0:00

Prime members, yes you. You

0:02

can listen to Brydon and

0:04

Early and ad free on

0:06

Amazon Music. Download the app

0:08

today. Hello,

0:11

I'm getting over a cold. Hence

0:14

my rather low, you might say,

0:17

organized voice. Welcome

0:19

to another episode of Brydon and

0:21

another compilation of some of the

0:23

best bits from the last series.

0:26

In this episode, we'll be revisiting

0:28

Julia Davis and hearing about our

0:30

early days together in improv and

0:33

writing human remains. Sir

0:35

Michael Palin on how Monty Python

0:37

broke America and their last

0:39

huge shows at the O2. And

0:42

also Dara O'Brien talks about awkward

0:44

moments he's had on the talk

0:47

show so firm. So sit back,

0:49

relax and enjoy the best of

0:51

Brighton land. My

1:02

first memory of you is being on

1:05

an outdoor stage at

1:07

a festival in Bristol. Yes,

1:11

and the two of us and I'm looking

1:13

at you like this, we're quite close and

1:15

I'm going, oh, there's a thing here. There's

1:17

a there's a chemistry that there's an energy.

1:19

You don't remember that. No, not

1:24

nothing. Not an inkling. As you said, the stage

1:26

thing, I did have a small flash of it, but

1:28

you weren't on the. You

1:31

remembered the stage, but not me.

1:35

I just don't remember what this thing was. I

1:37

mean, I do some sort of

1:39

festival outdoors in Bristol, but

1:42

only us two on stage. Well, I'm

1:44

paying you this great compliment. I think you're the

1:46

only one I remember there must have been other

1:48

people. Toby Longworth would have been there. Yeah. Chris

1:50

Grimes, I don't know if I don't think Ruth

1:53

had joined us by that point. Tell people about

1:55

this improv group. Well, no.

1:59

Well, it was. was, I don't know

2:01

how many was in the overall troop. How many were?

2:03

But let's say 12, probably not

2:09

more. Eight I would say. No,

2:11

but it would change each week. You'd have

2:13

four people per show. So you sort of

2:15

had a squad, didn't you? And then whoever

2:17

was available or whoever was, yeah. And you'd

2:19

get one person who'd each week it would

2:21

change. You'd have to present the show, which

2:23

you loved doing. Right. I don't remember. As

2:25

did Toby, etc. Me and Jane

2:29

used to absolutely hate doing that. We only liked doing

2:31

the improvise, you know, and

2:33

you'd start the show with, this is

2:36

a fully improvised show. Would anyone like to see me

2:38

in, what position would

2:40

you like to see me in? There was something like that,

2:42

wasn't it? It was the opening gambit. And

2:45

it was usually some man chatting out with your

2:47

legs open or something. And then you'd get on

2:49

the floor and do that. Say

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rocketmoney.com/Wondery. rocketmoney.com/Wondery. Were

4:51

you part of it from the very beginning?

4:54

Because it began almost with the course of

4:56

learning improv with this guy, Paul

4:58

Z. Jackson. And we learned things

5:01

that I still remember to this day. I still

5:03

use, I'm sure. I still do, in a way.

5:06

In dealing with the audience, he had a

5:09

big thing about, if you ask the audience

5:11

for a suggestion, you always

5:13

thank them after they get... Do you

5:15

remember that? No. Isn't it

5:17

fascinating, this memory thing? We're

5:19

both thinking of exactly the same period,

5:22

and the things that stand out. I

5:24

always remember... I remember his face very well. You're

5:27

very good with faces, aren't you? Eh? Yeah,

5:31

go on. Yeah. There

5:33

are women like Julia all over Great Britain.

5:35

For just 10 pounds a month, Julia and

5:38

women just like her can be helped to

5:40

remember. Saying

5:42

people's names, repeating the

5:45

suggestion because of knowing that most

5:47

of the audience probably haven't heard it. That's

5:49

such a just a solid thing.

5:52

So we started off doing that. And

5:55

tell me about... You mentioned Jane.

5:57

Which Jane is this? Jane Stannis.

6:00

Yes, was Sherman. Yeah. Yeah.

6:03

And you've done lots with her. And you had a double act.

6:05

Yeah, we were in a double act called Sisters of Percy.

6:07

And so I think, yeah, that we joined

6:09

it after it had

6:11

begun, because I remember people like Babs were in

6:13

it and Stephanie, do you remember that? Stephanie

6:15

always improvised about football. I

6:18

remember that. So

6:20

I think I was in it from the very

6:22

beginning. I think I was there when

6:24

he was given these lessons.

6:27

And then it built up into

6:29

performance. Yeah. And the

6:31

zenith of which was coming to London

6:33

and playing in Islington at that famous

6:36

pub theatre. And do you know why

6:38

we were playing? I do. We were

6:40

hoping that we were going to get asked to go on

6:42

Whose Line Is It Anyway. And I think

6:44

it was Dan Patterson, the producer,

6:46

came to our show and left

6:48

within minutes. No, not within the

6:50

interval. I come not within. There's

6:52

no way he sat there. The

6:54

show started and within 10 minutes

6:56

he got up and left. I

6:58

thought it was very quick though.

7:01

But not within minutes. That would

7:03

be an apocalypse. I remember being

7:05

very upset. Yeah. But also

7:07

that Jane and I had been smoking something

7:09

in the car, but just, which I would

7:11

never have known. Well, that's probably why

7:13

he wasn't impressed because you lost your

7:15

edge. So that was your fault.

7:18

Yeah. I brought the whole thing down. I had no

7:20

idea you did that. Just before.

7:22

Yeah. So you're about to do a

7:24

thing where you need to be sharp. You

7:26

need to be really on it. I

7:30

mean, it wasn't much, but it was just really

7:34

not something I would normally do, I have to say. Well,

7:38

this is a whole reappraisal of, so

7:41

I was that close to being asked to be on Whose Line Is It

7:44

Anyway. Whose Line Is It

7:46

Anyway. We really wanted it, didn't we? We

7:48

really wanted it. And that was at a

7:50

time when it was

7:52

so exciting that he was coming. This

7:54

was our big thing. Didn't

7:58

happen. What

8:00

happened next? When was that

8:02

in our whole story? Like

8:04

about nine T. With that

8:07

have been about ninety Five

8:09

Ninety Six. See

8:11

you would still be doing on Tv

8:13

knee radio voice is lot though that

8:15

was part was the that was about

8:18

eighty nine or ninety those early. Have

8:20

to miss that I miss. I used

8:22

to be a presenter on on a

8:24

shopping channel Julia Elevate sit by calling

8:26

it to be see what is it

8:29

Notes know it was called the Home

8:31

Shopping Television network their Eclipse of Me

8:33

on it available on you tube Much

8:35

to my annoyance I wanna know who

8:37

it is who has these clips in

8:39

the first place. And thinks I

8:42

know what I'll do. I'll put them

8:44

on. Used to Rob will really appreciate

8:46

that and I wanna see that. Terrible

8:49

passed by into our utilities and

8:51

know you lose. You do learn

8:53

though. I was talking to someone

8:55

about this other day about doing

8:57

what you might call crappy jobs,

9:00

but you actually learn. Quite.

