Nick Mohammed

Nick Mohammed is a man of many talents - actor, comedian, presenter, and even a magician! Best known for Ted Lasso and his unforgettable stint on The Traitors, Nick joined us this week to chat about his latest role in legal thriller 'War'. We also found out what it was really like inside the Traitors castle, how his hilarious alter ego 'Mr Swallow’ came to be, that he swapped a potential career in science for comedy, meeting his wife in the university orchestra, his Greek Cypriot and Trinidadian family roots, and you really don’t want to miss his recipe for his guilty pleasure pasta dish! We couldn’t let Nick leave before showing us a magic trick, and of course it was as amazing as we’d hoped! Thanks for such a brilliant afternoon Nick - you can catch him in ‘War' now available on Sky Atlantic in the UK and HBO in the US. Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/ Follow Table Manners on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcast YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast 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

  Hi friends. Have you heard about the new show Hollywood Arts on Netflix? It's the next chapter in the victorious universe with triple threat teens who discover the spotlight is way more fun when you have friends to share it with. Check out Hollywood Arts now on Netflix.

• 0:20Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Table manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here at my house with Lenny sitting opposite me.

• 0:25Speaker 02

  Who are you?

• 0:26Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, stuck in the middle with you.

• 0:29Speaker 02

  What's that mean?

• 0:30Jessie Ware?

  It's a song, isn't it?

• 0:31Speaker 02

  Steady down.

• 0:32Jessie Ware?

  Steady down. No, it's not steady down.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  Stuck in the middle. But you're not in the middle, darling.

• 0:39Jessie Ware?

  All right, fine, whatever.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  You're opposite me.

• 0:41Jessie Ware?

  Really excited for the guest today. It's the brilliant Nick Mohammed, who is not only very funny, and I cannot wait for maybe Mr. Swallow to pop up today, is highly intelligent, also incredibly lovable when I watched him on Traitors, and he's here.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  He was lovable on Ted Lasso, too.

• 1:05Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, well, what has he died in Ted Lasso?

• 1:07Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:08Jessie Ware?

  Oh, right, okay, fine.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  But he's not featuring quite as much in the new series.

• 1:12Jessie Ware?

  Oh, really?

• 1:12Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:13Jessie Ware?

  Okay. He's coming on today to talk about war, which is a really good TV show.

• 1:19Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 1:19Jessie Ware?

  It's on Sky, Atlantic, it's HBO Max, it's got a massive cast.

• 1:25Speaker 02

  Fabulous cast, darling. It is for anyone, I was going to say for anyone who likes legal dramas with intrigue and

• 1:35Jessie Ware?

  Sex.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  Sex, intrigue, devious behaviour. It will put you off getting divorced, I think.

• 1:42Jessie Ware?

  Put you off getting married.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  Put you off getting married, too.

• 1:44Jessie Ware?

  Um, it's Sienna Miller and

• 1:47Speaker 02

  Dominic West.

• 1:48Jessie Ware?

  Dominic West at war in their divorce proceedings. And Nick plays one of the solicitors on Sienna Miller's

• 1:58Speaker 02

  Team.

• 1:59Jessie Ware?

  Team. She plays a woman called Carla, a film star. Um, there's a lot of money involved. It's

• 2:05Speaker 02

  It is all about the money, isn't it, really?

• 2:08Jessie Ware?

  It's all about the money. Isn't it always all about money?

• 2:09Speaker 02

  Not always.

• 2:10Jessie Ware?

  Okay. Anyway, it's really, really good. It's also got Celia Imrie in it, who was one of his traitors partners.

• 2:19Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 2:19Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  I wonder if it was done before or after Traitors, yeah.

• 2:24Jessie Ware?

  And yeah, so we're having him here today. He's coming from Manchester, I think.

• 2:27Speaker 02

  Do you think he's brought his magic wand with him?

• 2:29Jessie Ware?

  I think magic follows Nick Mohammed, so I think we're okay. Um, so I'm on cooking duty. Even though I forgot that I was on cooking duty.

• 2:39Speaker 02

  How did you?

• 2:40Jessie Ware?

  I don't know. So thankfully, very sweetly, Alexandra Dudley, who you did on James Norton's episode, the pistachio and dark chocolate delicious ice cream, she sent me a cookbook. She was so thrilled that we featured her food. She sent me her new cookbook, which is called Cooking Made Simple. And so I thought, oh, that's exactly what I need. I don't know what I'm cooking. And so we're doing a pan fried chicken with chili tomatoes and mint, which is very easy. So I'm doing that, doing it with some microwave onion rice, classic. And then I'm doing also another recipe from here, which is green beans with pecorino and pine nuts and basil.

• 3:21Speaker 02

  Oh, nice.

• 3:22Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. And it's in a kind of lemony oil dressing. And then I'm just doing a green salad with it. And then I did a really impressive meringue cake, a flourless chocolate meringue cake.

• 3:35Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 3:36Jessie Ware?

  It looked so good yesterday.

• 3:39Speaker 02

  And how's it look today?

• 3:40Jessie Ware?

  It's sunk.

• 3:41Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 3:41Jessie Ware?

  I think the taste

• 3:42Speaker 02

  Well, taste will fight. It's fine.

• 3:45Jessie Ware?

  Is that Nick Mohammed at the door? Nick Mohammed coming up on Table Manners.

• 3:57Jessie Ware?

  Hi, Nick.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  Hello.

• 3:58Jessie Ware?

  You've just come in from Manchester.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  I have, I have indeed.

• 4:01Jessie Ware?

  How was the gig last night?

• 4:02Speaker 03

  It was fun. It was fun. I was just saying it's an outdoor gig, which I don't tend to do. It was just an outdoor gig and it was raining. And I, and I was doing half an hour at the end and about 10, 15 minutes in, it really started to rain. But the audience were kind of great. I mean, they were kind of game for it and they sort of knew what was going to happen, I guess.

• 4:20Jessie Ware?

  Did it change your set at all?

• 4:22Speaker 03

  It didn't, but there's a bit in the middle of the set where I basically talk about Les Mis for about 10 minutes, where I just sort of just describe the story. It's quite boring. And I'm really conscious that it's quite a long bit and there's no way out of it. I can't just hurry through it. I have to do the whole thing. And so I really felt for them because I was like, well, this is the bit, the probably the least best bit for it to start chucking it down is in this bit. But it was fine.

• 4:46Jessie Ware?

  Well, was it Mr. Swallow last night?

• 4:48Speaker 03

  It was Mr. Swallow, yeah, yeah.

• 4:49Jessie Ware?

  So are you now resting your voice?

• 4:51Speaker 03

  It's weird because if I do a gig, if I'm touring, then I kind of get into a routine. But if I do sort of a random gig, you know, tucks out of what that is, even for half an hour, I really feel it by the end of the gig. So I'm a little bit, a bit crockier.

• 5:03Jessie Ware?

  I may ask you to do a bit of Mr. Swallow later.

• 5:05Speaker 02

  There's a thing about Manchester rain.

• 5:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:07Speaker 02

  It's wetter. It's wetter than any other rain in any other part of the country. It seeps into your bones.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  It's the north and there's that fine rain, that really fine rain.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I feel a bit like Peter Kay now. Oh, it's that fine rain, right? Gets you right wet.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  Exactly, exactly.

• 5:24Jessie Ware?

  Have you had breakfast yet?

• 5:26Speaker 03

  I had, what did I have? I had like a brunch bar. That's not breakfast.

• 5:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah, like one of them Cadbury's.

• 5:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, it was just chocolate.

• 5:33Jessie Ware?

  Delicious.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  It is delicious. It's not breakfast. I, I don't always have breakfast. Is that bad?

• 5:39Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  Don't always have breakfast unless we're on holiday and then I'll like really go for it. But otherwise I'll just, well, yeah, or just sort of having beans on toast or something.

• 5:49Speaker 02

  Oh, right.

• 5:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, I like that.

• 5:51Jessie Ware?

  Beans on toast? I haven't had for ages.

• 5:53Speaker 03

  If I could only have one meal forever at lunchtime or breakfast, it'd be beans on toast.

• 5:59Jessie Ware?

  That's a great new addition as a question, which we're now going to steal. Thank you. Beans on toast, cheese?

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Cheese and ham if there's ham.

• 6:07Jessie Ware?

  Ham?

• 6:07Speaker 03

  Yeah. Buttered toast, ham.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  That's cold, though.

• 6:10Jessie Ware?

  Which, why?

• 6:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, it is called Brown.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  Brown.

• 6:14Speaker 03

  Brown, uh, buttered ham, beans, cheese, back pepper.

• 6:18Jessie Ware?

  Who introduced you to that?

• 6:21Speaker 03

  I think I just sort of worked it out myself.

• 6:23Jessie Ware?

  Fair enough.

• 6:23Speaker 03

  And it's not complicated.

• 6:25Jessie Ware?

  So not a big breakfast person, but love a baked bean on toast with ham and cheese. Can you cook?

• 6:33Speaker 03

  I think I can cook probably sort of three things quite well. And then I wouldn't say I'm a very ambitious cook. I mean, I've got, we've got three kids as well. So it's all about kind of having time for it as well.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. Do you bring in, you've got a very interesting heritage. So do you do the Greek Cypriot, are you Greek or Turkish Cypriot?

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Greek Cypriot.

• 6:55Speaker 02

  Greek Cypriot.

• 6:55Speaker 03

  On my mum's side, yeah.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. And can you cook Greek food? Can you talk?

• 6:59Speaker 03

  No, actually, actually, no, I can't really cook Greek. Cause my dad cooked more, I guess, growing up. And so, and he's from Trinidad. So

• 7:07Jessie Ware?

  What were some of the meals that you were getting?

• 7:10Speaker 03

  Well, it's just more that everything was served with rice.

• 7:14Jessie Ware?

  Delicious.

• 7:14Speaker 03

  Which I love and still love. And I probably have rice every other day.

• 7:19Jessie Ware?

