Second Helpings - Emerald Fennell

Back in summer 2021 we welcomed actress, director and writer, the phenomenal Emerald Fennell round to Lennie’s for Tarragon Chicken and banana ice cream! We chat everything from her time in Call The Midwife, to writing & directing the absolute must-see Promising Young Woman and her latest venture at the time, writing Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical 'Cinderella’. She talks about meeting her husband in Paris, the art of getting a free Pret coffee and what she’s working on next. We loved having you Emerald and we’re still inviting ourselves over for a Fennell Eurovision / karaoke night!! 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.

• 0:03Jessie Ware?

  Hello and welcome to Second Helpings. This week, we have director and writer, the phenomenal Emerald Fennell, coming around to Lenny's for Tarragon Chicken and Banana Ice Cream. It was when Promising Young Woman, which starred Carey Mulligan, it just come out and it's such a great film.

• 0:21Speaker 01

  She is such an interesting director and people love working with her. Of course, she directed Wuthering Heights.

• 0:29Jessie Ware?

  And Saltburn, which, yeah.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  She's a fantastic female director.

• 0:33Jessie Ware?

  She talks about her time in Call the Midwife, playing Patsy.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  She was pregnant at the time. Were you pregnant at that time as well?

• 0:40Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, we must have both been pregnant because I was, it's July 2021 and that's when my son was born. Yeah, classic me, working to the edge. No maternity leave for me. Here is Emerald Fennell on Second Helpings.

• 1:01Jessie Ware?

  You've come in, as I expected you to, with the most beautiful, brilliant energy, goddess-like.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, we're so thrilled.

• 1:09Jessie Ware?

  Thank you for being here.

• 1:10Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:11Jessie Ware?

  We're gonna race through this because we've got you for about an hour and I know that we can go longer.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  And you've got to eat.

• 1:16Jessie Ware?

  And you've got to eat.

• 1:17Speaker 02

  I really do have to eat.

• 1:18Jessie Ware?

  Are you starving?

• 1:19Speaker 02

  I'm always starving.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  You can, well, I'll give you in 20 minutes, you can eat. We'll just chat a bit.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  It smells so delicious. Is it spaghetti bolognese?

• 1:27Speaker 01

  No. Is that what you really want?

• 1:29Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh, God, I'm so sorry.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Tarragon Chicken.

• 1:32Jessie Ware?

  It's very, that, yeah.

• 1:34Speaker 02

  That sounds delicious. No, no, that sounds amazing. I was just, I was just, um.

• 1:37Jessie Ware?

  You thought you got a whiff of spag bol?

• 1:39Speaker 02

  I thought I got a whiff of spag bol and I was very excited, but actually, Tarragon Chicken sounds even better.

• 1:43Speaker 01

  So I've never given anyone a spag bol.

• 1:45Jessie Ware?

  The thing that induced my, I feel like it was a great induction tool.

• 1:49Speaker 01

  I had it the night before I had Alex and you.

• 1:51Jessie Ware?

  I'm telling you, anybody who's a bit.

• 1:52Speaker 02

  Really?

• 1:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a bit weird that, isn't it?

• 1:55Jessie Ware?

  Do you have a little spag bol?

• 1:56Speaker 02

  A little spag bol. Well, maybe I'll have one a little bit closer to the time to bring it on.

• 2:00Jessie Ware?

  Yeah. So how are you? How is life post the most mental, has this been the most mental year of your life?

• 2:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:08Jessie Ware?

  And throw in the mix a baby too and stuff.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  I think so. I mean, like, I actually feel like the last three years have been a sort of, and like people say a whirlwind, but I don't really know how else to describe it because I feel like I've been just not, you know, living, also especially because Covid, like living my normal life with my lovely husband, we've been together forever, you know, at home, but then all this other stuff, you know, the work stuff has all just been going mad all around it. So, yeah, I feel like after this baby, which is due in a couple of weeks, I'm going to take a couple of months off, which I haven't, I didn't do for the last one.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  And it's been, yeah, I'm just, I'm just, I can feel, it's that thing, I was trying to explain it to someone, it's a bit like when you've been on a really long car journey and you've needed the loo the whole time, but you've held it in and then you can see your front door and you're like, oh no.

• 3:04Speaker 02

  It's happening. It's that last moment. And so I think I'm, you know, I'm a couple of weeks away and then I can just fill my whole body.

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Relaxing.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  Sort of the opposite.

• 3:15Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 3:16Speaker 02

  Like a sort of staggering kind of to the, in the desert, sort of in rags, sort of sunburnt.

• 3:23Jessie Ware?

  But so you're in rehearsals at the moment.

• 3:26Speaker 02

  So we're in, was that my phone?

• 3:28Jessie Ware?

  No, it's probably Mum's.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  I'm so sorry if it was.

• 3:30Jessie Ware?

  No, no, it's Mum's probably.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  My mind always goes off. So in rehearsals for Cinderella. So Cinderella.

• 3:35Jessie Ware?

  The longest wait you've ever had for, your mum was, Cinderella's supposed to come out, the musical.

• 3:40Speaker 02

  So Cinderella the musical is supposed to come out, oh my God, probably like a year ago at least. I can't remember because we've changed it so much now.

• 3:49Jessie Ware?

  I feel so sorry for him.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  It's been like, I just, do you know what? It's everyone. The thing is, and it's the same for you and your industry, like any live entertainment, but live theatre and in particular comedy, all that stuff, like, it's just a disaster. And it's, and for so many people as well, they fall between two stools of like freelance or employed. And so they weren't like, they weren't able to get any help or it's just, yeah, and it's, and it's been, um, yeah, it's just, it's just, it's just been kind of dispiriting. Like, of course, for everyone, everyone struggled really badly, of course. So nobody's in a different boat. But I think it has been, the last few weeks have been quite tough because,

• 4:32Speaker 02

  yeah, because you just see so many other, you know, you see sports and things being, everyone not being able to social distance and stuff like that. And then, and that's fair, you know, of course, but and you want to be safe, but it's really tough when it feels like there's, there are different rules for different things.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the rationale seems to be if it's outside, it seems to be okay. But if it's indoors, it seems not to be. And when we spoke to Andrew, he said, it's all about ventilation. He spent fortunes on the theatre to ventilate it.

• 5:04Speaker 02

  And also everyone's masked, everyone's facing forward, nobody's talking, you know, there are lots and lots of safety. I mean, of course, like, we're in a pandemic, so I do feel like, and I'm naturally like a real law abider. So like, whatever I'm told to do, I will just do it.

• 5:21Speaker 01

  That's if the rules are clear sometimes.

• 5:23Speaker 02

  Yes, I suppose so.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Sometimes they haven't been as clear as they should be.

• 5:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just like, it's just, it's just really complicated, isn't it? And I just, but I do feel really bad. Every time it gets moved, we have to tell people that their tickets are no longer, you know, it's that stuff. It's like.

