0:00

Prime members. Yes, you. You

0:02

can listen to Bridenhand early

0:04

and ad-free on Amazon Music.

0:07

Download the app today. A

0:12

few weeks ago, I was

0:16

online and I saw a story

0:18

about Miles Jupp. And

0:21

it said that he'd had some

0:23

kind of brain surgery. I thought, my word, oh.

0:25

I said he was okay. So I dropped him

0:28

a little text and he said, yeah, yeah, okay,

0:30

I'm fine. And I

0:33

thought, well, we need to know more about

0:35

this. Because Miles came on the first run

0:38

of these interviews. Did it

0:40

over Zoom during lockdown. He

0:42

was at his home in Monmouth

0:44

on the Welsh borders. And

0:47

I thought, well, we must speak again. Anyway, he

0:49

came in. This time we're face to face and

0:51

we talked for a long time. He

0:53

goes into some detail

0:55

about his medical,

0:58

let's use the word adventure, because

1:00

it's a positive word. He

1:02

talks about that throughout

1:04

it all, his wit,

1:07

of which I am very fond, is

1:10

never far from the surface. And

1:12

we had just the loveliest talk

1:15

about his experiences

1:17

dealing with this medical emergency.

1:20

And also some

1:23

of his more recent work. I'm very

1:25

envious of the fact he's worked with

1:27

Hugh Laurie and Joaquin

1:30

Phoenix and Ridley Scott. Yes.

1:33

So please put

1:36

down whatever it was you were

1:38

planning to do and enjoy this

1:41

week's episode. It is Brydon and

1:43

Miles Jupp. We

1:52

got a puppy. People

1:55

say that's like suddenly having another baby. Yeah. In terms

1:58

of the... I mean, it's wonderful. Golden

2:01

Retriever. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Very

2:03

long-haired. You

2:06

will be, yeah, it's going to be. And

2:08

here's an interesting thing. A lot of fur

2:10

already coming off on me. You feel very

2:12

different about your own dog's fur on you

2:14

than you do about somebody else's. What, four

2:16

organs? You're more welcoming of it. You think

2:18

of it as nice. You're covered in something.

2:20

How nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the

2:22

boot of your car will start smelling differently

2:24

and you'll think, yeah. And very soon you'll

2:27

be apologizing when you need to be giving

2:29

on a lift. I'm sorry, we've got a

2:31

dog. You'll say it's their stuff. I'm

2:33

going to be one of those people. You don't have a dog?

2:35

No, I've worked so much on the frightened of dogs. I

2:37

would have guessed that you would because you live in Monmouth.

2:39

You live on the Welsh borders. I pick for you with

2:41

a dog. I would like to have a dog. I tried

2:44

to sort of, you

2:48

know, sort of take a vote on most

2:50

things and see who, you know. And

2:53

also, if some of my children

2:55

are because they are generally frightened of dogs, I

2:57

probably should for that reason, like get a puppy

2:59

and then they could nurse in.

3:01

Because I travel for work. I don't have

3:03

a vote in whether or not we get

3:05

a dog because I can't guarantee. Yeah. You

3:07

know what I mean? You'll be doing very

3:09

little of the helping and Mrs. Chupp is

3:11

not for it

3:14

then. Not immediately.

3:16

You make it sound as if you never brought it up

3:18

for the when you went. No, we

3:20

have. We've discussed it all the time. You actually

3:22

gave the impression of having very little communication with

3:24

her generally. You don't mind me saying that. I

3:26

took away from that. I asked a question about

3:28

your wife and you went. I

3:31

know. Well, actually, we are in the process of

3:33

moving house. That's what our heads are full of.

3:36

Where are you going? Not very far at all.

3:38

I mean, we could walk to where we're moving.

3:40

But things are gone well. Things

3:42

are gone well. I knew you said Giles. How

3:45

well they're going. No, that's so tight. It

3:48

would be a combination of factors. It would be

3:50

my lack of celebrity and your overworks. No,

3:54

no, no, no, no. I

3:56

was trying to remember today. What is the name of the... Rob

3:58

Brydon. That's it. But

4:00

I love, we love the dancing, we love

4:02

the razz. No, what is the

4:04

name of the only Indian restaurant in Port Talbot? There's

4:07

only one. I don't know, I couldn't tell you that.

4:09

Do you not? I'm 58, I moved away

4:11

quite a long time ago. Oh right, and of

4:13

course, spicy food as well, it gets

4:15

harder, doesn't it? As you get older. I

4:18

like it more as I get older. Perhaps

4:20

you're losing various sort of sensations and

4:22

perhaps you just feel less as you

4:24

get older. I think that, see

4:26

a friend the other day who was a little bit

4:28

older than me started talking about how, because

4:31

I had a few kind of stomach things at the

4:33

end of the summer where I got, oh

4:36

I had stomach and there's wind, what is it?

4:39

And he said, well he said, he's not that old of me. Did

4:42

you get older? He said, your

4:45

stomach becomes a little more discerning.

4:47

You can't just throw anything in

4:49

there. No, I think because

4:51

I really did throw anything in there for a number of

4:53

years I've reached that point sort of slightly earlier. I know

4:55

I think I need a lot

4:57

more fruit and vegetables than I used to which just

4:59

adds an element to Brisbane entire day. I

5:02

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5:39

R-A-K-U-T-E-N. I

5:41

just had lunch with a former theatrical

5:44

colleague of yours. Who's that? He's called

5:46

Alex McQueen. Oh, love. You

5:49

nursed him through a... To

5:51

me, he sounds hysterical. Still look upset

5:53

that he had to play. Anyway,

5:56

we went to... He's joined one of these sort of fancy

5:58

clubs and we were surrounded by... You

6:00

weren't there with him, did you? Yeah, gentleman that

6:02

was... You haven't got a tie on. No, no,

6:04

I've changed. I was looking very done up. You've

6:06

dressed down for me and you dress up for

6:09

Alex McQueen. I... there's a

6:11

dress case. I mean, it's just... What?

6:13

You know, I'm in a bad, smartly dressed as you,

6:16

I suppose. But I've not been to a swanky club.

6:18

Well, I thought I didn't want to come any overdressed

6:20

because then you'd say, well, you know, look at the

6:22

opposite stage. If you look, someone's trying too hard. Look,

6:24

you grasped me every opportunity with this. How was he?

6:26

I think I went to that place with him about

6:29

three weeks ago in the evening, baking hot.

6:31

He was in great form, but asking

6:34

other people, he's only been a member

6:36

for not that long. And so he was asking people, essentially

6:38

the question he was asking was, how often do you come

6:41

here? Not in a dating way, in a kind of getting

6:43

the thing. For whatever

6:45

reason, he kept saying the news in the same question.

6:47

And because it was always addressed to, you know, men

6:49

about 20 years older than us, he kept saying to

6:51

these men, and I, you're quite regular. I

6:55

just sort of... And he was unaware he was doing

6:57

it, but I was just slowly reduced to a state

6:59

of mild hysteria. But people were going, oh yes, yes,

7:01

nearly twice a week sometimes. And they were saying, I

7:04

just, I couldn't say, guys, you all sound like

7:06

you're being mucky. So I just sort of sank

7:08

low and low into my chair. What's your background

7:10

with Alex McQueen then? We

7:12

met on the... We

7:15

did a comic release sketch a

7:17

million years ago. Mr

7:19

Bean sketch, he was playing the... It

7:22

was a wedding. Mr Bean at the wedding, it was called. He'll

7:24

be floating on YouTube. I have no lines in it

7:27

because I kept laughing. Did

7:29

you? Did you? Getting cut out

7:31

of the wide shot. Because

7:34

I'd never, you know, you're very close to an accident and

7:36

being very funny. And I'd, you know... I'd

7:38

find it very hard. I was out to laugh.

7:40

I was out of control. Were you?

7:42

Because he was being that funny. Being very funny. What's

7:45

the... Do you remember specifically what he was doing? It

7:47

was just the business, just doing the full business. It's

7:49

just he pressed the button, he's on. McQueen

7:51

was playing the clergyman. I was playing the best man. Matthew

7:54

McFadgen was the groom. Oh,

7:57

wow. And he... Yeah, it

7:59

was great. I didn't just move to London, I don't

8:01

know quite how it landed in my... And you were

8:03

thinking, hey, this is your business. I just asked you to say how

8:05

you're supposed to be, how it works. And

8:07

then he and Justin Edwards and I, we always go

8:09

out for all the same parts. And so auditions basically

8:12

became... I can imagine that, yes. Oh, let's just go

8:14

for a tea or a meal, and then eventually you

8:16

get to the point where it's sort of... Three

8:18

o'clock in the afternoon, none of us can remember what we've just

8:20

auditioned for. But anyway, it's turned into

8:22

a sort of lunch, whatever it might be. So

8:24

that's the nature of my... I have worked with

8:26

him. And on the Durrells, he played a man

8:28

with a sort of brigadier or something

8:30

like that with a moustache. That

8:33

just reduced everyone to helpless. He

8:37

certainly had to better the line to attempt me for

8:39

a buffoon at one point, which sort of reverberated around

8:41

the forest we were filming in. And

8:43

people slowly sort of getting sort

8:45

of hysteria that became like heat exhaustion and basically

8:47

dropping and being unable to

8:50

operate equipment. And this

8:52

podcast was described somewhere

8:54

recently as unashamedly lovey.

8:58

And I'm all right with that.

9:00

Because why the shame? Why should

9:02

there be shame? You're

9:04

right. Yes. There are worse

9:06

things in the world than actors talking about

9:09

things they've done to entertain people. Yeah,

9:11

or just their craft. Not always

9:13

an overlap. You think of

9:15

what you do as crafts? That's interesting. Because I've seen a

9:17

lot of you. I

9:20

think of it first... Crafty maybe,

9:22

but you've got away with

9:25

it. I think of it first and

9:27

foremost as work. And then...

9:30

Work watching it on the other hand. Yeah,

9:32

exactly. Well, I don't think you should let... The audience have to

9:34

do some of the work themselves. Isn't that always

9:36

the most satisfying? They get more out of it. be

9:39

that sort of working out plot points or indeed having to

9:41

write their own fucking jokes. What

9:44

accent is he doing? So you're

9:46

moving. That's what we're talking about. You're moving. You're

9:48

staying around Monmouth. I was

9:50

saying things are going very well for miles. You're

9:52

going to a bigger house, I imagine. No, going

9:54

to a smaller house. Oh, dear.

9:56

Things have gone very badly for miles. It's

10:00

just a slow process. We're moving in

10:02

with my in-laws while we house hunt.

