Bill Nighy

We have star of stage and screen, acting legend and national treasure Bill Nighy joining us on the podcast this week! Fresh from creating his brand new podcast ‘ill advised by Bill Nighy’ - where he is an agony uncle - we sat down with Bill for lunch. Mum even made his favourite dish - pasta puttanesca. We found out that Bill was a Mod in his youth, how he feels about the success of Love Actually, the time he scammed tourists on the streets of Paris, why he prefers to eat meals alone and how he must add as much spice as possible to every meal he eats! What a total delight to have a meal with Bill, we could have chatted for hours and hours. Bill’s fabulous podcast ‘ill advised by Bill Nighy' is available to listen to everywhere now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:35Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table manners. I'm here at Lenny's. How are you, Mum?

• 0:39Speaker 02

  Very well.

• 0:40Jessie Ware?

  Did you have a nice weekend?

• 0:41Speaker 02

  Lovely, you were there, darling.

• 0:43Jessie Ware?

  Yes, thank you. You did a very nice egg salad.

• 0:45Speaker 02

  We've still got a bit in the fridge.

• 0:47Jessie Ware?

  I had a really busy weekend. I went to Gladiators Live.

• 0:50Speaker 02

  Fabulous.

• 0:51Jessie Ware?

  And then I went to see my friend Deb Hines perform at Ali Pala.

• 0:55Speaker 02

  How was that?

• 0:56Jessie Ware?

  And a previous guest on the podcast, lovely Naomi Scott, supported him and it was really brilliant. She sung amazingly.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  Is she now a pop star?

• 1:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  A whole new world.

• 1:06Jessie Ware?

  She can just do whatever she wants, basically. It was great and Deb was absolutely fantastic. But something happened at the gig.

• 1:13Speaker 02

  What happened?

• 1:14Jessie Ware?

  Which was quite a revelation for me.

• 1:15Speaker 02

  Gunshots, like the time you went to see that?

• 1:18Jessie Ware?

  No, it was a blood orange gig, Mum. It was very head noddy, pitchforky, very respectful. A girl came up to me and said, "Excuse me, do you do that podcast?" And I said, "Yes, I do." And she said, "Are you Lennie Ware?"

• 1:35Speaker 02

  So I now look in my 40s.

• 1:38Jessie Ware?

  And I now look like I'm in my 70s. Or the fact that I was at a music gig and I'm that girl Lenny off the podcast. I don't know whether I should bother bringing out the next record.

• 1:48Speaker 02

  Maybe not, darling.

• 1:49Jessie Ware?

  It was hysterical and producer Alice was with me and the way everyone, all my friends around me, cackled.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  Of course they did, darling.

• 1:56Jessie Ware?

  So yeah, you're big in the Gen Z museo world, Lenny.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  Okay, darling, that's great. Do you want me to be on your video instead of you?

• 2:04Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's what we need to do. It's just too confusing, though.

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Do that. What's that thing with Tom Hanks where he becomes young again?

• 2:13Jessie Ware?

  Big.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  Because we look a bit alike, maybe you should play me older and I'll play you younger.

• 2:19Jessie Ware?

  Maybe you should just calm down.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 2:21Jessie Ware?

  Anyway, today you are in charge of the food.

• 2:24Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:25Jessie Ware?

  We have...

• 2:27Jessie Ware?

  The excellent Bill Nye coming on.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  Can't wait.

• 2:30Jessie Ware?

  He has a new podcast.

• 2:32Speaker 02

  I know.

• 2:32Jessie Ware?

  Called Ill Advised by Bill Nye. And it's basically him being an agony uncle to try and help people through life with all their queries and questions. It can be, you know, what would you bring as a present for a host for a dinner party?

• 2:48Speaker 02

  Did you know the greatest air guitar piece was Bradley Cooper?

• 2:52Jessie Ware?

  Well, now I do. I also really appreciated his air guitar.

• 2:58Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 2:59Jessie Ware?

  On a podcast. That was excellent.

• 3:00Speaker 02

  That was excellent.

• 3:01Jessie Ware?

  Thank you.

• 3:02Speaker 02

  And he played it twice.

• 3:04Jessie Ware?

  Yes, he did. So yeah, we have Bill Nye coming on and we're really excited about having him.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  I am.

• 3:09Jessie Ware?

  He's.

• 3:10Speaker 02

  Quite precise about food.

• 3:11Jessie Ware?

  Well, no, I think we're lucky because producer Alice also produces Bill's podcast.

• 3:15Speaker 02

  But he likes what he likes.

• 3:17Jessie Ware?

  So Alice has been very helpful and so we got kind of a request in. So what is on the menu today?

• 3:22Speaker 02

  Pasta putanesca.

• 3:24Jessie Ware?

  Because this is what Bill likes.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  Bill loves it. Probably not as much chili as he would have liked.

• 3:31Jessie Ware?

  Have you put any in?

• 3:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:32Jessie Ware?

  Are you okay with him adding chili?

• 3:36Speaker 02

  I've got me chili flakes here, but I have made some padron peppers as well.

• 3:40Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  That he can just pick and eat just in case he needs a little bit of pepper.

• 3:45Jessie Ware?

  You're, you know, padron peppers aren't that spicy, ma.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  No, I know, but he'll just have to put up with it. It was the thought that came.

• 3:52Jessie Ware?

  Yes. And then you've got a big cheese board for after.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:55Jessie Ware?

  Lovely.

• 3:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:56Jessie Ware?

  I'm very excited because he's a massive Marmite fan.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  Shall I get Marmite?

• 4:01Jessie Ware?

  I think he would almost say that he's more of a Marmite fan than me, which I think is.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  No, I think that's.

• 4:05Jessie Ware?

  I think that's ridiculous, but he loves it. We've got lots to talk about with Bill Nye. Bill Nye coming up on Table Members.

• 4:21Jessie Ware?

  Bill, thank you for being here.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  My pleasure.

• 4:24Jessie Ware?

  Looking fantastic, may we add. Your own collection?

• 4:27Speaker 03

  If you'd have told me when I was seventeen that I would grow up and I would collaborate with John Smithley on a collection of their leisure wear, I would have arranged to be more cheerful in my early life. And I wore John Smithley polos, which were an essential mod item when I was a young man. I used to save up from, because they were, they were out of my range. And I wore them in frontline defiance of the silk shirt open to the third button, which was never going to happen because I didn't have the shape for that. And also the tie dye t-shirt doused in patchouli oil. And we were pioneers, young mods. And if I do nothing else with my life, there will always be this.

• 5:07Jessie Ware?

  You've achieved this.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  And the groovy thing, the other groovy thing, a word groovy, which I never used when it was groovy to use it, because it was always sounded so lame. But now it's drenched in irony through time. So I'm allowed to use it in a postmodern ironic way. What's also groovy about it is that they asked me if I doodled anything. And I doodle little birds on my scripts. And I've done it for a thousand years. And it's the only thing, I can't draw. The only thing I do is cartoon like birds on my scripts. And if I get a really good one where I think I've really nailed it, I photograph it now because I have a phone.

• 5:38Jessie Ware?

  And they put it on.

• 5:39Speaker 03

  So they embroidered it. It's so.

• 5:41Jessie Ware?

  My god.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  In fact, this is a prototype. There's, there's one, there's where it is.

• 5:47Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I love these birds.

• 5:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, they're little birds. That one, they gave them.

• 5:51Jessie Ware?

  Like a robin red breast, maybe?

• 5:53Speaker 03

  Search me. I really don't know. They just, they're, they come in different shapes and sizes. And they've named them now. One's called George and one's called Peter. There's two different ones. But the great thing about it is that I also, I asked them, where were the long johns? Because they used to do long johns, John Smithley. They used, they John Smithley was a hosea in seventeen sixty or something. And he made underwear. But they used to do thermals, top and bottom. And they'd stop doing them. So when I got around to collaborating with them, that I said, can we not do some thermals? So now there are people, there will be people walking around wearing long johns with my doodle on their bum.

• 6:28Jessie Ware?

  And you love that? That tickles you?

• 6:29Speaker 03

  Well, it just, you know.

• 6:31Jessie Ware?

  Did they approach you?

• 6:32Speaker 03

  They approached us, yeah, they did.

• 6:35Jessie Ware?

  Because they knew about your love of John Smithley?

• 6:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I've been, I've made no secret of my dedication to the brand over the years.

• 6:43Jessie Ware?

  The colour's fab.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  Well, this colour, yeah.

• 6:45Speaker 02

  That navy is gorgeous.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, navy is.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  Is that a John Smedley suit?

• 6:49Speaker 03

  No, no, they don't make suits.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  Okay, shame.

• 6:51Jessie Ware?

  Is that the next?

• 6:52Speaker 02

  Next.

• 6:53Speaker 03

  Well, I've always wanted to do, and here I am, reaching out for sponsorship. I've always wanted to collaborate with Marks and Spencer's.

