Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Gavin & Stacey: The Finale.
After the episode aired, the former star of CBBC’s The Mysti Show revealed just how she kept her appearance in the award-winning sitcom so tightly under wraps.
On Christmas Day, Laura even disclosed that she had avoided telling her parents about her appearance in the episode, meaning her family found out about Sonia’s return at the same time as the rest of the nation.
“I take an NDA very seriously,” she wrote on Instagram, alongside a clip of her family watching Sonia’s first scene.
Laura wrote in a follow-up post that Sonia’s wedding dress had to be sourced on Facebook Marketplace, to avoid creating any speculation about her character’s return.
“Our costume designer Shan James [had] to alter it massively, as 48 hours before we shot the wedding it didn’t fit,” she told her Instagram followers, adding that she also had to wear a wig on set, as her own hair was so different because of another role she was playing at the time.
Gavin & Stacey: The Finale attracted a staggering 12.3 million viewers (not including those who watched it on iPlayer), making it the most-watched Christmas Day broadcast in 16 years.
Despite its popularity, Ruth and James have made it clear they won’t ever write any more, with the latter telling BBC Breakfast earlier this month: “It can’t carry on after this. We can’t see [how] it could – you’ll have to wait and see!”