10:05

My wife is one of eight. One

10:08

of eight what? One

10:10

of eight netball players. Every Tuesday

10:12

night. She

10:15

is the third child of eight children. So

10:19

they're used to dealing with high numbers because I've

10:21

got five children. There are only seven of us.

10:26

And a cat who may immediately experience

10:28

depression when we move house. Because cats

10:30

don't like moving house, do they? They're

10:32

not ambitious like us. They're not status

10:34

obsessed. They're not the thumbing

10:36

rule. They're not saying it's

10:38

all about bricks and mortar. They don't

10:40

sit in gales just looking at right move on

10:42

their phones, do they? They've got a completely different

10:44

out view. I'm not saying it's better. It's just

10:46

different. So we're going to do that

10:48

for a while. So that's sort of what my head's full of.

10:50

And I even look at it as neither a

10:52

success or a failure indicator. It's

10:54

literally like, where do we want to live? That's what

10:57

it's come down to. But

10:59

when you eventually can take her

11:01

parents no more and

11:06

scream over a Sunday lunch,

11:09

I didn't want to do this. Yeah.

11:12

Enough will the house. Or vice versa.

11:14

We must consider all. Okay. You're

11:16

charming. No one's going to tire of

11:18

you. I guess there's a dark side to Jupp that

11:20

I've never seen. Look, we can all be pushed too

11:22

far. Well, we can all... All right, all

11:24

right. So just, you know, next question. We've

11:27

all had a nice drink. Well,

11:30

everyone gets grumpy sometimes, didn't they? When

11:33

you do start to look for this

11:35

house, answer the question,

11:37

Minister. Will it be

11:39

a bigger, more expensive house? Reflect

11:43

the Jupp rise. Or

11:45

will it be a more modest, frugal home?

11:48

I imagine it will reflect the

11:51

Jupp plateau. It

11:53

would just be slightly differently located. That's

11:55

all. I'm just looking for slightly different things. I'm not going...

11:57

I don't need a palace. What

12:00

made you want to move in if you're not if

12:02

you're not going to somewhere that

12:04

is either better or worse? Oh, well,

12:06

what are you playing? I just want something that look

12:08

quieter. I'm very I'm very tender you live on you

12:10

live on our main Road, don't you? Yeah,

12:13

I remember I remember I think I remember you

12:15

saying that well, that's some we did one of

12:17

these interviews before it was probably interrupted But I

12:19

had no heavy amounts of holding Yes,

12:23

yes, I've got a very very quiet

12:25

voice And my wife

12:27

she speaks quietly as well So we we really

12:29

needed a house that means that we can communicate with each

12:31

other and that our conversations aren't full of us Saying sorry,

12:34

what was that? I can't hear you. Where are you? I'll

12:36

come to you you come to me So

12:38

yeah, that's that's but that's what my head is.

12:40

That's what my head. All right. Okay. You're thinking

12:42

Oh gosh, those people know how to move a

12:45

piano or whatever it might be How'd you get

12:47

on with her parents very well, very nice

12:49

people. They are they fans of yours. They like your work I

12:53

Can't answer that question There's

12:56

certainly polite about it, but they're two

12:58

as parents are very you know They

13:01

give the impression of the very very

13:03

approving of my efforts. Yeah across all

13:05

genres Thank you. What do

13:07

they or do they say we particularly like you

13:09

acting or we particularly like you and your hosting

13:12

Rob Why aren't there more

13:14

songs? Why have you

13:16

stopped selling things on my Why

13:18

you know what what in particular they didn't know me

13:20

in the shopping channel days I think they wish I'd

13:22

met her soon. It might be she was still at

13:24

school then but Right.

13:26

Well, you know 2023. Yeah, okay. Why make

13:28

it awkward? Very

13:31

good. No, what has your wife much younger than you've

13:33

on eight years Well, how

13:35

old were you when you were young? I was

13:37

in my 20s. Oh, I see you in my

13:39

early 20s So she would have been still at

13:41

school. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that doesn't have to be

13:43

icky. It's just a fact Yes,

13:45

that's right. Yeah, it's not it's not it's not

13:48

icky. I don't know why you're trying to twist

13:50

it to go No, no, or stir I'd do

13:52

her up some kind of twin. I know I

13:54

don't X I

13:56

don't I don't think it's the facts that are icky.

13:58

I think it's literally way you describe things.

14:00

That's what causes the trouble. Yeah. Any

14:02

other interests? Why are you here? What

14:05

are we talking about? You're not into it.

14:07

You're going to get into it in January. Oh, plenty of

14:09

time for people to buy

14:11

the tickets then. Yeah,

14:29

they should. They shouldn't put it off. I

14:31

mean, you know, if they're going to come and see,

14:33

I would say, bite the bullet before you regret it

14:35

and book them now. Yeah. Yeah.

14:38

Why not? January, I think. You started

14:41

the playhouse in Epsom. Yes,

14:43

that's absolutely right. It's as if

14:45

I've read the press release. It really is.

14:48

Yes, you're very across some aspects

14:50

of this. That's the sense that I get.

14:52

And it's a story. It's, well,

14:55

it's slightly unusual because it's about, it's a story

14:57

about a health experience that I went through two

15:00

years ago now from which I feel I fully

15:03

recovered. You kept it kind of, well, I didn't

15:05

know about this until a few days

15:07

ago. And I sent you a... You did. You

15:09

sent me a very nice... ...you sent you a concerned text. I

15:12

want that, actually. Because you owed me money, remember? You said

15:15

look... I said look, any chance for that 500 quid. And

15:20

I said no, no chance, as I said,

15:22

because from, you know, moving house, things are

15:24

not going so well. Maybe that's where you

15:26

got these ideas from. I

15:29

don't know about this. It was a proper, scary... Yeah,

15:31

yeah. So I had, in August 2021, I was working

15:33

in London and I had a brain seizure. Sweet

15:41

lord. Which I've never

15:44

had before, or since. How did

15:46

that manifest itself? Well, I was, so I

15:48

was, basically I had

15:50

this sort of light flashing in my eye. It

15:53

came, essentially it came from absolutely nowhere. In

15:55

one eye or both? One

15:57

eye. Left eye. Left eye.

16:00

But I'm not saying that I don't know that's a universal symptom. We're

16:02

not. Have

16:04

you discussed symptoms or anything? I always think it's

16:06

terrifying for anybody who's listening or watching.

16:08

And they go, I like it. And they will

16:11

like it. Yeah. I hate it when people start

16:13

talking about symptoms. Yeah. Yeah. Switch off because it's

16:15

literally turnover. I don't want to hear it. Yeah.

16:17

Yes. Because it's so easy to be able to

16:20

identify with any sort of self-diagnosis thing you do,

16:22

you always diagnose yourself as having the thing that

16:25

you're trying to be careful

16:27

about. Yeah. It was sort of flashing like a

16:29

little and then,

16:31

um, and then I, yeah.

16:33

And then everything I started sort of panicking. Cause

16:36

I thought I knew that something wasn't right. Yeah.

16:38

Where, where were you exactly? I was in

16:41

sort of Putney, someone like that. I was, I've been doing a

16:44

thing called help. Well, it's very near

16:46

a hospital with a big trauma unit. So it's,

16:48

it's really, um, it does help.

16:50

It literally does. But were you in a studio

16:52

where you're in Putney high street? No, we were

16:54

sort of like in a grounds of an academy.

16:57

It was a unit base filming, um, a

16:59

thing, a drama thing. Yeah. Uh, and so,

17:02

so the people around the right, you know, like the

17:04

makeup designer and your first aid, what time of day

17:07

was it? Just

17:09

after lunch. I always stay for lunch. That's the option. Uh,

17:11

and in this case, people won't know. Okay. Like people

17:13

won't know, but let's say you're shooting something and you're

17:15

on, you've got two scenes or one scene in your

17:18

morning and you go, Oh, it's going to take me

17:20

a while to get out my costume. Yeah. And you

17:22

stay cause it's free. I'm

17:24

as much as you want. Well, I hate waste. I hate

17:26

waste from, uh,

17:28

you stayed for lunch, stayed for lunch,

17:30

luckily. And then, um, and then

17:33

say, basically, yeah, you have a lunch in your

17:35

trailer or on the bus with the other people?

17:37

No, with other, well, in this instance, we'd had

17:39

it sort of more weather. Where

17:42

we were all filming and then I'd gone back to the

17:44

unit base where, you know, someone

17:46

like you would have an enormous trailer and someone like me would have

17:49

a rather, a rather smaller one as it

17:51

should be, as

17:54

it is. Um, I'm prepared to go that

17:56

far. And then it was there. So I just got out there

17:58

and I, instead of all went. Kind

18:00

of a bit bonkers and I just say you on your own at

18:02

this point I was in the in the

18:04

car coming back and then I got out the car and Someone

18:10

like a little bit dizzy and One

18:14

of the production runners and he went got me

18:16

some water and anyway some He

18:18

told me that he was getting help and then at some point I came out at

18:21

once and I was On the

18:23

floor being held down my people and then the next

18:25

time being held down because you're having a fit or

18:27

a seat I guess yeah, yeah, and then I came

18:29

out in an ambulance and then oh lord almighty How

18:32

scared you on a scale of one to ten

18:34

you are scared you're genuinely scared. I did ask

18:36

a scale of one to ten Sorry It's

18:40

again. I use words where we could use simple maths Numbers

18:44

I was I ran about you still do numbers.

18:46

Yeah, yeah after the incident cuz I might I

18:48

might being very insensitive here Why didn't anybody tell

18:51

Rob? I don't know numbers as well numbers and

18:53

literally doesn't know they exist I Very

18:56

shit version of the film yesterday That's

19:00

going some and then come on I Really

19:03

enjoyed that. I loved it before the operation. No, I've

19:05

not been I I You

19:09

complete the piano now as well. Yeah, you're

19:11

like really well. Yeah. Yeah both both hands.

19:13

No, it's Please cut

19:15

that unnecessary Please

19:18

cut that That

19:20

thing that that minimizes my chances of

19:22

ever being employed by Richard. I yeah

19:25

Yeah, well it was him that employed us and

19:27

that mr. Mr. Bean thing. So he's Not

19:32

unreasonably written me off but

19:35

I And I go back

19:37

to it on a scale of one to ten on

19:39

the I'd say about eight eight or nine Yeah, yeah,

19:41

because you think obviously experiencing sort

19:44

of sensations You're not and

19:46

then like to the myths of it Someone was like, oh

19:48

I can ring your wife if you couldn't remember her name

19:53

But then and then the next

19:55

time was an ambulance then in an

19:57

A&E ward to Bay And

20:03

then they discovered a thing in my head. Who's with

20:05

you now? Somebody's come from the production? No,

20:08

I've come with, you know, just the paramedics

20:10

take you to... They stabilize you in an

20:12

ambulance. You don't go anywhere to the stable.