9:02

A bit from them to have an

9:04

equivalent. Of something I've

9:06

learnt from something it no I don't know

9:08

something like that. The as use as you

9:10

started out which was in what you want

9:12

to do I'm not sure that you do

9:14

have that. I. Did laser jobs

9:17

I didn't wanna do you. Know know those

9:19

normal, just bloody and within the

9:21

broad auspices of television. No No.

9:25

Building I didn't know about your i'd

9:27

forgotten about you into until I read

9:29

this because I think if he was

9:31

boss west country through and through. But

9:33

grew. Up for quite awhile in

9:35

the Lesage, Columbus and Guilford for

9:38

the born in London yes sentences.

9:41

Then lived in Hampton Court they say. Where.

9:45

The how the title that and the

9:47

policy of yeah i'm what would you

9:49

do when people came on the tools

9:51

and everything will. I was only a

9:53

say they yell or toddler that I

9:55

would. Take them around here. And

9:58

just it makes. pounds and point

10:01

and you have a direct lineage to

10:03

Henry VIII. Yeah. Wow. God

10:06

alight. And then after that,

10:08

we moved to Bath,

10:11

close six. Then we went to Guildford till I was

10:14

13. Then

10:16

back to Bath. Yeah. Yeah.

10:18

And you lived in Bath when I met you.

10:21

Yes. And we did this

10:23

improv for about two years. Yeah.

10:26

So much longer, but yeah. Yeah. And

10:28

we're doing these shows and then

10:31

you vanished. Didn't

10:33

see you for quite a while.

10:35

This was before emails. Yeah. So

10:38

the odd letter, I have a feeling there was

10:40

the odd letter. So this

10:42

one I'd moved to London or? No,

10:45

then you landed in London and sometimes

10:47

if you come up in interviews, I

10:50

will say, then she was

10:52

in London and suddenly she was working

10:54

with just the best people.

10:58

It was back to this home shopping thing. There

11:00

was no home shopping network for you. No,

11:02

but there was lots of working in

11:04

offices and boring. Yeah, but within

11:06

your shows and thing though. Selling gigantic mobile phones.

11:09

Well, you're selling mobile phones. Yeah. Where

11:11

was that? Massive ones. With a very dodgy guy

11:13

I met in a pub who said I've

11:15

got, I've set up a company and then they

11:18

were just so bad. And he, I remember

11:20

I had a very, very bad cold when I

11:22

joined working with him and

11:24

I was facing a desk one way. He was the other. And

11:26

I was like, I was obviously really annoying

11:28

him and sort of going, and I was too honest on

11:33

the phone with selling. You'd have been good at it. But

11:36

you know, whether people would phone and go, it's not working.

11:38

And I'd go, Oh no, that's awful. Um,

11:40

we'll try and replace it. And he got

11:42

really annoyed with me. And

11:44

I think possibly fired me from that. I

11:47

was got fired from a cleaning job. Where

11:50

were you cleaning? I was cleaning in

11:52

Bath, a very sort of, it was

11:54

a, an estate agency in a very tall

11:56

building with lots of floors. And I. I

12:00

basically just wasn't doing it properly. I

12:02

was sort of spraying

12:04

stuff around. I can't imagine you being a

12:07

good, a good cleaner. I don't

12:09

think you'd be very thorough. Doesn't mean I'm not clean,

12:11

you know, as a person. I

12:13

think you're relatively un-clean. You're messy.

12:15

I'm very messy. You are messy, aren't

12:17

you? And you've always enjoyed my eating.

12:20

You know how you've always found my

12:22

eating habits weird? And now my boys

12:24

continually say, why do you have

12:26

to eat in such a way? Julia eats like

12:29

a sort of Neanderthal who

12:32

hasn't encountered cutlery. So

12:34

I have very strong memories of you eating a

12:37

banana. You would split

12:39

open, am I right? It

12:41

still holds today. The peel of

12:44

a banana. And reach in and

12:46

scoop out a banana.

12:48

Who does that? Nobody. You

12:51

peel it. No, nobody. I also have to leave something

12:53

at the end of every meal, not for any reason

12:55

other than I, I feel there's something wrong

12:57

with part of it. It's like

12:59

a really weird thing I do. And

13:01

I still eat more with my hands. Yeah,

13:04

yeah, with your hands. And you

13:06

would pull bits off food.

13:08

And I sometimes see my boys do that with

13:10

bread. And I go, oh, Julia. And

13:13

I don't want them to end up like

13:15

you. And I go, no, stop it. But

13:18

also just to turn it around on you, Stani,

13:21

you were the person who had never

13:23

had salad dressing when I met

13:25

you. Is that right? You've never drunk

13:28

alcohol. That's right. I think those are

13:30

the two main things I remember. You

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15:32

said. Done. What's

15:35

the story about how we started Human Remains? I

15:37

don't know. No, what was it?

15:39

We went to blacks in town and

15:42

we tried to write. Oh yeah, I do

15:44

remember that. Come on, tell the story for

15:46

the nice people. We

15:50

tried to write. I see this clear

15:52

as day. But it's really

15:54

nice in there, isn't it? Was it still there?

15:56

I don't know. I think it's still there. tried

16:00

to write like normal writers, didn't we? I

16:02

don't know what we would... Well, it's because

16:04

we felt we had this chemistry when we'd

16:06

done the improv. You jump in now and

16:08

contradict me if this is my memory of

16:10

it, but in the improv we'd found it's

16:12

so easy to create stuff together, right? Felt

16:15

there's a chemistry here, there's definitely a thing

16:17

here, so right, what

16:20

are we going to do? So we meet

16:22

up in town and we had a pad,

16:24

I think, and just nothing came. Now

16:27

my memory of it is that

16:29

it was me, and correct me, who

16:32

said, well let's just talk, I'll

16:35

bring my video camera, and

16:37

that's what we did. We went either

16:39

to your place or to mine, set

16:41

the camera up and started

16:44

talking as the characters that would become human

16:46

remains. I think that's right, and I do

16:48

because we've got footage of it. I remember some

16:50

was at my flat there, and some

16:52

was... There was some at the

16:54

top of my house, and what was my

16:56

office? Oh yeah, and some were... I feel

16:58

like there's some when I'd moved to Queen's

17:00

Park. Yes, there was some... No, sorry,

17:02

Finsbury Park. We did some there, but

17:05

my memory of that is that it just gushed,

17:08

it just flowed. Now I've always said when

17:10

asked about this that for me it was

17:12

a case of all this all

17:14

this stuff was bottled up, wanting

17:17

a chance to perform, and out

17:19

it came. Was that the

17:21

same for you? Because you were working,

17:23

you were getting to be creative. Yes,

17:25

but I was, but it's different,

17:27

isn't it, when you were other people's stuff than

17:29

what we were doing, which was completely

17:32

almost like being unconscious, and then just sort of...

17:34

Because I did... I don't know, I felt

17:36

like sometimes we'd almost do it with our eyes closed. We didn't, because

17:39

we would interview each other, but it

17:41

just felt like we could say

17:43

absolutely. We'd either interview each other, so as

17:45

a neutral character, or we would just

17:47

be a character. It

17:49

was tremendously exciting,

17:52

because I at that point was a

17:54

voiceover artist, and for a while that

17:56

sort of sated, just people just going

17:58

to a studio. and say,

18:00

but then I really, oh

18:03

God, I was so wanting to sort of

18:05

prove myself. I was getting older and I

18:07

was thinking, oh, it's not going to happen.

