Ruth Jones, Steve Speirs Begin Filming BBC Comedy
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- Ruth Jones and Steve Speirs have begun filming their new six-part BBC comedy "Better Later," co-written by and starring both actors, with filming locations including Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) and the fictional village of Brynfach.
- Better Later follows Clive (Speirs, 60), a recently widowed retired teacher, and Shelley Anne (Jones, 55), an environmental health officer going through a bitter divorce, who strike up an unlikely friendship after meeting at a knee trauma clinic.
- Jones described the project as "35 years in the making," dating back to when she first met Speirs, while Speirs joked the shoot "could be a long shoot" because Jones kept making him "giggle."
- Jones and Speirs previously collaborated on Stella, a BBC series set in a fictional valleys town that ran from 2012 to 2017.
- Jones is best known for playing Nessa in Gavin & Stacey, while Speirs created The Tuckers, which centered on a south Wales family.
- Jones and Speirs appeared together on TV last year in a show visiting each other's home towns and the places that shaped them, and a transmission date for Better Later has not yet been announced.
Why it matters: Better Later reunites two writers-actors with a proven Welsh comedy track record — Stella ran five seasons and Jones's Nessa became a cultural touchstone — making the BBC's six-episode commitment a notable return to a partnership that has already sustained long-running hit series in the genre.
