Mat Horne: “Love for Gavin & Stacey is like the love I have for Spurs”

Mathew Horne had every reason to feel overwhelmed.

The actor, Spurs fan and Gavin & Stacey star had just walked through the tunnel and taken in our new home for the first time. He stood wide-eyed pitchside as the players warmed up to face Chelsea.

Walking down the touchline for an interview with Spurs TV, fans shouted his name – both ‘Mat’ and ‘Gavin’, after his character in the show, and even a ‘Gavlar’, as James Corden’s ‘Smithy’ nicknames him - and then an impromptu kick about and high-five with Christian Eriksen!

Gavin & Stacey is back after 10 years away with a Christmas Day special - and that reaction surely told Mat everything he needed to know about why the show is so popular.

“It’s amazing just watching how much people love the show, not just me, amazing,” said Mat. “The love for the show is incredible and it’s similar to the love I have for the Club.”

We’d spoken before. Gavin & Stacey first hit our screens in 2007 and Mat, good friends with Michael Dawson, our skipper at the time, visited ‘Daws’ at our former training ground, Spurs Lodge.

“We spoke 10, 12 years ago when the show had just kicked off and it’s incredible what has happened to the Club since then,” he said. “It’s amazing to see how far the Club has come.

“This is my first time at the stadium and I’m really overwhelmed. It’s amazing.

“As you walk into the arena you get the sense of enormous pride from being a fan. It’s extraordinary. It’s slightly surreal, a bit of a dream. I’ve just met Gary Mabbutt as well, who I grew up with. It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Mat, now 41, told us what it was like for the Gavin & Stacey gang to be back together - and he gave us a little Spurs exclusive...

“Everyone has stayed friends, but to actually get back together as those families and work together again as actors was just, again, really surreal,” he said. “I remember Alison Steadman, who plays Pamela, said to me ‘Mat, I feel like I’m in a dream world’ and working with James again was extraordinary.

“It’s amazing to be back together again and seeing all the love for the show, it’s wonderful. And one thing I can reveal is that the first time you see Gavin, after 10 years, he’s wearing a pair of Spurs pyjamas!”

You can watch Mat in Gavin & Stacey on BBC1 at 8.30pm on Christmas Day...