Gavin and Stacey fans are only just realising Nessa and Dawn starred together in forgotten sitcom before BBC show
GAVIN and Stacey fans are only just realising Nessa and Dawn starred together in a forgotten sitcom before the infamous BBC show.
Ruth Jones, 58, is known as the creator of the show as well as her role as sarcastic Barry resident, Vanessa Shanessa “Nessa” Jenkins.
Meanwhile, writer and actress Julia Davis, 58, is known for her role as Dawn Sutcliffe on the hit sitcom.
On Gavin and Stacey, her character was a close friend of Pam (Alison Steadman) and Mick (Larry Lamb).
But it turns out, the pair have worked together before on another project.
Julia is the woman behind the BBC black comedy Nighty Night, which became infamous for its dark humour.
On the hit 2004 show, she played narcissistic sociopath Jill Tyrell, whose husband Terry (Kevin Eldon) gets diagnosed with cancer.
She uses the information to manipulate all those around her, including her new ill neighbour Cathy Cole (Rebecca Front).
But Ruth also had a starring role in the series as she played her moronic personal assistant named Linda.
A number of fans took to social media as they started to note the previous connection between the pair and left gushing praise for the dark comedy.
One fan wrote: “Curious to know if you also saw Nighty Night? It has Ruth Jones (Nessa) and Julia Davis (Dawn) in it and it’s just as good if not better! A lot of people don’t know it exists.”
Another user saw a clip of the show on X – formerly known as Twitter – as they mistook it as a scene from Gavin And Stacey.
While an additional die-hard viewer replied: “It’s called Nighty Night it’s dawn from Gav and Stace tho!!! She wrote it it’s f****** hilarious. Nessa is in it aswell hahhaha it’s on BBC iPlayer.”
Two series of the show were made by the BBC before execs decided to cancel the show in October 2005.
A year later, bosses attempted to get a new version of the show made in the US, with Sex and the City creator Darren Star writing the script.
Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan was set to be one of the executive producers of the show, but it never came to pass.
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 the 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 cheesburger, Pam found herself caught up in a web of unexpected lies when she claimed to be 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 history as to just exactly what did happen on the ill-fated fishing trip. Bryn appears to be hiding a secret as to an occurance 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 all be revealed in the brand new episode?
Despite this, the show was considered a huge success as Julia Davis won a Royal Television Society Award for her performance.
TV critics gave the show a warm reception and it received a nomination for Best Situation Comedy at the 2005 BAFTA TV Awards.
Nighty Night is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.