That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Ruth Jones

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

Ruth Jones joins Gaby Roslin for a chat about bringing people joy through her characters and writing - and - the things that make her smile. Ruth is known for co-creating Gavin & Stacey, and playing the iconic character of Nessa, as well as Fat Friends, Stella and several novels along the way too. She chats to Gaby about how much her stories and characters have meant to her, and others, and how now - as she approaches 60 - she's taking a different approach to life.

Ruth Jones, at last, you are, honestly, look, my hand is on my heart. You are honestly a reason to be joyful. Oh, bless you. So you being on reasons to be joyful is like a double whammy of joy. That's such a nice thing to say. But I really, really mean it. Oh, thank you. You're a very special person.

Can we just talk about something that I don't think I can look at you because I'm obsessed with Runaway. Oh, I know. It's gone down so well. The world number one show. Oh, it's insane. It's insane. The thing is, I mean, I was really flattered to be offered the part,

and I thought, oh, this will be really different, and playing a private investigator. I thought, oh, yeah, I quite like the sound of that. And that you'd go and you'd film and you'd do it, and you work with great people. I loved working with Jimmy Nesbitt. But then you kind of don't think any more about it. And then when it comes out, and it's like so many people.

I'm watching it. It's quite overwhelming. Well, just so you know, it's not just watching it. We've devoured it. And I'm saying we, because when I walk, if I'm on the train or I'm on the tube or walking or whatever, you just keep hearing people talking about it. And I talk on all the different radio shows and TV shows about it. And then people come on, oh, so you've seen it. Oh, can I talk about that bit?

Can I talk about that bit? Did you realize when you were making? I mean, I know Harlan's stuff, Harlan Coben stuff. is huge. But did you realise when you were making it it was going to become a world obsession? I mean, and I'm not exaggerating. You know you're number one in the world.

Well, I didn't realize because things tend to go a little bit over my head. So I know on the read-through day, there was this talk, all these people sat around this massive table. And then Harlan was there and he was saying, this is going to land on net-firm. Netflix on January 1st in something ridiculous like 140 countries or whatever and so many people

are going to be watching it. And I was still like, oh right, I just didn't really take on the enormity of it. But since it's gone out, the number of people that come up to me and say how much they're enjoying it. How lovely. Yeah, it is. It's hugely complementary. Is it a, no, it's not a relief because I know the Gavin and Stacey means well to you and Stella and everything. But is it, there's a sort of a part of you that thinks, oh, you see, I can do other things. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

And actually, people coming up and talking about Runaway has sort of replaced people coming up and saying about Gavin and Stacey. And Stella, actually, but Gavin and Stacey in particular. And, yeah, like you say, it's not that I'm, oh, gosh, good. I'm glad that's gone, because of course I'm not. But it is nice to go, oh yeah, you know, life moves on. And new things come into your life. And yeah, and who'd have thought I'd have been a gun-toting ex-firearms officer and a private investigator who steals a dog?

But that means you can do anything. Isn't that the joy of our acting, though? You can be anything. Well, I have to say, when they told me about doing this sequence with the firearm, because, I mean, I'm not giving away too much for people who haven't seen it, but there's a sequence where there's a flashback, and my character in a previous life was a firearms officer. And then she got injured, and then 25 years later,

she becomes a private investigator. And when they told me, that was one of the first things I had to film when we started filming. Oh, really? The flashback. Yeah, the flashback. And this is about a year ago. And I did say to them, look, I'm not being funny, but I am now, I was, was, yeah, 59 when we filmed it.

And this is, I meant to be playing somebody who's 25 years younger. And let's face it, somebody now, obviously I'm not, the fitness level of somebody 25 years younger is going to be different from somebody who's 59. And I went, really? Are they going to believe that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine. So we did have like a body double for some of the sequences. But obviously they had to film me in certain close-ups and that.

I was just thinking, oh God. What am I going to look like? But it didn't, that honestly did not cross my... Did it not? I promise you, that's why I'm looking at it. I give you a funny look. But you know what I think it is? I think because a lot of my work has been comedy,

when I do take on a serious role, and I have played serious roles and other things, but my kind of way of thinking is, I think, I have to absolutely throw myself 100% into this because if there's a tiny little chink in my comedy armour, I'm going to start kind of seeing the funny side of it. So I had to really, really believe I was that firearms officer.

