Larry Lamb reveals details of 'Gavin & Stacey' Christmas special

Larry Lamb has let slip details of the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special as he admitted he cried reading the script.

The 71-year-old actor - who plays Smithy’s dad Mick in the hit BBC comedy - told Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on today’s This Morning how he was shocked to get a call from James Corden in Los Angeles, asking him to reprise his role.

Lamb said: “I’ve finally read the script, it really got me, I read the first little sequence and just found myself crying.

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“It was like running into someone major in your life, you’re not bothered what they do, it was so poignant. I was immediately into the feel of the whole thing, it just brought me along.

“It’s all about this melding of people from different elements of British society, the mindset of people who live in Barry island and mindset of people in Bury, England, that was the strength.

“That clever thing of bringing them together and mixing them all up.”

The former EastEnders star hinted the special episode - due to air this Christmas - would feature a tribute to actress Margaret John who played Gwen's neighbour Doris and sadly passed away in 2011 aged 84.

Lamb said: “Dear old Maggie, who played Doris isn't there, by the time I read script I thought ‘My god they managed to do it, managed to do it.’

And filming is expected to being soon.

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Lamb teased: “Not too long from now, not too long... it's going to be extraordinary. It's all super hush hush.”

Corden and Ruth Jones’s sitcom, set in Essex and the Welsh seaside town of Barry, has been off screens since the end of the third series in 2010.

It starred Joanna Page and Mathew Horne as the title characters who meet over the phone and enter into a whirlwind romance. Corden and Jones stole the spotlight as best friends of the couple Smithy and Nessa. The pair co-wrote the script after coming up with the idea when they starred together in ITV show Fat Friends. The sitcom also starred Alison Steadman as Gavin’s mum Pam and Rob Brydon as Uncle Bryn.