time do you do it? Well if I'm going out to eat, I want to eat later. But no, if we're at home, we would often just eat with the kids, which is yeah, at like 5.36.

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 like convenience meals particularly. So it was always from scratch. Oh, we were turkey burgers,

Bernard Matthews turkey burgers, nuggets. Well, because my mum was a social worker. Yeah, so nice. So she'd walk in, yeah, now my sister works in social care as well, but she, mum would walk in, it'd be, the only time we probably ever really ate like a, what I would 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. And the sausage balls, they were lethal. Because it was like, they were 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 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. 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 no you'd go 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 we did. Did you like that? I loved it. Really? When was the last time you had a corned beef hash? I'll tell you exactly when it was. I went on a cruise recently.

Oh yeah? And you got corned beef hash on a cruise? They 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 what it was What it was I've never been on a cruise in my life But mom and dad used to go on cruises and I thought

It would be nice for my mom 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 mom on a cruise I found the perfect one ten days from Southampton 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, which was about two weeks after I got back. What a load of telling. 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. Pretty much. Wow. Yeah. What's a literary cruise? The Cheltenham Literary Festival. Yes. The Cheltenham Literary Festival. Oh wow, they do accrossions. It's called the boat. It's the festival at sea. Shh. This sounds perfect. In conjunction with the Sunday Times. Because you can never get in Cheltenham. I'm sure you 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. 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 and yeah she was just she was just brilliant brilliant company. I am 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 the chicken the lemon chicken and you did the carrots.

Do you remember the carrots you did? I love them good. I said 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 tin foil and you sort of double it so you work out what you need. So you turn it and then you get it out and you've got your sheet of tinfoil here and then enough there to make an envelope. 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 in. So there's us four, four cloves of garlic, four knobs of butter, four sprigs of thyme.

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. This sounds great. 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. 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, Ben James. I love cooking. I love it. I really, well, I tell you what, because cooking is 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 when we write the show, which is you're creating something in the hope that people will enjoy it and, and, uh, 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 good beef Wellington. I like

that. That's tough as well, James. I do a good, I do mean omelette. I've done you an omelette. Me an omelette. I've done you an omelette. I've done you an omelette. Okay, but is this why Gwen's thing is that... I didn't even think of that one. Where did the omelette come from?

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. 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 omelet thing, I can't remember, she goes around and she says, you know, do you want an omelet? And then we were writing episode two,

and we said, oh, Gwendolyn, do you fancy an omelet or anything? And then we thought, episode two and we sit up and say you know do you fancy an omelette or anything then we thought oh what if in every episode she just mentions an omelette somewhere. And then when Jason turns up in episode five and sees one she goes oh I wish you told me you were coming I got nothing in I got ham I got a bit of cheese I got eggs I could do an omelette! Can I just tell you though I wrote a book of cheese, I got eggs. I could do an omelette. Yeah. Can I just tell you about, I wrote a book called Omelette. Oh wow.

Which is a food, I mean, they call them foodois, a food memoir. It's a foodois. And it's because my mum always offers an omelette. But I don't know. That's always to offer an omelette. So when I saw it, I was like, I, it was just so. But as Delia Smith says,

an omelette is the healthiest takeaway, fast food you can ever make. Yeah. Have you ever seen the one in the bear? Have you watched the bear? I have watched the bear. And she does it in the most beautiful way. How would you do your omelette? I love you and you are a great chef but your omelette isn't like the most considered but it's just the thing where there's a crisis

and she's like I'll make an omelette. It's it's just the thing where there's a crisis. There's a crisis and she's like, I'll make an omelet. It's like just been the thing. That's only because it's easy and quick. But do you add any milk or anything? I used to add milk to them. Yeah, I don't. But I don't now. No.

