James Corden & Ruth Jones

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1:05Hello and welcome to Table Mammies. I'm here in Clapham and we are very excited for our guests today. This is the best Christmas present. Lenny is very tired. Tired. And the voice is nearly gone. The voice is nearly gone. I put her on voice rest today. And yesterday, darling. Lenny's going to sound croaky on this one. I'm sure a couple of wines will make the voice better. Yeah, I think lubricated with wine. Lubricate, exactly. Or champagne. we have well let's just excite people a little bit it's five years since the last special and where it was left cliffhanger Nessa on bended knee there they were him with his new girlfriend oof she was a wronger Luke didn't like her the baby upstairs Neil the baby that was 12 who is now 17 and her on bended knee and what did she say?

2:02What were her words? I loves you. I loves you. I always have loved you. I've watched, Mum, can I just tell you? Firstly, I can't do a Welsh accent very well, but it has been the greatest pleasure watching Gavin and Stacey back-to-back. Three seasons, two Christmas specials in a week. It has aged like a fine wine. I don't think it has aged. It's great. I think it's fabulous. It's just been such a pleasure to watch it. Will we find out what went on that night with Uncle Bryn? The fishing trip. We have James Corden and Ruth Jones coming over for a special, well, a special table manners where I guess we're going to be talking all things Gavin and Stacey.

2:42And laughing a lot, I hope. Now, we actually know James' wife, Julia. Yeah. And she says she was very excited that he's doing it tonight. She texted me and I said, I'll save you some lamb. So let's tell everybody what you're cooking. you said make it easier yourself mum do something you're confident confident with yeah i've done my lebanese lamb we love it which we all like with the warm aubergine and spinach salad it's a deliciously ella one yeah we've done for sandy toxfig can't remember who else we've done it for whenever we do the lebanese lamb we do this and it's been a while i don't think we had Lebanese lamb in the last season so it's come back I've made the same potatoes that mum liked that I did for Sharon Horgan they were so delicious so so soon they'll go with this dish yeah it's the whip feta with yogurt with crusty potato crusty are they crusty yeah crunchy crunchy new potatoes that you kind of smash down capers lemon um and then I'm gonna chop some um sorry I've got a jingly you could have actually put some anchovies on I've just realized if you need more salt.

3:50Back off. Okay. That's what Nessa would say. She'd be like, back off Lenny. That's because she lives in Barry. Oh, Barry. I really want to go to Barry. Me too. And then for pudding, what have you done? Sticky toffee pudding. I had some dates. Followed Nigella's recipe. Was it hard making sticky toffee pudding? Actually, you know I don't really like cooking. No. It was a real pleasure. Oh. I really enjoyed making it. Hell, it's frozen over. I don't know what I don't know what it was. I think it was the combination of the treacle and the butter. And then you soak the dates and then you mush them in.

4:27It was a nice recipe and easy and satisfying. How good. Has she really got tattoos? I don't think so, but I'm going to ask. I'm going to ask. Ruth Jones and James Corden coming up on Table Manners.

4:57cheers cheers to you guys cheers to Gavin and Stacey well no Smithy and Nessa let's talk about that where are we are we going five years on so baby Neil Neil the baby's going to be 17 now and we don't know whether you're married yet you're not going to give anything away now are you going straight in. I just am very excited. I'm literally trying to work out what you're told in the press. And we have said that it's five years later, haven't we? The show picks up five years after we left off. Yeah, when Nessa was on bended knee. That's right. Saying I loves you. And then, with all my heart. Isn't she amazing?

5:38Isn't she amazing in that? Isn't it honestly one of the best? Let me cry. It's one of the best pieces of acting. What she did in that with that character we all talk about it the whole cast because because nessa is this like you know she's had this unbelievably checkered life with and you find out a bit more about that in this new special some really juice some really fun bits that we what little like past yeah yeah yeah that reminds me of when i was yeah i can't wait for that stuff and because she's that person and I think there's been moments where you've seen, certainly out of the four of them, Gavin, Stacey, Smithy and Nessa, you've seen Gavin be quite vulnerable when they were trying for a baby.

6:22You've seen Stacey be vulnerable when she wasn't happy living in Essex. You've seen Smithy be vulnerable when he had that moment of terror where he felt like Nessa might marry Dave Coaches, like the 2008 Christmas special when he said, don't marry him, I'm not saying marry me. And then again in the end of series three, so all of those out of the four characters you've seen that and Nessa has always had this quite stoic um hardened exterior really nothing really hurts her nothing really phases her and then like when we wrote it I remember thinking this is going to be really powerful and then the joy of like watching Ruth do it I I honestly think it's when she says with all my heart it's so good it makes me tingle now it's as good a piece of acting as as certainly as as i've ever seen like close up in the flesh and uh it's very lovely to say that it's very lovely but you know what the reason that i feel that that was very emotional that moment was because james and i've been on this journey for a long long time we've known each other since 2000 where did you meet doing Fat Friends and because we've known each other that long and because Gavin and Stacey has been such a massive part of our lives and that to all intents and purposes was going to be the last episode of Gavin and Stacey you know it kind of was and so that scene we filmed it in the middle of the night because we were filming it summertime but it had to be Christmas so it had to be dark and we were there just the two of us on that road that had meant so much to us.

