A man in demand
A stick of rock bearing the catchphrase “what’s occurring?” may be one of the few reminders left at Barry Island beach of Gavin and Stacey since it disappeared from our TV screens.
The final cut-away shot of Smithy, Nessa, along with the two central characters, at the old-fashioned resort still lives on in the minds of scores of disappointed fans.
But is the long-running series really over? Well, maybe. But if you ask 45-year-old comic Rob Brydon the same question, he reveals the cast could be reunited once again.
“I think it was good when the show finished as it went out on a high with people wanting more,” he says. “But they will do a special one day. It was a lovely show to do and everyone got on.”
The Baglan funnyman, who entertained a 1,000-strong packed house at the Hay Festival, laughs off suggestions of Gavin and Stacey the movie, however. “I couldn’t do it on my own,” he says.
Rob previously appeared on the same stage at the Hay Festival two years ago. The comic, who spent the rest of the week at the site with his wife Claire Holland – a former producer on the South Bank Show – and his children, said he hoped he would be invited back to star at the Powys festival in future.
But in the meantime, the star who first started out his broadcasting career as a radio and then TV presenter with BBC Wales, revealed he has a series of projects in the pipeline.
“I have just done a series with Steve Coogan and I have spent a couple of months driving around the Lake District with him,” he says. “Steve was asked to review restaurants, but his girlfriend left him and he asked would I like to come instead. So we check into hotels together and argue over food.”
He says he will also do another series of BBC One comedy panel show Would I Lie To You? which he has hosted since taking over from Angus Deayton last year, and the Rob Brydon Show for BBC2.
More recently, the dad-of-four who trained at Cardiff’s Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, was handed the prestigious Sian Phillips Award during the 19th Bafta Cymru Film and TV awards at Wales Millennium Centre.
Rob was recognised, with the prize named after the celebrated actress, for his “outstanding achievements in network television and film”.
At the time, he said: “I’ve not won an award in Wales since 1984, Porthcawl comprehensive Drama Student of the Year, so I’m both delighted and relieved this fallow spell has come to an end.”
He follows fellow Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones in becoming part of an exclusive club who have received the honour, which includes Hollywood actors Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Sheen and Swansea-born writer and producer Russell T Davies, who revived the TV series Dr Who.
The Cardiff ceremony was hosted by singer and presenter Aled Jones, along with ex-Catatonia front woman Cerys Matthews.
Rob says he wishes he had the bilingual skills of Jones and that he did consider trying to translate his winner’s speech. With a very limited Welsh vocabulary, however, he thought better of it.
“I was tempted to say diolch yn fawr.” he says. “I wish I was better in Welsh – I have five O-levels and struggle with English.”
The comedian was recently immortalised in steel alongside legendary actor Richard Burton and Afan Forest Park’s veteran ranger Dick Wagstaff on a new portrait bench near Cwmavon, in the Afan Valley.
It is the first of 80 such benches to go up along cycling routes around Britain, which are being developed by sustainable transport charity Sustrans.
Rob describes it as a great honour. “I love the thought of becoming part of the landscape alongside Dick Wagstaff and the great Richard Burton,” he says.
“I’m hoping my sculpture might be able to persuade Burton’s sculpture to quote some poetry of an evening, or at least a bit of War Of The Worlds.”