You should not add milk. You should only add milk, scrambled eggs and water to omelet. I don't add water to anything. He's a thing, right? He's a thing about omelets. Yeah. Can I? Get ready, guys, there's a bombshell coming. No. Oh, I don't have water. He is a thing, right? He's a thing about omelettes. Yeah. Hi. Get ready guys. There's a bombshell coming. 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. You need to do your potatoes. Okay fine. I don't know how to do them. One of my earliest food memories is being in France my father had a pen friend Pierre Gougou who he met when he was 18 after the war 1946 when my dad was 18, he got 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 he stayed friends with him

for up until their 80s, we you know 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 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. We've got 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, but you will need do love you thanks darling thanks yeah I do so I did she loves a good day yeah she does a good bake see James are you a baker no I can't do it I like improvising in the kitchen I like doing all that and the baking is too methodical for me. Yes, it's too exact. 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, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts. Can I just say, these potatoes are immense. Oh, Jesse, 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'd love it. I'd smash them. A Cyprus potato is the best. I used to go out with a Greek Cypriot that you knew. Did you?

Yeah, we're still friends. What? Yeah. I've never heard this ever. You're never? Why not? He's still friends with his family and his mum used to cook the most amazing Cypriot 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 khala di burka, all of that stuff. But she'd do the chicken, like the lemon chicken and the birberia and the lamb, the souflakia. 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 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. Sure. But we also have sticky toffee pudding that I just made. I'll just get it on the table. Sure. I'm not gonna have a mint Baileys.

No, I mean it's not. I've just never had one. I've never had a mint Bailey's. I just think a mint Bailey's Mix I mean, I'm sorry. No offense. No offense to Bailey's but that looks gross I think it looks going to be great. Oh, it's going in. Do you want a glass? Do you want an ice? A little cube, yeah. 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 mid baby. No, I think a tiny... This is... You don't need the ice then. No, I think this is going to be good don't need the ice then what no I think this is gonna be good watch watch this look okay sorry no well and mean have we Bailey's have we got a new Christmas guest oh he's no no it's not for me are you a kind of double cream ice cream person are you gonna go both or not?

are you just gonna go ice cream? 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 sit in there and just do it. I'll do a little bit. Last supper. You both need to think of a starter, a main, a hood, a drink of choice. Mmm. By me. Mmm. This is delicious. That is amazing. It's very good.

So is this the Nigella recipe? Yeah. That's amazing. That's very good. Your sauce, is that her recipe as well? 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 dessert. She says serve it with salted caramel ice cream. Oh no. No, that's too much. No, you need to calm it down. No, 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? It's just 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 like them either. Do you? Yeah, I really like them. Oh, I don't. I mean, I'm not, I really like them. Oh, I do. I mean, I'm not like thinking about them all the time. I hate them to such a degree that when I tried to give up chocolate many years ago, well, which is a time of year.

You've got a story about 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. I hit no-sit. Oh wow.

And one of the techniques that he showed in this workshop was to, he said, do you want to, 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, 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 gonna show you all a technique,

how if you wanna stop eating it, this is gonna 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. So mushy peas, 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 no there's more to this story so I did not eat chocolate for five years five years right please time the smell couldn't sign 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 with me Sometimes they would put a little bit of complimentary chocolate. Yeah. What I used to do was I always used to test myself to see if I was still and not wanting to drink the chocolate. So you know. And then there's one hotel it's a little box with four

chocolates in here. Four little things. Yeah. And this is having quite a lot of really good smell out and she'd go, no, gross. I mean, James used to do things then. 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. 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 and I thought, 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. Well, I went into the bathroom, went for a wee, came back. She was eating. And Ruth was like, home, home, home the bathroom, went for a wee, came back. She was eating it. Ruth was like, oh my God, oh my God. Ruth was just, chocolate hanging out of her mouth. Why are you doing the impression? Because that looks really bad. That's what you were doing.

Ha ha ha ha. You were holding them near your mouth and you were going. Can you make me sound ill? No, you were going, no, you were going, oh my God. Ruth, you put it. And I was like, what? This is insane.

And then it was the day after that, 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. Two 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

with 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 Please. Chocolate's great though. Chocolate's amazing. What's your favourite chocolate? Honestly just a straight dairy milk like Capra's. Yeah I love a favorite chocolate? Honestly, just a straight dairy milk, like. Cappers. Yeah, I love a roses. I love a lint milk. A ball.

Ball. No, just a straight lint milk. Straight lint milk. Straight lint milk or. What do you like dark chocolate then? I like dark chocolate. No. I like a lint, I will admit it.