8:04And I just, as Ruth, was looking at my dear friend James and when I said, I loved you with all my heart. Don't, I'm going to cry. But I was saying it to you. Aww. Oh, stop your book crying. We haven't even had the dinner. No, I feel like it. I love it. I love it. well let's talk about the beginning and how you met and and what memorable meal from around that time what kind of made you realize that you two were going to be friends forever well i think we just always committed to health food relief a lot of sort of bone broths and uh we probably we would have shared something off the crown plaza menu i would say I would say, and I feel pretty confident in this, that outside of our partners, we have probably, I think each other are the people that we've eaten with the most.

9:11We have, in fact, a lot of our meals are us, because when we're writing, we're actually... So where do you write? Oh, where haven't we written? Do you live in Wales? No, I live in London. London and Wales so you've been writing in London well we've written live honestly we've written genuinely the series one we wrote we'd go half a week down in Ruth's house in Cardiff half a week on my flat that was above a Chinese in Beaconsfield and we'd just split the thing Ruth would sleep in my sofa bed I'd go in her spare room but then a lot of series in fact episode one was episode one of series one was written in a hotel because we a lot of the show has been written in various hotel rooms offices offices to rent we wrote episode six of series one in new york we did the rewrite sat in central park because i was in a play in new york at the time we wrote the 2019 christmas special entirely in los angeles because you were living there Yeah, we wrote this special.

10:21In fact, we made a decision. We wrote the 2008 Christmas special in a hotel. It was kind of around the corner from Selfridges. So that was 2008. So that's 16 years ago. Can I just say, when we were there, we were trying to save money. We didn't want to spend loads of money on food when we had our lunch breaks. So we tried to boil some eggs in a kettle. which was we both fancied boiled eggs we both fancied boiled eggs and so we bought some eggs yeah and we tried to boil them well first we tried to boil them in the ice bucket yeah we thought if we pour boiling water on them and leave them in there long enough it'll be okay we then opened it and it was the single most horrific smell anyone ever had so then we tried to boil them in the kettle and then we just gave up on the notion of boiled days yeah yeah but going back to the hotel when we wrote this new special we went we had this decision we were like let's go back to the hotel that we wrote the 2008 one in this because it felt like magic yeah it was great is it still there it's it is tired now those 16 years have not been kind i think it's under new ownership we got there we lasted just about an hour and then went to a different hotel.

11:42And do you lock down for a week and write it? No. Okay. It's really weird. I'm actually quite amazed that we ever get any writing done at all because we talk a lot, don't we? We usually sort of start off the session by talking about gossip or about life stuff. Just how we're feeling. feeling yeah and and and sometimes that can go on for quite a long time and then we'll kind of get a little bit of work done and the day needs a lot of ingredients it needs naps and it needs food and it needs chocolate so in amongst all that i don't know quite how we get any writing done I think what we do do though is commit to the whole process.

12:39So we almost, we start at 9.30, 10. We'll go till lunchtime. Then we'll leave. We'll always walk somewhere. Like the other day we went and got something. We either went back, took it back. And then we'll do that till the afternoon. and then actually when we were doing this one we did quite a lot of late nights do you remember we would do like 10 till 10 or 11 actually just in these long yeah processes of just because really i think with gavin and stacy we sort of both feel like we are like we're as when people would come up to us or used to come up to us and say oh god you know we can't wait to what's going to happen we'd often go no we're excited to find out too we don't know and really what it feels like some days like i think it's probably very similar to kind of writing a song in a way is what you need to do is just open a sort of portal and wait for the characters to arrive and tell you what's going to happen and that's and i think also So over the years, we have, so say between the end of series three and when we did that 2019 special, because we never planned to do the 2019 special.

14:01But over those sort of nine, almost 10 years, we would often text each other with, oh, imagine if Bryn did X, Y and Z. Oh, I've got a great line for Nessa. I mean, I can remember one time I was coming back in a taxi and the radio was on and it was Adele's Hello was on and I was just listening to her and I got back in the house and I think, and you were, were you living in LA then? Yeah. And I just changed the words and I wrote it out and sent it as an email to James and it was kind of like, are I? It's me it is.

14:42And it was all like, I've been Barry Island dreaming. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um and and so we would often sort of exchange little things like that and what happened was james turned 40 we hadn't seen each other for for quite a while and we'd both gone off and done different things we'd sort of stayed in touch but not as intensely as we had before and um i think that was probably the turning point wasn't it was when i came to your 40 year Jules my wife she organised in London no well she because we were living in LA she organised a surprise party for me in Mexico how do you feel oh wow that's quite a task yeah and so she like so lots of people came and like my oldest friend Richard Shedd who I've known so I was five he flew in from New Zealand with his wife who I'd never met and then and basically I was just we were there and it was I felt like something was going on but it was me and Jaws and the kids and my really dear friend Ben who came to LA Ben Winston who came to LA with me and ran the show the Late Late Show that we're doing and his family and I was like this is amazing, this is great and that was a surprise in itself and then suddenly this door opened and just swathes of my friends came in all wearing sombreros with a mariachi band well it was amazing and we were all just And then, like, my friend Richard Shedd came in.

