Alison Steadman: I’d bet against a Gavin & Stacey return – but “never say never”

And the bad news? She is almost certain it will never happen. “Oh my Christ,” as Pam would say.

The BBC sitcom was a surprise hit for the BBC when it launched in 2007, but wrapped up in 2010 after three series and a Christmas special. It starred Mathew Horne and Joanna Page as couple Gavin and Stacey as they tried to make their long-distance relationship work, while Steadman and Larry Lamb played Gavin’s parents Pam and Mick.

“I'd love to think we would do a special,” Steadman told RadioTimes.com.

But just as we were getting our hopes up and preparing to alert the fandom, she continued: “I don't think we'd do a Christmas special again. That Christmas special is so brilliant that I don't think anyone could top that or would want to.

“We did it, we've done it, it worked.”

Since Gavin & Stacey finished six years ago, writers Ruth Jones and James Corden – who also starred in the drama as Nessa and Smithy – have become impossibly busy, with Corden launching a talk show career in the US.

“Ruth Jones is very busy, she's writing and acting, appearing constantly. James is a mega-star in America now,” Steadman said.

“Never say never, but I would put money on it that they would not get back together to write a special of Gavin and Stacey.

“Listen ­ I would love to do that if it happened, because I loved doing it - it's certainly in my top three favourite jobs ever. But I think we told the story.”

The 70-year-old actress may have said goodbye to the show, but she will never stop being a mother to on-screen son Mat – otherwise known as her “little prince”.

“I saw Mat Horne recently in the Catherine Tate Show live, which is touring at the moment, and I saw him last week in Liverpool. I went backstage and we had a drink together,” she said.

“I still call him my little prince, and he calls me mum. If we text each other, it's always mum and little prince.”

Steadman recently reunited with another Gavin & Stacey actor, Mathew Baynton, to film her part in the Christmas Eve special of Sky1 fantasy series Yonderland.

But while Baynton has admitted that when he worked with her on Gavin & Stacey he got a little starstruck (“I was so in awe of her I couldn't bring myself to speak”), luckily Steadman didn't notice.

“I don't remember we had much of a conversation, no,” she said.

“But I didn't think that. I just thought oh, he's getting on with his job.”

Steadman joins Yonderland as Pete's mother, with Anthony Head as her long-suffering husband – but when she arrives at her son's house with piles of presents, not everything goes according to plan.

Yonderland will air on 24th December at 6.30pm on Sky1