The actress will be taking on a new challenge in Netflix’s adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Run Away
Ruth Jones will be starring in Harlan Coben and Netflix’s new drama series Run Away(Image: Ben Blackall/Netflix)
After last year’s Gavin and Stacey finale, many members of the cast went their separate ways taking on new projects in the process. Some have written books, other have wandered over to different BBC series and one member of the cast has become a DJ.
Ruth Jones has been involved in numerous projects following the end of the popular sitcom. In a massive move from her role as Nessa, the actress from Porthcawl will be starring in a new major Netflix series which will air on New Year’s Day. Ruth will appear in the streaming platform’s adaptation of Harlan Coben’s Run Away.
She’ll be starring as Elena Ravenscroft, a private investigator who is hired by a businessman to find his missing son. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
However, the programme centres around Simon, (played by James Nesbitt), a man who seemingly leads an idyllic existence with a devoted wife, children, and a beautiful house. Everything transforms dramatically when his eldest daughter Paige disappears and their world falls apart.
Ruth’s character, Elena, will be assisting James Nesbitt’s character in his covert hunt for his missing daughter.
In a big move from comedy sitcoms, the actress will play private investigator Elena Ravenscroft.(Image: Ben Blackall/Netflix)
Before becoming a private investigator, Elena was a former police firearms officer. This meant that the actress had to become familiar with a gun for her new role.
When speaking with the Radio Times, Ruth shared what it was like rehearsing for her role and the firearms training she had to undergo. She said: “We had proper serious training for it, it was all taken very seriously – as it should be, you know.
“I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t make me feel like a little bit kind of powerful onscreen.”
In the thriller we see a flashback scene of a gunfight in a factory, which Ruth described as “great fun to shoot.”
In the press pack for the series, she said: “I was gobsmacked at how many people were involved in setting up a scene like that – and 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!”
The actress explained she had ‘serious’ training to handle firearms in the series.(Image: Ben Blackall/Netflix)
Run Away is the latest thriller adaptation of Harlan Coben’s books, after the success of Fool Me Once which aired on Netflix in 2024.
The author told Netflix’s Tudum: “Run Away is about family – about what we will do to keep our family intact, what secrets we keep within our family, and what secrets we keep as a family.
“Every time you walk past the house, there’s a whole universe that goes on behind that door and none of us have a clue what it is.”
Starring alongside Ruth Jones and James Nesbitt, will be Minnie Driver, Ellie de Lange of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and The Light fame, Alfred Enoch from The Couple Next Door, Lucian Msamati who featured in Gangs of London, Jon Pointing known for Big Boys, Tracy Ann-Oberman from Code 404, Annette Badland of Ted Lasso, Finty Williams from The A List, Joe McGann of Kaos, and Ingrid Oliver from Sweetpea.
The eight-episode thriller will premiere on New Year’s Day, maintaining the tradition established by Coben’s earlier works Missing You and Fool Me Once.