For Rob Brydon, saying goodbye to his Gavin & Stacey family was always going to be a wrench. But even he was surprised how emotional filming the sitcom’s last ever episode – to be shown on Christmas Day – turned out to be.
“I thought it would be emotional at the end, and indeed it was,” says the man known to millions as Bryn West, the sweetly naïve uncle of Joanna Page’s Stacey. “But it was emotional all the way through – probably because we knew this would be the last episode. There will not be any more. And also because it’s been a sort of 20-year… I’ll avoid that word journey, but it’s been a near-20-year experience. And we all genuinely love each other.”
Around the central meet-cute story of an Essex boy and a Welsh girl, Gavin & Stacey introduced viewers to a large ensemble cast of beloved characters – and the moments Rob treasures most from the show are when the Billericay and Barry tribes come together. “I’m not allowed to give anything away, but there are scenes [in the finale] with more than a few people in them,” he says. “And that’s when I quite often found myself filling up.”
We know from the official BBC synopsis that the feature-length episode – the first since the last Christmas special, in 2019 – will see Bryn ‘packing the Picasso in readiness for a trip to Essex’. But are there any other nuggets Rob can share? “I can tell you there are surprises,” he teases. “I found the script very moving when I read it. Now we just all really hope it’s what the fans want, too.”
When we left them five years ago, Nessa (Ruth Jones) had just gone down on one knee and asked Smithy (James Corden) to marry her. As you’d expect, Rob is tight-lipped about whether the pair – and, indeed, Gavin (Matthew Horne) and Stacey themselves – will get their happy-ever-after ending. But can he at least promise it won’t make us angry? “Well, you never know, do you?” he smiles. “But if I was a betting man, I’d say you’re going to be happy.”
He had no idea, when shooting began on the first series in 2006, that the show would prove to be such a hit. “But I knew it was good, and the script really spoke to me. Bryn is a gift to me, because I can play him effortlessly,” he says of a role that’s earned him both a BAFTA nomination and a number one single (2009’s Barry Islands in the Stream, with Joneses Ruth and Tom). “I have a sort of seamless relationship with Bryn.”
He’s a man with secrets, though (not least the mysterious ‘fishing trip’ incident). Is it possible that sweet, kindly Bryn could actually be a psychopath? “Well, who knows?” says Rob, talking to Weekend from his kitchen table at home in Twickenham. “It’s never great when the actor says too much about this, because that’s the beauty of it. People are always asking me if we’re going to find out what happened on the fishing trip, and I think: do you really want to know?”
There is an adorably guileless quality to Bryn – a childlike naïf who approaches everything from Mint Baileys (“you think there can’t possibly be anywhere else to go with it – and then they come up with this!”) to in-car sat-nav with the same sense of wide-eyed wonder. But there are hints that he may have been bullied by his late brother, and a suggestion he might be supressing his sexuality. Has Rob worked out his own backstory for him? “You know what? I haven’t,” he says. “I think you are confusing me with Daniel Day-Lewis.”
Created by Ruth Jones and James Corden, Gavin & Stacey started small – less than a million people watched the original run on BBC Three –but grew into a huge word-of-mouth hit, with a colossal 18.4 million tuning into the 2019 Christmas special. Could it, in fact, be the last great national sitcom – in the grand tradition of Dad’s Army, Porridge, Only Fools, etc?
“I think so,” nods Rob. “I’m very aware of that. And I’m hugely grateful to be a part of it, because that’s what I grew up with. I grew up with programmes that brought everybody together. Everyone would watch Morecambe and Wise on Christmas Day, and then everyone would talk about it. And it’s a great shame we’ve lost that. So yes, it’s a good observation that Gavin & Stacey is the last one. There’s a huge affection for the show that’s unlike anything else I’ve been in. It reminds me of Friends, in so much as it’s a show you put on because you just like being in that world, with those people.
“It will be interesting to see how it does this time,” he reflects. “We had massive viewing figures for the last one. But of course, in the five years since, viewing has fragmented even further.”
One viewer who’ll definitely be turning in is G&S superfan Margot Robbie – whose passion for the show ended up landing Rob a small role as Sugar Daddy Ken in last year’s box office smash Barbie.
“The whole thing was nothing but enjoyable, because it came out of the blue,” he explains. “I had forgotten that I’d recorded a message for Margot’s birthday, as Uncle Bryn. Now you may think, ‘how could you forget that?’ But there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘they **say** she’s a big fan, but is she really going to see this? At best, this will be at the end of a tape where Tom Cruise and people like that have said hello’.
“Anyway, I get this part, and I go off the costume fitting at the studios in Leavesden, and there’s Margot. She’s charming, of course, and she says, ‘thanks for doing this – and thanks for the message’. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I thought I covered it pretty well. And then when I did my day on the film, she said, ‘you didn’t remember that message, did you?’” Oh dear. Busted by Barbie.
Attending the premiere with his wife, TV producer Clare Holland, was “a remarkable experience,” says Rob. “While I was off giving interviews, Clare got chatting to someone who’d admired her handbag. The next day, we were looking at the media coverage, and Clare said, ‘oh, that’s the woman I was talking to. It was Dua Lipa.”
Margot Robbie has another reason to be grateful to Sugar Daddy Ken. A few years ago, Ruth Jones told Weekend how Rob, a friend since their days at Porthcawl Comprehensive School in South Wales, had persuaded her not to give up on her acting dream, and helped her secure her first TV work. Later, he would provide similar encouragement to a young James Corden – so there’s a strong argument that Gavin & Stacey wouldn’t exist at all without Rob.