  You're having rice today, actually.

• 7:20Speaker 03

  Perfect, because I didn't have it yesterday.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  Well, good job, Jess.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  And so I, and, and, and everything's spicy, like everything's spicy. And I love spicy. So I'll just add spice to anything. I'm really conscious that I went on off menu and sounded mad when I described my favourite meal. So I'm really trying to hone in on this.

• 7:40Jessie Ware?

  No, don't.

• 7:41Speaker 03

  But, but I, um, I will put hot pepper sauce on pretty much anything.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  I was going to ask you whether you're a hot pepper sauce person. Which is your hot pepper sauce to go to?

• 7:50Speaker 03

  Enkona, the really hot, but there's one that's like normal Enkona, which is delicious. And then they do one, which you can't always get in the supermarket, but you can get it online, um, like on like an online shop.

• 7:59Jessie Ware?

  The dark web.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, you have to really, really search for it, which I think is just called extra hot. And that is delicious because it is really hot, but it's also really tasty.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  How do you taste the rest of your food if it's so hot?

• 8:09Speaker 03

  I think because I was eating it from such a young age, I kind of am just so

• 8:13Speaker 02

  So brought up on hot food.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  Hot pepper sauce, yeah.

• 8:16Jessie Ware?

  Was your dad putting that on the table?

• 8:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:19Jessie Ware?

  And so you'd have this delicious food and he'd add it?

• 8:22Speaker 03

  I would say that between my mum and dad, my mum would always have a lemon on the table and my dad would always have hot pepper sauce on the table. And I will occasionally add lemon to chicken, like squeeze a bit of lemon over cooked like roast chicken.

• 8:34Speaker 02

  Very Greek.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Which is Greek. Yeah. Are you joking?

• 8:38Speaker 02

  No, you're having a go. Bit of lemon on his chicken.

• 8:42Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, that's the extent of it. And then hot pepper sauce would be the addition from my dad's side.

• 8:48Jessie Ware?

  That's, I mean, actually, I think I may have nailed today's dish today.

• 8:53Speaker 02

  Go on.

• 8:53Jessie Ware?

  It's.

• 8:54Speaker 03

  Is it lemon?

• 8:55Jessie Ware?

  It's chicken.

• 8:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:57Jessie Ware?

  With lemon, chili, tomato and mint, and then with some rice. So I feel like I've like hit, I've hit.

• 9:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  Jess, can you get the hot pepper sauce out as well?

• 9:08Jessie Ware?

  I can get a hot sauce out, fine. So we're covered, yeah. Um, how does your wife feel about you having hot pepper sauce with everything? Does she find it offensive or is she just so used to it?

• 9:19Speaker 03

  No, she's completely used to it. She would have, yeah, occasionally. And like, if I make, it's like I made a chili the other night. And that was, and that was sort of back accident quite spicy, like maybe a bit too spicy.

• 9:30Jessie Ware?

  For the kids.

• 9:31Speaker 03

  The kids didn't have it. This is just for Becca and I. The kids had gone to bed and so we just sort of like, we're like, oh, let's have a, like a nice sort of grown up chili. And, um, and I slightly overdid it with the spice, but she still ate it and liked, loved it. But it was probably a bit spicy.

• 9:43Jessie Ware?

  I used to find it really irritating when my husband would put, I still find it irritating, when he'd not even taste the meal. And he'd already be adding hot sauce.

• 9:52Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 9:54Jessie Ware?

  Can you just give it a try first? Maybe it doesn't need it today.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  No, I think I would always, I don't think Becca would ever make something that's really, really spicy. So I would always possibly add it, yeah.

• 10:04Speaker 02

  Would you add it to spaghetti bolognese?

• 10:06Speaker 03

  Not bolognese, but I would add it to like a, a pasta, which is maybe pesto and stuff like.

• 10:12Speaker 02

  Oh, God.

• 10:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I feel, yeah, sorry.

• 10:17Jessie Ware?

  And no, and you've got three kids. I've got three kids. What age, what ages are they?

• 10:21Speaker 03

  They're ten, eight and three.

• 10:22Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay. We've got kind of similar.

• 10:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:24Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. So Master Swallow, is that your ten year old?

• 10:28Speaker 03

  So he has played Master Swallow. Yeah, he is the older.

• 10:31Jessie Ware?

  Have you ever tried any of the others playing Master Swallow?

• 10:33Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 10:34Jessie Ware?

  Have any of the others do Master Swallow?

• 10:36Speaker 03

  The idea of Arthur doing it, just because Arthur's, he's got such a brilliant sense of humour, but he's incredibly unpredictable with it as well.

• 10:42Jessie Ware?

  Is he the three year old?

• 10:43Speaker 03

  He, no, he's the eight year old. Um, and Annie's three. I'd love it for Annie, for Annie, Madame, Madame Swallow.

• 10:50Jessie Ware?

  Madame Swallow.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  I mean, she would probably love it. She's got a great sense of humour. And, um, although it's weird, because when Finn did that on Casters Countdown, he was only, I want to say he was six and a half, seven, like.

• 11:00Jessie Ware?

  No, yeah, you thought he was six and three quarters and he said, actually, I'm six and a half.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  Okay, yeah. And he'd know, he would know, yeah. But he has got, he, he's sort of got a very special memory. He's, he, he's basically got, I never know how to pronounce it. Is it edetic memory? Is it edetic?

• 11:15Speaker 02

  I definitely don't have it.

• 11:16Speaker 03

  Edetic memory. So a- almost like a, not quite a photographic memory, but, but a very, very good recall, memory recall.

• 11:23Jessie Ware?

  But you have that too.

• 11:25Speaker 03

  To a lesser extent, but yes, to a degree.

• 11:28Jessie Ware?

  How did you find this out?

• 11:30Speaker 03

  Well, for Finn, it was quite obvious, I think, because we were, there were just times, like, I remember so specifically when he was like eighteen months. He was certainly under two. And so obviously he couldn't read, but we would say, go and get the something book. And so, and he would recognise a book by its spine. And, and I remember he had like a compendium of Thomas Attank sort of characters book. And so it had a hundred different characters in and we would like say, turn to the page that, I don't know, Gordon is on. And obviously he can't read, but he would be able to, to recognise. So he could, and there was like a hundred different characters. So we knew that he had a very good kind of visual memory from quite a young age.

• 12:07Jessie Ware?

  Were you kind of testing him out at that point?

• 12:09Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. By then we were like, this is great. Send him to the circus. Yeah, we loved it. And because I, yeah, because I love all that kind of stuff. So, yeah.

• 12:14Jessie Ware?

  So I'm just gonna get the chicken a little bit more browned.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  Right.

• 12:19Jessie Ware?

  But whilst I do that, my mum will carry on asking me questions. Oh, I've got squash. Do you want some squash?

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Love some squash. I do love squash.

• 12:27Jessie Ware?

  Did you get back into squash when you had kids or have you never, ever gone away from it?

• 12:32Speaker 02

  So which was your flavour, darling?

• 12:34Speaker 03

  Orange, orange and mango, orange and pineapple. Yeah. I even like the little, I even occasionally would take one of those little, kind of little bullets, you know, the little.

• 12:43Speaker 02

  Oh, the tiny ones, yeah.

• 12:44Speaker 03

  Like if we're going away, sort of squeeze a bit into.

• 12:46Speaker 02

  What a fruit shop shoot.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  No, you can get like the concentrates as well.

• 12:51Speaker 03

  And here's a little fact, Claudia Winkleman, I sat in front of her at the BAFTAs and she had a little one in her, her handbag, because they just have water at the, at the BAFTAs. And she was like, she was just going around putting in a little bit of squash and it was perfect.

• 13:03Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God. I love that about Winkleman.

• 13:05Speaker 02

  Something having in your handbag.

• 13:07Jessie Ware?

  Mum, would you mind if I made that squash? Because it's not, the, the ratio is going to be a nightmare.

• 13:11Speaker 03

  It's tricky in a small one. Yes, no. Double strength, you've got to be careful.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  See, I think I prefer the orange to the black.

• 13:17Jessie Ware?

  We're all gonna go orange if that's what Nick wants.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  Absolutely fine. Yes.

• 13:20Jessie Ware?

  Do you like some, uh, finest?

• 13:21Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 13:22Jessie Ware?

  Okay, fine, great. Cheers.

• 13:23Speaker 03

  Cheers, everybody. Thank you.

• 13:25Speaker 02

  This is not an easy, that's not.

• 13:27Jessie Ware?

  It's pissy. It's like a Pinot Noir. I know.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Do you need something? Do you need a top up?

• 13:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, I need a top up, darling. Yeah, but it could go one way or the other. Um, did you introduce squash to the Ted Lasso Americans? That's it, thank you.

• 13:39Speaker 03

  Oh, that's an interesting one. I don't know. I will have definitely taken.

• 13:42Speaker 02

  Can't get squash in America.

• 13:44Speaker 03

  No, no, no, I don't think I did actually. I definitely had some in my dressing room though.

• 13:48Jessie Ware?

  Did you? That's on your rider?

• 13:50Speaker 03

  Pretty much. It's just that and a biscuit.

• 13:53Jessie Ware?

  A biscuit?

• 13:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, chocolate biscuit.

• 13:54Jessie Ware?

  What chocolate biscuit?

• 13:55Speaker 03

  Dark, sort of dark chocolate. It's just really straightforward. Yeah, I love it, love it. That would be the only thing ever on a rider, if I ever had a rider.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  Didn't you have one last night?

• 14:05Speaker 03

  A rider? No, no. There was snacks in the green room though, because it was a mixed bill line up. So there were some snacks actually, which was nice.

• 14:13Speaker 02

  Were you top of the bill?

• 14:14Speaker 03

  I was.

• 14:15Speaker 02

  Muzzles.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  So, look, you've been involved in one of the most, the biggest kind of football, lovely comedy programme. Do you play football?