18:09

You know, you were already working with these

18:11

great people. I mean, that in itself

18:13

was an achievement, right? That in

18:16

itself, satisfying. But it was, though, wasn't

18:18

it? Yeah. Yeah. So

18:20

you were getting some sort of... Oh, yeah. God,

18:22

yeah, it was brilliant. That's reminded me of something,

18:24

because I think around the time that we were

18:26

doing Human Remains, I

18:28

got sent a script of something

18:30

called The Office. And

18:34

I think I said to my agent, oh, what is it?

18:37

Just like something? I don't know. No, I

18:39

don't think... It wasn't like I was offered. I'm not

18:41

saying that, but it was, you know, The Office. I

18:46

think I was offered something in The Office. But

18:48

you know when you say I was

18:50

offered, there's always that dreadful fear that either Ricky

18:52

or Stephen will come back and say, oh, no,

18:55

no, we just did an availability. There

18:58

was definitely some interest around

19:01

the time of The Office. But I think

19:03

what I'm saying is, I don't

19:05

know if I was offered anything, I don't know what it was,

19:07

but it was just that idea of just going, oh, yeah, I

19:09

don't know what that is. I can't imagine that sounds quite

19:11

boring. And then, but then going to my

19:13

agent of the time, well,

19:15

I want to do this thing, you know, making our

19:18

own show. Yeah. And of course,

19:20

I suppose people would have thought, well, what's

19:22

that going to be? I mean, it

19:24

was so fun to do. The

19:28

one and only Julia Davis. There

19:30

is nobody else. From

19:34

comedy beginnings to a bonafide

19:36

comedy legend, I loved talking

19:39

to Sir Michael Palin. I'm

19:43

fascinated by Saturday Night Live in

19:46

America. Tell me about your

19:48

involvement with Saturday Night Live,

19:50

because you're... I mean, Python's

19:53

revered everywhere. Would you say

19:55

that in America, that's the peak

19:57

of the kind of reverence for

19:59

Python? Yeah, I think that was

20:01

where the madness was most intense. Because

20:06

we never expected Python to break in America.

20:09

We've been told by various people, this

20:11

kind of human just doesn't travel. But to

20:13

be fair to those people, I

20:15

think I would probably have said the same

20:17

thing. It seemed so… Yeah,

20:20

yeah. It was universal in how

20:22

surreal it was, and yet it was very British.

20:25

Yes, and all the illusions were very

20:27

British. I mean, there were lots

20:29

of things there. I mean,

20:32

nobody would understand unless you'd read sort of

20:34

advanced French. But

20:38

there was a silliness to it, which sort of,

20:40

I think, made it…leavened the whole thing and made

20:42

it acceptable. But they said,

20:44

no, you can't go in America

20:46

because it's all commercials. You just won't make

20:48

it. But that's when

20:51

public broadcasting, PBS in America,

20:54

came in and absolutely saved our bacon. A guy

20:56

in Dallas, Texas was the first person to put

20:58

Monty Python on in America. And

21:01

he bought a few shows from

21:03

New York, a few tapes, and put them

21:05

on one night. And they went very, very well.

21:07

So he rang the BBC and said, you've got

21:09

any more? I've got about five or six. And

21:11

someone went down to the basement. BBC

21:14

New York confirmed 40 other Python

21:16

shows, which he bought for Dallas

21:18

and played them over the weekend,

21:20

one after the other. Because

21:23

that's the way things are done in America.

21:25

You've got something you really like, wow, go

21:27

for it. So from that moment on, within

21:30

a sort of certain circuit,

21:32

a college circuit of

21:35

America, Python really took off. It

21:37

was extraordinarily fast. And how do

21:39

you find out about that? Nowadays,

21:41

you'd know it instantly. But

21:43

this is the 1970s. And

21:46

how does that news filter back to you? Well,

21:50

I mean, it was the 70s. We had pigeons. So

21:54

the pigeon would arrive on the window,

21:57

then? Yeah, and do its business. Okay,

22:00

but I know your point. I

22:02

know what you mean, but we

22:05

had a manager, a very

22:07

good manager, Nancy Lewis, over in America

22:09

who had been for three or four

22:11

years desperately trying to get the Americans

22:14

interested. And we'd gone

22:16

on things like, we'd gone on The Tonight Show in

22:18

1972 because she'd managed to

22:24

sell The Tonight People. So these

22:27

Python guys and Joey Bishop

22:30

was a comedian who was hosting

22:32

the show that night. And

22:34

I mean, we did sell remarkable stuff.

22:37

We did what they call the sort

22:39

of Pepperbots. Oh, hello. You

22:42

did that on The Tonight Show. We did that on The

22:44

Tonight Show. And I've never seen anyone look so utterly baffled.

22:47

Not just baffled, slightly kind of. I

22:50

was slightly unsure

22:52

of himself really. Probably

22:55

frightened, possibly terrified. And we went on

22:57

and did that. So we had attempts to

22:59

get the main one. So you're doing

23:01

that before any of the episodes are actually aired

23:04

over there. We got these guys. They're

23:06

a big thing back in Britain. And

23:09

then you do those. Yeah. Wow.

23:13

And I mean, what do you do for sort of

23:15

three little sketches? But the great thing about, of course,

23:17

three years later when it broke in 1974 was that

23:21

the shows themselves were able to

23:23

go out uncut on PBS. No

23:25

ads. So we didn't, you know,

23:28

the advertising world would have shredded it as they

23:30

did later in 1976

23:33

when ABC bought the shows. But

23:36

there we were. We suddenly had this surge

23:39

reported to us by our manager straight away.

23:41

You know, I mean, overnight figures and all

23:43

that. You'd have to wait 24 hours

23:45

before you got the figures. And

23:48

it kept ear bursting like

23:50

sort of flowers blossoming everywhere.

23:52

Suddenly from Dallas, here's the next space

23:54

is Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge. You're doing,

23:57

you know, there's a technician in Baton

23:59

Rouge. They've taken it in Richmond,

24:01

Virginia. And then and only then did

24:03

you get the big places like Boston

24:05

and New York

24:07

and Chicago coming in. So it's

24:10

kind of, it sort of broke

24:12

around the state. How

24:15

exciting. It was very, very exciting. Yeah.

24:18

I mean, we didn't know at the time,

24:20

PBS didn't pay much money. So it

24:22

wasn't sort of instant riches, but it was

24:24

just terrific to feel that

24:27

response of something we were told

24:29

would never work in America, despite

24:32

all the Englishness and all that sort of

24:34

stuff. It did work. And I think it

24:36

was because of the Englishness, because people are

24:39

doing very strange, very silly things, and being

24:41

sort of moderately rude in a way that

24:43

just would not be permitted on American television.

24:46

So the sort of slightly lefty, you

24:49

know, sort of turn to thinkers in

24:51

the audience loved the show. Well,

24:54

he wasn't he wasn't a lefty,

24:56

nor was he an alternative thinker.

24:58

But wasn't Elvis a huge Python

25:00

fan? Yeah,

25:03

this is this is not good together today.

25:06

This is one of those things that I

25:08

mean, it's one of the proudest things of my

25:10

life when I heard that Elvis loved

25:14

Python, and particularly the Holy Grail. I think,

25:16

yeah, like the night you say, nie, and

25:19

it's just a thought of Elvis, Elvis, he

25:21

would have sat there, he would have talked

25:23

to his buddies and

25:25

gone, man, those nights would say nie.

