Gavin and Stacey star reveals they’ve turned down Strictly Come Dancing for YEARS – and the reason why
A GAVIN and Stacey star has revealed that she’s turned down Strictly Come Dancing for years, and revealed just why this is.
The latest series of Strictly just ended, and saw much-loved comedian Chris McCausland and his pro partner Dianne Buswell raise the glitter ball trophy.
But one star who isn’t yet ready to give it a go herself is Gavin and Stacey’s Joanna Page, who plays the iconic role of Stacey.
The 47-year-old admitted in an interview that she’s been asked for years to go on Strictly, but “always said no.”
She added: “You’ve got to give up a massive chunk of your time – and with kids so small, I can’t do that because I wouldn’t want to do it half-heartedly.”
Joanna continued to tell Woman & Home: “In the future, when everybody’s in school and a bit older, when the kids could come and watch me in rehearsals, I think I’d quite enjoy doing it.
“Give me a couple of years to make my pelvic floor a little bit stronger, then I think I’d throw myself into it.”
Joanna is married to husband James Thornton, who she wed in 2003, and the pair share four children together – Eva, 11, sons Kit, nine, and Noah, who turns eight in December, and their youngest daughter Boe, who was born in December 2021.
During her chat, the star also discussed going from learning her lines with “no responsibility” to becoming a mum.
She said: “Going from not having any responsibility except for learning my lines, turning up, being Stacey and getting the job done, to suddenly coming home to four children and two dogs who are all jumping on me going ‘mummy, look at this! Mummy, look at that!” then Boe either wanting to cuddle or shout at me, I thought, ‘I’ve got no control.’”
It comes after her exclusive interview with Fabulous magazine, where she revealed she suffered burns in an accident while filming the Christmas special.
Joanna admitted: “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.”
Joanna, who plays Stacey, was in tears in her trailer with an assistant director just minutes before the accident.
The eagerly-awaited finale of the 17-year-old comedy is tipped to be one of the most watched programmes on telly on Christmas Day.
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?
In 2019 it commanded an audience of 11.6million viewers, making it top of the festive TV ratings that year.
In her chat with Fabulous, Joanna added: “It’s meant so, so much to me. I sat in my trailer and just couldn’t stop crying.”