You know, but I was like going in and I was going over there, over there. Get down, get down. And it's sort of inwardly kind of I wanted to laugh. But I thought, no, you've got to really believe that you are this person. But you know, I have to do training with guns and everything. It was like proper serious stuff. But I believe that's so interesting that that's how you thought of it. because to me you're an actor.

But I believed you with that person. I didn't think, oh, that's funny. It didn't cross my mind. Yeah, I know what you mean. I know what you mean. But I just really enjoyed it. And she's such a lovely character. Oh, she's because she's not, you know,

because she's got her own story, which runs alongside the main story of the series. And also I loved the on-screen relationship with Jimmy and his character because I felt like there was a really nice it was really refreshing to have a male-female relationship which was not a

you know which was not a romance do you know that weirdly that's what I was going to say you took the words out of my mouth I found that so refreshing because I'm really it's like not another one about oh do you think will they won't they yeah no no they don't have to it was funny though because we filmed this scene

in the hospital where, and it's one of the first times that our characters sort of talk to each other, and I remember filming that scene, and it was so enjoyable. Because, you know, Jamie Nesbitt's a really top actor, right? And I was, oh, I thought, God, I've got to stay on top of my game here because, you know, he's really, really good. He's naughty, though. He's very naughty. He's very naughty, been really, really good fun. But when we did this scene, there's a line in it where he says, oh, isn't it weird how, you know, we tell her, tell our children not to trust anyone and then look at us and I have to say well who says I trust you and he then he then says are we having a moment and I actually in that when we filmed it I actually

had to say no we are not which I thought was brilliant because it showed that kind of relationship that it was it was no way is it going to be romantic but they cut that line and I was really surprised because I thought oh that's a shame because now you've made it ambiguous. I don't think people would have interesting. No, I know, and because you were so close to it, as a viewer who watched it, and I have to be

honest with you, I watched it in two nights. Wow. I couldn't stop. It was it was a compulsion. I was like, no, I just didn't no, phone, nothing, go way, world. Do you know what's funny, though? Because I've spent

a bit of time with Harlan Coburn and I was fortunate when I went to New York recently. His show, Lazarus, was out, and I went to the screening of that, and he was being interviewed. And he said, somebody said to it, how do you have all these really crazy, extreme, violent images and ideas in your head? And he said, I think it's because in my real life, I'm so grounded and happy, got a great family. And, you know, all his family were there at the screening. And he's such a lovely gentle guy. And he's such a lovely gentle guy. And I just thought that was really interesting.

Well, for all of us, he actually, because I'm lucky enough to have interviewed him as well. And what I always say to him, and it's what to you as well as a writer, you're a writer as well with your writing hat on and acting hat. You are all what we need right now really badly because the world is a frightening place and there's a lot of bleatless and darkness. And we need that escapism. And actually that's what your show Runaway did for... I just escaped. Did you?

I totally, for two nights. And when it was over, I felt grift. Oh. It's like, oh. And also I've done that awful thing. Well, I don't know what to watch now. Nothing's going to be as good. But do you think, though,

because it's interesting, isn't it, the way that now our TV viewing habits have changed and so with streaming, you can do exactly what you did and binge watch something. I mean, I binge watch loads of, loads of stuff. But I was remembering when line of duty came out and you couldn't

watch that all in one go. And some of those cliffhangers were so painful. Well the night manager was doing it at the moment. Yeah. Because it's weekly. Yes. And I do wonder, is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? That you can watch everything in one go. I have this conversation with my husband all the time. Because he liked it to how it used to be, and then I like binging. But when we were watching the night manager, he then says, oh, well, now I can't remember what happened last week. I could, there we are!

And then you get the update at the beginning. But, yeah, I do. See, I love a cliffhanger, but I want more. But I'm always the person. I'll have somebody gives me one scoop of ice cream, one, what's another one. Yeah, yeah. So I just, if I'm really enjoying something. Yes.

To binge or not to binge, this is the question. Well, well, it's Harlan Coburn and you, Ruth Jones, you have to. It's actually, I think it might be a rule. It's law. It is law, but you have to do it. But being in a show like that as well and the world watching it, is it quite a surreal thing to know that, like you say, 140 countries or whatever, that your number, it says, number one in the world, that everybody's

jumped on that. Is that, can you fathom the amount of people? No, no, I can't. And I think in some ways, you know, nowadays we have so much access to so much. We can find out what's happening on the other side of the world by tapping our phone. We can be absolutely saturated with information, a lot of it really negative. And so I just like to toot long and just, you know, do my thing. Toot is good. Great if people enjoy it. But see, you have to also go, well, by the same token,

if that wasn't number one and if it was being slated, do you then buy into that as well? Do you not believe? Don't believe the good, then you don't believe for that. Yeah, exactly. So it's not so much that I don't believe it, because I genuinely am. I'm delighted that it's so... But you can't really absorb it.

