Ruth Jones on matching underwear and why she would never go on Bake Off

Writer and actress Ruth Jones could never be described as an overnight sensation.

The 58-year-old started out after university playing a ninja turtle in pantomime and worked her way up the acting ladder through bit parts in TV and film to become one of the best-loved and most sought-after writers and actresses in the UK.

Ruth, who was made an MBE in 2014 and is best known as co-writer and star of the hit BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey, won a BAFTA in May for best female performance in a comedy for the series.

But the talented Ruth is also a best-selling novelist - last week she published her fourth book, By Your Side - her previous three best-selling novels have sold more than a million copies.

Saga Magazine interviewed her at a sold-out event for award-winning independent bookshop Book-ish in South Wales.

Here's what she told us:

My new novel starts with an unclaimed inheritance

“It’s about two people who have never met, but who impact on each other’s lives very profoundly. Linda Standish is a 55-year-old council worker who works for the Unclaimed Heirs Unit. Her job is to track down the next of kin of those who’ve died without friends or family to take care of their affairs. 

“She attends the funerals of those who’ve died when there is no one else to mourn them, believes she believes everyone deserves a farewell.

"Her final case is that of Levi Norman, a Welshman who ended up living on a fictitious Scottish island called Storrich. 

"Why did this Welshman end up living there, rejecting the local community who tried to include him?

"Linda's job is to solve the mystery of Levi Norman and find out what happened to this reclusive Welshman. In doing so, she finds out a lot about herself.”

Linda is a glass half-full kind of person

“What I love about Linda is that she's a plus-size woman who is quite content being plus-size. She probably, if she could wave a magic wand, wouldn't be a plus-size. But she's very happy with how she looks.  She feels very confident in her body.

"She wears matching underwear, loves cooking and is completely no-nonsense.

“Just because you're in your 50s, you shouldn't be written off.”

Would I go on Bake Off?

“I'm not a very decorative baker. But I do a very good lemon drizzle, carrot cake and scones – those have taken a bit of practice, but I’ve got them just right.

"I think I would melt into the floor if I had to do [the Great British Bake Off] because of the stress of coming in to do the bake. Also, I think when you look at the way their cakes are made, they look amazing.

"I’m not artistic at all, so the actual decorating of the cake, no. Mine have a good taste, but not really a good look!

“[Would I consider Strictly?] No, I’m worse at dancing than I am at cake decorating! Even the simple steps I had to do in Sister Act were hard enough. So no.”

My biggest gripes - including people videoing themselves all the time

[Ruth’s main character Linda has quite a few pet hates and she includes some of them as bonus content at the end of the novel.]

“It’s the 10 things that annoy Linda Standish the most. It’s basically an excuse for me to get things off my chest.

“I was at a restaurant recently, and on a table nearby there were three women in their early 20s. It was one of their birthdays. The waiter brought this little birthday cake in with a candle, and they started singing 'Happy Birthday'.

"I thought, ‘Oh, that's nice’. And they filmed themselves as they were singing. Okay, fair enough. 

"The birthday girl blew out the candle, but they weren’t happy with how it looked, so they filmed it all over again and then again. 

"What happened to living in the moment and spontaneity?”

The talk ended with a question from the audience asking what really happened during the infamous fishing trip in Gavin and Stacey.

Ruth replied, “I don’t know, I wasn’t there!” And the audience erupted with cheers and applause.

Ruth has already ruled out any future Gavin and Stacey series or one-offs, but fans can enjoy a new book about the show she  has co-written with James Corden, When Gavin Met Stacey and Everything in Between, which is due to be published on October 9.

Before then viewers in Wales or on iPlayer can see her with Welsh comedian Steve Speirs, sampling the delights of Merthyr Tydfil in a BBC Wales programme Ruth and Steve: from Merthyr with Love, due to air in June. 

She has also just finished filming a new Netflix eight-part drama series with James Nesbit, adapted from Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel Run Away.