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  • Published: 9 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529951592
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between

A Story of Love and Friendship




The story of a remarkable friendship between two people whose creative chemistry ignited the perfect storm of drama, comedy and heart. Explores how the characters and the story lines came into being, and anecdotes from the making of all episodes of the show.

Gavin & Stacey’ is a TV series like no other. Now, for the first time, its creators James Corden and Ruth Jones tell the full extraordinary story of how they turned their little show into a full-on cultural phenomenon.

As they recount the rejection, obstacles and challenges they faced on the way to giving birth to their beloved comedy creation, James and Ruth also explore the flourishing of their own real-life friendship. While their now legendary on-screen characters Nessa and Smithy had a profound awkwardness to negotiate, culminating in that marriage proposal in the 2019 Christmas special, Ruth and James forged a magical relationship of mutual support based also on a deep, shared sense of subversive fun.

Here, from their tentative initial pitch to the emotionally overwhelming final day of filming, the duo detail what’s occurred every step of the way, bouncing off each other in inimitable style. Full of revelations and never-before-heard stories, this is a one-of-a-kind book about a show that’s already gone down in history.

  • Published: 9 October 2025
  • ISBN: 9781529951592
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

About the author

Ruth Jones

Ruth Jones MBE is well known for her television work, most notably BBC One’s multi-award-winning Gavin and Stacey, co-written with James Corden, in which she played Nessa Jenkins. The 2019 and 2024 Christmas specials of this well-loved show garnered viewing figures of 18 million and 21 million respectively. Ruth also created and co-wrote several series of Stella for Sky TV, for which she was BAFTA nominated. Other TV work includes Hattie, Nighty Night and Saxondale. In 2024 Ruth played Mother Superior in Sister Act the Musical at London’s Dominion Theatre. Her latest acting roles are Elena Ravenscroft in the Netflix adaptation of Harlan Coben's Run Away and Mrs Bennet in the BBC adaptation of Janice Hadlow's The Other Bennet Sister.

Ruth’s novels have sold over a million copies. Never Greener was a Sunday Times bestseller for fifteen weeks, three weeks at number one, as well as WHSmith Fiction Book of the Year 2018, a nominated Debut of the Year at the British Book Awards, and a Zoe Ball Book Club pick. Her second novel, Us Three, and her third novel, Love Untold, were also instant Sunday Times bestsellers. Love Untold was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year, as well as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. Ruth's latest novel is By Your Side

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