Gavin And Stacey star questions if finale will be last episode of sitcom

By Naomi Clarke, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter

Gavin And Stacey star Larry Lamb has said he sees a future in which the beloved sitcom makes another return, adding: “I just can’t see that the golden goose is going to get killed.”

The BBC comedy is due to come to an end on Christmas Day with a 90-minute finale after the show last aired in 2019 for a one-off festive episode which ended on a cliffhanger, as Vanessa “Nessa” Jenkins, played by Ruth Jones, proposed to James Corden’s character Neil “Smithy” Smith.

The hit TV series, which followed the titular couple falling in love despite one living in Essex and the other in Wales, aired for three series between 2007 and 2010 and returned for a Christmas special in 2008.

The original cast all return for the finale, including Lamb who will reprise his role as Michael “Mick” Shipman, the father of Gavin Shipman, played by Mathew Horne.

Appearing on ITV’s Loose Women on Friday, Lamb said: “Every time we we finish, it’s always the last one. It’s like we’re some old rock and roller who is going off for his last world tour, he’s been doing the last world tour for 40 years.

“But I just can’t see that the golden goose is going to get killed.

“I think, sooner or later, somebody’s going to be knocking on the door saying, ‘Do you think you could do another one?’.”

However, Corden, who co-wrote the show with Jones, has been firm this will be the last episode as he said the show “cannot carry on” after the Christmas Day episode.

He told Hits Radio on Friday: “It can’t carry on, it genuinely can’t. And you’ll realise that there’s certain moments that happen in the episode which make it very, very clear that the show cannot carry on.

“We as writers wouldn’t know how to carry on that story.”

Lamb revealed that from the moment he read the script he knew it was going to be “something special”.

“You’re going to get thrown up in the air over and over again. It’s absolutely extraordinary,” he said.

“I sat with Alison (Steadman), we were side by side, and by the end of it the pair of us were weeping. It was just really so emotional.”

Reflecting on how he has changed over the years, Lamb believes he has become more like his character.

The 77-year-old actor said: “I think the nice side of Mick has really got its way into me, which is not to say I was the nastiest person on earth, but I certainly wasn’t as nice as Mick back then.

“I feel now that I’m a lot more like him. I think he’s just a really extraordinary man.”

He also revealed that in the back story he created for Mick, the character experienced a “rough start” which is why he is “bound and determined not to repeat any of that”.

“He’s devoted to his wife and his family because, I think, perhaps he realised when he was a kid that’s how it could be it, but he wasn’t getting it,” he said.

“Which is the way it was for me, that terrible embarrassment you suffer when you’re a child and you’re watching your world fall apart and you just want it all to come back together again, it’s really awful and I just feel Mick had that.”

Gavin And Stacey: The Finale will air on BBC One from 9pm on Christmas Day and will also be available on BBC iPlayer.