20:15

One person who kept visiting was Richard Curtis.

20:18

He kept visiting really... No,

20:21

he... He's a very nice

20:23

man, isn't he, Richard Curtis? He's done

20:25

a lot more to help everyone

20:27

than I ever have. You and me combined. Then

20:30

you asked him to be combined. Oh, he's a top

20:32

man. Very top man. He...

20:35

You're trying to claw it back, but you've said

20:37

that one of the things he's most proud

20:39

of, which was yesterday, a reimagining

20:43

of the world without the Beatles, which

20:45

I thought was so bold, I rather

20:47

enjoyed it. Yeah, and I've got a

20:49

number of friends involved in it, so

20:51

it's very good. And

20:53

I... The resentment, because you've got so many friends in

20:55

it, and yet he didn't come to you. Oh,

20:58

almost certainly. Yeah, yeah. Do you go and

21:00

watch things that you've auditioned for and not

21:02

got? Um...

21:06

Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, there aren't many of them.

21:09

LAUGHTER Give

21:12

me an example. Uh...

21:16

Something they auditioned for and didn't

21:18

get. These things must

21:20

exist. No, they do. Of course they do, but I think

21:22

I put them out of my mind. What happens with me

21:24

is I'll be on a

21:27

road somewhere, and I'll see a poster on a

21:29

bus stop for a film, and

21:31

I'll go, oh, God, I auditioned for that.

21:33

I've forgotten all about it until then. Oh,

21:36

yeah, yeah. But I think that's good when you put

21:38

it out of your... Oh, I think I do. There

21:40

must be things that I auditioned for and didn't get.

21:43

I don't audition very much. If I'm in something, they

21:45

just ask me. I'm not good

21:47

at auditioning. I'm not saying, because, hey, look at me.

21:50

But I'm not very good at it. I think

21:52

I have some kind of mental block. So

21:54

it tends to be just people who know me

21:56

and, you know... You

22:01

know, I mean, I'm in Barbie, the biggest

22:03

film in the world, as you know. Yes.

22:05

And of course, I didn't audition. They just offered that to me. Now,

22:07

that, I think I did audition for that, but I would still go

22:09

and see it. Not for your

22:12

part. You play... Well, I was in

22:14

it for six seconds, so... Oh, I don't think I auditioned for a

22:16

part of the biggest act. I was sugar daddy Ken. Oh, yeah. No,

22:18

I can see that way. Have you seen the film? No, but I

22:20

will do it. It's very good. I

22:22

really like her other films. I know it's probably

22:24

not like her other films. And yet it is

22:26

in many ways, because you look at it and

22:28

you think it's very bright and garish and lurid

22:31

and vivid, and it is all those things.

22:33

Yeah. But the comedy within it

22:35

is delicious. I liked France's heart. Is that what

22:37

it's called, the black and white one? I

22:39

didn't see that. Oh, right. It's

22:41

very good film. I mean, I told her I did,

22:44

but... Yeah. I did.

22:47

It's funny, I was spending running into you today,

22:49

because only yesterday I was watching... Yeah, yeah. She

22:51

wanted to talk about human remains all the time.

22:54

Greta Gerwig. Yeah. Well,

22:56

that is brilliant. Farewell. Be that as

22:58

it may be. I'm surprised that she

23:00

was really asking about the different characters in it.

23:02

And so I would just start doing the character,

23:05

because I have no pride. I can't say it's

23:07

hard work, but I find it very difficult. My

23:09

God, you remember a quote? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I

23:11

found that very funny. I think you're on the...

23:14

You're on the swing? I mean, I

23:16

make a bit of a noise in the city.

23:20

You know, I can't pretend that it's

23:23

difficult work, but I find

23:25

it very hard. I think that's

23:27

a strong joke. It's a very good joke.

23:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you make me...

23:31

See, I was talking to a friend this morning, and

23:34

I was saying, maybe I

23:36

should have done more stuff like that, you know? Maybe

23:41

I will one day. There's still time, isn't there? I don't

23:43

know, as you've proven. Something could happen at any moment, you know? Yeah,

23:45

yeah. But that's quite a freeing thought, as well as

23:47

that someone could happen anytime. In

23:54

a way, because you think, oh, you've got so little control, you

23:56

don't know what's going to happen. You're like,

23:58

oh, we're going... You know, we're going... up to

24:00

North Wales next week, I'll go and do this film on

24:02

thing for a day, that'll be fine. And

24:04

then yeah, you're suddenly in A&E and someone's saying,

24:06

yeah, we've got a CT scan and you've got

24:08

some sort of, okay, let's get back into that

24:10

story. Why, why Barbie? How the hell do we

24:12

get there? Okay, so because I think I sense

24:14

I think we would talk about something quite serious.

24:17

And I thought, how do I relax? Rob, let's

24:19

talk about his work. And

24:21

interestingly, let's talk about Roger. Let's

24:23

flatter Rob. Yeah, instantly. I relaxed.

24:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to break

24:28

up the sort of, well,

24:30

benign. Did the team here when you arrived before

24:32

you got out your cab and before you came

24:34

in, they said, look, just one thing with Rob,

24:37

if it goes too far from his own career,

24:40

could you just try and bring it

24:42

back? Yeah, because he panics. Yeah.

24:45

And it's not about him. He's a lot

24:47

happier if he's talking about this. So now

24:49

you're at the hospital. One of the ladies

24:51

from production had to, she had to bring

24:53

my wife and say, this

24:55

has happened and pass on

24:57

a message from me to my wife that I gave

24:59

once. You know, so they did, they did

25:02

a lot actually. So I went, how long was the ambulance

25:04

trip? I didn't know, because you're drifting in and out of

25:06

consciousness, but it's not far away from where I went to

25:08

that place. Okay, you get to the

25:10

hospital, they then tell you, they didn't, they tell

25:12

you you've got something in your brain that you

25:14

shouldn't have. Oh my, so how, okay.

25:16

And what's your response to that? Well,

25:20

it doesn't feel great. And you don't know

25:22

what it is, obviously. But

25:24

you think I was just deploying

25:26

understatement. I am. I

25:29

always find it so much easier to say these things

25:31

with a sort of score out of 10, the news

25:33

adjectives. And I saw you for me. And I feel

25:35

a one to 10. No, you're scary was that moment.

25:38

I'd say that's, that's, that's an eight or a nine.

25:40

But by this point, you've been filled

25:43

with steroids and they, she

25:45

just felt terrific. I just, I was like, come

25:47

on, who's where are we going tonight? Come on,

25:49

let's go out. Let's, you know, let's just have

25:52

fun. No, you're, you're, you're, it's reducing sort of

25:55

swelling and limiting your feelings, I think, in

25:57

some way. It's amazing. Have you got any

25:59

left? No, no. Nothing. No, I'm

26:01

funny. No, I feel very raw. Very

26:03

raw. Mainly about my yesterday audition. No,

26:06

I've got a lot of things. But I do

26:08

go to the... You auditioned for yesterday? No, I

26:10

did. You auditioned for Barbie? Oh, that's

26:12

right. Yes, I auditioned for Barbie. I did audition for Richard

26:14

Curtis film though. It was called... For

26:17

Wedding and... I was at

26:19

school. He

26:22

was still at school. No,

26:25

it was the boat one. The boat that rocked. No,

26:27

but was it? No. No, I went to

26:29

the table read for that. I went to the table... Well, I'm

26:31

part of the movie now. Were you asked to go to the

26:33

table read? I was... I was

26:35

banging on the floor. I've heard there's a...

26:38

Pull up a chair. Is there anything that I could... Does

26:40

this film have any white middle class people in? You're asking

26:42

Nick Frost to shift over a bit to sit myself in.

26:45

Richard? Yeah,

26:47

just give me a couple of page numbers and I'll

26:49

take some lines from it. No, it was terrifying. It

26:52

was at the Century Club. Boat

26:55

that rots. And I remember this because I was clearing

26:57

out the house. I've gone through like three or four

26:59

boxes of stuff that I sort of arrogantly

27:01

had thought of as a kind of archive. And then I opened them

27:03

and was like, I don't need any of this. And then one of

27:05

the things I found in there was a water... Watermarked

27:07

copy of the script for the boat

27:10

that rocked. Presumably, I wasn't meant

27:12

to leave the room with. And

27:14

that's why they're watermarks. Had your name on it,

27:16

yeah. Name or a number. I'd admit. So

27:18

when they were like, I'd catch the back end. Yeah, yeah. I said

27:20

he's not going to be in this film. It's because he's made a

27:23

bloody script. And

27:25

so I went to that and it was

27:27

a room so full of such famous people.

27:30

Have I told you this before? No, go on. So

27:33

I went into that room and I thought, oh,

27:35

my word. And I just started to sort of

27:37

get that cold sweat of panic. They just... Everybody

27:40

seemed to be very famous. And

27:42

so I went, I thought, I'm just going

27:44

to go into the loo and lock the door behind

27:46

me and wait until I know it's about to start. And then I'll

27:50

come out and I went into the loo. You

27:52

were seriously going to do that? I was seriously...

27:54

You're a professional actor, you're Miles Jupp, and you're

27:56

going to hide in the toilet. Yeah. Bloody

27:58

hell, Miles. And I,

28:01

but it was engaged. So I, I guess, oh no,

28:03

I can't. I, so

28:06

I have to go out there and wandered around and various, you know,

28:09

various people were of course, perfectly, perfectly pleasant.

28:12

And then years

28:14

later, I went to some sort of fundraising thing at

28:16

the national theater. And

28:19

I, I thought, oh, no, those people. And

28:21

I got up to the sort of big party

28:23

bit and I walked twice around the whole room

28:26

and didn't encounter a single person that I

28:29

knew. And for whatever reason, I had that same sort

28:31

of, oh no. Oh no.

