Larry Lamb has said he cried when he first read the script for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special, because it was so “poignant”.
He also said that filming on the episode – written by James Corden and Ruth Jones – starts soon, but the details are “super hush-hush”.
Corden and Jones revealed on Tuesday that they had secretly been plotting to bring the much-loved sitcom back a decade after it ended.
Ruth Jones and I have been keeping this secret for a while… We’re excited to share it with you. See you on Christmas Day @BBCOne #GavinandStacey pic.twitter.com/gTRa3cp90t
— James Corden (@JKCorden) May 28, 2019
Lamb, who plays Mick Shipman in the sitcom, said that revisiting his former character and the others in the script brought him to tears.
He told ITV’s This Morning: “It’s amazing what he and Ruth have managed to do. I’ve finally read the script and it really … it got me.
“I just started to read the first little sequence and I just found myself crying. It was like running into somebody that was a major part of your life and you’re just so happy about it.
“It didn’t really matter what they were doing, it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t anything, it was just so poignant and they were immediately into the feeling of the whole thing, and it just took me along.”
Asked when filming starts, Lamb said: “Not too long from now, it’s going to be extraordinary.”
He said he does not know if filming will happen in Barry Island in Wales, where much of the series was set, adding: “It’s all super hush-hush.”
Lamb, 71, said he does not know if the entire cast will reunite for the festive broadcast, and he is “not right up to speed on all of that”.
The Christmas special will see Mathew Horne and Joanna Page return to their lead roles as Gavin and Stacey.
Corden and Jones will reprise their roles as Smithy and Nessa, alongside the other supporting cast members – Rob Brydon, Lamb, Melanie Walters and Alison Steadman.
The comedy aired over three series, plus a Christmas special, from 2007 to 2010 on the BBC.
It told the story of Gavin (Horne), from Essex, and Stacey (Page), from Barry in Wales, who fell in love and married after speaking on the phone to each other every day at work.
The 2010 New Year’s Day finale was watched by more than 10.2 million viewers.
The sitcom was a breakthrough hit for BBC Three and eventually moved to BBC One.
Corden went on to find fame in the US as host of The Late Late Show, best known for its Carpool Karaoke segment.
Lamb said he did not think that the show would ever come back, given Corden’s success in America.
He said: “I’d got to the point where I figured, well, it’s left, this jewel as it was, and they didn’t go on. They were only ever going to do one series anyway.”