Stephen Mangan

It’s the final episode of Series 17 and we’re bidding adieu with actor, presenter and author, the gorgeous Stephen Mangan! Fresh from filming his latest series in Grenada, Stephen joined us for a BBQ lunch. We heard about his process when writing children’s books, choosing to go to boarding school as a child, his recent stint in the West End in a play about thrupples, how he plans to run a marathon every year for the rest of his life, and mum manages to get him to tell us his confession - a la his Radio 4 series ‘The Confessional’. Thank you Stephen for being a fabulous series finale! Stephen’s new series of ‘The Fortune Hotel’ starts on the 6th August on ITV1. 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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• 1:03Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and we have reached the final episode of season 17. How are you, Mum?

• 1:11Speaker 02

  I'm okay, darling. You're cooking today?

• 1:14Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 1:14Speaker 02

  I'm a bit relaxed.

• 1:15Jessie Ware?

  Good.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Had a nice weekend, haven't we?

• 1:18Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, we had a, my youngest's fourth birthday.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  Fourth birthday.

• 1:22Jessie Ware?

  Made an incredibly moist cake.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  The cake was the moistest cake I've ever eaten, I think. Did you notice yesterday, every sandwich and every piece of cake?

• 1:32Jessie Ware?

  Let's bring it back to you for a second, shall we? Your sandwiches were incredible. You do make an incredible finger sandwich.

• 1:39Speaker 02

  I know, I don't know why I do that.

• 1:40Jessie Ware?

  They were bouncy, they were delicious.

• 1:42Speaker 02

  People were shoving two in at a time.

• 1:44Jessie Ware?

  It was amazing.

• 1:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. But the cake, that was a good recipe, wasn't it?

• 1:49Jessie Ware?

  Was it BBC Good Food?

• 1:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. It was just a quick, easy chocolate cake.

• 1:54Jessie Ware?

  It was great. And then my son requested whipped, well, cream and salted caramel. And I thought, God, you, you don't know how good you've got it, mate, but it was actually a really good combo.

• 2:03Speaker 02

  Delicious.

• 2:04Jessie Ware?

  Anyway, so we did that. So I'm slightly fatigued. However, I did prep this food yesterday. We have the brilliant Stephen Mangan, who we've wanted for years to come on.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  I've got such a crush on him.

• 2:16Jessie Ware?

  I do too.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  I find him so attractive.

• 2:19Jessie Ware?

  Okay, well, hold it down.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  But I think I find Nathan attractive.

• 2:22Jessie Ware?

  Really?

• 2:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:23Jessie Ware?

  Did you watch the split Barcelona?

• 2:26Speaker 02

  I was, no, I think he was wronged, you see, by Hannah. She was, she always had one foot out the door.

• 2:32Jessie Ware?

  For people that don't know who Stephen Mangan is, wherever you've been, he's been in the Green Wing. He plays Noel Coward, um, plays. He, he's a very good presenter.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  I've watched his two TV shows, Fortune Hotel.

• 2:46Jessie Ware?

  And Portrait Artist.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  And Portrait Artist, yeah. But you see, I loved him on The Confessional.

• 2:51Jessie Ware?

  What's The Confessional?

• 2:52Speaker 02

  It's on Radio Four where you have to make two confessions that you've never confessed before.

• 2:57Jessie Ware?

  What were his confessions?

• 2:58Speaker 02

  Not him, he interviews people and they confess. I'm going to ask him his confession now, because no one's asked him that.

• 3:05Jessie Ware?

  Um, Stephen Mangan has, yeah, been on your screens on the stages, now also does game shows. He's an author of children's books.

• 3:12Speaker 02

  And his sister illustrated his children's book. Is it about the fart that changed the universe?

• 3:17Jessie Ware?

  Stephen Mangan is coming on. We've been on the Sunday brunch together twice, really bizarrely.

• 3:22Speaker 02

  See, he has got the best head of hair on a man that I've seen in a long time. It is a mop.

• 3:28Jessie Ware?

  I am in charge of the food. It's been really hot in London. So I decided to do a barbecue, but I mean, I'm cheating because I like my gas barbecue. It's Thomasina Meyer's, um, recipe that was in The Guardian. It's lamb burgers that you do with ancho chili flakes, you do it with ground coriander, cumin seeds and garlic. I forgot to put rosemary in there, but you kind of do that all in the pestle and mortar with onion and a bit of olive oil. And you make lamb patty burgers and we're going to do them on the barbecue. And then, uh, inch batter rolls with this delicious yogurt dip. There's yogurt, cottage cheese,

• 4:10Jessie Ware?

  jalapenos, garlic and mint. So it's kind of fiery but deliciously minty.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  It's Thomasina.

• 4:17Jessie Ware?

  It's really good. And then you've got some chili jam. So if you want a bit of sweetness to counteract, it just, it's going to be good. And then, uh, done a potato salad with dill, mayonnaise and gherkins and onions, delicious. And then just with a salad that I haven't made yet.

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Fabulous.

• 4:36Jessie Ware?

  Um, and then you've made. That's Stephen Mangan.

• 4:40Speaker 02

  Dubai chocolate.

• 4:41Jessie Ware?

  I can't wait to try it.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Well, I think-

• 4:43Jessie Ware?

  Have you tried it?

• 4:44Speaker 02

  No. I thi- I think that I should have made just two rather than making four. I didn't want it to be thick, but I think I should have put more filling in. But we'll just have a taste and see what it's like.

• 4:56Jessie Ware?

  Great. Stephen Mangan, coming up on Table Manners.

• 5:14Jessie Ware?

  Stephen Mangan, thank you so much for coming on.

• 5:16Speaker 03

  My pleasure.

• 5:17Jessie Ware?

  You've just been for a run?

• 5:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, I've been for a run this morning. In the very blazing heat, I ran all the way up a hill and then down again the other side.

• 5:24Jessie Ware?

  Are you training for something?

• 5:26Speaker 03

  I do run a lot. I ran the marathon a few weeks ago.

• 5:28Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 5:31Speaker 03

  That's two good responses. One was, ooh, I was sort of, you know, impressed. And then you were like, why? Because it's-

• 5:38Speaker 02

  Who for? Which charity?

• 5:39Speaker 03

  It's for no charity.

• 5:41Jessie Ware?

  You selfish bastard.

• 5:42Speaker 02

  You did it for yourself!

• 5:44Jessie Ware?

  You selfish bastard.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  I did donate money, but I didn't do any sponsorship because I do a lot of those. I do run, I probably do about five or six a year. And you can't ask people five or six times a year.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  You can.

• 5:55Speaker 03

  Well, I just, I just write a cheque myself.

• 5:57Speaker 02

  All your fans would send, I'd have sent money in. I'm a fan, yeah.

• 6:00Speaker 03

  Really?

• 6:01Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, definitely. So how was the, because it was hot this year, right?

• 6:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was hot.

• 6:05Jessie Ware?

  How was it for you?

• 6:06Speaker 03

  It was great. It was great. I followed a pacer. So he-

• 6:10Speaker 02

  What do you mean?

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Well, so there's-

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Oh, you had someone running with you?

• 6:12Speaker 03

  At the start, there are people holding up signs saying three and a half hours, three hours forty, three hours fifty. And you pick the time you want to finish in and they will run the race at exactly that speed, at that pace. So you don't have to worry about, am I going too quick? Am I going too slow?

• 6:28Speaker 02

  Is that cheating a bit?

• 6:29Speaker 03

  Well, no, it's not cheating. You're still running it. They're not running it, they're not carrying you.

• 6:33Jessie Ware?

  It just makes you, you know, but are they, are they obviously like seasoned runners then?

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Oh my god, they are amazing.

• 6:39Jessie Ware?

  That they know how to do their run.

• 6:40Speaker 02

  So they're doing marathons all the time?

• 6:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, we were, and they can obviously run way quicker than the time they are, you know, doing the pacing for. So I followed the three hour and fifty five minute-

• 6:49Speaker 02

  Do you have to pay them?

• 6:50Speaker 03

  No, no, they're just provided by the, you know. The only trouble is, is a gaggle of people who are following them and who will shove you out of the way to make sure that they stay close to their pacer. So I run a little bit in front of the pacer and keep looking over my shoulder to make sure I haven't- Disappeared into the distance. But I did that, I followed him and I stuck with him until about the last half a mile.

• 7:12Speaker 02

  And then you sprinted.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  And then I left him, gave him a dead leg and ran off. No, then I just dropped back and I was so hard.

• 7:18Speaker 02

  What's your time?

• 7:18Speaker 03

  Three fifty-six and twenty-two seconds.

• 7:20Speaker 02

  Under four hours.

• 7:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's not bad for an old bloke.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  Is that, is that every time? Do you get better and better each time?

• 7:28Speaker 03

  You don't last. No, I ran it when I was thirty, way quicker. And then I ran it a couple of years ago, trying to show off to my children and, you know, be a good example about doing exercise and, you know, it's never too late and you can do all these things. But I got so overexcited in the first half of the race, I basically limped, I walked the second half. And they were waiting for me in mile twenty-five. And I hobbled over to them, you know, supposed to be the big hero. I hobbled over to them, gave them a hug, started crying and hobbled up again.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  People seem to cry a lot when they run marathons.

• 7:59Speaker 03

  You cry a lot because you're.

• 8:00Speaker 02

  What is it?

• 8:01Speaker 03

  It's like having an emotional enema.

• 8:03Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  It destroys all your emotional defences. The first year I did it, you crossed the line. Remember they used to give you that silver foil blanket thing? I was the silver foil.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  Were you trying to wipe your nose with it?

• 8:16Speaker 03

  Then they gave me a cheese sandwich and I was like, cheese sandwich? I was so emotional about everything. Because you are just exhausted.

• 8:23Speaker 02

  How many have you done this year?

• 8:25Speaker 03

  I've done one marathon and about three half marathons.

• 8:27Speaker 02

  And how many have you done in your whole life?

• 8:29Speaker 03

  I've done not that many marathons, only four marathons. But I want to do one every year now. That's the plan.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  Okay. Are you gonna go and do Tokyo and Boston and?

• 8:38Speaker 03

  I'd like that.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, my friend does that and it's really fun because you go on holiday too.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  Bit of a trip.

• 8:43Speaker 02

  Chicago's fun.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 8:45Speaker 02

  New York's great.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  Paris, Dublin.

• 8:47Speaker 02

  Yeah. Chicago's quite flat, I think, isn't it?

• 8:51Speaker 03

  Quite possibly because it's quite flat around that lake, isn't it?

