Ruth Jones: 'We've talked about a Nighty Night reboot'

But she also suggests Julia Davis' comedy is too harsh for modern audiences

Ruth Jones has revealed she has been talking to Julia Davis about reviving the black comedy Nighty Night.

The Gavin & Stacey co-creator played Linda, the dim-witted assistant to Davis’ cruel and narcissistic hairdresser Jill Tyrell in the show, which ran for two series on BBC Three in 2004 and 2005.

Speaking to the On The Box podcast, Jones said: ‘We still to this day text each other sometimes as Jill and Linda – we've always loved doing those characters.’

And when co-host Edith Bowman asked whether there might be a reboot, Jones added: ‘We have talked about it. I mean, it’s Julia's show, it's Julia's baby but I would love to play Linda again. It would be great – the makeup alone!’

However, earlier in the podcast, Jones suggested ‘there's no way we’d be able to make it today’ because of the savagery of the dark humour.

Podcast co-host Michelle Collins – the US stand-up rather than the former EastEnders actress – told Jones that Nighty Night ‘literally shaped me as a comedian’.

Jones said: ‘It was very, very cult viewing, and I always have immense respect for people when they tell me that the favourite thing they've seen me in is Nighty Night. Because I just think it was so good and so different and so daring’.

She added that it was ’incredibly popular with gay men,’ and recalled meeting George Michael after a fundraising concert he performed for Elton John's Aids charity, saying: ‘He just raved about Nighty Night – that’s all he wanted to talk about. And I thought "well that is praise indeed."’

Jones was on the show – which is made by Britbox – to promote her role as Mrs Bennet in the new BritBox original The Other Bennet Sister.

She also spoke about The Choir, the Apple TV show that sees her reunited with Gavin and Stacey co-writer and co-star James Corden both on and off screen.

‘We are playing brother and sister and we're doing well [on the writing],’ she said.

‘It’s eight episodes we're about halfway through episode eight now so we're getting there.

‘We’re not very grown up as writers. We don't have like a proper plan or come up with a deck or anything like that. We tend to write quite instinctively.

‘We know when people are gonna always go, "Oh, it's not like Gavin and Stacey." But then nothing ever will be – you can't replicate the same thing. You just can't. If you have something successful, it's going to be very hard to top it.

‘But all we can do is stay true to what we write and the characters that we create. We love character-led scripts and worlds that have got heart in them and emotion and comedy – so hopefully we'll come up with that.’

Published: 6 May 2026