28:34

And so I just went and just sort of,

28:36

you know, went lots of cubicle door, just did

28:38

some emails again. You do. Yeah. This is, you

28:40

know, much more recently. You went and sat in

28:42

the toilet and did emails. A bit of admin,

28:44

just use the time, use the time wisely. Use

28:46

the time wisely. And then I came. Why do

28:48

the children hear this? Uh,

28:52

what's that thing? They, they'd say, it must be,

28:54

this is my father. I have to, you have

28:56

to show some vulnerability now. Not this much. So

29:00

I went in there and I, I let about five

29:02

or 10 minutes pass. I thought there must be someone

29:04

I know there. And I came out back

29:07

into the party and I bumped straight into the

29:10

actor John Heffernan, uh,

29:13

and, um, and also the guy, um, you

29:15

know, the really good actor. He's the husband

29:17

in, um, it was Mrs. Trunchable in the

29:19

original Matilda. He's the, yes. So,

29:23

and they're there and I, and I immediately started talking to

29:25

them. And then I said, Oh, I

29:27

had that thing where you'd just turn up and there's no

29:29

I said, I got so nervous. I went and just locked

29:32

myself in the cubicle and John Heffernan went, Oh, I've

29:34

done that once like years ago. I did the table read

29:36

for the boat that rocks. And it was so, there

29:38

was so many famous people. I went into the toilet

29:40

and locked the door and I was like, that's who was

29:42

in the door when it was, when it, when it was,

29:44

who was in the loop and it was engaged. And

29:46

I was panicking. The reason I couldn't do it was

29:48

because somebody else was already a better actor than me by

29:51

a considerable margin was already employing that tactic. So at

29:53

least that was a sort of mystery solved. That's

29:55

hilarious. You must occasionally just, just

29:58

go out and shuck on. Well,

30:00

not... well, but I don't

30:02

think to the point where I would lock

30:04

myself in a toilet cubicle and catch up

30:06

on emails. Okay, well

30:08

maybe it's... I don't

30:10

know if it's pathetic or not, but it's a sort of

30:12

effective thing, not that it's not pathetic, it's not

30:14

effective, or... It's

30:17

an effective thing for that reason. What's

30:20

the reason? You're

30:26

at the hospital, they've said to you, and can you speed

30:28

this up? You're at the hospital.

30:30

You don't know how much time you've got left. They've

30:34

said to you, you've got something in your brain that you couldn't

30:36

be there. And you've said, oh,

30:38

I know all that cricketing knowledge, I know it's a way

30:40

you try to be self-deprecating. So

30:43

what happens then, has Mrs. Jupp travelled up

30:45

from Monmouth, or has she said, oh, he's

30:47

attention seeking? She

30:49

must have been beside herself. What about the

30:51

children? Well, exactly. So she's

30:53

got her hands more than full, but it's mercifully,

30:56

she's very calm. And

30:58

mercifully lives near her parents, of course, as we've established. As

31:01

we've established. I'm a big fan, big fan of

31:03

my work. Her parents had

31:05

heard, and they were going, maybe

31:09

the life we envisaged for her could

31:11

now be a possibility. Yes,

31:13

that's right, because we know he's well insured. So

31:17

I, they came, yeah,

31:19

so it is frightening. It's undoubtedly

31:21

frightening. To the point

31:23

where eventually, I'd say what happens, and then they'd go, well,

31:25

we need to check if it's good

31:28

or bad. More

31:32

scans, more different types of scans. But they were actually pretty upbeat. And

31:35

they are actually, they're like, in the current situation that I am in,

31:37

they are as good as they can be. Are

31:40

they saying to you, we don't think it's anything to worry about? Do

31:45

you think it's something to worry about? We think

31:47

it's something to worry about. They're sort of less binary than you. There's a sort of them- Did

31:50

they ask you on a scale of one to ten? Yeah,

31:52

yeah, yeah. Did you say to them

31:54

on a scale of one to ten, how worried should I be? It's an eight or a nine. It's

31:57

an eight or a nine. They, well, because they see terrible things every day, of course. Which,

32:00

you know, we... Do they know

32:02

your work? Hahahaha

32:06

I think I'd have cried by now. Well

32:09

you are, you are sort of, you're quite sort of numb with

32:11

drugs as I say. So you're not totally aware of your... Alright,

32:14

you haven't cried yet. Except

32:16

fear obviously. So what happens

32:18

then? What happens then is, you

32:21

know, a guy rings up and says I'm gonna be your brain

32:23

surgeon. Sweet lord, you never want to

32:25

hear those words do you? Well

32:27

you do if you need something doing but I mean... Yeah,

32:30

yeah. You do

32:32

if you've asked the question, could the person who's gonna be my brain surgeon

32:34

have a very... Give me a ring. Ring me and

32:36

tell me. Give me a ring if they've got a moment.

32:39

Could they be kind enough to identify themselves? I'm

32:41

gonna have it on silent but I'll

32:44

feel it vibrate. Hahahaha I

32:46

know you've got this phones off thing because there's lots of technical equipment here

32:48

but I do, I just, for my own peace of mind. So

32:50

he phones you up. Could be a woman. But

32:53

it is a he. It's a he. And then

32:55

so they're like, you know, this is

32:57

as much as we can do at the moment. Go

32:59

away, relax. And then... When

33:02

you say go away, go home. I

33:04

went home. Oh! Back

33:07

to Monmouth. Yep.

33:10

And then... By car, by train. The

33:13

production, who as I've said were very very

33:15

helpful, sent somebody, a driver from production came

33:17

and collected me from hospital. Nice

33:19

car then, probably gonna be a Merc, is it? It

33:22

was, yeah. Nice big BMW. Yeah, I

33:24

can't, yeah. You don't want to be

33:26

in one of those little electric Volkswagen's for a journey like that?

33:29

I, yeah, I know so little about cars.

33:32

It was just a sort of usual, I mean

33:34

a very smart car but the sort of usual...

33:36

A unit car, a nice unit car. Yeah, a

33:38

nice unit car. And that took me home. And

33:40

then... About

33:43

three weeks later, I went back to the hospital

33:45

and had brain surgery. And

33:47

then... Two days

33:49

after that I went home again. And

33:52

six weeks after that I started working again. So

33:55

it's a sort of, you know, because

33:57

you're just told you do need to get the best way of

33:59

recovering it. sort of getting on with life fully. So

34:01

what I'd done, and I did it without having the

34:03

pressure that I would necessarily do it, I thought in

34:06

case I don't remember all this stuff, I'll sort of

34:08

write it all down. And then it ended up

34:10

what I wrote as a sort of piece of

34:12

catharsis, I suppose. And then like, well, there's a

34:14

story there and lots of interesting and silly and

34:16

funny and ironic things happen

34:18

within it. So then I thought, oh,

34:20

and I quite like to go on

34:22

stay, you know, I'm going to stand up here for six

34:25

years. Not after the last one. It

34:29

is what you're like in dressing rooms. When you were on

34:31

the circuit, did you just noise people up? You

34:34

didn't hear what you were saying, right? You

34:37

know, all of that sort of stuff. Yeah, yeah.

34:39

It's difficult, aren't they? Somebody

34:42

did really well. Somebody always has a

34:44

hard one. Middle slot is impossible. I

34:48

don't think you could have done any more than

34:50

that. They just, it's a very strange room. They

34:52

were going to turn at some point. Yeah, yeah.

34:54

It's yeah. So you thought you'd write

34:56

it and you've put it into a show which is called On

34:58

I Bang. On I Bang. I

35:00

like that title. Thank you very much. Is

35:03

it solely about this medical crisis? It is

35:05

a piece of, well, it's a piece of story.

35:07

Yeah, it's the whole story of this from, I

35:10

did a show a few, about

35:12

13 years ago, called Fiver and the Heat, which

35:14

is one story, which is about going to India,

35:16

pretending to be a cricket. That's right. We talked

35:18

about that when we did one thing. I thought

35:21

I'd like to show that has that sort of

35:23

feeling. I really love Michael Biglier. I

35:25

know the name, but I don't know his stuff. Again, it's

35:28

a sort of storytelling sort of comic. Of course, you

35:30

tell a story, you know, there's loads of space

35:32

for routines about completely different things, but it has

35:34

a, you know, there is an actual flat, the

35:36

stories, the Christmas tree and the jokes, the baubles,

35:38

the lovely way of putting it this

35:40

year, our Christmas tree will have to be raised off the

35:42

ground because we've got a

35:44

puppy. Oh, and they what do

35:46

I see? They grab the tree, don't they?

35:49

I'm told normally I pride myself on having

35:51

a huge, you know, things are

35:53

going well. How big is it? Do

35:55

you think you're Christmas? I like that.

35:57

That was good. That

36:00

was very good. I just thought I'd do

36:02

a little version of what you said. Please

36:04

do. Yeah, really, because I enjoy it. Do

36:07

you? Yeah, to be the

36:09

victim of one of your barbs is

36:12

yeah, yeah, would be a delight. Well,

36:15

let's let's see what comes up. I'll try and I'll try

36:17

and remember as you're talking. And as is

36:20

the modern way, if you were to start

36:22

to have a go at me, right? Yeah,

36:24

I would immediately paint myself as a

36:26

victim. Yeah, I would say

36:28

this is the mainstream media. Yeah,

36:31

yeah, trying to silence me.

36:34

I would say dark forces. Yeah. Are

36:36

at play. And they are trying to

36:39

prevent my particular brand of yeah, they're

36:41

coming for me. Yeah, but

36:43

you will be next. Yeah,

36:46

that's yeah, yeah, if I can, if I can, if

36:48

I can make some sort of slightly cutting remark that

36:50

causes you to have sort of paranoid breakdown, then I

36:52

don't want to say my work here is done. But

36:54

you know, it's something to aim for, isn't it? It's

36:57

what you're hoping for when you're right. Yeah,

36:59

yeah. It's just hoping for absolution as per.

37:01

I don't want it. I don't want to,

37:03

you know, dwell make,

37:06

no, to dwell forever on on this,

37:08

this brain thing that you keep banging

37:10

on about. Wait,

37:14

you must you must come and see me talk about for an

37:16

hour and 40. I want to I genuinely do want to and

37:18

I could come to the app someone when is that next January?

37:20

Yeah, 11th of January. I'd

37:22

like that. I really would book sooner rather

37:25

than later. I think I'll be right.

37:29

So when I got to remember to

37:32

be sort of, yeah, I've made one one

37:34

about height, but that's too old. That's too

37:36

easy. That's really I've got to get that's

37:39

especially low hanging. Yeah, that's very, that's

37:41

very, yeah, that's the only fruit I

37:43

can reach. Yeah. Self defecating as well.

37:45

Whilst bringing back in your gag. Yeah,

37:47

it's very good. I'm good. Very good.

37:49

I wasn't expecting it to be as

37:52

cohesive as this as it was structured.