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'd do Amster. I'd do the flattest. Very flat.

• 8:57Speaker 03

  Too many temptations along the way, unfortunately.

• 8:59Speaker 02

  Should we get you in? Should we not? I think it is too late for that. Congratulations.

• 9:04Speaker 03

  Thanks. Yeah, I loved it. I love it.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  How long did you run for today?

• 9:07Speaker 03

  An hour, little, an hour.

• 9:09Speaker 02

  Little cheeky ten K?

• 9:10Speaker 03

  Cheeky up, up and down.

• 9:11Speaker 02

  How many, how many K?

• 9:12Speaker 03

  I did about, it was about ten and a half K.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm so jealous of you.

• 9:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, it's great. It's hot today though.

• 9:18Speaker 02

  And then do you feel you can eat everything you want?

• 9:21Speaker 03

  That's the problem. I do eat everything I want. And it's not good.

• 9:24Speaker 02

  But you'd need to, you'd need to, to be able to have the energy.

• 9:28Speaker 03

  The danger bit is after you've been training for a marathon, you've been running five, six times a week. And then you do the marathon and then you can't run for a bit because your body needs a rest. But you carry on eating the same amount that you were before.

• 9:40Speaker 02

  Fine.

• 9:41Speaker 03

  That's the danger.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  And you carb up.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  You carb up, yeah.

• 9:44Jessie Ware?

  What was your meal the night before the marathon?

• 9:46Speaker 03

  Pasta, pasta, yeah, I had some pasta. What did I, how did I cook it? Maybe with a ragu, like a meat kind of something or other.

• 9:54Jessie Ware?

  Are you?

• 9:54Speaker 03

  I can't remember.

• 9:55Jessie Ware?

  Are you a good cook?

• 9:56Speaker 03

  No.

• 9:57Jessie Ware?

  Is your wife?

• 9:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, she's great.

• 9:58Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 9:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  Thank God for that.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  I know, she's really good.

• 10:01Jessie Ware?

  What did you have for breakfast today?

• 10:02Speaker 03

  What did I have for breakfast? I had a bowl of Greek yogurt with some blueberries and strawberries and some um granola.

• 10:09Speaker 02

  And you ran ten K on that?

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I haven't anything else since.

• 10:12Jessie Ware?

  Oh my god, I'll get the burgers on, okay.

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Burgers on, he's starving.

• 10:15Jessie Ware?

  Whilst I get them on.

• 10:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:17Jessie Ware?

  You can ask.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  I am.

• 10:18Jessie Ware?

  Stephen, anything.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  Was it wonderful filming in Grenada?

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 10:23Speaker 02

  I, we've been.

• 10:24Speaker 03

  Have you?

• 10:24Jessie Ware?

  I need to ask about this.

• 10:25Speaker 03

  Have you, have you?

• 10:27Jessie Ware?

  Did you take this gig just so you could go to the Grenada every year?

• 10:32Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 10:33Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, okay, fine, yeah.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  What? How is that even a question?

• 10:37Speaker 02

  Gorgeous place.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  It's amazing. No, I thought, you know, the second series is, yeah, be out, well, out in August.

• 10:44Jessie Ware?

  Fortune Hotel.

• 10:44Speaker 03

  Fortune Hotel, so it's an ITV show. It's uh, yeah, there's uh ten pairs who all get a suitcase. One suitcase has quarter of a million pounds in it and they have to try and hang on to that case and not be, not get the early checkout card and not be thrown out. It's a lot of fun. And we filmed the first series in Grenada, Grenada, and then we filmed the second series in exactly the same place. But I think if it goes again, we'll go to other parts of the world, yeah.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  Fun.

• 11:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Why though? It's beautiful.

• 11:10Speaker 03

  Well, the thing is, you know, we do all those uh challenges, you know, on speedboats and yachts and they're running up hills.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  And you need different places.

• 11:16Speaker 03

  You need different places, you run out of uh.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  And is that, is that place really called the Fortune Hotel?

• 11:22Speaker 03

  No.

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Now, what's it called?

• 11:23Speaker 03

  It's called Silver Sands, that's right, yeah. Where did you stay?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  Oh god, we, I.

• 11:28Jessie Ware?

  Come on, we were in like a cheap.

• 11:29Speaker 02

  We were in a cheaper place. We stayed in like the main, not far from the airport.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  Right.

• 11:35Speaker 02

  And I stayed in two places. It was like an all-inclusive thing. We went with some friends and it was fun.

• 11:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  But I can smell the spice. When you land there, you can smell that cinnamon.

• 11:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:46Speaker 02

  It's the best.

• 11:47Speaker 03

  And the nutmeg.

• 11:48Speaker 02

  And the nutmeg and it's just so delicious. It's, and it's not very, has it got more spoilt?

• 11:55Speaker 03

  I don't think so.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  Georgetown was kind of very understated.

• 11:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, it's not flash or it's not, it doesn't have the big money. Players staying there. So it's not like some of those Caribbean, I mean, it's the only Caribbean island I've ever been to. So I've not, I don't, I know, I don't, it's not somewhere I've ever gone.

• 12:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:11Speaker 03

  Or, or, or had aspirations to go.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  It's kind of quite low key, isn't it?

• 12:14Speaker 03

  Very low key, very friendly, very relaxed. Everyone we met was a treat and we were there for a month.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  Did all the family come out?

• 12:22Speaker 03

  No.

• 12:23Speaker 02

  You're so mean.

• 12:24Speaker 03

  I know.

• 12:25Speaker 02

  What, you went during school term time?

• 12:26Speaker 03

  It was, well, I mean, I didn't arrange the timing of it, but it did fall during school term. I have to say the hardest, the hardest work I did on that job was finding somewhere to FaceTime my wife that didn't have a rumshack or a palm tree behind me.

• 12:40Speaker 02

  To make us so jealous.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  I had to do a lot in cupboards. But, you know, we were working six days a week, 12 hours a day. We're not kind of, very hard work.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, very. Your very, your warmth is lovely on it.

• 12:52Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 12:52Speaker 02

  Because it doesn't bring out, those sort of games don't bring out the best of humanity, do they always?

• 12:58Speaker 03

  Well, I'm, in some ways, I'm the worst person in the world to host something like that because I just, I don't like people not getting on. And I don't like people being upset. And I don't like people being too confrontational.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, wrong, yeah, wrong gig.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  It's the wrong gig because whenever anyone would be upset or start to get emotional, I would want to sort of make it okay. But of course, that stuff makes really good television.

• 13:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know.

• 13:20Speaker 03

  So, you know, I have to sort of sometimes sit on my hands and let it unfold.

• 13:23Speaker 02

  You always well done and that was great.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Well, I will, you know, you get to know them well and you really want them to do well. You do, you, you're already invested.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  But did you have a favourite that you want to win?

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Oh my goodness, who is it?

• 13:35Speaker 03

  I'm not, I can't say. No, I can't, I can't.

• 13:38Speaker 02

  I like the two girls from Wigan.

• 13:41Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 13:42Speaker 02

  They were the cleaning company. Yeah, you smell of pies.

• 13:44Speaker 03

  It's really well cast, isn't it?

• 13:46Speaker 02

  And when they're doing all their tasks, are you lying on the sunbed?

• 13:50Speaker 03

  No, it depends what the task is. I mean, often I'm on the beach as they're, you know.

• 13:54Speaker 02

  Tough, yeah.

• 13:56Speaker 03

  It's very warm and I'm trying not to sweat through, you know.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  That must be hard, yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 03

  That's basically my job is not to look sweaty.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Because you can't look too much like you're on holiday.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  No.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  You have to look like you're a host of a competition.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  You have to look like, you know, you mean business of some sort, yeah.

• 14:11Speaker 02

  Who approached you to do it? Is it because you're so good at Portrait Artist of the Year? I love you on that.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  Do you know what? They, it was the guy who runs ITV, Kevin Ligo, who I knew back when I did Greenwing. He used to run the production company and made it. And I think he thought of me and sort of, there was an approach. Yeah, and I'm just always curious about stuff that I, sort of things I haven't done. I'm always up for trying something new. Um, I've never done anything like that. And, you know, as you said, the fact that you spend a month in the Caribbean to film it doesn't. In November, which is not a month anyone goes, oh, I can't wait till November in Britain.

• 14:47Speaker 02

  No, no, unless it's your birthday.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  Unless it's your birthday, it's a pretty grim month.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is a grim month. But how would you describe yourself, Stephen? Are you an actor, a TV host, an author? I'd describe you as Sylla Black.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  Sylla Black?

• 15:01Speaker 02

  Yeah. You do everything. Do you sing?

• 15:05Speaker 03

  Do I sing? I do sing a bit, yeah, but not, you know, not to your kind of.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Sylla, ask Sylla, ask Stephen. Are you still in the theatre at the moment?

• 15:13Speaker 03

  No, finished in April.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  No, I missed that.

• 15:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, we did a run, we did a play, a three-hander.

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 03

  Nicola Walker, Erin Doherty, playing, uh, we had us play about a throuple, a throuple.

• 15:23Speaker 02

  A throu- oh my god.

• 15:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was really good.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  Give you any ideas?

• 15:28Speaker 03

  It didn't, I mean, I, you know, we had quite a few throuples coming to see it.

• 15:31Speaker 02

  Oh, really? Oh, god. They write in fan mail?

• 15:34Speaker 03

  Uh, they would come and tell us what we got right, which was quite a lot apparently, and what we didn't get right.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  What did you get wrong?

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Um.

• 15:43Speaker 02

  When you say we, you didn't write the thing?

• 15:44Speaker 03

  I didn't write it, no. I mean, it's about the idea that, you know, it's called unicorn because a single woman or a single person looking to join a pre-existing couple, they're called unicorns.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  Is that what they're called?

• 15:56Speaker 03

  They're called unicorns because they're quite rare.

• 15:57Speaker 02

  I didn't know that.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  And, you know, it's obviously not just about the sex, it's also about a long-term relationship. And we had people coming who'd been together in a three thirty, for thirty-five years. Yeah, we had three women and then we had two women and a bloke. Uh, I've heard there's there's fours and fives out there as well.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  So they just meet different needs in relationships.

• 16:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:22Jessie Ware?

  But was it hard because you were starring opposite your.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Screen wife.

• 16:28Jessie Ware?

  Screen wife.

• 16:29Speaker 03

  Nicola Walker.

• 16:29Jessie Ware?

  Nicola Walker, who was Hannah from the split, the BBC, how many series did we have, like?

