Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page cried every day on last episode set

Joanna Page has opened up about the emotional toll of filming the last-ever episode of Gavin & Stacey, which will air on Christmas Day, and how it felt like 'grieving'

Joanna Page confessed saying goodbye to Gavin & Stacey felt like bidding farewell to a loved one as she cried every day on set.

Filming the last-ever episode of the much-loved sitcom took its toll on the 47-year-old, leaving her shattered. Anticipation is building for the finale, hitting our screens on Christmas Day.

Joanna, who plays Stacey, opened up about reuniting with the cast and the emotional scenes that came with it. She said: “Saying goodbye to Gavin & Stacey felt like a grief. When I came home from filming, I was absolutely bloody exhausted! You’re saying goodbye to each location and person. I was crying from the second day.

“All of us knew, ‘This is it’, and that’s why being back together felt so lovely and meant so much. It was like a big family reunion, and because I knew it was the last one, I wasn’t nervous because I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to be good.’ I just wanted to be with everybody, have fun and say goodbye to my family, even though I’ll see them again!”

Co-creators James Corden and Ruth Jones, who play Smithy and Nessa, confirmed in May the show would return for one last episode. Filming began in September at some of the show’s iconic locations in Wales and Essex. It has been five years since Nessa got down on one knee, declaring her love for Smithy and asking him to marry her – and fans cannot wait to find out if they get their happily ever after.

Alison Steadman and Larry Lamb will be back as Pam and Mick Shipman, as will Rob Brydon as Uncle Bryn. “I was 29 when I started on Gavin & Stacey,” Joanna told Woman & Home magazine. “No other job has ever affected me [as much] or will ever come as close as this job.”

When we catch up with Stacey and Gavin, played by Mathew Horne, at Christmas, the couple are looking for new and exciting ways to spice up their marriage of 17 years. Joanna says she still manages to keep the spark alive with her real-life husband James Thornton by making the most of the alone time they get together, even booking a hotel room for a quick rendezvous.

She said: “James and I haven’t yet left all four kids to take a weekend break. We can squeeze it into two hours! When we went to see an episode of Strictly Come Dancing being filmed, we pulled up to the studio quite early, so we drove down the road and booked a room in a Travelodge. We made the most of our evening away. We didn’t do a lot of sleeping, I will say that!”

Joanna said going back to Gavin & Stacey helped her feel more like herself again after years focusing on her children – Eva, nine, Kit, seven, Noah, six, and Willow, two. “While I was away, I bought my first normal bra in two-and-a-half years,” she explained. “I started filming wearing my maternity feeding bras and ended with a proper, real-life, grown-up bra! You know when you’re discovering yourself again and feeling attractive and sexy?

“I was away from the children and wasn’t being Mum, having responsibility for everyone and just doing all the cooking. Mentally, I created some space to relax and have a bit of time for myself to breathe and sleep. That made me feel really quite good, coming home and feeling that I’m not just Mum, I’m Jo as well.”

Happy with her brood, Joanna took the decision to have no more children after their fourth. But she says she would love to grow their family through other avenues one day. She revealed: “I’ve been thinking about fostering or adopting. It’s something I’ve chatted about with James because I’m still very maternal, and it’s something that I would think about in the future.

“I don’t regret having my tubes tied, and although I felt broody at the start of the year, I don’t any more. At the beginning of this year, I did a health check, which involved a scan that showed that my right ovary had packed up. There wasn’t anything left, no eggs. That moment felt huge, as if my body was saying, ‘That is it.’”

The star’s next pet project will be a BBC 2 show in January exploring her passion for animal welfare, called Joanna Page’s Wild Life.

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