25:27

I mean, it just doesn't feel right.

25:31

I wish I could be one of those nights. They're

25:34

great. They say nie, you know,

25:36

that that's so Elvis. Yeah, they

25:38

say nie.

25:41

What else do they say? Oh, come on,

25:43

guys. So I don't know how

25:45

I went with them. But it is lovely to think that this

25:48

this hero of my lifetime really changed

25:51

my whole attitude. Yes, music and entertainment

25:53

should have been a Python. That's one

25:55

of the great things that was neat

25:57

about about the world of entertainment. into

26:00

the world of show business is that

26:02

if you do something, you

26:05

said about Python spreading around America.

26:08

And you just never know. And

26:10

it's always amazing when someone that

26:12

you love and they

26:14

don't get bigger than Elvis, turns out they like

26:17

your thing. I've told you before that many years

26:19

ago I was at an awards do and looking

26:21

for my, I found my table, I sat

26:23

down and you were coming in and you were

26:25

looking for your table to sit down and you

26:28

said one of the nicest things. I'm slightly blowing

26:30

my trumpet here, forgive me. But you

26:32

looked and you said, oh, if you're

26:34

here, it'll be good. How's that meant?

26:36

That meant you were my

26:39

Elvis and that was you

26:41

to me saying, well, nice to

26:43

see me. That's pretty

26:45

nice. I mean, I didn't

26:47

see myself as being quite the Elvis role. Another

26:49

of course, the great moment was Johnny Cash. And

26:52

Johnny Cash, another absolute hero who

26:55

I was on a TV show

26:57

and he comes into the green room and

26:59

something ignores everybody comes straight across me and

27:01

says, John Cash,

27:04

big fan. No, John Cash, big

27:06

fan, four words that

27:08

have resounded through my life. So

27:11

however miserable I feel, however

27:13

low, however bad things are happening to

27:15

me, I remember John Cash,

27:17

big fan. Oh, that's glorious.

27:19

That's glorious. I don't like

27:22

your stuff, John. Boy,

27:28

of course, Sue, come on, you do better than that.

27:32

I started this bit off by

27:34

talking about SNL. So Saturday Night

27:37

Live. So you

27:39

hosted that once, twice?

27:43

Four times. Four times, a lady.

27:45

That's very good, isn't it? Wow.

27:47

Well, Eric was very much in

27:50

touch with Lord Michaels, who

27:52

was the producer, the legend producer, the incredible

27:55

producer, the Googling, if you don't know him,

27:57

he's still in charge of it now. Yeah.

28:00

Amazing and it was great work with him. He

28:03

kept a kind of nice, he

28:05

sort of kept the standard up, but it's

28:09

a hard thing to do. The whole show was written

28:11

in a week and usually written in the last 24

28:14

hours or 12 hours. He

28:16

kept a kind of calm. Lorne was always really

28:18

calm there. We'll do this, we'll do that. So

28:21

it's quite exciting to do. But I mean, I

28:24

did the first one I did was doing

28:26

sketches with John Belushi and

28:28

Dan Aykroyd. So

28:31

it was wonderful, but it

28:33

was never really, I thought

28:36

the problem with it was that it

28:38

had a certain sort of format and

28:43

it sold itself on its spontaneity that it

28:46

happened on that Saturday and

28:48

it was live. Yeah. Which didn't

28:50

give you much time, like with Python at least

28:52

you had time to record, you had time to

28:54

sort of get the show exactly

28:56

right before we did it. On Saturday

28:58

Night Live some sketches worked

29:00

fantastically, some sort of died to

29:03

death. There wasn't enough writing time.

29:06

But my most favorite memory was, if

29:08

you indulge me on this, the last time I

29:10

did it, I was in New

29:13

York with my mother and it was her 80th birthday

29:15

trip and I'd given her a trip to New York

29:18

with my sister. We got on Concord,

29:20

we got to New York because I was

29:23

hosting Saturday Night Live that week. So anyway,

29:25

we had the writers meeting the first

29:28

day up in 30 Rock. It

29:31

was just Rockefeller Center. Again, you felt

29:33

you were walking on sort of the

29:36

air. It was just incredible going in there.

29:38

Anyway, the first thing I say,

29:40

what brought you to New York? No, you're

29:42

from New York. And here you brought your

29:44

mother and I said, well, yeah, because she's

29:47

80 and she's never traveled

29:49

really apart from one plane trip to Paris.

29:51

She's never been by plane. And

29:54

so they talked about it. And Lorne said, you know,

29:56

in the

29:58

opening monologue, you know, we're... Do you have

30:00

a monologue? Would your mother be

30:02

prepared to come along and be part of it?

30:05

And I said, gosh, she's 80. I mean,

30:08

it's not going to be on, you know, American

30:10

National Fair, 45 million people, I think. So

30:12

I said, well, nice, nice

30:14

try. And I went

30:16

back to the room and I told my mother this, and

30:18

she said, yes, yes, yes, that would

30:21

be very nice. I mean, she thought it was

30:23

just like walking down Fifth Avenue or something, going

30:25

to a bookshop. Oh, yes, yeah, I'll do that.

30:27

And she came along. And in the

30:29

opening monologue, I was doing my piece and she was

30:32

on a chair, sitting on the

30:34

set. And then I came on,

30:36

did my piece. And occasionally, she would just

30:38

tug my coat and say, straighten my clothing

30:40

out and say, you know, you're transitive. Why

30:42

do you wear that pair? And

30:44

so that's how we did the opening monologue.

30:46

And she was so successful, but I gave

30:48

her three or four more intros to do

30:50

for some of the rock and

30:52

roll bands. This little 80-year-old lady down at the

30:54

basement, you know, this

30:56

thing. So that

30:59

was a great moment. Yeah.

31:02

And that shows Lorne Michaels, you

31:04

know, making quite risky decisions. Yeah. And

31:07

it paid off. He's

31:11

a remarkable, remarkable man, a

31:13

fascinating man. There's a great podcast that

31:15

David Spade and Dana Carvey do, and

31:17

it's all based around Saturday Night Live.

31:19

You might enjoy it. And

31:22

they consider doing impressions of Lorne Michaels

31:24

and he's a very singular character, isn't

31:26

he? Very singular. Yeah. Kind of a

31:28

Canadian guy. A lot of Canadians

31:30

on the show, of course, with Bill Murray, became

31:33

quite good friends with Bill. Did you? Because he was

31:35

one of the first, it was

31:37

one of his first appearances on one of the

31:39

shows I did. It was a new Bill Murray

31:41

thing. And so,

31:44

you know, you had the Belushes was

31:46

kind of right, kind of quite starry.

31:49

And they would go off in a limousine

31:51

somewhere and smash a place

31:53

up or whatever. But Bill, Bill being

31:55

more junior in the cast at that

31:57

time, he saw, we were all very close. that

32:00

we got together and went and had sort of meals

32:02

and drinks and all that. And him

32:04

and his brother, we got very

32:07

friendly and we go out

32:09

and Lauren would organize evenings, you

32:11

know, come out, well, just have dinner. We're going to

32:13

have a little dinner. Like Michael,

32:15

will you come along? Paul

32:18

will be there and Martha

32:21

and the Vandelos and Diana

32:23

may drop in. So there we are

32:25

having a meal with Diana Ross sitting

32:27

next to you and all that. Who?

