Steve Speirs reveals details of new sitcom written with Ruth Jones

Steve Speirs has revealed when audiences can expect to see his new BBC comedy with Ruth Jones

Comedy actor Steve Speirs is trading the screen for the stage as he is set to appear in Cardiff New Theatre’s pantomime this Christmas. He will star as Monsieur Marzipan in Beauty and the Beast, which will take place ast the theatre from December 5, 2026 to January 3, 2027.

Over the years Steve has appeared in a variety of comedy sitcoms including Stella, The Tuckers, Big School, Upstart Crow and After Life. Recently he and his friend of 35 years Ruth Jones took part in two BBC documentaries where they took each other around their hometowns. It started with Steve taking the Gavin and Stacey star to Merthyr Tydfil, in Ruth and Steve: From Merthyr with Love.

Having written together before for Sky’s Welsh set sitcom Stella, when the friends reunited they couldn’t help but come up with a new idea for a series. This is how the idea for Better Later, their new BBC series came to fruition. You can read more about the series here.

Steve said: “We both had bad knees, and I’ve had a big knee operation. We started talking about that, and laughing, and we started coming up with these characters. We then wrote a show, which we’ve just finished filming, called Better Later about two people who meet in a knee operation. The only thing they’ve got in common is they need new knees and they’ve got no one to look after them.

“I’m in the edit for that now, and that all started with us chatting doing the Merthyr show. So it was really great. It was really sort of organic. It came from us doing the documentary, so that’s nice.”

He revealed that we can expect to see the series very soon. Steve continued: “So in the edit now, it should be out in the New Year, just after panto, actually. It’ll be great. Yeah, sort of January-ish time, I think end of January.”

The actor also shared that his friend Ruth will be coming to watch him in the Christmas panto. He said: “She will be coming with her grandchildren, so that’ll be nice. I should imagine it’d be a lot of healthy mickey-taking, and I think that’s exactly the way it should be with your mates.” For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter

Steve is preparing to take to the panto stage for the first time in 12 years, and he explained that it is “completely different” to screen acting.

He said: “I haven’t done a panto for 12 years. So I’m really excited because it’s such a gorgeous theatre, but I also have a certain amount of nerves because it is such a specific genre.

“What I really love is the audiences. That’s what I look forward to more than anything else. I think there’s nothing like live theatre. To be in an arena where you create laughter, it’s fantastic. The thing with doing comedy on TV, which is what I’ve been doing for the majority of my working life, is that you don’t get that immediate effect of it. So, I’m really looking forward to that.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the audiences, because every day is different, because every audience is different. You also get a real comradeship in the theatre, that you don’t get when you’re in TV, because you’re only put together for a certain amount of time. You live in each other’s pockets here for a couple of months, so it’s going to be great.

“It’ll be good to get back on the stage and especially this stage, because it’s such a beautiful theatre.”

When asked why he decided to return to panto after over a decade away, he said that it was “all about timing.”

Steve said: ” I think the fact it was Cardiff, and I live in Cardiff, which is fantastic, because it means you can spend a lot of time with the family and everything as well. But also because my daughter’s 11 now, I thought, ‘Oh well, she’s at the age that probably this’ll be the time,’ because they become really trendy teenagers. They don’t want to go on their own, but they’ll go get dragged along if they have to sort of thing. But I thought she’s at the age that I think she’d really enjoy it this time. So I thought it’d be a really nice time to do it.

“My 15-year-old, uh, said, ‘Cringe,’ because he says cringe to everything I do. He said, ‘Oh no, you’re going to be on the stage, it’s so embarrassing,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s what I do, that’s what pays the mortgage.’

“Everybody’s embarrassed by their dad, especially if your dad does stuff that other people see, but I think they’re looking forward to it. My daughter can’t wait. She really can’t wait.”

The actor will be starring in Beauty and the Beast alongside Gethin Jones, Jade Davies, Jacky Ryan and legendary panto icon Mike Doyle who will once again be playing the dame.

Steve who has known Mike for year has said he is looking forward to working with the comedian. He said: “I’m looking forward to working with… I mean, the stalwarts here, like Mike Doyle, who’s been doing it for 120 years, I think. He opened the panto here when the theatre opened! He’s been doing it for donkey’s years.

“We know each other, but it’ll be the first time on stage together, which’ll be great fun. The trouble is, I’m a terrible corpser and I know he can be a bit naughty, so I think I’m just going to try and get through. I don’t want the audience in here for four hours because we can’t get through it. I’d like everybody to go to the pub as soon as they can afterwards, I don’t want to be messing about.”

You can find more information and buy tickets for the New Theatre pantomime through their website here.