Joanna Page has been thinking about exercise. The trouble is, that’s as far as she’s got.

The Gavin & Stacey actress says she’s doing a 10k run next April, but tells the Press Association: “I’ve only just thought I’m going to have to somehow start training for it, and I’ve no idea how I’m going to.

“I bought a Peloton but I’ve only been on it once, and it’s now in the garage. I do absolutely nothing.”

She says she’s been thinking of doing YouTube yoga classes, or even doing a yoga class in her local village, or going swimming.

“So I’m trying to incorporate that – but at the moment, I’ve only incorporated it into my mind and into thinking. I haven’t physically done anything about it yet – but you’ve got to start somewhere.”

Page, who played Stacey in the popular BBC TV sitcom, has four children aged between four and 13, and simply hasn’t got the time to do anything for herself.

Asked whether she gets any free time, she replies firmly: “No, I would say absolutely none.”

She recounts how the day before she’d had to get up at 4am for work, hadn’t eaten all day and was exhausted when she returned home. But her youngest daughter Boe, aged four, came home from reception class soon after and wanted her mum to read her new book with her and play.

“Then I had to make tea, and then everybody else came in, and I was so, so tired, and I thought ‘Oh my god, I just need to get into bed’,” she says.

The Welsh actress laments how she always used to get a good lie-in at the weekends, but now the three oldest children all play sport, so there are no lie-ins any more.

“It’s pretty full-on,” she says. “But then you do have to realise it’s just for such a short time. It does feel like this is what life is always going to be like, but then I’ve really noticed they’re growing up.

“It’s not always going to be like this, so I try and just grab the moments when I can. Now they’re all in school, I’m trying to get some time for myself in just normal daytime.”

So instead of putting the washing on or constantly tidying up as she normally does, she says: “Now on certain days I’m going ‘Stuff it. I’m going to sit down, watch Amazon Prime, eat chocolate, have a cup of tea, and put my feet up on the sofa with the dogs and give myself some time. Those are the moments when I try and grab it.”

Yet despite struggling to find any time for herself, Page, 49, is absolutely loving the chaos of family life with her actor husband James Thornton and the kids – Eva, 13, Kit, 11, Noah, nine, and Boe, four.

“It’s just lovely,” she says contentedly. “It’s really loud, and sometimes it’s incredibly overwhelming and you feel like you just can’t cope any more or listen to anybody else calling Mummy because everybody wants your attention.

“But it’s amazing – I love it. It’s just loud, it’s boisterous, and somebody’s always making noises or singing or playing an instrument. It’s brilliant!”

As well as looking after four children, Page won series 21 of Taskmaster earlier this year, is a cover presenter on Magic Radio, and co-hosts the podcast Lush! with her husband. And she’s about to start filming a new series of the BBC One charity shop show Shift The Thrift – a job she’s really taken to heart.

“I absolutely love doing the show,” she declares “I’m wearing trousers, a blouse, and jacket, and I’ve thrifted every single one of them.”

In fact, reusing and rehoming is something Page is pretty keen on, and she’s also supporting a Virgin Media O2 initiative, the Tech Rehome Network Fund, to help rehome the nation’s unused tech devices.

The £3 million fund will be available to organisations that rehome devices, after Virgin Media O2 research found there are an estimated 267 million reusable or repairable devices lying unused in homes, despite 1.5 million people lacking access to a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

Page says she has a ‘wire drawer’ in her bedroom which contains old wires, plugs and phones, and observes: “We’ve all got a wire drawer, haven’t we? Or we’ve all got old phones we don’t use any more, but we don’t know what we can do with them.

“I’ve got a phone which is 13 years old, and I’d love to do something with it, and now you can give them to your local community, and something good will come of it.”

As far as tech in the family goes, Page’s 13-year-old daughter has just been given her first phone – but she’s strictly not allowed to go on social media.

“While she’s this age and while I’m here to look after her, she knows that it’s just a no,” Page declares. “I might not be liked, there might be a couple of days where she thinks I’m the worst person in the world, but I can cope with that.

“I’m not supposed to be a best friend – I’m her mother. I’m there to look after her, and we all love each other, even if she hates me for a bit because I won’t let her have Snapchat. But I can get over that.”

She laughingly describes coping with four kids as “all right”, and explains: “The biggest shock is going from zero to one child – that’s a complete and utter shock. And then going from one to two, because there’s just so much more to do.

“Then going to three is all right because you’re used to having quite a few, and then going to four is sort of like a farm anyway. You just get on with it – it’s just more people joining the gang.”

Of course, before she had children, Page’s ‘gang’ was the Gavin & Stacey team, and for many people she’s still typecast as the loveable Stacey – something she doesn’t mind one bit.

“I think it’s quite a privilege,” she says. “People will always remember me as Stacey, which I think is really lovely – she’ll always be a part of me. It was the most amazing job.

“It means something to people, and it’s so lovely that people still come up to me every single day and talk about their favourite bits.”

She says the Gavin & Stacey team keep in touch, and meet up when time allows it, and they’re all rooting for Melanie Walters, who played Stacey’s mum Gwen, as she competes in the current series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Page says: “We’ve all been on our WhatsApp group because we’ve been cheering Mel on in Strictly. We’re all hugely excited about that.

“We were like a real, proper family – I’m so lucky to have had that experience and worked with such fantastic people, so I don’t mind that people will forever think I’m Stacey.”

Joanna Page is supporting Virgin Media O2’s Tech Rehome Network Fund, which aims to get more people online through helping organisations rehome unused devices with people who need them. For more about the Fund and how to apply, visit  Virgin Media O2.