• 7:02Jessie Ware?

  Oh, don't we all?

• 7:03Speaker 02

  Oh, shush.

• 7:03Jessie Ware?

  Bill, we should all be in that Christmas campaign.

• 7:05Speaker 02

  Bill.

• 7:06Jessie Ware?

  Or are you already in it?

• 7:07Speaker 03

  I'm not in it.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  I think that looks Paul Smith.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  No, this is actually.

• 7:11Jessie Ware?

  Don't tell me that's M and S.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 7:12Jessie Ware?

  That was, that would have sealed the deal, mate.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Well, no, what, what, what made me think of it in the first place was that a thousand years ago, Paul Smith did a range of suits for Marks and Spencer's.

• 7:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, you see.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  And you could buy the shape, and they were in two colours, and you could buy the Paul Smith silhouette for like a hundred and twenty quid, you know, which I thought was a very satisfying thing. And I've always loved the idea of mass-produced stuff, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, I remember reading that Andy Warhol used to go to Bloomingdale's every new year and buy a hundred pairs of classic white jockey underpants.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Why, did he not wash them, he just threw them away?

• 7:47Speaker 03

  I guess so, yeah.

• 7:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:48Speaker 03

  I didn't get, I'm not that, you know, but that's a very good thought. I think that's almost certainly the case. Uh, so he had a hundred clean days. Um, but in, no, but he used to get them to take out all the psychedelic ones and all the sort of candy stripe ones, and he knew he wasn't going to buy them, but he'd just have them bring them out and then he'd buy. I just like bulk buying. And when I didn't have any money and I used to hear about people who bought six shirts, it was so like, kind of out, you know what I mean? It was so sort of glamorous that you went in, if you really liked a shirt, you bought it six times, which seemed to be so.

• 8:19Speaker 02

  I do that a bit. If I find something that fits me and I quite like, I buy it in every colour.

• 8:24Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  And then I'll buy two in the same colour in case one wears out and goes a bit funny.

• 8:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, why not?

• 8:30Speaker 02

  So who's that suit by?

• 8:32Speaker 03

  This suit is by P. Johnson, uh, who are in Percy Street. P. Johnson are a bunch of very inspired young Australian men, and they've got an algorithm, don't ask me to explain it because I don't understand, but they take measurements, mysterious measurements that I've never had taken before, and they also interpret what you want rather than trying to tell you what you want, which is vital, because there are places where they try and impose a kind of house style, which I think is wrong. First time anybody ever said. You know, I mean, the thing is, when the ironic, I keep using that word and I'm not sure if it's correct. But you know, the thing is, when you make some money, they call you up and say, you know, has Mr. Nye got everything he needs? In other words, they're gonna give you stuff.

• 9:14Speaker 03

  Um, why didn't they do that when I didn't have any money? Anyway, you know, it's obvious. But the first time anybody made me a suit, I was specifying what I wanted and I wanted a single vent in the jacket because I've never been able to rationalize why anybody would wanna slash a jacket twice up the back, unless you're involved in horse riding or something of that kind. And I want a single pleat at the front on the trouser and he said, you can't have that. I said, what do you mean I can't have it? I said, who would we be offending? He said, you'd be offending the great god Sartorius. I said, I don't believe in God. He said, well, you'd be offending me. I said, well, you know, you're not gonna be around when I'm wearing it. Anyway, he now happily.

• 9:51Speaker 02

  How many vents have you got?

• 9:52Speaker 03

  Only one.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Only one?

• 9:53Jessie Ware?

  He gets what he wants.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Lenny.

• 9:54Jessie Ware?

  Of course.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Do most men anywhere have one vented?

• 9:57Speaker 03

  No, they've now become, you know, everybody's got two vents.

• 10:01Speaker 02

  And would you ever, would you ever wear double breasted?

• 10:05Speaker 03

  I have worn a double breasted, but they're kind of risky double breasted. I mean, they're hard, well, they're hard to construct. And they've gotta be, I did, once I spent all the money I had, when I didn't have much money, on an Armani dark blue double breasted suit with

• 10:20Speaker 02

  Was it beautiful?

• 10:21Speaker 03

  wide trousers. It was, I wore it, I lived in it, I slept in it, I kind of, you know, I did everything in it. Because when I was younger, I used to do jobs which would be like a suit job. You'd get a suit job on a telly or something and you, you wouldn't have much money, but you, they would let you buy the suit afterwards, after the gig, for like half price or a third of the price and sometimes they

• 10:41Speaker 02

  It was worth doing it.

• 10:41Speaker 03

  It was absolutely worth doing it. So I wouldn't have any clothes, but I would have an Yves Saint Laurent suit. But it would become like my overalls and I would do everything in it.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. Do you wear a suit every day?

• 10:52Speaker 03

  No, I don't, I, well, that was my ambition, because I used to have a mate of mine called John Brown. Who used to work at Dun & Co. You might remember Dun & Co. They were a kind of high street all over the country. Well, they were what, yeah, they were what your dad wore.

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:06Speaker 03

  But we, as young ironic, would be mods. We would, we'd go there and buy pleated trousers, which were like social death in nineteen seventy one or whatever, you know what I mean?

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Did you have a long raincoat as well?

• 11:17Speaker 03

  I would, I did have a long raincoat. And you'd have a Crombie and you'd have.

• 11:21Jessie Ware?

  You were not a mod, Mum. Please give me strength.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  I went to the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, which was the, you heard of it?

• 11:30Speaker 03

  Say it again.

• 11:30Speaker 02

  The Twisted Wheel.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, I have heard of the Twisted Wheel.

• 11:33Speaker 02

  And it was the best clubbing and you.

• 11:35Jessie Ware?

  Sorry, Mum, what, you were wearing a little polo shirt?

• 11:37Speaker 02

  No, I didn't wear a polo shirt, but you wore a long, you had your hair done Vidal Sassoon, you had a long thing over your face.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  It was half cut up there, so.

• 11:46Jessie Ware?

  Was that just Manchester?

• 11:47Speaker 02

  And you had a V in the back of your head.

• 11:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  And then you had a long raincoat, which you wore almost inside as well.

• 11:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  And you wore kind of quite, you, you, you, I was a mod, Jeff.

• 11:58Jessie Ware?

  Mum, you really?

• 12:00Speaker 02

  I didn't have a scooter. Did you have a scooter?

• 12:02Speaker 03

  No, I'm not a scooter kind of, no, I don't, that's not the thing.

• 12:06Jessie Ware?

  Have you ever, I mean, we're not, I, we're, I don't know, yeah, put the food on, because Bill's hungry.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:12Jessie Ware?

  And I should ask you some food questions.

• 12:14Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 12:14Jessie Ware?

  But I've also got, because I've been listening to your podcast, which is brilliant.

• 12:17Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 12:18Jessie Ware?

  And you have these like dulcet tones, you're very relaxing, it's quite reassuring, you also give good advice, I think. Um, it's, it's basically the premise of is it, well, you can, why don't you explain the premise of your podcast if people don't know, you're in your first season?

• 12:34Speaker 03

  Well, the, the thing I like best about it is that it's an invitation to squander time. It's like a cup of tea with me and we try to be inconsequential. The premise was something to do with the fact that when you get to my age, the risk is that you are mistaken for somebody who knows what to do. You know, that you've gathered all this wisdom in your time, which you've only got to look at the newspaper or on the internet to see how that's working out in the world, you know, while these old men go around making a mess of everything. But, and members of the public ask questions.

• 13:06Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, and let's talk about the fact that it's members of the public and you've got people from Mongolia.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:11Jessie Ware?

  Calling in.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:12Jessie Ware?

  Italy, I mean, you're you're very international, Bill.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, no, it's quite, I didn't imagine that anyone was going to be much listening to it. But anyway, yeah, we are, we spread the planet wide. And people have got concerns about trousers and stuff like that. And they need to know, they need information. I'm quite good on trousers. I'm not so good on, you know, what to do with my girlfriend. I got one question from a woman in Australia, I think, who said that I think my husband thinks I love my houseplants more than I love him. Like, I'm gonna know the answer to that.

• 13:43Jessie Ware?

  So did you not answer that one?

• 13:45Speaker 03

  I can't remember. Either the bad thing or the good thing. I think it's probably the good thing about the whole thing is that I can never remember what I've said. People come up to me in the street and say, well, you know, I don't feel like that about whatever, you know. And I think, what, why are you telling me that? And it's because I've said something, because my mind goes blank once we've recorded.

• 14:03Jessie Ware?

  Do you feel like if somebody asked you the same question on another day, you'd give them a completely different answer?

• 14:09Speaker 03

  Uh, no.

• 14:10Jessie Ware?

  Or does your your opinion on linen remains?

• 14:13Speaker 03

  Oh, no, that's forever. I mean, I think it's as plain as the, you know, I mean, how can anyone not know that? I mean, linen's okay for women, I think. Just.

