A man who was an extra in the Gavin and Stacey finale, playing one of Smithy’s deer, has shared what it was really like behind the scenes of the long-awaited final episode of the BBC show.
Welsh actor Scott McGlynn, 37, was seen in the background of several scenes in the emotional Christmas Day special.
He even got his own personalized Smithy West Ham football shirt, which he was seen putting on as the boys arrived at the stag do wearing it.
Speaking of the experience, Scott said: “They told me they needed two or three deer, so I made a tape and then turned into a deer, which was a lot of fun.”
‘I loved working with the cast and crew, they are all so friendly and welcoming. I had great talks with Robert Wilfort, who plays Jason. We were drinking non-alcoholic beer in our scene, sometimes it felt like a real stag party or a night out!’
He explained: ‘I filmed four days in total and my first day was the wedding scene. We had a big announcement from Ruth and James not to talk or share with anyone what was going to happen, now we know who she was going to marry and how she was going to leave.
A man who was an extra in the Gavin and Stacey finale, playing one of Smithy’s deer, has shared what it was really like behind the scenes of the long-awaited final episode.
Welsh actor Scott McGlynn, 37, was seen in the background of several scenes in the emotional Christmas Day special.
“It was hard knowing everything that happened and all your friends ask you, but for me it was very important that people saw it on Christmas Day and I’m not a spoiler guy.
“So from that wedding scene I knew pretty well the ending and how it was being planned.”
Speaking of the emotional mood on set, she gushed: “You felt the love in the room during filming, that’s for sure.”
‘I was in the wedding and stag party scenes, so Ruth (Jones) wasn’t filming those days, but she was behind the camera.
‘But I remember that my last day of filming was Ruth’s birthday, to which we all sang happy birthday. “There was a tearful speech that was beautiful and he gave us all cake, which was a nice end to the filming.”
He also detailed some of the extreme measures to keep Smithy’s girlfriend Sonia’s big return a secret.
The actor recalled: ‘I remember that she was very hidden and no one saw her until that moment when we filmed and then the posters gave it away.
“But some people were given random names on the wedding cards, so not much was revealed.”
It comes after Gavin and Stacey star Laura Aikman (Sonia) shared the adorable moment her parents discovered she was returning to comedy while watching the long-awaited finale on Christmas Day.
Gavin and Stacey: The Finale attracted 12.5 million viewers and became the most watched show on Christmas Day (James Corden and Ruth Jones portrayed as Smithy and Nessa)
Speaking about the experience, Scott said: “They told me they needed two or three deer, so I made a tape and then turned into a deer, which was a lot of fun (pictured, fourth from the left).
He revealed: “We were drinking non-alcoholic beer in our scene, at times it felt like a real stag party or a night out!”
He even got his own personalized Smithy West Ham football shirt, which he was seen putting on as the boys arrived at the stag do wearing it.
Speaking about the emotional mood on set, she gushed: “You felt the love in the room during filming, that’s for sure (pictured, center)
During the episode, fans were on the edge of their seats when it was revealed that Smithy’s (James Corden) fiancee was Laura’s character Sonia, instead of Ruth Jones’ Nessa.
Her appearance came as a shock to the nation, as Laura had been “in hiding” in a separate hotel during filming and had signed a confidentiality agreement preventing her from revealing that she would return.
While 12.5 million viewers gasped at the big reveal, no one was more shocked than her beloved parents, who had no idea she was making her big return.
The next morning, on Boxing Day, the actress shared a clip on Instagram of the moment the big surprise was revealed to her unsuspecting parents.
She wrote: “The moment my family realizes Sonia is ruining Christmas again…” alongside the hilarious video.
Gavin and Stacey director Christine Gernon also took to Instagram after the finale aired to reveal the extent of the extreme measures taken for her secret return.
Sharing a snap of Laura alongside Alison Steadman, who plays Pam in the BBC show, the director joked: ‘@lauraikman spent the entire filming of g&s hiding.
‘Staying in a different hotel, she is not allowed to come to closing parties or screenings so that no one knows that Sonia had returned. What a great revelation. And she is incredible both as an actor and as a person.”
Scott spent four days filming in Bary, but had to keep it a secret until the Christmas Day episode aired.
He added: “I loved working with the cast and crew, they are all so friendly and welcoming.”
It comes after Gavin and Stacey star Laura Aikman (Sonia) shared the moment her parents discovered she was returning to comedy while watching the finale on Christmas Day.
Laura was ‘hiding’ in a separate hotel and didn’t even tell her parents that her character Sonia was making a shock return to the BBC show as Smithy’s fiancée.
Gavin and Stacey director Christine Gernon also took to Instagram after the finale aired to reveal the extent of the extreme measures taken for her secret return.
The special was hailed as “perfect” by viewers, who cried when the long-running show finally aired its final episode after 17 years.
The Christmas special and finale came five years after the show’s last Christmas installment in 2019.
It was hailed as “perfect” by viewers, who cried when the long-running show finally aired its final episode after 17 years.
As fans tuned into the episode to see if Smithy had accepted Nessa’s proposal from the 2019 Christmas Special, a five-year time jump revealed that he was indeed ready to get married, but not everything was as it seemed.
It was revealed that Smithy had become engaged to his girlfriend Sonia, who failed to impress the Shipman/West clan when she met them in the last festive episode.
Fans were also treated to the surprise returns of Sheridan Smith as Smithy’s sister Rudi and Pam Ferris as their mother Cath.
However, when Smithy’s big day arrived, he realized that Nessa was his one true love and called off the wedding.
The whole family piled into Dave’s carriage and raced to Southampton, where Nessa was preparing to set sail, and in a scene 17 years in the making, he declared his love for her and asked her to reconsider leaving.
While an ever-stoic Nessa insisted that she would not propose to Smithy again, he returned her offer from five years earlier and finally got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.
The episode then shows Smithy and Nessa finally exchanging their vows in an intimate ceremony in Barry, and the series ends with an emotional montage of the family celebrating the occasion at The Dolphin pub, before posing for a family photo together.