Never say never on Gavin & Stacey film - Larry Lamb

The Gavin and Stacey cast reunited for the final time last year to round-off the hugely popular sitcom

A Gavin and Stacey star has admitted he felt "relief" when the series came to an end.

Larry Lamb opened up about how playing Mick Shipman on the hit sitcom changed his personality and was the "most extraordinary experience" of his life.

The 77-year-old actor spoke about the influences and adventures that led to his performing career spanning more than four decades.

"Now that it's all done, there's a sense of relief and a sense of contentment," he told Kate Thornton on her podcast, White Wine Question Time, released on Friday.

But he did not rule out revisiting Mick in a potential Gavin and Stacey film: "Who knows? Never say never."

During the episode, Lamb - who speaks five languages and worked in selling encyclopaedias and in the energy industry before embarking on acting - opened up about everything from his "difficult and unhappy" childhood, to his most recent endeavor of writing his debut novel.

Gavin and Stacey, which was co-written by Ruth Jones and James Corden and began in 2007, followed the story of a girl from south Wales and a boy from Essex who fell in love, and the ups and downs of their worlds colliding.

The series officially ended with a grand finale Christmas Day episode last year.

"It was the most extraordinary experience of my life, going through the whole of that and then, particularly, that end. It was just amazing," said Lamb, who played Gavin's father Mick.

"I was never convinced that it was going to be the end [but] now that it's all done... I feel no frustration about wanting to go on with it."

The record-breaking Gavin and Stacey finale has bagged an array of Bafta nominations, including one for the Memorable Moment Award.

The wedding scene, and in particular when Corden's character Smithy waits for Mick's opinion on whether he should go through with marrying his fiancé Sonia, really hit home with fans.

"Fifty years as an actor, and I have a scene where I don't say anything and all I do is stand up. I get more feedback off that than I have in fifty years of acting," said Lamb.

"Playing the King in Hamlet, TV series, musicals and [I just needed to] stand up," he joked.

Lamb admitted Mick Shipman developed into a character he himself wanted to be, unlike some of his other roles.

"You certainly wouldn't want to be Archie Mitchell [in EastEnders], you'd spend your life trying to get shot of him."

He said filming for Gavin and Stacey originally began as we was entering his 60s and "was just beginning to calm down and become a bit more of a regular, run-of-the-mill human being".

"Wild days were over and I'd stopped drinking," he said.

"Dear old Mick came along and so I played Mick through my sixties and into my seventies. I began to take Mick on board. I certainly didn't realise I was taking Mick on board, I was just a much more bearable person to be around and much more bearable for me to live with.

"I remember George, my boy, saying to me, 'you're an old geezer now, you better start learning to enjoy it' and that's what I started to do."

He said Mick was "a happy go-lucky guy" who dealt with problems as they cropped up but "always looked on the bright side" and enjoyed life.

He added Mick had to "learn how to be a diplomat" while living with "Mrs chaos" - his eccentric wife, Pam - but that the couple were "absolutely madly in love".

"There's nothing that's going to rock their boat… what they wrote was this absolutely perfect couple who know how to work around each other, no matter what goes on."

Lamb said he definitely wanted to keep working, but was often not the "first choice" for parts, because casting directors knew people saw him as Mick Shipman.

"Characters like Mick Shipman are pretty difficult to act your way around," he said.

"But I've done a few things over the last year where I play somebody's dad or the older part of it and they're not massive commitments time wise but what they are is interesting jobs, interesting relationships.

"Those sort of parts are attractive to me."