It's like when the millions watched Gavin... I mean, obviously all of the series, but, you know, the finale. And millions are you get suddenly, millions of people are watching telegain. You can't, I presume you can't think, oh, one, two, three. Seven for a hundred. There's seven million, you know, whatever it is. You can't really fathom... No, no.

But isn't it a lovely feeling to know that you're... giving something to all of us. I mean, in particular with Gavin and Stacey and Stella as well to an extent, when I meet people a lot, and I've had letters and things, when people have said, oh, Gavin and Stacey got me through a really bad time in my life, got me through divorce or illness or bereavement. And that's great. That's so lovely.

I did a book event once, and this lady handed me. And so I was like signing books. And then this lady handed me a note. And she said, oh, just read it afterwards. So I kept it and I read it. And she just said that her daughter had been really badly bullied in school. And that Gavin and Stacey had really got her through it. It was like a little sanctuary for her.

I thought, oh, that's nice to know that you've done, that the show has done more than just entertain people. But it's been a little bit of a distraction, I suppose. Isn't that wonderful? Because I get that that's what you want people to do. You're sort of, you want to give everything out there and make people feel good and you're very kind and all the rest of it. But surely with, again, with Gavin and Stacey, you probably didn't realize that it was going to have that effect. No.

Not at all. I mean, James and I, we talk about it a lot. Like, well, you know, when people, so we've just done a couple of book events. because we brought out this book, Gavin and Stacey, when Gavin met Stacey and everything in between. And it's really the story of our friendship. And so it was really good to go back over, you know, that whole journey because it's like being, well, our friendship has been like a 25-year friendship.

And just to be able to, because people say, did you know Gavin and Stacey was going to be so big? Well, of course, how can you possibly know that? You don't. It was a little show that started on BBC 3. and then for whatever reason that James and I cannot work out, it took off. And I think it's just that people recognised maybe themselves, recognised their lives. And it was funny.

Yeah. And it was warm and it was kind and it was not nasty. No, no. And we don't, I think on the whole, people don't want nasty. No. I don't think they do. I mean, some people do. And hey, isn't it great that you can have it?

You can have it if you want to choose it. Yes, exactly. But I think on the whole more people, choose kindness now, I think they want it, if they're out of choice. Yeah. And Gavin and Stacey was kind of warm. It was warm, wasn't it? I think it was the people and they were laughing with each other and not at each other.

And I think that's why, and also it was a bit bonkers in places, you know, like, A bit? My character was just, you go, really? Did you really do all those things in your life? And it was great to have the license to do that, to be able to say things like, I'm only 29, I've got the rest of my life ahead of me. You're not 29, Nessa.

How can you possibly be 29? She will stay with you forever, but that is a really loving, in a loving way. You're never going to be separated from her, but everybody will, from runaway and all the other things. And people will go, oh, okay. We love Nessa, but Ruth Jones as, do you know what I mean?

Yeah. But I think people can separate you. Yeah. But I will always, you know, I love going into a bit of Nessa. And people send me photos of people going on hen nights and things all dressed up as Nessa. I think because you had such a distinctive look and the look never changed in 17 years. She still had the same head. Was it your idea, the whole, the look as well?

Yeah, it happened accidentally. when we started filming, so gosh, which was 2006. About three weeks ago. I know. 20 years ago, that was mad. 20 years ago. And I remember we were on a very small budget and the idea that we'd had for Nessa's look

was that she would have very sort of scraped back hair with highlights, like really extreme highlights. And I went to a hairdresser to get this done but with TV production companies, often they send you to a really kind of high-class hairdresser. So the highlights were really subtle. It just didn't say anything about your character at all.