• 14:27Speaker 03

  I don't, I'm afraid. And I would go as far as saying I'm really, really bad at pretty much all sports and, um.

• 14:35Speaker 02

  Never mind, you've got other qualities, darling.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 14:38Speaker 02

  Do you like football?

• 14:40Jessie Ware?

  Oh, Nick.

• 14:41Speaker 03

  Well, no, increase, increasingly, increasingly. And oddly enough, my son has got into it, like, and, and I don't really know how. I think for his school, actually.

• 14:49Speaker 02

  Does he support Leeds?

• 14:50Speaker 03

  No, Liverpool.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Why?

• 14:53Speaker 03

  Yeah. I think just because his cousin supports Liverpool. I don't really know, like some of his friends at school support Liverpool.

• 14:58Speaker 02

  It's really weird.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't, he's never been, he's no, like, I don't think he's ever been to Liverpool actually, but he's never, he's certainly, and he's, I mean, he's watched a few matches on telly, but not even that much. He only really got into it about five months ago.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  But there is a romance about Liverpool.

• 15:11Speaker 03

  Right, okay.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  Football, don't you think, in some respect?

• 15:14Speaker 03

  I mean, I love Liverpool as a place. And so I can imagine that it is quite a romantic, I can see playing cards there and they're really destructive.

• 15:21Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, well, look. Sorry, you may have thought maybe later.

• 15:24Speaker 03

  Oh, okay, yeah, later.

• 15:25Jessie Ware?

  Is that like an alcoholic seeing a glass of wine and being like, God, I gotta get that?

• 15:29Speaker 03

  It was weird because I saw them at first, I thought it was a pack of cigarettes. And I was like, oh, what is this show? And then, and then, and then I was like, oh, no, Waddington's playing cards.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  We thought we'd play Kaluki later. No, not.

• 15:40Speaker 03

  Do you want me to do a trick?

• 15:41Jessie Ware?

  Yes. It's the most fun, attractive thing in the world.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  Jonathan Ross brings cards along when he was on it.

• 15:47Speaker 03

  Does he?

• 15:48Jessie Ware?

  He was, yeah.

• 15:49Speaker 02

  I think Jason Isaacs had some, wanted to do a card trick.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  You know that Jason Sudeikis as well, is like a massive like magic nut and it's incredible.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  Do you have a magic off?

• 15:59Speaker 03

  Oh, we, we would just, we would just do card tricks or particularly in season one, when it was season two, it was really COVID, so we couldn't really socialise or kind of do stuff when we were not filming. But, um, when we were on season one, I mean, he would regularly just have like a deck of cards during read throughs and just sort of like fiddle with them and, and, and stuff.

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Are you a member of the Magic Circle?

• 16:18Speaker 03

  I am actually, yeah.

• 16:19Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow. How hard was that to get into?

• 16:23Speaker 03

  Well, I actually only joined it, I mean, not recently, but relatively recent, as in because I'd been doing magic from such a young age. And I had joined the Northern Magic Circle because I lived in Leeds. And so had been a member of that since I was like twelve, like a junior member, then kind of carried on into being a, an older member. But it was only once I'd moved to London that I joined the Magic Circle, just because there was sort of no point otherwise, because, I mean, one of the best things about the Magic Circle particularly is that they've got a library, which you can use and go in. It's got like basically every magic book and it's great. It's just in Easton, like on Easton, just off Easton Road, basically. And so, um, and they, you know, they do events and things, but actually, I mean, I don't want to speak, you know, if you are outside of London, you can obviously join and, and should join probably.

• 17:03Speaker 03

  But, um, uh, it was more beneficial once you were kind of living in London. So I only, I only joined in like two thousand and twelve, thirteen or something.

• 17:10Jessie Ware?

  Did it feel like a big deal?

• 17:13Speaker 03

  At that point, no, because I'd already worked professionally as a magician.

• 17:16Speaker 02

  Right, okay.

• 17:16Speaker 03

  I'd been like president of Bradford Magic Circle like a few years before. So I sort of felt like I was already kind of within magic, but I still had to audition and stuff. And actually I did, my first audition, I got disqualified.

• 17:28Speaker 02

  Why?

• 17:28Speaker 03

  Well, because I, I sort of broke a rule. So I did, I used a stooge in it, which you're not allowed to do.

• 17:33Speaker 02

  What's that?

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Well, it's kind of, and it wasn't really a stooge, too. So a stooge is when you basically get somebody to play along a little bit, but they were.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  But you've set them up.

• 17:42Speaker 03

  Like they've been set up, but it wasn't, it wasn't just, oh, say that you were thinking of the four of diamonds. It was more elaborate than that. They basically did like a, without going into like magic methods too much, but they did like a fake shuffle of a certain pack of cards so that people thought they were genuinely mixed and they weren't. And I had sort of targeted them to sit on the end of a row so they'd be the person who shuffled them last and.

• 18:02Speaker 02

  You were cheating there.

• 18:03Speaker 03

  I was cheating, but that was only like one effect out of three or four.

• 18:06Speaker 02

  I think you're allowed to do that.

• 18:07Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, no, I think you got disqualified.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  But also as a magician, like the whole thing is just.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  Magic is cheating.

• 18:12Jessie Ware?

  No, it's not cheating. Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't say it.

• 18:15Speaker 02

  Jesse is cheating.

• 18:17Jessie Ware?

  Ruining this for me.

• 18:19Speaker 03

  And also I remember before I auditioned, I remember them saying to me, whatever you do, do not try and fool the people who are judging you because they're often like.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  Who are the judges?

• 18:26Speaker 03

  Well, they're like people who are quite high up in the magic circle. And, and I was told, do not do that because it'll kind of piss them off if they can't work out what you've done. So it was just a red rag to the bull. So I was like, well, I want to do something now deliberately that will fool them. And the only real way I could probably do that was by kind of doing something quite intricate like that. And it was all, there was, and it was a really involved setup and the trick was more elaborate. Just, it didn't just rely on that. It relied on other sleight of hand and other things kind of going on. And, and because they kind of effectively couldn't work out what I'd done, they basically said, well, you must have used a stooge. And so we're going to need to kind of confront you about this. And I was like, well, actually they did a deck switch. And then they phoned that person who was also a member and were like, how dare you? What were you thinking? They take it really seriously.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  You're lucky to be in, mate.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  And then I did it again and then it was fine. And they were all, I mean, it was all, it was all quite tongue in cheek, but they are quite stickless to their rules and stuff.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  So when you were whiling the time away on Traitors?

• 19:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Were you doing lots of magic?

• 19:15Speaker 03

  I only did, there was, I mean, you didn't get actually that much downtime really. I, I remember distinctly doing, or Jonathan showed me a trick after we had finished filming, but we were waiting to sort of go. And so they, obviously it, it looks in the programme that you get in those cards and you kind of go off, but obviously it's a slightly more elaborate way out of the castle. Cause they don't want you to see who was going in what direction and who might be going up to the turret, you know? So you're actually in like a holding area and sort of dismissed at random. So you have no way of kind of knowing, um, oh, they've been dismissed early. So maybe that means something. So. And it's really late at night and I remember, I think there was probably a pack of cards. You can't bring anything into the castle either, but there was a pack of cards as part of that room.

• 19:57Speaker 03

  And so I remember showing Claire boarding a trick and I think Jonathan showed a trick as well. And we were just talking about magic and so, but yeah, I love that. It was fun.

• 20:05Speaker 02

  Have you had a reunion? Do you have WhatsApp?

• 20:07Speaker 03

  Uh, there was, Jonathan organised one, which I sadly couldn't make. And I think I was filming or I was in Edinburgh. I can't remember the reason why. Um, I was going to say, that sounds absolutely gorgeous. You're just putting water on something. Um, and we have a WhatsApp group, which is great. And I've seen, like I've seen Jo Marla a fair bit. I've seen Claudia and there's been other people who I've seen. So it's been really nice.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  Did you kind of, when you came out, did you kind of miss them? Did you have withdrawal? And you felt you needed to be with them again?

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Well, it's a strange, it's such a strange thing because it's such a, you know, you, you kind of, we filmed it over April of May of last year. And then it, you know, it didn't come out till October of that year. So there's a good sort of four, five months where you can't talk, obviously you can't talk about it. You can't give anything away and you're not doing press for it because everything's embargoed and you can't talk about it. So to a degree, it almost feels like it never happened, you know, it was, it became, and it's such a surreal experience as well. And you've got no access to the outside world or you don't have your phone on you or anything like that during it. So.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Did you manage without your phone?

• 21:08Speaker 03

  Oh, it was great. I mean, it was just.

• 21:09Speaker 02

  Oh, you liked it. Jesse, I don't think could survive that.

• 21:12Speaker 03

  Well, you kind of realised that.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  To be honest, darling, Jesse's on her phone even when we're trying to do sponsored.

• 21:17Speaker 03

  Well, I use my phone a lot and you know, use it a lot for work and stuff. But actually I found it quite easy to sort of just give it up and it was quite, it was quite nice.

• 21:23Speaker 02

  Did your kids, could you speak to your children?

• 21:25Speaker 03

  I was allowed once a day to FaceTime them, but, but only with the producers listening into the phone calls.

• 21:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh my God, like you're in prison.

• 21:32Speaker 03

  Yeah. Cause they take it so seriously and kind of rightly so. Cause if, if anything gets out, this sort of the game is over really. So.

• 21:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:39Speaker 03

  So that was the most difficult thing and not being able to tell them exactly when I would be going. Cause I, I didn't know. And so I could be back in four or eight hours. I could be gone three weeks, which I didn't know I was.

• 21:49Jessie Ware?

  I wanted to ask as a segue into why you're on today.

• 21:52Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 21:53Jessie Ware?

  Celia Inrey is in the new TV show on HBO Max, Sky Atlantic War.

• 21:59Speaker 03

  Indeed.

• 22:00Jessie Ware?

  Which is really good.

• 22:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:02Speaker 03

  Have you seen it? You've seen some of it?

