大象传媒

Ruth Jones co-created and starred in the award-winning TV comedy series Gavin and Stacey, and also wrote and took the title role in the comedy drama Stella, which ran for six series.

She grew up in Porthcawl, in South Wales, where the local secondary school nurtured her love of performance – and where Rob Brydon was a fellow pupil. She developed the idea for Gavin and Stacey with James Corden while they were filming an ITV drama. The series began on 大象传媒 Three, with Ruth’s role as straight-talking, leather-wearing Nessa winning people’s hearts. She and James wrote every episode, and the finale, on 大象传媒 One, reached more than 10 million viewers. Last year Ruth published her first novel, Never Greener, which topped the bestseller lists, and returned to the stage in the musical play The Nightingales.

Here’s what we learned from her Desert Island Discs:

1. Sitting in a bar people-watching inspired Gavin & Stacey

Ruth was filming the ITV series Fat Friends with James Corden when they began to develop the idea which became their BAFTA-winning sitcom. "Because we were staying in a hotel, where there were lots of conferences and things going on, we used to people-watch in the bar and go ‘Oh - that would be the drunken auntie, or that would be the geeky uncle’ and we wrote up these characters."

2. She admits that she lapsed into 'extreme Welshness' when she met President Obama

"I think it’s a sort of security blanket to go into my original, strong Welsh accent, when I have met people who are a little bit overwhelming, such as President Obama. When I was introduced to him, he lent down, because he was so tall, and said 'I’m very pleased to meet you' and I said 'Can I just say congratulations! Absolutely brilliant!' and I did thumbs-up to him. I double thumbsed up to him!"

3. She still wishes she could have carried the giant leek in a primary school performance

Ruth remembers singing her first choice of track, Max Boyce’s Ballad of Morgan the Moon, at school when she was seven: "The whole class dressed up as rugby supporters. We made our own red and white rosettes, had our red and white hats on and Helen Shepherd got to carry the giant leek, which I have still not forgiven her for. I think perhaps that was one of my earliest memories of wanting to perform. I wanted to carry that giant leek, it wasn’t fair!"

4. An exotic new friend introduced Ruth to the song she calls her anthem

The Rose, as recorded by Bette Midler, is Ruth’s third disc for the island, and her song for all occasions: over the years she and her friends have sung it "at weddings, probably even a couple of funerals and christenings. We don’t really need an excuse. We will always sing The Rose. I pity the people that have to listen to it, because we try to do these harmonies and it must sound atrocious." Ruth first heard it when she was 15, thanks to a new friend, who Ruth describes as "very exotic", because she had come all the way from Cardiff — which is about 25 miles from Ruth’s home town.

5. Her interview at Manchester University was a disaster

Ruth, who loved musicals, applied to study drama at Manchester, and was asked to talk about a stage production she had seen. "There was another girl there and she said ‘Yeah, I’m going to talk about Mutter Courage, or I might talk about The Caucasian Chalk Circle’. And she was very, very trendy and she wore legwarmers and a beret and she said ‘What about you? What are you going to talk about?’ and I went 'Erm… Cats?'"

6. A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle changed her life

After graduating, Ruth struggled to find work as a performer, and considered a change of career: "I moved back to Wales and was going to become a solicitor, because I thought I’m clearly not going to become an actress, it’s just not happening. And then Stan Stennett, who was a pantomime producer in my hometown of Porthcawl, offered me this job of shifting scenery and being a Ninja Turtle, and that’s when I got my Equity Card." (Additional info for Turtle fans: Ruth played Michelangelo.)

7. She thinks her fifth disc is the 'sexiest song ever, ever made'

"Every time I hear it I just want to get up and dance. It’s just so potent and hot and sexy!"

The song is Smooth by Santana, and it’s the one track by Ruth would save if the waves threatened to wash away her discs on the island. She also says she would fashion a guitar and learn to play Carlos Santana’s solo on the song, so that if she is rescued, she can it perform for her brother Mark "who is a brilliant guitarist and I can show off to him."

8. Filming a Red Nose Day song video with her old school friend moved her to tears

Ruth first sang with Rob Brydon in school musicals when they were teenagers — and decades later they recorded Islands in the Stream as the 2009 Comic Relief song, with a guest appearance from Tom Jones. They filmed the video in Las Vegas. "I’ll never forget the moment came when Tom Jones had to walk through the crowds, parting the crowds as he entered and Rob and I just looked at each other and filled up, because we were like 'We went to Porthcawl comp and look at us now! We’re standing here singing with Tom Jones'."

9. Her choice of luxury is controversial

Ruth says she can’t imagine life without Radio 4’s long-running rural drama The Archers – but fears she won’t be allowed to take the complete back-catalogue as her one luxury item. Host Lauren Laverne says it is a controversial choice, because it offers additional listening material, along with the eight discs. Fortunately there is a precedent. In 1994 Sir George Christie was permitted to take The Archers by Sue Lawley, and so Ruth is delighted to learn that she can too: "I’m actually looking forward now to being on the desert island, just so I can go back to episode one."