Joanna Page on the end of Gavin & Stacey, James Corden’s diva behaviour & THAT naked Love Actually scene

WHAT'S occurring?

Well, on Christmas Day, after the post-turkey snooze, what’s likely to be occurring is the majority of the UK settling down to watch the last ever episode of Gavin & Stacey, to see if Smithy (James Corden) has accepted Nessa’s (Ruth Jones) marriage proposal.

It’s been five years since the Christmas Day cliff-hanger and fans of the show are desperate to see how the series ends after 17 years on our screens.

None more so than one of the BBC1 show’s main stars, Joanna Page, who plays Stacey Shipman.

Like everyone else, she plans to watch it for the first time when it airs.

“I want to be sitting on the sofa in my PJs with my feet up, thinking: ‘Right, we’ve got through Christmas Day.

“I hope the kids are gonna be quiet so I can have a drink and watch it.’

"I don’t really give a s**t that it’s me in it, as I actually feel like a viewer.

“There’s so much stuff filmed that I’m not in, so I can’t wait to see all of it.

“I just want to know what’s happening,” she says.

“I’ll have been up since 4am and hopefully three bottles of Buck’s Fizz down, so I’ll be knackered by then.

"My husband James [Thornton, 49, former Emmerdale star] does all the cooking and I’ll build the toys.

“With four kids and dogs, our house is totally insane, so I’ll be looking forward to a sit down.”

Despite reports that the 2019 special would be the end, show creators Ruth and James confirmed in May that the Shipmans and the Wests would return.

“I had no idea if it was going to come back,” says Joanna.

“I had tonsillitis and felt st when I got a phone call from James last year saying: ‘How do you feel about doing a special?’

“I was really surprised.

“But now this one is definitely the end. No more.”

The whole cast have been sworn to secrecy in terms of what is going to happen in the episode – a duty Joanna takes very seriously.

“I had just finished another job and had stopped in a service station when a script titled Toffee Apple was emailed over.

“That was the code name for the show.

“There were so many people around me, it was stressful in case anyone saw.

“The excitement was huge.

“I sat in my car and read as much as I could, but I had to leave before I got charged!

"I drove to another service station to read the rest.

“I was voice-noting Ruth the whole way through going: ‘Oh my god.’

“It’s been terrifying having to keep my mouth shut, thinking: ‘I do not want to be the one who spoils anything.’”

Surely she can give us one hint?

Do we find out what actually happened on the infamous camping trip?

Joanna shakes her head: “No, I’m not going to say.”

We do know the gang are set to spend Christmas in Essex, with Stacey and Gavin trying to spice up their marriage while Pam [Alison Steadman] is stressing out about hosting.

The 90-minute special was shot over six weeks in Cardiff and the whole cast found it emotional.

“It was so lovely, because we all knew that it was the end,” Joanne explains.

“There was a huge sadness.

“I was constantly crying, but also joyously happy, because it was like a family reuniting again.

“It was just an utter joy to be with everyone.”

‘James has become massively famous, but he’s still the same person’

Her life has transformed since the first episode of the show aired on BBC3 in 2007.

She’s now mum to kids Eva, 11, Kit, nine, Noah, eight, and three-year-old Boe, with James, her husband of 21 years.

All the cast are household names now, and James Corden, of course, has gone on to become a global star.

But despite rumours of diva behaviour, Joanna doesn’t think he’s changed at all.

“James has become massively famous,” she says.

“But he’s still the same person. He’s just James.

“When we started, I was only 29 and now I’m 47.

“All of us have got married and had children.

“So many things have happened, but when we got together it was like going back to the first series.”

Fans were equally thrilled to see the gang back and each day huge crowds gathered to watch the filming.

“When we did the last one [in 2019], people turned up, but it was nothing like this time around.

“It was so much fun because all the fans would start screaming like you were a massive pop star.

“We’ve got a WhatsApp group called ‘Christmas Is Occurring’ where we all just take the piss out of each other.

"I posted: ‘I’ve been brought back to reality.

“I’ve been stuck for two hours with a flat tyre.

“My days of crowds cheering me and signing tea towels are gone.’”

It could have all been so different, as Joanna almost messed up her opportunity to land the role of Stacey.

“James and Ruth had suggested ‘The Welsh girl from Love Actually’, so I was asked to audition.

“I met Ruth in the toilet before and I was telling her how amazing she was.

“Then she told the director: ‘Well, I’ve just met Stacey.’

“But I’m from Swansea and they wanted a Cardiff accent.