• 5:40Speaker 01

  So has it opened yet?

• 5:42Speaker 02

  No. So we start previews on Fri, this Friday and then we open, well, you know, TBC, but hopefully soon.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  And it's still half full.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  So it'll be 50, it'll be at 50% for the next few weeks and then hopefully if it does open up on July 19th, we will be opening at full capacity around then. But, you know, but I don't, yeah, I sort of, I've become quite, because also with my, with Promising a Woman, that was supposed to come out in April of the Covid year in cinemas everywhere simultaneously. And so, and then obviously everything changed. And so I kind of got used to that thing of everything getting pushed and pushed. Obviously a film is much easier, much, much easier to kind of contain or.

• 6:25Jessie Ware?

  Promising a Woman is one of the best films I've seen in so long. It's so important.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  I watched it yesterday.

• 6:30Jessie Ware?

  For anybody who hasn't seen the film, can you just kind of, it's really hard to explain quickly in a nutshell.

• 6:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a real, honestly, because I have spent a year trying to explain it in a nutshell and I'm, and I'm almost the worst at it. But it is based, it is a film, it's called Promising a Woman, it's got wonderful Carey Mulligan in it. And it is about a woman who goes to nightclubs and bars and pretends to be incredibly drunk and sees if anyone approaches her and takes her home.

• 7:03Jessie Ware?

  And the repercussions.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  And the kind of, yeah, and then the sort of fallout of what happens when they do.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  I was so disappointed when the boyfriend that I thought was.

• 7:10Speaker 02

  I know, Beau. Also like Beau Barnum, the most dreamy, lovely, perfect kind of person. So it was sort of like extra, it was extra cruel.

• 7:21Jessie Ware?

  But that's, that's what you did with a lot of the guys in it. You know, you had Seth from the OC, first opening scene, you're like, oh Seth, you welcome him with open arms and he's a wrong'un. And you, and that was, that was an intention, wasn't it? That you use these kind of familiar, warm.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Funny.

• 7:39Jessie Ware?

  Funny.

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Men you would actually want to sleep with. You know, the thing is, is that all of the whole thing about Promising a Woman, for me certainly was like, it's just endemic. The stuff in this film, there's nothing in this film that wasn't in a comedy film, like, you know, to be laughed at like five years ago, or big like comedy TV series would have jokes about like drunk, taking drunk all the time.

• 8:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, The Hangover, something like that.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Just, but even more like mainstream kind of stuff, it's, when you look back, it's sort of, you need to look very far back. And so it was really important for me to be like, okay, well, what we're talking about here is something that feels really icky because it's very close to home and it is, you know, it is a lot of men and boys and, and women who kind of, you know, cover up for it or sort of apologize for it. It's your friends, it's your friends, it's people at parties, it's your friends' boyfriends, it's people you were at school with who are really nice and to just like, you know, it was not treated seriously.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  If something happened to a girl at a party, it was not, it was a whoopsie that they were expected to make a joke of. Otherwise, it was kind of on them.

• 9:02Jessie Ware?

  So Emerald, you are pregnant, you are doing Cinderella the musical, you're going to rehearsals now.

• 9:10Jessie Ware?

  Um, I want to know how you are fueling this pregnancy and how how's the pregnancy been and are you eating well, what are you enjoying?

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Um, I'm eating so badly. I don't understand. The thing is, the worst thing that happened with my first pregnancy was I had a very wonderful and very sort of like chilled doctor. And she was like, the great thing is, is you can eat anything. The baby will just take the nutrients away from you. So you just and so I was on a kind of diet of like solid milkshakes. I was like nearly like four milkshakes a day by the end. Um, yeah, no, I'm really bad. I'm really bad. I'm bad at that stuff because for me,

• 9:51Speaker 02

  I mean, food at the best of times is just so wonderful. And you, as a woman, I still think, yeah, well, I think, I mean, certainly for me, there's always quite a complicated relationship with the kind of food you want to eat. I.e. cake and ice cream and burgers. And so being pregnant is sort of slightly naughty, get out of jail free card. So, so, yeah, so I've just been, I mean, and also because so busy, it's like, it's Deliveroo on, it's like, don't look at the Deliveroo money that has been spent in the last two months.

• 10:25Speaker 01

  Who's doing the cooking in your house?

• 10:28Speaker 02

  At the moment, my husband, completely.

• 10:31Jessie Ware?

  What does your husband do?

• 10:32Speaker 02

  He works in advertising.

• 10:33Jessie Ware?

  Okay.

• 10:34Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Gosh, he doesn't have much time then.

• 10:37Speaker 02

  Well, I, but, but we're lucky, you know, we have help with our, with our toddler, um, lovely nanny and yeah, there's, I mean, weekends and stuff, we try and cook and I love cooking. I just have completely lapsed. I just, it's just at the end of the day, I just can't, I mean, I just, I'm just like cruel. I just will crawl into bed, basically, and just eat whatever's nearby.

• 11:02Jessie Ware?

  And what was growing up? Who was around the dinner table and who was doing the cooking? What were you eating?

• 11:08Speaker 02

  So, growing up, it was my mum and dad, uh, my sister Coco, my youngest sister Coco and mum. I think mum's probably one of those seventies girls who just like, she ran away from her home in rural Wales at sixteen to go and kind of work in a clothes shop on the King's Road. She was like, get me to wear those like snakeskin boots are, get me to wear the rock and rollers. And so, and she just was like, uh, very much her, she always said her cookery style was Pierce film led. So it was all, it was just, I, the thing I remember most, and I should say, like, my mother is a wonderful cook and she cooks a lot now. But when we were little, it was, it was absolutely chicken Kiev.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  M and S did a really great carbonara in a sort of, in a, in a sort of thing that you Pierce the film lid. And, yeah, it was kind of all of that stuff. We were quite, we, we weren't.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Did you live in London?

• 12:04Speaker 02

  We lived in London.

• 12:05Speaker 01

  On the King's Road?

• 12:05Speaker 02

  Half the time, yeah. No, we lived in like, we lived in kind of Fulham, Earl's Court area. And, um, but, but half the time we were in Herefordshire, which is where I kind of think of mostly when I think of, uh, of growing up. And, and when we were there was, it was always the best because on the way in on Friday, we'd stop at the fish and chip shop and get fish and chips in the car. And on the way back on Sunday, if we were lucky and we'd been good, we'd hit the McDonald's.

• 12:35Jessie Ware?

  Drive through.

• 12:35Speaker 02

  On the Earl's Court Road. Dad would go in and buy much too, much too much and then, and so it was always kind of framed by, as you can tell, very healthy, the oat cuisine that we all grew up with.

• 12:49Jessie Ware?

  So your dad was a jewellery designer?

• 12:51Speaker 02

  Uh, so dad's a jewellery designer. My mum was a, um, for a long time she was photographer's agent and now she's a writer. She writes lots of very brilliant, kind of dark, sort of dark comedy books with quite a lot of sex in them.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  Oh, crikey, what's her nom de plume?

