Gavin & Stacey’s Christmas special script left Larry Lamb in tears

Larry Lamb has revealed the script for Gavin & Stacey’s Christmas special left him in tears.

The BBC confirmed this week that Gavin & Stacey would return in 2019 for a one-off special.

Airing this Christmas, the episode was announced by creators and writers Ruth Jones and James Corden on Tuesday.

“Over the last ten years we’ve talked a lot about Gavin and Stacey – where they might be today and what their lives might look like,” they said. “And so in secret we took the plunge and wrote this one hour special. We’ve loved revisiting Barry and Essex again and bringing the characters back together has been a joy.”

Larry Lamb, who plays title character Gavin’s father Mick, said today the script reduced him to tears.

“It’s amazing what [James] and Ruth have managed to do, I finally read the script and it really got me,” he told ITV’s This Morning. “I just started to read the first little sequence and I just found myself crying – it was just like running into somebody who was a major part of your life and you are just so happy about it.

“It didn’t really matter what they were doing – it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t anything… It was just so poignant and I immediately was into the feeling of the whole thing and it just took me along.”

Assuring fans they were in for a treat, Larry added: “By the time I read the script I thought ‘wow, they managed to do it’.

“It’s extraordinary.”

Gavin & Stacey originally broadcast over three series (plus a Christmas special) from 2007 to 2010 on the BBC.

The sitcom follows Gavin (Mathew Horne), an ordinary boy from Essex in England and Stacey (Joanna Page), an ordinary girl from Barry in Wales, spoke on the phone to each other every day at work, they finally met, fell in love and got married.

Mathew told BBC Radio 5 Live of the upcoming special episode: “There’s very, very little I can give away – suffice to say he’s a little bit tired… and he’s a dad with an almost grown up child.

“I think the audience will be pleasantly surprised and warmed by what they see… I have every confidence people are going to really like it.”

He added: “The script is really beautiful, it’s really funny and it’s really heartwarming. I think there’ll be laughter and tears. Ruth and James have done an incredible job particularly considering they live in different countries.”

Gavin and Stacey will air on BBC One on Christmas Day.