gave us many delightful gifts – Smithy’s monologue on the pitfalls of ordering Indian takeaways as a group, Nessa as and the BBC series shined a spotlight on just how beautiful and funny the ordinary can be – never is this more true than in scenes containing and , who play one of the UK’s most iconic TV couples.
Alison’s Pam was the dramatic, slightly chaotic and glamorous wife to Larry’s Mick, the laid-back businessman who was seemingly just happy when Pam and their
The Shipmans had us laughing with their light-hearted bickers about where Mick’s golf bag should reside, and Pam’s spiralling lie about her fake vegetarianism, but at the source they were a typical married couple with love at the centre of all that they did.
While it is very much a fictional series, the love between Alison, 76, and Larry, 75, is real (although their relationship is platonic rather than romantic).
This is abundantly clear when Metro.co.uk join Larry and Alison in the swanky London establishment, The Soho Hotel, for a special interview.
The pair are sitting on armchairs placed next to each other, and like expert morning TV presenters they never speak over each other, instead instinctively knowing who should speak and when.
Their firm friendship really began during a chemistry test for the show, written by James Corden and .
‘In our audition together, we had to do the three steaks Pam scene,’ Larry recalled.
The iconic dialogue featured in the very first episode, and sees Pam serve herself three steaks for dinner as she’s on the Atkins diet. Well not actually three because one is an actual steak, one is a substitute for her chips and the other is a substitute for the peas – solid logic.
When Mick questioned her on the meat-heavy plate she refused to eat it as she didn’t want to be known as ‘three-steaks Pam’.
Larry added: ‘We worked as Pam and Mick straight away. It was the first time we’d had a chance to bond and we did.’
Alison quietly nods along with a small smile at the memory.
Although this wasn’t the first time they met, the duo had mutual friends and both starred on the BBC’s The Missing Postman in 1997 but Larry admitted their encounters weren’t as memorable.
‘You meet so many people in this job. I’ve met enough people to fill Wembley Stadium so you can’t remember everything and stay in touch with everyone,’ explained Larry.
Alison added: ‘We didn’t have a scene together. I didn’t enjoy that TV show. I found it tough.’
Luckily, when it came to Gavin and Stacey it was nothing but joyous.
‘It’s easy being around each other,’ remarked Larry.
‘We became friends, not just colleagues,’ added Alison.
They enjoy being in each other’s company so much that they have worked together on Alison & Larry: Billericay to Barry, where instead of playing characters, they’ll be nothing but themselves on screen.
During the course of three episodes, the co-stars take a 210-mile road trip across the UK in an electric Volvo. We’ll see them tree planting in Billericay, cold water swimming in the Cotswolds (‘My favourite moment was sitting there wrapped up warm watching as Larry was screaming,’ recalled Alison) and riding the dodgems in Barry Island (‘We didn’t let the rain stop us’).
‘There weren’t any stress or strains, it was just two people that have worked together a lot over the years having a lovely experience,’ Larry explained.
Fans of Gavin and Stacey will know the starting and ending destinations are firmly linked to the TV show. Stacey West’s family hailed from Barry where much of the filming took place, while the Shipmans resided in Billericay. Although they admit that
We’ll also see them meet up with their co-stars Russell Tovey [Budgie], Melanie Walters [Gwen West] and Robert Wilfort [Jason West], whom they haven’t seen since filming the Christmas special in 2019.
Although the trip sounds idyllic, Alison admitted that she hasn’t always found it easy to be herself on camera, and prefers to hide behind a character.
‘The first time I filmed as myself I felt self-conscious. There’s a sense of I’m not going to get this right or I’m not sure what I’m doing.
‘It was the same when I started acting. I just have to say to myself: “The camera is your friend, not your enemy”.
‘Once I started seeing it like that instead of trying to block it, I am able to embrace it.’
Larry is in the opposite camp: ‘I prefer being myself.
‘I don’t have to learn any lines.’
Having an organic friendship led to some pretty honest and personal conversations taking place on camera including Larry’s decision to give up alcohol in 2008.
He told us: ‘I think everybody’s life changes once they give up alcohol. For starters, it’s money in the bank when you’re not spending 16 quid at the Groucho club on a gin and tonic.
‘For me, it was just a thing of realising that you’ve done enough, you know. I was lucky. A lot of people do a lot more damage than I ever did.
‘Mine was just purely and simply a case of I was getting hangovers that I just couldn’t deal with anymore. And so and it was like, “Okay, you’re old enough now to give it up”. Simple as that.’
Avid watchers of the three series of Gavin and Stacey, and the Christmas special may find it hard to separate Larry and Alison from their characters.
‘The thing is a lot of people don’t know you,’ Larry said turning his attention to Alison.
‘They’ve got a kind of image of you, and a lot of it comes from those characters that you’ve played.’
Swivelling back round to face us, Larry continued: ‘But what I know is that Alison is a much deeper person than any of those characters that are full on.
He proudly told us: ‘I get to deal with the real Alison and not those characters and she’s dealing with me. She knows me.
‘She’s certainly like Pam way down inside – that’s what enables her to get to those characters.’
Alison explained what links her to Pam: ‘What I love about Pam is underneath it all, she loves her son and Mick.’
Alison has been with partner Michael Elwyn since 1995, and also has one son Leo Leigh from her marriage to Mike Leigh.
Father-of-four Larry added: ‘They have genuine love. They are an archetypal, loving couple. That’s why people love them.
‘When you’re out on the road together and you meet people they tell us that. We’re a part of their lives. They just love those two characters as the mum and dad.
‘I’ve turned down parts when I can’t see myself in them at all. You’ve got to hear the voice in your head, otherwise, it’s just alien.’
Of course, we simply had to ask the question that they’ve probably answered more times than Gwen has made omelettes in hopes of a breadcrumb of hope – ‘Will there be another Gavin and Stacey reboot?’
‘There might be,’ Alison answered.
However, like a good politician, she also tried to manage our expectations.
‘We honestly don’t know because it’s up to James and Ruth entirely. It’s totally their creation.’
Alison & Larry: Billericay to Barry airs on 14th August at 8 pm on Gold.