37:54

And yeah, it's Friday afternoon, you see as we

37:56

record this, this is my last chance to be

37:58

funny this week. What happened? the weekend.

38:00

But I just don't know. Oh right,

38:02

right. Did your children find you in

38:05

the museum? Not overly, I mean. So there's

38:07

no room really else to look. No, where do

38:09

you... That's the sort of thing. I said something

38:11

the other day, we were at the table and

38:13

my 15 year old was very witty and we

38:15

were at the table and I said something I

38:18

can't remember, I wish I could, what it was

38:20

and without looking up from his food he went

38:23

riveting. There's

38:28

a thing as well when your children are really rude to you, you can

38:30

sort of generally rudeish behaviour, it sort

38:32

of makes me annoyed but sometimes my daughter is

38:35

very good at doing a thing that you

38:37

know, because you know it's deliberately done

38:39

to provoke, there's something sort of acceptable

38:41

about it. The other day I

38:44

came into the kitchen, she was just finishing washing her hands and I

38:47

said, you alright? And she just went into the... And

38:50

just flicked the water in my face, because it was

38:52

only done to be antagonistic I found it very sort

38:54

of charming. Yeah. As if she did

38:56

that accidentally but I wasn't sure what on earth you were doing, you couldn't watch what you

38:58

were doing, you could get my... I've had

39:01

brain surgery and I haven't seen it, how do you do it?

39:03

I'm trying to sort of shock me. Okay, you brought it up

39:05

again. Sorry, it's a sort of... So you go home for three

39:07

weeks, what's the atmosphere

39:09

in the house for those three weeks? Um,

39:14

it's pretty good. We're

39:16

pretty... This is after... Well, I'm

39:18

a bit sleepy, I have to say. Before

39:21

the surgery now though. Before the surgery. Yes,

39:23

I'm so sorry. I'm talking now, they've sent

39:25

you back from Patny, the unit of the

39:27

production, they're great people, they've given you a

39:29

car, probably a long wheelbase Merc or BMW,

39:31

we don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Would it be

39:34

comfortable, leather seats? Probably,

39:36

I don't really know the difference between leather and fake

39:38

leather in terms of look and feel, you're probably very

39:41

good on that. I like to keep an

39:43

eye on those things. Yeah, so

39:45

they drive you. You'd probably like to say

39:47

things like, oh, I like a nice walnut

39:49

finish and things like that. Is that

39:51

the sort of thing that's in your kind of lexicon? Do you have...

39:54

Do you wear... I can imagine you wearing

39:56

driving gloves or mittens.

39:58

Yeah. run the back. So

40:02

you go home and you've got three weeks before

40:04

the surgery. Yeah. Right. And that's what I want

40:06

to know what the atmosphere was like. Well then

40:09

that's that's that's I would be terrifying. It

40:11

is terrifying. I mean we can make like that's what

40:13

I'm trying to get to. I want you to start

40:16

to cry. Okay. Well

40:18

it'll be like diary of a CEO. We

40:20

could use this as the as the headlight.

40:23

I thought I'd never see you again Rob.

40:25

Yeah well that was that was one of

40:28

the big was the one the only upside.

40:30

Yeah. Yeah. Well I'll never see Rob again.

40:33

No that was that was that was yeah.

40:35

I mean seeing seeing the absolute

40:37

bucket list obviously was seeing seeing Rob Brighton

40:39

again. You know he's had a chance for

40:41

us to work together again on the on

40:43

the internet. So and it

40:45

is work. It's pretty hard work. You're

40:49

at home. You're terrified and that's when I was

40:51

asking you how is your wife? How are the

40:53

kids? Well the kids how

40:56

much do they know? They just know that

40:58

I've been ill you know there's only so much detail

41:00

that you're sort of giving them but

41:02

also they just know to be sort of nice and

41:04

gentle and not you know I'm

41:07

not saying that you feel very aggressive. I had to be

41:09

I had to were you told you had to take

41:15

it very easy. Yeah yeah you told

41:17

you can't drive you're on medication

41:20

of various sorts

41:23

and you are told to rest essentially because

41:25

you don't want to cause and

41:27

don't head the ball. Don't head the ball exactly

41:30

because I'm I'm very although

41:32

I'm naturally very very good in the air.

41:34

You are that well that's where you're most

41:36

effective. I think so I think it's it's

41:38

just about it's just

41:40

really getting the ball through to you that's the problem

41:42

isn't it? You need the assists if you are gonna

41:45

be useful but if they have a player they can

41:47

get the ball into the box. Then

41:49

I mean good luck everyone frankly. I think

41:53

I managed to keep up with the football conversation there so

41:55

I was like that is not my world either. I'm proud

41:57

of myself the two of us together. around

42:00

desperately. Were there any of that

42:02

in the three weeks? Was

42:04

there a feeling my wife and I ought

42:06

to make the most of what time we

42:08

have because who knows I may not come

42:10

out the other side glipping around desperately? Oh

42:12

right yeah that's an awful

42:14

question isn't it? It's very personal.

42:16

What were you hoping I'd say? Clickbait. I started

42:18

out with such high love. You'll never guess

42:22

how my job answered this appalling question.

42:25

Click here to see. Were you and

42:28

your wife groping around before the operation?

42:31

Join Miles Jupp on Briden and

42:33

as he discusses staring into the

42:36

abyss. Yeah yeah it's very um

42:39

you're sort of you and Kate Garraway. Stephen Bartlett he's the

42:41

guy. Have

42:44

you seen Diarrhovensio? I haven't seen it but Kate

42:46

Garraway does the life stories one day. But she's

42:48

pulled back a bit from what it was. It's

42:50

not as weepy as it used to be. Oh

42:53

right. When your man did it.

42:55

Right. Okay so come on you're avoiding this

42:57

question as it is your right to do

42:59

so. You're terrified the day comes do you

43:01

sleep the night before? I was sleeping really

43:03

bad. I'd always wake up at three in

43:05

the morning. Oh Miles it might be awful.

43:07

Well it's very bad for the skin and

43:09

all that sort of thing isn't it? All

43:11

the other kind of skin. Well not sleeping.

43:13

Not sleeping it's really bad for everything. And

43:15

you already know that you're really bad. You

43:17

know you know you're ill enough to need

43:20

brain surgery. So of course but then and

43:22

so there's that sort of worry

43:24

about it and then you've got the date in the diary. Got

43:26

the date in the diary and you're in corporate the night

43:28

before you didn't want to give that up. Of

43:32

course you were. Three in the morning. Of course

43:34

oh Miles it might have been awful. Well it's

43:36

very bad for the skin and all that sort

43:38

of thing isn't it? Not the skin. Well not

43:40

sleeping. Not sleeping it's really bad for everything. And

43:42

you already know that you're really bad. You know

43:44

you're ill enough to need brain surgery. So of

43:46

course but then and so there's that sort of

43:49

slight worry about it and then you've got the

43:51

date in the diary. Got the

43:53

date in the diary and then corporate

43:55

the night before you didn't want to

43:57

give that up. I did do something.

44:00

day before. I think I did like an online, because it

44:02

went, it's definitely in the pandemic in this. I

44:06

did it like a read through of a

44:08

play, because someone said are you free to do this

44:10

on the, whatever it was, Monday or Tuesday. And I thought,

44:12

probably not on the Thursday, but on the Thursday, I

44:15

will not, I won't necessarily be great.

44:17

Had this happened before we spoke

44:20

on this show before, and did that, I

44:22

was zoomed chat? No, I don't think it

44:24

was after that, was it? Yeah,

44:26

this was after that. I think I'd done

44:28

a, I'd seen you in the summer, because I'd done a, would

44:31

I like socially distance would I lie

44:33

to you? We were all at our own separate.

44:35

Yes, that's right. With perspex. Yeah, like it like

44:37

we were also little concession stalls of our own.

44:39

The funny thing about that is, you know, we

44:42

record that show and then months go by before

44:44

it goes out. And through an abundance of caution,

44:46

I think we did two series like that. And

44:49

the anger in some of the comments on

44:52

YouTube, from people who, you know, when

44:54

all that stuff had stopped, yeah, but

44:56

it's still there. Why are they

44:58

still doing that? I found I did quite a

45:00

lot of shows where you had that perspex. I

45:03

genuinely found it hard, hard to

45:05

hear. I did. Of course it did. It makes it

45:07

very difficult. I tell you what I did do. About

45:11

three months after a one

45:13

university challenge about three months after

45:15

the surgery. But

45:18

and that with the perspex screens. And that was Paxman

45:21

was still hosting it. But I really found

45:23

it very hard to hear. And I know

45:26

you said I won university

45:28

chances. It's a team competition,

45:30

isn't it? Yes, yes,

45:33

it is. I'd be interested to know how the

45:35

rest of your team would. I must come clean

45:37

and admit that I am not a university. I was

45:40

with those four of

45:42

us. And which university we represent at

45:44

Edinburgh University. And was it

45:46

a sort of celebrity one? Yeah.

45:50

Who are the other celebrities from Edinburgh

45:52

University? Well, seated to my right was

45:55

the founder of Wahaca. Thomas Sina Myers, I bet

45:57

you like a Wahaca. I do, I love a

45:59

Wahaca. I love a

46:01

wife. I say that for no

46:03

personal financial gain. Occasionally

46:06

I would sort of drift off, I was the captain, so

46:08

really other people have been clever. There's

46:10

Philip Swanson on my left and there's

46:13

an amazing editor called Kath Sless from the

46:15

right here who did

46:17

edit the architectural, or

46:20

the Review or Journal, unbelievably bright person. If you're

46:22

the captain, everyone else tells you the answers and

46:24

all you're really doing is repeating them. So

46:27

there's a slightly luxury position, but I couldn't really,

46:29

I kind of buried difficult to hear. Every

46:32

now and then you'd just slightly, or it

46:34

would be a buzz around and I don't watch the program

46:36

very much, I forgot that it would be a buzzer. I

46:39

was banging on the thing going, the buzzer, put your

46:41

finger on the buzzer, so you're ready to press the

46:43

buzzer. Oh, right, sorry. So we

46:45

did record at least one or two

46:48

episodes and then they just shoved us

46:50

out into the wind to wait for

46:52

four hours for the final, which we went to the pub and

46:54

then I wasn't drinking and they were going, oh, why aren't you

46:56

drinking? I was going, oh, it's because I've recently had brain surgery.