• 13:07Speaker 02

  Uh, no, her nom de plume is her, is her, is her nom, uh, which is Louise Fennell. And so she, yeah, so she's really amazing. And so she, yeah, when we grew up, she started writing, you know, when she finally had the time. I think it's such a, there are so many female writers that you look at them and they started when their children had grown up.

• 13:27Jessie Ware?

  When did you start writing?

• 13:28Speaker 02

  Because I was acting, because I was doing Call the Midwife. And then we had a hiatus, so half the time it's Call the Midwife and then half the time you have six months off. And so I wrote books in the hiatus because I loved it and I really always wanted to write films and telly and things, but, you know, it's a very difficult thing to like get into and the first thing I wrote was a very long book that was truly terrible, like a real, a real nonsense. And it was like an epically long bajillion words and I, and I took it to a few publishing houses and they were like, it's just really, really dire actually, and they were right. But, but I'd written a sort of TV

• 14:09Speaker 02

  script for something called Shiverton Hall, which was the sort of Doctor Who type thing because I love sci-fi and all of that. And, and so I pitched that as a book and then Bloomsbury very kindly gave me a shot to write that. And then, yeah, it was just, it was lovely. I don't know that I could, weirdly, I don't know that I could write a book now. I think, I just don't know how, I honestly look back, I just don't know how it was possible.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  But you, you wrote, did you, you wrote the script for Promising Young Woman or the screenplay, is it, is this

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, both.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  The screenplay and the script, yeah. But was it based on a book?

• 14:43Speaker 02

  No.

• 14:44Speaker 01

  It wasn't based on anything, so it's all from you?

• 14:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So I think, but now the idea of writing a book is because it's so hard. I think, I think I just, I just don't know. I, it's so crazy. It's, I've got, also got a very bad memory for my life. So I look at the books and I just, it feels like, it just feels like ma- magic that they appeared somehow because I can't remember.

• 15:08Jessie Ware?

  I, I love that you're like, oh, it's so daunting, but yeah, you are, you're doing everything now.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Do you think you'll act some more?

• 15:17Speaker 02

  I don't know. I think, I mean, I love acting. I really love it. And there are some things like, I mean, The Crown, I just couldn't resist.

• 15:23Jessie Ware?

  You were so good, fabulous, yeah.

• 15:26Speaker 02

  Thank you, oh god.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  Are, so are you doing, are you in the next series of The Crown?

• 15:30Speaker 02

  It's completely new cast for the next series.

• 15:32Speaker 01

  Oh, who's?

• 15:33Speaker 02

  So, don't know, don't know. Yeah, don't know yet who Camilla will be. Really interesting.

• 15:39Speaker 01

  So how old is Camilla in the next bit?

• 15:40Speaker 02

  I don't know. I don't even know the time period that they're doing. Maybe, you know, maybe it's been announced.

• 15:46Speaker 01

  There must be the death of Diana.

• 15:49Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  You don't know.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  Because, because, well, I know that Elizabeth Debicki, they announced Elizabeth Debicki is playing Diana, so it must, so it must be, there must

• 15:59Speaker 01

  She's quite young, isn't she?

• 16:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, she's pretty young.

• 16:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:02Speaker 02

  I suppose Diana was very young. I just was looking it up the other day. She was like thirty six or something. Which of course, when, when we were so young, when it happened, she seemed like a grown up, but thirty six, I just, nothing, it's nothing.

• 16:14Jessie Ware?

  I know.

• 16:15Speaker 02

  It's so young. Um, but I don't know. I don't know who the next people are. I'm fascinated. Also, like, I'm really excited because I was such a big fan of the show. Then, and then when you're in something, it's just much more frightening to watch it. Because you, sometimes you just never know when you're going to come on. So you're just enjoying like Josh O'Connor's lovely performance and suddenly you're like, face looms into view and you're like, no, buzzword. So it now, it would be mu- it would be very nice to be able to watch it without that kind of fear.

• 16:45Jessie Ware?

  So, so is, when we had Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber on, he kind of said that the way that Cinderella started was you're at a dinner party at his house or something, or around a dinner, because you're family friends.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  It makes, it makes my life sound ve- very, very much more, uh, highfalutin than it is.

• 17:01Jessie Ware?

  It sounds fabulous.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:03Jessie Ware?

  And he, I don't know, the conversation went something like, I want to do this. And you said, give me a pop at it, I'll do it. And he said, yeah, yeah. And it was a bit of on a whim. Was that the first thing? Or I, oh, you're like, come on, Andrew, I had a, already a deal with a.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  No, I think, I think that, again, you're like talking to an amnesiac. This is the thing that's really like weird that about, that I always find terrible about kind of talking about stuff is I just have such bad memory that even remembering basic facts about my life is, is very difficult. But from what I remember, Andrew has been obsessed with writing Cinderella for years because of the Rogers, he's a big Rogers and Hammerstein fan. And they did one. And I think, and he likes doing stuff when you think of, when you think of it's like back catalogue, it's such a rich and unusual. We take things like cats or like Jesus Christ Superstar for granted, but the idea of doing a rock musical based on like a Bible story

• 18:06Speaker 02

  is quite out there. And then, you know, and then a kind of dance show about cats and, you know, just like, I think he is like sort of naturally inclined to try things that seem, if not impossible, difficult.

• 18:19Jessie Ware?

  Oh, he was making the wacky backy. I've never thought about it like that.

• 18:22Speaker 01

  No, I don't think he's.

• 18:24Speaker 02

  Maybe, he doesn't, I mean, I, look, I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But, um, but definitely it is like kind of because I think when things become hugely successful and part of our culture, we forget that often they start as things that aren't very mainstream, that are kind of unusual. And so I think the thing with Cinderella that he was interested in is like, if something, and what interested me as well was like, how can you, what's, what, why, I suppose, why? And so when he was talking about it and he was talking about kind of a way of doing it, the first conversation we had, which was, I think, at that dinner, is I said something like, the problem with Cinderella is that it is, it hinges on the idea that you have to,

• 19:09Speaker 02

  the woman has to change herself to make herself appealing. And so if you do it, that needs to be interrog- that needs to be interrogated. That needs to be the thing that, okay, you've got to keep it, but you've got to like ask why and, you know, what that says about us and about fairy tales. And it was always important to me that we as an audience are kind of complicit in, it makes it sound very dour. It, I, I should say, it's a romp with a lot of male stripping.

• 19:35Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, great.

• 19:36Speaker 02

  But, yes, get your tickets, everyone get your tickets. It's all, it's family friendly, don't worry. Um, but I think the thing is, is that we still, as an audience, want to see the makeover. No matter how much we love a character, no matter how much we respect them, there is something about us where we want to see women be sort of physically improved.

• 19:57Jessie Ware?

  Gorgeous, yeah.

