Alison Steadman reveals the one Gavin and Stacey scene that convinced her to do the show

Alison Steadman has claimed that ‘Gavin and Stacey’ was only written after she agreed to do the show.

The 78-year-old television veteran initially played matriarch Pam Shipman in the BBC Three comedy series from 2007 until 2010 after having previously worked with creators Ruth Jones and James Corden on Kay Mellor's 'Fat Friends' in the years prior, and she laughed "so much" at a speculative script for the pilot that her co-stars decided to write the full series.

She told Prima Magazine: “I’d worked with Ruth and James on ‘Fat Friends’, and they sent me one episode.

“The first scene I read was the one when Pam’s lying on the couch with slices of cucumber on her eyes.

“Gavin comes home from work, and says: ‘All right, Mum?’ And she says: ‘No, I’m not actually. I’ve been watching this programme about these badgers, and they’re crying because the little badgers have died.’

“He says: ‘Mum, badgers don’t cry.’ And she says: ‘Gavin, I know what I saw.’

“It just made me laugh so much. Having said: ‘Yes, I’ll do it,’ they wrote the first series.”

The series followed the lives of the Shipmans and the Wests, who become intertwined Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Stacey (Joanna Page) begin a long-distance relationship from Essex and South Wales respectively.

The show returned in 2019 for a festive special which ended on a cliffhanger which Nessa Jenkins (Jones) proposed to Neil 'Smithy' Smith (Corden), and will be back on screen over the upcoming Christmas period to answer all questions.

Filming has since taken place in Barry Island, Wales, and it recently wrapped up, with the cast bidding a final farewell to the show.

Alison added: “It was wonderful to meet up again with Ruth and James for this year’s Christmas special. And with all the cast.

“They are like our family to me.”