• 14:22Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  Just. If they if they insist. But.

• 14:28Jessie Ware?

  I love linen.

• 14:29Speaker 03

  Oh, well, there you go, that's good.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  You do look a bit hamster therapist.

• 14:33Jessie Ware?

  But maybe I want to look hamster therapist.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's nothing wrong, I didn't, that's very good.

• 14:38Speaker 02

  No, they do, they all look like they're working at the Tavistock.

• 14:42Speaker 03

  Well, I like librarian chic.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Oh, what's that?

• 14:45Speaker 03

  Well, that's basically a form of mod.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Little twin sets.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, ironic twin set. There was a subgenre of mod.

• 14:51Jessie Ware?

  Bill, you have used the word ironic.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  A lot, haven't you?

• 14:53Speaker 02

  A lot.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  I know.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  Is your podcast ironic?

• 14:56Jessie Ware?

  To the same.

• 14:57Speaker 03

  My podcast is dead without irony. If there's, if they if they don't get the joke, I'm lost. The idea is that, you know, it's a joke to think that I can answer anybody's question. But as long as I don't start using the word iconic, then we're.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  Rather than ironic, yeah.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  Or instead of, yeah, then we're then then.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  But you are a fashionista, aren't you?

• 15:16Speaker 03

  What does that mean? I'm like, that's very close to fascist.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  You're stylish. You look gorgeous.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  Well, that's very, very nice of you to say.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  You walk in and you're, there's a presence there. You look like a stylish man.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Well, thank you very much for saying so. I mean, partly it's basic insecurity. I've never liked anything about myself very much. I've never had great, I've always been kind of disappointed in my body. And I've always kind of, you know, I've never, I mean, it's all right. Now I look back and if ever I catch a sight, which I try not to, of an image of me when I was younger, I was going, well, what's wrong?

• 15:48Speaker 02

  You were all right.

• 15:49Speaker 03

  But at the time.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  You think, I know, I feel the same.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  So I thought, well, I'll, if, you know, at my age, the responsibility is to be reasonably well turned out because otherwise, you know, what's happening? But, um, and, and therefore it's, you know, if I put a suit on, it's always going to be a better shape than I am. That's the idea. It's, it's basically what you pay for when you buy clothes. It's like with couture dresses for women, they bring you a figure, you know? And men used to have big shoulders and, you know, and they'd have tight waists.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Like Madman.

• 16:17Speaker 03

  I guess so. I've never seen Madman, but like, you know, the guy, Roger.

• 16:21Speaker 02

  You would have been good. Yeah, you would have been.

• 16:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, what happened there?

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Very stylish.

• 16:26Speaker 03

  What happened there? I could have worn those and they might have let me keep this clothes.

• 16:29Speaker 02

  Keep the clothes.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  And in fact, I sometimes I get it in my contract now.

• 16:32Speaker 02

  Oh, you put.

• 16:33Speaker 03

  If it's a contemporary thing, yeah, I get to keep.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  I want an Armani suit and I'm keeping it.

• 16:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  Well played. What's your next project and what are you wearing?

• 16:41Speaker 03

  My next project, I don't know what I'm wearing. I'm doing a film called A Town in Nova Scotia. And it's shot in Liverpool. I'm playing an Irishman.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  Oh, right.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Who has a non-romantic but deep friendship with a Moroccan man who's disabled in a high rise in Liverpool. And my character gets obsessed with Grenfell. And he's worried about his friend. It's actually, it sounds, you know, an unhappy film. It's actually quite funny.

• 17:07Speaker 02

  Who's directing it?

• 17:09Speaker 03

  The man who's directing it is an Iranian director called Babak Jalila. And I think, you know, it's a good thing. I've just spent three months in a caravan in nineteen seventy five. Uh, dressed like my dad. I sent a picture of myself. You know those little wo- woolen waistcoats with buttons, you'd wear it under a suit, you know. My dad always used to wear a shirt and tie. And I sent, I was wearing one and pleated, big double pleated trousers. And I sent a picture to my sister and she went, oh my god. And she she thought it was, you know, I didn't put a caption, so she thought it was dad, I think. Cause I look so much like my dad.

• 17:45Jessie Ware?

  Can we talk about where you grew up, who was around the dinner table? And what is a very memorable dish from your childhood?

• 17:53Speaker 03

  Well, I grew up in Caterham. C A T E R H A M. Not very far.

• 18:00Jessie Ware?

  Where is that? Sorry.

• 18:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, down from Croydon. And uh, my dad came from Croydon and they moved out to uh, Caterham to have a family. And I grew up with my brother Martin and my sister Anna, but I'm the youngest. And round the dinner table would have been my dad and my mum and my sister for quite a long time. But they left home. Uh, both my brother and my sister, they left home and I was there, just the three of us for quite a long time. My grandmother, when she was alive, did all the cooking, cause my mum went out to work and my dad went out to work, obviously. And therefore my grandmother kind of cooked for me and she was Irish and she uh, she cooked basically the same thing every day of the week.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  And you'd have, you'd have fish and chips on Friday, cause we were, uh, I was brought up a Catholic. And we'd have uh, sausage with onion gravy. And uh, probably mashed potato, which I can't do now, cause I'm squeamish about the gravy mixing up with the mash.

• 18:58Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 18:58Speaker 02

  You have talked about that you were in charge of your gravy at.

• 19:02Speaker 03

  On Sunday, my two jobs were the gravy and the custard.

• 19:06Speaker 02

  Right.

• 19:07Speaker 03

  And there was nothing wrong with my custard. There was nothing wrong with my gravy. And a bit of marmite goes a long way.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  It goes, goes, not in the custard.

• 19:15Jessie Ware?

  I think I love marmite as much as you.

• 19:19Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 19:20Jessie Ware?

  And I know you may not be able to believe that.

• 19:22Speaker 03

  No, I'm prepared to, you know, suspend my disbelief.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  Bill went to the same school as my hairdresser's son goes to.

• 19:29Jessie Ware?

  John Fisher.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I did. I did.

• 19:32Speaker 02

  Hold on, I, say that again. My hairdresser's son goes to John Fisher's school.

• 19:37Jessie Ware?

  Your hairdresser's son. Okay, got it.

• 19:39Speaker 02

  Go now. Yeah. Okay. Goes to the same school as Bill. Did you used to go to the Pearly Orchid?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  Did I? No, I was a bit, I missed the Pearly Orchid.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Oh, my god.

• 19:48Jessie Ware?

  What's the Pearly Orchid?

• 19:48Speaker 02

  It was where you went.

• 19:50Speaker 03

  Well, the Pearly Orchid was a ballroom and it was near me. I did go there occasionally, but I was a bit young for it. And um, and it was claimed to be the largest dance floor in Europe.

• 20:00Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 20:01Speaker 03

  Whether that's true or not.

• 20:02Jessie Ware?

  Can I ask you, I interrupted you, you were talking about you, you're squeamish about mash and gravy.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, I was used, I was that difficult kid. I used to have the beans on the side and the toast on the other side.

• 20:12Jessie Ware?

  Particular.

• 20:13Speaker 03

  Because if the butter and the juice from the bit, tomato juice of the beans got together, it, it disqualified me.

• 20:18Jessie Ware?

  Hang on, like, your favourite thing is marmite on toast with beans?

• 20:21Speaker 03

  I, I got over it. I got over it, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I got over, but you have to make, somebody told me, just last week, somebody told me, I thought, why didn't say, it was my nephew, I think. Who said that he lets the, because the whole thing is that the bread's got to be crispy under the beans. It can't go that word that's on the banned list, which begins with S and ends with Y and has an O and two Gs in it.

• 20:44Jessie Ware?

  Soggy.

• 20:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, you had to say it, didn't you?

• 20:47Jessie Ware?

  Sorry.

• 20:47Speaker 03

  Um.

• 20:48Jessie Ware?

  Do you, do you prefer soggy to moist?

• 20:51Speaker 03

  Uh, uh, uh, neither, yeah. No, I prefer moist. I prefer moist to soggy. I can't believe where I'm in this company. Um, no, but, so, but he said he used to let the toast go cold.

• 21:02Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  Because it would be crispier and harder, yeah.

• 21:06Jessie Ware?

  Okay, that's quite good intel, but I like, I guess in the beans are going to kind of warm it back up.

• 21:11Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, exactly. As long as you've got really hot beans.

• 21:14Jessie Ware?

  Have you tried this out yet?

• 21:15Speaker 03

  I haven't, no. Um, because I've sort of given up. I don't eat at home anymore.

• 21:20Jessie Ware?

  So you eat out all the time?

• 21:22Speaker 03

  I eat out all the time. I go to the caf for breakfast. I sometimes have lunch. I'm not very good at lunch. And I have dinner always out with a, with a book.

• 21:31Jessie Ware?

  Yes. So what are you eating at the moment?

