'THIS MORNING is a dream job!'

Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page on her career comeback, the pressures of late motherhood and working with Johnny Depp

- GEMMA CALVERT

An eye test made Joanna Page realise she had to reignite the acting career she’d paused for almost a decade to be a full-time mum. ‘I’d thought, “I don’t want to do any acting, I don’t want to be taken away from the family,” but when the optician asked me to read the beginning of a chapter from a book, I went off on one. I found myself going, “It was a dark night, he looked through the window and he saw her,”’ explains Joanna, 46, dramatically reciting the words.

‘I didn’t need to commit to it that much, but I really enjoyed it. I thought, “Jesus, I think I need to go and do a bit of acting!”’

Shortly after leaving London’s prestigious drama school RADA, the West Glamorgan-born actress was cast alongside Johnny Depp in his 2001 movie From Hell. Two years later, she joined the all-star British blockbuster Love Actually, then in 2007 became leading Welsh lass Stacey Shipman in James Corden and Ruth Jones’ hit comedy series Gavin & Stacey, the show that made her a star.

But 10 years ago, after starting a family with her former Emmerdale actor husband, James Thornton, 47, Joanna felt a deep urge to invest all into family life. After their firstborn, Eva, 10, the couple had sons Kit, seven, and Noah, six, and in December 2021, following a surprise fourth pregnancy at the age of 44, Joanna gave birth to a baby girl, Boe.

On her w&h cover shoot in Berkshire, the entire brood burst from Joanna’s iPhone as she proudly shows off an array of adorable videos recorded at the new family home in Oxfordshire.