46:59

Oh, right. Well, why is our

47:01

captain, the guy with brain surgery,

47:04

speaking of that brain surgery, so

47:06

you go in, you've

47:08

not slept the night before? Well, I probably

47:10

wouldn't have slept for about three weeks. No,

47:12

I'll bet you haven't. Back at Putney for

47:14

this operation? Charing Cross Hospital. All

47:16

the way from Monmouth up you come. Well, because that's where I'd

47:18

gone into the system. Yeah. So I come up and then me,

47:21

there's about six of us on our ward. On

47:23

a scale of one to 10, how scared are

47:25

you now? Less

47:27

scared. So six or five.

47:29

I was, yeah, less frightened because I think

47:31

you just by that point, in a way, once

47:34

you've got that in the diary, you're sort of

47:36

looking forward to it because even if it

47:38

goes... You want to get to the other

47:40

side of it. You want to go to the

47:42

other side. You don't want to go, no,

47:44

very much not. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're

47:46

really, really you are hoping it will come. Who's

47:48

there when they give you the general? Not

47:52

a military figure, the general

47:54

anesthetic. Ah, jump!

47:56

I'm general anesthetic, my

47:58

friend, Corporal punishment. Yes. There

48:02

was loads of people there. No, I mean from

48:04

your family. Oh, no, because it goes COVID, so

48:06

you can't really... Oh, that's hard. So you can't...

48:09

Not even Mrs. Jupp? No, and also,

48:11

you know, there's people to

48:13

look after at home. So you go

48:16

in on your own, but there's, you

48:18

know, five other people on the ward,

48:20

other... Yeah, all in the same boat. Very

48:23

much so. The walked. Yeah.

48:27

All in the same boat. And

48:30

you do all these sort of tests with people, and

48:32

then you go and you have it.

48:36

How long an operation is it? I

48:38

think you're out for six hours with

48:40

the operation. Six hours? Six hours. Why?

48:43

The operation's five minutes. The operation's

48:46

five minutes. They just wanted to

48:48

stop you talking. Hey, he's telling

48:50

his cricketing anecdote. They

48:53

told me that, yeah, a lot of it. I said, why haven't

48:55

you got to put me out so long? And they said, for

48:57

us, really, it's me time. It's just a

48:59

giant... The way things

49:01

have worked out here, we found that while the patient was

49:03

out, we could catch up on emails, someone's been hiding in

49:05

the toilet. We just put a few... Well, if that red

49:07

light's gone outside the door, nobody knocks. They think we're busy.

49:10

They think we're rushed off our feet in here. So

49:13

you're... You're out of it for six hours. So

49:15

the next thing then, I would imagine that happens is you're

49:17

in that recovery room, aren't you? That's

49:19

right. I had

49:21

a benign thing taken

49:23

from the top of my neck.

49:26

You can't... If you were stood here,

49:28

you'd be... You've been nine vertigants. What was not a

49:30

benign vertigo? No, they're all very vital. Oh, I don't

49:32

know. Some little fatty growth or something. But

49:34

that was a case of, yeah, I don't want

49:36

to try and elevate my experience. No, it sounds

49:38

like it is. How frightened were you on a

49:41

scale of from one to ten when you... Four.

49:44

Yeah, okay. Four. Because

49:46

nobody wants a general anaesthetic, unless you're Michael Jackson. It was the

49:48

same stuff that he used to use

49:50

to go to sleep. Properful. He was basically

49:52

anaesthetized. That's what he used. Do you not

49:54

aware of that? No, I don't follow... Do

49:56

you have

49:58

to follow Michael Jackson? have an awareness of

50:00

him. I know, I know, I know, I

50:02

know exactly. He was with his brothers. They

50:05

used to sing. I work with

50:07

the director of the Billy Jean video. I'm aware

50:09

of the oopsie. Steve Barron. Yes, a brilliant man.

50:11

What the hell did you do with him? The

50:13

Durrells on Iche. He directed

50:15

the Durrells. He directed the Durrells and he directed,

50:18

he directed the Take On Me video. I think he

50:20

did Money For Nothing. Did he talk about Michael? No,

50:24

he talked about Madonna. You're in Corfu,

50:26

you're working with a man who directed

50:28

Billy Jean and you don't ask him

50:30

about Michael Jackson. No, I,

50:32

no, no, I didn't. No, I didn't.

50:34

I think this brain thing was taking

50:37

me then. I think that's the first

50:39

telltale sign that something isn't right. What,

50:42

that I'm not fascinated by Michael Jackson to

50:45

the extent that you are or it would appear the same

50:47

way. I know. Okay, well, he

50:49

used to have propofol to get to sleep,

50:51

right? At night. This is an anaesthetic that

50:53

knocks you out. Yeah. And I couldn't legally

50:55

be allowed to. No, of course not. But

50:58

he had, he was like Elvis, he had

51:00

doctors who'd give him anything. All

51:02

right. Okay. We're not going to get caught up

51:04

in my fatty deposit. So

51:08

you come to in the recovery room.

51:10

Yes. First thoughts. First thoughts. Oh,

51:13

well, I've, I've, I've woken

51:15

up again. Is this, is this heaven? Is

51:17

this heaven? Yeah. Fiction factory

51:19

feels like heaven.

51:22

Why not? He's understaffed and overworked.

51:24

That's right. It has an air

51:27

tech ceiling. All of these, all

51:29

of these little telltale signs. So

51:31

yeah, then you're like, Oh, that's good. That's,

51:33

I suppose, you know, that's, that's not. But then the

51:36

next thing, right, is going to be a nurse

51:38

or a something coming over to

51:41

you. And like an air

51:43

steward on a plane, you're going to

51:45

be reading their face as

51:47

they approach you. And you don't want this. No,

51:52

no, that's absolutely what you don't want. What was the

51:54

face? What did you read in the face? I don't

51:56

remember. I don't remember whose face or I can just

51:59

remember someone telling me. It's gone well, but you

52:01

know everything's sort of mugged someone's got it's gone. Well, it's

52:03

gone Well, not relatively well because that

52:05

wouldn't be good. It's gone. Well gone fairly

52:07

well Yeah, it's

52:09

gone. Well, what a relief. It's gone on a

52:11

scale of one to ten. What was the relief

52:14

at that stage? Enormous

52:16

it is enormous on a scale of one

52:18

to ten. Sorry. Sorry. I yeah Can

52:22

you do with all this data? You say

52:24

to the your collective role. It's very it's

52:26

very we can target. Yeah Yeah,

52:28

we we take all this data. We market

52:31

specifically to people that are very certain level

52:33

of fear and they can't handle So yeah,

52:35

so when we come to try and promote

52:37

this episode, yeah, we won't be wasting money

52:40

on people that were never Gonna

52:42

be interested. We know now from what you've

52:44

told us how it's gonna focus on the

52:47

other two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah well,

52:49

I Then you're how relieved

52:52

am I was on the Yeah, how I was

52:54

probably about a ten probably about the most relieved.

52:56

Okay, I've ever felt you phone your wife

52:59

Yes, I do Or maybe I

53:01

message her first to come in what the protocol is. Well, what's

53:03

the thing where I before I'd gone in I'd

53:06

written a list of people That

53:09

she was to call because the surgeon was gonna phone

53:11

her well I thought there were a list of people

53:13

that you would be happy for her to take up

53:15

with in In

53:18

the event that you don't pull through I Like

53:21

to think I'd be on the list Yeah,

53:26

that's right it was it was quite a down the list

53:28

because it was written in ascending order of age Yeah,

53:32

my wife is six foot one. Rob you

53:34

would be she would never consider me would

53:36

she she'd be no But

53:39

only for that reason. I'm sure otherwise should find you've

53:41

met my wife. Of course I have more more times

53:43

than you realize You're

53:46

so alpha So alpha.

53:48

I know I've never watched someone compensate

53:50

from this close up before it's exciting

53:54

Best line in the interview. Congratulations. Oh, thanks.

53:56

Thanks. Yeah, just get it all

53:58

in the data. It will be there I'd

54:01

said, here's a list of people that

54:04

can you be in

54:06

contact with? When the surgeon rings you, so you can let

54:08

them know. Because the surgeon says he's

54:10

only got time to make one. You're telling who's going to

54:12

do it? Your wife. My wife. If you want her to

54:15

phone all these people, not you. So

54:19

what is it? Agent, parents, siblings,

54:22

friends. It wasn't agent first,

54:24

Rob. Well, the agent was. But basically, I'd

54:27

said it's like one group of friends. Agent,

54:29

publicist. I said, like, you. Could

54:32

you ring the time? Taylor. Could you ring the time's

54:34

obituary page and tell them to just relax? I

54:39

do not have a tailor of, as you

54:41

must be painfully aware of. Yes, that's coming

54:43

across. It

54:47

would be like, so can you ring James from

54:49

university? And he'll ring Ollie and Will from university,

54:51

whatever. And there's different people that were on this list, because

54:53

they all, as far as they were concerned, I was going

54:55

to have the operation at eight, and I'd be coming round

54:57

at about noon. Or

55:01

one o'clock, two o'clock, something like that. And then

55:03

there'd been some emergency they're dealing with. So actually,

55:05

I didn't get taken down to about two. Oh,

55:07

no. Were your family aware of the delay? They

55:10

were aware. Of course, I'd only said, when I come

55:12

out, ring these people. And

55:15

so there was about five or

55:17

six of people. So my brother and my parents

55:19

and a couple,

55:21

one international cricketer. But just be

55:24

close. Just keep an eye close.

55:28

And then they were going to tell other

55:30

people. That was the kind of plan. So

55:33

people knew I was all right, but Rach didn't have to

55:35

ring lots of people, whatever. And

55:37

so then the operation was delayed by six hours, because

55:39

there was another emergency to come in. And then I

55:41

sort of then whatever came round, and then I did

55:43

speak to her in about half a minute. I went,

55:45

oh, by the way, there's lists of names. When do

55:47

you want me to call these people? Oh, no. I

55:49

said, like, oh, I thought maybe when

55:51

the surgeon called you to say I was fine. She was

55:54

like, oh, right. Okay. All right. I'll get

55:56

on with that now then, shall I? So these people, by now,

55:58

it's like half past 10 at night. waiting

56:00

for the always fine call from about

56:02

then. I thought maybe you had to

56:04

come through. Yeah, yeah, that's yes, yes,

56:07

yes. So what did they find then

56:09

that what was wrong with your brain?

56:11

There was a benign tumor called meningioma,

56:13

meningioma, which is between the skull and

56:16

the brain itself. The little thing that has started to

56:18

grow and have got in the way and

56:21

they didn't know how long. Yeah, so it grows.