32:29

Yes, I'm from Sheffield. But

32:33

well, you're from Sheffield, but you're from Monty

32:35

Python as well. You know, but she was

32:37

only interested in Sheffield. Was she? Yeah. Yeah.

32:40

Great city. Great city. She said a love

32:42

of your museums. It's

32:45

funny you say that that Lord Michaels would say

32:47

Paul will be there because that's the thing on

32:49

this on this this podcast, The Fly and the

32:52

Wall. They all they joke about him saying, I've

32:54

invited the Pauls. And you don't know if he's

32:56

going to be Paul Simon or Paul McCartney because

32:58

he's friendly with both of them. Yeah. Well, I

33:01

remember once my wife made terrible gaff,

33:03

but it wasn't a gaff, but just saved time.

33:07

We were there in the restaurant and Paul Simon wasn't

33:09

at our table, but he was at another table

33:12

and he comes across and he's little figures there.

33:14

And we're all just about deciding

33:16

what to eat. And Helen

33:19

sort of turns around and says, I won't

33:21

have the ship. Oh, God, I should

33:23

talk to Paul Simon. Living

33:26

lesson. Here's Paul Simon calling now.

33:28

Paul. I think I heard myself

33:31

being discussed. I'll

33:33

turn that off. Which was him, too.

33:36

Oh, my God. I want to turn him off now.

33:39

There's chances. You should have taken it. Well,

33:42

he would probably ring tonight. You know what he's having to listen

33:44

to in the evening. You know what he's having to listen to

33:46

now, don't you? What? The sound

33:48

of silence. Oh, yes. And

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$30 off your order of $100 or more. What

34:49

age are you now? I'm 80 now.

34:51

80 years old. Yes. Okay.

34:54

Two years older than Rod Stewart. Really? Yeah,

34:57

I think you should know that. I

34:59

think just for calibration purposes, it's always good

35:01

to know where you are in relation to

35:03

Rod Stewart. It is. Yeah,

35:05

well, it's always actually a joke, but it

35:07

is. Well, you always calibrate somebody. Yeah, it's

35:10

true. Absolutely. It's true. Yeah,

35:12

and if I found someone that was

35:15

looking pretty rough and

35:17

you find they're 73 and they're moaning

35:19

about it, I said, give a life. Do

35:22

you feel older than Rod Stewart or do

35:24

you feel younger than Rod Stewart or do

35:26

you feel on a par with Rod Stewart?

35:29

I don't feel on a par with Rod

35:32

Stewart. I would never dream. It would be

35:34

presumptuous. A little immortal. It would be dining

35:36

with the gods. But

35:41

I think Rod Stewart has an image which

35:43

is Rod Stewart, which is Rod doing his

35:46

wonderful songs. You know, it sounds for

35:48

the last 30 years that his

35:50

voice was in the last stages

35:52

of decay. That's his brilliant

35:54

thing. And he's still doing it. In a lovely

35:56

way. In a lovely way. In a lovely way.

35:58

In a lovely way. way that we should

36:01

yeah. Oh yes I'm not. No, Rod,

36:03

no, Rod's a lovely man. Yeah,

36:05

yeah. Rod Stewart,

36:07

big fan. I

36:11

think that the thing about Rod

36:14

Stewart, I feel certain people have

36:16

to project youthfulness. Yeah, yeah.

36:18

You know, he's there as a great

36:21

singer but he's still, you know, the earliest

36:23

songs Maggie May and all that sort

36:25

of thing is still that, you know,

36:27

that sort of character in there.

36:29

But I think he's one of

36:31

those people though, him and Jagger

36:34

and Ronnie Wood, I think they

36:36

are essentially teenagers at heart. I

36:38

think that they've kept a certain

36:40

quality as they've got

36:42

older and I don't know what it is, maybe

36:44

it's an energy or it's something but they are

36:46

in a way that you wouldn't say that about

36:49

Alan Bennett. He's

36:51

just the first one that comes to mind. You

36:53

wouldn't say that he, throughout his career experience, all

36:55

that kind of youth or it's not that but I

36:57

think Rod and a lot of those rock

37:00

people have. So two years old. Yeah,

37:02

I mean I think that's what

37:04

they do. Yeah. To be a rock and roll

37:06

and get up on the stage that often. Yeah.

37:09

Whether it's not the Osborne or whoever, you know,

37:11

how on earth they keep on doing that and

37:13

I think you've got to have a certain, it

37:15

is your life, really. Yeah. Isn't

37:18

it? Yeah. I can't imagine

37:20

that, no, actually they become painters don't

37:22

they? Ronnie Wood did a bit of painting.

37:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is a bit of that.

37:26

Yeah. Yeah. But essentially you

37:28

are in this, you're trapped

37:31

in this wonderful world of being able

37:33

to sort of entertain enormous numbers of

37:35

people with terrific energy and

37:37

great music and people just say wow. But the

37:39

energy is an interesting thing, isn't it? Because you

37:41

don't know when you're a kid watching these people

37:43

or a young man watching these people, energy

37:46

isn't questioned. And then as you get

37:48

older and energy becomes more prized and

37:50

you look at someone like Bruce or

37:53

Rod and you just go, my

37:55

lord, where are they? We went to

37:57

see Bruce in Barcelona and he was.

38:00

I mean the energy was

38:02

incredible. But then you can see on

38:04

YouTube the next day the fans are outside the hotel

38:06

filming him coming out of the hotel and there's

38:09

not as much energy then. You've

38:11

really saved it for the

38:13

performance. Well you must know

38:15

how adrenaline works and you can

38:17

have the most off day and

38:19

you can feel

38:22

really below par and you get some bad news about a

38:24

friend or something like that. You've got to go on for

38:26

two hours in front of an audience. They've all bought their

38:28

tickets. They're waiting for you. And you do it. I

38:31

mean you do it. I do it. But

38:33

that can be a help actually because it's

38:35

a sanctuary isn't it? Once

38:37

you get out there you go I

38:39

can legitimately now not think about my

38:42

worries and my concerns. It's rather lovely

38:44

actually. Yeah that's right. There's no time

38:46

for that. And you're amongst people who

38:49

love you really. They come along and they don't buy

38:51

tickets because they're not quite sure whether they're any good

38:53

or not. They buy tickets because they think you're great.

38:55

And to be with a thousand people, well in your

38:57

case four or five thousand. Four

39:00

or five hundred I thought you were going to say.

39:02

You know that's quite a good feeling. Four

39:05

or five dozen. Talking

39:07

about huge crowds. It's the quality not the quantity.

39:09

That's good I keep that final tap isn't it.

39:12

Their appeal has become a lot more select. Talking

39:16

about huge crowds. The last

39:18

time I saw you on stage was on

39:20

the last night of those

39:22

incredible Monty Python shows at

39:24

the O2. These

39:28

were the reunion Python shows

39:30

after many years of

39:32

not being together put on at the

39:34

O2. And it

39:37

was the most remarkable thing

39:39

I described it rather cleverly

39:41

I thought as a secular

39:43

church discuss. Oh

39:45

well what can be said after that. Well you

39:47

could say yes or you could say what rubbish.