• 22:03Speaker 02

  So I've watched four episodes.

• 22:05Speaker 03

  Great.

• 22:06Jessie Ware?

  I've watched three.

• 22:06Speaker 02

  Do you, this is meant in the nice, do you feature more as it goes along?

• 22:12Speaker 03

  Yes. And in season two more. Yeah. Yeah.

• 22:14Jessie Ware?

  Oh, there's a season two?

• 22:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's a season two already.

• 22:17Jessie Ware?

  Oh, great.

• 22:18Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 22:18Speaker 02

  But I almost want to watch it all.

• 22:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:22Speaker 02

  Because I watched four episodes. It's really compelling.

• 22:24Speaker 03

  It is compelling. Yeah. I mean, George Kay, the writer writes kind of like proper page turner thrillers.

• 22:31Speaker 02

  It's just, well, that's what I said to Jesse. It's not just a legal drama. It's a thriller as well with intrigue in it.

• 22:39Speaker 03

  And it's got quirks to it as well. I think there's kind of funny characters within it as well. And, um, oh, we had an absolute blast doing it. It was really, really fun. And that, you know, that's an example of a show that, I mean, I was, you know, because you're not, you know, and obviously I wasn't in it every single day. But actually when we were in filming those scenes, we're all in together, including Celia. Cause it's such an ensemble show and we all got on like an absolute house on fire. So it was great. And in fact, when Celia and I first started on that, we were filming whilst the Traitors was going out actually. So occasionally Ben Taylor, the director, who directed the first block, um, he would capture sort of whispering in a corner. Sort of like, oh, I know what's going to happen. And, and then he was like, you're doing Traitors chat. And we're like, oh yeah, sorry. And we realised that we were miked and we were like, we shouldn't give anything away. But, um, but yeah.

• 23:22Speaker 02

  But it's so good because, well, I like legal dramas anyway.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 02

  But I was saying to Jesse, this is as much about money as.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  Yes. I mean, this particularly, this first season is about like a sort of a, I guess, like a tech sort of billionaire and, and his, his wife, so brilliantly by Sienna, who is so great. He plays an actress and.

• 23:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. She, she's so good.

• 23:45Speaker 03

  I mean, they're both incredible and it's great that Sienna was our client. So we got to hang out lots of, which was great.

• 23:49Speaker 02

  She's kind of this fading actress.

• 23:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:52Speaker 02

  And, and she's so gorgeous. She can't believe she'd fade at all.

• 23:56Speaker 03

  I know. She was brilliant in that show.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  But Dominic West is brilliant as well. And they've characterised all the legal teams so cleverly.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  It's really fun. It's a really fun show.

• 24:06Jessie Ware?

  I'm, I'm very aware that we've got the pack of cards. I will get a, a, a magic trick out of you at some point, but we shall eat now.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Of course.

• 24:23Speaker 04

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• 24:58Speaker 03

  It looks absolutely delicious, I'm going to say. And it smells gorgeous.

• 25:02Jessie Ware?

  I'm going to give Alexandra Dudley a shout out because I actually forgot I was cooking today.

• 25:06Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:07Jessie Ware?

  And then, so yesterday, God bless Ocado, I got, I basically went through this new cookbook, which is by Alexandra Dudley, and I did two recipes from it, which looked really great. And it was, I hate to say it was very easy, but it does smell really good.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Well, it doesn't look easy. It looks incredible.

• 25:24Jessie Ware?

  You're very sweet. But, um, yeah, we're doing pan fried chicken thighs. Yeah, it's hot though, Mum. Um, pan fried chicken, um, with tomatoes and chilli and mint and lemon. And then we've got green beans with pecorino and pine nuts and basil.

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Saw some cheese on there. That's great.

• 25:41Jessie Ware?

  I've got more if you need it. And then we do, it's, uh, it's maybe a bit, um, cold now, but microwave rice, which I do with onion and chicken stock.

• 25:50Speaker 03

  That sounds nice.

• 25:51Jessie Ware?

  Delicious and easy. And then I put some crispy, crispy onions in there too.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  Crisps?

• 25:55Jessie Ware?

  No, no. I put some crisp onions in there.

• 25:58Speaker 03

  What, what? You did the mi, the rice in the microwave?

• 26:00Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I always do it.

• 26:01Speaker 03

  Not a pouch?

• 26:02Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 26:02Speaker 03

  No, but like a.

• 26:03Jessie Ware?

  Imagine I've got some Tilda's special that I just microwave for 30 seconds.

• 26:07Speaker 03

  You put an onion on it.

• 26:07Speaker 02

  You just put, you have.

• 26:09Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 26:10Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. And then I put crispy rice and then I put a tiny bit of oil in.

• 26:14Speaker 03

  Oh, I'm going to do that literally.

• 26:16Jessie Ware?

  Help yourself.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  I won't do it tonight.

• 26:17Speaker 02

  It's actually in our cookbook.

• 26:20Jessie Ware?

  Yes. It's a really, uh, it's a bit, you know, it's a delicacy.

• 26:23Speaker 03

  Oh my God, that's such a great idea.

• 26:24Jessie Ware?

  It's very easy, mate. Cause it's like all contained and it just means it doesn't take a hob.

• 26:28Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 26:29Jessie Ware?

  Pleasure. Right. There you go.

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 26:31Jessie Ware?

  I'll serve you some, um, chicken in a minute.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  Are you in the new Ted Lasso at all?

• 26:37Speaker 03

  Not allowed to say.

• 26:38Speaker 02

  Oh, okay. Well, I haven't seen you yet. That's all I can say.

• 26:41Speaker 03

  Really professional, really.

• 26:43Jessie Ware?

  I think that means he is. Yeah. Um, but you say no more.

• 26:46Speaker 03

  Keep watching. Keep watching.

• 26:48Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Um.

• 26:51Speaker 03

  But what a great show. I love it. I love it. And I love this new season. I think it's absolutely brilliant. I think everyone in it is phenomenal. I think Tanya Reynolds is so good.

• 27:00Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 27:01Jessie Ware?

  I thought they said it's the last one.

• 27:03Speaker 03

  Well, look, it depends on what I think Jason wants to do. But Jason has sort of, I think, come out and said that he likes, he thinks of things in threes. And I'd be surprised if they just did one season of the women's football team.

• 27:17Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  And so, but you know, I don't know. I don't know officially. Thank you very much. Well, we.

• 27:22Jessie Ware?

  So when Master Swallow went on Cats, he probably just thought, I'm going to dad's office.

• 27:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, he kind of knew that. He knew that it was a performance and he'd seen clips of me on Countdown before. But he was like six and a half, so he had no kind of comprehension of what a TV studio is like.

• 27:40Jessie Ware?

  He was completely adorable.

• 27:42Speaker 03

  I mean, it was sort of incredible how unfazed he was.

• 27:44Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 27:45Speaker 03

  And we were, we were more nervous than he was. And I think the producers were really nervous because I said, oh, I don't want him to rehearse because if he gets nervous, then like, like if we rehearse and he's nervous or he messes something up or something, he'll then that, then he'll just be. So I said, I'll just, let's just show him where he's going to sit and where he wouldn't. But that's all he needs to sort of really know about. We don't need to run free. So they were like, well, we've never had a kid on the show before ever because it's a grown up show, right? With lots of bad language and so on and so forth.

• 28:15Speaker 03

  And he had to have a chaperone and all kinds of things, but he loved it. Absolutely loved it.

• 28:19Jessie Ware?

  I didn't find it. I mean, he did the northern accent at the beginning.

• 28:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 28:23Jessie Ware?

  So like, do you sometimes go into Mr. Swallow at home when you want them to do something or whether you're trying to make them go to bed and you're like, you become Mr. Swallow?

• 28:32Speaker 03

  No, I do occasionally leave voice notes as Mr. Swallow if I'm away.

• 28:36Jessie Ware?

  That's so sweet.

• 28:37Speaker 03

  But no, I don't. I mean, it sounds a weird thing. I sometimes think as Mr. Swallow, like I think of the most sort of inappropriate weird thing to say. And sometimes I'll just say it in my own voice. But they've come to like the Mr. Swallow live shows, which is quite nice. It's sweet when they come along.

• 28:50Jessie Ware?

  Mr. Swallow is a lovely character that was modelled on your teacher.

• 28:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 28:55Jessie Ware?

  Who was Mrs. Swallow. Well, she was in a swallow.

• 28:57Speaker 03

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 28:58Jessie Ware?

  She would swallow a lot.

• 28:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 29:01Jessie Ware?

  Um, but you had a fondness for her. Was she a good teacher?

• 29:06Speaker 03

  Um, I think that's debatable. I think she was absolutely crackers. And she taught us GCSE English. So my show, Last Live Show, Show Pony, um, of which there's a special coming out at some point soon because we filmed it in Leeds.

• 29:19Jessie Ware?

  Oh, what amazing.

• 29:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, which is really fun.

• 29:21Jessie Ware?

  Coming out on Netflix?

• 29:22Speaker 03

  Well, Universal are distributing it. So, um, it'll end up on a platform like that, um, at some point. Um, and, um, and, and so I talk about it a lot in the show, but yeah, she was, she was the inspiration behind the character. And she taught us English, GCSE. But really, she, it was like she'd got into teaching because she just loved the sound of her own voice and loved to kind of grandstand and sort of platform. So I, I remember like so distinctly just like lessons where she would just sort of stomp in and say, right, we're going to have a debate about capital punishment. And we were like, well, why? Like, why? That's not on the syllabus. She was absolutely crackers.

• 29:56Speaker 02

  So I'm a very pushy, proud Jewish mother.

• 29:59Speaker 03

  Perfect. Me too.

• 30:01Speaker 02

  What do you think? Yeah, I thought you were. Um, what do you think your parents are most proud of? Being part of the magic circle, going off to Durham and then Cambridge, being on.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  Well, maybe not Cambridge just because I quit, but because I then quit to do comedy.

