![\""The\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/Vro.540x304-4fdeaaa.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"melanie-walters-big-rt-interview\"\\"")
<\/div>It\u2019s a Wednesday morning when I\u2019m speaking to Walters, who is best known for playing Gwen \u2013 the omelette-making, mild-mannered mum of Stacey \u2013 in hit BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey<\/a>. While her Welsh accent isn\u2019t as strong as Gwen\u2019s Barry Island lilt, Walters is Zoom-ing from the Mumbles, a seaside town in Swansea where she\u2019s been based for the last 20 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Mumbles born and bred, then I moved away, went to university and ended up in London for years and years, then Cardiff for years and years,\u201d she says. \u201cI wanted to bring my son up in Mumbles so moved back and have not regretted it for one moment. It\u2019s just a fabulous place.\u201d<\/p>\n As a huge Gavin & Stacey fan, I\u2019m itching to ask about the future of the sitcom (more on that later), however we\u2019re meeting (virtually) to chat about CBeebies\u2019 Biff & Chip, which Walters says is inspired by the books as opposed to a direct adaptation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re brand new stories and we\u2019ve just sort of enlarged the world of Biff and Chip, using the characters but in completely new, different stories. They\u2019re brilliantly written, I must say, because they\u2019re only 10 minutes long-ish and to get a full arc in that short space of time is actually very clever \u2013 and they have. I was really impressed. I wish I\u2019d been in more.\u201d<\/p> The role of Gran \u2013 who readers of the books will know is the naughty grandmother of Biff, Chip and Kipper \u2013 was brought to Walters by her agent and having worked on a CBeebies show previously, she said yes. \u201cI got some books out of the library, so I had an idea of Gran in the books and [played her] more or less along the same lines, because she is such a brilliant character to play.<\/p>\n \u201cI had such fun with her because she\u2019s very quirky, very mischievous, full of energy,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I really hope that I brought that out in my character of Gran. I think it\u2019s obvious when you watch it that I\u2019m having a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n Filmed in Manchester during the pandemic (\u201cit was brilliantly handled, we all felt very safe\u201d), the series stars Tilly Kaye and George Robinson as twins Biff and Chip, while Freddie James stars as their little brother Kipper, with Jack Wilkinson (Doctors) and Kellie Shirley (EastEnders<\/a>) playing their parents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kids are amazing. Tilly, George and Freddie \u2013 I don\u2019t think George had done anything else, I think this was his first thing,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd Fred was just the age of five and he knew all his lines.\u201d<\/p>\n Having been given her Equity card after taking her first acting job with a children\u2019s theatre company, Walters is a big advocate of children\u2019s television and arts. \u201cThat\u2019s where my roots are in the sense that that\u2019s where I started in the business, and I do panto every year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think drama and entertainment for kids is hugely important and I would always want to be involved in that. If you think about it, they are our future creatives, aren\u2019t they? They are future writers and our future artists and musicians.<\/p>\n \u201cBiff & Chip is all around make-believe play, imaginative play. The series really hones in on that, so you\u2019ve got episode after episode with dressing up, using your imagination and solving problems and that is just so important.\u00a0We\u2019d like to think that the kids will be watching Biff & Chip and will be inspired to do their own make-believe and decide one afternoon to go to the moon. It\u2019s really fab.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking of creatives, arguably two of the biggest comedy writers in the UK are Ruth Jones and James Corden, who gave us three series of Gavin & Stacey. Despite ending in 2010, with Jones going on to create Stella and Corden dominating the US and Hollywood, the full cast returned for a one-off Christmas special in 2019 and broke BBC viewing records<\/a> in the process \u2013 however Walters was initially hesitant to reprise her role of Gwen.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we were quite apprehensive in the sense that we hadn\u2019t seen each other for such a long time. But it was one of those things that when we went into Soho House and had the reading, we went in and within minutes it was like we had only seen each other the other day.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know when you have a best friend and you don\u2019t see them for years and then you meet each other and it\u2019s like you haven\u2019t not seen each other at all and you\u2019ve seen each other yesterday lunchtime? It was like that, we just slipped straight back into it. It was absolutely fabulous to see everybody.<\/p>\n \u201cThey very cleverly got as many as possible of the same crew as the very first series, so it was like a long lost family when we all got back together. I do think a lot of us have said it, it was one of the best filming sequences of Gavin & Stacey. It really was the best one. We got on so so well. It was just unbelievably brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n The episode drew in millions of viewers in the evening, becoming the most-watched show on Christmas Day of the decade \u2013 although Walters didn\u2019t catch it live on BBC One. \u201cI was coming back up to Mansfield, I missed it live. I was in panto so I was on the M5, M50 at eight o\u2019clock thinking, \u2018Oh gosh, how many people are tuning in? Who knows.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBut then the next day, 18 million people did more or less so that\u2019s quite extraordinary really.\u201d<\/p>\n Walters says there are currently no plans for Gavin & Stacey to return to our screens, but that she\u2019d love to return to the sitcom. \u201cAll I can say is that I\u2019d love to play Gwen again. I think we\u2019d all do it if there was one I\u2019m sure, I can\u2019t speak for other people but I\u2019m sure we would. But no plan, no plans at all!\u201d<\/p>\n As for whether Biff & Chip will be back for a second series, Walters would be on board with that too. \u201cYes, absolutely. I just think it\u2019s good quality children\u2019s TV. It would be lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n Biff & Chip airs on CBeebies later this year. <\/strong>Check out what else is on with our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>,\u00a0or take a look at our\u00a0new TV shows 2020<\/a>\u00a0page to find out what\u2019s airing this autumn and beyond.<\/b><\/p>\n Melanie Walters speaks to Lauren Morris for The Big RT Interview about the CBeebies adaptation of the Biff & Chip books, playing Gran in the series and whether she’d return to Gavin & Stacey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4241,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2021\/09\/melanie-walters-on-bringing-biff-chip-to-tv-and-gavin-staceys-future.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Melanie Walters speaks to Lauren Morris for The Big RT Interview about the CBeebies adaptation of the Biff & Chip books, playing Gran in the series and whether she'd return to Gavin & Stacey.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/4240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""CBeebies'\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/22598068-high_res-biff-chip-31e761a.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"melanie-walters-big-rt-interview\"\\"")
<\/div>![\""Melanie\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2021\/08\/1_stacey10-c26d0ec.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"melanie-walters-big-rt-interview\"\\"")
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