And then I was going to Mark Gatis's 40th. Again, I mean, he must be 60 this year, because, yeah, which makes me feel very old. But it was his 40th. And it was fancy dress, and it was 60s was the theme because he would have been born in the 60s like me. And I went to Shepard's Bush Market and I bought this little black bob wig

and I thought, oh yeah, that looks quite cute and 60-ish. And I took a photo of myself, and it was when, you know, it was before iPhones, and I sent, so it was quite a grainy little photo on my Nokia, and I sent it to Chris Gernan, our director, and I said, oh, I said, oh, do you like this look? I was just wondering about Nesson, she went, oh, who's that? And I went, well, it's me, and she couldn't believe it. It was so sort of transforming. And so, yeah, we went from there.

And we didn't have enough time because we were about to start filming. And fortunately, this is so random, K. Mella had given me, for my 40th, my wig that I wore as Kelly in Fat Friends. Oh, my God. And so I had, she gave it to me as a present. As you do. As you do. And so I had, and it was blonde. And I had it cut, dyed black and put into this style.

And, yeah, so the wig I wear into it. Series 1 is actually Kelly Chattleth's wig. Oh my word. Yeah. I loved fat friends as well. Yeah, it was lovely. I mean, that came back on Netflix recently and last year and went to like number two. And you think, gosh, but that must have been so dated because that was, we filmed that in 2000 and two, through 2004.

So that's five weeks ago then. Yeah. If 2006 were three weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. But I remember it so vividly.

It had an amazing impact. I'm Kay Miller. Oh, God, dressed her soul. She was a genius. She really was. And a huge, huge loss to the world and to TV because she got telly. She really did. And she knew about people.

And also, she was incredibly generous, you know, with new writers. Like, I got my break with her because I wrote an episode of Fat Friend because she'd encouraged me. And, yeah, hugely grateful to Kay. And also, that's where I met James. So all that history there. So when you, so you auditioned only one place, Royal Welsh, is that right? Yes, it wasn't royal in my day. It was just the Welsh College of Music and Drama or the Welsh College of Mucous and Trauma.

We jolly students used to call it. Did you enjoy it, though? Was it traumatic? Did you like drama? No, no, we just, I was just a joke. Did you enjoy it? Well, truthfully, I went to Warwick, uni before that. And I had the best, best three years.

It was fabulous. Then I went straight to drama school. And I sometimes think, I should have maybe had a little break because it was such a change of routine. You know, you've gone from 15 hours a week to 40 hours a week of intense, like doing all these fitness classes,

voice classes and all that. So I don't know if I... I wouldn't want to say I didn't, you know, because obviously it was part of my journey. Was it, did you do a year? Or did you do three years? Right, one year. Yeah.

But I think, you see, the thing is for me, acting was always about playing, and it was just fun. And I think when you go to drama school, I'm not saying this as everybody's experience. I went to drama school, so I did three-year course. Right. So I know exactly what you're talking about, but I... And I just found it sometimes a bit serious for me, because I just wanted to have a laugh, really. That's the problem. No, we, the teacher, you know, okay, what's everybody's flight plans?

and it was sort of RSE National. I want to be a Saturday morning Kids TV presenter. Okay. And I thought, oh, God, behave. And every time there was a musical, I do, can I do the falling over bit? No, there's no falling over in here. Oh, it'd be really funny.

No. Yeah, so I get you. Yeah. I hear you. And I think sometimes as well. I loved it, though. I have to say I did love it. Which way did you go?

To Gilfers School of Iceberg. Oh, wow. I did love it, but going straight from university, so I only had those three years. You had three years of university, which you said you loved. Yes. And then it's very intense a one-year course. Yeah, it was.

It was intense. And I didn't really, when I came to the end of it, I didn't feel terribly happy, if I'm honest, because everybody else seemed to be getting an agent. I didn't get an agent. And I just didn't know what I was going to do with myself. But I was very lucky that my friend, Dominic Cook, who's highly regarded theatre. He's now directing he's the artistic director of the Almada Theatre but he and I were friends at uni

and he set up this touring production of the marriage of figure the play version not the opera but you can sing you could have well we didn't it wasn't yeah yeah but it was the play and he did an adaptation of it and it was really good fun and we did a UK tour of it and so when I

I did my time in drama school and then went to this you know did this tour and I just thought oh fantastic I can this is it now I've become an actor but back in those days

you had to have an equity card and you you know you couldn't get an agent if you didn't have an equity card and it was all that catch 22 and the company that Dominic had set up was not an equity company we got paid but it wasn't an equity company

because it was new and yeah so I found myself at the end of the tour having had this great experience just applying for jobs in the back of the stage not getting anywhere at all and I decided I thought

I'm going to have to give up and I'll become a lawyer and that's what I was going to do was move back to Wales and become a solicitor Thank God that didn't have until you were a ninja turtle is that right?