39:50

But that's not discussion. I agree with you. All

39:52

right not discuss. That is a

39:54

very good description. It was like a

39:56

sort of religious. Mania

39:58

there. of moment you stepped

40:01

on stage, you realized that, you

40:04

know, whether you remember your words

40:06

or not didn't matter, whether your trousers fell

40:08

off, it didn't matter. It's

40:10

just you were there and anything you

40:12

did would just be, would

40:14

be met with enormous sort of... The

40:17

happiness in the room. Hands raised and all

40:19

that. The happiness in the room was incredible.

40:22

And I think that was the odd thing

40:24

because we've never known that before. We've

40:26

done the Python stage show. We did one in

40:29

Coventry in 1972. I think it was the first

40:31

one. And the first two rows were all people

40:33

with gummies that they had not his actors on.

40:35

So there was something slightly sort

40:37

of religious about

40:39

it even at that time. But 15,000 as

40:43

there were each night at the O2. It

40:46

was just, it was just a

40:48

odd because really you just had to

40:50

be there and you had to get on stage and

40:52

you just start the sketch

40:55

and they'd be with you. I

40:57

think there were some nights when sketches went better

41:00

and went worse. But there was

41:02

always that fantastic feeling of 15,000 people

41:05

all of Python all together. So

41:07

it's about an audience loving

41:09

itself really and loving being

41:11

there. Yes, there was an element of that. Looking

41:14

at others and the way people were dressed

41:16

and people come over from Norway dressed as

41:18

carrots and all that sort of stuff. There's

41:21

also an element of the audience watching it

41:23

and kind of celebrating their past, celebrating the

41:25

fact that they're still there now. You know,

41:27

we are still alive, still here, people

41:29

that are part of my life. How emotional was

41:31

it for you? Say you stood on the stage

41:33

and you're doing with John Cleese, you're doing the

41:35

Dead Parrot sketch. When

41:38

you're doing that, is it emotional? Do you

41:40

look at John Cleese and you go, my God,

41:42

you've been a big part of my life. We've

41:44

known each other. I mean, I'm sure you've had

41:46

your ups and downs and differences, but you're looking

41:48

at somebody who's played a significant role in your

41:51

life. Was it emotional or was

41:53

it not? I mean, I don't

41:55

mean to be bringing it all down to level.

41:57

We're just trying not to crack up because. You

42:00

know, we've done that so often and we

42:02

know the lines, you know, in

42:04

those rest, investing, I wake him up then, you

42:06

know, you just know those lines. And to know

42:08

that we were with 15,000 people

42:11

watching this, and that's not the way it

42:13

should be played. This

42:15

is not a sketch for 15,000 people, because for, you know,

42:17

about 100 people in a room or on television. And

42:22

yet it is, though. And yet it

42:24

is, because the way it was received.

42:26

So am I being a bit Welsh

42:28

and a bit emotional in saying to

42:30

you, did you feel emotional? And you did

42:33

not really, we just kind of remember the words. I

42:35

know, I'm being very English, I just remember the words.

42:37

Of course, it's a bit emotional, but because when

42:40

we laughed, when we were

42:42

doing Dead Parrot, you know, in

42:44

front, 02, and there

42:46

were moments when we just couldn't stop

42:48

laughing, was just because we were enjoying

42:50

a friendship, we enjoyed our

42:53

ability to play this particular

42:55

sketch. Yeah. And for it

42:57

still to be massively approved,

43:00

and knowing that if we just said an

43:02

odd line, or ad libbed, or something like

43:04

that, that would go into the mix as

43:06

well. I mean, very little

43:08

of what we did on the 02 was as

43:10

good as we'd probably done it before. Right. A

43:12

sketch is not that, because it's sort of, it's

43:16

swollen in a sort of setup like that.

43:20

But there were certain things that

43:22

did work okay. That was very

43:24

indulgent. What happened at one point

43:26

is I think it's very---------------- False

43:29

Shovel abstract of the material

43:52

of it's swollen in a sort

43:54

of set up like that. But

43:57

there were certain things that. that

44:00

did work okay. That was

44:02

very indulgent that the dead

44:05

parrot, there were times when, I just

44:07

remember there was all the

44:09

furniture on stage was

44:12

on wheels. And so we're doing that

44:17

and John would be doing one of his, excuse

44:21

me, he'd lean on the

44:24

little trolley and the guys would move about

44:26

three feet. So there was a lot of that

44:28

moving the counter and that cracked me up because

44:31

I do laugh very easily on stage. And

44:34

John can make me laugh more than anybody

44:36

else. So just something about a

44:38

moment of timing and he'll look. And

44:41

then a long relationship will make me

44:43

fall about because it's been generally on

44:46

stage, a very good relationship. It's been

44:48

about humor, been about comedy. Why shouldn't

44:50

we laugh at our own stuff? Our

44:55

final guest on this episode

44:57

takes us from monkey python

45:00

to the hilarious Dara O'Brien.

45:05

When you go on a talk show, if you were

45:07

going to go on Graham, well, they

45:09

do a lot of research on that because they

45:11

like to know the stories so that they lean

45:13

to try and they do it very well actually.

45:15

I always think that's one of the great strengths

45:17

of that show is the way that the different

45:19

guests stories, one will have a story about a

45:21

fork and you've got a story about a spoon,

45:23

haven't you? Do you know what I mean? And

45:25

before you know, it's a cutlery theme. Yes. Yeah.

45:27

Now the only thing I did, I did once

45:29

do Graham Norton and the guest list was myself,

45:32

Lewis Hamilton. Oh my

45:34

God, singer with Yazoo. Lewis

45:38

Hamilton, and Pedro

45:40

Elmodovar. And

45:43

I would have been hard pressed to find

45:45

any team that ran to those four guests.

45:47

I mean, I remember posting a picture of

45:49

him going, great to get the old gang

45:51

back together. It was like there was nothing.

45:53

And we were posting to one of my

45:55

sciencey shows and we showed a puzzle that

45:57

we'd done on the show and the video.

46:00

And I lined them all up to do this

46:02

puzzle and Lewis Hamilton got

46:04

the correct answer. We're going, oh, well, how did you

46:06

know that? I said, well, I saw it in the

46:08

video. I said, just repeat what I saw in the

46:11

video. Have you ever been on that? You must have

46:13

done Graham several times. I've done it about three times.

46:15

Yeah, three times. Have you ever been on with anybody

46:17

huge about whom you were excited? Yeah,

46:21

not necessarily on that one, but I have

46:23

been on in different shows with Denville Washington.

46:25

Okay. Christopher Walken was probably the one that

46:27

is exciting. And I have in

46:30

there a series of folders on

46:32

these phones where you can do it and the face recognition will

46:34

pile all the photographs into one thing. So there's obviously this

46:36

one for me and my wife and my three children and

46:39

Christopher Walken. And there's one photograph. It's walking

46:41

me standing next to Christopher Walken. Walken is

46:44

the only photograph in that folder, but he

46:46

gets the folder. Because I

46:48

watch, I sometimes what, well, I often

46:50

watch Graham and Jonathan and

46:52

I will watch them. And, you

46:54

know, Bruce Springsteen's been on, right? Yeah.

46:57

Robert De Niro's been on. Al Pacino

46:59

has been on. Barbara

47:02

Streisand, maybe, incredible guests. And sometimes one of

47:04

my chums will be there at the end

47:06

as the witty person at the end, which

47:09

is where we sit. Every

47:11

time, this is with no disrespect to

47:14

the people living on with me. There's

47:16

some fine people, right? Yeah. But never,

47:19

never, you're kidding me.

