Ruth Jones Describes Why She Needed 'Serious' Gun Training For New Role

Ruth Jones has explained why she had to learn her way around a gun for her new TV role.

While it sounds like a tale of a past life her Gavin & Stacey character Nessa might tell, Ruth will play an ex-police firearms officer in new drama Run Away. 

“We had proper serious training for it, it was all taken very seriously – as it should be, you know,” she told RadioTimes.

“I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t make me feel like a little bit kind of powerful onscreen.”

Run Away is the latest Harlan Coben adaptation from Netflix following the likes of Michelle Keegan’s Fool Me Once and this year’s Missing You.

It centres on James Nesbitt’s character, Simon, as he frantically searches for his daughter who goes missing under mysterious circumstances.

Ruth plays Elena, who pivoted from firearms to being a private investigator, and becomes part of the mysterious game of cat and mouse that is packed (as ever with a Coben thriller) with twists and ludicrous turns. 

The Gavin & Stacey star has also spoken about filming a flashback scene for Run Away that featured a shootout in an abandoned factory, describing how it was an eye-opening experience.

“I was gobsmacked at how many people were involved in setting up a scene like that,” she said. “I learned what was meant by a ‘squib’ – a fake explosion that mimics gunfire, and shots bouncing off surfaces. 

“I had to be taught how to hold and fire a gun with blanks as that was a first for me. The guns are incredibly loud!”

As well as Ruth and James, Run Away’s cast also includes the likes of Minnie Driver, Alfred Enoch, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Ellie de Lange, Lucian Msamati, Jon Pointing, Annette Badland, Finty Williams, Joe McGann and Ingrid Oliver.

Run Away streams on Netflix on 1 January.