• 30:16Jessie Ware?

  But you, but you could always, haven't they given you like an honorary PhD?

• 30:20Speaker 03

  I got an honorary, yeah, well, honorary doctorate, but that was from Durham, yeah.

• 30:24Speaker 02

  Did they mind that you weren't going to do something serious that you were going to?

• 30:29Jessie Ware?

  What were your parents' jobs?

• 30:30Speaker 03

  Uh, GP was my mum and then solicitor, like my dad worked in law and stuff. So, yeah. Um, so quite, you know, quite normal jobs as it were.

• 30:37Speaker 02

  Did they want you to do kind of a more conservative career?

• 30:40Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't think that they had any kind of grand plan. I think it was more that I'd always been sort of, I'd always been quite academic at school and then going to university and then starting doing a PhD in geophysics. So it sort of felt like, oh, I was on a sort of a, a trajectory that would end up in a relatively normal job, like either in academia or I guess probably work for an oil company, which would be a bit frowned upon, I guess now. But, um, and so I think it was, it was a gear change for sure to then be like, I'm just going to like, just go and pursue comedy. Um, but they were, they were, they were supportive. I think they were nervous, I think.

• 31:15Speaker 02

  But supportive.

• 31:16Speaker 03

  But, but supportive, yeah.

• 31:17Jessie Ware?

  We haven't even talked about your violin playing and like.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  We don't have to talk about that.

• 31:21Jessie Ware?

  Well, I mean, you were obviously a gifted child.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  I don't know. I think.

• 31:25Speaker 02

  I mean, yes. You don't know.

• 31:28Speaker 03

  Well, I was obsessed. I became obsessed with things. Like I kind of, and like magic was definitely one of those. And that is something that you can really obsess over as a kid. You can sort of fiddle all the time. And I loved, I did love music and I loved classical music from a really young age, which was quite, which was going against the grain a little bit. It's not like all, all my friends were into classical music. That, that was sort of just my thing.

• 31:47Speaker 02

  Did your parents listen to?

• 31:48Speaker 03

  Not really, no.

• 31:49Speaker 02

  Do you play anything else?

• 31:51Speaker 03

  Piano.

• 31:52Speaker 02

  You play piano, isn't it?

• 31:53Speaker 03

  But I, but I didn't get taught piano. I just played. So I just played by ear.

• 31:56Speaker 02

  No, you want to, oh, God.

• 31:57Speaker 03

  Um, but by saying that, I don't mean in a self-granizing way. And also I should say, I'm also not that good. And my, my wife is literally an incredible musician.

• 32:04Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 32:05Speaker 03

  Incredible. It's exactly how we met, yeah.

• 32:08Speaker 02

  How did you meet?

• 32:08Speaker 03

  Made through orchestra at Durham. We played in the same university orchestra. She was playing viola.

• 32:13Jessie Ware?

  And what was playing when you met?

• 32:15Speaker 03

  That's such a great question and no one's ever asked. Right, let me work it out. So it would have been, it would have been, well, we would have been rehearsing, uh, probably Sibelius II, the second symphony. And it is absolutely gorgeous.

• 32:29Jessie Ware?

  Or maybe it was the company.

• 32:30Speaker 02

  Excuse me, were you first violin?

• 32:32Speaker 03

  For second, actually. And I, I was first, I played first violin in the chamber orchestra and I played second violin in the symphony orchestra. I remember that.

• 32:40Jessie Ware?

  So can you just, if you don't mind, I just want to see, so you saw each other across. So what was she playing? Sorry?

• 32:46Speaker 03

  Viola.

• 32:46Jessie Ware?

  Viola. So you were kind of near each other?

• 32:48Speaker 03

  Uh, you sort of, yeah, I was sort of like the seconds were sort of around here. It was, we were all kind of cramped into sort of the music department. And she was sort of there. And I remember so distinctly the first time, um, that I saw her, like, like absolutely. And the first time where we sat down and had a drink and it was all part of a group and it was outside of the Swan and Three Signets, Swan and Three Signets, which is a pub in, in Durham. And, and, and, and remember thinking, oh, she's really exciting and gorgeous and interesting. And yeah, yeah. And she is phenomenal, like a phenomenal person, incredible music teacher and pianist and violin player.

• 33:21Jessie Ware?

  Oh, she's a music teacher?

• 33:23Speaker 03

  She's a director of music, yeah.

• 33:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, okay. Amazing. So which, uh, do your kids play instruments?

• 33:27Speaker 03

  They are learning. So they, uh, Annie's a little bit little at the moment, but, um, Finn and Arthur play piano and then violin and cello.

• 33:36Jessie Ware?

  Are they enjoying? Have they got the bug?

• 33:38Speaker 03

  I think that they do enjoy it. They don't like it. They, they do enjoy it actually. Yeah, they do. They don't, um, uh, we've never kind of wanted to kind of push anything kind of on them. And particularly because we're, you know, quite, we before, you know, we musicians and, well, you know, we like, we like playing a lot. So, but we never wanted to them to feel that they kind of had to. But they do, they do enjoy it, I think.

• 33:58Jessie Ware?

  Um, back to, we haven't even asked the question that we always ask.

• 34:02Speaker 02

  What?

• 34:02Jessie Ware?

  Um, about what was a memorable dish from your childhood when you were growing up?

• 34:07Speaker 03

  Well, I really like, on my mum's side, chicken rice soup. So like, it was like a.

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Or like a vogliamo with the lemon in it.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

• 34:17Speaker 02

  It's an a vogliamo soup with lemon and chicken.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  How would you say it? Aqua lemono?

• 34:20Speaker 02

  A vog, yeah, I probably, I don't know. I'm doing the English way.

• 34:24Speaker 03

  Um, but yes, exactly.

• 34:25Jessie Ware?

  You're killing the Greek cypriot.

• 34:26Speaker 03

  With like, with like egg white, you put, fold egg white into it at the end and, um, and lemon and sort of boiled chicken. And that was, I used to like that a lot.

• 34:34Jessie Ware?

  Chicken soup.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  Say it. Can you say any Greek?

• 34:37Jessie Ware?

  Malakas.

• 34:38Speaker 03

  What does that mean?

• 34:39Speaker 02

  Bastard.

• 34:40Speaker 03

  Oh, right. Oh, okay. No, I didn't hear those words.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  Agapi mu.

• 34:44Speaker 03

  What does that mean?

• 34:44Speaker 02

  My love.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 34:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. You don't know that.

• 34:47Speaker 03

  No.

• 34:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, you've misspent youth.

• 34:50Jessie Ware?

  No, I think he was busy doing other shit.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  He was not going agapi mu to people.

• 34:56Jessie Ware?

  Um, and then on your, you said your dad cooked. So what was a memorable dish from your dad's side?

• 35:00Speaker 03

  Uh, well, he, he like, does obviously make a good curry, good chicken curry. He makes good chickpeas. Um, like spicy rice, like spicy rice was just always really, really nice. Just very nice as well. Um, what else would he make? But he was very good at like, just sort of quite general, like, you know, just a roast. Like he would make a good roast, sort of like roast chicken.

• 35:19Speaker 02

  Have you got brothers and sisters?

• 35:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, got a sister. Yeah, yeah.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  So were you, because you're musical and you were quite busy, extracurricular. Did you all eat at the same time or people and your mother or your, your mum was a GP, so she was.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  No, we would, I mean, definitely, we'd always eat together on a Sunday, but then, and then there'd definitely be meals, like I remember actually distinctly after Horse of Music Centre, because that was on a Saturday, we would then sort of sit down and basically have like kind of a fry up at lunchtime.

• 35:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 35:47Speaker 03

  Um, on a Saturday. But no, during the week it was quite mixed because everyone was doing different things. And, and particularly once I got into, I guess, A levels, I would just sit by room and just do homework until like probably about nine o'clock and then would, and then would eat. It was probably quite unhealthy to kind of eat that late. But, um, um, so we would probably get into a habit of eating at slightly different times during the week.

• 36:10Speaker 02

  What was, if you had a birthday, what was your celebratory meal? Did you go out to eat Chinese?

• 36:16Speaker 03

  Chinese.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  And what's your favourite Chinese?

• 36:17Speaker 03

  Love a Chinese. A beef in satay sauce. I love chicken fried rice, mushroom chow mein.

• 36:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, I love, I do love Chinese.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  Can you recite any menus from your local Chinese?

• 36:28Speaker 03

  No, but I did for a show, did learn the Wagamama menu. I memorized the Wagamama menu.

• 36:32Jessie Ware?

  Can you still remember?

• 36:32Speaker 03

  No, I can't. And they changed, they, they have, I think, changed. I think they've changed it. But I remembered the numbers against each dish and the price of each dish. And that was quite a fun routine to do. And then weirdly Wagamama, because, because I did that on Cats, and they got in contact with some vouchers.

• 36:48Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, no.

• 36:49Speaker 03

  Well, they did and I was like, and I was like, you can't give us this, it's too much. And so they gave some to charity and then they were like, oh, here's a 50 quid voucher. I was like, oh, that's good. We can go out now.

• 36:55Jessie Ware?

  Oh, you're not, I would have taken the card, mate.

• 36:58Speaker 02

  So is it still Chinese for your celebrations?

• 37:01Speaker 03

  I think, I think so. I think if I was, I like an Indian as well. I mean, we don't, we don't take away all the time, but Chinese would be the go to.

• 37:08Jessie Ware?

  I really got into Chinese again.

• 37:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, I love it.

• 37:10Jessie Ware?

  But the memorizing the Wagamamas, it's quite, when did that come to you, Nick? To do that as a, as a.

• 37:16Speaker 03

  It's such a stupid thing.

• 37:18Jessie Ware?

  It really worked.

• 37:19Speaker 03

  I think I just found it funny. I mean, I'm always, I've always been on the lookout for, because I would never say that.

• 37:24Speaker 02

  Don't take that away.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Thank you very much.

