The book may be closed on Gavin and Stacey, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of Vanessa Shanessa Jenkins, played wonderfully by show co-creator Ruth Jones.
This week’s finale ended with Nessa and Smithy (James Corden) finally tying the knot after the whole crew rushed to Southampton to stop her from boarding a boat and spending the next few months at sea.
A return to nautical life very nearly beckoned for Nessa but Smithy walked out of his own wedding to Sonia (Laura Aikman) after realising she wasn’t the one for him.
It was a happy ending for Gavin and Stacey fans and the finale was celebrated hugely by viewers who widely reckoned they’d given the show a brilliant send-off.
However, Ruth Jones isn’t quite done playing Nessa because she’s got another job as the character lined up soon enough.
You see, The Shipping Forecast is going to celebrate 100 years of being played on the radio on the upcoming New Year’s Day with a number of celebrities invited on to BBC Radio 4 to participate.
Julie Hesmondhalgh, Stephen Fry, Adrian Dunbar, and Dame Ellen MacArthur are among the famous faces who’ll be lending their voices to the centenary celebrations, and Ruth Jones will be joining them.
According to the BBC, when it’s her turn to be on The Shipping Forecast, Jones will bring Nessa back to read out part of the broadcast.
It seems fitting considering that one of Nessa’s many jobs she’s had throughout her life involved working on ships, which she very nearly returned to right before Smithy caught up and proposed to her.
She said: “Nessa has got quite a colourful history and one of her jobs was on the high seas. The Shipping Forecast was always very important and useful to her.”
Also part of the centenary celebrations are quizmaster Paul Sinha, poet Imtiaz Dharker, writers Ian McMillan and Val McDermid and musician Damon Albarn, who referenced The Shipping Forecast in his Blur song ‘This is a Low’.
While The Shipping Forecast, a Met Office production made on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, is mainly used to keep sailors informed of weather conditions, it has also gained a cult following both in the UK and worldwide from people who just want to listen to the distinctive broadcast rather than know what’s occurring on the seas.
Though it started all the way back in 1867 by telegraph, in 1924 it was broadcast on the radio for the first time as Weather Shipping, and the following year it became part of the BBC’s programming.
The classic 1963 song ‘Sailing By’ has become an integral part of the broadcast, with the soothing music a signal that it’s time for The Shipping Forecast.