Yes well because of the equity card thing because I didn't have an equity card I moved back to Wales because I'd been living in London I'd been temping at Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council and I moved back to Wales I was going to do a conversion course

to become my solicitor but during the time when I'd been writing letters and applying for things in the back of the stage I'd sent a letter to a producer in Porthcourt, which is my hometown about the pantomime that they did there every year

and he gave me a break and he just said you know you can come and be an assistant stage manager shift scenery, make props oh and be a ninja turtle at the end of the show and fight King Rat, King Rat.

So I did that and I got my equity card doing that. See? Yeah. It was all meant to... I mean, I do believe and I know people always go, but I do believe that things happen for a reason and that was...

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And for all the other young actors out there now who are wanting to do to go into the industry, you never know, it could just be the Ninja Turtle that gets you there. But I think, I do think now,

it's in some ways you've got far more ways of getting into the industry also you don't have to be in equity I mean I'm still in equity because it was such a we wanted it so we needed it so badly yeah yeah but you know you don't have to do that you've got ways now of you know people doing self tapes and all of that and you can do your own show rule and you can put yourself online gosh I mean you know in my day you had to get your 10 by 8 photo done print up your CV send it out to Carson Dube and send it out to Carson D directors and hope for the best. Oh my word. It was a different time, but I don't think there's ever, what I don't like, I don't know

if you feel the same, that when people say, oh, it's not like the old days, or it's not like the golden days. No, each time is a golden time. It's just a new golden time and new things to look at. So where did the writing come in then? How did that all come about? Well, when we did fat friends, we did it, there was quite a gap between series one and series two and I just found myself not getting any work at all right and I just thought well I

know my way around a TV script now and I just wanted to try something so again Kay Maller was really really helpful and I wrote this thing which was awful and she was very kind she put you know she picked out the good bits type of thing and then I and then I and then I had this idea for a two-part drama really about a woman who had an affair with somebody when she was younger and then met that person again 17 years later and I wrote it and it was a two part and I sent it off to various people

and nobody wanted to know forgot all about it really but what was what was weird was that 15 years later I found it in my laptop I was just going through stuff and I found it and I thought oh gosh I forgot about this read it and I thought well there's a lot wrong with it but it's a good story and so just for as a labour of love I started turning into prose fiction and that became my first novel which was never

greener oh how wonderful yeah so and so I never intended to do that but it to be an author but that's that's how it all kind of came about and I think when you're an actress or an actor you you have an ear for dialogue and so you know how scripts work so I think it just kind of lent itself to that going on to write so I wrote an episode of Fat Friends not in the second series

but by the time we got to series four and then Kay asked me to write an episode of this other thing she was doing about a vet so I'd had that little bit of experience and then James and I got together to write Gavin's day so that's very different from writing the novels yeah I mean you know

million-selling, best-selling novelist as well. And the books, your books read, like, I can hear you in your book. Can you? And they're very visual. Yeah, maybe that's from... Wonderfully visual. The TV thing, I suppose, as well. Like, maybe in my head I'm imagining scenes.

Would you make, do you write thinking of making them for TV or film? No, I don't. And it's funny, a lot of people ask me that, but nobody's... Nobody wants to make my books into TV. Although, no, I think possibly my most recent one, there's a little bit of a glimmer of hope with that one. Oh, my goodness. But no, and I think in a way,

because often people will ask me at book events, who would you cast as Callum from Nevergreener on the TV? And I go, I don't really, you know, the novel. They're real people to you because they're a novel. Yeah. And also the novel is the novel. It's not a TV. I'm not writing it with that intention.

But do people want... So taking off the author hat and the TV writer hat, now you're putting a TV writer hat on, are you thinking at the same time while you're writing... Are you doing another novel at the moment? Am I meant to be? Yes. But are you forever thinking of TV ideas as well?

Or do they just sort of... Do you wake up... What's the sudden story about you waking up a lamp? Or was that, no, then it was not a true story. Is there some weird story about you waking up, waking up and screaming at a lamp? Is that a true story?

But it's more about, it's not really to do my writing, it's more to do with, I used to get real bad dreams. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that one. I'm traumatized. No, when I used to go, like when I went to university, if I was in a strange place, if I was sleeping in a strange place, I'd often have these night terrors, like really bad. Like, one of them was me waking at, I woke, what I would often do is I'd wake up and I'd be screaming in the middle of the room.