“Wow. Gosh. I genuinely never thought of it that way,” he says. “I’m very happy to go along with that – as long as you make it clear it was your observation. But yeah, I suppose so. Wow. I’m going to ask for a raise.
“That was another thing that made filming this episode so emotional,” he adds. “With Ruth, here’s someone I’ve known literally since we went to school discos together. And James as well. I’ve known James for 22, 23 years, and he’s had the most remarkable life experience. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. I have an almost paternal feeling for him.”
There appears to be a strong disconnect, suggests Weekend, between ordinary viewers who love Corden, and ‘very online’ social media bullies, for whom he is a favourite whipping boy. “Yeah,” nods Rob. “But I think people are starting to realise that with Twitter, or X, or any platform… It’s really just like eavesdropping in a pub. It’s like people slagging someone off at work. You really shouldn’t elevate it.
“I read an interview with actor, I forget who, who said, ‘what people think of my performances is really none of my business’. And I think it has to be that way. Let them have their opinions, and the people who create things and perform things… we’ll just keep trudging on, doing our thing.”
Rob has been trudging on, doing his thing for 40 years now. And the early years **were** a trudge: born in Baglan, Glamorgan, to a teacher and a car dealer, he studied drama at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, but left after a year to work as a DJ on BBC Radio Wales. He also did a presenting stint on the Home Shopping Network but, for 15 years, his biggest national exposure was voicing adverts for the likes of Pot Noodle and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes.
‘Have I worked out a backstory for Bryn? I think you must be confusing me with Daniel Day-Lewis’
His big break eventually came via one of his comedy heroes, Steve Coogan, whose Baby Cow production company commissioned two shows: the pitch-black comedy Human Remains, written with his friend and co-star Julia Davis, and Marion and Geoff, a mockumentary in which the then 35-year-old gave a career-making performance as Keith Barrett, a naïve taxi driver stoically chronicling the disintegration of his marriage from behind the wheel of his cab.
In the 25 years since, Rob has remained in constant demand, whether teaming up with Coogan to engage in verbal sparring and competitive Michael Caine impressions on The Trip, hosting the long-running panel show Would I Lie to You?, selling out theatres with his stand-up and cabaret shows, or making forays into Hollywood in films such as Cinderella and The Hunstman: Winter’s War.
He is also unique in having appeared in all 12 of the BBC’s festive adaptations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s classic children’s storybooks, starting with The Gruffalo in 2009, and continuing this Christmas Day with Tiddler – the much-loved story of a little fish who tells the tallest tales in the ocean.
“It just happened by chance,” he explains. “They got me in for the first one – I was the snake in The Gruffalo, which was terrific. And over time, I suddenly realised I’d been in them all. There was a stage where I thought, ‘oh, I hope they ask me again’. And at the risk of tempting fate, it’s a given now. I already know what I’m doing next year.”
In Tiddler, Rob voices several characters, including “a fisherman, a whale and an anchovy”. Is it his first anchovy? “It is,” he confirms. “And I can’t help thinking it was the role I was born to play.”
Career-wise, Rob – who was made an MBE in 2013 – says he has no urgent itches to scratch. But then he’s not as restlessly ambitious as say, Steve Coogan. “I’d actually like to be a little more proactive,” he admits. “I do a million things, but they’re rarely of my own making. So I hope I can slightly prod myself into doing more things myself.”
Could this laissez faire attitude stem from being a late starter? Maybe spending so many years toiling in obscurity makes him grateful just be at the table? “Yes, undoubtedly,” he says. “And also just having the common sense to realise that a good holiday with family and friends is far more satisfying to me than filming almost anything. I don’t have that hunger. But, like I say, I’d like to have a little bit of it.”
Christmas is another holiday he’ll be spending with family and friends. “People ask me, ‘why have you never done a pantomime?’ And the reason is because, for the last 30 years, I’ve always had young children. [He has two teenage boys, Tom and George, with Clare, and three grown-up children – Katy, Amy and Harry – from his first marriage.] So I’ve not wanted to be out of the house that much.”
In May, Rob will celebrate his 60th birthday. How is he feeling about that? “The cliché is that it’s better than the alternative,” he muses. “I think you tell yourself that 60 is not that old. But then suddenly you go ’60? What?!’ Especially as, when I was younger, 60 was **ancient**.
“But, you know, touch wood…” He reaches out to tap the kitchen table, then thinks better of it. “Well,” he says, with that famous wolfish grin. “Let’s not tempt fate.”
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale and Tiddler are on Christmas Day on BBC One and BBC iPlayer
FESTIVE FOOD BITES
Who’s in charge of Christmas dinner? My wife is an absolutely superb cook. I am the pot washer and porter. I’m also… do they call it a vibe master? I’m the one who checks the lighting and sorts out the playlist. I’m also supposed to be charge of keeping people’s glasses topped up, but my wife says I’m not very good at it. It would appear, as an actor, I’m too self-centred to think of other people.
What’s on the menu? It will be traditional – turkey with all the trimmings. I love parsnips, roast potatoes, all that stuff. I’m not a big Christmas pudding person, but I do enjoy my wife’s log.
Where do you stand on eggnog? I’m not a fan. I’m more of a gin and tonic and red wine person.
Any foodie gifts on your Christmas list? Maybe a ham – in tribute to my acting.
Interesting Media 