16:14Like, this is your life, basically. Kind of, yeah. In Mexico. Well, yeah. And then Jules said, there's one more person who's here. And the doors opened. And Ruth walked in. And I just burst into tears. I was, like, so emotional that she was there. And we hadn't seen each other. Because I lived there. And she lived here. and I was so, we were just hugging and I was crying. And then over that weekend, we were just getting, we just like clicked back in and we were laughing so much. And then I was like, I think we should get back in a room together, not tell anybody with no pressure. We don't tell the BBC, we won't tell the cast.

17:02Let's just see if there's a story that's still there. and that would be that was august wasn't it that was august 2018 18 yeah august 2018 yeah yeah and then you filmed it in 2019 in the summer so i went on that christmas day you came over about three times yeah february september and then again sort of in october but what was funny was that because we weren't going to tell anyone that we were doing this i'd say to my friends back home i'd say oh oh yeah, yeah, I'm going out to LA. Yeah, I'm going to see James. And they go, oh, that's nice. Yeah, yeah. And then, because I had to go out again, they go, why are you going out again?

17:46Oh, well, we just really liked it. She loved it. Yeah. And they were going, are you going to do the studio tours? Yeah, yeah, probably. And of course, we were just stuck indoors writing. Yeah, and it was pretty magical, actually, that time of coming. We always felt we knew how it was going to end. Ruth are the people in South Wales that speak like Nessa who's almost a bloke really she's you know she drives a lorry she wears leather she's very much her fat millions of tats which you don't have I was waiting to see if you have no they are actually they must take hours no no no they take seconds oh good you put them on with a flannel cold flannel and then they get peeled off.

18:33Like the kids have. Yeah, the kids' pies. But the problem is you remove them with oil. And I had one. Nessa's got some Chinese symbols on her back. And what do they mean? Do we know what they mean? Probably James in Chinese. I think it's John Prescott. Oh, you're kidding. I think it's JP. We have to take a moment for John Prescott because he had a little cameo in the last Christmas, as did Noel from Hearsay, which I loved. and that's really I know that was one of my favourite Nessa anecdotes I knew on that day that punch was meant for me I knew that day that punch was meant for me you had a wicked sense of humour Dave can I also ask you about some I'm surprised you got away with did you have to apologise to Richard and Judy?

19:21no what was the Richard and Judy? oh it was so good Nessa was making love to Richard oh yeah and Judy was on the booze and it was so good. I'd forgotten. I'd honestly, I'd genuinely forgotten all about it. It was really good. Because there were so many. Because there's so many. Ness has had so many lovers. Like the whole of Goldie Looking Chain, for example. Not any Goldie Looking Chain. Yeah. They weren't the father. Yeah. Yeah, I think it just gets lost in the sort of melee of lovers that she's had. But I mean, to go back to what you were saying about her persona, and the tattoos I went and had a massage and I forgot to tell I hadn't removed the two on her back and I forgot to tell the masseuse and she said to me I was doing your back and I was rubbing the oil in and suddenly your tattoos were just as when she didn't know they were Nessa's tattoos she thought they were mine and she was like oh my god I'm just gonna call some good massage yeah Yeah, but I think the thing about Nessa is she's got a great masculine femininity.

20:31She's very confident sexually, and she knows her way around both a male and female body, and just nothing phases her, really. You're right, and when she comes out in the wedding dress, and they go, you look amazing, and she goes, thanks. I know. I feels it. Yeah. she's very one thing I do quite like about the show is how like sex positive it is like they're really just the toilet brush yeah it's all sort of well also I think you know on TV or films or whatever like you you very very very rarely will see people that look like Ruth and I fall in love right you just don't in any other really we are the people like i'd be dropping off a tv to hugh grant in bridget jones and ruth's like working on a newsstand when someone buys a newspaper or whatever like you just don't see it and what i really like about the the show really is like there's these two it's so messy it's so complicated it's so complex which love is and they just clearly I mean we've never really talked about what they get up to but it's just undeniable that they clearly have fantastic sex and I really quite enjoy that that confidence in it really the first time that they had sex was obviously in the very first episode when they went into the bathroom and I think because we didn't quite know what the show was then we were probably being slightly sitcom about it with the sort of noises off and what on earth are they getting up to and they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh.

22:15You know, and all that kind of ooh, a missus. And then him the next day mentioning the toilet brush. And is that something that normal people, that just Welsh people do? That's just a Welsh thing. It's a Welsh thing, yeah. So I think with that, and then the next time you realise that they've had sex is when they go up to, when the Welsh lot go up to Essex and Nessa comes in and Stacey goes, Ness, your back's covered in mud. I know, I fell over. and then smithy comes in and his knees are in a muddy and you go and they all look at his knees goes i fell over what i fell over they're kindred spirits yeah they are and you just think how did they what happened in that garden that's what you know that image that is based on that is based on i'm not going to say his name i'll say which is when i was about 17 or 18 i used to go to this like nightclub called the orchard which is in holmer green which is near high wycom and it's basically it's like this sort of weird it's kind of brilliant i had so many great times there but and it's got this farmland like next to it's in the middle of nowhere countryside in and uh we're all there and this guy comes over and goes you guys got any johnny's and we're like why and he goes yeah just did condoms you got a condom we're like and somebody i think a guy i didn't know was like yeah you know i took a condom out of his wallet gave him a condom and he disappears and And then about 20 minutes later, I saw this lady walk past me and her back's covered in mud.

