Gavin and Stacey’s baby Neil is now ten years old and fans can’t believe it

NEIL, the baby from Gavin and Stacey is now a ten-year-old – and fans can’t get over it.

In the series Nessa (Ruth Jones) and Smithy (James Corden) have a son called Neil, but viewers never got to see him grow up because the show came to an end in 2010.

Now an image of Lewis Merchant, who played Neil during the Christmas special, has been shared online by his mum Emily and Gavin and Stacey viewers can’t get enough of it.

BBC3 started the excitement by sharing a couple of pictures from the show and wrote: “FYI baby Neil from Gavin and Stacey is now a 10-year-old.”

James Corden, who is now a huge US TV star, retweeted the images and commented: “Holy s**t”

Lewis’ mum then saw the post and decided to post a picture of Neil now, sharing a picture of him in a Swansea City tracksuit.

His choice of clothing is particularly amusing because Gavin and Stacey fans will remember that Smithy and Dave Coaches row about what football team he would support - either Cardiff or West Ham, not Swansea.

Seeing what he looks like now, one fan wrote: “I won’t lie to you! I’m a bit shocked 😳.”

While another WOW how time flies, never would have thought that was 10 years ago

And someone else remarked: “Nooooo way!!! I feel old 🙈”

Since doing Gavin and Stacey, which also starred Mathew Horne, Joanna Page and Larry Lamb, Lewis has gone on to star in an amateur performance of Peter Pan.

His mum told Wales Online that his main love is football but he would love to reprise his role on the show if it every came back.

“He’d love to be in the show again,” she said. “His sister would hate that unless she got a part too!”

Baby Neil, whose full name was Neil Noel Edmond 'the Baby' Smith, was also played by Ewan Kennedy and Oscar Hartland on the show.

Ruth, who co-wrote Gavin and Stacey with James, recently hinted the show could return.

The 51-year-old star  recently caught up with the Late Late Show host to talk about what the characters would be up to now, prompting speculation there could be a fourth series on the way.

She said: "James and I were talking about this [the characters] the other day.

"I think Baby Neil, who is now probably about 11 ... Nessa is training him down the slots.

"She's training him in the art of the dodgy grabber machine and how to weight the two pences."

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