I've trained myself. But in terms of an actual enjoyment factor, I like the lint with the hazelnuts. That's the best one. It's like, don't they say they brag about how many nuts are in it, don't they? 70% hazelnut. They really go on about how many nuts are in it. Makes, I think, 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? I kind of get it now, is the truth. It's all sort of... 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 like down on LA and be like, and I'm not, we had such a,

such a sort of magical time there. You 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 you've got no family. There's not massive culture. There's no real architecture, you can't really go to the theatre, it's a one industry town, it's quite an isolated existence, a lot of the time you're in a car driving around, you're certainly 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 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 something like that. Somebody will go God, you know pissing down with rain and they'll oh God, I'm very glad you came back to this. And I sort of want to shake him really and be like, 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, 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 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, 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 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 with James. Okay. This is my trick okay okay all right as Nessa I'm going to go for osso buco because I tell you what I what I loves about that. You know, 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 also can't go wrong with some fish and chips from Buffy's and Not gonna lie. I do like sticking my teeth into a good rib eye Is that before the osso buco or after the ossobuco? I love the ossobuco as a starter. Where's the fags coming?

You have a fag break and then you go in for the rib eye. It has to be rare. What are you drinking, Nessa? Always a pint of wine. LAUGHTER always a pint of wine. That was amazing. Pudding, Smithy. You're going to have a bit of Smithy. I don't go near the sweet stuff. I'm always a cheese eater. I like the good selection. I'll go for the hard. I'll go for the soft. You know, I don't want to intimidate anybody.

I like someone to feel comfortable. Oh 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 first probably, what's the lovely steak they do where they kind of... Steak Tatin?

No, I think... Teriyaki steak, no? Wagyu? Wagyu. Wagyu. Yeah, from Rocker. Oh, is it? Good Rocker. I've never been. And then, you know, and then I'd have for the dessert, the chocolate.

Oh, the fondant. The fondant thing with the green tea. Yes, the matcha box thing. Now, James, are you going to give Smithies last supper? Smithies would be lamb buna, chicken buna, prawn buna, mushroom rice, baguette chips, keema naan and nine poppadoms. And a sagaloo. I'll have a sagaloo please, Nick.

For dessert, look, I don't care what you say, make up what you want about it. I just like Vianetta. I know. I just like Vianetta. Leave it out. Leave it out. Let it stand. That's the problem. That's the problem.

No-one lets it stand. You're impatient. He lets it down and then you get the crack. And what's... But if you leave it lets it down and then he get the crack. Ha ha ha ha. And what's... But if you leave it too long, you don't get that. I'm not gonna leave it too long, am I now? What's Smithy drinking? He's going vodka red volation, isn't he?

Er... No, I think he'd have... We'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 Brinn get so drunk on archers? Because he doesn't ever drink alcohol.

I know. He doesn't have so anything. Is archers still a thing? Archers and lemonade. I don't know. That's what I drank when I was like 15. Yeah, same. But do they still serve it?

I imagine so, yeah. In Barry, yeah. And guys... And if it was me for real, I'd have smoked salmon to start Beef Wellington and I love a profiterole. Me too. 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. Yeah. Yeah. Good, solid profiterole. And like an eclair if you're in a bakery, sure. I rarely pick up an eclair. Really? Oh, I've sat. Your gift is you can eat an eclair in a car wash.

With one chew. Yeah. You can actually consume a whole eclair without chewing it. And I have been known to sit in a car wash with an eclair. Oh yeah. Or maybe four. Yeah. And that is my idea of heaven. Sit in a car wash. All of our shame-eatings happen in car washes.

I ate a yard of dairy milk in a car wash once. Guys, you have been such a treat. 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 come back. Does anyone want a mint? Oh my god!

Wow, that was a lot of Gavin and Stacey and I was here for it. That was darling. I know darling. 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. It made me cry. I know.

They were crying on like the first question. I know but I was crying too and then you... Maybe it was that bottle of champagne that they had at lunch. Maybe it was yeah. Gavyn and Stacey is out on Christmas Day. Well everyone must have their recorder on that. And for people that maybe haven't watched Gavyn 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 Just a bit disappointing. No tattoos. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week.