Gavin and Stacey star Rob Brydon has revealed reading the script for the final episode set to air on Christmas Day this year left him teary-eyed.
Social media was swamped with rumours for weeks before creators James Corden and Ruth Jones (who play the characters of Smithy and Nessa) finally confirmed the news in an Instagram post back in May.
The programme, which aired between 2007 and 2010, returned in 2019 for a festive episode that ended with Nessa getting down on one knee in Barry Island to propose to Smithy.
In December, BBC viewers will finally find out what happened moments after.
But speaking in an interview with Chris Evans on his Virgin breakfast show which aired on Friday (August 23), Rob, who is known as the iconic Uncle Bryn shared how he felt after reading the script, knowing it’s the last time they will “all be together”.
He explained: "It was a couple of months before the cast saw the script. I only saw it, we were on holiday, we were away, about a month ago.
"I read it. Oh, it’s so good."
Rob added: "Do you know what? I was moved to tears, because it’s emotional."
He went on to say: "We knew it was going to happen, but we were told we had to keep it a secret. So, you have to lie to people.
“It’s a horrible feeling, because you don’t want to lie to somebody right in the face.”
The 59-year-old said he is "excited" for the cast to reunite, adding: “I really am, because I know this will be the last time we’ll all be together.
“We all get on so well. And I think it has been 17 years since we started, which is crazy.”
The Would I Lie to You? host also revealed rehearsals begin next week and filming for the 2024 Gavin and Stacey Christmas Day episode is set to start filming the week after (in two weeks).
'We will never write anything that Pam says again'
Last month, James also spoke to Chris on his Virgin Radio breakfast show about writing the long-awaited script for Gavin and Stacey's special episode coming to BBC One this year.
He said: “We finished a script a while back and it was too long… rewrites are harder than any writing.
“Rewriting is really difficult. Writing is really fun, because you can just go ‘anything can happen’.
“But when you rewrite stuff, you’re dealing with a lot of logistics and ‘well look we might not be able to shoot that, or this needs to be in this location, is there any way this can change?’ And frankly, it’s too long.
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“So really what we have been doing the last few weeks really is just trying to make it as economical as possible. And we finished it [the script] yesterday.”
James told Chris he feels “very emotional by all of it” as he reflected on the show and his friendship with Ruth.
He continued: “We’ve finished writing, we will never write anything that Pam (Alison Steadman’s character) says again…
“We will never come up with an interesting thing that Bryn (Rob’s character) has done."
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