Often I'd have these like spider dreams where there'd be spiders coming down from the ceiling. But sometimes it would be about, it's so grim now, but about being attacked. And so there was one time, I remember I was in the hotel, I was filming away. And I woke up and I was screaming at this bedside line. who I thought was a journalist in my room. I mean, it's bonkers. Why would a journalist be in my room? And why had they taken the form of a bedside lamp?

So I was glad nobody could see it because obviously I felt a bit stupid screaming at this lamp. But I love that when I was doing my research on you, that that came up. I mean, and also that you wanted to be a giant leak. No, that's been misconstrued. Oh, okay. When I was seven...

You wanted to carry the league? I wanted to carry the league. Carry the league. Yeah, when I was seven, so I think I sort of already got a bug for enjoying performing, you know. And we, in school, we had a concert and my class had to sing a Max Boyce song called Morgan the Moon. And it was great for me. We all dressed up as rugby supporters, red and white hats and scarves. We had to make our own rosettes.

And... But Helen Shepard got to carry. the giant leak and I've always regretted that decision on my part of my teacher. Has Helen Shepard ever been in touch? No, I am. You know how traumatised. I'm really traumatized. I should have brought you a leak today to say you've got...

You know what? Next time I see you, I'm going to bring you a leak. Okay, thanks. We'll go for a walk and you can just carry the leak. Thank you. But I don't know if I can get a giant leap. No, it was made by. the teacher. Oh, it wasn't a real leak? I wasn't a real leak. Oh, gosh, no, it was about

five foot. Oh, when I said I'd bring you, I don't think I can make a giant. Well, I appreciate the gesture. I'll just get you a little leak. Not a baby leak. A full size leak. Well, of course, we wear a leak on St. David's Day. Or a daffodil. Or a daffodil. Yeah, and when I was in school, the boys used to wear a leak and they just used to love eating the leak raw and then just breathing on you, which was really delightful. That's very nice. That's so sweet, actually. Isn't it funny the memories that we keep from school? Oh, yeah. You've just reminded me of...

Well, St. David's Day, I always felt was a magical day because you know now, obviously, in schools you have Inset Days, aren't you? But back then, there were no days off. And you had... The only thing we had was we had a half day on St. David's Day. Did you really? And I used to love it. He used to be so exciting. And it was always, are you going to stay... you had to say whether you were going to stay for school lunch or not. And, yeah, and you could go home in the afternoon. Which is extraordinary, because St. David's Day is not particularly recognized nationally, you know, as in Britain, I don't feel. Well, we didn't know, but we do.

When it's St. David's Day, if I'm doing a show, we always talk about it. Oh, do you? I'm glad to hear that, because I always feel that St. Patrick gets a better deal in St. David. And St. Andrew, actually. Oh, no, I'm very aware. And St. George. But, you know, I always feel that David was, yeah, St. St. David was...

No, I'm... And I'm not Welsh, and I very much... I'm aware of it. Oh, well, thank you. I appreciate it. And I think of the daffodils and the leaks. I didn't realize you just wore one or the other. I think St. David, though, was quite an interesting person.

I always was told he was very short. Nothing wrong with that. But he stood in water for a very, very long time, like as a sort of a cleansing of his soul. And I just thought, gosh, what a thing to do? To just stand in water for a very, very, very long time. It's quite a religious thing though, isn't it? Yeah, I think it is. Yeah.

Yeah. I was lucky enough to go to Swansea last week. I'd never been to Swansea. What are amazing people. They were so friendly. But Wales is so important to you. You properly love where you're from. And I think that's, it's so much a part of what you share as well. It is important to you. The TV shows that you've done, obviously Gavin and Stacey and, but you've also done TV shows. of showing all of us whales. It's very special to you, isn't it? Oh, it is. It's hugely, I mean, both my parents, well, my dad's no longer here,

but my mum and dad are Welsh, my grandparents. I mean, I'm solidly Welsh. And one of the show, obviously Stella that I made was set up in the Welsh valleys. And I loved that, because it was the opportunity

to really celebrate the humour of Wales I grew up, I mentioned Max Boyce earlier, I grew up, me and my brothers and my sister listening to my dad would buy the latest Max Boyce album and it would be a recording of him in a rugby club or something and the jokes, often the jokes probably went over my head but they, I just used to love the warmth that you get with Welsh humour, you know, and the down-to-earthness, you know, really, really down to earth.

