When it comes to your duty as an actor the most challenging of roles must be met head on and with total professionalism. Even when you are asked to play the part of a football fan of your nearest rivals. That’s what actor Steffan Rhodri was asked to do in the hit sitcom ‘Gavin & Stacey’ which first came to everyones attention back in the summer of 2007.

For Steffan it wasn’t just any near rival, the character he was to play was that of ‘Dave Coaches’ a Barry based coach owner with a love of his local team Cardiff City. For a Swansea City fan from Morriston surely this would be a challenging role ? Steffan though moulded himself in to the character wonderfully, nailing the Barry accent and let’s be honest hailing from a town like Barry it would be hard to convince folk he was a Swansea City fan. No detriment meant of course as we know of a very decent number of Jacks who live in the area, but the stereotype of Dave Coaches being a Bluebird certainly worked.

Steffan has worked on many radio and theatre productions, starring in Harry Potter and the deathly hallows ( part one ) ( above) Wonder Woman and Submarine, and prominently as well. Theatre has played a huge part in Steffan’s career notably Yaël Farber’s Blood Wedding. Now it has often been mentioned that a certain person or player has been spotted at ‘Rossi’s chippy’ opposite the Swansea City stadium, well I personally can vouch for Steffan, as I’ve seen him in there on numerous occasions. So, it’s not all untruths at all !

A fine choice of pre match dining by the way.

Speaking to journalist Karen Price about his famous ‘Dave Coaches’ character he said “I could see during the first series that it was good, a cult comedy. I kept my fingers crossed for a second series and that Dave would be in it more and he was. And suddenly I would be out and people would be saying, ‘Hey Dave, how are you doing mate?’ It had not happened to me before to that extent. There are actor friends of mine with much more impressive CVs so it’s a bit embarrassing to be out with them and recognised for being Dave while they are not recognised. It’s just the way in which Gavin & Stacey has entered people’s consciousness.”

Recently you may well have seen Steffan playing Hobert Hightower in Sky and HBO’s House of the dragon, so work is definitely not an issue for this particular Swans fan. He also deserves a mention as numerous other ‘celebrities’ get talked about alongside Steffan as Swansea City fans. With all due respects I doubt if Catherine Zeta Jones is scrambling around for the TV remote when the Swans are on Sky or sitting nervously as Swansea take on Cardiff this Saturday, but Steffan will be. His cousin is Mark Ellis, also from Swansea who turned to fictional crime writing after a life of entrepreneurship and working as a barrister at law. The multi millionaire has to date written four books in the DCI Frank Merlin series.

Talking on his beloved Swans it’s only when you actually hear what Steffan has to say on the football club he has supported all his life to begin to realise how much it all means to him. He was at the Reading away game last season and talks of that day when Swansea were 4-1 up before hanging on to a 4-4 draw at the end of the game.”We were four one up, and there we were all singing away and truanting the Reading fans, there were two and a half thousand of us there. The truth is, and I was talking to my son about it, during covid there were no fans there, and I couldn’t get a ticket for the play off final. Yes, Steve Cooper did well. You see though, Swansea fans are romantics, so we got a manager ( Russell Martin ) who absolutely plays to that, he is all about possession football. If you have got great players that works, in the championship you haven’t got the same quality of players. I go to more away games than home games now, I don’t live in Wales anymore. The Swans can be exquisite, but at this level with these class of players it’s going to be hit and miss”

Listening to Steffan he is by far and away the most informed Swans fan ‘celebrity’ when it comes to the list of people that often gets wheeled out during these times by a long, long way. On Russell Martin, Steffan seems to still be an admirer of him as a manager even when talking about him last year. “He’s sort of sacrificing that typical championship football. That Steve Cooper type of football. Russell Martin is drilling that out of them, and of course it comes at a price they do slip up”

Well, that’s a fact, we’ve seen the good, bad and the ugly side of this second season under Russell Martin who continues to juggle what he has to at least try and win football matches. However, there is one thing you can be assured of is that Steffan Rhodri will be watching his team come 3pm on Saturday, that’s a certainty. And with all due respects to ‘Dave Coaches’ we at least know he is supporting Wales biggest and best football club. It goes without saying, and not even big Ness would argue with that.

You can catch up with Steffan Rhodri on BBC iPlayer in the Radio Wales production of Gareth Gwynn’s ‘Ministry of Happiness’ Most certainly worth the effort

Photographs Open Source & licensed from Reuters

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