Gavin and Stacey star rules out return to hit BBC comedy for its final ever episode

ONE of the stars of Gavin and Stacey has ruled out a return to the hit BBC comedy.

Back in May, James Corden and Ruth Jones revealed that one final episode was in the works.

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Emily Merchant

The fan-favourite BBC sitcom will return to TV screens this Christmas for its last ever instalment.

The likes of Matthew Horne, Joanna Page, Larry Lamb, and Alison Steadman are all confirmed to reprise their roles.

However, it seems that not all of the original stars of Gavin and Stacey will be making a return.

Lewis Merchant is an actor who previously played Baby Neil, the son of Nessa and Smithy.

This was before the likes of Ewan Kennedy and Oscar Hartland took over the part for some of the later series.

He last appeared as the character 16 years ago, and he has now admitted that he has no plans to come back to the spotlight.

The former actor has just finished his GCSE’s, and he revealed that he’s not keen on returning to BBC screens.

“I was in an acting company but I don’t do that anymore,” he explained.

“I just lost interest mainly, because I found I loved football and I preferred to do that when I was a bit younger, that was the main reason I stopped.”

Before the most recent episode, Lewis was offered the opportunity to re-audition for the role, alongside the other child actors who previously starred in the series.

“A few years ago I did audition for the newest Gavin and Stacey role, that’s probably the closest contact I’ve had to any cast members from back then,” he admitted.

“I was still acting at that time and I thought it would be really cool if I did it back then and then also did it recently, I was interested in that.”

This was alongside Oscar Hartland, 15, who bagged the opportunity to play Neil again in the 2019 special episode when he was just 10-years-old.

But he admitted his disappointment, after it appeared that he’s been overlooked for the final episode.

Gavin and Stacey best moments

Gavin and Stacey's Best Moments

With the news that the show is set to make an exciting return to screens, let's take a look at some of the comedy programme's biggest and best moments...

• Smithy and Rudi’s American Boy rap – No one will ever forget when James Corden and Sheridan Smith rapped perfectly word for word Kanye West and Estelle hit American Boy as they walked across the car park on the phone to Gavin.
• Pam’s Vegetarian faux pas – Despite loving a cheeseburger, Pam found herself caught up in a web of unexpected lies when she claimed to be a Vegetarian. She is forced to keep up the secret throughout the entire show and uses hubby Mick to help her scoff meat. She is later rumbled when Stacey catches her in the act as she scoffs ham in the kitchen. Stacey says to her: “Is that ham, Pam!?… “I’ve seen you, Pam. A scotch egg here, a bit of bacon there, putting those regular sausages into the Linda McCartney box”.
• THAT fishing trip – It remains one of the biggest mysteries in Gavin and Stacey’s history as to just exactly what happened on the ill-fated fishing trip. Bryn appears to be hiding a secret as to an occurrence between him and his nephew Jason which has left relations fractures. Ness’ on-off boyfriend, Dave, is the only other person to know the whole truth. Bryn did appear to allude to him and Jason lying together naked to keep warm as he said to Dave: “We’re going to have this out, once and for all, man to man, you may know what happened, David, but you don’t know why it happened! It was freezing cold, it was! And when you are that cold…”
• Islands in the Stream – No one can ever forget the classic Karaoke performance of Islands in the Stream. Nessa and Bryn performed the track in front of all their nearest and dearest. It saw the whole pub burst into some line-dancing as they enjoyed a boozy night out.
• The Xmas special proposal – In 2019, fans were left overjoyed when the show made a comeback but it ended on the ultimate cliffhanger. Nessa asked Smithy if she would marry him as she finally laid bare her feelings for him. Fans were gutted as the show then cut straight to the credits as they never found out just how Smithy answered. Will it all be revealed in the brand-new episode?

He previously told us: ‘I’m disappointed. I was hoping to get the call.

“Neil must feature in the final episode because he’s Smithy and Nessa’s son, they can’t write him out.”

Adding: “Neil would be 15, the same age as me.”

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