23:53And he comes in and the cuffs of his shirt and his knees are also covered in mud. And they walked in and just went separate ways in the club. and I remember going that is an extraordinary image that tells a story which is undeniable and then when we were writing stories I was like what if they just come in and like we'd have to discuss it they know in the living room yeah and everybody at home knows what's happened and that's when Neil the baby was conceived yeah and now I'm sure everyone's asking this but like okay fine Gavin and Stacey this is where it finishes okay are you sure? definitely definitely it can't carry on when you see it when you see it you'll know I understand.

24:33But couldn't you two carry on doing something else? Or do you feel like you've told your story and now you can just remain and reminisce and have this wonderful time remembering, making probably some of the greatest comedy. I mean, watching it back this week, and I've done, you know, three seasons, two Christmas specials. It's been a total joy. And I think such respect to you. It's kind. And I think, yeah, Pam has a bit of a flare up and she's a bit in competition with Gwen sometimes. but there's a kindness and a gentleness to it that you you know sometimes the comedy it's taking the out of somebody else and i think that is so charming and special and quite unique and i just kind of feel like we should see more of your stuff together but do you think you could do something else you do is it just is this your story and that's it well look we don't we don't know if we have another idea in us no no no like but i mean i i can honestly say that if for me personally if i if we didn't attempt to try and even just explore the idea of writing together then i'd be so disappointed i couldn't bear it the idea of not doing yeah you're the idea of doing it no i i can't i mean whether anything actually comes of it but i love being in the room with you it's the best because it's such good fun and it's joyous and it's and you're right that it's kind and it i think the kindness though comes from certainly at the time when we wrote started writing it there was probably quite a lot of cynical stuff on tv I mean there still is and I always say with comedy thank goodness there's a a plethora available something for everybody and you know there's no hard and fast rule about what you should and shouldn't like or what is and isn't funny but I think what perhaps what we share as as people not just necessarily as writers is um is a kindness to a love of other people we just find other people fascinating don't we and I think that that there is a joy in seeing day-to-day life and seeing those little nuances and and you know sometimes when you get a bit despairing of the of the bigger world picture I always think all you can do is be kind to somebody on a day-to-day basis and I think that's maybe what we share in our attitude to creating something I also think this world I think we're also led to believe that you know there's just conflicts everywhere and drama and all those things but like fundamentally as far as I can work out most people most people love their friends most people they might not always get on with their families but they love their families and most people when they come together and they're with their families it's a magical special and treasured time and for some reason that is not always reflected in tv and film um but we're sort of influenced by the same stuff we're drawn towards the same things and like if someone came to us and said and in the past like you know people sort of have in a way like tried to sound us out for writing something like the idea of the two of us trying to write like i don't know a superhero marvel movie would just be insane but what we really really both fundamentally believe is there is nothing more there is nothing more incredible actually than when somebody meets someone and goes well I don't think I can live without you and I don't want to see my future unless you're there and I love you and here's my family and let me meet yours that is to both of us more extraordinary than anything really let's talk about both your families and what was around the dinner table let's start with you Ruth like when you were growing up who was around the dinner table and what were you eating um so i'm one of the four children and my mum and dad uh you know you know quite a sort of standard family really um my mum uh is retired now she's 87 she was a gp uh my dad is uh no longer here god rest his soul um he died seven years ago but we when we were growing up so they my dad did a legal conveyancing um at the steelworks um so is this south wales south wales yeah were you best friends with michael sheen i was at youth theater with michael sheen yeah i was on youth theater with him so um yeah yeah um yeah and and and so it was you know they were at work and we'd come home but my mum i don't know how she managed it but she always cooked we had we used to eat at half past five six o 'clock every night love that Do you know what I was, I remember being really surprised as I got older, when I went to other people's houses, I don't know what it was like for you, but I was really surprised that people ate at sort of 7, 8 o 'clock.

30:04Because we used to eat at half past 5, at 6 o 'clock. Jessie does, I love it. What about you James, do you eat, what time do you like to eat? Well if I'm going out to eat, I want to eat later. But no, if we're at home, we'll often just eat with the kids, which is yeah, at like 5.36 really. When you were growing up, what did you do? What was it like at home? Because my mum used to cook the meal from scratch. We never had, I mean, I'm older than James, obviously, but we didn't have that sort of like convenience meals particularly. So it was always from scratch. Bernard Matthews, Turkey Burgers, Nuggets.

30:41Well, because my mum was a social worker. So she'd walk in. Now my sister works in social care as well, but mum would walk in. the only time we probably ever really ate like a what I would say like a properly cooked meal was on a Sunday we'd always have a roast dinner sometimes mum would do like I don't know like a spaghetti bolognese or something like that but really it was yeah that was it do you know what though my dad retired early because his health wasn't great and so he became like the homemaker right but whereas my mum just used to get on with it my dad almost wanted to be praised for anything that he made and I don't know if that's a kind of a male thing or a thing of its time but I remember me and my brother going oh god he's made sausage balls again tonight they're sausage balls they were lethal because it was like they were sausage meat and they were sort of like but they were they were like kind of meatballs but sausage meatballs but there was always a lot of oil in there and they were really heavy they were really heavy and that was that was a bit of a struggle but i think he did always feel that we should praise him for whereas my mum used to just do it and you know that was just part of the course yeah she would just get on with it but you know we'd go on camping holidays right and it wasn't like you know now you go on a camping holiday everything's set up for you we used to do it from scratch you'd sort of put the tent up all that kind of thing tiny little two ring stove.