56:23

They can't date them. It grows

56:25

and then that causes

56:27

depression. They're not looking for

56:30

relationships. It's very good the way that you

56:32

do what you do. It's very, it's

56:34

not effortless, but you can't tell

56:37

you what people can't tell how hard you're trying. It's

56:42

just there and it causes the pressure and then

56:44

the pressure causes swelling and it's the swelling that

56:46

causes the seizure ultimately. But that's

56:48

good because there are people that have things like

56:50

this and they don't know. Having a seizure is

56:52

an alarm bell. Yeah, whereas some people go to

56:54

the doctor going, I'm not quite sure I'm the

56:56

way I used to be. Is

56:59

that what happens? People say they feel different. Yeah,

57:01

and they can only be sort of very vague

57:03

about it. Whereas if you go, when you have

57:05

a basically an electrical storm in your brain, then

57:07

I better check what's wrong with this person very quickly. Where

57:09

did they go into your head? You look very normal to

57:12

me. You don't look any different. You're

57:14

not as funny, but I mean, no, no,

57:17

but we all affected your timing. I mean, that's

57:19

the main thing. But where is it?

57:22

Where did they go in? They round the back,

57:24

genuinely. That's where I'm not

57:26

going to

57:31

do anything with that. Just around the back, just

57:33

there. And what is there now? Like a scar? Yeah.

57:37

Or not like a scar. Don't say like

57:39

a scar. It's a scar. A

57:41

nice neat scar. Well, I can't see it. But

57:43

I'm sure you've asked your wife to have a

57:45

look. Well, what happened was I had bits

57:48

of hair was shaved

57:50

off so they could attach very, very, very, very different.

57:52

And then I had a big bandage on my head.

57:54

And I saw I'd wear a hat wandering around regardless

57:56

of the weather. I'd wear a big hat.

57:59

And those old. theatrical job walking

58:01

around the monologue. And a big

58:03

scarf, yeah. Just

58:05

offering to read poems to people, that sort of thing. Asking

58:09

people if they needed their daily anecdotes. Daily

58:12

anecdotes. I know a queue is building up, but

58:14

you will love this, Sheila. All

58:16

of that sort of stuff. But I thought I've got the

58:19

banish on there and I have an appointment to go to

58:21

the nurse at the

58:23

GP practice to

58:25

have the stitches taken out, staple

58:28

stitches, whatever they keep it on with. And

58:31

so she takes the thing off

58:33

and she goes, oh, it looks good, it looks

58:35

really good. And I say, oh, right, because they

58:37

had to shave some hair off. And

58:42

also I was losing my hair anyway. So

58:44

there's,

58:47

presumably there's some gaps there. And she went, oh, it's

58:49

all grown back. And I said, all of it. And she

58:51

went, it's all grown back. And I said, even like

58:53

the ball patches, she went, no, not that. You

58:57

had a little moment of, it's like

58:59

when someone wakes up and speaks Spanish.

59:01

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Oh,

59:04

I see. Right. Fair enough. But

59:07

she takes the stitches out and she takes it. Does

59:09

that hurt? Agony. Absolutely agony. Oh,

59:11

no. And as she's doing that, are

59:13

you thinking, don't go messing up the,

59:15

you know, yeah, please just be gentle.

59:17

But you know, all done very carefully

59:19

and thoughtful. So how has it changed

59:21

your, and I'm delighted that it's

59:23

all been a success, obviously.

59:26

Has it changed you? Yes.

59:31

I, it gives you a very different prism

59:33

through which to sort of view life really, because you

59:35

can, you can prioritize, you know, in a way that

59:37

you couldn't before and you're a bit more, yeah,

59:40

actually, I don't like that. So I'm not going to

59:42

do that or whatever it might be. An example of

59:45

that would be. The

59:48

things that you won't put up with that you used to

59:50

put up without a politeness and lack

59:53

of deference and a lack of a

59:55

lack of deference. Yeah, that sort of thing. What sort

59:58

of things would you know? put

1:00:00

up with? Well, you

1:00:02

know, like in a sort of professional thing,

1:00:04

you'd say, actually, no, that's, I

1:00:07

just don't fancy doing that. I don't

1:00:09

think it will be enjoyable. Pickier with the

1:00:11

jobs. Yeah, for instance, or

1:00:13

what's being asked of you sometimes, I guess. And

1:00:15

then the other thing is that kind of sort

1:00:18

of sense of great fortune. Really?

1:00:21

Really feeling like

1:00:23

tremendously lucky, because

1:00:25

for me, things lined up really.

1:00:27

I had taken this job for

1:00:29

a day. And that meant that actually,

1:00:32

when I was ill, I was really

1:00:34

near a hospital with a trauma unit

1:00:36

and all of those. A unit car,

1:00:38

probably a Mercedes, probably BMW, long wheelbase,

1:00:40

warm up finish, walnut dash, all

1:00:42

of that. You're taking the story of

1:00:44

this on tour. I am.

1:00:46

I bang starts in January of

1:00:48

24 at Epson

1:00:50

Playhouse. So Miles

1:00:53

Jop, just just put you into

1:00:55

Google, it'll come up. I

1:00:58

want to come and see it. It

1:01:00

sounds like I'm wrapping up the interview. I'm actually

1:01:02

not because two other people I want to talk

1:01:04

to you about. Since we last

1:01:06

spoke, you've done some interesting work. I've

1:01:08

tried. I mean, it was long overdue.

1:01:10

But you have, and

1:01:15

you've worked with a bit of someone

1:01:17

that I had just adored and haven't

1:01:19

spent very much time

1:01:21

in his company. Hugh

1:01:23

Laurie. Tell me about your

1:01:25

Hugh Laurie experience. Well,

1:01:28

I was very fortunate.

1:01:31

Lucky, I would say. Very lucky, very lucky. Lucky

1:01:36

on a scale of 10 to be asked

1:01:38

by him to be in. So he adapted

1:01:41

an Agatha Christie story. Why didn't they ask Evans?

1:01:45

And it was one of those ones where you'd heard

1:01:47

that they were doing this. And I thought, wow,

1:01:50

imagine being in that or you just

1:01:52

thought that and then you got the

1:01:54

call. And then I got pretty magical.

1:01:56

And yeah, then

1:01:59

I got the corner and it. was an

1:02:01

audition for him. And

1:02:03

I sort of ammed and aard about it. And

1:02:06

I tell you why, because I thought, I think

1:02:08

if I auditioned for it, I didn't get it. Yeah, that

1:02:10

would be hard. I don't think that would be very hard.

1:02:13

Yeah, and I thought, I wouldn't, because I really,

1:02:15

I'm trying to learn it, really important. Just

1:02:18

a million, just glorious, gloriously good.

1:02:20

I just love

1:02:22

that. There are six million people out there,

1:02:24

Peter. Really, John, what do you want? Yeah,

1:02:27

yeah, yeah. Margaret wants control

1:02:29

of Derwent Enterprises. From where I'm standing, she's

1:02:31

gonna get it. It's all just, but I

1:02:33

just, yeah, really,

1:02:36

really good. I really love them. And so I,

1:02:38

and I'd actually got to work with, I'd done

1:02:41

an episode of, I'm sorry, I'm having a clue

1:02:43

with Stephen. Yeah. It was very exciting.

1:02:45

You must have done QI with Stephen as well. No,

1:02:47

never. You never did. No, never, never did. You

1:02:50

done it with Sandy? I have one episode.

1:02:52

Oh, okay, all right. Thought you'd done more

1:02:54

than that. No, no, it's one of those

1:02:56

things that people say, it's

1:02:59

Hume, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they go, we love you

1:03:01

on the floor. Another one is people say, oh, Paddington,

1:03:03

that must've been fun. I'm not in Paddington.

1:03:06

But I, yeah. Who do they think, who are they

1:03:08

confusing you within that then? Presumably, who's

1:03:10

after? Sammy Hawkins? It's a bear.

1:03:13

Yeah, when I, I'm a sort of Bonneville light,

1:03:15

aren't I? Oh, I suppose, yeah, I could see

1:03:18

that. No, they'll assume that these,

1:03:20

because it's got lots of sort of people,

1:03:22

like, pop it up, yeah, yeah. You go

1:03:24

to audition for a Hugh Laurie. This is

1:03:26

still in the pandemic. So

1:03:28

I said, I actually said, I'm not sure if I can

1:03:30

audition. Yeah. And

1:03:33

I didn't mean it in a kind of, I don't audition. I went, I said, I actually don't,

1:03:36

I don't think I should be. You

1:03:38

say this to your agent. My agent, or no,

1:03:41

agent assistant. First person you called after

1:03:43

the op? And, but

1:03:45

then you do all this? They said,

1:03:47

actually, no, it would just be a chat,

1:03:49

not an audition. Over Zoom? Over Zoom. So

1:03:51

I said, okay. And then I clicked

1:03:55

on the link. You click on the link. I'll be

1:03:57

locked. There's Hugh Laurie. And there he is. he

1:04:00

is and he says a

1:04:04

bit of chat about stuff and I said, I read it's really great and

1:04:06

he said, would you do this? And

1:04:09

I was like, yeah, I mean,

1:04:12

I guess it would really I would love it if you would

1:04:14

do this. And I was going, I mean, I would. I would.

1:04:16

Yeah. Yeah. Are you mad?

1:04:18

Yes. I'd been. I'd love to.

1:04:20

So there was a sudden it

1:04:23

was happening. And it was like,

1:04:25

was this after the opera before? This is

1:04:27

this is just a few weeks before the

1:04:29

seizure. Good Lord. And it

1:04:31

was really he's done

1:04:33

this fantastic adaptation and then to

1:04:36

be directed by an actor. So

1:04:38

it's really good. I'm sure you've been in

1:04:40

that situation before. And

1:04:42

it's Kenneth Branagh is an actor,

1:04:44

Rob, for example. Oh, God, of course. Yeah,

1:04:47

that's a good example. Yeah. Care works on

1:04:49

terms. So anyway, it

1:04:51

was just fantastic. I had really nice people and really,

1:04:53

really nice people. And and I actually when it was

1:04:55

finished, I said to my agent, I actually

1:04:58

know where that would that would do me. That's

1:05:00

really I would not. Yeah. Yeah. I

1:05:03

know. I could I could I'd had such a

1:05:05

nice time. You may have to. I may I

1:05:07

may have to. So that

1:05:09

was certainly a nice guy. And she went, she

1:05:11

went, no, don't this is my men. You don't

1:05:13

have to have a sense of principle of professional

1:05:16

momentum. Well, there we go.