• 21:35Speaker 03

  At the moment, I am reading a book that was sent to me by Bernard Jacobson of the Bernard Jacobson Gallery about Georges Braque. It's a very good book and I'm really excited about reading. A lot of it I don't understand, but there's something about reading about painting that it just eases my mind. Books I've read most recently are the new collection of essays and articles by Zadie Smith. I'm a big fan of Zadie and I read that and I read and my book of the year or last year was The Trees by Percival Everett. And I read Miranda July's book, All Fours.

• 22:13Jessie Ware?

  What did you think of All Fours?

• 22:14Speaker 03

  I loved All Fours. In fact, I recorded it in voice memo for a friend of mine.

• 22:18Jessie Ware?

  Which, which, recorded what?

• 22:22Speaker 03

  The whole of the book. I do this thing sometimes, I do this thing sometimes where I-

• 22:27Jessie Ware?

  Not on Audible, you just did this for your mates?

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Just for a friend. It started because a friend of mine got ill. And he was in bed and he couldn't do anything and he couldn't really read either because he was in, he was very ill. And I couldn't think of, and he was, he was in Los Angeles. So I couldn't visit or anything and I just thought, what can you do? What could I do? And so I, I said, you want to hear a book, you know? And so I used to, I read him Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion, which is a fabulous book. And I read it every morning. I would do like 10 minutes on a voice memo and ping it over. And there are, you know, 124 voice memos and there's the book. And I did it with another person who was not in good shape. And I did Virginia Woolf Night and Day, so Night and Day. I've got it all on my, you know, it's all on my phone.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  And, and I did All Fours, which was quite, you know-

• 23:18Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I can imagine that being-

• 23:19Speaker 03

  And I did say to the people, I only sent it to about three people and I said, "Don't let this out of the loop because, you know, there are scenes in it where, where, you know, a man like me, reading those particular scenes is kind of, you know, it might-

• 23:34Jessie Ware?

  I'd really love to get that voice- Memo of um.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Well, you can have that.

• 23:37Jessie Ware?

  I'd love to get that that particular voice memo. Wow. Wow, so.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  Oricchetti.

• 23:43Jessie Ware?

  Well. We heard you like putanesca.

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Thank you, I do.

• 23:48Jessie Ware?

  You don't like to call it putanesca, though.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  Well, I didn't know. I mean, I don't mind privately calling it.

• 23:53Jessie Ware?

  Fine.

• 23:54Speaker 03

  But I just wonder about in.

• 23:56Jessie Ware?

  Respectfully, got it.

• 23:57Speaker 03

  Respectfully, everyone.

• 23:59Jessie Ware?

  So we've mum, I've done nothing. Mum has made you putanesca.

• 24:03Speaker 03

  It looks absolutely fantastic and I'm not lying or kidding.

• 24:06Jessie Ware?

  We can put some chili flakes to.

• 24:08Speaker 03

  I want as many. I just put them in it.

• 24:10Jessie Ware?

  It's not great with heat, heat.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  Oh, no, that's fine.

• 24:13Jessie Ware?

  So I'm gonna like. Do you want some hot sauce?

• 24:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, hot sauce.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  You really like hot, don't you?

• 24:19Jessie Ware?

  So as somebody that, you know, I feel like. Gives advice, have you ever been told off for adding too much hot sauce like and offending the this is not to say you're offending us, by the way.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  Or is it too hot?

• 24:33Speaker 03

  Mum, I'm fine.

• 24:35Jessie Ware?

  I feel like you've got like, I like numb taste buds and tongue by this point, if you.

• 24:40Speaker 03

  I don't really know.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  There's some grated Parmesan or you can grate your own.

• 24:46Speaker 03

  Thank you. I've always had a tolerance for spice and I used to when in the old days when you went. When they used to have, they don't seem to have it anymore, but when you went to an Indian restaurant, they'd have vindaloo, they'd have madras.

• 24:58Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  Vindaloo and phal.

• 25:00Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 25:00Speaker 03

  P H A L. And I would always go for the phal. And that's when the waiters start sort of hovering around just to have a laugh, you know, they think that you're gonna implode or something.

• 25:10Jessie Ware?

  Were you doing it because you wanted to test yourself?

• 25:13Speaker 03

  No, I just wanted, I was drawn.

• 25:15Speaker 02

  Bowl for some salad in case you want some.

• 25:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, thank you very much.

• 25:19Speaker 02

  I haven't dressed the salad because I don't know.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  I was drawn to the heat. I didn't even think about it. It was just like. I mean, I don't think I gave it much thought. I just wanted the heat. And I've always had it. It was only a couple of times when anything's been.

• 25:34Jessie Ware?

  Delicious, Mum, thanks.

• 25:36Speaker 03

  When anything's too hot, I'm just gonna have a taste of this because it looks absolutely perfect.

• 25:42Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 25:43Jessie Ware?

  Any good?

• 25:43Speaker 03

  Oh, no.

• 25:46Jessie Ware?

  Is there?

• 25:46Speaker 03

  Really, really, really.

• 25:47Jessie Ware?

  I think that's gonna be too spicy for you. Probably. And did you see how much hot sauce he just put on? I think you should do hot ones. Have you heard about that?

• 25:56Speaker 03

  No, oh, no.

• 25:58Jessie Ware?

  The chicken wings.

• 25:59Speaker 03

  Where they.

• 26:00Jessie Ware?

  I think you could get to the.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  A chat is like a spice challenge.

• 26:03Jessie Ware?

  This is hot.

• 26:04Speaker 03

  Where they.

• 26:05Jessie Ware?

  See, she's got like, look, and did you not see what he put on? But it's spicy. Oh, bless you. Shit. Um, would you never do it?

• 26:13Speaker 03

  No.

• 26:14Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 26:14Speaker 03

  Well, because they might find something that'll make my eyes water.

• 26:17Jessie Ware?

  Oh, but maybe they wouldn't because you seem to be fine.

• 26:20Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, but I mean, there's a couple, there's only a couple of times. I used to go to a Thai restaurant in the archway and, and I go there all the time and they know that I want it as spicy as it can possibly be. But I never, ever was able just to leave it alone. Each time, even though I went there once a week, I'd have to say, as they were walking away, I'd say, yeah, but can it, can it be really, you know? And she'd have a hand on the door of the kitchen. I'd say, excuse, can it be like, she'd like, she'd be like, yeah, like she didn't know, you know? But then one time in the Indian restaurant in Notting Hill Gate, they came over with a special chili and they showed it to me and they said, this is really, really hot.

• 26:57Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 26:57Speaker 03

  And I said, well, that's fine, you know, put it on the thing. And they said, well, you've got to be really, I was like, yeah, right, really? And then it nearly blew my ears off and I had to fake it and, and sit there and pretend that it was completely, I was completely relaxed.

• 27:11Jessie Ware?

  So you didn't ask for yogurt or, or milk?

• 27:14Speaker 03

  No, I didn't dare because it would have spoiled my, you know, my image.

• 27:20Jessie Ware?

  So you eat out three times a day?

• 27:23Speaker 03

  Well.

• 27:24Jessie Ware?

  Well, we.

• 27:25Speaker 03

  Twice a day.

• 27:26Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 27:26Speaker 03

  Always twice a day, sometimes three times a day.

• 27:28Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so you start in the caf, is it always the same caf?

• 27:31Speaker 03

  Mm hmm. And I have, my average breakfast currently is two poached eggs on marmite toast.

• 27:39Jessie Ware?

  Mm hmm.

• 27:40Speaker 03

  Obviously, with a bit of avocado on the quiet, with olive oil and pepper.

• 27:45Jessie Ware?

  Why avocado on the quiet?

• 27:47Speaker 03

  I mean, it's, it's me attempting to be amusing by not saying on the side, but saying on the quiet.

• 27:52Jessie Ware?

  Okay, got it. Sorry.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  It's just a little thing I do sometimes to make me more, make me more attractive. But you busted me so.

• 28:02Speaker 03

  But I, no, I, and then I have a banana. Cause the doctor told me I should eat two bananas a day.

• 28:08Speaker 02

  Why?

• 28:09Speaker 03

  I don't know, just it was like one of those things. Pardon? Potassium, I guess, yeah. He did say two. I never managed to.

• 28:16Speaker 02

  A lot of banana.

• 28:17Speaker 03

  Pardon?

• 28:18Speaker 02

  Do you like bananas?

• 28:19Speaker 03

  I do like bananas, I'm not.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  Thank god.

• 28:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 28:21Speaker 02

  Do you like them ripe or firm? I like them firm, lemony.

• 28:25Speaker 03

  There's a peak moment, isn't there, with a banana? Which you very rarely, you know, manage to hit the map.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  How do you have your coffee?

