Gavin & Stacey's Adrian Scarborough Reveals Cheeky Reason Julia Davis Was 'Hard' To Work With

The actor, who played Pete Sutcliffe, recalled his favourite memories of working on the BBC sitcom.
Julia Davis and Adrian Scarborough as Dawn and Pete in Gavin & Stacey
Julia Davis and Adrian Scarborough as Dawn and Pete in Gavin & Stacey
BBC

Gavin & Stacey star Adrian Scarborough has confirmed what we’d long suspected – working on the sitcom sounds like an absolute hoot.

The actor has revealed that he found it hard to work with on-screen wife Julia Davis because they were always seconds away from bursting into laughter.

In an interview with Metro, Adrian, who played Pete Sutcliffe on the hit BBC sitcom, recalled outtakes from filming with the Nighty Night star.

“I actually find Julia Davis hard to work with. She performs right on the edge of corpsing,” he said.

“I think there’s some outtakes from series three and a scene where we were all around the table – [Alison] Steadman, Larry Lamb, myself and her – and she and I could not keep it together. Then Steaders went.

“We did so many takes and in the end the director said, ’I don’t think there’s anything else for it but to take a 15- to 20-minute break to let everybody calm down.”

Dawn and Pete in Gavin & Stacey
Dawn and Pete in Gavin & Stacey
BBC

Adrian also described returning as Pete alongside Julia as wife Dawn for the 2019 Christmas special of Gavin & Stacey as “just a joy”.

He said: “It’s an excuse to laugh for a fortnight, go out for dinners and drink too much with Alison Steadman.

“Julia Davis and I just popped in every now and again so we never did any of the donkey work, really, and people were always relieved to see a new face on set — we were welcomed with open arms.”

Creators James Corden and Ruth Jones have faced pressure to write more episodes of Gavin & Stacey after the massive success of the special, which saw over 18 million people tune in.

The one-off episode, which aired nearly 10 years after the series originally finished, ended with a cliffhanger, when Ruth’s character Nessa got down on one knee to propose to James’ Smithy.

However, the pair have repeatedly said there are no current plans for the show to return again.

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