Ruth Jones to return as Nessa Jenkins in unusual BBC Gavin and Stacey comeback

Ruth Jones, known for her role as Nessa Jenkins in Gavin And Stacey, is set to bring back her character for a special episode of Radio 4's Shipping Forecast. The year 2025 marks the centenary of the weather bulletin's first broadcast on the BBC.

Ruth will be among the celebrities participating in the show, reading out the forecast in character as Nessa. The episode will air live on Radio 4 on New Year's Day and Ruth is thrilled to be involved.

She said: "Nessa has got quite a colourful history and one of her jobs was on the high seas. The Shipping Forecast was always very important and useful to her."

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In the final episode of Gavin And Stacey this year, which drew the highest Christmas ratings since 2008 with an average audience of 12.3 million tuning in, Neil "Smithy" Smith (James Corden) prevented Nessa from returning to work on the ships by rushing to Southampton Dock. He proposed to Nessa and the last scene featured a touching montage of a low-key wedding, with her wearing a black dress and the couple finally achieving their happily ever after.

Fans were moved as the sitcom concluded but will have the opportunity to hear Ruth as Nessa in the unusual role of reading the bulletin at the start of 2025. The Shipping Forecast is produced by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, reports the Liverpool Echo.

This year marked its centenary, after first being heard on January 1, 1924, as a weather bulletin called Weather Shipping. It moved a year later to the BBC.

Ruth Jones, as her character Nessa from Gavin & Stacey, will be joined by a star-studded cast including Julie Hesmondhalgh, Stephen Fry, Adrian Dunbar, and Dame Ellen MacArthur for a special show celebrating the Shipping Forecast's centenary. The celebrities will share historic forecasts and their personal recollections throughout the day.

Comedian and professional quizzer Paul Sinha, poet Imtiaz Dharker, and authors Ian McMillan and Val McDermid are also set to participate in the readings. Trevor Harrison, known as Eddie Grundy on The Archers, will read the forecast from November 21, 2021 – significant for his character renewing wedding vows with Clarrie Grundy (Heather Bell).

Dame Ellen will revisit the forecast from June 1, 1995, marking the start of her first solo journey around Britain, leading up to her world record-breaking solo global circumnavigation in 2005.

Mohit Bakaya, director of speech and Radio 4 controller, said: "The Shipping Forecast is one of our national treasures. So I'm delighted that we are cracking a bottle against the hull to launch 100 years of the Shipping Forecast on the BBC with a special schedule of programming on New Year's Day.

"As well as providing crucial information for seafarers over the years, the Shipping Forecast is also a cherished ritual that distils the essence of Radio 4 for so many of our listeners. It is also a moment for those great, unsung heroes and heroines of the Radio 4 schedule – the continuity announcers – to shine.

"On January 1, we will celebrate our 'national poem' with a dedicated day of fascinating programmes for listeners from Bailey to Viking, Biscay to South Utsire and everywhere in between."

BBC presenter Paddy O'Connell is also set to host a documentary about the history of the forecast, titled A Beginner's Guide. Meanwhile, historian Jerry Brotton will present an Archive On 4 episode, delving into how Britain's maritime past has shaped the nation.