47:21

They're on? Oh, my word.

47:23

I've never had that. Right. Oh,

47:25

my God. Really? Good

47:28

people. Right. But it's never. So why, and

47:30

I must have done Graham seven times, eight

47:32

times, you know, it's never been unless I'm

47:34

forgetting somebody. I mean, I've been on with

47:36

Kate Winslet and she's a big deal. She's

47:38

great. But it's not like you're on with.

47:40

I know. Samuel Jackson. Exactly. I was on

47:42

once. Did you? The very first time I

47:44

did Parkinson, it was Samuel Jackson. Okay. I

47:46

did Parkinson. Chris Tarrant. Okay. That's not. Do

47:48

you take my point? Yeah. Yeah. The Tarrant.

47:50

Levin slightly by Timothy Spall. Yes.

47:52

Right. Okay. Hey, hang on.

47:55

Nothing against Chris Tarrant. Chris Tarrant does Chris

47:57

Tarrant better than anybody. Yes, but he doesn't

47:59

do. He doesn't do Sam and Rex. But you

48:01

know, Parkinson, Peter Sellers

48:03

did Parkinson. That would have been a

48:06

big ask. It's stage booking. We

48:08

don't overlap. But because at one stage I told a

48:10

joke, which is an old, old joke, and

48:14

Samuel Jackson laughed. That's a joke. And

48:16

there's a shot of me turning like

48:18

Dame Edmond, mid-punch line, and

48:21

then him laughing and me going,

48:23

well, that's going into the, you know, that's

48:26

the one. That's the clip I'll treasure forever.

48:29

And then I met him two months later at

48:31

the comedy, which is over promo or something else.

48:33

And he did not remember me at all. And

48:35

we just said, I get now you remember me, but

48:37

it was about two months I went, oh, hello. We

48:39

were on, oh, where are we? Okay. Great. You're

48:42

telling me that Samuel L Jackson didn't remember

48:44

the Irish comic he spent two hours with

48:46

one night while on a press

48:48

tour for another normal movie. I'm just

48:51

saying he could have just blanked

48:53

that. He could have, he could have gone,

48:55

oh, yeah, they were great times. None of

48:57

these people, you don't at no stage. And

48:59

I sometimes worry about that. I've noticed that

49:01

I have anyone gone, hey, look, we're over,

49:03

we're having some drinks later in the carriages.

49:06

So, you know, it's just me and I'm

49:08

meeting up some guys, friends of mine. Maybe

49:10

you know them. Tom, Tom, Hank, Cruz. I

49:13

want to, we're having, that's never happened

49:15

either. Never happened to you. Yeah. I think

49:17

that might have, I may have had a

49:19

couple of things and literally a bit along

49:21

those lines, which is nothing without

49:23

an example, is it? Yeah.

49:25

And it better be good now if it's just Aaron. Timothy

49:30

Spall and I, well, no, they tell

49:32

you what, the most exciting guest that

49:34

I was ever on a show with

49:37

was on Richard and Judy when

49:40

they were on Channel 4. Right. See time.

49:42

Yeah. And it was George Michael. That's

49:45

double laptop quality. That is top.

49:47

That's that's world class because George

49:49

had a mystique about

49:51

him, didn't he? Yes. George was special.

49:53

He was a proper star that,

49:56

and I, do you know what? I can remember where I

49:58

was when my agent said, oh, you're doing Richard and Judy.

50:00

and George Michael's eyes walking across one of those bridges in

50:02

London. And I went, really? Wow.

50:07

And, um, um, insert

50:09

funny story. Um, I said,

50:12

George, we're in the green room. Yeah. Uh,

50:14

I saw Wham at the top rank in Swansea

50:16

because I did. I was never at the cutting

50:18

edge of music when I was at school. No,

50:20

no. All right. Friends are going

50:22

to see the Stranglers or I know sex. I

50:24

want to see. I want to,

50:27

I want to hear you lose the news

50:29

live. So that's not, I don't have any.

50:31

I have nothing really to compete with. But

50:33

let's not, let's not start apologizing for liking

50:35

the music that we like. What's

50:38

wrong with Huey Lewis? Well,

50:40

you know, once he does the three songs, he knew

50:42

it was, it was, it was. The power of love,

50:45

the curious thing. Right. What does he do? It makes

50:47

a one man weep. And another man think, you know,

50:49

it was great. Uh, anyway, look, I

50:51

apologize. I've cut across your, your, the George Michael story. What

50:53

there, what there, what did you say to him in the

50:55

rest of the day? I said, I saw

50:57

wham at the top rank in Sanji

51:00

in about 18, one, two, three. He

51:03

said, Oh, yeah. Remember that. He said, it smelled of piss.

51:06

And I thought to myself, that's a

51:08

little harsh. Is

51:11

this the institutionalized racism that I've

51:13

come to expect against us Welsh?

51:16

And he said, no, he said on that tour, every

51:19

venue did because the girls that would

51:21

come to see us couldn't

51:24

control themselves. Oh, wow. Okay.

51:26

Okay. Uh, if you're fine.

51:28

I mean, I now say I have

51:30

a similar thing at my

51:33

shows, but for different

51:35

reasons. Now,

51:38

of course, in Swansea, he'd be, he'd be playing the

51:40

re the arena. What do you reckon about the arena?

51:42

I liked the arena. I didn't like it so much.

51:44

Now I think that it's a big room. It's an

51:46

Amazon warehouse. It's a big room. There's

51:49

a quote that I won't be pleased. No,

51:51

no, I know. Yeah. Well, good luck. However, one

51:53

thing it does have is on

51:56

the outside of it, it has a giant, giant

51:58

screen. I like that. they put the

52:00

poster. I like that. And that's very nice. I

52:03

like it. But I didn't know I couldn't go

52:05

around because the audience were already arriving when I

52:07

would have gone around. My family took a picture.

52:09

Somebody else took a picture and I couldn't

52:12

go around and see it because I would have been

52:14

caught by the, my crowd coming in

52:17

seeing myself. Obviously clearly looking up

52:19

and going like this it's

52:21

gone well. Yeah that's enough to know I can stop

52:23

now. No I liked it when I

52:25

went in for the sound check. I was doing a

52:27

show with a band. I went in and I

52:30

like the number of seats that made me, that

52:33

helped my self-esteem. That was good. Yes, that's nice.

52:35

But I find in those venues that

52:37

a lot of the laughs evaporate

52:39

on their way up to the ceiling. Well

52:41

it's an interesting because I, Swansi has another

52:44

room which is lovely. Which I'm very comfortable

52:46

with. I love the grand. That's a lovely

52:48

size. Beautiful. 950 I think so. It's a

52:50

really, it's really intimate. They, and they,

52:53

there are four seats, I think there are six

52:55

seats right at the very front. So your audience

52:57

interaction is just very much presented. It's perfect. Here

53:00

are the six people you will speak to tonight.

53:02

They're just sitting there in front of you. And

53:05

it's really interactive and really intimate and so for a tidy

53:07

act it works very very well. So this is more of

53:09

a show. Look, I as a rule, like

53:11

I've been looking in the sense that I have never

53:14

touched, I've never had to have the dilemma

53:16

going, oh shall I play arenas or not.