So yeah, I've always loved that extremity of reaction, you know, the melodrama. We can be very melodramatic. No, you don't want to do that. You know, these great, I love the accent. That's what I love. I love the accent. People all think that you're all singers as well. There's this thing.

But I'm not, honestly, I know many, we have a Welsh mutual friend. And she always laughs at me because I say, but how come everything. Welsh person I have met can sing beautifully but no it's just the one you've met but it is that whole thing when you go to Wales

I think because the Welsh language as well is very sing-songy and the people as you say are very full and say it as it is that song seems to surround you does that make sense

yeah it's the land of song and obviously we have a tradition of the Ice-Ded-Vodai where you were encouraging to sing as children. I mean, I go to rugby internationals. I don't really understand rugby, but I love it, and I love rugby days. And one of the things I love about it is singing Welsh hymns.

Because with all due respect to the rest of the Six Nations, Wales has got the best anthem and we sing the best songs at the rugby, definitely. And, you know, you get the harmonies and you, you... I just think it's so rousing when you're in a big stadium, especially when you're in Cardiff, there's nothing like it when you hear that all of those voices coming together and harmonising. And it's wonderful.

Oh, how lovely. And you sing, of course. We've seen, well, you and Rob were number one. Weren't you number one? Well, we did a charity song for comic relief, and we sang Islands in the Stream with Tom Jones, which was a fantastic. Didn't you go to number one with that?

Yeah, we did. That's so wonderful. But also, Sister Act. Yeah. Well, that was the most recent thing that you sung in. That was last, no gosh, not last year now. 24, I think I finished that, did I? I'm terrible with the dates.

But I, yeah, what happened was there's a part in Sister Act, which is the Mother Superior. And that's been done on stage, Sister Act, the musical, over the past few years. And so Jennifer Saunders has played her on stage. And it's always been deemed a kind of comic role. And I was asked to do it. And my initial reaction was absolutely no way.

There's no way I am, A, going on stage, because I hadn't been on stage for, I think it was 12 years or something. And there's no way I could sing. And there's no way I can sing on stage. because I've done musicals in school well Rob and I used to do musicals in school but the thought of doing it professionally in front of an audience

in the West End no absolutely no way anyway I was persuaded to do it and I am so glad that I did oh how wonderful because it was one of the best best best experiences of such a lovely cast you know Beverly Knight Alexander Burke and I just

I made some really great friends Leslie Joseph was in it just gorgeous woman And made some really, really good friends there. And it was a definite, I know feel like I was class this in my head. When somebody says, oh, no, I could never do that. I go, no, honestly, if I can go and sing in a West End musical, you can do it. Because it was a process.

And I remember distinctly having these singing sessions with the MD and reaching a point where I went, oh, oh, I did it then, didn't I? You know, and I listen now. You can get the soundtrack is available. And I listen to it. And I go, oh my gosh, I did that. That's you, you're singing. So everything, I feel like you're ready to embrace anything. Do you feel like that?

More than you used to maybe now? What I'm very conscious of is I turn 60, I will turn 60 in September. And I really don't want to wish my life away. And I'm really conscious of how quickly time goes by. And I know people say, oh, as you get older, time goes by quicker. I honestly think that's true. So I've reached a point now in my life, and I'm aware that I'm lucky to be able to say this. But I only want to do things that I want to do that give me joy.

I don't want, because I'm conscious that I'm, you know, my 50th, yeah. My 50th, I had a big celebration for my 50th. It feels like it was two years ago, and it's nearly 10 years ago. So I'm thinking, right, the next 10 years, I want to do as much as I can of what I really, really enjoy. Honestly, that's why I said it, because that's what I'm, oh, just not the water over. I'm getting that from you, that you just like, bring it to me. But for all the right reasons, with good people, with something good that's going to actually fill your heart. heart with joy. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can do it all. You can do it all. And you know,

it's, and it's not, it's not just about work at all. It's about being with people that I want to be with, you know, the, the, the, the, special people. Yeah. You don't need the toxic people. Yeah. And you can choose. Yes. The wonderful thing is you can also walk away and you can just say, I'm going to do that. And you can also say, bye-bye, I'm not going to do that. It's like that, you know, that poem, Virginia, I can't remember her name now, who wrote that great poem, but when I'm old, I shall wear purple and learn to spit. And you kind of think, you know, there's that sort of stereotypical phrase, isn't there, about being a grumpy old woman.

