Gavin and Stacey ’s cliffhanger ending left fans gobsmacked last night as the BBC sitcom returned to TV screens for a Christmas special.
The show’s newest star Laura Aikman has revealed that the festive episode ending was “stressful” to keep secret as diehard fans camped outside until 2am.
Laura, who plays Smithy’s snobby girlfriend Sonia , has told how the crew went to extraordinary lengths to make sure Nessa’s proposal to Smithy wouldn’t leak before airing on Christmas Day.
The actress told the Huffington Post that the special moment had to be hidden from 400 eager fans who had stayed out into the early hours to catch a glimpse of their favourite stars in action.
Nessa, played by Ruth Jones, popped the question in the middle the street after James Corden’s character Smithy waved goodbye to Sonia, making it extra tricky to keep under wraps.
Speaking to the publication, Laura revealed: “There were fans waiting down at the bottom of the street, even at about two o’clock in the morning. We were filming really late, and they were all still there.
“I think someone parked a truck across the top of the street while they were filming that bit [the proposal].
“And obviously I had to drive down the road so they couldn’t completely barricade the bottom of the street, but because it’s a hill, you couldn’t see what was going on at the top of it.
“But that day was the most stressful for them, I think.”
As well as using a truck to block the secret proposal out of sight, there were few crew working that night to keep it under wraps.
The cast weren’t even allowed to have a printed version of the script on set in case fans found pages in the rubbish.
Laura continued: “Every day when you’re filming they print out an A5 version of the script pages that you’re filming that day, and everyone in the crew has that. And they didn’t print any out that day, just in case things would get left lying around in the street.”
Viewers have now called for a full rebooted series of the BBC series following the success of last night’s festive episode.
Last night’s Christmas special, the first since New Year’s Day in 2010, saw the lead stars Gavin and Stacey, played by Mathew Horne and Joanna Page, ten years on.
Will fans ever find out Smithy’s response to Nessa?