• 28:32Speaker 03

  I don't have coffee in the morning anymore. I have tea, I have two cups of Yorkshire tea. Reaching out for sponsorship. And I, which, and I have it very, very, very, very strong, as strong as I can. I s- I do take the tea bag out. I have it made in the cup with a tea bag. I don't want a pot, cause that, you know, it's a waste of time. I want it straight to the cup. And I leave it in quite a long time and I mash it and mash it and mash it until every drop of caffeine is released into the liquid. And then I hit it with the tiniest drop of milk. And I have one of those in the morning before I leave the house. And then I have another one after my breakfast in the cafe. And if I had any scents, that would be the end of my caffeine day. But I don't have any scents, so, and it depends on if I'm working.

• 29:17Speaker 03

  I have had a history of coffee abuse. And I used to drink masses amounts of espresso. And drink incredible amounts of Coca Cola. And smoke ridiculous and deeply regretted amounts of cigarettes. But that, I'm over that now.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're sugar free now, huh?

• 29:39Speaker 03

  Hmm, I am.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  How long have you been sugar free?

• 29:42Speaker 03

  I had my phone, I, oh, and I can tell you, thirteen hundred and fifty days.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  Are you monitoring, are you, you're on an app where?

• 29:48Speaker 03

  I have a, I have a, no, I have a, my friend Mick Jones and I. Discovered that we had the same relationship with sugar. So, and I used to fall off wagons. I'd get quite a long time, but then it would always turn out to be a wagon and wagons for one thing only, which is falling off. Then I would binge. The last time I seriously fell off a wagon, I went to the sweet shop. I'm like an eight year old with a credit card. I went to the sweet shop and I bought a sack of chocolate and other sweets. And uh, and I bought two of everything and it was a carrier bag full of, you know, stuff. And I was walking home through my area and I thought, if I meet anyone that I know, it's possible. I might say, what's in the bag? Yeah.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  And I would have to say, I'm visiting an orphanage tomorrow.

• 30:38Speaker 03

  And I've bought something for the children because there would be no other way of explaining how a man of my age was walking around with a sack full of high street chocolate. Did you, how much did you do of the sack? I crossed the line because I went home and I did something I'd never done before. Yeah. Which turned out to be a good thing, was that I went to bed with the sack and I got the whole of the chocolate out on the cover, the bed cover. And then I went to Mars and looked back down and saw this man in very late middle age, I was younger then, um, with a, with a bed covered in high street chocolate and I, and I. You saw yourself. I saw myself. So I put it all back in the bag and I put the bag in the rubbish.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  And I didn't go back to take it out of the rubbish. So you can tell that this is my relationship with sugar, right? But then, uh, Mick and I have been texting each other, you know, just day one, two, three, four, five. And then you meet people and you tell them about it and they go, well, I'm the same or my, can my girlfriend come and can my mom, my sister's like, you know? So now there are sixty people registered. This is all. On the, we're called the Sugar Free Pioneers.

• 31:49Jessie Ware?

  Is recently joined.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 31:51Jessie Ware?

  Jack.

• 31:51Speaker 03

  Oh, yes, with Jack is on. Yeah, yeah. And we post every day and there are, there's about twenty seven people that post every morning with their day count.

• 31:59Jessie Ware?

  So back to a day in the life of Bill and eating. So you're gonna start. Marmite's gonna be there, poached eggs at the moment, the two bananas. Where are you going for lunch?

• 32:13Speaker 03

  If I went to lunch in my area.

• 32:16Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 32:16Speaker 03

  I might go to Cacio Pepe in Churton Street. Where Waffey and Samir, who are brothers and sisters who run the restaurant, would sort me out with their perennial exquisite fish soup. And I might accompany that with a bit of burrata and tomatoes and have them at the same time.

• 32:36Jessie Ware?

  Where are you getting your chili from at that meal?

• 32:38Speaker 03

  Oh, they have a special bottle.

• 32:41Jessie Ware?

  For you?

• 32:41Speaker 03

  Well, I like to think it's for me. I'm not sure. I can't guarantee it's for me, but I think it's for me. And it's, it's chili oil, which they make on the premises. That goes all over my everything. It goes in the soup. Makes the soup much more interesting. I mean, I'm not big on lunch. Really, it's not, I don't have a lot of lunches. Unless I'm work, if I'm working, then it's, you know, it'll be, I always have the same thing, which is I have mozzarella and cherry tomatoes. In my trailer at work, but I always have, if they've got chips on that day, I'll have chips with it. Or if they've got any kind of potato.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  I don't really like mozzarella.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Do you do it or not?

• 33:24Speaker 02

  It doesn't taste of anything.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  I know, you're in.

• 33:27Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but.

• 33:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know, it's kind of, no, I don't find, it's kind of rubbery and tasteless. And burrata makes me feel faint when you come into it and it just oozes out.

• 33:38Jessie Ware?

  Well, then you shouldn't go out for lunch with.

• 33:39Speaker 02

  I'm not going out for lunch with you, Bill.

• 33:42Jessie Ware?

  Okay, and then.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  We'll have dinner, we'll have dinner.

• 33:45Jessie Ware?

  Where are you going for dinner?

• 33:47Speaker 03

  I rotate several restaurants. I go to Tozzi, T O Z I. I go to Vasco and Piero's Pavilion, number eleven Dabley Street. Which I've been going to for years and years and years. I just got lucky once and wandered in off the street. And it's an exemplary restaurant and it's not a scene, it's quiet and I can read. But the food is terrific and that's one of my favourite restaurants in London. I used to go to all of Jeremy King and Christopher Corbyn's restaurants because why wouldn't you?

• 34:21Jessie Ware?

  So have you stopped going to the Woolsey then?

• 34:24Speaker 03

  No, no, I, well, I did stop going to the Woolsey because I thought I was doing that out of respect for Jeremy and Christopher. But in fact, I got a kind of wayward three tier down message saying, do continue to go to the Woolsey. Because for the staff, you know, and all of that. So I do go to the Woolsey.

• 34:42Jessie Ware?

  I love the Woolsey.

• 34:43Speaker 03

  And I go to Sheiky's.

• 34:45Jessie Ware?

  Never been.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  I went to Sheiky's two weeks ago.

• 34:47Jessie Ware?

  Did you?

• 34:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:48Jessie Ware?

  Who with?

• 34:49Speaker 02

  My friends, my colleagues.

• 34:51Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  It was her favorite. I had skate, I love skate.

• 34:56Speaker 03

  My mum used to like skate.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  Do you always go out on your own? You're on your own a lot.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Well, I am on my own and I don't, and I like that.

• 35:04Speaker 02

  Do you? So you can read?

• 35:05Speaker 03

  I'm unattached and I don't cook. I don't have, I do have now a small duolit, reaching out for sponsorship. A duolit, uh, kind of oven, little oven thing.

• 35:17Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 35:18Speaker 03

  Which I was persuaded to have. The first time I had a flat properly of my own and I was. And the builders were taking out the old gas cooker because I said, see, it looked terrible. And I, and they said, when's the new one coming? I said, there's not gonna, I was deciding how to live, you know. I said, well, there's not gonna be, be a new one.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  It's like Carrie Bradshaw.

• 35:39Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 35:39Speaker 03

  Why would I, why would I have a new one?

• 35:42Jessie Ware?

  I mean.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  You're kind of like a New Yorker. Yeah.

• 35:45Speaker 03

  Is that what it is?

• 35:47Speaker 02

  They never eat in.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  Well, then, yes, I am, yeah.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  Do you order in? So you can stay.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  No, I never order in. I don't believe in, I can't relax around takeaway food. I just doesn't. By the time it gets to me, I think it's over.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  What, the anticipation and the kind of?

• 36:06Speaker 03

  No, just the packaging.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Oh, the packaging.

• 36:07Speaker 03

  It's the packaging and the fact that, I don't know, it's been on a bike. You know, you've got to get rid of stuff.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  I did do it, I mean, I didn't like everyone, and during Covid, I did it quite a lot. But I never enjoyed it. I don't get a bang out of it at all. I like, I like to go out and a lot of it is to do with the book. Because it's reading time. And I read at breakfast and I read at lunch if I have it and I read at dinner. Those are my big reading times. I mean, I'm not always on my own. I have, I have dinner with friends sometimes. I have got friends, you know. But I have no problem. I once was making a film with Richard Curtis. And at the end of a working day, he said, where are you going? I said, I'm going for dinner. He said, oh, where are you going? I said, I'm going to a Thai restaurant in the archway. He said, who are you going with? I said, nobody, I'm gonna, just going on my own. He went, you're going on your own?

• 37:01Speaker 03

  I was like, yeah. And you've got to be careful what you say to writers. Because the next day, there were a couple of pages and it said, he eats alone.