• 19:59Speaker 02

  And so that kind of was the idea that it all kind of grew out of. And, and that was the conversation that we had really in the beginning. I just said, I kind of want to, I'd want to see if it was possible to have all the pleasures of Cinderella, have all those story beats, the shoe and the bull and the midnight and all that stuff, but, but also make it feel like something I would care about. Something that I would, that a character that I would identify with, who wasn't just a kind of sad, beautiful cipher in a sexy ragged dress. Yeah.

• 20:34Speaker 01

  And were you involved at all with the music?

• 20:36Jessie Ware?

  I mean, in the sense of like, did you get a say in the music?

• 20:39Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I wouldn't. I mean.

• 20:41Jessie Ware?

  You just wouldn't.

• 20:43Speaker 02

  I think, well, well, um, David Zippel, who's the amazing lyricist and Andrew, we do, we did it all together. So the thing that was really exciting for me, having never collaborated on anything like this, was that we sit in a room. And we talk about stuff and then, you know, David and I'll have a big conversation about what we need, what. The song needs to say, and then Andrew will, you know, just being in a room, someone like Andrew, and he's like, oh yeah, what if it's something like this? And he just starts playing the piano and you're just like, what, how? It's so completely, I mean, obviously it's like the thing that you do, but it's beyond.

• 21:19Jessie Ware?

  No, but I don't play piano.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  It's beyond my comprehension, the kind of musical ability. And and also with Andrew, he's got a completely photographic, or maybe photographic phonographic? I don't know what the right word would be. He can remember every piece of music he ever thought of.

• 21:35Jessie Ware?

  Oh, wow.

• 21:36Speaker 02

  So like, not just things that have been, not just things that are published, un, you know, he has like. He has an orchestra in his head and he has a memory of a little piece of music that was nearly right for something, but. You know, from thirty five years ago that then might, it's just, it's exciting to see somebody work like that, whose brain works just in a completely different way. And David Zippel's the same way, cause like lyrics.

• 22:03Speaker 02

  I suppose I've never really stupidly sort of thought about lyrics before, in quite a stupid way. Like, I know the ones that I really respond to.

• 22:10Jessie Ware?

  Do you think you take a song more on the basis of the melody before the lyrics?

• 22:15Speaker 02

  I think so.

• 22:16Jessie Ware?

  Even though you're a writer.

• 22:17Speaker 02

  I think so, al- also because I, well, if the amount I I get lyrics wrong. Like whenever I'm on karaoke and the words come up, I'm like, that is not what I thought the words to this song were.

• 22:28Jessie Ware?

  Well, that leads nicely into mum's question for you.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  What was my question?

• 22:32Jessie Ware?

  Well, it's usually what we ask at the end.

• 22:33Speaker 01

  Oh, gosh, do you like karaoke?

• 22:37Speaker 02

  Oh, no, is this a trick question?

• 22:39Speaker 01

  No, no. I love it. So if I was to have a birthday party this year, which I, it seems unlikely. But if I was, I'd definitely have a karaoke corner.

• 22:51Speaker 02

  I mean, we have our own karaoke machine at home.

• 22:54Jessie Ware?

  Oh, you do like karaoke.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  Me and my husband will off, well, before we had a child, we would would often just like have karaoke for two, to cheer ourselves up.

• 23:02Speaker 01

  Jessie, what a girl.

• 23:04Jessie Ware?

  Would you do duets or would you do battles?

• 23:08Speaker 02

  Battles, duets, you know, I I think our poor friends, we've whittled up, we've not whittled them down, they're like. The friends that love it, we'll cut, we will always like separate, we would never like torment you.

• 23:22Jessie Ware?

  I wanna go to an Emerald Fennell karaoke do now. Is it a thing? Is it like a party?

• 23:27Speaker 02

  No, cause that makes it sound like it's more sort of fun that, so like, I think pr- probably our poor friends just suffer it. But we definitely do like, usually every year, before this year, we would do Eurovision and karaoke. And so everyone will come to Eurovision, we did a full thing. The scoring has made Eurovision very difficult now, because the scoring takes too long.

• 23:47Jessie Ware?

  Yes.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I've got a lot of thoughts about the new.

• 23:50Jessie Ware?

  And that's a hard year this year. How was, how was this year for you? Did you watch it?

• 23:53Speaker 02

  This year was sensational. It's one of the best years. Did you watch it?

• 23:56Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I didn't.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  A bit.

• 23:58Jessie Ware?

  But I do like, um, Eurovision.

• 24:00Speaker 02

  I, I, I really, it's one of the, well, and also because if you do the kind of Eurovision drinking games, every time there's a key change, every time there's a costume change. Uh, every time somebody gets down on their knees, winks at the camera, you know, it's like all of those. People, uh, you know, not anymore, cause we're all so old, but like people just crawl out of our life. Somebody once lost a tooth, they called the next day and said, has anyone found my tooth? I was so proud, because honestly, I'm really quite square. So just the idea that anyone would have lost a tooth.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  What were you drinking?

• 24:32Speaker 02

  They, I don't drink, but they were drinking Aftershock.

• 24:35Jessie Ware?

  Ooh.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:38Speaker 01

  People drink on park benches?

• 24:40Speaker 02

  Yes, big time, big time. Well, because what happened was, is all the booze.

• 24:45Jessie Ware?

  Got finished?

• 24:45Speaker 02

  Got finished.

• 24:46Jessie Ware?

  You only had aftershocks?

• 24:47Speaker 02

  And then there was, there's an offie over the road and my husband went over the road and was like, and came back with like some classic nineties. Sort of bench fare.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Bench fare.

• 24:58Speaker 02

  And then everyone just lost their minds, yeah.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  And lost teeth?

• 25:01Speaker 02

  And lost a couple of teeth, yeah.

• 25:03Jessie Ware?

  Would you ever like, I feel like.

• 25:05Speaker 01

  So which song would you sing?

• 25:09Speaker 02

  There's a, there's quite a wide category. I definitely overreach every time, so I'm not very talented at all. It's, it's Celine Dion, so to, um, so, so it would be Bonnie Tyler, Total Eclipse of the Heart.

• 25:21Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 25:22Speaker 02

  Classic. Then it would be Think Twice.

• 25:30Jessie Ware?

  You know, Celine.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, don't think I care for you. Yeah, it's a little bit. It's actually quite good, but there's a key change in there that I absolutely can't reach.

• 25:39Jessie Ware?

  I mean, not many people can, that's why she's Celine Dion.

• 25:42Speaker 02

  That is true. And then what else? What else? We always end as tradition with Danny Boy and everyone cries about five in the morning. I should say that there's no na- there are no neighbours.

• 25:53Speaker 01

  Irish in your family?

• 25:55Speaker 02

  I don't even know where it came from.

• 25:57Speaker 01

  This sounds so fun.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  No, it's not. It's really nightmarish. You'd hate it, you'd hate it. Even I acknowledge that it's unbearable, but I love it so much.

• 26:06Jessie Ware?