32:14My dad would make corned beef hash. Did you like that? I loved it. When was the last time you had a corned beef hash? I'll tell you exactly when it was. I went on a cruise recently. Oh yeah? And you got corned beef hash on a cruise? It was available in, you know, you go up and you've got this sort of buffet. I've never done one. Where did you go on your cruise? She loves. She is never not on a cruise. You're like a gay man. No, no. She... It's a miracle she's here. because I'm joking I'm kidding come and tell me no what it was I've never been on a cruise what it was what it was I've never been on a cruise in my life but mum and dad used to go on cruises and I thought it would be nice for my mum if I took her because she hasn't she never really went away after my dad died so I thought right I'll take my mum on a cruise I found the perfect one 10 days from Southampton back to Southampton didn't have to fly anywhere going where Portugal and the Canaries oh nice lovely so that's what we did But I had also booked myself to do a literary cruise, which was about two weeks after I got back.

33:20Obsessed with cruising. So you got off the boat and then you got back on a boat. Pretty much. Wow. What's a literary cruise? With literary people. Yes. The Cheltenham Literary Festival. Oh, wow. They do accrues. It's called the Festival at Sea. This sounds perfect. In conjunction with the Sunday Times. Because you can never get in at Cheltenham. I'm sure you can. well I'm sure you can you can't get into any accommodation that's the problem well it was great and I went with my best friend um who was just great fun and so for us to get to when did you know my best friend I've known since we were like seven I have not spent that amount of time with her for well god knows since when I say best friend there's a lot of us close friends from home and yeah she was just she was just brilliant brilliant company I am I want to know with your beautiful friendship that you've got what what's the best meal has James ever cooked for you oh do you know what I remember that you did really beautifully was the um the chicken the lemon chicken and you did the carrots do you remember the carrots you did yeah you did them I mean...

34:32It's a Jamie Oliver carrot, that. Have you done his carrots? No. Oh, my God. The greatest carrot recipe that anyone's ever done. Okay, tell that book. Which book? I can't remember, actually, but one of the naked chefs is you get tinfoil and you sort of double it so you work out what you need. So you throw it and then you get it out and you've got your sheet of tinfoil here and then enough there to make an envelope. Just peeled and cut into like a baton. you put your carrots, salt, pepper. What I normally do is a clove of garlic for each, for however many people are eating. So there's us four, four cloves of garlic, four knobs of butter, four sprigs of thyme.

35:15And then you run a bit of butter down this side, a bit of butter down this side of the foil, and you fold it over, crunch up this side and crunch up the other side. So that's basically all sealed, except for the gap at the top. you then put about a glass of white wine in seal the top and you put that on a baking tray for about 40 minutes and they are so delicious so gorgeous and then that juice that you've got in there the buttery, winey juice that goes in your gravy and it's fantastic I know what you did with the chicken you put the butter under the skin butter, garlic under the skin are you a good cook then James?

35:55I love cooking, I love it I really, well, I'll tell you what, because cooking is just another form of creative expression, really. So it's all I really love doing. I think cooking actually is the same as what we do when we write the show, which is you're creating something in the hope that people will enjoy it and devour it. That's all you want people to do. On Christmas Day, what you want people to do is enjoy this show, feel full of it, feel full of the joy and the love and the kindness of it. And that's what I think cooking is. So I love doing a good beef wellington. I like that. That's tough as well, James.

36:41Do a good, I do a mean omelette. I've done you an omelette. You've done me an omelette. I've done you an omelette. Okay, is this why Gwen's thing is that, where did the omelette come from? I'll tell you what happened. The first, when we wrote, here's the truth, when we wrote episode one, we really, really didn't know what we were doing. Okay. In truth, if I'm being completely honest, right now, this last special, I think, is the first time in the history of the show that we may have felt like we knew what we were doing. We have never known before that. and the omelette thing I can't remember like she goes around and she says do you want an omelette and then we were writing episode two and we said oh Quinkie say do you fancy an omelette and then we thought oh what if in every episode she just mentions an omelette somehow and then when Jason turns up in episode five in series one she goes oh I wish you told me you were coming I got nothing in I got ham I got a bit of cheese I got eggs I could do an omelette yeah Can I just tell you though I wrote a book called Omelette Which is a food I mean they call them foodois And it's because my mum always offers an omelette Always offer an omelette So when I saw it I was like It was just so But as Delia Smith says an omelette is the healthiest Take away fast food you can ever make Have you ever seen the one in The Bear?

38:09Have you watched The Bear? I have watched The Bear And she does it in the most beautiful way Oh, really? Yeah. How do you do your omelette? I love you and you are a great chef, but your omelette isn't like the most considered, but it's just the thing where there's a crisis. There's a crisis and she's like, I'll make an omelette. It's like just been the thing. That's only because it's easy and quick. But do you add any milk or anything? I used to add milk. Yeah, I don't. But I don't now. No. You should not add milk. You should only add milk to scrum and eggs and water to omelette. I don't add water.

