Gavin and Stacey star’s new career revealed after being ‘tracked down’ for final
The Gavin and Stacey team had to put their sleuthing skills to the test to find an actor who appeared in early seasons of the BBC show for the Christmas Day finale.
Their search was further complicated by the fact Daniel Jeffrey, who played one of Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Smithy’s (James Corden) primary school friends, had ditched showbiz and changed his name.
However, James revealed on BBC documentary A Fond Farewell, that a casting director eventually found Daniel, now a barrister, and he agreed to reprise his role of Simon for Smithy’s stag do.
Fans will remember Simon was part of the best friend duo Gary N’ Simon, with Gary played by Jason Gregg, and briefly appeared in the first two seasons.
During A Fond Farewell, James implied it was only fitting for Daniel to return as Simon to complete Smithy’s circle of Friends in the last-ever episode of Gavin and Stacey.
However, the search was complicated as Daniel previously used the surname ‘Knightley’ when he was working as an actor and has now turned his back on his former career.
James explained: ‘This is Gary and Simon, the original Gary and Simon. Lauren the casting director she did a bit of detective work to track you down.
Daniel added: ‘I actually can’t believe she found me, I had a stage name Daniel Knightley because I was working in cinema at the time and I was like I need a better name.
‘So I kind of just landed on a Keira Knightley poster and was like, “I’ll be Daniel Knightley” So I didn’t even have the same name.
‘She tracked me down from being in the police to being a barrister, she got in touch with my chambers, who then said, someone from a casting agency has contacted you.
‘And I was like, “That can only be one thing” because I’ve only ever really been in one thing.’
Daniel has now been a barrister in London for over four years. He previously was a police officer for the Met, Thames Valley and Ministry of Defence, according to his Linkedin.
On the job networking site he posted a selfie of himself with James and wrote: ‘What a crazy few weeks! Spent my night watching the farewell documentary and seeing myself pop up and now digging into papers as I come back to the real world.
‘Life is such an interesting adventure if you put yourself out there and go after things!’
Gavin and Stacey: A Fond Farewell told the story of how the show became one of Britain’s best-loved sitcoms through interviews with the cast, celebrity fans including Lena Dunham, and never seen before backstage footage.
The special finished with the cast gathering together ahead of the final day of filming, where James tells them it is ‘something to be really proud of.’
He told the cast: ‘I don’t know if you as actors in this room know how much Ruth and I owe you the success of the show.
‘So many days we would write a scene, and then you’d go, I don’t know if this is right, I don’t know if it’s good enough, and then you’d put it in your voices and it would just be alright.
‘And then to come back and do this one, I don’t know, it feels very, very special, and I feel very, very lucky to have been able to create this, well, for such a brilliant group of people.’
Gavin and Stacey: The Finale saw Smithy finally decide to marry Nessa, played by series co-writer Ruth Jones, after aborting his wedding to Sonia at the altar, while Stacey’s mother Gwen West (Melanie Walters) is revealed to be in a secret relationship with Dave Coaches (Steffan Rhodri).
Gavin and Stacey is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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