“I had no idea how it sounded, so I made it up.

“I was reading with Mathew Horne and Ruth pulled me aside to tell me to stop doing the accent and it worked.

“So they rewrote it to have Stacey from Swansea.

“I’d never been allowed to be Welsh before!

“Anything I’d audition for would always ask me to drop the accent.

“So Gavin & Stacey really put Wales on the map.

“I feel so proud to have been a part of that.

“It’s once in a lifetime and that’s why it was just so sad to say goodbye.

“I know we’ll all meet up and see each other, but this will be the last time that we’re all like this.

“On the last day on set, I was thinking: ‘Pull yourself together,’ but I was in such a state I knocked my boiling hot coffee over myself in make-up.

“I had to get the costume department to wash my clothes.

“It was good, as the shock of being scalded shook me out of it.”

While Joanna was upset about the show ending, she did manage to take some souvenirs from the set.

“I stole a painting from Stacey’s house and a glass-blown figure,” she admits.

“I took all her costumes, too.

“I’ve always done that.

“I still have Stacey’s big knitted cardigan from when she is depressed in series two.

“Even the earrings I’m wearing today are Stacey’s.

“I haven’t taken them off since we finished filming.”

Of course, Joanna is already a permanent fixture in the Christmas TV schedules, with roles in festive faves Nativity 2, David Copperfield and that famous naked scene with Martin Freeman in Love Actually.

“I’ve only seen Love Actually once, years ago, as they asked me to introduce it at the Cardiff Film Festival.

“I was sitting in the front row of the cinema with my mum and my dad.

“I kept thinking: ‘Oh my god, I wish I wasn’t watching this in front of anyone.’

“Every year my parents text me: ‘We’ve watched Love Actually, Christmas can begin.’

“It’s hilarious that Christmas can only start in the Page household when they’ve seen their daughter stark b*****k naked in Love Actually!”

It’s hard not to love Joanna.

She’s as likeable as her character and talks a mile a minute, describing everything as “lush” or exclaiming,

“Oh my god!” in excitement at each of the outfits for our festive-themed shoot.

So it’s no surprise she’s been given a regular slot on the Loose Women panel, while her BBC nature show, Joanna Page’s Wild Life, starts in the new year.

“I have always loved animals, so I trained to be a wildlife care assistant for 10 weeks.

“I was feeding baby birds, injecting hedgehogs with medicine and having to worm foxes.

“I was terrified to start, but I got really involved.

“I can triage a pigeon now.”

While filming a TV show can involve long, stressful days, Joanna loved it as it was a break from her kids – she had her fourth in 2021, aged 44.

“What was so good about being in Cardiff for six weeks for Gavin & Stacey was a bed to myself.

“I love being a mum, but most of the time I feel near breakdown.

“It’s full-on.

“I still sleep with Boe.

“She doesn’t need me, but I can’t bear to leave her.

“James always says: ‘Are you coming back to our bed?’ But I love cuddling her.

“Boe was an utter surprise.

“I didn’t think we’d get pregnant at 44.

“I wish I’d started earlier and had a million more kids.

“But being older, I don’t get so panicky or stressed as it doesn’t matter, as long as we’re together.”

‘I’m the woman whose boobs will forever breastfeed children’

Joanna had tubal ligation after Boe to avoid having any more children, but then considered getting it reversed.

“I had my tubes tied,” she explains.

“But when Boe was a couple of months old, I started getting broody.

“I read about getting it reversed.

“But I can’t at this age, plus I’m still breastfeeding Boe.

“She’s weaned, but the minute I come in, she goes: ‘I want boob,’ and jumps on.

“I just thought: ‘F**k it’.

“I won’t let her breastfeed when she’s 10, but I’ll leave her for as long as she wants.

“I am renowned among my friends as the woman whose boobs will forever feed children.

“It doesn’t stop.

“Even when I filmed Gavin & Stacey, my body started to change and I started to regain myself.

“I thought: ‘That’s her off it.’ But when I came back, the milk started coming and she was straight back on.

“I probably will be the only woman who’s breastfeeding and going through the menopause at the same time!”

While most people dread turning 50, Joanna is really looking forward to it.

“I want to do a list of 50 things before I’m 50,” she says.

“I’m looking forward to it.

“The kids will be older.

“My days will be much freer.

“So I’ll have a hell of a lot more energy when I hit 50 than I had through my 30s and 40s.

“It will probably be the time when I’m feeling pretty damn hot again!”

• Watch Joanna Page’s Wild Life, from January 6, 2025, BBC2.