• 16:36Speaker 03

  Three, three series and a special.

• 16:37Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 16:38Speaker 02

  It was too few in my book. And can I just tell you, I'm still in love with Nathan.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  Are you?

• 16:43Jessie Ware?

  I, no, I went, I went off him in Barcelona.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  Did she with the earring?

• 16:48Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, and I was like.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  No, Jessie, he was so wronged by Hannah.

• 16:52Jessie Ware?

  My husband has an earring, actually, but he has had it since he was nineteen.

• 16:55Speaker 03

  But he can probably pull it off in a way that Nathan just can't.

• 16:57Jessie Ware?

  Nathan couldn't.

• 16:58Speaker 03

  No way. I was so upset about the earring. I tried so hard to get the earring taken out.

• 17:02Jessie Ware?

  I was upset about your earring, how was it? No, thank God, yeah.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  But that, that was another tough gig a month in Barcelona.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  I've had a really jammy year.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Will there be another one?

• 17:15Speaker 03

  No, I think that's probably it.

• 17:16Jessie Ware?

  Playing opposite Nicola, you know, your on screen wife.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:21Jessie Ware?

  And obviously the characters are different to Nathan and Hannah.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:24Jessie Ware?

  Was it hard to, I mean, you're actors, so possibly not, but to find a different rapport, was that quite thrilling to do it with somebody that you've worked opposite?

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, because the stuff we're talking about and doing is so different.

• 17:37Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 17:37Speaker 03

  Um, I mean, there's a lot of, the, the play had a lot of us each other telling what, what, telling each other what we'd like to do to each other in bed.

• 17:45Jessie Ware?

  Right.

• 17:45Speaker 03

  Which you couldn't imagine happening on the split. It was quite, it was quite racy at the play in places.

• 17:51Jessie Ware?

  Maybe this is what Hannah and Nathan needed. A unicorn.

• 17:56Speaker 03

  And also we had Erin Doherty, who's so brilliant in adolescence.

• 17:58Jessie Ware?

  Wow, isn't she fantastic? And The Crown, she was fantastic.

• 18:01Speaker 03

  She was great in The Crown, yeah. So, yeah, a totally different sort of vibe, but just great to work with someone I know that well.

• 18:09Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 18:09Speaker 03

  Because sometimes as an actor, you're like, Stephen meets Sarah, you and, you and Sarah, you're married for fifteen years.

• 18:14Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 18:14Speaker 03

  Right, action. And you're like, oh, hello, nice to meet you. And then you're trying to fake this intimacy, whereas Nicola and I know each other really well.

• 18:21Jessie Ware?

  Before I feed you, um, we just need to start at the beginning. Who was around the dinner table? Where did you grow up and what were you eating?

• 18:29Speaker 03

  Okay, so I grew up in North London. I grew up up in the suburb. I mean, I was born in Pond's End. Which is near Edmonton.

• 18:35Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 18:36Speaker 03

  Um Norman Teber, who just died, was from Pond's End. And Jessie Wallace, they're three, we're the three, the only three I know about.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 18:44Speaker 03

  And we moved from there when I was four to Enfield. Um my parents are Irish, they come over in the sixties. Um dad worked on the building sites, mum worked in in in bars. Had me, they got married when mum was twenty one, dad was twenty four, had me a year later. And I got two younger sisters, so yeah, there was the five of us, my Irish parents. And we'd sit the three women on one side, the two men on the other, for some reason. Which meant there was a little gap between me and dad. On the bench, because there's bench, three of them and the bench, the two of us, and I would always be reading a book. Always, all through meals, always, I'd always had in my head in a book when I was a kid.

• 19:24Speaker 02

  God, I wish my kids had their heads in.

• 19:26Speaker 03

  I know, but it feels a bit rude to me, you know, sitting there at the table.

• 19:28Speaker 02

  But but my understanding is you were the golden boy. Because you were the only boy and you came from this Irish Catholic family and you were treated like a prince.

• 19:37Speaker 03

  I mean, a bit, I can't deny that, that's, that is true, yeah, yeah.

• 19:41Speaker 02

  Absolute prince.

• 19:42Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 19:44Speaker 02

  How how do I know?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  There's a lot of pressure with that as well.

• 19:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:47Speaker 03

  There's a lot of pressure with that to to succeed and achieve and not to muck up, because you feel like letting everybody down, because you're the one. Who's supposed to be, you know, getting things right.

• 19:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, and did you?

• 19:59Speaker 03

  I mean, you know, sometimes academically I did all right, I got a scholarship to a posh boarding school. My sisters, my sisters went to the local state school.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 20:10Speaker 03

  And I got a scholarship to a boarding school. I wanted to go to a boarding school, I, because I'd read too much Eina Blyton.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 20:15Speaker 03

  And I thought it was gonna be really good fun.

• 20:16Speaker 02

  Catholic boarding school?

• 20:17Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't.

• 20:18Speaker 02

  What was it?

• 20:19Speaker 03

  It was, it was a church of England boarding school.

• 20:21Speaker 02

  You were allowed to go?

• 20:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know, I think mum cried for a month when I left.

• 20:24Speaker 02

  What were you eating round the dinner table before you went to boarding school?

• 20:28Speaker 03

  Before I went to boarding school, so mum was, mum was a good cook and, uh. But we would have, in my memory, we had quite a sort of regular rotav dishes.

• 20:39Speaker 02

  Oh, the same thing every Monday?

• 20:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, we'd always have a roast on Sunday.

• 20:43Speaker 02

  What, which roast?

• 20:44Speaker 03

  Well, quite often beef, oh, because I think that was kind of seen as, you know, you'd sort of made it, if you could managing to buy beef.

• 20:51Speaker 02

  Well cooked or?

• 20:53Speaker 03

  Uh.

• 20:53Speaker 02

  Rare?

• 20:54Speaker 03

  Well. Too well cooked for me and dad. We liked it, you know, barely, very pink. But I my sisters wouldn't go for that. So I think it was they were pretty good though. It wasn't it wasn't sort of burnt to death.

• 21:05Speaker 02

  Yorkshire's?

• 21:06Speaker 03

  Yes, Yorkshire's roast veg, the whole shebang.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  Can your mum make a good roast?

• 21:11Speaker 03

  My mum made a fantastic roast.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. Dessert?

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Yes, there'd normally be some sort of, she'd make a crumble or an apple tart or, yeah, something like that.

• 21:22Speaker 02

  So she was a good cook?

• 21:23Speaker 03

  She was a good cook, really good cook. And then Monday, we used to have this thing. And I, in my memory, we had it every Monday, but it can't be true, called Victorian Diablo. Which was this leftover beef recipe.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:36Speaker 03

  That she'd come across. And I can't really remember what it was in it, but I just remember the name, Victorian Diablo, yeah.

• 21:42Speaker 02

  So something to do with the devil?

• 21:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:44Speaker 02

  So is it spicy?

• 21:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, sort of. I don't really, it had some sort of gravy sauce that went on the beef and I didn't really like it, but.

• 21:51Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  We used to have, uh, fish most Fridays.

• 21:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, you would?

• 21:57Speaker 03

  Well, you would. We had what we called our favourite dinner. Our favourite dinner was a shepherd's pie.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  Was it?

• 22:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, cottage pie.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Cottage or shepherd?

• 22:04Speaker 03

  Cottage.

• 22:05Speaker 02

  So that's with beef?

• 22:06Speaker 03

  More beef.

• 22:07Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:07Speaker 03

  Um, so we'd have that. She always had a hole in the middle. The mash would have a hole. I don't know why. But the the forked the mash, put it in the grill at the end, so it would get crispy on top. But with a central hole for some reason, I don't know why. Um, steak. We quite love beef now I'm thinking about it.

• 22:25Speaker 02

  Do you still eat a lot of meat?

• 22:27Speaker 03

  Well, my youngest Jack, who's nine, is half boy, half meat. Yeah, that's all he'll eat, is meat.

• 22:34Speaker 02

  So you have steak a lot?

• 22:35Speaker 03

  We're having it tonight.

• 22:36Speaker 02

  Are you?

• 22:37Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:38Speaker 02

  Do you like it?

• 22:39Speaker 03

  I do, but we don't have it a lot because we obviously.

• 22:40Speaker 02

  Do you barbecue?

• 22:42Speaker 03

  Uh, I have a barbe- I don't really barbecue, no. Should do tonight.

• 22:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, you should. Yeah, if you have a bit of steak, that'd be nice.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's true.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Um, when you went to boarding school, what was the food like there?

• 22:53Speaker 03

  Horrendous.

• 22:53Speaker 02

  Horrendous.

• 22:54Speaker 03

  You'd also sit on these long tables with maybe. Thirty boys on them, long benches.

• 23:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Like, very, very Hogwarts, very kind of Parry Potter. And then the person at the end, the prefect.

• 23:06Speaker 02

  Would serve.

• 23:07Speaker 03

  Dish out and you pass it down and down and down. And the youngest boys would sit at the far end.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:11Speaker 03

  So they got very little.

• 23:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:13Speaker 03

  It was sort of saved for the big boys at the top.

• 23:15Speaker 02

  Where were you sitting?

• 23:16Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, obviously, as I moved through the school, it changed. But I hated boarding school. I hate, the first two years, I was so miserable.

• 23:21Speaker 02

  Why didn't you leave?

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Because I couldn't tell my parents that I hated it, because it'd been my idea and they were upset.

• 23:26Speaker 02

  And they were proud.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  And I didn't want to, yeah, and I didn't, exactly. I didn't want to sort of make me a failure.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  Can, I've listened to the confession a lot.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 23:34Speaker 02

  Did you ever do any of your own confession?

• 23:36Speaker 03

  No.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  Tell me one. I love Marion Keyes.

• 23:43Speaker 03

  Did you like that one? Wasn't that great?

• 23:45Speaker 02

  She said she has no sense of direction and someone asked her the way in Ireland and she wanted to be, show off. So she said, well, you go down there, you turn right, you turn left. She had no idea where she was sending them. And she says she thinks they're still travelling. It was terribly funny. That's one. So tell me one confession.

• 24:05Speaker 03

  Okay, I don't know, I can't, I mean, when I was very young. Dad found a matchbox in the spare room with all the matches had been lit and put back into the box. So there was a big steward's inquiry about who had done it. And we were all in a lot of trouble. And the wooden spoon may have come out. And I never cracked, but it was me.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  Oh, my god, who got the spoon?

• 24:31Speaker 03

  It's terrible, isn't it? I'm still, I'm still guilty about that now. We all did.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  And your poor sister.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  Do they know?

• 24:39Speaker 03

  Yes, they do, yeah.

• 24:40Speaker 02

  They do know now.

• 24:42Speaker 03

  Isn't that awful?

• 24:43Speaker 02

  That is terrible.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  I know. You're looking at me in a very different way now.

• 24:46Speaker 02

  No, I'm not.

• 24:46Speaker 03

  Are you disappointed in me?

• 24:47Speaker 02

  No, I'm not disappointed. I'm thinking how clever you are. To manage to get away with it.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  If I'd been a, yeah.

• 24:55Speaker 02

  Did you, where did you meet your wife?

• 24:57Speaker 03

  I met my wife. Uh, she was introduced to us by, uh, Michelle Gomez, who was in Greenwing.

• 25:03Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 25:04Speaker 03

  Um, who played this sort of mad Scottish, um.

• 25:09Speaker 03

  I don't know what her job was in that, she was so, but Michelle knew Louise. And we were at a Film Four party.

• 25:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:17Speaker 03

  Because Louise was in a Channel Four show about nurses called No Angels.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  Oh, I remember that.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  You remember that?

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  She was one of the four nurses and I was in a Channel Four show about doctors called Greenwing.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:27Speaker 03

  At the same time and Film Four at a party, so all the Channel Four. You know, people who were in shows at the time were invited. And we met in Leicester Square at some, at number one Leicester Square at the party. And that night was also the same night as the Comic Relief. Party, so I was going on to the Comic Relief thank you party.

• 25:46Speaker 02

  Did you take her with?

• 25:47Speaker 03

  So I took Louise with.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  And that was it?

• 25:49Speaker 03

  Well, I then, but I'd never got her details. And so I had to do two or three months of kind of. Detective work to try and get her number. And eventually realised we'd been in the same film together, the lowest grossing film in British history.

• 26:02Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  It made ninety four pounds at the British box, at the box office.

• 26:06Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 26:06Speaker 03

  And we were both in it. It's called offending angels. And it starred Andrew Lincoln and.

• 26:12Speaker 02

  Oh, I love him.

• 26:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's an old friend of mine and, uh, yeah.

• 26:17Speaker 02

  He's been a zombie for a long time.

• 26:18Jessie Ware?

  You can have two if you need.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  It was made for, you know, very little money.

• 26:22Jessie Ware?

  Okay, Mum, can I just say?

• 26:24Speaker 02

  What?

• 26:24Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 26:24Jessie Ware?

  So this is like a jalapeno yogurt, a mint. Dressing that you're supposed to have with it.

• 26:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 26:33Jessie Ware?

  And it's a Tom and Jane and Myers thing and then also some chili jam. Yeah, have a bit of that or dip, whatever you want, a bit of chili jam she recommends, radishes and, um. Avocados, so like fill your boots.

• 26:55Speaker 00

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• 27:37Speaker 00

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• 27:58Speaker 03

  That's great.

• 27:59Jessie Ware?

  Is it? Well, she's great.

• 28:01Speaker 03

  Absolutely gorgeous.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  Delicious. Oh, God, it is spicy.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  It's quite spicy, isn't it?

• 28:05Speaker 02

  All right.

• 28:06Speaker 03

  I like spice. Are you not massively a spice fan?

• 28:09Speaker 02

  No, sorry. Did you go to Wimbledon this year?

• 28:12Speaker 03

  No. I went, I was in the Royal Box about five or six years ago. And then before that, I was invited by Five Live. And they said, if you come, we'll give you tentacle tickets, but we just need to do an interview with you during the day. I was like, of course, that sounds great. So we got there. Murray was playing that day, I remember. And about an hour into the play, the producer came up to me and said, we're really sorry, but we had a look at the schedule and it's so packed. I just don't think we're going to get a chance for your interview. I was like, great. Absolutely. Pims, champagne. And then four hours later, they came back.

• 28:46Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  And said, we actually can fit you in if you want to come with me now.

• 28:53Jessie Ware?

  How was that interview?

• 28:54Speaker 03

  I just staggered. I mean, I don't make any sense whatsoever.

• 28:57Jessie Ware?

  Needless to say, you haven't been invited back.

• 28:59Speaker 02

  What's your favorite sort of food besides steak?

• 29:02Speaker 03

  I mean, I'll eat anything. I love Japanese food at the moment.

• 29:06Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 29:07Speaker 03

  It's just so clean and, you know, tasty.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Have you been to Japan?

• 29:12Speaker 03

  No, my son's going this summer. I'm really jealous. He's got a friend out there. So he's going for, you know, 10 days because his friend's half Japanese.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  On his own?

• 29:22Speaker 03

  Well, he's, him and another mate are meeting.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  How old are they?

• 29:25Speaker 03

  Seventeen.

• 29:26Speaker 02

  Oh, they're big boys.

• 29:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:28Jessie Ware?

  That's exciting.

• 29:29Speaker 03

  That's really exciting. So I'll eat that Thai food, Italian, French. Yeah, I mean, almost anything. I mean, I come, Ireland is not known for its cuisine, is it really?

• 29:41Speaker 02

  Not really.

• 29:41Speaker 03

  No.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  I'm Irish too.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  Oh, are you?

• 29:43Speaker 02

  Have you got your passport?

• 29:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:44Speaker 02

  Me too.

• 29:45Speaker 03

  Great, isn't it?

• 29:46Speaker 02

  I love it. Have you been to Ireland recently?

• 29:49Speaker 03

  I'm going in a couple of weeks.

• 29:51Speaker 02

  Apparently, they always say when they look at your passport, welcome home.

• 29:54Speaker 03

  Do they?

• 29:55Speaker 02

  That's what Alex told me.

• 29:56Jessie Ware?

  You like that touch, don't you, Mum?

• 29:59Jessie Ware?

  Now, Last Supper, Stephen.

• 30:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:02Jessie Ware?

  Starter, main, pudding, drink of choice.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  Okay, I think I'd go for oysters to start with.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  Love an oyster with some champagne.

• 30:15Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 30:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:17Jessie Ware?

  How are you having your oyster?

• 30:18Speaker 03

  With caviar on them.

• 30:20Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  How many things am I allowed?

• 30:22Jessie Ware?

  Whatever you want.

• 30:23Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:26Speaker 03

  I think some, some, some oysters, smaller ones. I prefer them not too big, not like you're swallowing a.

• 30:31Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  An arm muscle.

• 30:32Jessie Ware?

  Are you going for the vinaigrette or just lemon?

• 30:34Speaker 03

  Lemon. Yeah.

• 30:38Speaker 03

  But with a champagne or with a, like a Puyi, a Puyi Montreche or something like that, some really nice white wine.

• 30:43Jessie Ware?

  Where's your most memorable oyster?

• 30:46Speaker 03

  Oh, that's a really good question, my most memorable oyster. I've had a lot of good oysters in Ireland.

• 30:51Jessie Ware?

  Oh, is that? Where do I get them?

• 30:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, Galway Bay and all around there, it's all, you know, so they're very fresh. And my parents are from coastal villages, so there's a lot of seafood arriving in small boats. Oysters with Guinness is good.

• 31:09Jessie Ware?

  Oh.

• 31:10Speaker 03

  That's nice.

• 31:10Jessie Ware?

  A good Guinness.

• 31:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. But oysters are always fun because they're normally the start of a meal, so they've got this kind of celebratory, anticipatory feel to them, don't they?

• 31:20Jessie Ware?

  Do you like eating out?

• 31:21Speaker 03

  I love, I would eat three meals a day out.

• 31:23Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so that's our starter.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay, main course.

• 31:26Jessie Ware?

  Main course.

• 31:27Speaker 03

  I'm going for the, the meal that I most enjoy having with my kids, which is we have a roast chicken. When we do a roast, it tends to be chicken, unlike my parents. So I would go for the, the roast chicken, then my wife does the chicken, I do the roast potatoes and the veg. She does the gravy.

• 31:49Jessie Ware?

  Team effort.

• 31:50Speaker 03

  It's such a classic comforting. Um, yeah, thank you.

• 31:55Jessie Ware?

  What's your pudding that you usually do with your roast?

• 31:58Speaker 03

  Uh, we don't tend to do puddings at the moment. But if I was eating a pudding, I like your old school, I like a crumble or an apple tart or.

• 32:07Jessie Ware?

  Are you on a health kick at the moment?

• 32:08Speaker 03

  I just. I mean, I'm trying not to, you know, trying to look after myself.

• 32:14Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 32:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:15Jessie Ware?

  Have you got a sweet tooth?

• 32:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, terrible.

• 32:17Jessie Ware?

  Okay, so that almost just not having anything is much easier.

• 32:20Speaker 03

  It's much easier. I got terrible. I will eat chocolate bags of it if I, if I'm left alone with it.

• 32:26Jessie Ware?

  What kind of chocolate?

• 32:27Speaker 03

  Any chocolate, apart from American chocolate, which is not chocolate and shouldn't be allowed to be called chocolate.

• 32:32Jessie Ware?

  It's crap, isn't it?

• 32:33Speaker 02

  That Hershey's is so disappointing.

• 32:35Speaker 03

  It's so wrong.

• 32:37Jessie Ware?

  It is crap. Um, so it's a roast. And what are your sides that you're having? What are the trimmings that you're having?

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Leeks, buttered leeks.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  Buttered leeks, not in a white sauce?

• 32:49Speaker 03

  No.

• 32:50Speaker 02

  Buttered leeks.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  Buttered leeks, just butter, butter in a pan.

• 32:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:54Speaker 03

  Um.

• 32:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, some, um, green beans.

• 33:03Speaker 03

  Sprouts if they're done well, but it's very hard. It's definitely stuffing.

• 33:06Speaker 02

  Love stuffing.

• 33:07Speaker 03

  Oh my god, the stuffing, we fire the stuffing in our house. We can't make enough stuffing. Um.

• 33:11Speaker 02

  Do you make your own?

• 33:13Speaker 03

  Yes, Louise does, yeah. Um.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  And.

• 33:19Speaker 02

  Would you have Yorkshire's with, Yorkshire's with chicken?

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Um, no.

• 33:24Speaker 02

  No.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  No.

• 33:25Speaker 02

  Some people do.

• 33:26Speaker 03

  I know, and I can see why. Apparently they've got to be four inches tall to be a proper Yorkshire pudding.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 33:32Speaker 03

  They don't count unless they're four inches tall. I mean, I don't know who's.

• 33:35Jessie Ware?

  Mine, yours were never.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  Biscuits.

• 33:37Speaker 03

  Well, they really flap.

• 33:38Speaker 02

  No, they have a pancake.

• 33:40Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, pancake.

• 33:40Speaker 02

  It was soft. I loved it. It was soft.

• 33:43Jessie Ware?

  Never really were.

• 33:43Speaker 02

  It was like having.

• 33:44Jessie Ware?

  Got better.

• 33:46Speaker 02

  A Dutch baby.

• 33:47Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 33:47Speaker 03

  They should be like a, you should, they should be like a sort of a very art, you know, modern chair.

• 33:52Speaker 02

  Is, yeah, but the thing is about Yorkshire's, it's to get the gravy in, isn't it?

• 33:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 33:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:58Speaker 03

  It's just a, it's a, it's that.

• 33:59Speaker 02

  Soaks up that gravy. So you could have it with the chicken.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  You could. It just somehow feels wrong.

• 34:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know, I agree.

• 34:05Speaker 03

  This, this, they're tied in, they've got a tie in with beef, haven't they?

• 34:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, I agree.

• 34:09Speaker 03

  And, um.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  What's that sauce you have with beef?

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Horse radish.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  Horse radish. I always associate them with.

• 34:16Speaker 02

  It is, for me, it's the best roast.

• 34:18Speaker 03

  Beef?

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

• 34:21Speaker 03

  If it's done well. Trouble is, we can't have beef in our house because I like it bloody and they like it.

• 34:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:26Speaker 03

  Cooked to death.

• 34:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:27Speaker 03

  So we always have a problem.

• 34:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:30Jessie Ware?

  So we've got main. Would you have a different drink for that? Would you?

• 34:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd have a red wine.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  Which one?

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, even though it's chicken. I'd have a Barolo.

• 34:42Jessie Ware?

  I don't think I've ever tried Barolo, but everyone talks about it.

• 34:46Speaker 03

  We'll get you a bottle of Barolo.

• 34:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks, mate.

• 34:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. And three straws.

• 34:51Jessie Ware?

  Cheers, Simon. Cheers, Tim. We'll do, we'll do a little thing. Perfect. Um, so, okay, Barolo. Gorgeous. Sounds amazing. Pudding.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 35:02Jessie Ware?

  Where are we going? We going for the crumble or are we gonna go off piece?

• 35:05Speaker 03

  Oh, God. There are so many great puddings. Panna cotta.

• 35:11Speaker 02

  Oh, I love. Which flavour?

• 35:14Speaker 03

  I mean, I had a passion fruit one the other day, which was fantastic.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  So you just put the passion fruit on top?

• 35:19Jessie Ware?

  A coulis.

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:21Jessie Ware?

  Is it still called a coulis or is that very like retro?

• 35:23Speaker 02

  No, I don't.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  No, I think it is. It's not the same coulis as what.

• 35:27Jessie Ware?

  Where were you?

• 35:28Speaker 03

  I was at the Park Restaurant in, uh.

• 35:30Speaker 02

  Oh, that's where Chris goes all the time.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  Jeremy King Restaurant in, uh. Queensway.

• 35:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  Um, I like panna cotta, I like an eaten mess. I like a, any sort of crumble. I like an apple tart.

• 35:46Jessie Ware?

  Would you like, um. A dessert trolley for your pudding?

• 35:50Speaker 03

  A dessert trolley is good.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  We should bring, we were talking about this last week.

• 35:53Speaker 03

  Why don't we get dessert trolleys anymore?

• 35:55Speaker 02

  I don't know, because you, then you choose.

• 35:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:58Speaker 02

  Because you don't know what you're gonna get, do you?

• 36:00Speaker 03

  You see the whites of the pudding's eyes.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  Yes, whites of the pudding's eyes.

• 36:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  I think we should campaign to bring them back.

• 36:07Speaker 03

  Affogato is a very good pudding.

• 36:09Jessie Ware?

  I was gonna do an affogato today.

• 36:11Speaker 03

  Were you?

• 36:12Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. We could still do it.

• 36:14Speaker 03

  Is there time?

• 36:15Jessie Ware?

  Well, your mum's made Dubai chocolate.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  Well, I've tried for the first time ever and it might work.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  I've never had Dubai chocolate.

• 36:22Jessie Ware?

  Boom.

• 36:23Speaker 02

  It's like it's got gaddafi.

• 36:26Speaker 03

  It's got stuff in it.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  Pe- pistachio.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:29Jessie Ware?

  I think you're saying gaddafi like it's the fucking.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  Gaddafi.

• 36:32Jessie Ware?

  Potato.

• 36:33Speaker 02

  Gaddafi, but I didn't use that. I used shredded wheat.

• 36:35Jessie Ware?

  Oh. You know what?

• 36:37Speaker 03

  Shredded wheat.

• 36:37Jessie Ware?

  I fancy an affogato too.

• 36:39Speaker 03

  Do you?

• 36:39Jessie Ware?

  So I'm gonna try and find.

• 36:41Speaker 02

  You just need an espresso and some white.

• 36:43Jessie Ware?

  Yes, I know mum. I'm gonna go and get the espresso thing out, but I may have to zhuzh the beans. Okay.

• 36:50Speaker 03

  Zhuzh the beans.

• 36:51Speaker 02

  Do you want anything else on this table?

• 36:54Speaker 03

  Uh. No, that was great.

• 36:56Speaker 02

  The potato salad was delicious.

• 36:58Speaker 03

  Wasn't it?

• 36:59Jessie Ware?

  What, what are you doing next besides Fortune Hotel and your book?

• 37:05Speaker 03

  On the book.

• 37:05Jessie Ware?

  Acting wise?

• 37:06Speaker 03

  Acting wise.

• 37:07Jessie Ware?

  Any new TV series?

• 37:09Speaker 03

  Uh, no, I, I mean, I, the, the, the latest thing I did was a, a new, a quiz show for, or a word, a game show for ITV. Called Password. We did, we did a series two years ago with Alan Carr and Daisy May Cooper.

• 37:23Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 37:23Speaker 03

  And we brought it back and we, they, they didn't quite get the format they write the first time.

• 37:28Jessie Ware?

  Was this the one where you had to like, Alan did this game show?

• 37:32Speaker 03

  He was trying to guess, him and Daisy with the, I hosted it and him and Daisy were the team captains. So now we've brought it back, we changed, slightly tweaked the game and it works so much better. And Alan was too busy, so we've got revolving team captains. Uh, so we did 12 episodes of that last week.

• 37:50Jessie Ware?

  Great.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's good, it's really good fun.

• 37:51Jessie Ware?

  And did you create the idea?

• 37:53Speaker 03

  No, it's actually an American show. It's huge in America. Jimmy Fallon does it in America.

• 37:57Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow.

• 37:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's been going for like 20, 30 years over there. But it's never really been worked, you know, done over here, so.

• 38:05Jessie Ware?

  How exciting.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's good.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  But are you, give, give your fans some acting, Stephen, please?

• 38:11Speaker 03

  Well, I.

• 38:15Speaker 03

  Did the play, I was away in Barcelona, I was away doing Fortune Hotel. The Fortune Hotel, if it happens again, won't be till next year.

• 38:26Speaker 03

  And so I want to be at home, and I also want to be at home not doing a play. So I was offered a couple of plays, and I said, no, I think this autumn I'm gonna be writing. Because I've been asked to write a couple of films, I've got another book to write. And I've got another film idea, so I've got three films and a book, and I reckon that'll keep me busy till Christmas. And that means I'll be at home and see my children. Well, I think you've seen quite enough of me in the years.

• 38:52Jessie Ware?

  No, never, never, Stephen.

• 38:54Speaker 03

  I mean, you know, I've been on telly a lot, I think it's time to give people a rest.

• 39:00Jessie Ware?

  Have your kids asked you to be at home too, or are they not fussed when you go off?

• 39:03Speaker 03

  Because I don't, but I think I need to be.

• 39:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I understand that.

• 39:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:07Jessie Ware?

  Does Louise work?

• 39:09Speaker 03

  She does, yeah, we've got a production company, she runs that.

• 39:12Jessie Ware?

  So hence the film.

• 39:13Speaker 03

  And she's an actor as well. So, well, yeah, the film, yes, hence one of the films, yes. But I've, plays are really hard on family life because you are not there six nights of the week. You're basically, you know, they go to school in the morning, you're gone by the time they come back from school. They're in bed by the time you go back from work, you just don't see them. You see them on Sunday, and I have a radio show on a Sunday. And also, you're sort of knackered. So I, um, I want to see more of my children because they're gonna be grown up and gone soon. I mean, Harry's seventeen, Frank's fourteen, you know, it's not gonna be long, we haven't got many years with them left, so.

• 39:49Jessie Ware?

  Are they clever?

• 39:50Speaker 03

  They're pretty clever, yeah, they are, yeah.

• 39:53Jessie Ware?

  Do they want to be actors?

• 39:55Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 39:55Jessie Ware?

  Oh, Jesus.

• 39:57Speaker 03

  Maybe, who knows, I mean, it changes weekly.

• 40:00Jessie Ware?

  Do you think they're good?

• 40:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, I do, but, you know, we all know that's not enough.

• 40:04Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 40:05Speaker 03

  The one thing I haven't ever done is encourage them to be child actors. I just didn't want them to do that, but, you know, it works with some people.

• 40:16Jessie Ware?

  I um wanted to know, what would we, if we came round to yours for dinner?

• 40:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:21Jessie Ware?

  What, I mean, apart from maybe the roast, what would you be cooking us?

• 40:24Speaker 02

  He can't cook.

• 40:25Speaker 03

  I can't cook.

• 40:26Jessie Ware?

  Your wife, what would Louise be cooking?

• 40:28Speaker 03

  Uh Louise would probably do, depends how many people are over, but we like to do like a vast array of dishes and everyone can just.

• 40:37Jessie Ware?

  You say we, like you did any of them?

• 40:39Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, I will, I will be heavily involved. I will put a lot of work in, but it's not necessarily the creative running the show work. Now, I don't sit there, you know, the big cigar, going, where's my dinner?

• 40:49Speaker 02

  But you open bottles.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  I open bottles and I set things up and I do the washing up.

• 40:53Jessie Ware?

  Go to the shop if she's forgotten an ingredient.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  All that stuff, yeah. And I mix and chop and peel and whatever.

• 40:57Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 40:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I'll do that. I'm, I'm the sort of hired.

• 41:00Jessie Ware?

  She doesn't mind delegating that to you.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  She, he's sous chef.

• 41:03Jessie Ware?

  He's sous chef, yeah.

• 41:04Speaker 03

  Sous chef, yeah.

• 41:05Jessie Ware?

  Um are you ready for something sweet?

• 41:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 41:08Jessie Ware?

  Okay, great.

• 41:09Speaker 03

  And I can eat it with impunity, having done my run this morning.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can. And I'll try and sort out this Dubai chocolate.

• 41:14Jessie Ware?

  I'm whisking it out.

• 41:15Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  I'm terrified it's not worked, but um let's see. It's chocolate anyway, so you don't care, do you?

• 41:22Speaker 03

  I'm, I'm in.

• 41:24Speaker 02

  You're in, yeah.

• 41:26Speaker 03

  Wow, look at that!

• 41:27Jessie Ware?

  It's, that looks really shit, but I think, do you need more coffee in that?

• 41:30Speaker 03

  No, that's great.

• 41:33Speaker 03

  Really nice.

• 41:35Speaker 02

  It's kind of, it's got pistachio and the shredded kind of stuff. Pistachio bean, but it's the first time I've done it, so I don't know if it, I've done it properly.

• 41:45Speaker 03

  What's it called? Dubai chocolate?

• 41:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. So it's basically pistachio with shredded wheat.

• 41:51Speaker 03

  Thank you. Baguette.

• 41:54Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. I love an apple.

• 41:55Speaker 03

  Isn't it great? Also, because vanilla ice cream is the best ice cream flavour.

• 41:59Speaker 02

  Well, I think Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream is the greatest vanilla ice cream.

• 42:04Speaker 03

  I love vanilla ice cream.

• 42:07Speaker 02

  Jessie, can you try?

• 42:11Jessie Ware?

  I'm going for it.

• 42:16Jessie Ware?

  Nice, but I can't taste the pistachio.

• 42:18Speaker 02

  It's all pistachio in the middle.

• 42:20Jessie Ware?

  I love you.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:22Jessie Ware?

  I can't taste the pistachio.

• 42:23Speaker 02

  More pistachio than that time.

• 42:25Jessie Ware?

  Less shredded wheat, but delicious. What is always in your fridge?

• 42:33Speaker 03

  What's always in our fridge? Um, there is always, um.

• 42:41Speaker 03

  Well, apart from the obvious stuff.

• 42:42Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  There's always kombucha in our fridge. I like a kombucha. Um, there is quite a lot of berries.

• 42:50Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 42:51Speaker 03

  Um, Greek yogurt. Uh, a lot of, quite a lot of cheese, quite a lot of Parmesan, because when my boys eat gnocchi or pasta.

• 43:01Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 43:01Speaker 03

  They get through handfuls of Parmesan.

• 43:05Jessie Ware?

  What's always in the fridge that's going off?

• 43:09Speaker 03

  Um, there's always too many cucumbers or, you know.

• 43:13Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, soggy cucumbers.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  Celery, wrapped in silver foil.

• 43:17Jessie Ware?

  Mm, yeah.

• 43:18Speaker 03

  And it, uh, or bags of, you know, leaves that have just been there too long.

• 43:25Jessie Ware?

  Sad leaves.

• 43:26Speaker 03

  Yeah, sad leaves.

• 43:28Jessie Ware?

  Oh, that was a bit more pistachio, Mo.

• 43:30Speaker 02

  I just need to do it again, but Noah can do it now and those little moulds work.

• 43:35Jessie Ware?

  Before we let you go.

• 43:37Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 43:38Jessie Ware?

  Can you give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 43:43Speaker 03

  Okay, I think it has to be a biscuit, a Kimberley biscuit.

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Kimberley.

• 43:48Jessie Ware?

  What's a Kimberley biscuit?

• 43:49Speaker 02

  I've heard of it.

• 43:49Speaker 03

  Are, I mean, they're, they're not good, put it that way, but they do take me back to Ireland. You get them in tins. My grandmother used to send them over. They're kind of two brown discs over a sort of synthetic white filling.

• 44:05Jessie Ware?

  That's like an Oreo.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Oreo.

• 44:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, but they're light brown. They're kind of, and they're soft. They're not crunchy like an Oreo.

• 44:12Speaker 02

  I think I'm, yeah, they're like vanilla creams or something. They're crumbly.

• 44:17Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:17Speaker 02

  And they're a kind of tan colour.

• 44:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly, exactly. And they are not good, but they instantly take me back to Ireland in the 1970s.

• 44:25Jessie Ware?

  A happy memory?

• 44:26Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, very happy memory.

• 44:28Jessie Ware?

  So you live in Primrose Hill?

• 44:30Speaker 03

  Yes, moved there in 92. My mum died in 1991.

• 44:33Jessie Ware?

  I'm sorry.

• 44:33Speaker 03

  And, um, me and my sister, so I moved out.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  You died young.

• 44:38Speaker 03

  Forty-five.

• 44:38Speaker 02

  Oh, shit. My god, Stephen.

• 44:40Speaker 03

  Really young, terrible. Um, she would have been eighty in May. In fact, we had a birthday party for her. But, you know, it's ridiculous that she only would have just turned eighty all those years. Thirty four years ago, she died. Ridiculous.

• 44:54Speaker 02

  And how long did you, is your dad still?

• 44:56Speaker 03

  No, dad died at sixty three.

• 44:58Jessie Ware?

  Oh, shit.

• 44:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, he died in two thousand and five.

• 45:01Speaker 02

  Gosh, what was it? Something?

• 45:03Speaker 03

  Cancer, both of them, yeah.

• 45:04Speaker 02

  Shit.

• 45:05Speaker 03

  Yeah. Just unlucky. I mean, dad, dad's one of nine and he was the only, he was the sixth of nine.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  And they'd all made old friends.

• 45:11Speaker 03

  The rest of them are all fine.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:14Speaker 03

  But, you know, that's life.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Are you close to your sister?

• 45:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:17Speaker 02

  That's good, isn't it?

• 45:18Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I mean, I work with Anita. She illustrates the books.

• 45:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yes, of course.

• 45:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, um.

• 45:24Jessie Ware?

  How is it work, how is it working with your sibling and your family?

• 45:29Speaker 03

  Because we have our really clearly defined roles. You know, I write it, I, you know, it's my story. I think of the characters, da, da, da, write the whole thing and then I give it to her and she illustrates it and I can't draw at all. Even though I present a show about painting on Sky.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  Is she very good?

• 45:46Speaker 03

  She's really good, yeah. So she, she does what she does and I do what I do and we don't, it's not like I'm going, give me that pen, I could do a better. And I've spent the whole, all the books are just trying to make her laugh, basically. Or, I mean, she told me she found, that she told me that horses are notoriously difficult to draw, so I wrote a whole book about reindeer.

• 46:05Speaker 02

  Oh, shit.

• 46:06Speaker 03

  Just because.

• 46:09Speaker 03

  I'm her older brother and that's the whole point of being an older brother, instead of being annoying.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:14Jessie Ware?

  Why did you decide, why did you decide on, um, on Primus Hill?

• 46:17Speaker 02

  Because it's fab.

• 46:19Jessie Ware?

  Because you saw the Oasis were hanging around there then. It was that era?

• 46:23Speaker 03

  In ninety two, my mum died in ninety one. And then a year later, I moved out of home because I'd just finished university when she died. I took a year out to look after her and sort of take her to hospital. She was six months from when she was diagnosed to when she died.

• 46:37Jessie Ware?

  I'm sorry.

• 46:39Speaker 03

  And I applied to go to RADA during that, you know, just after, because I was like, I was supposed to be a lawyer. I'd done a law degree. Thought, I, I don't want to do that anymore. Um, and I kind of never wanted to do it, really. I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't have the guts to do it. So I, and then I moved into town, because I was going to RADA. I moved, I shared a flat in Chalk Farm with a friend of mine. Um, actually, there were three of us in a two-bedroom flat. We used to rotate. We'd take a month each. You'd have a month in the living room. And you get a bedroom for two months.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  Stop.

• 47:10Speaker 03

  Yeah. They want me, you know, twenty two, whatever, you could do that then.

• 47:15Speaker 02

  That's brilliant.

• 47:15Speaker 03

  So, yeah, so you slept on the sofa for a month and then you got a room.

• 47:18Speaker 02

  Are you rotated?

• 47:19Speaker 03

  Rotated, but that's right next to Primrose Hill. And then my sister and me, uh, my youngest sister and I bought a place. Mum left us a little bit of money. We bought a flat. Um, and I've been there ever since.

• 47:30Speaker 02

  Were you into Oasis, though? Were you like, this Primrose Hill, I need to be where?

• 47:36Speaker 03

  I mean, it was.

• 47:37Speaker 02

  Have you been to see them?

• 47:38Speaker 03

  No.

• 47:39Speaker 02

  I couldn't get.

• 47:40Speaker 03

  I'm not, I'm not, uh.

• 47:42Speaker 02

  No, that wasn't the reason why.

• 47:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:44Speaker 02

  Okay, you won't.

• 47:45Speaker 03

  Uh, but no, I, I, yeah, I mean, it was, it was a great place to be when I was at drama school and when I was a young actor. It's a great place to be when you're single and it's a great place to have a family. And I just can't leave. I've just been there so long. Yeah, it's changed a lot. A lot of the sort of more arty people have gone.

• 47:59Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  And there's more, you know, bankers and lawyers.

• 48:02Speaker 02

  The debts gone. A debt swine bar.

• 48:04Speaker 03

  No, our debts are still there.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, because I remember the original owner of that, because he came from Manchester, his name was Brian Classic.

• 48:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  And he drove, and he used to drive a sports car.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  Right.

• 48:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, but David Bailey used to always be in there.

• 48:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:20Speaker 02

  And he was a friend of an old boyfriend.

• 48:22Speaker 03

  Well, he lived on the same road I'm on now, David Bailey, yeah. Yeah, it was full of people like that. Fiona Shaw was there and.

• 48:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  Alan Bennett was around the corner and it was all that kind of.

• 48:31Speaker 02

  How exciting for you as like a young actor.

• 48:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, totally.

• 48:35Speaker 02

  Surrounded by some amazing people. To go to the moon, yeah.

• 48:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  I love that. I love them.

• 48:39Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 48:40Speaker 02

  They're all so grumpy. The waiters are, yeah, what do you want?

• 48:46Speaker 02

  They are grumpy, Joe.