  I wanna know, because, you know, I think we've got Graham Norton now for the, the voiceover for Eurovision and he's fantastic. Terry Wogan was amazing.

• 26:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:14Jessie Ware?

  Maybe you're the next person that should be lined up. You've got such a beautiful voice.

• 26:19Speaker 02

  Thank you. It would be my dream job.

• 26:21Jessie Ware?

  Really?

• 26:21Speaker 02

  I have, I think I've watched every single one since I can reme- like, I, I love, I love everything about it. I gen- and not ironically as well, it's not a sort of ironic like kitsch, I genuinely love it, I find it really. Heartening and fun and, and lovely. I mean, it's lovely.

• 26:42Jessie Ware?

  How did you feel about GB this year?

• 26:44Speaker 02

  I felt, I felt, well, do you know, I feel sad for anyone who gets Nilpoor.

• 26:48Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 26:49Speaker 02

  Because it's not a nice place to be.

• 26:50Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  But, you know, we've really, we've really screwed the pooch. Eu- Euro wise in the last few years.

• 27:01Jessie Ware?

  It was a punishment?

• 27:02Speaker 02

  I don't think it's a punishment. To be honest, we've got Nilpoor quite a lot the last few years.

• 27:06Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, but they really went for Paul Jones and James, actually, I've written songs with him before. He's such, he's so brilliant.

• 27:11Speaker 02

  He's so lovely and he was so modest and I loved his song and he was great. I think. I think that we've just got to separate the judging from the show. That the show itself is just magical and they're all winners.

• 27:35Jessie Ware?

  So have you been enjoying restaurants at all or is it strictly delivery at the moment? Because obviously you're in, you know, theatre land. At the moment, are you in this theatre at the moment doing rehearsals or, so have you been going out for dins or no?

• 27:49Speaker 02

  Sadly not, because our schedule is, is sort of two till ten.

• 27:54Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah, very. That's hard for a very pregnant person.

• 27:57Speaker 02

  Quite hard for a pregnant person. And so actually, really, it's, it's your pretz and your ritzus for lunch, I'm afraid to say.

• 28:04Jessie Ware?

  I love.

• 28:05Speaker 02

  Of course, they're the best. They're the best for a reason.

• 28:08Jessie Ware?

  What's your order at Pret?

• 28:10Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, well, it, it will depend on the time of day, but obviously the posh cheddar and pickle.

• 28:16Jessie Ware?

  So good, the baguette, ugh.

• 28:17Speaker 02

  So good. And it's by far the most calories, that's why it's so good. What would you go for?

• 28:22Jessie Ware?

  So, I'm very, I like the Italian chicken salad.

• 28:26Speaker 02

  Oh, la di da, with the, with the olives, pitch of olives, yeah, yeah. It's good, it's great.

• 28:31Jessie Ware?

  Look, I, it's because I'm constantly on a diet, but I like the soups.

• 28:35Speaker 02

  The soups are fine, it depends which day.

• 28:38Jessie Ware?

  Yes, absolutely. And I kind of wish I'd just lay off the tomato soup every day.

• 28:42Speaker 02

  Thousand percent.

• 28:43Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 02

  Mushroom and rice.

• 28:45Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Absolutely lovely.

• 28:46Jessie Ware?

  Chicken laksa was pretty good for a while.

• 28:48Speaker 02

  Very good.

• 28:48Jessie Ware?

  But nobody wants a tomato soup. Have you ever got a free coffee at Pret?

• 28:53Speaker 02

  Okay, this is the thing.

• 28:55Jessie Ware?

  Have you heard about this thing?

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Not only have I heard about it, my friend Jess Nappett, who is an amazing comedian and we worked together for many years. Um, writing together, every single time we go to a pret together, she gets free coffee.

• 29:10Jessie Ware?

  What's she doing that you're not doing?

• 29:12Speaker 02

  I mean, I.

• 29:14Jessie Ware?

  And is that a vet mask as well?

• 29:16Speaker 02

  Okay, I have not seen it. I've not, I've not been witness to a masked free coffee, but. I, I couldn't believe, like, it became a sort of, like, I actually was starting to get quite resentful. Because also then I would become much, much needier. And these are like assorted pretz over London. This isn't one guy who's got a crush. She just.

• 29:38Speaker 01

  She gorgeous.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  She's gorgeous.

• 29:40Jessie Ware?

  Well, so is Emerald.

• 29:41Speaker 02

  Well, she, but she's.

• 29:43Jessie Ware?

  What's she fucking doing?

• 29:44Speaker 02

  She's really, no, she is gorgeous, she's charismatic, she's, there are a million reasons why I would give her a free coffee. But at the same time, it's like, it's like a magic trick.

• 29:54Jessie Ware?

  And you say, what's wrong with me?

• 29:55Speaker 02

  And I'm there kind of like, I'm pulling my top down, I'm really kind of leaning in to get some action, nothing. They're repulsed by my, my, my sheer naked need to be.

• 30:08Jessie Ware?

  Ambition.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  Given a free, a free coffee. They can smell it on me. I think the thing with Jess is, she's cool, she doesn't need it. She doesn't need it, so they just give it to her.

• 30:18Speaker 01

  Haven't made the plates hot.

• 30:20Jessie Ware?

  It's okay, mum, thank you. Before mum plates up, um, what would be your last supper?

• 30:27Speaker 02

  Oh, my god.

• 30:29Jessie Ware?

  Starter, main, pudding, drink.

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Oh, I get everything?

• 30:31Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  Okay, then for starter, to be really posh asshole, I would have, um, oysters.

• 30:39Jessie Ware?

  From where?

• 30:40Speaker 02

  Many, uh, Malvern Oyster Cart, which is, it's just like, uh, lots of food, they're just like, I think Essex oysters. And they're just amazing, just with lots of shallots and, um, red wine vinegar.

• 30:54Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 30:54Speaker 02

  As many as I could cram in.

• 30:56Jessie Ware?

  So, uh, how many is the most? Okay, mum. How, how, how many have you crammed in on a night?

• 31:02Speaker 02

  I would say, I'm a daytime, a daytime oyster person.

• 31:06Jessie Ware?

  Okay, fine.

• 31:07Speaker 02

  Only because I want to be near home in case something goes wrong. Never has, touch wood. But I still, I think part of what I like about it is the danger.

• 31:15Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, okay.

• 31:16Speaker 02

  A big food, food poisoning, so.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Can I help you?

• 31:19Speaker 02

  Oh, my god.

• 31:20Jessie Ware?

  Would you have a oyster whilst you're pregnant?

• 31:22Speaker 02

  Thank you so mu- no, I wouldn't. Do you know what? I'm pretty.

• 31:25Jessie Ware?

  Oh, god.

• 31:26Speaker 02

  Do you want me to, I can do it if it's easier.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  Can you?

• 31:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't want to.

• 31:29Speaker 01

  No, I think I can probably do it.

• 31:32Jessie Ware?

