Larry Lamb has shared the unusual advice from his ex-partner that eventually helped him secure the role of Mick in Gavin & Stacey.
The actor, 77, played Mick Shipman, the supportive, laidback father of Mathew Horne’s Gavin, in the beloved BBC sitcom from 2007 to 2010, and later reprised the part in two further Christmas specials, which aired in 2019 and 2024.
Lamb’s character had a pivotal role in the final moments of last year’s special, when Mick finally reveals that he doesn’t believe that Gavin’s longtime best friend Smithy, played by co-creator James Corden, should marry his fiancée Sonia (Laura Aikman).
After Mick shares his true thoughts on the relationship, Smithy decides to abandon the wedding ceremony and pursue Nessa, played by the show’s co-creator Ruth Jones.
But in a new interview with The Times, the EastEnders star revealed that the series could have been very different, as director Christine Gernon initially had doubts when Lamb auditioned for the role in 2006.
However, Lamb’s partner at the time, actor Clare Burt, gave him some advice that helped him impress Gernon in his follow-up audition.
“She said, ‘Play it like you and Pam [Mick’s wife, played by Alison Steadman] have loads of great sex together,’” Lamb told The Times. “I went back for a second audition and I nailed it.”
The most recent Gavin & Stacey Christmas special marked the show’s last hurrah, with Corden and Jones both stressing that they don’t want to write any further episodes after finally giving their characters a happy ending.
Lamb, however, admitted that he’d “love to do more” episodes of the show, and revealed that he even floated the idea of a spin-off film to BBC director general Tim Davie, when he bumped into him “in the lobby” on the way to the interview.
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“I’d love to do more but… You tell me,” he said. “I said to the bloke downstairs in the lobby [Davie], ‘I don’t know why you don’t take the show, reorganise all the contracts and put it in the cinema. You’d have 35 million people going to see it. You’d make all the money over again.”
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale was watched by 12.3 million viewers when it aired on BBC One on Christmas Day, beating the 2019 special.
Viewing data later revealed that the episode was watched by 20.9 million over the course of 28 days following its debut, breaking viewing records.