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• 38:55Speaker 03

  Are you doing theatre any time soon? No, I don't think so, no. I can't imagine what that would be, but you never, you never know. Do you enjoy theatre? Yeah, I mean, it's been a big part of my life. I started out in the theatre. I was, you know, it was years after I started being an actor before I was in front of a camera and I was very, very happy. I never really thought I'd, it was, times were very different and my expectations, I think, were kind of very low and would be considered to be low. I didn't think they were low. But I thought it was gonna be a life in the theatre, you know, and I thought that, and I was perfectly relaxed and happy with it. But then, you know, anyway, but yeah, enjoys a word I always have trouble with, but you know what I mean?

• 39:39Speaker 03

  But I do, yeah, I mean, if I was to tell my grandchildren, not that they're ever gonna ask, but if I was to tell, if they said, you know, what were the most satisfying moments of your professional career? A lot of them would be in the theatre, where nobody can remember and they, you know, and it's, it's gone, obviously, but they, they were, there are, because it's, I find it very alarming. My job is quite alarming, generally speaking, you know, and to be live in a theatre, in a play in a theatre, is quite a reckless thing to attempt. It's amazing that I persevered because I suffered agonies of self doubt live on stage all the time.

• 40:15Jessie Ware?

  So it was almost like punishment to yourself?

• 40:18Speaker 03

  I honestly can't tell you why anyone in my position then would have carried on. The only reason I can give, which I think is probably, I don't know, I'm not a reliable witness, but I think it was because I couldn't stand the idea of having that conversation where they say, you still acting? And me saying, no, I don't do that now. I, I gave that, you know, I just couldn't bear my pride, I was prideful and I couldn't bear the thought of that conversation, so I was. And I didn't have a plan B anyway, I didn't have any levels, I flunked school.

• 40:52Jessie Ware?

  Didn't you go to Marseille to avoid doing your GCSEs or something?

• 40:56Speaker 03

  Well, it was sort of that, yeah, it was, they were then called O levels, but yeah, GCSEs. And I did run away, I was, we were going, me and my friend Peter, we ran away. Um, not, that wasn't the only reason, it wasn't just because you saw the GCSEs coming, but we ran away, we'd looked at the map and we were gonna go to, shows you how old I am, we were gonna go to the Persian Gulf.

• 41:18Jessie Ware?

  The Persian Gulf, which doesn't exist now.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 41:21Jessie Ware?

  Of course, what's it called?

• 41:22Speaker 03

  Iran.

• 41:23Jessie Ware?

  Iran, okay.

• 41:24Speaker 03

  Anyway, then it was, it sounded good, you know, the Gulf sounded great. I had no idea what it meant. And um, but we got as far as Marseille and we got to the docks and we were trying to jump a ship to go to wherever the next bit of the journey. And then there were these very spooky guys down there. There was one guy in leather trousers, you see what I'm saying? And a, and a red top. And in the end, we got very, very hungry and we went to the British consulate and said, can we go home now? And it cost twenty five pound to take me home and it took me about three years to pay it back. Working on the petrol pumps and my dad was not happy.

• 41:59Speaker 02

  Furious.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  Uh, you can imagine.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Did you have to reset your exam?

• 42:02Speaker 03

  No, they came up and I just flunked them. I mean, I, I got nothing really. I got a D in something in English literature, I think. Uh, it was, you know, I just didn't get, you know, it was a disaster. And then I had, then I was asked to leave. And I went down the youth employment agency, you used to go down the youth employment agency with your mum. I went with my mum. And the bloke said, he had a big book of jobs and he said, what, what do you want to be? And I, and I, no one, you know, it was a big day for me, you know, because nobody had ever asked me, you know. And I said, well, I want to be an author. Because, you know, that was what I wanted to be. And he said, well, we don't have any jobs for author. And I said, well, I know, I didn't think you would, but. And my mother put her foot on the top of my foot under the desk and just pressed down really hard.

• 42:47Speaker 03

  As if to say, don't be so bloody stupid. You know what I mean? Author. And then he said, well, what if we look in the book and we see if there's something that might lead you to being, and I went, all right. And he got me a job as a messenger boy on the field magazine, which was hunting, shooting and fishing. I don't think it was.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  Nice though.

• 43:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, no, it was a good job.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  It was better than working in a, you know.

• 43:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was a great job. They used to put me, well, I was a kid from the suburbs and they put me in black cabs. You know, and they give me, I'd go and change all the magazines in the hotels, all the big hotels in their racks. And you'd get a cheese roll around the back and a cup of tea and it was all. I used to wave at Rolls Royces. I was totally overexcited about being in town, you know. And I waved at one Rolls Royce and when I got back to the office, I got called to the managing director's office. And I thought I was going to be fired. And he said, he said, I was just driving in my car. And I passed you in the street and you started to jump up and down and wave at my car. That's not the sort of behaviour we expect from, yeah, I got busted for waving at the wrong car.

• 43:52Speaker 03

  But anyway, uh, yeah, so I was, it was a good, um, and in the end, Lord Harmsworth, who was the man who ran the whole affair, he said, if you get, again, it shows how long ago. If you get shorthand and typing, we'll put you in the, in the sub editor's office. So, you know, that was writing words for money. So it was gonna, but I used to have to change the, the roller towel in the ladies' room. And there was a typing pool with all these quite, you know, slightly older than me, but glamorous women, young women. And they would always do this thing of whenever I went in to change the roller towel in the ladies' room, they would all come in. And there was a bed in the ladies' room where you could lie down if you felt, you know,

• 44:35Speaker 03

  faint or anything. And they would all, but they'd all come in and pretend to need to be in the ladies' room just to wind me up. Cause I was, I was, I was very easy to wind up. And I would blush and I would fumble the fucking roller towel and I'd just, you know, scamper away. Uh, but that was one of my jobs and it was a nice job. And Mr. Dale, who was my immediate superior, who was the kind of live-in janitor and caretaker, he, he said, you should be in the army. Why aren't you in the army? Well, a lot of people used to say that at that time. You know, it sought you out, you know, you've got everything in the army. But I was gonna go to, I, I am a walking, talking cliche. I'd read Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway.

• 45:14Speaker 03

  Everything by F. Scott Fitzgerald, you know, anyone who'd been in Paris between nineteen eighteen and nineteen thirty. And I was gonna go to Paris and write the great English short story. And I ran away again and I ran to, and I threw my suitcase out the window, literally. My mate caught it. And I went to Paris and I went straight to Shakespeare and Company, the very famous bookshop there. And I hoped that, you know, I would write killer sentences and get a girlfriend. I didn't write a word.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  And she got a girlfriend?

• 45:46Speaker 03

  And I didn't get a girlfriend, no. There was a girl in England who was the first girl who'd ever paid any attention to me and I overreacted catastrophically. I only lasted about three weeks and I didn't know what to say to her or what to do. And um, and quite rightly she fired me. And uh, but I thought if I go to Paris, it might impress her. And when I came home, she couldn't have been less impressed, you know. She was like, Paris, what were you doing in Paris? I was like, and I had no answer for that. So, but I went and I, we ended up, my friend Brendan Thomas-Elliott, my oldest friend, and I ended up in Paris and we begged on the Trocadero and avez-vous son franc par moi, madame, it's about all my French I got.

• 46:27Speaker 03

  And the photographers on the Trocadero would come over with wads of cash and they'd show you rolls of cash and they'd say Madame Cuckoo's. And they would explain that if you went to Madame Cuckoo's and if you made love to what they called older women, you'd get two hundred and fifty francs and your dinner. But I'd never made love to anyone and I was waiting on the future Mrs. Nye and I didn't wanna cheat on her before she turned up, you know what I mean? So, and Brendan, I don't think had ever, you know, been with a girl, I don't know. I'm sorry Brendan, you probably were very experienced sexually. Um, and uh, but we never went, but we used to, we used to sit there counting how many women we would have to sleep with in order to um, buy a Harley Davidson.

• 47:11Speaker 03

  Cause there were these blokes that used to, cause it was before helmets, that's how old I am. You could cruise around all the cafes in Paris with big aviator shades, lots of hair, you know, and great shoes and these, and a suit on, you know, they'd have a suit.

• 47:25Speaker 02

  Did you smoke Gulas at the time?

• 47:27Speaker 03

  I did smoke Gulas. And Jitan. And I regret every cigarette I ever smoked, children. And, and which is sincere and uh, it's great when it stops. So we used to, that's all we did, we just sat on the Trocadero and tried to get enough money to go to the Street of a Thousand Nicks, we used to call it, it was actually called Rue Muy Fui or something. And we would go and, and we had a trench coat. I don't know whether I should do this, but.

• 47:55Speaker 02

  Do it.

• 47:56Speaker 03

  We had a trench coat with big pockets inside. So one of, and it was before, you know, CCTV. And you could go and one of us, we'd get like twenty somteens, somteens from somebody on the chocolate area. We'd, we'd pretend to mistake Americans for Parisians. That was the scam. You'd say, now you'd go over and you'd say. That's all I know. And they'd say, oh my God, when did you last eat? And you'd go, well, my parents were recently divorced and the my cheque, the cheque that I generally hasn't come through.