  That's just a bit slippery stuff, isn't it?

• 31:33Speaker 02

  Oh, my goodness, this is so delicious. This is the kind of thing I wish I could cook. It's like proper cooking.

• 31:39Jessie Ware?

  This is really easy, no.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  Thank you so much.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  Do you not want any more?

• 31:44Speaker 02

  I might do some.

• 31:46Jessie Ware?

  Jeff, you want some sauce for, on the potatoes, do that. Um, right, so oysters as a starter.

• 31:51Speaker 02

  Oysters to start with.

• 31:53Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 31:53Speaker 02

  We'll have a Coke, a full fat Coke, pint, in a pint glass with lots of ice. And then for a main course.

• 32:03Speaker 02

  My mum's macaroni cheese.

• 32:05Jessie Ware?

  Oh, what makes it so good?

• 32:07Speaker 02

  Just, I think, the mum factor.

• 32:09Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  But she's got bacon, she adds bacon and she adds tomatoes, so.

• 32:15Jessie Ware?

  Oh, um, yes, my grandma used to do sliced tomatoes on the top and they go really sweet.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  Yes, and and it's kind of like, it's the best of all worlds, because it's sort of like a pizza as well as.

• 32:26Jessie Ware?

  Not to bring it back to Pret, don't Pret put tomatoes on top of theirs, or am I making that up?

• 32:31Speaker 02

  I don't, oh.

• 32:33Jessie Ware?

  Have you ever had the Pret?

• 32:34Speaker 02

  I've had the Pret one, but I had the depressing kale Pret one that.

• 32:38Jessie Ware?

  That's just.

• 32:38Speaker 02

  That's like kidding myself.

• 32:40Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 32:40Speaker 02

  I'm like, oh, yeah.

• 32:41Jessie Ware?

  We've all done it.

• 32:42Speaker 02

  They do, they do one that's like slightly, like marginally twenty fewer calories that makes you feel like you're.

• 32:48Jessie Ware?

  And you try and give it to your children and you go, it's mac and cheese.

• 32:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, and they're like, absolutely nice try, mum.

• 32:53Jessie Ware?

  So, um, so your mum's mac and cheese.

• 32:56Speaker 02

  Mum's mac and cheese. And then for pudding, oh my god. It's so hard, what, how can you, how can you choose one pudding?

• 33:08Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, of course. Is that the thing that you love?

• 33:11Speaker 02

  I think I would go, is bread, bread and butter pudding feels like a lot of carbs and custardy things.

• 33:17Jessie Ware?

  Lovely. Do you make a good one?

• 33:19Speaker 02

  Ice cream sundae, I'm just gonna go ice cream sundae with a like variety of toppings that I can add to.

• 33:26Jessie Ware?

  Sounds great.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  I think that's, it's like a child's, basically a child's.

• 33:30Jessie Ware?

  Oh, I think that's good. I wanna know, I wanna know, how did you meet your, your husband? Because you said you've been together for a long time.

• 33:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we met, we met, it's just, I mean, it's just so cringe, there's nowhere around it. I was on my gap year in Paris, learning French.

• 33:47Jessie Ware?

  Lovely.

• 33:48Speaker 02

  Uh, because, yeah, I mean, it's very shaming.

• 33:51Jessie Ware?

  You weren't drinking buckets on, you know, Copan Yang, so.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  No, that's true. Um, and then, and he was on his ear abroad and he'd done French and, yeah, we just met and we were, yeah, we were kids, we were teenagers. And that was that.

• 34:04Jessie Ware?

  And, and so you must have had so many romance, well, Paris, falling in love in Paris.

• 34:09Speaker 02

  I suppose it was romantic, but at the time, we didn't, we didn't like each other. We met, it was like a bad rom com. We really didn't like each other, we argued, we, we had mutual friends in common and we argued a lot, a lot, a lot. But like in quite an unpleasant way, and I never argue with anyone ever, nor does he really. And it was, you know, so again, it literally was just like a de-list kind of rom com.

• 34:34Jessie Ware?

  My kind of film.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  It was, yeah, I mean, it's definitely a film.

• 34:37Jessie Ware?

  Would you make this film?

• 34:38Speaker 02

  Oh, no, no, no, I don't think so, that's not, there are no stakes, the characters are too unlikable.

• 34:49Speaker 01

  Where was Promising Young Woman shot?

• 34:51Speaker 02

  In L A.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  Oh, is that, I love that little house that her, not where her mother lived, but where Nina's mother. I love that little wooden house. Where was that in L A?

• 35:02Speaker 02

  So that was all, well, because we had to shoot, we shot in L A because I was very pregnant and couldn't fly anywhere. So we shot in L A, but we had to shoot it for like any American town. It's quite hard because L A is so idiosyncratic.

• 35:15Jessie Ware?

  It didn't seem like L A.

• 35:17Speaker 02

  Good.

• 35:17Jessie Ware?

  Seemed like a small town.

• 35:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, so that was in just a kind of weird, desolate, there was this kind of place outside L A that's just an old, um. Town that's sort of run down and we kind of, yeah, we shot a lot of the stuff there. Um, yeah, I mean, it's had all of that stuff, that American kind of.

• 35:35Jessie Ware?

  So you were heavily pregnant directing your, that was your first direct film job?

• 35:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, of a, yeah, of a feature, I'd done like short films before, but, yeah, and so, and I gave birth three weeks later.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  Fuck off, wow.

• 35:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, so it was quite, it was quite full on.

• 35:53Jessie Ware?

  Did it change the way that you directed, do you think, at all? That's a very masculine thing for me to say, I wonder whether, I don't know.

• 35:59Speaker 01

  That's an awful thing.

• 36:00Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no, because it's.

• 36:02Jessie Ware?

  The subject matter, I don't know.

• 36:03Speaker 02

  Fair question, I think, I think honestly, I don't have a frame of reference. So if I'm allowed to do it again, then I would think I'll know better. What I think it did do. Which I'm sure you feel and I'm sure lots of women will identify with is I didn't have time.

• 36:19Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  I, I felt I was on the clock, so it gave me more, I think, confidence to be straightforward. I'm naturally not very, you know, if I, if I deal with anything that's difficult, I'm quite passive aggressive and British about it. Which is not helpful when you're on a clock. And I think being so pregnant, I could be a bit more like spicy.

• 36:40Jessie Ware?

  And more decisive as well.

• 36:42Speaker 02

  I think, I think not so much decisive, but I, I, I hope that I am.

• 36:47Jessie Ware?

  I like that.

• 36:48Speaker 02

  I hope that I'm decisive, it's more about communicating things. Because I think you, especially if you're a girl, especially if you're making your first film in a, in a country you've never worked in before. My worry is that I would be too kind of like, oh, yeah, it's okay, maybe, that's all, I hadn't thought about it that way. I mean, sort of quite the opposite, I was sort of like a sort of monstrous dictator, I think. But partly because, yeah.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  Because I was.

