PROG ROCK ALLERGICS

Here at Lipster HQ, we're can't get enough of sassy, brassy, taking-no-prisoners sitcom women – especially those that can shut up the world with the raise of an eyebrow, a pucker of the gob or the swing of a handbag. So what with the second series of the sweet and spiky Gavin and Stacey warming up our Sunday evenings like pints of Horlicks, we wanted to praise our current favourite.

All stand and salute for Ruth Jones, the woman who not only wrote the Billericay boy-meets-Barry-girl series with co-star James Corden, but created the fabulous Nessa – a character who can stop traffic with a flex of a hefty dragon-tattooed upper arm, or a glare through that razor-sharp fringe.

Nessa's not the only whip-cracking woman Ruth's been behind either. So sit back, relax, and enjoy our Lipster cribsheets on why all the different faces of Ruth Jones rule...

NESSA in Gavin and Stacey (2007-)

She used to roadie for the Who. "Great days. Until I found out something about Pete Townshend that I didn’t like. And all I’ll say is – and I said it to his face – where’s the book?”

Her hen night tipple is... "a pint – of wine".

She speaks perfect Italian occasionally out of absolutely nowhere. As Nessa would say, "tidy". Or, as they say in Milan, "riordinare".

She's a lorry driver. And her CB radio handle is Robert Mugabe.

She's sexually adventurous in toilets. A one-night stand with Gavin's BFF Smithy prompted this exchange:

[Smithy] "Hiya, it's Smithy." [Nessa] - "Huh?" [Smithy] - "From the weekend." [Nessa] "Huh?" [Smithy] (Whispers) "Toilet brush." [Nessa] - "Oh yeah."

LINDA in Nighty Night (2004-2005)

She looks like a character from a John Waters' film. Those Bjork-gone-wrong bunches. Those rockin' t-shirts. The shorts. Divine is rolling (slowly) in his grave.

She had sex in a fish van and a trout went somewhere it shouldn't. You know, these things happen.

Jill put an axe in her head at the end of season one but she still came back. Staying power or what?

She has a hell of an appetite. Click through to 2 minutes 40 of this clip to watch her confess her sexual misdemeanours to Jill – after a curry, two pizzas and a Chinese on the bus.

MYFANWY in Little Britain (2003-2005)

She's the best Welsh lesbian barmaid ever. Although we're happy to consider contenders. Not that they'd win.

She put Daffyd down with a mixture of sweetness and filth – as she does in this clip where she's opening a gay bar in Greece. "Your mother? She's been lezzing it up with my Aunty Ruth for years! Yes! She's mad for muff."

MAGZ in Saxondale (2006-2007)

She's funny, gorgeous, and has a great line in silky dressing gowns. And although she's going out with Steve Coogan's boorish car mechanic for some bizarre reason, she gives this clunky show lots of va va voom.

RUTH JONES herself (1966-)

Where do we start? Best Newcomer at the Bafta Awards at 41, gong-grabbing writer, curvy glamourpuss, razor-sharp wit and absolute sweetheart: can we be one of those, please? Ruth, if you're hearing us, you're on our Lipster hot list forever. And here she is on last month's culture show proving to the world why we all want to be our new BFF: