Brian Cox

British acting royalty, ‘Succession’ star and BAFTA winner Brian Cox joins us in the Dream Restaurant this week. Yep, it’s another national treasure. But does he think that dark matter is evil? Brian Cox’s directorial debut ‘Glenrothan’ is in cinemas on Fri 17 April. Follow Brian on Instagram @coxusa https://www.instagram.com/coxusa/ Watch the video version of this episode on the Off Menu YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@offmenupodcast on Thu 16 Apr. Off Menu is now on YouTube: @offmenupodcast https://www.youtube.com/@offmenupodcast Follow Off Menu on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/offmenuofficial and TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@offmenuofficial: @offmenuofficial. And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk https://www.offmenupodcast.co.uk/ for a list of restaurants recommended on the show. Off Menu is a comedy podcast hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster. Produced, recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive https://www.plosive.co.uk/. Video production by Ben Williams and Megan McCarthy for Plosive https://www.plosive.co.uk/. Artwork by Paul Gilbey https://www.instagram.com/pushgilbey/ (photography and design). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:13Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Off Menu podcast, taking the wine of conversation, pouring it into the blender of the internet, hitting the blend button of friendship and pouring it into a lovely big glass of podcast, James.

• 0:24Speaker 01

  That's a gamble. My name is James Acaster. Together, we own a dream restaurant and every single week we invite a guest and ask them their favourite ever start, a main course dessert, side dish and drink, not in that order. And this week, our guest is-

• 0:36Speaker 00

  Our secret guest.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Our secret guest is Brian Cox.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  A returning guest. No, not a returning guest, but our first same-named guest, James. Because of course, we've had the scientist Brian Cox, but he would never come back because we upset him by asking him questions about science. We now have the wonderful actor Brian Cox, James. What an actor, what a career, what a man.

• 0:58Speaker 01

  A national treasure, of course.

• 0:59Speaker 00

  National treasure.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  I absolutely love Brian Cox. I was a fan of Brian Cox for a long time and then he did Succession and like went to even higher heights.

• 1:08Speaker 00

  The stratosphere.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  So quite excited and intimidated, a little bit nervous about interviewing Brian Cox.

• 1:14Speaker 00

  What characters this man has played, James? Logan Roy, of course.

• 1:17Speaker 01

  Logan Roy, of course.

• 1:18Speaker 00

  But you've got to be looking at Hannibal Lecter.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Yes, well, you pointed out this is our first-

• 1:23Speaker 00

  William Stryker.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  This is our first Lecter, of course.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  Our first Stryker.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  And our first Stryker.

• 1:28Speaker 00

  Yes. Our first Lecter, not our first Cannibal.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:31Speaker 00

  Sebastian Stan, did he play a Cannibal?

• 1:33Speaker 01

  Of course, he did play a Cannibal.

• 1:35Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  He was trying to eat Daisy Edgar Jones, wasn't he? Little rascal.

• 1:38Speaker 00

  Yeah. Well, we can maybe ask Brian about human flesh.

• 1:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, we have to.

• 1:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:45Speaker 01

  Got to ask the Cannibals then.

• 1:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, we always have to ask the Cannibals about human flesh and we always ask people who pick iced tea if they've met iced tea. Those are the two rules of the pod.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  We're bound to those and we can't help it. I'm the tide when that happens. William Stryker, does he eat stuff?

• 2:00Speaker 00

  Not sure. I don't think he sees Striker eat.

• 2:02Speaker 01

  Not really.

• 2:03Speaker 00

  Doesn't like mutants, though.

• 2:04Speaker 01

  Doesn't like mutants, which is a shame. We'll probably drill into that. We'll drill into that because he should.

• 2:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, but as far as I'm aware, James, Brian Cox does not play a cannibal in his new film, Glen Rothern.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  Lovely segue.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 2:19Speaker 01

  He's directed it. It's a directorial debut, which I'm most excited about when actors like direct a film for the first time.

• 2:25Speaker 00

  Yes, you can get into the nitty gritty with him about the directorial process.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:30Speaker 00

  Uh, and I'll just wait for the food stuff.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Well, that's your prerogative.

• 2:35Speaker 00

  But interestingly, James.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  He, uh, he plays, uh, in this film, um, uh, part of a family business.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:43Speaker 00

  Alan Cumming is in this film.

• 2:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:44Speaker 00

  But they run a whiskey distillery. It's the family business is a whiskey distillery, which is a drink.

• 2:49Speaker 01

  Which is a drink and this is a food podcast. So will he choose whiskey as his dream drink?

• 2:53Speaker 00

  Human flesh and whiskey.

• 2:59Speaker 00

  Not sure he does that in Man Hunter.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  He's gonna say human flesh and whiskey and then do that.

• 3:06Speaker 00

  Pretty sure he doesn't. Uh, Glen Rothern comes out in UK cinemas this Friday.

• 3:13Speaker 00

  Seventeenth of April, it comes out.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Well, we'll ask more about that. Get to speak to Brian more about that.

• 3:18Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  If, of course, he hasn't said the secret ingredient by then, and then we'll have to kick him out.

• 3:22Speaker 00

  We will have to kick him out, yes.

• 3:24Speaker 01

  And this week, the secret ingredient is.

• 3:26Speaker 00

  Baa. Succession.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  Maybe specifically if he wants to eat it on the floor.

• 3:32Speaker 00

  Yes, or on the floor.

• 3:33Speaker 01

  Or on the floor, one of the most iconic scenes from Succession, which is, let's face it, a series of iconic scenes.

• 3:39Speaker 00

  It's iconic scene after iconic scene and they all make sense in order.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  Crucial. That's good writing.

• 3:44Speaker 00

  Yeah. That's what I struggle with sometimes when I'm writing.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  Sure, I write iconic scenes.

• 3:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:50Speaker 00

  But they don't make sense in order.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  That's the thing with us stand-ups, man.

• 3:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:54Speaker 01

  We write all these routines.

• 3:55Speaker 00

  Iconic scenes, I call them.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Which is iconic scenes.

• 3:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  And then we have to like put them together in a show.

• 4:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  But then you sit down and write a script. That approach doesn't work.

• 4:05Speaker 00

  Doesn't work.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Just go from that, that idea to that idea willy nilly.

• 4:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  You really appreciate, there's people who write Succession.

• 4:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:12Speaker 01

  They really know what they're doing.

• 4:13Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 4:14Speaker 01

  I'm gonna ask him a lot about films and then tell him what he's been in.

• 4:19Speaker 00

  Give me a break.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  I tell him he's been in so much stuff.

• 4:23Speaker 00

  Super Troopers.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  Well done.

• 4:27Speaker 00

  Thank you. It's a new one coming up.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Really?

• 4:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Pretty cool.

• 4:32Speaker 00

  And this is on YouTube as well. You're probably watching this on YouTube. If you are watching it on YouTube or you're listening to it, why not watch it on YouTube?

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Why not do both?

• 4:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:40Speaker 01

  Uh, see which one you like the best.

• 4:41Speaker 00

  If you are just listening to this, um, you do want to watch it because James got a new T-shirt on that I like.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is fresh, fresh on today.

• 4:48Speaker 00

  Fresh tea, baby.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  I saw Paul Mescal wearing something similar.

• 4:51Speaker 00

  Hmm. I don't think ever say that. As a man, never say you're wearing something because Paul Mescal was wearing it.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  Really?

• 4:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Why?

• 4:58Speaker 00

  Because A, you sound like a little bitch and B, um, B, you could, no one looks like Paul Mescal, apart from Paul Mescal.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  I look pretty similar to him.

• 5:08Speaker 00

  Hmm. Because of your lovely little earring.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Well, that's, that's in the post. I'm definitely gonna do that.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  What? You should dress more and more like Paul Mescal every episode now. Yeah.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, more like him at Doncaster.

• 5:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, until the inevitable Irish accent.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I'll never do like the exercise or anything or, or get buff.

• 5:27Speaker 00

  No, no, no, no.

• 5:28Speaker 01

  I'll just dress exactly like him and do the voice.

• 5:30Speaker 00

  Yeah. We've got to get him back on.

• 5:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:34Speaker 01

  Tasting menu for Paul, if you're listening, Paul.

• 5:36Speaker 00

  Tasting menu for you, Paul. Uh, and, uh, don't be shocked when you arrive. James is gonna be dressed exactly like you.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  But in which film? Gladiator. Gladiator two.

• 5:47Speaker 00

  This is the other menu menu of Brian Cox.

• 5:50Speaker 01

  The actor and director.

• 6:00Speaker 00

  Welcome, Brian, to the dream restaurant.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  Well, it's, uh, well, so far it's nice to be here.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  Welcome, Brian Cox, to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  Can you say that again in English, please?

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Welcome, Brian Cox, to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time.

• 6:18Speaker 02

  I see. Okay. Bye.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  James is a genie, so he's welcoming you to the dream restaurant.

• 6:23Speaker 02

  All right. Well, do you rub them up the wrong way?

• 6:25Speaker 00

  I rubbed, I rubbed them up the wrong way. Yeah.

• 6:27Speaker 02

  Yes, it's always good to rub the genie up the wrong way because then he can shut the fuck up. You know what I mean?

• 6:33Speaker 01

  Feel free to swear, by the way.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  No, oh, I can swear.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, well.

• 6:37Speaker 01

  Everyone loves it when you swear.

• 6:38Speaker 02

  I never used to swear until I did this TV show and it's affected me now. I'm telling everybody to fuck off. On a regular basis.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  And people love it, right?

• 6:46Speaker 02

  People want me to talk the fuck off and it's the easiest thing to say. And they say, they come up to me and say, can you tell me to fuck off? Fuck off. And they go, oh, no, wait. I, I know you've got to fuck off. Now fuck off.

• 6:58Speaker 01

  Do they ever interrupt you while you're trying to enjoy a meal?

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Uh, no, no, I wouldn't let them near me. No, no. I've, I've strict instructions for restaurateurs to not allow anybody in them. It's like, the worst time is when you come out of the, like, I went to the theatre to see this, oh god, what's the play called? I can't remember the title of it, but it was brilliant with Rosalind Shanks at the, at the Windhams last night. It was really excellent play, really great play. But you come out and all these, you know, whether could you sign this, could you sign the next one? You know, you don't know, you could be signing a cheque for all you know. A lot of money could come out, you just don't. And yesterday I finally hit the turn and said, will you just all fuck off? And they go, they're like rats, they scamper away.

• 7:40Speaker 01

  But delighted as well, like they got the fuck off, yeah. People shout poppadoms or bread at me.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  No.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Uh, and stuff like that because of this podcast. Do people shout fuck off at you?

• 7:50Speaker 02

  No.

• 7:51Speaker 01

  No.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  Cause it, it wouldn't be, it would be more than the life's worth if they did that, quite frankly.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Too scared.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  Yes, because I have a lot of equipment around me.

• 8:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 8:02Speaker 02

  You can deal with.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  You, you've just directed a film for the first time.

• 8:06Speaker 02

  I have, yeah.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Like, it's very exciting. I love it when actors like step into the, the director's chair.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  Well, I never expected to do it. I mean, it was the last thing in the world I thought about. I mean, I've, I've acted for sixty five years. This is my sixty fifth year.

• 8:20Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 8:21Speaker 02

  Of acting.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Congratulations.

• 8:22Speaker 02

  Thank you, thank you. I'm dreading it, but anyway, so, so anyway, so I've never really bothered about any of that. And then finally, um, they, I, my friend Neil Zager came up and he said, uh, David Ashton, who I've been doing, because I love the radio, the radio is my passion, you know? That's the great thing about coming back here because they still do radio and they still have radio drama. You know, if you two have a, have a, you know, have a problem, you should get yourself with the BBC drama rep because I'm sure you could do very well.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:54Speaker 02

  Anyway. Just giving you advice for the future.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Thank you, I will take it, yeah, yeah. Keep it coming.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  But, no, it's, the radio is great, so he wrote this series called McLeavy, which I've done for twenty years, David Arston, and then he wrote the script, and then Neil's like, I said, and you're directing it. And I said, what do you mean I'm directing it? He said, no, you're directing it, you're gonna direct it. I said, well, that's the first time I've heard of it. He said, no, you're directing this film. So I said, oh, okay, I'll direct a film. But, and it was, it was tough, but I loved it in the end. Because I realised that so much of what goes on in the cinema, especially with, it's all about directors and their concepts and can't, I can't fucking stand concepts, quite frankly. I want them to go and take the concept and shove it up their, you know what. But, most of the time, but, you know, with,

• 9:42Speaker 02

  you know, with somebody who just comes and does it, and especially when you've got the actors, you just let the actors do the job.

• 9:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:48Speaker 02

  And when you've got people like Shirley Henderson, or people like Alan Cumming, you don't have to stand there and tell them what to do, because they know what to do.

• 9:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  Let them do it. But I think too many times where, you know, we're all, you know, you're all James Cameron bound, and it's always to be, you know, plastic and, but plastic that moves, you know, pretty well, you know, but you know what I mean?

• 10:08Speaker 01

  Now, we've been asking a lot about food. You said you had listened to the podcast, but you have a few notes for us?

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just think it's a wee bit bourgeois.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:16Speaker 02

  I, I, I really do think, you know, it's, you're, you're talking to a sort of middle class converted, or even people who haven't quite made middle class, who think, oh, this is another programme I can listen to.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Aspirational.

• 10:27Speaker 02

  Food aspiration. So I'm gonna talk about what it was like in the fifties.

• 10:31Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  About when you were, I'm not, I was a child of the fifties. So I remember rationing. And I remember when you, you know, I did my sweetie ration, and my dad was a grocer, ironically, so, so I remember that there wasn't, everything, and I, and that's actually the interesting tradition about Scotland, is food is on hand. You have to, there are things that you, of course, prepare, but basically, it's what you've got. You deal with what you have, and that's why porridge and oats has been the biggest thing. I mean, they used to keep porridge. Actually, in the old days, they would kept, they would keep porridge in drawers so you could cut it and serve it, free heat it up.

• 11:13Speaker 00

  I didn't know that.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  I wouldn't think it'd be a very nice porridge, but they did that.

• 11:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  In the past.

• 11:18Speaker 00

  So it was just ready to go.

• 11:19Speaker 02

  Ready to go, so it was a ready meal, they baked it, kept it in a drawer and then you cut it, you cut yourself, add your hot water and there it was. And that, and then usually they recommended, well, always it was honey because it was, there was never any sugars, so honey was a very healthy aspect of it. And the food really fundamentally was quite healthy food in that sense. And the same way that, um, friends of mine, like the lunch that we would get, but that was the other thing. Lunch is a completely anglo, it's a completely English concept. Because we don't have lunch in Scotland, we have dinner or dinner or dinner, depending which side of Scotland you come from. When I come from, it's dinner. Why, why are you going for your dinner?

• 12:02Speaker 02

  And the dinner meant that, that's what you, that was your lunchtime, but lunch was never, never, so there was dinner, dinner. There was, uh, tea time and there was supper. So you had dinners, tea time, supper. So dinner was a lunch. And that would probably be a soup of some kind, usually a ham broth soup. That was very popular in the working class community, that you got, you got a ham broth and you add vegetables to it and you cooked it up and it was delicious.

• 12:30Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  Because it had all the natural ingredients from the bone, from the marrow of the bone and, and that was your lunch. Oh, or dinner, sorry, see, I've, I've got some. And then in the evening, you'd have your tea time and your tea time would be anything really. Sometimes it was usually bacon, you know, bacon, bacon and eggs for tea, not for breakfast, but for tea. And then supper time was late at night and then you had your fish and chips.

• 12:58Speaker 00

  Nice.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  So you had your fish and chips before retiring, which was always a bit odd, but it's true, so. And the great thing where I came from in Dundee is all the fish and chip shops were owned by Italians. They were all Italians, so yeah, and and they and they had these Italian Scottish accents.

• 13:15Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 13:16Speaker 02

  So I was a wee boy, I would go in there and I'd be mucking, and the the guy would say, if you want the fish and the chips, eat the fish and the chips. If you don't want the fish and the chips, turn a mucker room with a sack dish, which was the salt dish. I said, sorry, sorry.

• 13:30Speaker 02

  That was the sort of, and it was this kind of accent that you could introduce.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  The Esposito families, the Soavis, the Del Nevos, the Patronis, all these Italian families, cooking the best ever fish and chips.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 13:43Speaker 02

  You know, they just had the right amount of batter, the right, and their haddocks were just incredible.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  Well, we always start with still still a sparkling water.

• 13:53Speaker 02

  See, that's how bourgeois you get. We always start with still a sparkling water, because this is such a vital. You mean water with bubbles?

• 14:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, sorry.

• 14:05Speaker 00

  Would you like still water or water with bubbles, Brian?

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:09Speaker 02

  Water, you know.

• 14:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 02

  Well, the problem is nowadays, the the, because what they do, what's, and everybody doesn't realise this now.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 02

  Fluoride is terrible.

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  And there's so much wa- there's fluoride in all our water now, and we should stop it.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 14:23Speaker 02

  Because fluoride causes the deterioration of the brain. It's one of the things that contributes to Alzheimer's, is fluoride. So you shouldn't drink anything with, drink bottles, bottle water, but not fluoride in water.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  Because all the dentist people are going to say that, because my dentist always gave me fluoride toothpaste, which I, and of course, I'm now mentally deficient as a result.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  Which you can tell by sitting there with it.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, you mean, this is a podcast about um about the news. You can talk about food. We keep on asking you about current events, you keep on talking about dinner, and like, it's very concerning. Yeah, sorry, yeah, yeah, I didn't want to attempt the accent. Um, do you have a preference? So you want fluoride free water?

• 15:08Speaker 02

  Hmm. Fluoride free water is very important.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  In a bottle?

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, bottled water is.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  Do you have a?

• 15:13Speaker 00

  The Scot- Scottish, Scottish water famously amazing, right?

• 15:16Speaker 02

  Scottish water, but of course they, they put fluoride into the reservoirs, you know, and it's not good.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  Hmm. Right.

• 15:22Speaker 02

  And it's, it was a big thing about the teeth and, you know, your teeth are fantastic.

• 15:28Speaker 02

  Even a corpse has good teeth.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  The old phrase.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  And when you find a, when you find a skeleton, it's usually still its teeth.

• 15:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yes. Skeletons, say what you want about them.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  Fluoride is not a problem.

• 15:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:42Speaker 02

  Get rid of the fluoride and you'll be fine.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  We haven't had much fluoride chat on the pod. This is the first.

• 15:47Speaker 00

  We very rarely have a corpse brought up at this point.

• 15:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, actually, it's the earliest someone's brought up a corpse. Especially in a positive.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. Popdom's all bread, popdom's all bread, Brian Cops.

• 15:58Speaker 00

  Popedom. Popedom's nice.

• 16:00Speaker 02

  Popedom. I mean, that's the other thing too, that the great thing about growing up is you get experience of other people's food.

• 16:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:07Speaker 02

  You know, and I love that. I mean, for instance, where I live now is in Primrose Hill.

• 16:11Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 16:11Speaker 02

  And there's a wonderful Cypriot restaurant called Lamonia, which I recommend to anybody. It's probably, it's a, it's a Cyprian restaurant, which is Greek. But it's a, it's a family restaurant that's been going for, for nearly 50 years.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  Well.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  The people who run it and the food, the kleftaka is just, they have this lamb shank that they cook all day. It's a slow cooking lamb shank and it's absolutely delicious. And the other thing is, what's the famous cheese in Greek?

• 16:39Speaker 01

  Better?

• 16:39Speaker 00

  Haloumi?

• 16:40Speaker 02

  Haloumi. Never touch haloumi.

• 16:42Speaker 00

  You never touch it?

• 16:43Speaker 02

  No. The best cheese they have is called saganaki.

• 16:46Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  Have you tasted saganaki?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  I've had saganaki.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Saganaki, have you had saganaki?

• 16:50Speaker 01

  No, I've not.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  Well, tell us about saganaki.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  It's less squeaky than haloumi. It doesn't have the squeak.

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, it doesn't.

• 16:55Speaker 00

  It bakes very well.

• 16:57Speaker 02

  You bake and it's hot. You eat it hot. It's absolutely delicious.

• 17:00Speaker 00

  It's got more of a sort of stretch than haloumi. Yeah, it's delicious.

• 17:03Speaker 02

  It's really, really good. Really, really good.

• 17:05Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  And so that's, that's very good. And then we have a very good fusion restaurant where they do a lot of stuff. So, you know, you. Your food, that's why I couldn't say, oh, my ideal meal is this.

• 17:18Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 17:18Speaker 02

  I mean, my ideal meal is the one I eat when I'm hungry.

• 17:21Speaker 00

  We, we are gonna force you to give your ideal meal though, Brian. That is, that is the format.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're naughty boys.

• 17:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, we will. We understand it's an annoying question, cause if someone asks me, what's your dream meal, I'd be like, well, it depends on the day.

• 17:36Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, no, no, you can't. We've, we, actors have tried this with us in the past and we know now, we're gonna have to nail you to the wall.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  You want all the dips for the pompadms?

• 17:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, I love pompadms. I mean, I, I love them, I love chapati and I love pompadms. Because the thinner the bread, the more purchase you get. Whereas the bigger, the thicker the bread, it sort of absorbs it too much. You never get that, you know, extra thing that you get with, for me with a chapati. Or a, or a pompadon, you know.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  A dream starter for you, Brian Cox?

• 18:07Speaker 02

  Uh, some kind of soup. Probably the, I mean, this would, you know, different seasons, but the ideal soup for me is gazpacho.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Oh, nice. We're going cold.

• 18:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Lovely cold soup.

• 18:18Speaker 02

  Lovely cold soup is a great way to start the meal, you know, and it's healthy and it's vigorously, and it gets, sets you up. I think gazpacho is a great, great meal, you know.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  But of course, more, you would think more in the sort of summer, summer season.

• 18:31Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, it's, it's more, it's more or less a summer thing, but I, I take it all the year round. I mean, you can get it all the year round nowadays, you know. And some of this, some of these gazpachos that they sell as gazpachos are really quite good. They're really quite good.

• 18:44Speaker 00

  When you think about your dream restaurant and the dream meal, do you have a particular place in mind or a particular season?

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Well, it depends really on the restaurant, you know, I mean, there are, there's a wonderful restaurant now in, in, uh, in Primrose Hill called Michael Madra. And that restaurant is just brilliant because the Sunday roast there is to die for.

• 19:08Speaker 02

  To Difer, their Yorkshire pudding, Michael's Yorkshire pudding is beyond a dream. And if you ever want to have a really great, good Sunday meal, can you travel?

• 19:18Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:19Speaker 00

  We're allowed.

• 19:19Speaker 01

  I can travel, I'm allowed to Primrose Hill, my mommy says you can go there.

• 19:23Speaker 02

  You're allowed to go to Primrose.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:25Speaker 00

  I have to take the lamp with me, of course, because he's a genie, so I would have to go on, go to Primrose Hill.

• 19:30Speaker 02

  Oh, I'll show him and then rub them up the wrong way.

• 19:32Speaker 00

  Or the wrong way, yeah, yeah.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, we'll see.

• 19:34Speaker 02

  But that, that, there's, Michael Nardre is just, that, I mean, I've walked past that restaurant for thirteen years and I didn't go into it. And now I'm hooked, I go there every Sunday, it's just incredible.

• 19:45Speaker 01

  This guy doesn't like Yorkshire puddings, he always slags Yorkshire puddings up on the podcast.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  What, there's nothing to be said.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 19:54Speaker 02

  I mean, I can't, I'm speechless.

• 19:56Speaker 00

  What makes these Yorkshire puddings special? Do you think, do you think even I, as a Yorkshire pudding denier, would like them?

• 20:02Speaker 02

  It's only, it's the Yorkshire pudding, but it's with the gravy. That's the thing that makes Yorkshire puddings, it's not just Yorkshire pudding on its own, because it's too dry, but if you eat it, if you cut it and have it with the gravy, it's delicious.

• 20:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  It's delicious.

• 20:15Speaker 00

  Ed, my issue with them is they take up too much real estate on the plate.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's laughable, isn't it?

• 20:23Speaker 02

  He's doing a cooking programme, he's taking too much real estate on the plate.

• 20:26Speaker 01

  It's too much real estate on the plate.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  Is this the right pursuit for you?

• 20:31Speaker 02

  I question, I question your career choice.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  Look, yeah, good point, Brian.

• 20:37Speaker 00

  Look, they said they're huge and they don't, they don't, they taste like clay.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  Get a bigger plate.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  Ah, yes.

• 20:44Speaker 02

  That's all you have to do.

• 20:45Speaker 01

  No one said this to him before, get a bigger plate, you moron.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  Get a bigger plate and then just say, if you're worried about the size of your Yorkshire pudding, just say, hey chef, give me a bigger plate, because I love your Yorkshire pudding, I don't want it to shrink, so I'll, I'll, I'll have a bigger plate.

• 21:00Speaker 00

  Okay, thanks, Brian, I'll ask for a bigger plate next time.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  Good, that'll solve your problem.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  Brian, before we continue, uh, I've got to tell you, you're in three of my favourite films of all time. Um, can you guess just by your experience of me so far, what those films are?

• 21:18Speaker 02

  I have no idea.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  You wouldn't even be able to?

• 21:20Speaker 02

  Well, I've done so many of them.

• 21:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've done so many.

• 21:22Speaker 00

  Sixty five years.

• 21:23Speaker 02

  I've done, I've done over two hundred movies.

• 21:27Speaker 01

  You have?

• 21:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Well, I'll, I'll, I'll maybe ask you questions about them as we go on.

• 21:31Speaker 02

  Okay, okay. Then, then you, you, you, you don't have to reveal it and they'll guess from your question.

• 21:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay. So guess what film this is from this question?

• 21:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:39Speaker 01

  Who do you think is the Zodiac Killer?

• 21:41Speaker 02

  Oh, the Zodiac Killer?

• 21:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, who do you, who do you think, who do you think the Zodiac Killer was?

• 21:46Speaker 02

  I have no idea.

• 21:47Speaker 01

  Oh, come on, Brian. You were, you were in the film.

• 21:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I played the guy who defended Jack Ruby, by the way.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  And he failed there.

• 22:05Speaker 01

  Your dream main course, Brian?

• 22:07Speaker 02

  My dream main course? Ah, well, I have two dream main courses, really. It depends on what I'm feeling like on a particular day. But I love lamb. So anything, uh, uh, uh, you know, lamb biryani or an Indian lamb, I just absolutely adore. And then I love, the Greek thing is to go back to the fish. Uh, the sea bream, I love the Greek sea bream, which is absolutely delicious. And you get, you've got to bone it because it's quite bony, but it really is a very, very, very tasty fish. Uh, I think it's more tastier than the Dover sole, which is incredibly expensive.

• 22:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  And the sea bream is manageable.

• 22:48Speaker 00

  And that would be grilled like sort of barbecue, you'd have that on?

• 22:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 22:53Speaker 00

  Absolutely delicious.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, really good.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  So you probably aren't gonna enjoy us trying to make you choose between those two things?

• 23:01Speaker 02

  No.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  No?

• 23:06Speaker 00

  Should we do a few takes of each and then we can pick one later?

• 23:10Speaker 02

  I'll never listen to this.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  You will listen to it. I think you're gonna listen to this.

• 23:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 23:15Speaker 01

  I think you'll listen back to this a few times. It'll become like.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  To listen to it. That's what I have to do now all the time.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  Brian, you know, you went too far. Okay.

• 23:28Speaker 00

  I don't think you need to learn to behave yourself, Brian. Fantastic. We're loving it.

• 23:33Speaker 02

  Good.

• 23:34Speaker 01

  You delivered my favorite monologue, maybe in a movie history.

• 23:39Speaker 02

  Adaptation?

• 23:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  When you play Robert McKee.

• 23:42Speaker 02

  When I play Robert McKee.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  You're giving a, for the listener, you're giving a seminar writing.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:48Speaker 01

  And.

• 23:48Speaker 02

  About life, you know, but he knows nothing about, you know, fuck all about life.

• 23:52Speaker 01

  It's so good. I mean.

• 23:53Speaker 02

  When I blame to.

• 23:56Speaker 02

  Nick Cage.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:57Speaker 02

  By the way, Nick Cage is such an undervalued actor.

• 24:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  He's an amazing, because in that film, the way he acts with his twin.

• 24:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:06Speaker 02

  Is incredible.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:07Speaker 02

  I mean, to see what Nick does in that movie is just, it's an incredible performance.

• 24:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  And it's not given the due respect that it deserves, actually, because he's so eccentric.

• 24:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:17Speaker 02

  Nick Cage, but he's, he's, he's one hell of an actor.

• 24:21Speaker 00

  I love him.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's amazing in that. I mean, Edward's performances, and I think Chris Cooper won an Oscar for that.

• 24:26Speaker 02

  Chris is wonderful in that. Yeah, he's a wonderful actor.

• 24:28Speaker 01

  Um, and I didn't know who Robert McKee was when I watched it. I didn't know he was a real guy who gave these writing seminars.

• 24:34Speaker 02

  It was very funny because I remember when we were doing it and Robert was very nervous because he, they included him and they thought they were gonna hu-. He was worried that they were gonna humiliate him, but not at all. They had huge respect. And I said to him when we were, we did the scene when, there's a scene in the bar between Nick and I afterwards, where we're talking quite quietly. And I said, and the guy came, the first assistant came up to the director, which was, what's his name? Lovely guy who directed it.

• 25:04Speaker 01

  Oh, Spike Jonze?

• 25:05Speaker 02

  Spike Jonze, yes. Spike came up to Spike and he said, well, finally you've got your Obi-Wan Kenobi character. And I said, you know, and I told, and I told McKee, Robert, I told him that. And he went, oh, thank God. Thank God. He thought he was gonna be rubbish, you know?

• 25:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:25Speaker 02

  So he thought, oh, I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's good.

• 25:29Speaker 01

  Do you remember much of that monologue?

• 25:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, if you ask me, of course I'll kill you.

• 25:37Speaker 02

  I'll reach out my long arm and scramble you.

• 25:42Speaker 02

  Don't do any, do you remember much of that monologue?

• 25:44Speaker 00

  Do you remember it?

• 25:46Speaker 01

  And why the fuck are you wasting my time with it? I remember that line.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  That's not quite the rhyme, but I understand.

• 25:56Speaker 02

  I can tell by the way you said it.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  A child watches his mother beaten to death on the steps of a church.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  Yes, that's right.

• 26:02Speaker 00

  You did it in your own style, I'd say. You made it sound like your standard.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  I would do it in my own style. If I was playing that role, I'm not gonna nail it like.

• 26:10Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:10Speaker 01

  I'm gonna do it how I would do it.

• 26:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  And the film probably wouldn't do very well.

• 26:14Speaker 00

  Different film.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  Very different film. Robert McKee wouldn't be as, I don't think anyone would be calling that character Obi-Wan Kenobi if I, if I performed it.

• 26:20Speaker 00

  More C-3PO.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, more C-3PO.

• 26:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would have thought so. Yeah, okay.

• 26:25Speaker 01

  Now go on.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  Feel free, Brian.

• 26:33Speaker 01

  We could go half and half lamb and seabream if you want.

• 26:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, that's fine.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I thought you'd be okay with that.

• 26:41Speaker 00

  So it's a biryani, you want the lamb, lamb biryani?

• 26:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, sort of lamb, yeah, with the, one of those exotic Indian sauces.

• 26:49Speaker 00

  Do you have a particular go-to Indian restaurant that you like to go to?

• 26:52Speaker 02

  Unfortunately, no, because we, we used to have an Indian restaurant up in Primorso. I tried to travel nowhere else, but in my local area.

• 27:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:00Speaker 02

  So we don't have an Indian restaurant, which is a great shame, actually. There used to be one, but there isn't one anymore. So I have to go to Kensington or somewhere like that and get a bus pass.

• 27:12Speaker 00

  Today's episode of the Off Menu podcast is sponsored by Cozy, the home of possibilities, James.

• 27:18Speaker 01

  Oh, man, Ed, Cozy has everything you need to make your home feel like it has a plan. Do you know what I mean?

• 27:23Speaker 00

  I know what you mean. Cozy is a wonderful furniture company. It makes furnishing your whole home easy. Sofas, dining, storage, rugs, bedroom, even outdoor, all designed to make your space feel put together without the usual furniture stress. And James, we talk about dream. Meals on this podcast. But you know what? We very rarely talk about where we want to eat this dream meal.

• 27:43Speaker 01

  Sure, yeah, I like it when it does come up. It is very important. It changes the whole meal, the setting, the vibe. And Cozy's modular customisable furniture for the whole home does just that.

• 27:54Speaker 00

  And the meal, James, doesn't necessarily end at dessert. We've often talked about wanting to take our maybe final course through to a comfy room. And I think this is where Cozy can really come in handy. Go and relax on the sofa, maybe even eat your meal at a lovely, beautiful Cozy table. Linger a little bit, move through with coffees and dessert to a lovely couch. But I know what you're like, James, you're a mucky pup.

• 28:16Speaker 01

  I'm gonna spill stuff everywhere. Is that gonna ruin the Cozy furniture?

• 28:19Speaker 00

  No, don't worry about that, James, because it's highly washable, James. It's sauce, wine, sparkling water, dessert crumbs. You telling one of your big stories and sloshing a coffee everywhere? Don't worry, you can pop it in the wash.

• 28:31Speaker 01

  Oh, so you're saying Cozy makes every day at home feel like my best day?

• 28:34Speaker 00

  Absolutely, that's exactly what I'm saying. And with Cozy, your home can grow with you, adapting to new spaces, new styles and every era of your life, James. I think it's so hard, especially when you move somewhere new, to immediately make that place feel like yours, that it's been put together well. And that's where Cozy comes in.

• 28:51Speaker 01

  And because it's Cozy, the furniture isn't just good looking, but actually practical. Modular pieces, easy assembly, washable and interchangeable covers and free design consultations if you want help making the whole room work.

• 29:03Speaker 00

  And it's easy to order, ship and assemble and maintain, James. The only way is the Cozy way.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Visit Cozy today, that's C O Z E Y dot com and make yourself at home.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Your dream side dish.

• 29:24Speaker 02

  Well, I love peas.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:27Speaker 02

  I absolutely love peas. I think peas are very underrated.

• 29:31Speaker 00

  Like Nick Cage, the Nick Cage of the vegetable world.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  Yes, that's very well put. You know, you're working with somebody very intelligent. You should really be very thankful.

• 29:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, I say this to him, Brian, he should be very thankful. He should thank me every day.

• 29:47Speaker 01

  I do thank you every day.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  No, that's right, yeah, absolutely, absolutely that. What did you just say?

• 29:54Speaker 01

  He said that peas were the Nick Cage of the vegetables.

• 29:56Speaker 02

  Peas are great, I love peas.

• 29:59Speaker 01

  How do you want these peas prepared then for your, for your dream meal?

• 30:02Speaker 02

  Just simple, uh, soft, uh, not too hard, uh, and well cooked in salt, uh, uh, and, uh, yeah. And then because the gravy, you know, when you have a peas, the peas attract the gravy and that works very well.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  One of my other favourite films that you've done is, um, with another director, I'm interested to hear what you think of it. He's very, he's very particular and precise, is, uh, you and Rushmore.

• 30:28Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 30:29Speaker 01

  With Wes Anderson.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Wes Anderson, yeah.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  Who you've worked with twice, is it? Yeah, you did Fantastic Mr Fox as well.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:36Speaker 01

  Which must have been very different, although he had you, when you're doing Fantastic Mr Fox, he had you acting it out still?

• 30:40Speaker 02

  Well, I would suppose, he, he, he, unfortunately, Michael Gamble was still alive then. So that sounds rather wrong.

• 30:49Speaker 01

  No, no, we're all, we've all got a lot more work now. Michael Gamble's no longer with us.

• 30:55Speaker 02

  Why did I say it that way? Now, Michael, who was very funny, he was just one of the, but I remember I played Yago to his hotel and he was just so naughty. Cause in the, in the mad scenes, he used to go, I love you, Yago, I love you, I love you. You know, cause nobody would understand that he was saying, I love you, Yago, I love you. And I'm going, Michael, don't do that to me when I'm on stage. He's throwing, you know, and he'd stop acting, he'd build up to something and I'm going, oh yes. And then he'd stop and I said, where have you gone? He's notorious, but brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  So you were both in Fantastic Mr Fox, doing the voices.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  Yes, I got, well, I actually originally was playing that part that he played.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Oh, I see.

• 31:35Speaker 02

  And then I was replaced.

• 31:37Speaker 01

  Oh, Gamble.

• 31:38Speaker 02

  So there was a lot of bitterness about that.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he didn't replace you in Rushmore, which you were fantastic in.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  He didn't replace me in Rushmore, no, no. Well, Rushmore was the first film, so I couldn't have been replaced, cause the only one he made before that was Battle Rocket.

• 31:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 31:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:50Speaker 01

  He, he got to do a bit more of like his own thing with Rushmore. Was there a sense of like?

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Well, Rushmore, I think Rushmore is good. I think that he's become very fantastical, you know, I mean, he's, he's, he followed the fantastical Mr Fox.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  Become more Mr fantastical than Mr Fox. So I, I, I still like Wes, but it's, uh, it's an acquired taste, shall we say.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's got more and more precise and be able to do whatever he wants.

• 32:16Speaker 00

  You can tell, you can tell it's his films.

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Just in terms of his visual sense.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  And he always does great actors. He's lucky that way, you know. He worked with Bill Murray, did a lot of his films. Many, many of his films. And then Rafe has done, Rafe Fiennes has done the, the, the hotel, the hotel.

• 32:33Speaker 01

  Grand Budapest Hotel, yeah.

• 32:34Speaker 02

  Hotel, which is really excellent, really excellent.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Is it true that Bill Murray financed a lot of Rushmore as well? Is that cause like?

• 32:40Speaker 02

  I don't know about that. I, so I wouldn't swear to it. I know it could be possible.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 32:45Speaker 02

  Could be possible. Um, but he probably needed the work, so he probably needed some kind of, uh, you know, something that could show his craft to, so he probably may have decided to finance it.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  Chuck a bit of money at it, why not?

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:58Speaker 00

  I might start doing that.

• 32:59Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah?

• 33:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, but buy myself parts in films. That's pretty good, isn't it?

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Yes, but it's a sticky end, you know, because they always go, that's the guy.

• 33:11Speaker 00

  Too late, I'm in a film.

• 33:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, they can't do nothing about it. I've been in a film with Bill Murray, of course.

• 33:17Speaker 00

  Have you? Of course. Brian doesn't know this. Have you seen Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Brian?

• 33:22Speaker 02

  What?

• 33:23Speaker 00

  Ghostbusters Frozen Empire?

• 33:24Speaker 02

  No.

• 33:25Speaker 00

  No. Well, James is in that.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  I'm Lars Pinfield. You probably know the character.

• 33:30Speaker 02

  No, I have no idea who you're talking about. What is it?

• 33:32Speaker 01

  He's a.

• 33:33Speaker 00

  You know Ghostbusters?

• 33:34Speaker 01

  A herbologist.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, they still make them. And there's Ghost.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  Well, it was the female Ghostbusters.

• 33:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, after that. So then they made a couple more. And there's one called, the most recent one is called Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. And James plays Lars Pinfield.

• 33:46Speaker 02

  Oh, why?

• 33:47Speaker 01

  Scientist.

• 33:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:48Speaker 02

  Is that made here?

• 33:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, in Reading. Yeah, we made it in Reading. Yeah, yeah, mainly.

• 33:55Speaker 02

  There seems to be an act of desperation about that.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  No, no, no, not desperate.

• 34:01Speaker 00

  No, not desperate?

• 34:02Speaker 01

  No, not desperate at all.

• 34:03Speaker 00

  Do you mean, do you mean making it in Reading or casting James?

• 34:05Speaker 02

  No, no, no, not, not casting James. No, no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that, James. I meant making it in Reading.

• 34:10Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  Why? Cause Ghostbusters was originally set in New York.

• 34:15Speaker 01

  New York, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, yeah. But, you know, Reading's very similar to New York, though. You've been there.

• 34:22Speaker 02

  No, I've always tried to avoid it.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Oh, well, you should go. It's like, it's the New York of the UK.

• 34:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  Very New York, Brian.

• 34:29Speaker 02

  You must have missed out.

• 34:34Speaker 01

  Your dream drink. Now, we're excited about this because obviously.

• 34:38Speaker 02

  Margarita.

• 34:42Speaker 00

  We were gonna make a wonderful connection between drinks and the new film. Obviously, there's a.

• 34:48Speaker 02

  I used to drink a lot of whiskey.

• 34:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:50Speaker 02

  But eventually, you can't really drink a lot of whiskey. You get to my age.

• 34:54Speaker 00

  Right, okay.

• 34:55Speaker 02

  You have to sort of temper it a bit. I mean, my favorite whiskey is still my favorite whiskey and I occasionally will. I'll have a smell of it more than even a drink of it because actually even smelling whiskey is as good as drinking it and people don't realize that. So it's called Lagavulin.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  And it's the peaty whiskey. It's an Islay whiskey. It comes from the same river as. Islay, what's the, or what's the other whiskey called? Come from Islay. His name's gone. Anyway, it's the same.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  Should know that. My dad loves this whiskey.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  It's the same river. It's the same river, but it's different. One, but one is, it's, this is the peaty. It's, it's, it's the part of the river which has really, you know, got that, that, that peak taste and feeling, you know? And it does that when you drink it, it goes down and then it makes a sort of, in the center of your body. It just goes, and it's wow.

• 35:45Speaker 00

  It's amazing how you can acquire that sort of taste because my, my dad drinks that sort of whiskey and I remember maybe when I was 16 or 17, he was like, have a taste of this. And I literally could not believe a human being was putting that in their mouth.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  He cried.

• 35:57Speaker 00

  It was just, it was mad. I didn't cry.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  You told me you cried.

• 36:00Speaker 00

  I think, I've never told you this story before. We've done 300 episodes.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  All right, all right, boys, all right.

• 36:04Speaker 00

  Sorry, Brian.

• 36:05Speaker 02

  I don't want to throw a bucket of water over you.

• 36:08Speaker 00

  We don't like doing this in front of guests normally, sorry. The peaty and just the, the way it feels in your mouth and it absolutely takes your head off, but now I would absolutely drink it.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, but the thing is that you don't let, you don't let it sit in your mouth. You have to swallow it. So the thing is to do, to breathe in.

• 36:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  Take it and let, and that's where, when it hits there, when it gets into the gut and it does that pow and it spreads through your body.

• 36:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:32Speaker 02

  In fact, you made me want to drink.

• 36:35Speaker 01

  It's one of my dad's favorite whiskies and when I go home to see my parents, if he's got a bottle of that, we'll stay up and have.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  No, it's, it's a great whiskey, a really great whiskey, but I do drink margarita.

• 36:46Speaker 01

  But margarita is good.

• 36:47Speaker 02

  Well, tequila is really quite healthy because it's from the agave plant. So it's all, it's a very healthy drink, you know, actually, believe it or not. I mean, apart from. Any of the syrup stuff that they add to it. But the tequila, the, actually tequila itself is really good.

• 37:04Speaker 01

  And it's an upper, it's the only alcohol.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  It's an upper, yeah, it is an upper, you know, it's not, it's not a depressive.

• 37:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:09Speaker 02

  No, you don't get very many tequila drunks falling off pubs. You do get whiskey drunks falling off pubs, not tequila drunks.

• 37:17Speaker 01

  Do you have anywhere that makes an amazing margarita that you go to?

• 37:21Speaker 02

  Uh, I haven't, the, well, the guy who did it was a guy when I was doing Rat in the Skull in the eighties. And we went to New York and there was a guy called Neville, who's from Jersey. And he used to make them in the bar, which was, I can't remember the name of the bar, but they were the best I've ever had. And I haven't had any since, I mean, because he was very special, he did it, very special.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Did you do the salt round the rim and stuff?

• 37:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, all that, the whole thing.

• 37:47Speaker 01

  When you're, when you're drinking it with the salt round the rim, are you rotating the glass with every sip? Or are you just drinking with the same bit every time?

• 37:54Speaker 02

  No, no, no, you, you should rotate the glass, that's, that's the idea, you know, and, and the salt. The salt sort of alleviates the sweetness.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:02Speaker 02

  Which is, and I, it's really, I, I love it, it's good.

• 38:05Speaker 01

  This, I think the salt round the rim is so important. I was speaking to someone recently, he was like, I don't like the salt round the rim. So they have a sugar rim.

• 38:12Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 38:12Speaker 01

  Which is madness to me.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  Well, it's insane, it's not treating the drink properly.

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:17Speaker 02

  You know, I mean, they, they, you know, these drinks like margaritas, they, they've come to their own identity through years of refining and refining and refining. You know, and they know that that salt makes that, because it's quite a sweet drink, but it stops it being overly sweet. And that's why the salt round the rim is very important.

• 38:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:37Speaker 02

  And a lot of people, you know, if I go to a, a bar, they serve it without salt, I will refuse to drink it. I said, no, no, the, the proper margarita has to be salt round the rim.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  I completely agree. When you're, this is what I'm thinking while we're talking to you, when you're improvising on the succession, do you think the other actors find it quite intimidating? Because you're playing Logan Roy, so you're even more kind of like.

• 39:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, my character, I didn't improvise all that much.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  You didn't that much?

• 39:05Speaker 02

  No, I, I felt, I didn't feel the need to improvise, you know, uh, I mean, the genius improvising, who was terrified of it when we started, was Kieran Culkin.

• 39:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:17Speaker 02

  And Kieran became a genius, but he, he, he was panicked when he was first asked to improvise. I remember, and he said, what do I do? I said, well, you make it up.

• 39:27Speaker 02

  He said, really? I said, yeah, it's fine. You just make it up. Whatever's, you know, whatever you feel is your, is your happening to your character at the time and you just go with it. And then, then we couldn't stop him. He was like a tap that we turned on and we couldn't turn it off. He was brilliant. He's brilliant. And he's got so much success now and he deserves it because he's a really, I mean, and that boy was, you know, he comes from a very troubled family. You know, they've had a lot of tough time, that family. And, uh, you know, his sister was killed in a car accident and, you know, so, and they were very close, very close lit father, family. And, uh, he, he, you know, before he came to, to do succession, he had a really tough time.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  And now he's flying, which, and he deserves to because he's, he's a wonderful, and he's a wonderful guy too, you know.

• 40:16Speaker 01

  Is there members of the cast who you, uh, still keep in contact with quite a lot?

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Well, unfortunately, no, because, because of work, you know, you move on to somewhere else and you're, you're, you're not doing with your, your team. And that was a great team. I mean, working with that team for all the years I worked with them, you know, five, six years now. Over five or six years, four seasons, but it was over six years. And it was, they were just divine. I mean, all of them were great. Even Jeremy Strong.

• 40:46Speaker 02

  Jeremy's a wonderful actor.

• 40:47Speaker 01

  He's fantastic.

• 40:47Speaker 02

  He's a wonderful actor and to play with, he's great. You know, he has a lot of other stuff. But the playing with, there was never a time when I didn't enjoy doing a scene with Jeremy. And there was always an adventure in the scene, you know.

• 40:59Speaker 01

  Well, so I was thinking the other day about like, just like the very few TV series that, uh, even have more than one good season, let alone like four in a row, wrap it all up. Everything's brilliant about it. All the characters are memorable, the writing, like, it's so hard to get so many people all working at that higher, higher level.

• 41:21Speaker 02

  Jesse Armstrong. That really is Jesse Armstrong. I mean, he has that, he has a unifying quality about him and, and people, and we want to work for Jesse. We want to do our best for him. He's a wonderful producer, wonderful, and, and, and it was a great show and it was always an adventure, you know, some of the, still my favorite line is, uh, I love you, but you're not serious people. It's still my very, and it says about, it says the whole thing, really, you know. That was my only, my only caveat about me is I felt. He he put too much pressure on the young people. Because we'd had so much about what their debate was throughout. Probably throughout certainly the first.

• 42:05Speaker 02

  The last series of the of the third series, there was a lot of that and then into the fourth series. But I felt that they should have killed me off one episode later. Because it it was a burden for them to repeat go through what they had to go through again. So sometimes. And I think Jesse agrees with me. I think it was it became a bit repetitive in a way.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Really?

• 42:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's still brilliant. I mean, still, you know, it still stands brilliantly of any show I've ever done. I still think it's one of the best things I've ever done, you know, just as a as an ensemble piece, just fantastic. But I I think Jesse had, you know, he's just an extraordinary man to work with, you know, he's just. There's a sort of, you know, and and the fact that he went only to four series, I thought was incredibly brave. I mean, everybody thought, oh, we can get another series out of this. I knew, you know, because I kept saying it was called succession. And you've got to see a time when they they do the succession bit and. And but that was my only feeling, just just one episode later, it it could have been, it could have been set off. I mean, still the same idea, but just.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I I I that episode where your character does die is one of those few episodes of TV. I can remember like where I was sitting in my living room when I was watching it because it was such a.

• 43:21Speaker 02

  Shock.

• 43:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like, I can't believe I'm doing this now.

• 43:23Speaker 02

  And and in that sense, it worked brilliantly. There's no question. I still think we could have had the shock, but I I think we could have done it one later. You know, and that would and it would have alleviated the stuff that the kids had to do afterwards.

• 43:35Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 43:35Speaker 00

  How many different places do you sit in your living room? Like, I could tell you where I'm sat in my living room when I watch anything.

• 43:41Speaker 01

  That would sit wherever.

• 43:42Speaker 00

  On the sofa.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Free on the sofa because I I've got cats, man.

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, he's got a lot of cats.

• 43:45Speaker 02

  I've got cats.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  How many cats have you got?

• 43:47Speaker 02

  Well, sadly, Pishi, who is an eldest cat, who was, I'm not an animal person at all, but. Pishi was just this extraordinary. I thought he was a bit needy for me, you know, but he he's just passed, well, he's just passed away.

• 44:03Speaker 01

  Sorry.

• 44:04Speaker 02

  And he was nineteen.

• 44:05Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, and he was just, he was just. Pure love, the cat is pure love and I just, cause it was a bit, it was always, you know, there on your lap and whatnot. At first I thought, uh, cause I'm not very good with all of that anyway. But then in the end, in the last days of his life, he's, we used to sit on the sofa together and we'd talk. Yeah. We would literally, I would, I would talk to him, you know, you know.

• 44:33Speaker 02

  I mean, I, probably I would have been certified, uh, but if anybody discovered me. I talked, I talked to my cat all of the time.

• 44:39Speaker 00

  I think I know what you're saying. I'm like, yeah, I'm agreeing with him, you know.

• 44:42Speaker 01

  Brian's had too much floor, right? That's what everyone's worried about.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Exactly, exactly. But the wonderful about cats is they're so, they're so self-possessed. They don't, you know, they don't need anything, you know, they, they do that, you know, you're not, that's the problem with dogs, you've got to wipe up their shit, you know.

• 45:00Speaker 01

  That's been Eto's life.

• 45:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:03Speaker 01

  He's wiping up shit all the time, that guy.

• 45:04Speaker 00

  He's a dog owner.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm, I feel for you.

• 45:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:08Speaker 02

  But, you know, it's just, you, you, the cats don't do that.

• 45:11Speaker 00

  Cats do their own thing, so when they're affectionate, it feels like a privilege.

• 45:14Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 45:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  I know, of course, I, I took it for granted that, you know, with, with, with Pishi, I took it for granted. We've got another cat who's equally nineteen, she's still going, Princess. Wow. And, and then we've got this little bruiser called Bowie, who's a, you know, one of those grey cats. Yeah. I think they're a special breed. Yeah. I met a similar one in California, which was exactly the same looking cat with the same behaviour, very stroppy. Yeah. Very stroppy. A British sh- short hair maybe? Yeah. Those are the grey, the grey blue ones. Yeah, yeah, the grey, yeah, yeah, that's them.

• 45:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, beautiful cats.

• 45:47Speaker 02

  Beautiful cats, but they can be a bit, you know, Princess, she was a female. Yeah. And she didn't go on with Princess. There was a lot of rowing between Princess and her, you know, females when they get together, they don't, the males they don't bother, but the females they get, ah, you know, a lot of that goes on.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  We arrive at your dream dessert, Brian, my favourite course.

• 46:09Speaker 02

  Uh, cranican.

• 46:11Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 46:12Speaker 00

  Here we go.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  Now, you know fully well, we don't know. You're so happy with yourself that we don't know what that is. You know what that is?

• 46:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:19Speaker 01

  Oh, sorry. I'm the ignorant one.

• 46:21Speaker 02

  Cranican is...

• 46:22Speaker 01

  Do you want to say what it is?

• 46:23Speaker 00

  Raspberries?

• 46:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:24Speaker 00

  Cream?

• 46:25Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:25Speaker 00

  Oats in there as well?

• 46:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:27Speaker 00

  Bit of whisky, maybe?

• 46:27Speaker 02

  Yes, absolutely. And honey.

• 46:29Speaker 00

  And honey. Get in the fucking bin, mate. I know what it is.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  Call me off for the ground.

• 46:34Speaker 02

  Absolutely right. And also, also now, i- i- i- and it's served, you can now serve it semi-frozen, so it's really...

• 46:43Speaker 00

  Oh, nice.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  And that's really delicious. And that's, that's a fantastic sweet. And again, it's a Scottish... I mean, of course, the boys who went to Eton called it a thing called Eton mess, and all they did was stole cranican and called it an Eton mess.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:55Speaker 02

  Because Eton is a mess anyway, so it's understandable.

• 46:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. I hope it burns to the ground. I hope Eton burns to the ground, and then they can call that a mess.

• 47:03Speaker 02

  I think you've gone a bit too far on that.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, sorry.

• 47:05Speaker 00

  Steady on, James.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  Well, that dessert, is this the first time we've had it on the podcast?

• 47:10Speaker 00

  I think it's the first time we've had cranican on the...

• 47:12Speaker 01

  Delicious.

• 47:13Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 47:13Speaker 01

  Do you have good memories of it? Do you remember, like, when you first had it?

• 47:16Speaker 02

  No, I had a, I think, had a... I can't remember where I first had it, but I think it was in Edinburgh I first had it. At somebody's house, and I just thought, wow, what is this? I didn't know anything about it, you know, about cranican. It's really good.

• 47:31Speaker 00

  It is a combination of some of the best, like, Scottish products, right?

• 47:34Speaker 02

  And that's the other, that's the other thing. It's Scottish products, and it's, it's products of the ground, you know, raspberries, and it's oats, and it's whisky. And also, they insist, and I don't even know what that is, but they say that the best honey is heather honey. Do you know what heather honey is?

• 47:52Speaker 00

  I know it exists, and I could probably taste, I'd taste it and say that's heather honey, but I don't know how they put, how the heather's getting in there, or what stage they put the heather in.

• 48:01Speaker 02

  Well, the bees must screw the heather to get the honey.

• 48:04Speaker 00

  That must be what it is.

• 48:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:07Speaker 01

  Good on him.

• 48:08Speaker 00

  So it's randy little bees on the...

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Randy little bees, yeah, screwing the heather. Let's, uh, let's, hey, guys, I think we've had it with the other, the flowers. Let's, let's go to the heather.

• 48:19Speaker 02

  We're coming Heather, we're coming for you. We will be there very soon.

• 48:25Speaker 00

  These horny American bees.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  You should have been in that bee movie that uh.

• 48:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Seinfeld made. You could have been a very, very cool horny bee character who loves the heather.

• 48:35Speaker 01

  I'd watch that.

• 48:36Speaker 00

  I'd watch that for sure. Yeah, yeah.

• 48:38Speaker 01

  Um, we do have to ask you Brian, this is very important. Um, if, if they uh, if scientists found dark matter and bought it back, what if it was evil? What would you think they should like?

• 48:51Speaker 02

  What is dark matter? And where are these scientists finding the dark matter?

• 48:54Speaker 01

  Like out in the cosmos. They're looking for it, aren't they? They're looking for dark matter, a lot of these scientists. But what if they find it and it's evil?

• 49:02Speaker 02

  Uh, it's, but they're in a ship. Did they get out of their ship?

• 49:07Speaker 01

  I think they might have to get out of their ship to scoop it up, maybe.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  Scoop up dark matter?

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, if they scoop it up. But like, they're so keen to find it, these scientists, but they haven't really considered like, what if it's evil? So do you think like it may be?

• 49:20Speaker 02

  What if it's there?

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, what if it's there? But like, but what if it's evil Brian?

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Well, I, I, I find it, I mean, they're scientists, so they should know that what the constitution of dark matter is.

• 49:35Speaker 01

  But they don't, because they've never found it before, is what, what I'm worried about.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, but they're gonna be interested.

• 49:39Speaker 01

  And you're worried about this as well?

• 49:40Speaker 00

  I'm worried about, are you worried about space? What's in space?

• 49:43Speaker 02

  No, I don't give a fuck. I can't give a shit about what's in space, quite frankly. You know, it's there, you know.

• 49:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  I mean, it's too big a concept. You go, you know, you go nuts. I mean, that's why people go mad, because they imagine what's going on out there and they think, instead of what's going on in here. I mean, that's the problem, where you know, we, human beings are so incredibly stupid. Haven't you noticed?

• 50:03Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 50:04Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, for sure.

• 50:05Speaker 02

  So stupid, because, and they make the same, all you have to do is sit in a car, sit in a car driving with people and you see the stupidity of drivers. I mean, they're like idiotic.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  Idiotic in their behaviour, idiotic in the way they drive, idiotic in the way they park, idiotic in every aspect. That's why I don't drive anymore. I stopped driving.

• 50:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:26Speaker 02

  Mind you, I did have a T-bone crash where somebody tried to try to kill me, but that was a different thing.

• 50:31Speaker 01

  Still food related, food related.

• 50:33Speaker 00

  T-bone.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  The T-bone.

• 50:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was a T-bone.

• 50:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. So that's good.

• 50:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, they've just. Times in with the pod.

• 50:39Speaker 00

  They've just gone around the other side of the moon. Have you been reading about this?

• 50:42Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yeah.

• 50:43Speaker 00

  I I was thinking, why why are we doing that?

• 50:45Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, the point is they go around the other side, what they call the dark side of the moon, and they realize, oh, no, it's sunny.

• 50:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 50:52Speaker 02

  And you go.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  That's huge.

• 50:53Speaker 02

  I could have told you that.

• 50:56Speaker 01

  I was Brian next time.

• 50:58Speaker 02

  I mean, because if the sun's shining there.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  It's gonna be hitting the backside of the moon.

• 51:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  It's only sense, it's only unlogical. You know, we don't have to, no, no scientists will go, they go, oh, would you believe it? The dark side of the moon isn't dark anymore. It's got sunshine all over it. Oh, I found that incredible. Don't you? Don't you find it incredible too, Nigel?

• 51:18Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, I find it absolutely incredible.

• 51:22Speaker 00

  This is it. We're gonna see a one man, a one man show from you, Brian, at some point about going to the dark side of the moon.

• 51:28Speaker 02

  Side of the moon. Of course, Pink Floyd may have to change that song.

• 51:33Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

• 51:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  But their career's ruined.

• 51:35Speaker 00

  The also, the also bright side of the moon.

• 51:37Speaker 01

  Bunch of idiots now.

• 51:40Speaker 01

  So just to conclude, you don't, uh, you do think that dark matter is evil? Or you don't think it is, or you?

• 51:47Speaker 02

  I don't give a shit about that.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Don't give a shit about it.

• 51:49Speaker 00

  That's the ruling.

• 51:51Speaker 02

  I mean, really, I I I mean, I think there are other things in life to worry about other than the dark matter.

• 51:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, we had the other Brian Cox on the podcast.

• 52:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:00Speaker 01

  And he told us that it wouldn't be evil.

• 52:03Speaker 02

  Well, I'll go along with him.

• 52:05Speaker 01

  I don't know. Do you think that guy knows what he's talking about?

• 52:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, of course he knows what he's talking about. Not Brian Cox. He's a very nice and very intelligent man, far more intelligent than I am.

• 52:14Speaker 01

  You've hung, you've hung out with him? Isn't that confusing?

• 52:16Speaker 02

  We've hung out together.

• 52:17Speaker 01

  Confusing, isn't it for you?

• 52:18Speaker 00

  That must blow people's minds if they see you together.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:22Speaker 02

  Uh.

• 52:22Speaker 01

  Because you've got the same name.

• 52:24Speaker 02

  That's why it blows people. I'm wondering why. Yes. Because we have the same name.

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Same name.

• 52:31Speaker 02

  I am, but it's, he's a different Brian Cox.

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 52:34Speaker 02

  I mean, there are many Brian Cox's in the world, unfortunately. There are a lot of them, but, uh, no, I, I have great respect for him and he, he's usually very right about his, and he's, you know, he's, there's something logical about Brian Cox.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 52:49Speaker 02

  Not about this one, but that one.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  We had him on this podcast and I don't, I don't know, Brian, if you, if you heard him on this, you'd think like, hmm, we'd probably question his credentials.

• 52:58Speaker 00

  He got quite frustrated with us, I'd say, because we kept asking him, we kept asking him if dark matter would be evil or not.

• 53:03Speaker 02

  And, and he probably thought that was a ridiculous question.

• 53:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think he did.

• 53:06Speaker 02

  Exactly. So why do you keep asking the question of dark matter?

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Well, I knew that you'd take it more seriously and you did, and I appreciate it.

• 53:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, we really appreciate it.

• 53:13Speaker 02

  Toss about dark matter.

• 53:17Speaker 02

  You know, there are other things, there are other priorities. Oh, hey darling, uh, before we make love, um, can we discuss dark matter?

• 53:27Speaker 02

  I, cause I'm really concerned about it. Are you concerned? I don't give a shit, Brian. Well, somebody's concerned about it. The guy on the podcast.

• 53:36Speaker 02

  He's really obsessed with dark matter. I didn't even know what it was. I thought maybe is it shit? Is it shit that somebody shits out in under space? That, that could be dark matter, you know? You know, flying turds.

• 53:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think, yeah, it could be flying turds. See, this is good. This is how science happens. We're pushing the conversation forward. It could be flying turds, but I mean, I agree with you that if you bring it up as you're about to make love, it is going to be a mood ruder.

• 53:58Speaker 00

  I'd say that.

• 53:59Speaker 01

  Especially if you segue to flying turds.

• 54:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. Post, I'd go post, post-coital for that discussion.

• 54:05Speaker 01

  Yes, post-coital. Post-coital, you both collapse onto the pillow.

• 54:12Speaker 02

  I can't do any post-coital discussion.

• 54:17Speaker 02

  Save me, save me.

• 54:19Speaker 00

  Save me.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  Save me.

• 54:22Speaker 00

  Well, you're you're a second cannibal we've had on the pod.

• 54:26Speaker 02

  Cannibal.

• 54:26Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 54:27Speaker 02

  You had another cannibal.

• 54:28Speaker 00

  We had Sebastian Stan.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  Sebastian Stan played a cannibal once, and now you are the second person we've had on who's played a cannibal.

• 54:34Speaker 02

  It's the fortieth anniversary of when I played that cannibal.

• 54:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:39Speaker 02

  This year.

