Joanna Page 'cried every day' filming final Gavin and Stacey episode

30 November 2024

Joanna Page cried every day filming the last episode of 'Gavin and Stacey'.

Joanna Page cried every day during filming

The 47-year-old actress will finally say goodbye to her alter ego Stacey Shipman in the show's Christmas special - which comes five years after the last episode and 17 years after the sitcom began - and she admitted she was "exhausted" at the end of every day because she was going through a period of grief.

She told the upcoming new issue of Woman and Home magazine: “Saying goodbye to 'Gavin and Stacey' felt like a grief. When I came home from filming, I was absolutely bloody exhausted! You’re saying goodbye to each location and person. I was crying from the second day.

“All of us knew, ‘This is it’, and that’s why being back together felt so lovely and meant so much. It was like a big family reunion, and because I knew it was the last one, I wasn’t nervous because I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to be good.’

"I just wanted to be with everybody, have fun and say goodbye to my family, even though I’ll see them again!”

Joanna doesn't think she'll ever have another job quite like 'Gavin and Stacey'.

She said: “I was 29 when I started on 'Gavin and Stacey'. No other job has ever affected me [as much] or will ever come as close as this job.”

And going back to work on the comedy series helped the actress - who has Eva, nine, Kit, seven, Noah, six, and Willow, two, with husband James Thornton - feel more like herself.

She said: “While I was away, I bought my first normal bra in two-and-a-half years.

"I started filming wearing my maternity feeding bras and ended with a proper, real-life, grown-up bra! You know when you’re discovering yourself again and feeling attractive and sexy?

“I was away from the children and wasn’t being Mum, having responsibility for everyone and just doing all the cooking. Mentally, I created some space to relax and have a bit of time for myself to breathe and sleep. That made me feel really quite good, coming home and feeling that I’m not just Mum, I’m Jo as well.”