BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Lauren LeVernier, we're taking our summer break, so until we're back on air we're showcasing

a few programs from our archive, as usual the music's been shortened for right reasons.

This week's guest is the actor and writer Ruth Jones. I cast her away in 2019.

My cast away this week is the writer and actor Ruth Jones. She's the star of many

stage and screen productions but best known and loved for her after-winning creations

Gavin and Stacey and Stella. The characters she portrayed in both series,

Nessa in Gavin and Stacey and the eponymous Stella are unforgettable, funny,

down to earth and hugely capable. It's tempting to see this as a case of art

imitating life since their creator exhibits a similarly grounded view of her enormous success

as an actor, screenwriter, showrunner and now best-selling novelist. She got her equity card

by shifting scenery and playing a ninja turtle, Michael Angelos, since you ask in Panto,

and prefers spending time at home with old friends to show business events.

After a recent incident when she failed to recognise a famous singer and congratulate it

him on what she assumed was an excellent amateur performance, she commented,

I'm really not good in that world, I get it wrong, so it's better for me to stay out of it.

That's why I live in Cardiff, I'm not going to find any pups at the end of my drive.

Ruth Jones, welcome to Death Island Disc. Thank you very much. So hopefully we're not to be here.

Well, hopefully we're not too sure busy for you today, this is radio, so the best

you're likely to be offered is, you know, cup of tea and biscuits. That's fine by me,

I'm a big fan of the biscuit and a huge fan of the tea. Perfect. And obviously you've created so

many well-loved TV characters, some of whom you've also played like Stella and Nessa,

...