• 37:13Jessie Ware?

  Get it done.

• 37:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it was, they're fourteen hour days, it's like thirty five degrees scorching heat. You're so pregnant and it's so like, it's the thing I've wanted to do my whole life, like desperately. I like to have the opportunity to get a film made, financed and made, in the way you want to do it.

• 37:32Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 37:32Speaker 02

  With the cast you, you know, could only dream of, it's just so, you know.

• 37:37Speaker 01

  But Emerald, they must be knocking the doors down because it was so hugely acclaimed, you're nominated for Oscars. They must be saying, Emerald, come and direct this, come and do that, will you do this? Isn't, is that what happens? They're just.

• 37:50Speaker 02

  Um, a, a little, yes, yes, I mean, yes, that is, but, but, but, but it's.

• 37:55Jessie Ware?

  Quite rightly.

• 37:56Speaker 02

  But it's, it's kind of funny because again, like had those conversations I've had with other people, it's kind of like. It, it's a bit like falling in, it's a bit like falling in love. In theory, it's lovely to have Tinder and lots of sexy men or women at your fingertips. But the truth of it is, is there are very few people that you fall in love with, or even like, you know. That happened once in a blue moon and I think the thing is about work is actually, I've been really lucky the last few years. That I've fallen in love a few times with the project, but now I kind of know that even though things sound very appealing. You kind of know that they're not, you know, I'm sure it's exactly the same for, for you, like it's.

• 38:40Speaker 02

  So I, I think, yes, there are lots of amazing opportunities that I'm incredibly grateful for, but I also think I know more now what I want to do. Next, so I can be a bit more picky.

• 38:52Speaker 01

  So do you know, are you going to tell us what next?

• 38:54Jessie Ware?

  Are you allowed to? Have you got anything in development?

• 38:56Speaker 02

  Well, I've got, well, no, because the way that I'm working now is I just, I'm writing something that then will go out. So I won't, I won't sell anything before it's done, because I think that just makes it a lot easier. But I am, what I am doing now, which is like in the, in the world, is Zatanna, writing the script for Zatanna, which is a D C. Uh, Warner Brothers superhero film, which is really fun.

• 39:22Jessie Ware?

  Oh, that's fun, yeah.

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Excuse me, I'm going to make, Jessie, right, I'm gonna make some banana ice cream, which is only.

• 39:29Speaker 02

  Oh my gosh.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  It's only frozen bananas and I've had it and Jessie says it's gonna be terrible.

• 39:34Speaker 02

  What? I bet it's delicious.

• 39:35Speaker 01

  It's very easy.

• 39:36Speaker 02

  That sounds absolutely amazing, thank you. Why are you just, why do you just?

• 39:42Jessie Ware?

  I just like, I did banana ice cream for my kids to try and trick them that that was ice cream and I found it quite miserable. I'm willing to be, I'm willing to be, like, my mind to be changed, but like, I.

• 39:56Speaker 02

  Are you picky about, because you've obviously grown up with a very, very good cook for a mother.

• 40:02Jessie Ware?

  Yeah.

• 40:03Speaker 02

  Does that make you more, do you think you're more critical about food?

• 40:08Jessie Ware?

  No.

• 40:09Speaker 02

  I very much, when it, when it comes to food, it's quantity versus quality every time.

• 40:16Jessie Ware?

  Me too.

• 40:17Speaker 02

  I think I don't have.

• 40:19Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, I'm telling you anyway.

• 40:22Speaker 02

  But I, but I definitely feel like with food, I love it, but I have very low standards, like I am truly the happiest. At McDonald's or like a Pizza Express.

• 40:32Jessie Ware?

  What's, what's your order at Pizza Express?

• 40:34Speaker 02

  Oh, etna romana, used to be, they've got rid of the etna, it's absolutely devastating.

• 40:38Jessie Ware?

  What was the etna?

• 40:39Speaker 02

  It was like a spicy, it was like a diavola, but it had, I'd never know how to pronounce it. On it in little dollops, so it was really salty.

• 40:48Jessie Ware?

  Hmm.

• 40:48Speaker 02

  Now, now, because I'm pregnant, it's a margarita.

• 40:53Jessie Ware?

  Oh, really?

• 40:54Speaker 02

  Bleak, yeah. I had so much Domino's when I was at university. I ordered Domino's so much that the man on the phone asked me out on a date. And all he knew about me was that I ordered like three to five large solo Hawaiians at like. Two P M.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  He was, he really went for it.

• 41:18Jessie Ware?

  Mum, turn the fucking thing off. Jesus, and I'm telling you. Banana ice cream is shit.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  I'm telling you.

• 41:26Jessie Ware?

  I'm telling you, it's not gonna be working.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  But this is the thing is that. Do it, it would be fine.

• 41:31Speaker 02

  But also, can I just say, this is the poshest, this is the like nicest pudding anyone has made, made me ever. You've got very, very high standards.

• 41:41Speaker 01

  Shush, Jess.

• 41:42Jessie Ware?

  I'm like, oh, stop.

• 41:43Speaker 02

  This is like, no one's ever made homemade ice cream for me.

• 41:46Jessie Ware?

  But the thing is, we're doing.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  What was this?

• 41:51Jessie Ware?

  Eating into the whole time with Emerald, the fucking bloody piece, I, I, you could have just had a banana.

• 41:58Speaker 02

  I'm gonna, I, I think it's gonna be delicious.

• 42:00Jessie Ware?

  Okay, you're, I don't think you'd tell us even if it wasn't, so.

• 42:03Speaker 02

  Of course I wouldn't.

• 42:03Jessie Ware?

  No, exactly, because you're lovely.

• 42:05Speaker 01

  I know this is gonna be the most. No, it isn't, I don't think it is, because it should be much more whippy.

• 42:11Jessie Ware?

  So, so I wanna know, did you go on the date with the Domino's guy?

• 42:14Speaker 02

  I wish, no, I mean.

• 42:16Jessie Ware?

  Did he sound like a kind of?

• 42:17Speaker 02

  He sounded like a great guy.

• 42:18Jessie Ware?

  This is another rom-com in the making, Emerald, I feel like we're just doing a bit of a brainstorm here today.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  But I should say, it sounds like I'm boasting.

• 42:24Jessie Ware?

  Why?

• 42:25Speaker 02

  That, because the Domino's pizza man asked me to have a date, but I must say, I should say, he did, he never saw me, we never saw each other in real life.

• 42:31Jessie Ware?

  Well, I mean, look, look, your order, your order and your voice, I think that was it.

• 42:35Speaker 02

  No, I mean, the order and my voice made me rightly, and a fair reflection of the facts at the time, but I was in absolute state.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  I'm really hungover and miserable and it's sort of, yeah, but, um. No, I didn't go on, well, no, because I was with my boyfriend, slash now husband.

• 42:53Jessie Ware?

  Oh, sweet.

• 42:54Speaker 02

  So, I've, I've never, never been on a date with anyone, basically.