• 37:26Speaker 02

  Would you like any more?

• 37:27Speaker 03

  Uh, no, no, but it was absolutely delicious. Thank you. So I, I don't know exactly what the reason was for kind of thinking, oh, I should memorize the Wagamama menu. But I'm always on the lookout for. Tricks that I can do through Mr Swallow, because Mr Swallow is not like a magician in the way that you wouldn't, if you're gonna see a Mr Swallow show, I don't think people think, oh, we're going to see a magic show necessarily. And I don't think people think of me as a magician, even though I love magic and I do do magic in some of the live shows and really properly kind of vocal about being passionate about it. But I feel like there are certain tricks that work well for Mr Swallow and certain things which just wouldn't work. For example, and actually it was in the same show that that Wagamama Menu routine ended up being a part of as well. But I remember the problem with that

• 38:10Speaker 03

  show as a whole was actually, because there was quite a lot of magic in it, was I was having to both be the kind of the consummate host, because often as a magician, you need to get people to do the things that you need them to do, you need to stand in the right place, you need to get out. And there's often quite a lot of business within magic. And because Mr Swallow's so kind of hazardous and easily distracted, it didn't, that would fight against the kind of, oh, but I actually do need you to sort of pay attention now. And I sort of realised that the hard way, actually doing that show, thinking, oh, actually there are some tricks in here which just don't work, because I'm sort of trying to play the fool and get them to do what I want them to do. And actually, it doesn't quite work. But whereas the Wagamama Menu was just that sort of sweet spot, I think, in that it's sort of silly enough to feel like a Mr Swallow routine, but then impressive enough

• 38:55Speaker 03

  that it feels like a magic trick as well. So, so I always, and even now, you know, I'll see magic tricks, or I sign up to lots of like mailing lists where you can kind of get sent like the latest tricks and stuff. And I'm like, oh, is that, you know, and often I'm like, oh, I'd love to know how that works, or I'd love to have a play around with that, if it's a gimmick or something. But then ultimately, I'm like, oh, could I, would I be able to get away with it as Mr Swallow on stage? Like, does it feel like a routine?

• 39:18Jessie Ware?

  So is that how, is that how it works? You'll get like sent new tricks?

• 39:22Speaker 03

  Well, you can, you can buy them, yeah.

• 39:24Jessie Ware?

  You can buy them?

• 39:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, but I mean, I would mostly buy books which have kind of details about methods or routines, which other magicians write and put out.

• 39:32Speaker 02

  Oh, magicians competitive. It is a competitive, so.

• 39:36Speaker 03

  Oh, I would say, and also ego is a huge problem in magic, more so than in.

• 39:40Jessie Ware?

  Than comedy?

• 39:41Speaker 03

  More than in comedy, more than in acting, more than in, it is, you would be absolutely horrified. Magicians' egos, because the premise of being a magician is to do something that nobody else can do, and there's no sort of explanation for it. There is a reason why magician attracts men, that it just gives them power. And there's a reason why the magic circle is like 95% male.

• 40:03Speaker 02

  Yours and female magician.

• 40:05Jessie Ware?

  I don't either.

• 40:06Speaker 03

  Well, there are some and they're brilliant, but they, but there are, there are, you know, there aren't that many.

• 40:12Jessie Ware?

  But you've chosen like three careers that are full of egos, I presume. But you seem to have no ego.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  Oh, oh, well, no, I've got, well, I've got like, the thing is, I think about this quite a lot, because I think I do have an ego, like as in, to a degree, I mean, hopefully I'm not, not, but not. But if you look at the ingredients of what ego is, like having pride in your work, having confidence, sort of feeling that you can sort of speak up or you have authority or experience, like, I sort of think that you need all the ingredients for ego, I think, to survive this sort of industry to a degree. But there's obviously a tipping point when confidence in your ability tips into arrogance, or pride in your work is at the expense of someone else, or something like that. So, so I think, or ambition becomes reckless ambition, or something like that. So I feel like ego sort of sometimes gets a bad rap in terms of a thing, but I don't, I don't think.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  But you can self-regulate.

• 41:06Speaker 03

  Exactly. And I think it is important to actually, I think you have to probably be ambitious and you want to create original, and you want to share them. But I think it's keeping it in check and knowing when often you're not the best person in the room to make a decision. And actually, the times when I've been, I think, doing stuff that I'm most proud of is often been because I'm surrounded by other people who are much better than I am.

• 41:27Speaker 02

  There's a subterfuge in magic, like people are trying to watch how you do it, so they can copy it and steal your trick.

• 41:35Speaker 03

  Well, there's a lot of that that goes on. But then it's really weird, because I think, and not, not me, but within magic, I mean, no one, I think, because I've not put out anything that's probably interesting enough to kind of, for people to want to replicate. But it's a weird thing in magic, because often, and the decades and decades, and sort of even is true now, you're sort of expected to do the kind of classic routines, and you're not really meant to deviate from them. I mean, even within magic competitions, which exist within magic societies and so on. And there were some really big ones with big prizes, like international ones. You know, there's often an award for originality, and it feels mad to me that you would ever award originality, like, originality should be just an absolute given. But there is a specific award for a magician to do something

• 42:20Speaker 03

  original, which actually means that actually, for the large part, magicians aren't necessarily doing something original. And, I mean, the good ones always are. But, you know, 70, 80% of magicians are probably doing tricks that a lot of other magicians are doing.

• 42:31Jessie Ware?

  Okay, come and give us, give us, give us a magic trick. Okay, so this bit is gonna be quite visual, because Nick is about to perform a magic trick.

• 42:39Speaker 03

  Right, what to do?

• 42:40Jessie Ware?

  With it, like, sorry, that's like a, that's definitely my son that's.

• 42:43Speaker 03

  There was some, I did see there was a nibble, we'll get rid of the three halves.

• 42:46Jessie Ware?

  So basically, if you are listening on audio, you can probably switch to visual now.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  Wow, that was like a croupier.

• 42:54Jessie Ware?

  Thanks so much, guys. That was quite good, actually, yeah. I'll just do it again. Let's just see if I can do it again.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  Can you do it? I love the noise of cards, it's so great. I follow quite a few.

• 43:04Speaker 02

  I think this is the best one.

• 43:05Jessie Ware?

  You could be a croupier. Oh, no, that didn't work. See, I shouldn't have done it again. Do I need to shuffle more?

• 43:10Speaker 03

  That's absolutely fine, as long as you're happy that they're mixed. And obviously, this is your deck of cards. So, uh, let's have, if you take a card, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna deliberately look away, so you don't think I'm sneaking or anything. And if you, I don't know if you wanna, you can show Jessie or show the camera, or you can keep it to yourself, it's inside the app, you. Happy, happy? I'm gonna look at it still. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you've got it close to you, so I can't see. I'm gonna turn around. Okay, so if you, if you pop it back there, face down, and just let me know when that's done. Yeah, yeah, don't look at that. I'm not getting, that's just really bad patter that I kind of got into a bad habit of doing, when I do like weddings and stuff.

• 43:42Speaker 02

  I did remember that.

• 43:44Speaker 03

  You did remember it? Oh, okay. Well, don't worry, it's not important. So, but you can remember what your card was that you chose. Okay. So don't give me any, don't give me any clues or anything. I think your card was, I'm gonna, if it's all right, I'm gonna have four chances, probably quite high. I think it's a red card. That's one, two, three. Uh, one, two, three, four. Okay, I'm pretty confident it's one of these. I'll put the rest of those there. Wasn't that? I think, no, that's fine. Let's put that down on there. Next one on top, wasn't that one?

• 44:13Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  No, okay, fine. Put it on there, next one on top. Your card was a red card, though. It's genuinely not a red card.

• 44:22Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 44:23Speaker 03

  It's not the, not one of those. Okay, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine, that's fine. Oh, God. Put your, no, no, hang on.

• 44:29Jessie Ware?

  Is this what it acts?

• 44:31Speaker 02

  I think it's part of it.

• 44:32Speaker 03

  Can you just pop your hand on one of those cards? But just, just one, and just keep your fingers on it. Hang on a second. Oh, God, this is so embarrassing.

• 44:38Jessie Ware?

  Shall we do another one?

• 44:39Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no, no, hang on. So, so these weren't yours. Okay, fine. Um.

• 44:43Jessie Ware?

  No, he's, you're gonna trick us. This is part of it.

• 44:46Speaker 03

  What was the card that you chose? You can say.

• 44:50Speaker 02

  You know it's here, three of spades. You are so naughty.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  It was naughty.

• 44:57Speaker 02

  You are so naughty. I knew that you were spooping us.

• 45:01Jessie Ware?

  Sounds great acting too, by the way, just like, that was fantastic.

• 45:04Speaker 03

  Oh, bless you.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Well done.

• 45:06Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 45:07Jessie Ware?

  So, this is Alexandra Dudley's Flowerless Chocolate Moran Cake. So it's, yeah, it's kind of, you make it in two parts, and it has dipped, but it did look amazing yesterday, Nick.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  It looks amazing now.

• 45:24Speaker 03

  It looks great now, and I, God, that looks just.

• 45:26Jessie Ware?

  Do you like sweet stuff?

• 45:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. I think I have, I think I have chocolate every day, that's bad.

• 45:31Jessie Ware?

  Do you?

• 45:32Speaker 03

  A little, like a little bit, like a little bit.

• 45:33Speaker 02

  Which is your chocolate, then?

• 45:34Speaker 03

  Chocolate orange, but not, not necessarily, well, as in, I love the.

• 45:37Jessie Ware?

  Not just for Christmas.

• 45:38Speaker 03

  Not just for Christmas, a plain, as in a dark chocolate, chocolate orange, the dark chocolate, rather than the milk chocolate, Terry's. But all the, all the spin offs of the chocolate bars, like Lindt doing ice.

• 45:49Jessie Ware?

  Do you think you could do more than that?

• 45:50Speaker 03

  Well, I'll start with that.

