Ruth Jones - Career

Career

She first worked in TV and radio comedy for BBC Wales in 1991. Theatre roles with the RSC and The National Theatre were followed by her performance in the hit British movie, East Is East.

After this Jones appeared on television as Kelly in four series of ITV's comedy Fat Friends, where she met future Gavin and Stacey co-writer James Corden. She also appeared in several BBC comedies, playing Myfanwy in Little Britain, Magz in Saxondale, and Linda in Nighty Night.

Jones achieved prominence in 2008 with the BBC sitcom Gavin and Stacey, which she co-wrote with James Corden. The programme became a hit for BBC 3 and moved to BBC 1. Jones has said of it, "It wasn't as deliberate as us saying, 'Right, we're going to react against cynical comedy'. We just wrote what we wanted. And it just so happens that the show does generate a lot of warmth. People seem to like that, especially when things aren't terribly jolly. It's nice to have your cockles warmed." The series won a number of awards, including two BAFTAs and four British Comedy Awards. Jones and co-star Rob Brydon recorded "Islands in the Stream" (a song performed by their characters in the programme) as a single for Comic Relief in 2009; the song reached No. 1 in the chart.

In 2008 Jones also featured in the two BBC One television period costume dramas, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Little Dorrit, as well as in two episodes of The Street. In December 2009 Jones starred in A Child's Christmases In Wales. In 2010 she starred in BBC Four comedy The Great Outdoors alongside Mark Heap, and in December presented a one-off chat show on BBC Two, Ruth Jones' Christmas Cracker. In January 2011 she starred as Carry On actor Hattie Jacques in BBC Four drama Hattie, which tells the story of Jacques' affair with her young driver John Schofield while she was married to Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier.

In 2008, Jones co-founded Tidy Productions with producer David Peet. The company produced the series Jones presented on BBC Radio Wales in 2008-9, Ruth Jones' Sunday Brunch. In 2010, the company had comedy and light entertainment production credits with BBC2 and BBC 3. It has made two 90-minute comedy dramas for S4C and light entertainment shows for BBC Wales.

Jones's company has also produced a ten-hour comedy drama Stella for Sky TV, which aired in 2012. It was Jones' first major comedy project since Gavin and Stacey: as well as producing, Jones created the series, stars, and wrote four episodes. Jones has stated that she was worried about comparisons to Gavin and Stacey when setting a second programme in Wales, leading to the decision to set Stella in the Valleys rather than the South Wales coast: 'I know people from the Valleys and it is just a joyously colourful place and full of characters. My sister is actually a GP up there and the stories are fantastic.' A second series of Stella has been commissioned; it will be filmed in summer 2012 and air in early 2013.

She lives in Cardiff with her producer husband David Peet, whom she met while working on a comedy pilot in the early 1990s. She has three grown-up step-children, Fiona, Louise and Alex.