• 42:58Jessie Ware?

  You know what? It's quite good.

• 43:00Speaker 02

  Aye!

• 43:02Jessie Ware?

  It's quite good, but I think it's maybe the double cream on top of it.

• 43:05Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 43:05Jessie Ware?

  That works really nicely.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  But if you whipped it, if I.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Oh my god, it's so good.

• 43:09Speaker 01

  Mmm.

• 43:10Jessie Ware?

  Oh mum, it is quite good.

• 43:11Speaker 02

  Oh, it's not bad, is it?

• 43:12Jessie Ware?

  No, so that's literally just banana, frozen bananas.

• 43:15Speaker 01

  Just bananas.

• 43:17Speaker 02

  A bit of lemon?

• 43:17Speaker 01

  No.

• 43:18Speaker 02

  Not even lemon?

• 43:19Speaker 01

  Just frozen bananas.

• 43:21Jessie Ware?

  And the, but I do think the double cream on top just is, like, hits it.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, but double, but double cream is basically medicine, it's good for you.

• 43:30Jessie Ware?

  Well.

• 43:31Speaker 01

  Most superb.

• 43:32Jessie Ware?

  That, I, I take it all back, I don't know what I'm talking about.

• 43:36Speaker 02

  It was worth it.

• 43:38Jessie Ware?

  I take it back, that's really, really good.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  If you'd let me do it a bit longer, it would have been whippier.

• 43:42Speaker 02

  I actually quite like it, this is so.

• 43:44Jessie Ware?

  Yes, because I'm getting a little kind of al dente, uh, something or other.

• 43:47Speaker 02

  It's like quite chewy.

• 43:49Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, mum.

• 43:50Speaker 02

  It's really good.

• 43:51Jessie Ware?

  Right, I apologise, I apologise.

• 43:53Speaker 02

  Do you cook every day, all the time?

• 43:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:56Speaker 02

  Have you always?

• 43:57Speaker 01

  Even if I am on my own.

• 43:59Speaker 02

  Really, probably?

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:00Speaker 02

  Yeah. That is amazing.

• 44:02Jessie Ware?

  What would be the dish that you would cook if you did cook?

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Um, I would make. It's usually cakes. I make a cake, probably. Or anything by Nigel Slater, I love Nigel Slater so much.

• 44:17Jessie Ware?

  Yeah, me too, and actually.

• 44:19Speaker 01

  I'd love to meet him.

• 44:20Speaker 02

  Well, me too.

• 44:21Jessie Ware?

  That, um. The, the recipe book that he's got where it's not that many ingredients.

• 44:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:27Jessie Ware?

  Really easy to do.

• 44:29Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 44:29Jessie Ware?

  Eat, does it eat? I really like it.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  I never remember what anything's called, we've got the kind of seasonal one.

• 44:35Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 44:35Speaker 02

  It's just like, it's just.

• 44:36Jessie Ware?

  A beautiful, he writes so beautifully.

• 44:38Speaker 02

  He writes so beautifully, and I love toast so much, and I think. Really, if it's got vegetables, cheese and carbs, I can do without, I could be a vegetarian, I think, probably.

• 44:48Jessie Ware?

  Really?

• 44:49Speaker 02

  Well, I say that, I'm not, so. Probably not.

• 44:54Jessie Ware?

  Um, Emerald Fennell, I'm gonna answer this question for you, but I'm gonna let you answer it.

• 44:58Speaker 01

  He's got great manners.

• 44:59Jessie Ware?

  Emerald Fennell, do you think you've got good table manners?

• 45:01Speaker 02

  Definitely not.

• 45:02Jessie Ware?

  What?

• 45:04Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 45:04Jessie Ware?

  I think I'm the most polite, lovely.

• 45:06Speaker 02

  That's very kind, but elbows on the table.

• 45:08Jessie Ware?

  Oh, but I ju, I just don't think that's.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Eating, I, I, I eat preferably with a spoon, hunched over the food, and I will eat it, I won't look at anyone until it's done. Like, I, the way that I eat is not.

• 45:22Jessie Ware?

  You focus on the job in hand.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  Sexy, yeah. Like a male friend once said that it was like distressing to have dinner with me.

• 45:33Speaker 02

  And he's not wrong, so I hope that, I mean, yeah, I don't think they are very good. I like food too much, to be polite.

• 45:41Jessie Ware?

  Do you, so, okay, when you're not going to Macky Days or Pret, or it's, where, when your schedule is a little less mental.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 45:52Jessie Ware?

  Will you be going for a lovely dinner out?

• 45:55Speaker 02

  I will go to the Quality Chop House.

• 45:59Jessie Ware?

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:00Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  My very, very good old friend Will, uh, it's his restaurant. So Will is one of the first people I ever met at university, and we became friends because this really dates, I mean, this dates our friendship very much. I quoted The Mighty Boosh, which at the time was an underground, underground comedy hit. And he overheard it and turned around and said Mighty Boosh. And it's just like, you know, being at university, what a time, what a time, anyway.

• 46:29Speaker 01

  He owns Clipstone as well.

• 46:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, Clipstone in Portland.

• 46:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:32Jessie Ware?

  And there was one in the, in the centre of town that I can never still go, no, no, no, not that one.

• 46:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, he, there was one, um, near an auction house as well.

• 46:40Jessie Ware?

  The Italian place.

• 46:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a delicious, it's called, no, my brain's gone, this is.

• 46:44Speaker 01

  But you could get to Clipstone easily from the Palladium.

• 46:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I think for me, Quality Chop, I, there's something so, I mean, I love all of them. Also because it's so, it's, it sounds so silly, but. Whenever your friends do something like that, you know, it's just such an amazing achievement to have a restaurant, and one that's like so good, like so actively good. And I'm so just like proud to know him, um, and so, and not only do I love the restaurants, but I think Quality Chop has so, like. Romantic and the food is, they just bring you like a hunk of meat and sides and.

• 47:19Jessie Ware?

  And do it really well.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's just sort of, it's like as close to going to somebody's house for dinner, I think, as a restaurant could be. So that's where I'd like to go with all my friends. Um.

• 47:30Jessie Ware?

  I love that. Um, good luck with Cinderella.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 47:35Jessie Ware?

  Good luck with the birth, good luck with trying to have some, some time off.

• 47:39Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 47:40Jessie Ware?

  Um, and thank you for being here.

• 47:42Speaker 02

  Oh my god, of course, thank you for having me, I love the podcast so much, and I'm just eating, I'm, I'm, look, still.

• 47:48Jessie Ware?

  No, I mean.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  And I'm looking at the clock, like shoveling this in.

• 48:06Speaker 01

  The brilliant Emerald Fennell, who just enchanted us and enthralled us with all her work and her stories. And she's just the most engaging person to have met.

• 48:18Jessie Ware?

  I still wanna be invited to one of her Eurovision, um, karaoke parties. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next week for more Second Helpings.