• 54:39Speaker 00

  That's amazing. Yeah.

• 54:41Speaker 02

  Forty years, still a better film than the other ones.

• 54:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, the other ones, a cack.

• 54:48Speaker 02

  You know, I mean, they're good films, but.

• 54:50Speaker 00

  Silence.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Of course, well, look, Brian wouldn't like Silence of the Lambs.

• 54:55Speaker 00

  I love both films, but.

• 54:57Speaker 01

  He wants his lamb sizzling and on his plate. He doesn't want it silent.

• 55:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:01Speaker 01

  If we.

• 55:02Speaker 02

  I had my revenge on that.

• 55:03Speaker 01

  Did you?

• 55:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, I cast the director, Jonathan Demme.

• 55:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:08Speaker 02

  In a TV thing I did, I had to have a director, and I was going for Jim Jarmusch to start with. I thought he's too socialist. And I thought, mm, Jim Jarmusch, I know what, Jonathan Demme. And I can get my own back.

• 55:24Speaker 02

  And at one point, Jonathan Demme, I said, Jonathan, can I just say something? One of the things actors don't do is look into the camera. It's very disconcerting when an actor looks into the camera. So could you please not do that? Because he did have a habit of looking. God rest his soul because he's no longer with us. But I said, Jonathan, Jonathan, please, try and avoid that if you can.

• 55:49Speaker 00

  Oh, I love that.

• 55:52Speaker 01

  If at the end of your dream meal, say we had to send out some human flesh for you to eat.

• 55:59Speaker 02

  No.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  Which which part of the person?

• 56:03Speaker 02

  I'm not a cannibal.

• 56:04Speaker 01

  But we have to, our hands are tied.

• 56:06Speaker 00

  I'm not a method actor either, we've established this.

• 56:08Speaker 02

  Yes, we certainly would not eat anybody.

• 56:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:10Speaker 02

  No.

• 56:11Speaker 01

  We have to.

• 56:12Speaker 02

  What do you mean, we have to?

• 56:13Speaker 01

  We have to send out some human flesh for you.

• 56:16Speaker 02

  No, you don't.

• 56:16Speaker 01

  We have to, our hands are tied.

• 56:18Speaker 02

  Then you can't send if your hands are tied, you can't send out human flesh.

• 56:22Speaker 00

  Good point.

• 56:25Speaker 01

  If you had to be a bit of a person, if you had to be a bit of Ed.

• 56:28Speaker 02

  No, he's gone, is he losing it?

• 56:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, it's best to just let this ride out. It's best to answer, actually, Brian. So what part of me would you be?

• 56:35Speaker 02

  No, I'm not, no, that's banging into his fantasy. I'm not fucking banging into his fantasy. His fantasy is his own fantasy. Why, he should be hospitalized.

• 56:48Speaker 01

  Gladly.

• 56:49Speaker 00

  Gladly, yeah, yeah, I agree.

• 56:51Speaker 01

  Take me to the hospital?

• 56:52Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:53Speaker 01

  Right, I'm gonna read you your menu back now, see how you feel about it. You would like fluoride free bottled Scottish water. You would like poppadoms with all the dips. You would like a gazpacho for your starter.

• 57:04Speaker 02

  How did you get that so quickly?

• 57:05Speaker 01

  Huh? I was read, I was reading your menu.

• 57:08Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 57:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Your main course, lamb biryani with Greek sea bream as well. Side dish, peas, of course. Drink, margarita and dessert. Now, I don't mean how to pronounce it, cranacan?

• 57:21Speaker 00

  Give it a good go.

• 57:22Speaker 01

  Cranacan?

• 57:24Speaker 02

  Cranacan.

• 57:24Speaker 00

  Cranacan?

• 57:24Speaker 01

  Cranacan.

• 57:25Speaker 02

  Cranachan.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Cranachan. Cranachan.

• 57:29Speaker 02

  Cranachan.

• 57:29Speaker 00

  Cranacan?

• 57:31Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, you can.

• 57:35Speaker 01

  By all means. Uh, that's, that's your menu. You're quite impressed how I, I got it so fast.

• 57:41Speaker 02

  Well, yeah.

• 57:45Speaker 00

  It is impressive.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  It's impressive, isn't it?

• 57:47Speaker 02

  Well, yeah.

• 57:48Speaker 00

  You're gonna reveal the trick?

• 57:49Speaker 01

  You thought I should be hospitalized, but look how clever I am.

• 57:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, well, that still doesn't, about the need for your hospitalization.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, fair enough.

• 57:59Speaker 00

  Brian, thank you so much for coming to the dream restaurant.

• 58:01Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 58:02Speaker 01

  What if we just take you some of his earlobe? Will you eat that?

• 58:04Speaker 02

  No, not eating anybody's earlobe. I mean, I'll suck on a few, but I'm not gonna eat any.

• 58:11Speaker 01

  Before making love?

• 58:13Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  Instead of discussing dark matter?

• 58:15Speaker 02

  The earlobe can be a great tender place.

• 58:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:17Speaker 00

  It's a shame we've got to end the interview here, because we're going down a path that I did not expect we were going down.

• 58:23Speaker 01

  Well, there you go.

• 58:23Speaker 00

  Tender places.

• 58:24Speaker 01

  Tender places. Always end it tenderly.

• 58:27Speaker 00

  Thank you so much, Brian.

• 58:28Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  Thank you, Brian.

• 58:29Speaker 02

  Thank you. This is one of the worst things I've done for weeks.

• 58:35Speaker 02

  But I'm very glad to have done it, because I realised we'll never be doing it again. But thank you, you're both geniuses in your own field. I'm still trying to find out where that field is. But you are geniuses in your own field, I take it. So, uh, thank you for the, uh, the lack of validity of this whole experience.

• 59:04Speaker 00

  Well, there we are, James, that's us told.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Whoa, we got roasted at the end.

• 59:07Speaker 00

  We got roasted.

• 59:08Speaker 01

  Roasted on the way out.

• 59:09Speaker 00

  Brian Cox.

• 59:10Speaker 01

  I'd move the mic away from my face because I thought we're done.

• 59:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:13Speaker 01

  And then he roasted us, so I was like, oh, I can't even respond to this.

• 59:17Speaker 00

  I absolutely loved it. I love being roasted by Brian Cox.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  It was good stuff. He didn't say bore. He didn't even talk about bore on the floor, actually.

• 59:26Speaker 00

  No, it didn't come up. Well, that would have been harsh for us to bring it up.

• 59:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been tricking him.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  We didn't talk about Autel, we didn't talk about Autel, man.

• 59:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:33Speaker 00

  We didn't talk about, um, the wine in the blender.

• 59:36Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of things that we could have brought up there.

• 59:39Speaker 00

  He's actually not in a lot of those scenes, though, to be fair.

• 59:41Speaker 01

  Sure, sure, sure, sure.

• 59:42Speaker 00

  So that would have been a weird thing to bring up.

• 59:44Speaker 01

  I think we learnt so much about him, about not just his career, but his view on the cosmos.

• 59:50Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:50Speaker 01

  Life, directors, what he thinks of them, uh, what he thinks of people's work.

• 59:55Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:56Speaker 01

  What he thinks of us, we definitely learnt.

• 59:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:59Speaker 01

  But he came out of that unscathed, I'd say.

• 1:00:01Speaker 00

  The worst thing he's done in months.

• 1:00:03Speaker 01

  Yes, he did say that.

• 1:00:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:06Speaker 01

  He did say it's one of the worst things he's done in months.

• 1:00:08Speaker 00

  It energised me. I've never really been insulted like that to such an extent that it energised me.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:00:14Speaker 00

  Gave me a buzz.

• 1:00:15Speaker 01

  Glen Rovin is out this Friday.

• 1:00:19Speaker 00

  Go and see it. Brian Cox's directorial debut.

• 1:00:22Speaker 01

  Alan Cummins in it.

• 1:00:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, man.

• 1:00:25Speaker 00

  Come on.

• 1:00:26Speaker 01

  Uh, whisky, you know, maybe take, uh, a lager.

• 1:00:30Speaker 00

  Margarita.

• 1:00:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course, sorry, margarita. But Lager Roul and Whisky with you to the cinema.

• 1:00:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Speaker 01

  And watch it, just drink and fill it pop.

• 1:00:40Speaker 00

  From a little hip flask.

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Pop right in here.

• 1:00:42Speaker 00

  I'm on tour, Ed Gamble, Dakota UK for tickets. My show's called Fresh Hell, going all over the UK, starting in late January 2027. Come along.

• 1:00:51Speaker 01

  Come along, go and see Ed do his stand up comedy. I am also touring with my show, James Acaster, until August. James Acaster dot com for tickets.

• 1:01:01Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:01:02Speaker 01

  I'm in Blackpool tomorrow and Friday. And I don't know, I don't think they're sold out, to be honest. I think one of them is and one of them isn't. So, you know, come along if you're in Blackpool. It's the, it's actually the perfect location for this show specifically.

• 1:01:18Speaker 00

  Yes. Cause James is on Strictly.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  Oh, Ed, we're not allowed to say that.

• 1:01:25Speaker 00

  Thank you very much for watching slash listening. We will see you next week. Bye.

• 1:01:29Speaker 01

  Fuck off.