• 45:52Speaker 02

  Start with that.

• 45:53Jessie Ware?

  And then I've got creme fraiche.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  Perfect.

• 45:55Jessie Ware?

  Creme.

• 45:56Speaker 03

  To make it healthy.

• 45:57Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, to make it healthy, exactly. Actually, it's so good for you, this whole thing, to help yourself.

• 46:02Speaker 02

  No calories either. No, calorie free.

• 46:04Jessie Ware?

  Mum, what do you want?

• 46:05Speaker 02

  Small bit.

• 46:06Speaker 03

  Small bit.

• 46:07Jessie Ware?

  So.

• 46:08Speaker 02

  Thanks, darling.

• 46:09Jessie Ware?

  Last supper.

• 46:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:12Jessie Ware?

  Starter main food, drink of choice. I know the drink of choice, I think.

• 46:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, so drink of choice is gonna be squash.

• 46:17Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 46:18Speaker 03

  I think we should go Italian.

• 46:20Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 46:21Speaker 03

  And I think this is probably the thing that I would eat the most often, like, in the week, like a more of a sort of standard staple in the week thing.

• 46:27Speaker 02

  Rather than Chinese?

• 46:28Speaker 03

  Rather than Chinese, I think. Well, because Chinese is, I mean, it's great, but it's a treat, but it's a treat is a Chinese.

• 46:33Speaker 02

  But it is your last supper.

• 46:34Speaker 03

  Well, I know, but I wonder if I want something that's a little bit more kind of like, this is what normal life is. So it's just gonna become something quite straightforward.

• 46:42Jessie Ware?

  You're methoding this, by the way. You're kind of, you are. But I'm kind of interested by your thought.

• 46:47Speaker 03

  Well, I'm thinking, it's Italian, basically. So it's just a simple mozzarella, tomato and basil kind of salad sort of starter. Then it's a pesto.

• 46:58Jessie Ware?

  Oh, we're going full Italian?

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:00Jessie Ware?

  All right, great.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  Spaghetti and pesto, specifically saclo pesto.

• 47:03Jessie Ware?

  Love it.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  My favourite, the green one, absolutely adore it. And I probably have it, that, I probably have this meal probably twice a week.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  You're kidding.

• 47:11Speaker 03

  No, I love it. And then I, well, I add, I sort of pimp it up a little bit.

• 47:15Jessie Ware?

  Okay, go on.

• 47:16Speaker 03

  Bit of sweet corn.

• 47:17Jessie Ware?

  Don't apologize. That's fine.

• 47:19Speaker 03

  This is what it's gonna get. I'm gonna, I know I'm gonna go off the rails. Bit of sweet corn, some mushrooms, done in the microwave with a little bit of garlic, put the lid on, and a bit of olive oil, and it just cooks it, and it's.

• 47:29Jessie Ware?

  Why in the microwave?

• 47:30Speaker 03

  It just, again, the reason why you did the rice in the microwave.

• 47:32Jessie Ware?

  Okay, it just works.

• 47:33Speaker 03

  It just works.

• 47:34Jessie Ware?

  Never done a mushroom in the microwave.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  Do mushrooms in the microwave.

• 47:36Jessie Ware?

  Did it dry them out?

• 47:37Speaker 03

  It sort of makes them sort of, yeah, but it kind of almost feels like it intensifies the flavour a little bit.

• 47:41Jessie Ware?

  Umami, more umami.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  Jessie, we were going to ask his weirdest combination.

• 47:45Speaker 03

  No, no, I mean, yeah. Chorito, chops up chorito, pop that in the oven, really thinly sliced, for like.

• 47:54Speaker 02

  With pesto?

• 47:55Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. Spain just sent it in the chat.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. All the men are throwing in the cupboard. And then that obviously releases a little bit of oil as well. Put that in.

• 48:04Jessie Ware?

  Because pesto doesn't have enough oil.

• 48:05Speaker 03

  And then I would then, yeah, it's about to get oilier, sun dried tomatoes.

• 48:09Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, chop those up really finely.

• 48:11Speaker 02

  I actually feel, I feel.

• 48:12Speaker 03

  You call me a filthy bitch.

• 48:13Speaker 02

  I'm feeling sick.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  No, have it. And you will honestly think this is the most delicious thing you have ever had in your life.

• 48:20Speaker 02

  I will think of you, but I won't think that.

• 48:22Speaker 03

  It'll be your dying, your last breath.

• 48:24Jessie Ware?

  Sounds quite like.

• 48:25Speaker 03

  It's so fatty, it's so unhealthy.

• 48:27Jessie Ware?

  And then cheese.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  Cheese all over it. And then this is really, this is really bad.

• 48:32Jessie Ware?

  Hot sauce.

• 48:33Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, hot sauce. Or I possibly would chop up like bird's eye chilies into it, which feel a bit fresher, because it doesn't feel fresh. And then I would maybe have like a garlic, like one of those like rustic Parmesan wheels that you can get, like a tear and share. That with a really, really healthy big glob of mayonnaise on the side.

• 48:53Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 48:54Speaker 03

  Black pepper on the mayonnaise, and then on the rest of the dish, and then to round it off, tiramisu.

• 49:01Speaker 03

  You look like you're having hearts.

• 49:02Speaker 02

  Actually, I'm, I have no words.

• 49:05Speaker 03

  So there you go.

• 49:06Jessie Ware?

  Well, we were gonna ask you.

• 49:07Speaker 02

  You don't make this for your kids, do you?

• 49:09Speaker 03

  No, God, no.

• 49:10Jessie Ware?

  Has your wife ever had it?

• 49:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:12Jessie Ware?

  And she enjoys it?

• 49:14Speaker 03

  We served it up for friends like last week.

• 49:16Jessie Ware?

  And how did they feel about it?

• 49:18Speaker 03

  They're real foodies. Shout out to Vic and Paul, um, if you're listening. Um, they're real foodies. So we're always quite nervous about cooking for them.

• 49:24Jessie Ware?

  Oh, no, you went big.

• 49:25Speaker 03

  Hence why, hence why we often just get to them when they come around. But we, we did, we did that, we did that for them.

• 49:32Jessie Ware?

  And they loved it?

• 49:33Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 49:34Jessie Ware?

  Did you do the mayo garlic?

• 49:35Speaker 02

  They're not gonna say they don't.

• 49:36Speaker 03

  I did, but I just put it on the table and they sort of just, they didn't even comment, but they're so used to.

• 49:41Jessie Ware?

  I love this. I love it.

• 49:42Speaker 03

  But I know like Vic's in school, so it's kind of like, it's just their friends who like, they're just like, oh, you just get on with whatever you wanna do.

• 49:47Jessie Ware?

  I'm obsessed with this.

• 49:48Speaker 03

  But if, and we've gone on holidays together and they'll just like, be like, well, Nick, I'll just get pasta.

• 49:52Speaker 02

  Which, which pasta do you like?

• 49:55Speaker 03

  Spaghetti.

• 49:56Jessie Ware?

  But you don't have a favourite shape?

• 49:58Speaker 03

  Well, I used to like the, um, what's the one which is like bocchini, which has got the whole, like spaghetti with the hole in the middle. And that's fun. But now I've just gone back to just really basic spaghetti. I love it.

• 50:10Jessie Ware?

  I, you know what?

• 50:11Speaker 02

  Darling, I'm not coming to your house for dinner.

• 50:13Jessie Ware?

  That's such a, I have to say.

• 50:15Speaker 03

  But I bet you like all those individual things.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  No, I don't.

• 50:18Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 50:19Jessie Ware?

  It's a very male, it's a very male.

• 50:23Speaker 03

  Is it like a bachelor meal?

• 50:24Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, it feels quite bachelor.

• 50:25Speaker 02

  Would you to say?

• 50:26Speaker 03

  No, no, no, it's fine.

• 50:27Speaker 02

  It's studenty, it's studenty. It's some mushrooms as well.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  What's wrong with that?

• 50:32Speaker 02

  And the corn.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Corn, but like, but all it, but it's just, that often corn is to use up corn.

• 50:39Speaker 02

  Oh, okay.

• 50:39Speaker 03

  Cause the kids have had corn. Like I wouldn't always, and I did say, in fact, I said last week to Becca, literally verbatim, I said, I'm not gonna put corn in it.

• 50:46Speaker 02

  Oh, wow.

• 50:48Speaker 03

  Well, just because I thought there's Vic and Paul coming around. I was like, I can't put corn in it because they'll think it's like a children's meal or something. So.

• 50:55Speaker 02

  So he made it more sophisticated.

• 50:57Speaker 03

  I mean, it wasn't really, it was just.

• 50:59Jessie Ware?

  You've got, listen, you've got the fat, the salt, the heat, the acid.

• 51:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:04Jessie Ware?

  And you could have had the sweet in there too. With the sweet corn. I, I'm, I respect you.

• 51:09Speaker 03

  I swear to God, when I was at Durham, and you know, the student catering, and, and when I lived in like halls at Adens in first year and, and, and final year as well, actually. They used to serve in first year. If no vegetables were like eaten, they would then become like a soup or something the next day. And that, that sort of makes sense with catering and stuff. But they genuinely legitimately once, um, there was sweet corn on the menu and it didn't get all eaten up. And then the next day, they served it in one of those little silver pots as a dessert with mandarins.

• 51:39Jessie Ware?

  Oh, please.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  I'm not joking. They actually did. And so I think it might have come from that.

• 51:45Speaker 02

  Did you try it?

• 51:46Speaker 03

  Yeah. But it's just food, isn't it? It's just, you eat it and it's absolute, like nothing happened. It's not like there's a chemical reaction. I mean, there probably is some kind of chemical reaction going on in your stomach, but, but there's not, there's, like you're like.

• 52:00Jessie Ware?

  No, I.

• 52:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:01Jessie Ware?

  No, you're quite fine with all the different combos then.