38:44here's the thing right here's the thing about omelettes yeah i get ready guys there's a no right okay do you make it with butter or with oil butter both ah so i do a little bit of olive oil a little bit of butter because if you just have olive oil you don't want the butter to clarify so a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of butter you let that go pour in the eggs let them sit for a minute and then with the back of the spoon just drag it around just drag it drag it take it off the heat, drag it, drag it, drag it. Then your cheese, then your ham, a bit of spinach, all your mushrooms. Fold it, fold it again.

39:23So what you want is an envelope. Well, do you know what? One of my very early food memories. Yeah, I do. I think we're all getting a little hot and heavy. You need to do your potatoes. Okay, fine. I don't know how to do them. One of my earliest food memories was being in France. My father had a pen friend, Pierre Gougeau, who he met when he was 18 after the war, 1946 when my dad was 18 he got the uh flesh yeah the flesh door train so he was the golden arrow from london to dover and then you pick up the flesh door which is golden arrow in french um and it takes you down to the south of france where he met his friend pierre he was 18 years of age 1946 which i thought was quite brave actually and he stayed friends with him for up until their 80s we you know go to each other's children's weddings all of that kind of thing it was a really lovely friendship anyway the reason I'm saying this is because we used to go camping as a family when we were younger and we would often go to France and we would often go and visit Pierre and his family and I remember going to a restaurant in France and I must have been about seven years of age and the adults were all eating whatever there was this lovely French restaurant and they gave me an omelette and i remember the taste of it and the only time i've ever uh found the same taste is when it's an omelette made with oil i don't get it i don't get it with as a with an omelette made with butter so with oil there is a specific taste to it it was just the egg yeah it was just it was just a plain plain omelette yeah but i always and i can always remember that being in that french restaurant when i was when i was a little girl yeah it's funny isn't it how food has a sort of you have a kind of like a muscle memory with it this looks amazing yeah thank you so much yeah it's lamb there's masses of lamb so do help potatoes with like a whipped feta you were asking about with the with the cooking and about james doing yeah yeah i'm more of a baker she loves i do love a bake oh do you mind thanks darling thanks um Yeah, I do.

41:32So I did make the lemon drizzle, didn't I? Yeah, she does a good bake. See, James, are you a baker? No. I can't do it. I'd like to. I'm like improvising in the kitchen. I like doing all that. And the baking is too methodical for me. Yes. And I'm really impressed. It's too exact. It's chemistry. Do you want a bit of the jus? Yes, please, darling. Thanks, darling. Is that good? Right. Help yourself to this. This is like aubergines, tahini, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts. Sounds lovely. That's coming over. Oh, my God. So we're going kind of a little bit Middle Eastern. We are the answer.

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43:15Can I just say, these potatoes are immense. Oh, Jessie, thank you. Are they cypress potatoes? No, they're not, but that would have been really good. That would have been good. I love it. I smashed them. A cypress potato is the best. I I used to go out with a Greek Cypriot at that university. Did you do? Yeah, we're still friends. What? Yeah. I never heard this, ever. Yes, yes. You have never. I'm good right now. Thank you. Still friends with his family, and his mum used to cook the most amazing Cypriot. You would never talk with this, ever. Oh, I used to love it. So I used to go to his house in North London, and his mum would just cook this amazing food.

43:54The baglava, the mikhaila de burka, all of that stuff. But you do the chicken, like the lemon chicken and the birberia and the lamb, soufflaccia. It was just the best. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. Now I did get, and we don't have to have it, but just to celebrate the first Christmas special, I did get some mint Baileys. Oh yeah, I'll have a mint Baileys for sure. And a white Toblerone, we found it. So if you fancy it, we've got it. But we also have sticky toffee pudding that we've made. I'll just get it on the table I'm not going to have a mint Bailey's I've just never had one I've never had a mint Bailey's I just think a mint Bailey's the mix I mean I'm sorry no offence to Bailey's but that looks gross you don't stop I think it looks going to be great do you want a glass a little cube a cheeky little cube You know what might be nice actually is this What?

44:59On top of that ice cream That's what I'm going to do Pass that ice cream He's going to make an affogato out of a mint baby No, I think a tiny You don't need the ice then? No, I think this is going to be good Watch this, look Oh my god, it's green It's literally crazy Wait Okay I'm sorry, no Jessie, do you want some? Well, and me. Bailey's. Have we got a new Christmas guest? Oh, he's... No? No? It's not for me. Are you a kind of double cream ice cream person? Are you going to go both or not? Are you just going to go ice cream? Oh, I think I'm okay with the ice cream. I mean, I know what you mean, but it does sound quite tempting.

45:52It's just sitting there. I will do it. Do it, do it. I'll do a little bit. Last supper. You both need to think of a starter, a main, a hood, a drink of choice. Buy me. This is delicious. That is amazing. It's very good. So is this the Nigella recipe? Yeah. That's amazing. It's very good. Your sauce, is that her recipe as well? Yeah. I added a bit more cream. Undeniable how good that is. Do you know what? I think I'm going to make that, because we're having Christmas dinner at my sisters. I think I'm going to offer that up for a dessert. She says serve it with salted caramel ice cream. Oh, no. No, that's too much.

