Gavin and Stacey book by James Corden and Ruth Jones reveals secrets

When Ruth Jones and James Corden first met in 2000, they never imagined it would lead to 22 episodes of a record-breaking TV show.

The pair were filming Fat Friends at the Crowne Plaza in Leeds and formed an unexpected friendship.

Now their book When Gavin Met Stacey is out, revealing how an argument inspired one iconic scene, and a scrapped storyline idea that would have seen Gavin have an affair.

The book is a story of love and friendship, and here are some of the things we have learned:

For years, the infamous fishing trip involving Bryn and his nephew Jason has been wrapped in secrecy and speculation.

In the long-awaited finale, Gwen delivers a line that reignites the intrigue: “Their trip 30 years ago almost tore this family apart.”

That’s all we know, along with clues that they were on their knees, it was freezing cold, and whatever happened was “completely legal in this country”.

While fans were given a glimpse of the pair’s escapades, in true Gavin and Stacey fashion the secret was never revealed.

But during an event to promote their new book Jones and Corden revealed that a scene shedding light on the mystery was actually filmed.

It featured Bryn clearing out his home when he stumbles upon a camcorder tape labelled “The Fishing Trip”.

Jason walks in, stunned, and asks Bryn why he still has it. He then requests to watch it, but Bryn refuses.

Jones and Corden explained that the idea was for the tape to play and just as viewers brace for the big reveal, the footage fuzzes out and jams.

The scene was dropped in the final edit due to time constraints, ultimately leaving the secret safely tucked away with Bryn, Jason… and Dave Coaches.

As for what really happened? Jones confessed: “I have completely stolen James’s idea for the answer to what happened on the fishing trip. I say ‘I don’t know because I wasn’t there’.”

Corden refers to this as the “Easter egg row”, with Jones saying it is all “a little bit vague”, but she was travelling up from Cardiff for a writing session for series two and was meeting Corden in London.

Jones continues that she had a message from James Thornton, Joanna Page’s husband a few days earlier as he had a script idea and asked if she would mind reading it.

“So I texted back to say, ‘Oh yes, by all means send me the script and I’ll have a look. Don’t know if I can help but I’m happy to have a look’.”

She continues that instead of sending the text to James Thornton she sent it to Corden, and messaged him saying “Sorry that wasn’t meant for you”.

Corden asked who was it for?

“And I don’t know what possessed me, but I just went ‘Oh it doesn’t matter, I cant tell you about it’. And for some bizarre reason you went, ‘Oh my god, are you doing Doctor Who?’ and I said ‘I’m sorry I cant tell you because I’ve signed a confidentiality clause.”

Jones says Corden was furious with her.

“I was basically playing a joke on you, which I rarely do because I’m not really a wind up merchant,” adding that Corden is.

She adds she was enjoying teasing Corden, but then he took it badly and said “just forget it, I’m going to Benidorm”.

Jones said she was really cross, but the pair made up in the hotel bar, and Jones told Corden she was just winding him up, and they went across the road and bought some Easter eggs.

Corden said they bought two giant Cadbury’s Easter eggs, and lay on the hotel bed, opened them and laid there with chocolate eggs on their faces.

“It was shortly after that we wrote Dawn and Pete’s vows, when she changes the words to lyrics of Michael Jackson’s ‘Ben’.

Jones added: “We had a sugar rush, had a sugar low, fell asleep woke up and wrote the vows scene.

“I remember getting really hysterical writing it. It was absolutely joyous, it was magic.”

Corden really loves the Stephen Fretwell album Magpie and for a long time they thought about having a piece of written score as the theme.

Corden says: “A few different people like David Arnold wrote pieces, and wrote one piece with a Welsh harp, it was beautiful but didn’t feel right.

“I kept saying how I really love that drum sound and the piano chords on the Stephen Fretwell song Run.”

Corden continues that the The Office and The Royale Family inspired them, with both shows having simple title sequences, but Gavin and Stacey couldn’t afford one.

“We went with a black card with white writing and I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I kept saying ‘let’s have something that feels a bit like Run’ and then in the end it was like ‘what if it’s that’,” adding that on some level the lyrics in the song feel like Nessa and Smithy’s relationship.

During the London event, the co-creators of the BBC show also met Fretwell for the first time, where he confessed he has initially told his agent he didn’t want his song used for the programme.

Jones reveals it was Corden’s wife Jules inviting her to Mexico for his 40th that clinched the 2019 special happening.

Corden said as soon as Jones walked in he burst into tears and was so “unbelievably happy to see you”.

He says they had the “best weekend” adding the couple had always laughed about the fact that Jones had sung Wild Thing at her wedding after a few drinks, and one of his greatest regrets was he wasn’t there because they didn’t know each other.

At Corden’s 40th, Jones got up and sang Wild Thing, improvising the lyrics to make them specific to Corden.

“I just remember singing and seeing your face. The joy on your face,” she says.

Corden adds: “Harry Styles was going to you ‘I cant believe you just did that’,” with Jones saying: “Yeah he looked a bit in shock, I don’t know if it was in a good way or bad way’.”

During the trip Corden suggested it “might be time” to do more Gavin and Stacey.

“I came back from the Mexico trip in 2018 thinking ‘right, lets do this’,” Jones says.

As they were writing the 2019 finale, they had the idea of doing two specials, with one being a secret and storyline ideas including Gavin having an affair.

“So the first would air on Christmas Day and the second on New Year’s Day, we we even thought that the BBC could put something fake in the listings,” Corden says.

But the task was a “big challenge” because of the 10-year gap, and the pair thought it would not work.

The pair reveal that in August 2023 they started talking about doing one more, potentially a film to be released in cinemas – but changed their minds.

Corden says: “The fact is they’ve always been in the corner of your room and that where they should remain.”

Jones adds: “When we started the show 20 years ago the idea it would be one of those shows that had a Christmas special was far beyond anything we hever dreamed of.

“Just the notion of BBC One on Christmas Day. That means so much to us.”

Corden says they wrote with the same freedom they always had and didn’t tell the BBC until they had written 65 pages.

The pair added they originally thought the 2019 would be the ending, had it not had the cliffhanger.

“We knew it our hearts that the absolute had to be that Smithy and Nessa finally got together. Got married.”

Corden says without Jones passion for Gavin and Stacey he would have let the idea go by the wayside.

He says: “When I think about Gavin and Stacey I think about the word friend and what it means.

“I got to make this show with somebody who knows me better than I know myself… I just don’t think I’ll have a friendship like it again in my life.”

But what next?

They’re working on something new, and seeing where they go with it.

“Nothing may come of it. That’s always a possibility. But I love it,” says Jones.