• 48:47Speaker 03

  They are. And then, and then when I did portrait, uh, started doing Portrait Artist of the Year with Joan Bakewell, she lives in.

• 48:54Speaker 02

  Does she?

• 48:55Speaker 03

  Uh, she's lives in the square, Chelcot Square. And I went round for a cup of tea with her and she was saying it's not been the same since Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. I was like, I can't compete with that.

• 49:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Did, did your mum know that you were gonna pursue acting?

• 49:09Speaker 03

  She didn't know. The last she knew I was gonna be a lawyer.

• 49:13Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 49:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:14Speaker 02

  Would that make her happy?

• 49:15Speaker 03

  That I was an actor? Yeah, because she was the one who used to take me, we used to go to plays together.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  You used to go to theatre.

• 49:20Speaker 03

  She's, you know, she was the one who got me into all of that, reading and, um. She had a real artistic kind of hunger, you know, she really bright woman, terrible, no education, she left school at fourteen. And the schooling she got was pretty rubbish, but she just had, she just loved books, she loved theatre, she loved, so she sort of, you know. Entused me with all that stuff, so she'd have absolutely loved it, yeah.

• 49:43Jessie Ware?

  I mean, you're pretty spoilt in Primrose Hill for good spots to eat at, but is there any places that you would recommend to anyone? That are in London or Ireland that people should be going, or do you wanna keep them to yourself?

• 49:55Speaker 03

  I'd really wanna keep them to myself, but then I don't think I know anywhere that's particularly, I mean, I like.

• 50:03Speaker 03

  You know, anywhere you go in where you feel that they care about what they're doing, and I sort of, whatever cuisine it is. I mean, the trouble is now we are so inundated with chains, that I would just urge people to go and eat the places that are family run and. You know. Have a bit of individuality to them, but, um, yeah.

• 50:24Jessie Ware?

  But I mean, yeah, you do have good spots in Primrose Hill.

• 50:27Speaker 03

  We do, we have a good cafe around the corner called Sam's Cafe.

• 50:30Jessie Ware?

  Sam's Cafe.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  Which is good, uh, it's very laid back, very, you know, they, they also don't try and have a menu that's sixteen pages long. It's like one sheet of stuff and, you know, that's good, I go there quite a lot, um.

• 50:43Speaker 02

  You like to stay within your postcode?

• 50:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, the thing is when you're working.

• 50:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:48Speaker 03

  If you're filming, food is all sort of laid on for you, so you don't tend to have to wander the streets looking.

• 50:54Jessie Ware?

  So when you're writing.

• 50:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:56Jessie Ware?

  Do you nip out for a bite just to make it.

• 51:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:00Jessie Ware?

  To move about.

• 51:01Speaker 03

  I do, just to get out and to see people, real people. But I'll go, I write on the top floor of the house, I'll take up a tray full of snacks and drinks, coffees, kombuchas, waters, just vast amounts of stuff.

• 51:15Jessie Ware?

  You look after yourself.

• 51:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, I do, huge. And I just sit there for the first hour and just eat. And then once I've eaten everything, I can then start writing.

• 51:22Jessie Ware?

  You're like an end of the worlder, but like when you're starting a new book.

• 51:25Speaker 03

  It's pathetic, I keep saying to myself, I just pace it out, the blueberries, the almonds, just keep it and then just shovel the ball into my gob.

• 51:32Jessie Ware?

  I'm a bit like that in the studio where I used to like just feed everyone. I'd be like, right, everyone needs a biscuit now. Should we like, uh, everyone like, is anyone like craving a smoothie? It was just so I could get it because I just feel that I need to have something in my gob, I don't know, whilst I'm thinking, I don't know.

• 51:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:46Jessie Ware?

  And do you have a good art collection? Have you been inspired since presenting?

• 51:51Speaker 03

  Lou and I don't have very similar tastes, is the problem. So I'm always sending her pictures and going, do you like this? No. What about this? No.

• 51:58Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 51:58Speaker 03

  And I sort of know what she likes. So we have, we do have some stuff, but not, I'd love, I'd love more.

• 52:04Jessie Ware?

  Has anyone done your portrait?

• 52:06Speaker 03

  I've had a few sort of fan portraits done, but I've never had a artist, artist do one.

• 52:13Jessie Ware?

  You've not sat for them.

• 52:14Speaker 03

  I don't want to either, having sat watching.

• 52:16Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  I mean, I love seeing people's reaction when they get their portraits revealed to them.

• 52:23Jessie Ware?

  Who's the last celebrity you had who's sat? Who's the last celebrity that sat? Self-esteem did it, didn't you, or not?

• 52:29Speaker 03

  Self-esteem did it. Uh, well, we've just filmed a new series, so I'm probably not allowed to say who sat. No, well, I mean, okay. So we have, I mean, we all sort of speak from young blood to.

• 52:42Jessie Ware?

  Oh, young blood, we've had him on the podcast.

• 52:43Speaker 03

  Have you?

• 52:44Jessie Ware?

  My friend actually, from watching the show.

• 52:48Jessie Ware?

  Commissioned um an artist that I don't think won um to do a portrait of their kids.

• 52:53Speaker 03

  Oh, right.

• 52:54Jessie Ware?

  And it's so beautiful.

• 52:55Speaker 03

  Oh, great.

• 52:55Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 52:56Speaker 03

  Well, do you know what?

• 52:56Jessie Ware?

  It's amazing showcase, isn't it?

• 52:58Speaker 03

  It's so hard for artists to get their work seen. So even if someone doesn't win, you know, people like that, well, they'll look and look them up on the internet and commission their work. So.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  Can I say you're very easy to get secrets out of?

• 53:09Speaker 03

  Oh, am I?

• 53:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. I don't know if it's just a skill of mine, but if they all come and tell us, we don't tell. We can't. You don't know me.

• 53:15Speaker 03

  I don't care.

• 53:16Speaker 02

  The biggest gossip.

• 53:17Speaker 03

  I don't. Well, I'm not saying anything that's interesting, am I?

• 53:19Jessie Ware?

  No, I feel like he's been quite observed, actually. I would have liked a little bit more, to be honest.

• 53:24Speaker 02

  When you're out there, I heard all about his affairs and no, I didn't.

• 53:28Jessie Ware?

  Stop, mum.

• 53:30Speaker 02

  I'm teasing.

• 53:31Jessie Ware?

  The confession always shit. So he'd already said it to his sister, his siblings.

• 53:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's true.

• 53:37Speaker 02

  Are you going to do another series of that?

• 53:38Speaker 03

  I hope so, but I've not heard.

• 53:40Speaker 02

  I loved it.

• 53:41Speaker 03

  It's good, isn't it?

• 53:41Speaker 02

  It was so good.

• 53:42Speaker 03

  So interesting is what people chose.

• 53:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 53:45Speaker 03

  You know, and what.

• 53:46Speaker 02

  Who's your favourite?

• 53:48Speaker 03

  Marianne was very good.

• 53:49Speaker 02

  She was so.

• 53:50Speaker 03

  Anthony Horvitz was very good. Did you get that one? Him talking about actually all his family going to his grandmother's grave and dancing on it?

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:57Speaker 03

  She was so horrible.

• 53:58Speaker 02

  She was so horrible.

• 53:59Speaker 03

  They literally were dancing. They said they were full of joy, like she's dead, she's dead.

• 54:04Jessie Ware?

  Ding dong, the witch is dead.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  Jewish. You wouldn't do that.

• 54:09Speaker 03

  So you didn't have to wait very long then. Yeah.

• 54:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, he's brilliant. I've he was his was great. Who else did we have that was good? I I mean, what was interesting was a lot of the younger people, young comedians or writers. Would say, oh, you know, I I did a poo in my pants when when I was five at school. But then the old, like Joan Baker came on and said. You know, one of the things she was most ashamed about is not standing up for women when they were getting sort of sexually abused in the sixties in the BBC. You know, and you know, it was part of that culture's bum slapping and ass pinching and all that stuff. And that she feels she should have taken more of a stand against it. But, you know, so that's quite a heavy.

• 54:52Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  Thing to bring to the table.

• 54:55Jessie Ware?

  But speaking of poo.

• 54:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:56Jessie Ware?

  Can we talk about fart?

• 54:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 54:58Jessie Ware?

  For a second.

• 54:59Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 55:00Jessie Ware?

  Your book.

• 55:01Speaker 03

  Finally. Farts, yeah. The fart that saved the universe.

• 55:06Jessie Ware?

  Saved the universe. How does the fart save the universe?

• 55:08Speaker 03

  Uh, well, you need to read the book, but it does.

• 55:12Jessie Ware?

  One of your children's book?

• 55:13Speaker 03

  It's to do with the big bang and it's to do with some very advanced physics.

• 55:16Jessie Ware?

  Okay, amazing.

• 55:17Speaker 03

  Yeah. But a fart does actually save the entire universe and all of us in it.

• 55:22Jessie Ware?

  Thank god.

• 55:23Speaker 03

  Uh, that started off as a well book day, but a well book day asked us to write a book. And they wanted us, they specifically asked for a fart book.

• 55:30Jessie Ware?

  You were like, let's go.

• 55:32Speaker 03

  We're the people. So we did the fart that broke well book day. Uh, and we enjoyed that story so much that the fart that saved the universe is kind of what happens next. It's a sort of the story continuing.

• 55:42Jessie Ware?

  It's a trilogy. Could it be a trilogy?

• 55:43Speaker 03

  I think I've farted out now, to be honest.

• 55:45Speaker 02

  Do you think girls like farts as much as boys?

• 55:48Speaker 03

  Some, but not all.

• 55:49Speaker 02

  Not at the same.

• 55:49Speaker 03

  No, I mean, I do, you definitely, the look on your face, it doesn't look like you do.

• 55:53Jessie Ware?

  No, it's like perfect for my son, who is interested in like the universe and farts.

• 56:00Speaker 03

  Do you know what?

• 56:00Jessie Ware?

  Really, tick, tick.

• 56:01Speaker 03

  I love writing so much. I love reading so much when I was eight, nine, 10. And I know kids have s- many more distractions now. It's much harder, much more difficult to get them to read because there's screens and there's tablets and there's TVs. So it's sort of clickbait, really. You're trying to give them a title that they think, oh, that could be funny. And maybe the kids who don't normally pick up books will read it. And I always hope, give us three or four pages. And hopefully we'll get you and you'll read, want to read the rest of the story.

• 56:28Speaker 02

  Do your boys read?

• 56:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, they do. But I read to, because I can't give up the to Jack, I'm still reading to him.