1:05:18

I've done a good job. Let's call it a day. It's

1:05:20

not going to get what she like on set. You

1:05:23

have to wonder. That's a great way for an

1:05:25

interviewer to ask you think, how the hell did

1:05:27

you end up in that? Yeah. The sort of thing

1:05:29

you say when you've you know, you've rung a

1:05:31

friend and they seem to be answering, you finally break

1:05:33

into their house and they're sort of trapped.

1:05:36

I'm hanging from the ceiling at some sort of

1:05:38

strange, exotic bondage. How the

1:05:40

hell did you end up in? But how did

1:05:43

that come out? Did you have scenes with Joaquin?

1:05:45

Yeah, I did. Yes. Yeah. Miles

1:05:47

Jupp and Joaquin Phoenix. Together

1:05:49

at last. That's directed by

1:05:51

Ridley Scott. Well, come on.

1:05:54

Yeah. And he, do you know what

1:05:56

actually held it together? I could tell he was excited, but he

1:05:58

did. He was a bit of a. He was

1:06:00

Quiz Buff. He,

1:06:03

no, I've known, I knew me

1:06:05

from from Adam. He

1:06:08

the first thing he said was I was

1:06:10

told you could ride. I don't

1:06:12

know who told him I could ride a horse because I I

1:06:15

went and did I was saying something the other

1:06:17

day, but I went and did you know, that's when they

1:06:19

go. Can you get this place in Buckingham? I've done that.

1:06:21

Yeah. And it

1:06:24

is in the village next to the village where David

1:06:26

Tomlinson lived. And you did a show

1:06:28

about him. But actually, the

1:06:30

day that I was going to do the day, you go

1:06:32

and have do some riding and they'd see how good you

1:06:35

are and then how much stunt

1:06:37

work will be required. And this is not a big part

1:06:39

at all. But some of this involved arriving on a horse,

1:06:41

getting on the horse. And and

1:06:43

I, of course, I say all this, a complete

1:06:46

ignorance of whether I end up in the actual film or not.

1:06:48

But the bit I like, because it hasn't come out yet, hasn't

1:06:50

come out. The bit I like is the working bit, the

1:06:52

bit when you're doing it. But I, I

1:06:54

think you've had to have that attitude. So

1:06:57

much of what you've done has ended up not

1:06:59

in the film. Yeah, yeah. And with nearly

1:07:01

always with good reason, I think, in fairness,

1:07:04

I'm not I'm in no way focused, no way prepared

1:07:06

for the, you know, the job. It's

1:07:08

harder than when they said it would be a lot

1:07:11

of the time. And of course, as

1:07:13

early starts, I don't know if you probably. Yeah, no, I

1:07:15

don't know. I'm a young man. They'll be like, Oh, well,

1:07:17

he can come in early, you know,

1:07:19

with Rob, I'd be like, they give me just before

1:07:21

lunch starts. We break him in general. I put him

1:07:23

in makeup just before lunch. But also it can't be

1:07:25

too late, can they? Because you're like, well, because

1:07:27

also, you know, because, yeah,

1:07:31

a few sweet drinks with his lunch.

1:07:34

So I. So what sort of scenes, how many scenes did you

1:07:36

have? Like one scene with him. What

1:07:39

was the nature of the scene without giving too

1:07:41

many details? Is it action? Are you punching him?

1:07:43

Are you discussing something? Are you talking about horses?

1:07:45

What are you doing? He's Napoleon. Who do you

1:07:47

play? I play

1:07:50

the Emperor Francis of Austria and Europe.

1:07:52

Of course you do. Loser of the

1:07:54

Battle of Austerlitz. But

1:07:57

I did you give him an accent? I

1:08:00

had to do, yeah, it was

1:08:02

a German accent. Napoleon says no way,

1:08:04

you're going to triumph, I tell you

1:08:06

now. It

1:08:09

was like that, but not not good. It was really,

1:08:11

I know I had. Well,

1:08:13

give us a blast. No, I can't. I can't. Of course you

1:08:15

can. But I tell you one thing I did, one of the

1:08:17

scenes I did, I had to do, they

1:08:19

wanted to film it in English, but with

1:08:21

a German accent and in Russian. So

1:08:24

I had to learn a speech phonetically in Russian, which

1:08:27

I'll tell you now, I did not enjoy, but also

1:08:29

because they shoot very fast, like like all

1:08:32

like all high end production things, sex cameras

1:08:34

like this. Sex cameras, so they

1:08:36

do it very, very quickly. I like to play

1:08:38

two takes. Is that right? The point we

1:08:41

got working, it's going, please go do another take.

1:08:43

Yeah, but Ridley Scott is that he likes to

1:08:45

skip along, does he? I'm happy, I'm happy. Really?

1:08:48

So but. One

1:08:51

of the scenes involves riding on

1:08:53

a horse and then we're going to have a chat. And

1:08:56

I decided to go to this

1:08:58

place in Buckinghamshire. And then I said, I haven't. The

1:09:03

diaries, I'm free that afternoon, I mean, I'm in London and

1:09:05

that morning anyway, so that works out nicely. And then I

1:09:07

thought, I know the reason I'm in London is because I

1:09:09

got to have my MRI scan on my on my brain.

1:09:12

So then I had to say, can we

1:09:15

ask the driver, lovely car with the walnut

1:09:17

dash really beautifully. I've got a long wheelbase.

1:09:20

Yeah, six series. I said, is

1:09:22

it all right if they collect me from Ealing MRI

1:09:24

units? And they were like, OK, yeah, that's the sort

1:09:26

of pickup point. And then I thought, I better tell

1:09:28

them if I'm riding a horse, I better tell them

1:09:30

I've had brain surgery within the last.

1:09:33

So I. So I

1:09:35

said, can you bring them to my relationship

1:09:37

anymore? And then I went and got picked

1:09:40

up and went there and I said, is anyone talking about

1:09:42

my head? They said, yes, it's fine. There's helmets and

1:09:45

they find this helmet. And then I trusted

1:09:47

around. I was very pleased with myself and

1:09:50

thought, well, that seems to be all right. And

1:09:52

then and so thought, I presumably I maybe

1:09:54

they think that I'm all right on a horse. And so

1:09:57

that that was the bad guy to really discuss it to

1:09:59

me. I was told you could ride. And

1:10:01

then obviously he'd been disabused and then when he

1:10:03

was at the moment, his job, it was to

1:10:05

watch me on a horse as I nervously sort

1:10:07

of parted around. And

1:10:09

then it films really quickly. So really,

1:10:11

the whole thing is an absolute blur. And it says

1:10:13

so, I mean, I'm sure Barbara was like this, a

1:10:16

number lead, I've never seen a set that big or

1:10:19

just a sort of all the, you know, the number of

1:10:21

caravans. I did like, I spent most of last year or

1:10:23

six months last year filming the full month here on Disney

1:10:25

Plus. And that's a big thing. But

1:10:28

it's not that like Ridley

1:10:30

Scott movie thing when he's kind of in the

1:10:33

gale of it. This is like an airport. This

1:10:35

is absolutely sort of whopping. And suddenly that's

1:10:37

what makes it even more terrifying. When there's a

1:10:39

moment like, I have to be the person speaking

1:10:41

now in the

1:10:43

midst of all of this. So you're getting

1:10:46

a lot of, you're getting some nice acting

1:10:48

work. Yeah. And

1:10:50

also going on the tour.

1:10:52

Yeah. So post seizure,

1:10:55

things rather nice, aren't they? Rather

1:10:59

nice place. Yeah. I

1:11:01

can't, I really can't pretend otherwise. I think when we spoke before

1:11:03

last time, I said, I'd like to do, you said, or what

1:11:05

do you want to do more of the same? And I said,

1:11:07

I don't think I said it in that aggressive way. No,

1:11:10

no, you've got a very, very sort

1:11:12

of gentle, mellifluous sort of

1:11:15

tone, haven't you? Yeah, you'll have probably said, you probably

1:11:17

said it in a very encouraging way. Do you want

1:11:19

to do more of the same, I suppose? That's right.

1:11:22

Yes. Just sort of lulling me off. I sort

1:11:24

of advert voice. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you can always

1:11:26

do more of the same. So you have to stand up,

1:11:29

doing more of the same, just

1:11:31

the way you like it. More of the same.

1:11:34

You know, with standup, you're kind of like this, this

1:11:37

is sort of style you have, and a thing that you do, and the people

1:11:39

that come to see you, coming that's what

1:11:41

they want. So I did at one point, think

1:11:43

of, I may do a standup show, it's

1:11:46

just called, the sort of thing you'd expect. Or

1:11:50

more of the same is a very funny title. I think

1:11:52

that's a great title. A lovely title. And you would just

1:11:54

sort of get irritated about that, you

1:11:56

know, that point where pastry becomes slightly

1:11:58

too flaky or whatever. might be, you

1:12:00

know, just real mumbly wittering

1:12:03

on. That's the kind of

1:12:05

stuff that will be in the show called the sort of thing

1:12:07

you'd expect, in which I get

1:12:09

sort of frustrated about people who double park outside Smith and

1:12:11

just pop a hazel and so on and think it's acceptable

1:12:13

or whatever. That's the sort of thing

1:12:15

you'd expect, that would be the content. Whereas the

1:12:17

thing about, you know, having

1:12:19

a seizure and then brain surgery is

1:12:22

possibly not the sort of thing you'd

1:12:24

expect. And nevertheless, it's called on I

1:12:26

bang. It's called on I bang. It's

1:12:28

Friday afternoon. This interview is coming to

1:12:30

its natural conclusion. It's

1:12:33

been very enjoyable. We've gone all over the place. There's

1:12:35

been a nice bit of back and forth sort of,

1:12:37

I hate the word banter, but there's been some lovely

1:12:39

back and forth. I don't like it at all. It

1:12:42

debases what we do, our

1:12:44

craft. Thank

1:12:46

you for coming in. I'm so pleased that

1:12:48

you, that your health thing turned out to

1:12:50

be great. It's wonderful. Well, thank you.

1:12:52

Because you're a force for good. Very

1:12:56

nice to say. I hope so. Which is not to say you can't

1:12:58

give a stinker of a performance. But

1:13:02

generally speaking, I think Miles

1:13:04

Jupp is a force for good. If

1:13:08

you've enjoyed listening, remember

1:13:10

you can see highlights

1:13:12

over on the Rob Brydon YouTube

1:13:15

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1:13:43

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1:13:45

cast on YouTube.