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Gavin & Stacey star Ruth Jones to reprise role on BBC show
Gavin & Stacey first aired on the BBC back in 2007 before coming to an end last year.
The last ever episode of the hit BBC sitcom aired on Christmas Day in 2024 and was watched by more than 19 million viewers.
The 90-minute finale was the most-watched TV programme on Christmas Day in 23 years.
The best Christmas TV specials of all time
Ruth Jones to reprise her role as Nessa from Gavin & Stacey in new BBC programme
Now, for the first time in nearly a year, Nessa (aka Ruth Jones) will return to TV screens across the UK on Ruth And Steve: From Porthcawl With Love.
The Gavin & Stacey character will make a surprise appearance on the BBC programme on Monday (December 15), in which Jones shows friend and fellow actor Steve Speirs around her hometown on the Welsh coast.
Speirs, whose TV credits include The Tuckers and Upstart Crow, meets Nessa when he explores the Coney Beach amusement park with Jones.
Ruth Jones and Steve Speirs reunite for another Welsh trip down memory lane, in Ruth’s hometown of Porthcawl 🏴 #RuthandSteve : From Porthcawl with Love #iPlayer pic.twitter.com/6kf2L107xO
— BBC Wales 🏴 (@BBCWales) December 15, 2025
Speaking at a screening of the programme in Porthcawl, he said: “I’d never acted with Nessa, and I think this is an absolute credit to the character that Ruth created, that when Ruth gets into all that gear, there’s a massive metamorphosis.
“And when I went to act with that character, I just had this really wicked feeling, that I wasn’t acting with Ruth, like something else had taken over.
“I tried to respond in the way that anybody that wasn’t from that world would, you know, which is quite astonished by this character.”
Speirs continued: “It wasn’t like Ruth at all.”
“I think that there was such an iconic character created that there’s a moment where we all look at that and sort of believe it’s two people, and that’s [Jones’s] talent.”
During the programme, Speirs also meets Jones’s mother, siblings, and two of her lifelong friends.
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How to watch Ruth And Steve: From Porthcawl With Love
Ruth And Steve: From Porthcawl With Love follows the pair as they explore the seaside town, around 20 miles down the South Wales coast from Barry Island.
As Porthcawl celebrates its 200th birthday, Jones reminisces about her childhood, sharing old home movies put together by her late father Richard.
Ruth And Steve: From Porthcawl With Love will be broadcast on BBC One Wales on December 15 at 9pm.