46:29Because you've already got that kind of combination. You want a straight vanilla there. Yeah. What's your order at a fish and chip shop? Straight fish and chips, that's it. I don't really mess around. Somebody said no mushy peas out of you two. I do. I don't like mushy peas either. Do you? Neither do I. I don't know that. Do you? Yeah, I really like them. I mean I'm not like thinking about it all the time I hate them to such a degree that when I tried to give up chocolate many years ago which is a time you've got a story like that should I get more ice cream out no no I'm good so I right I have I hate the word struggled with my weight but I have been in a battle with my weight all of my life as long as I can remember I can't ever remember being slim one of my attempts to lose weight was to go to a Paul McKenna workshop I hit my office right and um one of the the techniques that he showed in this workshop was to uh he said do you want to what's your what's your aim and I said look if I could stop eating chocolate I would be fine which is ridiculous really because I mean you know I'm eating that now aren't I which is not hot chocolate but chocolate was my main thing so he said in the workshop okay I'm going to show you all a technique how if you want to stop eating it this is this is going to stop it for good and I was a little bit cynical anyway did this whole process and one of the elements of that process was I guess aversion therapy kind of aversion therapy right so they said we want you to think of something that you would hate eating and you what you do is you think of eating that and then you think about eating the chocolate and you keep alternating so my thing was mushy peas so mushy peas I at the thought of the I mean I can even remember remember when they were on the menu in school dinners i just couldn't the smell of them the taste of the texture all of that so i used that as my aversion anyway it worked it completely you don't eat chocolate no there's more to this story get ready so i did not eat chocolate for five years five years right couldn't stand the smell couldn't stand the smell of it and when james and i were writing some of the hotels that we'd stay in because I think as things progressed we went to slightly better hotels didn't we sometimes they would put a little bit of complimentary chocolate yeah and what I used to do was I always used to test myself to see if I was still and not wanting to drink the chocolate so smell it and there's one hotel it's a little box with four chocolates in it four little things yeah and this is happening quite a lot we could smell it and she'd go no no I don't want it I mean James used to do things and I did them but he used to do things like he would get Maltesers and he'd go go on just stick them in your mouth because you can't just see what happens and she goes no i don't want to so anyway this will happen then one day when you join up with anything you get on you get put onto an email list don't you and i was getting emails from this workshop uh company and i thought i don't need you know i'm sorted i don't need these emails so i unsubscribed i swear to god the next day we were writing there were chocolates on the bed in this hotel room I picked them up I went into the bathroom went for a wee came back she was eating Ruth was like oh my god oh my god there was just chocolate hanging out of the mouth why are you doing the impression because that looks really bad that's what you were doing you were holding them near your mouth and you were going can you make me sound ill no you were going oh my god Ruthie put it and I was like what this is insane and then it was the day after that we've had we had a bit of an argument didn't we we had a bit of a fallout about something and we decided to go for a walk and we bought two easter eggs two giant Cadbury's easter eggs we lay on the bed in this hotel room open them and just lay with the chocolates on our faces the eggs yeah and then it was shortly after that that we wrote Dawn and Pete's vows.

50:39Yeah. When she changes the words to Ben. So there was a whole thing connected with mushy peas. Chocolate's great though. Chocolate's amazing. What's your favourite chocolate? Honestly just a straight dairy milk. Capris. Yeah. I love a roses. I love a lint milk. A ball. A ball. No, just a straight lint milk. Straight lint milk. Do you like dark chocolate then? I like dark chocolate. No. I like a lint. I will eat it, but in terms of an actual enjoyment factor, I like the lint with the hazelnuts. That's the best way. It's like, don't they say, they brag about how many nuts are in it, don't they? It's 70 % hazelnut.

51:18They really go on about how many nuts are in it. Which makes, I think, makes a whole nut feel quite inferior. Did you used to get people bringing stuff over to LA, like dairy milk, or can you get it there? No, because you can kind of get it now, is the truth. It's all sort of... Do you miss LA? I don't, actually. I mean, I miss, I'm not one of those people that's, it feels quite trendy, I think, for people to kind of be a bit like down on LA and be like, oh, and I'm not, we had such a, such a sort of magical time there. You must miss the weather though. Well, that's the thing. Yeah, but what I keep telling myself is everything comes at a cost, right?