• 52:03Speaker 03

  I think particularly when, if you ignore the truth though side, but, but if it's grown from the ground, I'm like, we'll just mix it. It doesn't matter. Like just mix it into a paste and eat it.

• 52:12Speaker 02

  Mmm.

• 52:15Speaker 02

  Case man.

• 52:15Jessie Ware?

  Don't judge, mum.

• 52:19Speaker 02

  You're trying not to laugh. You're looking at him as if he's.

• 52:26Speaker 02

  Has, has anyone asked you to write a cookbook?

• 52:29Speaker 03

  No.

• 52:29Speaker 02

  No.

• 52:30Jessie Ware?

  I think, oh, thank you. Everyone in the room, I feel like everyone would give that a go and it would all just delicious things. Yeah.

• 52:37Speaker 03

  Hmm. I think if you saw it on the menu, you'd think, well, without the sweet corn, I granted that, but.

• 52:43Speaker 02

  I love a sweet. I think the sweet corn's the least of your worries, to be honest. I think secret oil, the amount of oil.

• 52:49Jessie Ware?

  Just elevates it too. Do you know what I mean?

• 52:52Speaker 03

  Chorizo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that gives it.

• 52:55Speaker 02

  No, no egg, no egg and lemon sauce on that as well. You held back.

• 53:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:00Speaker 02

  Would you have salad with it?

• 53:02Speaker 03

  No, no point.

• 53:04Jessie Ware?

  All the, all the stuff's in there, isn't it? All the, yeah. And we're finishing with a tiramisu. Great. So mum, you had a question that you wanted to ask about sandwiches.

• 53:14Speaker 02

  I love sandwiches. Do you like sandwiches? If you were a filling for a sandwich, who would you like on either side of you?

• 53:21Speaker 03

  What do you mean by that?

• 53:22Speaker 02

  People.

• 53:23Speaker 03

  Still, what do you mean by that?

• 53:25Speaker 02

  Just, who is?

• 53:26Jessie Ware?

  You can see, you can see all the person.

• 53:31Speaker 03

  What do you mean?

• 53:32Speaker 02

  If you were a filling of a, maybe this is not the best question. You're the filling. It's just who you're close to. If you, who are you close to?

• 53:40Speaker 03

  Well, why do I have to?

• 53:42Speaker 02

  It's not working. I'm not.

• 53:44Speaker 03

  But why do I have to be a filling?

• 53:47Speaker 03

  What do you mean? I don't, no, I love you. But I wanna answer the question. I wanna answer it.

• 53:52Jessie Ware?

  How do you think you, how do you interpret that question?

• 53:55Speaker 02

  But it was about intimacy, darling.

• 53:58Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  Oh, well, it's not about sex, darling. It was about, if you were in a, if you were a filling, who would be on either side of you?

• 54:05Jessie Ware?

  What are you having a threesome with, is this?

• 54:09Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, no. I.

• 54:10Speaker 02

  No, I didn't mean it like that.

• 54:13Speaker 03

  I thought you meant.

• 54:14Speaker 02

  I'm not talking about throuples, Jess.

• 54:16Speaker 03

  I thought, if I was a, I thought you meant the question was if I was a filling, what would I be?

• 54:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:20Speaker 03

  And I was gonna say cheese savoury.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  Okay, that's fine. Let's stick to that. It's not working, that question.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  By people either side you?

• 54:28Speaker 02

  I think it's a wrong question.

• 54:29Speaker 03

  Okay, fine, that's all right.

• 54:30Speaker 02

  I think it doesn't work. Not a great question.

• 54:33Speaker 03

  You should ask the question, verbatim how you asked it then, uh, for every single guest and to see how they react.

• 54:37Speaker 02

  Okay. To see if they can work.

• 54:40Speaker 03

  See what, see, no, I liked it.

• 54:43Speaker 02

  What do you like?

• 54:45Speaker 03

  Say what different adjectives you get.

• 54:46Speaker 02

  In a throuple? God.

• 54:48Jessie Ware?

  You went, it's about intimacy.

• 54:50Speaker 02

  I know, it was about not intimacy. Who's your friends really? Who are your best mates that you would have on either side? Okay, we're not ever doing that again. I'm so sorry. I tried it out, honey.

• 55:02Speaker 03

  I love it.

• 55:03Speaker 02

  It's like a magic trick that has not worked. Definitely.

• 55:07Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 55:08Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God, I'm dying. And you with your fucking sweet corn on your high horse.

• 55:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, following that.

• 55:15Jessie Ware?

  Touche, Lenny, touche.

• 55:19Jessie Ware?

  Oh, my God. Before we let you go, can you give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere?

• 55:25Speaker 03

  I honestly think it's arches and lemonade. Because it's such, cause I, I never used to drink before I got to university. So, uh, and, and, and because I hadn't drunk, I sort of had to sort of start by.

• 55:39Speaker 02

  Trying, yeah.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  Trying, trying, well, I sort of wanted to try something that was a little bit more.

• 55:44Speaker 02

  Is it peach or?

• 55:45Speaker 03

  It's peach. It's very sweet. It's a sort of taste of sort of fizzy squash. It's quite, it's probably what teenagers probably would, would have drunk. And so, but I, I wasn't, there was never gonna be a way where I'd sort of start drinking beer or wine because they just feel too, too grown up or advanced if you've never had alcohol before. So I sort of thought, and so that takes me instantly back to like that first sort of week at, at university, really.

• 56:07Jessie Ware?

  Nick, thank you so much for being on the podcast.

• 56:09Speaker 03

  So much. What a treat.

• 56:11Jessie Ware?

  And good luck with war.

• 56:12Speaker 03

  Thank you very much. Looking forward to it coming out. Thank you.

• 56:29Jessie Ware?

  Nick Mohammed on Table manners. I love him.

• 56:33Speaker 02

  I did think that he definitely was pretending that he didn't know the card.

• 56:37Jessie Ware?

  It was stunning acting. Yeah. You really knew that?

• 56:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. Cause I knew he wasn't gonna mess it up. He's, he's too proud of his magicianship.

• 56:47Jessie Ware?

  I was like, hang on, I thought it was a very good performance, a very good performance. Nick Mohammed is in war. It's such a good show. It's got everyone in it and it's got season two already. Um.

• 57:00Speaker 02

  He's such a lovely, fun man. I see now why people want him for nearly everything, really.

• 57:07Jessie Ware?

  I mean, I didn't even speak to him about Stafford's flat. I mean, he does.

• 57:10Speaker 02

  Proms, everything.

• 57:12Jessie Ware?

  He's heaven and such a nice man and funny and generous and all of it. I loved it. And the food I thought was delicious.

• 57:20Speaker 02

  Worked beautifully.

• 57:21Jessie Ware?

  That is a great, um, recipe.

• 57:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is.

• 57:24Jessie Ware?

  Anyone could do it. Alexandra Dudley, you've done it again, girl.

• 57:27Speaker 02

  Was it easy?

• 57:28Jessie Ware?

  Really easy.

• 57:29Speaker 02

  It was a good dinner party.

• 57:31Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, it is actually, because what she says in it is like, it, it's simple, but it actually feels like you've made an effort. And I think mint and tomato together is a heavenly combo.

• 57:39Speaker 02

  That's great. Jessie, I still couldn't have what he was eating. I absolutely thought I was gonna faint.

• 57:46Jessie Ware?

  I really enjoyed it. And actually, I think I'd find that quite delicious.

• 57:50Speaker 02

  Do you?

• 57:50Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 57:51Speaker 02

  So oily with the pesto and the, and the sun dried tomatoes and then the chorizo to add more oil.

• 57:58Jessie Ware?

  Chorizo, mum.

• 57:58Speaker 02

  Chorizo.

• 57:59Jessie Ware?

  Um, I loved it. I just, I'm gonna try, I'm gonna try the hack.

• 58:03Speaker 02

  It was like a global dish.

• 58:04Jessie Ware?

  Maybe we do go and try, uh, the mushrooms. Uh, maybe we should try that.

• 58:08Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, the mushrooms.

• 58:09Jessie Ware?

  As one of our things, the mushrooms in the microwave.

• 58:11Speaker 02

  He might leave the sweet corn out.

• 58:13Jessie Ware?

  I don't know. I say keep it in. Thank you so much, uh, to Nick Mohammed for coming on the podcast. I thank you for your new entry for your question.

• 58:20Speaker 02

  Oh, so sorry.

• 58:21Jessie Ware?

  You know what, mum? We have to try these things.

• 58:23Speaker 02

  I know, darling. I don't think I'm a, a podcast innovator. I think I'll stick to what I know.

• 58:29Jessie Ware?

  Listen, we tried it.

• 58:31Speaker 02

  I know.

• 58:32Jessie Ware?

  I am really thankful that that happened.

• 58:37Jessie Ware?

  I've never seen producer Alice laugh so much. She was dying.

• 58:42Speaker 02

  The fact he didn't understand what I was talking about, but then I kind of, I didn't realise it had a double entendre.

• 58:50Jessie Ware?

  You backpedaled. Real quick, Lenny.

• 58:53Speaker 02

  But it was never meant to be like that. It was meant to be about friendship.

• 58:57Jessie Ware?

  The intimacy bit.

• 58:58Speaker 02

  But intimate trust of friends.

• 59:01Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 59:02Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 59:02Jessie Ware?

  Okay, cool.

• 59:03Speaker 02

  Who would you like on your side? You know, Donald Trump will probably say Pete Hethgast and Mark Rubio on each side.

• 59:09Jessie Ware?

  Okay. I love that you've just gone from intimacy to Donald Trump.

• 59:14Speaker 02

  Donald Trump's throuple.

• 59:15Jessie Ware?

  Enough of this. It's done. It's going in the bin.

• 59:17Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 59:18Jessie Ware?

  Um, we'll see you next week for more table manners. If you've enjoyed this episode, uh, don't forget to like, subscribe, sign up to the mailing list and you can get all the recipes that we cook and plus more, um, on table manners podcast.com.

• 59:44Speaker 05

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