The James Corden I know is no bully – but I’ll just never find him sexy, says Gavin and Stacey co-star Ruth Jones
THEY were one of TV comedy’s favourite couples as on-off lovers Nessa and Smithy and stole every scene in Gavin & Stacey.
But Ruth Jones says her sexual chemistry with co-star and co-writer James Corden was so non- existent off screen that they could never bring themselves even to make their characters kiss.
The closest they got to showing any lust was an innuendo-laced scene where Nessa and Smithy ramp up the sexual desire over KFC corn on the cob — and it remains one of the sitcom’s best loved moments.
Ruth recalled: “There is never ever a world in which me and James Corden would ever ever have been a couple, right? — we will happily say that about each other.
“You’ll also notice that Nessa and Smithy have never kissed, because there is no way me and James could do it.
“But the corn on the cob was such fun to do because we had to be so brimming with sexual desire and channelling this lust through it. We were hysterical and it was such fun to do.”
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In the scene, in episode four of series two, they try to keep a straight face as they gorge on a KFC takeaway and Smithy asks Nessa: “Do you want that corn on the cob?”
She replies: “Is that a euphemism?”
When Smithy realises Nessa is flirting, he turns up the sexual tension, saying: “When I look at it there, all hot and dripping in butter, just inviting me in, I’ve got a real hankering for it.
“But I would just be worried that if I ate it tonight, I would be expected to eat it more frequently.”
Nessa tells him not to worry, and they both end up sensually licking the corn cob. But the scene is a far cry from reality.
Ruth, 56, is married to TV producer David Peet, and is stepmother to his three children, while James, 44, has three children with his wife Julia Carey.
Ruth revealed that through-out their close friendship, she and James — who also appeared together in Noughties sitcom Fat Friends — have bickered like siblings rather than lovers.
She said: “As time went by — James is 12 years younger than me — it was very much a brother-sister-type relationship.
“I think I annoyed him hugely as an annoying older sister and he annoyed me hugely as an annoying younger brother. But it was very playful. We were either bickering or playing.
“In the first series of Gavin & Stacey we had a room the production company had found for us to write in. It was in Oxford Street in London, in rented offices.
“For some reason in the middle of the desk there was potpourri, an attempt to soften things up.
“I don’t know why we used to do this but it became a ritual that we would act all casual and nonchalant, then we would suddenly pick it up and throw it in the air and the potpourri would go everywhere.
“We would be hysterical laughing, even though we did it every time. It was so childish.”
In another incident Ruth wound up James so much he threatened to quit the writing session — but they made up over lots of chocolate.
She told an audience at the Cheltenham Literary Festival: “We had been due to write, and it was going to be in London and I was going to stay in this hotel.
“I was on my way up and somebody had sent me a text (script) to read.
Very playful
“I replied to them, ‘Thanks for the script, I’ll read it when I can and get back to you’.
“But this person was called James, and I sent it to the wrong James. I sent it to James Corden.
“James Corden texted me back and he went, ‘What are you talking about?’
“And I went, ‘Sorry, sorry, it was meant for somebody else’, and he went, ‘What script?’ and I don’t know why I did this, because I do not play tricks on people, I hate it.
“But for some reason I went, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t tell you about it’.
“And he was like, ‘What? We share everything, what are you talking about?’
“I said, ‘I know, I’m really sorry, it’s just a really important secret script and I’ve signed a confidentiality agreement’.
“And he went, ‘Oh I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this’, and the whole thing escalated and we ended up having a row.
“And he went, ‘I’m not writing today, that’s it, I’m not writing’.
“And I went, ‘You bloody well are writing, I’m coming all the way up the bloody M4, now come on’.
“We met at the hotel and we were like two sulky teenagers with each other.
“We talked it through because we were prone to having little spats like that. We ended up going across the road to this newsagents and we bought three big easter eggs.
Sugar rush
“We took them back to my hotel room, had a sugar rush then a sugar crash.
“We slept for three hours. When we woke up we wrote the Pete and Dawn renewal of the vows — and whenever I see that episode, it always reminds me of the chocolate fest coming after the big row.
“We had really silly times like that.”
Gavin & Stacey — about the love link between two families in South Wales and Essex — won a string of awards, including a Bafta and a British Comedy Award, and was voted the 17th greatest British sitcom in a poll by Radio Times.
But last week James’s golden reputation was somewhat tarnished when a New York restaurant owner claimed he was the most abusive customer his business had served in 25 years.
James said he hadn’t done anything wrong “on any level” after Keith McNally, owner of Balthazar restaurant, banned him and said he was a “tiny cretin of a man” who had abused staff during two visits.
Mr McNally detailed his claims on an Instagram post but in a later post the same day he said James had called him and “apologised profusely”.
The restaurateur then said he had revoked James’s ban and that he was welcome to come back.
James spoke about the controversy for the first time in a New York Times interview that was planned before the claims surfaced.
On the suggestion he could have pulled the interview, James said: “I haven’t done anything wrong, on any level. So why would I ever cancel this? I was there. I get it.”
He said he feels “so zen about the whole thing” and called it “so silly” but added that he might address it on air.
He is used to wearing his heart on his sleeve, and Ruth said he is a “very emotional guy”.
Joyful news
The pair last worked together on the 2019 Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, which had 17.1 million viewers live or on catch-up, and ended with the cliff-hanger of Nessa proposing to Smithy.
And Ruth spoke of James’s emotion after filming wrapped: “He is a very emotional guy. We had this hug and he was crying.
“He mumbled something and I went, ‘What? I’m really sorry, I can’t understand what you’re saying’.
“And he kept mumbling, and I said (loudly), ‘What?’ and he said (loudly), ‘I would be lost without you’.”
Ruth hopes they will write together again but any more of Gavin & Stacey seems doubtful.
She said: “All I can say is I am so completely flattered that people love it so much.
“We’re not writing any-thing, there are no plans to write anything. I don’t know what will happen in the future. I was so proud of it and it ended on an amazing cliffhanger, and I don’t know if we could better it.
“It was after Brexit, a joyful bit of news and maybe it’s better to leave people wondering.”
But with James moving back to the UK after his seven-year stint hosting The Late Late Show in the States, she added: “I hope we do write together because it would be a shame not to.
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“It would be exciting to see what we come up with — it might be terrible.”
Or it might be another telly classic . . . with or without the sexual tension.