• 48:27Speaker 02

  Do you do a French accent when you were doing that?

• 48:30Speaker 03

  No, no, no. But you would mistake them for, you'd pretend that they, you'd mistaken them for a local person, like a Parisian.

• 48:37Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 48:38Speaker 03

  And they would give you, then they would give you twenty somteens, which was very little money. But it would be enough to get in the shop. And then one of us would go up to the shop and try and spend the twenty and take a long time working out which chocolate bar. While the other one went around the shop.

• 48:52Speaker 02

  Putting stuff in your pocket.

• 48:53Speaker 03

  And maiming now. Yeah, and, and Brendan would do stupid things like he'd, he'd get a tin of salmon and we'd get to the park. And I'd say, what are we supposed to do with a tin of salmon? Cause you couldn't open it, cause it hadn't got a thing on it. You needed a note, we didn't, you know.

• 49:06Speaker 02

  Do you think that was like your first acting gig?

• 49:08Speaker 03

  There was an element of, yeah, there was an element of acting, I suppose, yeah.

• 49:11Speaker 02

  Darling, would you like some cheese and can I open some biscuits for you?

• 49:14Speaker 03

  I'll have a little bit of something, yeah, that would be great. I like the look of.

• 49:18Speaker 02

  These, which ones?

• 49:20Speaker 03

  What are they?

• 49:20Speaker 02

  They're just like matzah.

• 49:22Speaker 03

  They look nice.

• 49:23Speaker 02

  Okay, we'll open them.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Can I have a bit of that?

• 49:25Jessie Ware?

  Um, Bill, you, you are a grandfather.

• 49:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:29Jessie Ware?

  What's the best thing about being a grandfather?

• 49:33Speaker 03

  It is a very, very good deal being a grandfather. I like it because I get to spoil them.

• 49:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:39Speaker 03

  Cause I see that as my job.

• 49:41Speaker 02

  Where do you stand on sweets with grandchildren?

• 49:44Jessie Ware?

  Well, you're sugar free, so this is interesting.

• 49:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:46Speaker 03

  I know, but my grandchildren are not sugar free. And my grandchildren, when they come to my house, and I always say, don't tell your mother. And then they run home immediately and say, he lets us have any eating we want.

• 49:57Speaker 02

  Exactly. Your daughter will go, I'll say, you can't tell mum and dad, cause this is a secret. The first thing she does is, grandma told me a secret. I've had Haribo's grandma.

• 50:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, they don't get the concept.

• 50:10Speaker 02

  Of being a secret, yeah. Here darling.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  I'm glad you provide butter with the cheese and crackers. A lot of people don't. It's very nice.

• 50:18Jessie Ware?

  God, you did right. You did well.

• 50:20Speaker 02

  Thank God.

• 50:20Speaker 03

  That's perfect. I can't understand why people don't have butter with it.

• 50:24Jessie Ware?

  Um, Last Supper.

• 50:26Speaker 03

  Last Supper, oh.

• 50:28Jessie Ware?

  Um, it it doesn't have to be as sad as that. Um, you can be going to a desert island for a very long time.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:34Jessie Ware?

  Um, what would it consist? I feel like I know the breakfast.

• 50:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:40Jessie Ware?

  But would you get, take us through a starter, a main, a pudding and a drink of choice?

• 50:43Speaker 03

  A starter. I'd either have asparagus if it was on, in season with, just with olive oil and lemon. Oh, I tell you another restaurant I love. I love Giovanni's in Goodwin's Court in Covent Garden. And that makes me think of asparagus because Pino, who runs the exemplary Giovanni's in Goodwin's Court, prepares the asparagus in a very wonderful way. So that, or I would have a soup. And if it was going to be a soup, I do like a really, really good minestrone soup.

• 51:17Speaker 02

  Oh, I do too.

• 51:18Speaker 03

  At Vasco and Piero's Pavilion in number eleven Darbley Street in London's Soho, they do a starter which is carpaccio of tuna.

• 51:30Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 51:31Speaker 03

  With ginger and, no, thank you, ginger dressing.

• 51:35Speaker 02

  Mmm.

• 51:36Speaker 03

  Which I always have and it comes with a little salad of avocado and onion. And it's, but the ginger and balsamic dressing is absolutely, you know, sensational. Actually, I'll have that.

• 51:49Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 51:50Speaker 03

  So I'll have the tuna carpaccio with ginger à la Vasco's. I'll have it with the ginger and balsamic dressing. And then for my main course. Well, you know, I think that putanesca is about as good as it gets. I think if it were my, I'm not, I'm not being cute. I mean, I, I really do like.

• 52:09Jessie Ware?

  But it's cute though.

• 52:10Speaker 03

  I do like, you know, if that was my main course, I'd be very, very happy.

• 52:14Jessie Ware?

  Good.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  And I would want a fabulous fruit salad, which is an art in itself.

• 52:20Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 52:20Speaker 03

  Now that I'm, I'm thankfully free of all sugar concerns and I never have to think about it. I have become a connoisseur of the fruit salad because I.

• 52:30Jessie Ware?

  Give us your, the perfect fruit salad, please, Bill.

• 52:33Speaker 03

  The Woolsey does a good cook, a good, you don't want all that juice. I mean, the perfect one, you've got to have pineapple because it's got more sugar in it than any other. I would have mandarins, banana, pineapple.

• 52:48Jessie Ware?

  Banana?

• 52:49Speaker 03

  Just a little bit of banana.

• 52:50Jessie Ware?

  Bill.

• 52:51Speaker 03

  All right, all right, okay.

• 52:52Jessie Ware?

  It's very controversial, banana in fruit salad.

• 52:54Speaker 03

  Forget the banana.

• 52:55Jessie Ware?

  It's fruit salad, fine.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  Well, it's only to give it a bit of oomph. I mean, it's not like a lot of banana, just, you know.

• 53:01Jessie Ware?

  It does get soggy.

• 53:03Speaker 03

  You said it again.

• 53:04Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I'm sorry, you hate that word now.

• 53:06Speaker 03

  You've said it again. In a minute, you're, in a minute, you're going to say runny and then we're going to have to close the whole thing down. It's, uh, these are words that.

• 53:15Jessie Ware?

  Or like mushy.

• 53:16Speaker 03

  Oh, well, there's another one.

• 53:17Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 53:19Speaker 03

  How can you? I never have mushy peas. I always have regular peas with fish and chips, obviously. But anyway, uh, yeah, so all right, no banana, mandarin, pineapple, raspberries, blueberries.

• 53:31Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 53:32Speaker 03

  And a little bit of melon, but don't go mad.

• 53:34Jessie Ware?

  I don't know if this would be allowed for, for sugar free. Would you be allowed stem ginger?

• 53:40Speaker 03

  No, I wouldn't. But you see, you have to remember that on the, on, well, you don't have to remember because you don't know yet. I'm about to tell you, but on the sugar free pioneer WhatsApp group, there are no rules.

• 53:52Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 53:52Speaker 03

  There's no police.

• 53:54Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 53:54Speaker 03

  Nobody says you can't have that.

• 53:56Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 53:57Speaker 03

  Because that doesn't, it's unattractive and wrong. So if you can live with stem ginger, go ahead.

• 54:05Speaker 03

  But for me, it could be. I don't know. I don't think I've ever. I think I have had stem ginger.

• 54:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, we I we put in our fruits, our special fruits.

• 54:12Speaker 03

  Well, it sounds great.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  We put stem ginger and light cheese.

• 54:16Speaker 03

  Light cheese make me nervous.

• 54:17Jessie Ware?

  Me too.

• 54:18Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 54:19Jessie Ware?

  They're like eyeballs.

• 54:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, now you brought it up, yeah. And now they do.

• 54:23Jessie Ware?

  They're very peculiar.

• 54:24Speaker 03

  They make me.

• 54:24Speaker 02

  They're very nice in our fruit sign.

• 54:26Jessie Ware?

  I've never been a fan of them, and I remember you used to get them because Hannah, my sister, likes them.

• 54:30Speaker 03

  There you are, I see.

• 54:30Speaker 02

  Your brother.

• 54:32Jessie Ware?

  It's coming up to Christmas, and so you know what time that is. It becomes Love Actually time. Are you so exhausted by it? Or does it still kind of tickle you every year that it comes around?

• 54:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, it still gives me pleasure that something as kind of benign as that. Thank you very much. Something that promotes, you know, the best of people has entered the language like that. I mean, it's, you know, the fact that nobody knew when it when when they were making it that it would become. I mean, it's a Christmas movie, so it might, you know, you might expect it to be played at Christmas, but it's entered the language in a way that I don't know, very few films do, you know, and I've had people come up tell me all kinds of things from it helped me through my chemo to, you know, I got married to the song or, you know, there's all kinds, you know, and they get and they have evenings where they dress up as the characters and stuff, you know, it's like that.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  Oh, my goodness.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  But I've never, I never get, no, I'm not, I don't get bored with it. I'm I'm very, very happy. I was very happy to be in it and I'm and it's fabulous that it carries on. I mean, I am more famous at Christmas, there's no question about it. A woman came up to me the other day and said, you are

• 55:51Speaker 03

  you're Mr. Christmas, aren't you?