But it's not about being grumpy. It's not grumpy. It's about being selective and making the most. of your time, I think. Well, please carry on doing it. As I started, when I said at the beginning, is that you are a true joy spreader. You are so special, and what you put out

and what you do for a lot of people is very special. So I hope you do get it back in bucket loads, because you're utterly unique and you're very, very special. I really mean it. It's quite extraordinary. In here, I just want to just tell you how much everybody adores you but I do especially adore you. We always ask all of our guests on this to either bring something in or explain or show a picture or just tell us what brings you the most joy. So what would

that be for you, Ruth Jones? Can I have more than one? You can. I mean there are so many things that give me joy. I think being with the friends who I mean I'm still friends with friends that I'm new from school. They're my close friends. And of course I've got newer friends since then. I love being with, what I love is, obviously I love their company,

but it's having that shared history and that shared code of reference where you can laugh about something that happened when you were 16 or, you know, 23 or whatever. That is lovely. And I have got some friends who also works. So like Rob Bryden, for example,

is a really dear friend of mine. but we've got a shared history from school as well so that's really lovely and I just love laughing I love having a good laugh I'm working with another old friend of mine at the moment Steve Spears we're writing a show called Better Later for BBC and it's about two people who meet in a knee trauma clinic

and it came about because Steve and I got dodgy right knee he's got a dodgy left leg and he was telling me about the knee trauma clinic and I said, oh God, wouldn't it be good to write something that where two people meet, and they're really opposite, and they meet in this knee trauma clinic, and then we just sort of develop this idea. But when we're writing, we just have a really good laugh, and that is the joy of it.

It's like when I write with James, the joy of writing with James is when we have a really good laugh, and we get a bit hysterical. Like I said you about acting, I just like having a good laugh. I agree. So those sort of experiences are brilliant. I love being with my family. I've got two older brothers and that younger sister. And again, that shared code of reference

where you can just laugh about things that happened when you were little. And I think with siblings, your relationship kind of stays the same. And so you can say things to your siblings that perhaps you couldn't say to anybody else in terms of being quite rude sometimes, you know, which is great fun. I did a program back in the first. just last year, went out in December.

And it was about my hometown of Porthcall. And Porthcall gives me great joy, going back there because my mum and dad were there since the 50s. And my dad had a lot of Cine films. And we used that in the program. It's called, I did it with Steve, and it's called Ruth and Steve from Porthcall with love. And we used the Cine films as a sort of a,

to run through the program because it showed Porthcall back in the day. And that, to me, going back, going back there and having that center of love, really, and a place that I can go back to where my family are, my sister and my brother still live there and my mum. So Porthcall very much gives me joy. And it's also, it's an incredible place to go in the summer, but in the winter it's so dramatic. and I love being by the sea and all of those things. I think, you know, I mentioned to you about singing and singing at the rugby. That, to me, when singing, harmonising, if I, harmonising with my sister, a Welsh hymn gives me absolute joy.

I love that. What wonderful things you've just shared. And I can just, your face when you talk about them. Just you're glowing and smiling And that's how That's how it should be I think that's what joy should be I think so

And I also would just add one other thing Which is I love transformation I love seeing people Transform for the better You know One of my favourite programmes on TV is Stacey Solomon Sort Your Life Out

Oh I mean I just love it Because seeing when people Managed to to change a situation in their lives that's not benefiting them. And to see that clear out is fantastic. And we did a thing recently, which is kind of connected to transformation,

which is I'm moving house at the moment. And one of the things I found in the attic was two massive boxes of DVDs of Stella series one. And I thought, I mean, first of all, People don't really watch things on DVD anymore. I thought, what am I going to do with these? I spoke to Steve, who was in Stella, and I said, do you think we could do like a little charity night or something?

I can give these DVDs away. Anyway, this Stella night grew and grew. We ended up having an audience of 600. I didn't realize how popular it was. I was able to give out, put one of these DVDs on everybody's seat. And then we raised, like, I think we raised four, over 40 grand for these two charities. And I thought that is like planting a little seed and growing a nice plant out of it.

You know, something from a couple of boxes of DVDs growing it into this charity, great sort of fundraiser for these two charities in South Wales. So, yeah, it was great. Like I said, you're a total joy spreader. Oh, bless you. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's so nice.