Nessa to return to BBC just days after final Gavin and Stacey episode

If you thought you had seen the end of everyone's favourite Barry resident, you'd be wrong.

The Shipping Forecast is a broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and dates back over 150 years.

It was first broadcast on 1 January 1924 as a weather bulletin called Weather Shipping before moving to the BBC a year later.

Barry Island's finest will appear in the centenary celebrations alongside the likes of round the world sailing record-breaker Dame Ellen MacArthur and The Archers' Eddie Grundy.

The news comes just three days after the finale of Gavin and Stacey aired. The much-loved comedy series ran for seventeen years before this year's Christmas Special brought it to a close.

Ruth Jones, who plays Nessa, said: "Nessa has got quite a colourful history and one of her jobs was on the high seas. The Shipping Forecast was always very important and useful to her."

Wednesday's finale attracted an average of 12.3 million TV viewers - the largest Christmas Day audience in more than a decade.

Jones recently told the BBC's Colin Paterson that she and writing partner/co-star James Corden "felt very lucky to get to choose to end it, rather than to be told, 'Sorry, we don't want any more'".

Former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh and actors Stephen Fry and Adrian Dunbar will also be involved in the New Year's Day event.

Comedian Paul Sinha, poet Imtiaz Dharker and writers Ian McMillan and Val McDermid will feature too, alongside Damon Albarn.