53:18

Like whatever. I was always just below that.

53:20

What size rooms, what's the average size room

53:22

for you when you're touring Britain? About 1500

53:24

maybe. Right, okay. And you sell those out,

53:26

no problem. Yeah, but

53:28

it never got, even when, even a bunch of where I would,

53:31

you know, would play four or five in

53:33

a town rather than going to the head.

53:36

Well why not do a six thousand seat?

53:38

Well, because, I'll

53:40

answer my own question, because

53:42

it's just nicer in those smaller rooms.

53:44

By far. And if you are interacting

53:47

with the audience, which I know we

53:49

both do, you need to see them.

53:51

Yeah, you know, you can't have, Michael

53:53

tells me, McIntyre tells me that he

53:56

sees just white light in his face,

53:58

yeah, stage. I think he is. Is

54:01

it him, Danny? That's because he's dying all the time. Well,

54:07

he's clearly not. He's clearly

54:09

not. That's your clip. You take that to when

54:11

you snip and you put that out. Let's go ahead

54:13

and call it that. And you're OK with that. There's

54:16

no beef with you and Michael, is there? No,

54:18

no, no. I mean, he really is existing in

54:20

an entirely separate level. So it's grand. No,

54:23

and also there's no kind of I don't have any residual

54:25

take about this. But

54:28

no, I would I would have to

54:30

have a set because he's somebody. Exactly. Well, I actually

54:33

we do in the soundcheck, we look at the

54:35

light in the room and we see how light

54:37

now can be true light, of course. Yeah. The

54:39

anvil basing stoke. Now you can see everyone in

54:42

the anvil. More like more like a conference. It

54:44

is. And all the health and safety strip lighting

54:46

to get you out. If you have a medical

54:48

emergency and this door is lit up and that

54:50

door on the floor is lit up. I could

54:52

see the person in the back row. It

54:55

was like giving a lecture at the university. If

54:57

I close my eyes and the anvil, I can

54:59

see the entire sweep of the audience. That's right.

55:01

Yeah, it's very it's very residual. Like there were

55:03

the women card of the arena, the

55:06

new wooden one, as I call it.

55:08

The millennium. Yeah, very, very nice. It's

55:11

lovely. But the one that was on the since

55:13

David's in David's was again, all white

55:15

surfaces, really hard. And you see everyone

55:17

in the room, Belfast, curious acoustics as

55:19

well. In my experience, I've not spoken

55:21

to both spoken stuff. I agree. Yeah,

55:24

I agree. This is interesting,

55:26

isn't it, listener? Is it isn't it? Isn't

55:28

it? Is it? Oh, you're saying

55:30

you're saying is it your questioning? I don't know. I

55:32

think I could very happy to talk

55:34

to you about this for the entire. It did.

55:36

But I feel that maybe we were probably on

55:39

an easier path with famous people

55:41

who have not liked us in

55:43

return. So Michael hasn't liked you then.

55:45

Is that what we're getting to? No, no, no, I don't

55:47

know. I was going I was going for me talking to

55:49

the old Samuel Samuel. No, Samu's

55:51

family was fine with the person who

55:53

wasn't very, very friendly, was

55:55

what's his name, Marky Mark, Mark

55:58

Wahlberg, who does not let you go. Marky Markov just

56:01

remembered and actually maybe we've discovered

56:03

something here. Yeah. Marky Mark was

56:05

on John's North twice. No John's

56:08

North, M Norton twice when I

56:10

was on. Yeah. And both times

56:12

seemed a little bit. Three

56:15

sheets to the wind is the phrase my mother. Well,

56:17

there's a great example. So you get the call the

56:19

second time. So maybe even the first time

56:21

it's Mark Wahlberg and you kind of go, oh, that's

56:24

nice, but, you know, it's not Al Pacino.

56:26

And then and then they go on and

56:28

again, who am I on with? Oh, it's

56:30

Mark Wahlberg. And you didn't

56:33

click the first time. This is not

56:35

going to be and he certainly doesn't remember me,

56:37

but he was I think he was smashed. I

56:39

think he was a bit of really. But they

56:41

also once they said, said to me, oh, Graham

56:43

says, oh, you've started you spent some time in

56:46

Boston. And I told a story about living in

56:48

Boston with a student visa that Wahlberg was there

56:50

going, why is he talking about Boston?

56:52

I'm from Boston in a very typically Boston

56:54

way. As you said, it's very kind of

56:57

like, yeah, I'm from Boston. Why is this

56:59

guy talking about Boston and giving you a

57:01

bus like a new ad? Let's try and

57:03

see it from Mark Wahlberg's view. He's touring

57:05

the world, promoting a movie. Right. And then

57:08

literally the world. Yes. He's going everywhere. He's

57:10

not been lucky enough to, as

57:12

I have, bathe in the

57:14

lovely bath of Dara O'Brien. Yes. Right. He's

57:17

not been able, as I have, to

57:20

build a great deep seated

57:22

appreciation of a great comedian.

57:25

And I started out saying that like it was factually

57:27

spoken. I mean that he hasn't he hasn't had that

57:29

opportunity. So to him, who's this? Who's

57:32

this Egypt? Yeah. What he doesn't

57:34

know. So we can't we can't

57:36

touch him too harshly. But

57:39

I think my default position, if I wanted to chat

57:41

show is not to go, I have not heard this

57:43

person. So I'm going to be really kind of angry

57:45

at the other end of the day. I was like,

57:47

people would say, Mark, Mark Wahlberg, really angry as you

57:49

were talking. They'd have the forethought. He has all the

57:51

status in that interview. You know, it's always the case

57:53

when you're the. Oh, yeah. You're you're always like me.

57:55

You're the guy at the end. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

57:57

And you might as well have bells on your. shoes

58:00

and you know like those

58:02

hats would start. Timothy

58:05

Claypole. Oh come on. Send us a postcard

58:07

or a field envelope with what is Timothy

58:09

Claypole a reference to? It's

58:16

Rent a Ghost. So you're

58:18

there at the end. You

58:21

are very much the lowest rank

58:24

in the court in

58:26

that far season. That's fair enough. That's

58:28

grand. If you, I'll tell you who's

58:30

called Lee Mack. Oh yeah. There's

58:33

a clip of him. John Cleese is the

58:35

big guy. There's somebody else who's got and

58:37

Lee tells the story about when he worked

58:39

at the holiday camps and he called somebody

58:42

in the audience. Yes. Is

58:44

that a rude word? I don't know. Especially.

58:47

Particularly rude. Particularly. We'll

58:49

get on to language. And your love of language. And

58:53

Cleese is in hysterics

58:55

which is a nice experience.

58:58

I mean look, my time on Jackson moment was pre-viral. That

59:00

was a mistake and it was like 2005 or 2004 or

59:02

something. Now

59:06

who knows. I must find it and snip it

59:08

myself and then put it out under a fake

59:10

name. See. Look at that one.

59:12

Enjoying the work on Tarot Bridge. But yeah, with that

59:14

Greg Davies is another one as well. And when it

59:16

worked it went really really big. He had a Graham

59:18

Norton clip that went that long. What do you remember?

59:20

Oh quite, no. In the end he

59:22

made it meant I couldn't watch it. It was so easy.

59:27

Well that's it for another one

59:29

of our compilation episodes. I hope

59:31

you enjoyed listening. The full length

59:33

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59:36

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