• 56:35Speaker 02

  Oh, sweet.

• 56:36Jessie Ware?

  What are you reading at the moment?

• 56:37Speaker 03

  Well, what I'm not allowed to do is do many voices.

• 56:41Speaker 02

  Oh, why?

• 56:42Speaker 03

  I mean, I thought this would be the great thing. Son of an actor.

• 56:45Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 56:45Speaker 03

  You know, the one thing he would say in later life, my dad did these incredible read, he can't stand it.

• 56:51Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my god.

• 56:51Speaker 03

  Stop doing, just read it, dad, is the note.

• 56:53Jessie Ware?

  I'm the same. I take it really seriously. I put on all the accents and they always want my monosyllabic

• 56:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 56:59Jessie Ware?

  husband to do it.

• 57:00Speaker 03

  And then the witch came in, hello, Raffi, you know, I'm doing all of that.

• 57:03Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 57:04Speaker 03

  No, just read it, dad.

• 57:06Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my god.

• 57:06Speaker 03

  So upsetting.

• 57:07Jessie Ware?

  I'm the same as you. And like Sam has not got the performance technique that I've got and it really annoys me.

• 57:13Speaker 03

  Can't sell a book.

• 57:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 57:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 57:15Jessie Ware?

  Well, apparently we can't either.

• 57:17Speaker 03

  I know. There you go. Everyone's a critic.

• 57:21Jessie Ware?

  Stephen Mangan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

• 57:23Speaker 04

  Thank you.

• 57:24Jessie Ware?

  I'll probably see you on Sunday brunch in six months.

• 57:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, hopefully.

• 57:41Jessie Ware?

  Hello, everyone. So you may know Table manners is brought to you in partnership with Hendrick's Gin at the moment. The perfect accompaniment to summer hosting occasions. Last week Hendrick's was kind enough to gift us a hamper. So we hosted a little unplanned get together right here in our garden.

• 57:58Speaker 02

  Garden.

• 57:59Jessie Ware?

  We've just finished a podcast recording, so we're having a little drink, a spontaneous drink. My husband's even joined us.

• 58:06Speaker 04

  I'm so happy to be outside. This is our first event outside, isn't it? I feel like this is really celebrating the sun today.

• 58:12Jessie Ware?

  I wonder how many people on that aeroplane are having a Hendrick's and tonic right now. Sam, it's our go to, isn't it, when we board a flight?

• 58:19Speaker 04

  It's the start of a holiday.

• 58:20Jessie Ware?

  It really is.

• 58:21Speaker 04

  The holiday hasn't started until we get on that plane and we order a Hendrick's and tonic.

• 58:26Jessie Ware?

  So around the garden table, we have producer Alice.

• 58:29Speaker 02

  Hello.

• 58:30Jessie Ware?

  Hello, Al. And we've got Sam.

• 58:32Speaker 04

  Hello, everybody.

• 58:33Jessie Ware?

  In my merch, thank you. So sweet.

• 58:34Speaker 02

  Shall I make a couple more gin and tonics?

• 58:36Jessie Ware?

  Yes, please, Lenny.

• 58:37Speaker 04

  Oh, yes, please, Lenny. I'd love it.

• 58:37Jessie Ware?

  We've got Luca on socials. Hello. We've got Tully. Hi. And we are all going to enjoy Hendrick's Gin and Tonics after actually a really gorgeous podcast. Have a taste of that, babes.

• 58:49Speaker 04

  It does taste incredible. I had a sip.

• 58:51Jessie Ware?

  It's delicious, isn't it?

• 58:53Speaker 02

  Do you like it with a cucumber, Sam?

• 58:54Speaker 04

  I do like it with a cucumber. I've not actually, I don't usually make it with a cucumber, but I enjoy it.

• 58:59Speaker 02

  Hendrick's is known for always having it with a cucumber.

• 59:02Jessie Ware?

  And before we get into it, these are Hendrick's Gin and Tonics, made with all the delicious ingredients Hendrick's gave us in our hamper last week, including their signature gin infused with rose and cucumber. Guys, are you getting that rose? Are you getting that cucumber? I love it. That's actually really nice. Cheers, everyone. Happy summer. It's really refreshing.

• 59:22Speaker 02

  Cheers.

• 59:23Jessie Ware?

  Cheers.

• 59:25Speaker 04

  That is a perfectly made G and T though. I've never had one tasting like that before, to be honest.

• 59:30Jessie Ware?

  So, last week Hendricks asked us a question and we'd love for everyone's take on it around this table. What makes for a great summer? Alice?

• 59:37Speaker 05

  Well, it's obviously sunshine, getting together with friends. I love sitting outside a pub garden.

• 59:42Jessie Ware?

  Do you?

• 59:43Speaker 05

  On a light evening with the sun shining, yeah.

• 59:45Speaker 04

  I love a pub, but I wouldn't say that's the start of summer. Cut grass for me. The smell of cut grass, nothing can beat that. Reminds me of playing football in the garden, in the parks, absolutely love it.

• 59:55Jessie Ware?

  Tully?

• 59:56Speaker 06

  It's all about a holiday.

• 59:57Jessie Ware?

  Holiday.

• 59:58Speaker 06

  It's all about a holiday. I've just come back from Seville though and it was 45 degrees.

• 1:00:02Jessie Ware?

  What's your most memorable summer, Al?

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  Probably finishing school, like 18.

• 1:00:07Jessie Ware?

  Did you go on holiday?

• 1:00:08Speaker 05

  Went on holiday, went to Tenerife with my girlfriends.

• 1:00:11Jessie Ware?

  I went to Malta.

• 1:00:12Speaker 05

  Did you?

• 1:00:12Jessie Ware?

  I know. Not the most obvious choice for an 18 year old.

• 1:00:15Speaker 05

  Yeah, just that week's rolling ahead of you with nothing planned and like you're not really knowing what you're going to do after that and just the absolute freedom.

• 1:00:23Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Crikey, I went to Ibiza.

• 1:00:25Jessie Ware?

  Did you?

• 1:00:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:00:26Jessie Ware?

  Good for you.

• 1:00:27Speaker 02

  And I met that fellow, that Swedish.

• 1:00:29Jessie Ware?

  Bjorn.

• 1:00:30Speaker 02

  Bjorn, Chef's, yeah.

• 1:00:32Jessie Ware?

  Alice already knows about Bjorn.

• 1:00:33Speaker 02

  Bjorn Chef's, yeah.

• 1:00:34Jessie Ware?

  Mum's talked about him so many times in the.

• 1:00:36Speaker 02

  If we have a Swede.

• 1:00:37Jessie Ware?

  And Tully?

• 1:00:38Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Jessie Ware?

  What's a really special summer for you?

• 1:00:41Speaker 06

  Trips to the south of France.

• 1:00:42Jessie Ware?

  Really?

• 1:00:42Speaker 06

  That's my nostalgic, just being on the beach in France. It's just, it's literally the best place on earth. It really is. I know you think Greece is, but south of France needs a shout out.

• 1:00:51Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, absolutely. Sam, do we have any plans to make this summer special?

• 1:00:56Speaker 04

  Always, Jessica. You've always got an itinerary, but we always go to Greece. So I'd say that's one of the highlights of my summer. Pretty much every year we go to the same place and it is absolutely gorgeous and we often drink Hendricks Gin.

• 1:01:09Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Luca, what is an essential component for the summer?

• 1:01:14Speaker 07

  Do you know what, for me, it's just being spontaneous.

• 1:01:17Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:01:17Speaker 07

  Do you know what I mean? Friends call up, let's go there, let's go. I'm doing it this weekend. My friend said, let's go to a festival, Lover Day Festival.

• 1:01:23Speaker 02

  I love that.

• 1:01:24Speaker 06

  A spontaneous picnic. That's surely the best idea. Come on, picky tea, go to the shops, get it all.

• 1:01:30Speaker 02

  Picky tea.

• 1:01:31Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:01:32Speaker 07

  And then all back to yours after the picnic when it starts to rain.

• 1:01:34Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:01:35Speaker 07

  For a Hendricks' tonic.

• 1:01:36Speaker 05

  Yes.

• 1:01:37Speaker 07

  A rose infused.

• 1:01:39Jessie Ware?

  Well, thank you so much to Hendricks for facilitating our little get together. It really is the perfect complement to summer hosting occasions. And guys, we should do this more often.

• 1:01:48Speaker 02

  Cheers, everyone.

• 1:01:49Speaker 06

  Cheers.

• 1:01:50Speaker 05

  Cheers.

• 1:01:51Speaker 06

  Happy summer.

• 1:01:52Speaker 02

  Happy summer.

• 1:01:53Jessie Ware?

  Next time you've got friends over, offer them a curiously refreshing, easy to make Hendricks' tonic or Hendricks' spritz. It tastes like no other gin because it's made like no other gin.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  Host refreshingly with Hendricks Gin. Please drink responsibly. DrinkAware.co.uk for the facts.

• 1:02:14Jessie Ware?

  Well, you still love mum.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  They say don't meet your heroes, but I have and I'm still in love.

• 1:02:19Jessie Ware?

  Great. Fantastic. Thank you so much to Stephen for coming on, eating the food.

• 1:02:26Speaker 02

  Kind of does everything.

• 1:02:28Jessie Ware?

  I know. Cilla Blatt, mum.

• 1:02:29Speaker 02

  Cilla Blatt, he is.

• 1:02:31Jessie Ware?

  And that is the end of this season.

• 1:02:34Speaker 02

  Well, I think that was a fitting end.

• 1:02:37Jessie Ware?

  We will be back in the autumn for a new season, season 18 of Table Manners.

• 1:02:41Speaker 02

  Season 18.

• 1:02:42Jessie Ware?

  But in the summer, we are going to help you listen to some of the archive episodes. Oh my god, archive, you know. Look at us. We have an archive like Farron Ball.

• 1:02:51Speaker 02

  A catalogue, a back catalogue.

• 1:02:52Jessie Ware?

  A back catalogue. Second helpings will be all yours this summer with some of our favourite moments on the podcast and favourite guests. Thank you so much to everyone who's listened this season and who carries on listening to us. We're so lucky to have so many of you wanting to tune in and to hear about what we're cooking and who we're chatting to. And thank you to all the guests who have been on this season. You've been fantastic. We're so lucky to have you and we couldn't do it without you.

• 1:03:20Speaker 02

  No, it's just been a wonderful, wonderful season with us.

• 1:03:23Jessie Ware?

  Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you in the autumn.

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, we will. We'll be back.

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