52:00Like there's everything, good and bad. Every single thing comes at a cost. So you're over there, the weather's great, but it's coming at a cost because there's not a massive culture. There's no real architecture. You can't really go to the theatre. It's a one-industry town. It's quite an isolating existence. A lot of the time you're in a car driving around, you're certainly not like walking anywhere. And so that's the cost of that. Then you're here and it's kind of gloomy and it's four o 'clock. and you're like well I'm out of the weather but I've got the I mean if I truly like I said this really quite quite a lot like since I would say we've been back just over a year now and like honestly every day either at the school gates or a cab driver or something like that somebody will go god you know pissing down with rain and they'll go oh god I'm glad you came back to this and I sort of want to shake them really and be like yeah I wish I wish you could see it from a distance like I wish you could see I wish you could see what Britain looks like from a distance because it's as far as I'm concerned it's magical and it's flawed as everywhere is and it's imperfections are glaringly obvious but but at it's core it's only when you've been away from it for like eight years and you can really see what it has and what it's got to offer it's it's like a magical glorious beautiful place full of these incredible interesting people and I love it so I don't miss LA because I'm so in love with Britain and I think do you know what without wanting to sort of jump on your bandwagon i think that is a lot of what we like about gavin and stacy and about the right about our writing is that it's about british people yeah it's british life you know i think those characters are aren't they and i think that's probably why you're you're so good at observing um those characteristics actually last supper you You can either choose to answer as Smithy or James Corden, and you can choose to answer as Nessa or as James.

54:23Okay. This is my trick. Okay, okay. All right. As Nessa, I'm going to go for Osso Bucco. Okay. Because I tell you what I loves about that. Loves. You've got the bone. You've got the marrow. You scoops it out. It gives you a lot of nutrition, but you've also got a lot of taste. You also can't go wrong with some fish and chips from Bufies. and I'm not going to lie I do like sticking my teeth into a good ribeye Is that before the osso buco or after the osso buco? I love the osso buco as a starter Where's the fags coming? You have a fag break and then you go in for the ribeye It has to be rare What are you drinking Nessa?

55:07Always a pint of wine

55:15That was amazing. Pudding? Smithy. You're going to have a bit of Smith. I don't go near the sweet stuff. I'm always a cheese eater. I like a good selection. I'll go for the hard. I'll go for the soft. I don't want to intimidate anybody. I like some more to feel comfortable. Oh my God, let this not be the end. For God's sake. I would say for me though personally I would go for I would love a lovely sashimi as a starter and I would go for probably what's the lovely steak they do where they kind of steak to tart? no teriyaki steak? no wagyu? wagyu wagyu yeah from rocker oh is it good rocker? I've never been and then you know and then I'd have for the dessert the chocolate so you're going to roll it The fondant thing with the green tea.

56:13Yes, the matcha box thing. Now, James, are you going to give Smithies last summer? Smithies would be lamb booner, chicken booner, prawn booner, mushroom rice, bag of chips, kimonan and nine poppadoms. And a sagaloo. I'll have a sagaloo, please, Mick. For dessert, look, I don't care what you say, make up what you want about it. I just like a viennetta. I know. I just like a viennetta. Leave it out. Leave it out. But let it stand. That's the problem. That's the problem. No one lets it stand. You're impatient. And then you get the crack. But if you leave it too long, you don't get the crack. I'm not going to leave it too long, am I now?

56:57What's Smithy drinking? He's going vodka revolution, isn't he? I think he'd have a pint. Yeah, and a vodka Red Bull. Pint. And then if he's going out after that, vodka Red Bull. Yeah, nice. How did Uncle Bryn get so drunk on Archer's? Because he doesn't ever drink alcohol. He doesn't touch anything. Is Archer's still a thing? Archer's and lemonade. I don't know. That's what I drank when I was like 15. Yeah, same. Do they still serve it? I imagine so, yeah. In Barry, yeah. And if it was me for real, I'd have smoked salmon to start Beef Wellington. And I love a profiterole. Me too. Honestly. You should have told me I'd have done that.

57:41Homemade. I don't really care where it comes from. It doesn't bother me. Yeah, yeah. A good, solid profiterole. And like an eclair if you're in a bakery, sure. I rarely pick up an eclair. Really? Oh, I've sat... Your gift is you can eat an eclair... In a car wash. ...with one chew. Yeah. You can actually consume a whole eclair without chewing it. and wow I have been known to sit in a car wash with an eclair oh yeah or maybe four a box yeah and that is my idea of heaven sit in a car wash all of our shame eating is heaven in car washes I ate a yard of dairy milk in a car wash once

58:23guys you have been such a treat it's been such a treat speaking to you you are obviously the bestest of friends we can't wait for the finale we're sad about it but thank you so much for sharing all these beautiful moments with us it's been such a treat and thank you the treat has been ours because I've had the best time come anytime yeah can we come back yes you can both does anyone want a mint baby I can't

59:04Wow, that was a lot of Gavin and Stacey and I was here for it. I know, darling. James Corden. Are you writing a thesis on it? I actually feel like I just offered up my thesis on it. The PhD in Gavin and Stacey. James Corden and Ruth Jones, what a pair that love each other so much. Like family. It made me cry. I know, they were crying on like the first question. I know, but I was crying too and then you... Maybe it was that bottle of champagne that they had at lunch, I don't know. Maybe it was, yeah. Magdalen, yeah. Gavin and Stacey is out on Christmas Day. Well, everyone must have their recorder on that.

59:41And for people that maybe haven't watched Gavin and Stacey, where have you been? And please go and watch it. You have a week to watch it. I did it in a week. It's doable and it's completely and utterly charming. So, yeah, the finale, the final, final piece to the Gavin and Stacey puzzle will be done. We will be saying farewell to Gavin and Stacey on Christmas Day. but thank you to James and Ruth for being such great guests. It was just like so clear how... Just a bit disappointing. Why? No tattoos. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

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