• 55:53Speaker 02

  Mr. Christmas.

• 55:55Jessie Ware?

  Like Christmas.

• 55:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't mind Christmas. I'm not, you know, yeah, I don't mind it.

• 55:59Speaker 02

  Some people love it. You like your husband.

• 56:01Jessie Ware?

  My husband, it's like.

• 56:03Speaker 02

  He started making mince.

• 56:04Jessie Ware?

  The first of December, he allows himself to have his first mince pie.

• 56:08Speaker 03

  I remember.

• 56:08Jessie Ware?

  We've got mince.

• 56:09Speaker 02

  Meat.

• 56:10Jessie Ware?

  Meat that's been getting ready since September.

• 56:14Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 56:15Jessie Ware?

  And I, we've got enough for like three years. It's, he's obsessed.

• 56:20Speaker 03

  When Love Actually first came out, kids used to, the kids in the, across the street, where I was living, used to chase me down the street shouting, hey, kids, don't buy drugs. Become a rock star. People give you them for free, which is a joke from.

• 56:35Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 56:36Speaker 03

  Uh, and once I was going through immigr- uh, immigration from Canada to the United States in about, about four o'clock in the morning or something, there was nobody in the hall apart from me. And there were three guys behind glass booths and one of them had a big black moustache. And I thought, don't give me the guy with the big black moustache. And he, uh, eventually, eventually he pointed at me. And he said, hey, kids, don't buy drugs. Become a rock star. People give you them for free. Am I right? Am I right? Like that. And I was like, drugs? No, no, no, no. I've got no drugs. You know, it was like, I, a couple of times it's really helped me where I've cruised through certain things, you know? Like, I think I hold the record for getting a visa out of the American Embassy.

• 57:21Speaker 03

  I mean, it took eight minutes and I think they know my work. I could be fooling myself and I just got lucky, but you know, it's like at the American Embassy, you sit there with your number and you sit, you could sit there for three hours. I, honestly, it was under 10 minutes. The guy said, oh, please come with me.

• 57:36Jessie Ware?

  I'm going with you next time, Bill.

• 57:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, come with me.

• 57:38Jessie Ware?

  Your O1's up and I'll come with you.

• 57:40Speaker 03

  Come with me. I'll get you in and out.

• 57:43Jessie Ware?

  Before we let you go, it's been a total pleasure, but we have a few more questions. Mum, would you like to ask?

• 57:50Speaker 02

  Which song? I, I know you play air guitar very, very well.

• 57:54Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  Um, you can't really do karaoke air guitar. Maybe you can. But which song would you sing or play air guitar to? Which would be your favorite song?

• 58:05Speaker 03

  That's a very, that's a very good question.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:07Speaker 03

  If I was going to air guitar to a guitar solo.

• 58:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:11Speaker 03

  The first thing that comes to mind is a song called Hook Me Up by Johnny Guitar Watson. Check out the guitar. Check out the guitar sound. I'm a big Johnny Guitar Watson fan and I'm on a mission to reintroduce him to the world.

• 58:30Speaker 02

  Can you give us a couple of their guitar chords?

• 58:32Speaker 03

  You mean and make the noises?

• 58:34Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I'd love to see that, but no, you don't have to.

• 58:37Speaker 03

  No, I won't do, I can't just, you know, I have to prepare. I've got to tune it. I've got to tune it, you know, I've got to get it, you know, or, you know, I've got to get it right.

• 58:47Speaker 02

  What would be your guitar of choice?

• 58:49Jessie Ware?

  It's not going to be a ukulele, is it?

• 58:51Speaker 03

  It's not going to be a ukulele. No, I mean, I don't really know. My brother is the one who knows all about guitars. He's got loads of guitars. Oh, actually, he's got the new Johnny Marr seven-string guitar.

• 59:04Speaker 02

  Seven-string?

• 59:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's very, very cool. So maybe that would be my choice.

• 59:09Jessie Ware?

  And before we let you go, can you please give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 59:15Speaker 02

  Or scent?

• 59:16Speaker 03

  Well, the smell of swaffiga and marmite sandwiches.

• 59:21Speaker 02

  Swaffiga?

• 59:22Jessie Ware?

  What's swaffiga?

• 59:22Speaker 02

  It's what mechanics use to wash their hands with. It's like a greasy.

• 59:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, because I was not born in, I was born in a hospital, but I was brought up in my early years in a house that was part of a, you know, a petrol station. So the petrol pumps were outside our front door and the workshop was next to the kitchen and my dad was the works manager. And I used to clean cars sometimes. But that smell of swaffiga, which I don't know if they have anymore, which is a kind of, it's not liquid soap, but it's sort of like a jelly, it's like a jelly soap. And I used to wash cars and I used to have marmite sandwiches. And the combination of swaffiga on your hands and the marmite is very evocative. It's not particularly romantic, I understand, but it was, it does, it does take me back.

• 1:00:11Jessie Ware?

  Bill Knight, thank you for coming here and being such a great guest.

• 1:00:14Speaker 03

  Thank you very much indeed. It's been a pleasure.

• 1:00:16Jessie Ware?

  Best of luck with the podcast.

• 1:00:18Speaker 03

  Thank you very much.

• 1:00:18Jessie Ware?

  I think you don't need it because I think it's going very, very well. Are you enjoying it?

• 1:00:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's very nice to spend time with my fabulous producer, Alice Williams, who I understand is your producer too.

• 1:00:29Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 1:00:30Speaker 03

  And yeah, no, it's been fun. I mean, I was very nervous about it and I, I mean, I'm nervous about most things and I was. I pulled out three times or something before I was finally did it and I, because I just thought I'm going to make a fool of myself. But actually, you know, the reaction has been very favorable and people seem to, you know, like it. And it is, you know, it is an invitation to waste time, which I think is, you know, it's not nothing. And there aren't many opportunities to do that. And I try and be reasonable company while it's happening.

• 1:01:00Jessie Ware?

  You're great company. You're good. You're excellent company.

• 1:01:02Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's actually a waste for you to sit on your own reading a book. You should be entertaining people at dinner every night.

• 1:01:09Speaker 03

  Well.

• 1:01:10Jessie Ware?

  No, he's still going out for dinner on his own tonight, reading a book. Thanks, Bill.

• 1:01:14Speaker 03

  Pleasure.

• 1:01:29Jessie Ware?

  Bill Nye, what a storyteller.

• 1:01:32Speaker 02

  What a styler.

• 1:01:33Jessie Ware?

  What a star.

• 1:01:35Speaker 02

  What a fabulous man.

• 1:01:36Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I loved having Bill.

• 1:01:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:39Jessie Ware?

  He was so open and fab and the stories are brilliant.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  I know, I love his stories.

• 1:01:44Jessie Ware?

  And the suit.

• 1:01:45Speaker 02

  He reminded me of Paul Smith a little bit.

• 1:01:47Jessie Ware?

  Yes, you did, actually.

• 1:01:48Speaker 02

  That style.

• 1:01:49Jessie Ware?

  Totally.

• 1:01:49Speaker 02

  That he very slender, looks super cool in suits. I think a man in a suit, you can't go wrong.

• 1:01:58Jessie Ware?

  I really enjoyed having him over. I enjoyed him having seconds of the putanesca.

• 1:02:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:03Jessie Ware?

  Bless him, we did make him a tea, but he didn't have time. And you had to give him his, the candarel, which is like your icing. Why have you got icing candarel?

• 1:02:11Speaker 02

  It isn't icing, it's what I use for stewed fruit.

• 1:02:14Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  So that I don't put sugar in.

• 1:02:17Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 1:02:18Speaker 02

  Your sisters told me that I'm going to kill myself by using that.

• 1:02:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, right, okay.

• 1:02:22Speaker 02

  Cosogenetic.

• 1:02:23Jessie Ware?

  And food was delicious. The, the putanesca was really good.

• 1:02:27Speaker 02

  So hot.

• 1:02:28Jessie Ware?

  It was not that hot. And then he put so much more spice on it.

• 1:02:31Speaker 02

  I thought it was going to faint. I had a hot flush on when I started to eat it.

• 1:02:35Jessie Ware?

  Cheese board. We need to do that more often, love.

• 1:02:38Speaker 02

  People like a cheese board, don't they?

• 1:02:39Jessie Ware?

  I like a cheese board.

• 1:02:40Speaker 02

  Well, Americans like it before their dinner.

• 1:02:42Jessie Ware?

  They do. Thank you to Bill Nye for coming on Table Manners. His new podcast, Ill Advised by Bill Nye, is out now and it's really good.

• 1:03:13Speaker 00

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