Ben Crompton - Part Two: From Free Swag to Meeting Your Heroes, and Rethinking TV Snobbery

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, Screen Rats.

This is part two of the Ben Crompton episodes.

Episodes, interview, what do we say?

Do we say interview?

It's a second of two.

So yeah, not much to say apart from I hope you enjoyed last week's episode.

This one is going out a few days before I leave on my holiday, actually day before.

We are going to Belgium, me, my wife and my three children are off to Antwerp for a little European vacation.

And the reason for that is, I don't really know.

It's in half term.

So it's kind of like, you know, how do we manage to pull this one off?

We're leaving a day and a half before, you know, might affect their attendance ever so slightly.

But I just want to be in Europe.

I just want to go outside, see bread, coffee, I know pastries, I might not eat them.

I might eat them.

Fish on a stick, I don't know.

I just want to be in Europe and see that different vibe, walk outside and be in like proper European continental, you know, cobblestone streets, all that stuff, all the smells.

And it's kind of, I mean, it's not Christmassy yet, but it is kind of a little bit Halloween-y, pre-Christmassy, right?

It's going to be dark.

It's just going to be a nice vibe.

And I want the kids to have a European experience for a change because it has been a long time.

We used to also pass through Belgium quite often when my first born son was very young.

We'd use it as a sort of route to get to America and other places.

Hungary, I'd fly from Charleroi.

Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, we used to go to all those places.

And we've actually got a little hat that he had on him when he was, I don't know, what, one or two.

And it actually still fits my five-year-old son.

So the idea is to pop it on his head and go back to Bruges for the day if we manage to pull off a day trip.

I'm not sure if we're going to manage that.

Anyway, so let's get on with Ben Crompton, part two.

I think the last chat was pretty convivial and fun.

This is part two.

I haven't pre-listened to it at this point when I'm doing this intro.

So it's all mystery to me.

But I'm sure it's very, very good.

So I hope you enjoy it.

This is Ben Crompton, interview part two.

Welcome to Television Times, a new podcast with your host, me, Steve Otis Gunn.

We'll be discussing television in all its glorious forms.

From my childhood, your childhood, the last ten years, even what's on right now.

So join me as I talk to people you do know and people you don't about what scared them, what inspired them and what made them laugh and cry here on Television Times.

Well, sure, not to say a favour, but what show have you been in where you've been able to play more and sort of experiment?

Well, weirdly, I mean, that's happened not in the last job.

That was a bit more for me, less room to play, but the Full Monty and Lockwood & Co.

I worked with a director called Catherine Maweshead, who's done a lot of stuff.

She's done some Doctor Whos and that.

And I had a lot of fun with those things.

I was able to sort of play, because there was slightly, there was sort of nutters, really.

So sometimes you go, I'll go for it.

And once, you kind of, when you start out, when I started out acting, I wanted to fit in.

I wanted, you sort of want to please the people, go, is this right?

Is this what you want?

As you get older, you sort of go, that's not my job.

Bryan Cranston does a really good talk about what it is to be an actor.

He says, it's not your job to go and get the job and give them the want or something.

It's your job to go to say, this is the best version.

If I get this job, I can give you this.

This is what I can offer you.

And you start to realize that unless you show people what you can do, they don't necessarily know.

There's so many actors and stuff out there that they can just pick and choose and fit you.

So sometimes you have to go, by the way, what about this?

And once you get brave enough to do that, they can either say yay or nay.

And if they like it and they let you run with it, then when you have more confidence, you work better.

Suddenly you're working with confidence and you deliver things.

Yeah, you can play.

Yeah, and that's really fun and you just need, you know, there wasn't much room for that on Thrones, in Game of Thrones, for example, that had a very distinct sort of style.

But on certain jobs and with certain people, they'll let you be inventive.

And that's really lovely because as long as you got the script there, you do a version of the script, you've got the edit.

That's the magic of it.

And then if you throw something that comes up in the day, that's live and it fits in with what's going on, they can stick that in or not.

How many takes did you used to do on Thrones?

It would depend on the scale.

There were long days.

I mean, so there was a lot of hanging around because there was a lot of departments to sort of satisfy.

Get the fires right, get the snow machine, you know, get the snow machines back and out.

Continuity must have been there.

Jesus Christ.

It was always like a fucking what's worse.

We're going to have the foam, which was basically pumping loads of fairy liquid stuff, which you just get in your mouth and dissolve quickly.

Or they'd have paper.

They'd fire out paper.

Yeah, find bits of paper.

What happened?

About 20 minutes, you get like, people would have little paper mountains on their heads, do you know what I mean?

Because the paper would just sort of stack up.

So you can only shoot so long.

You find it in your trousers when you get home.

Yeah, shaking out bits of shredded, sort of, you know, like that.

Oh, it's been sacked.

Oh, look at, and what's there on here?

One show I loved that you were on, and I do remember your episode because I remember it, it wasn't that long ago, it was only about four years ago, wasn't it?

But I loved The Reluctant Landlord, Ramesh's show.

I loved that, was that just a day's work or?

Yeah, a couple of days' work, yeah.

Yeah, that was nice, and that was directed by a guy called David Sant.

Did you ever see Ideal?

I didn't see it at the time, I have seen it on the road, occasionally on television, but I didn't follow it in any way.

So David is like a clown.

He was in a physical theatre group called Papalakos or something, Papalakos.

They did Edinburgh and he was very good.

And if anybody watched Ideal, he plays Cartoon Head from Series 2 to 7.

And then whilst he was on that, he started shadowing and he became a director.

He does a lot of comedy stuff now.

When I'm watching Man and Stroke Woman, to go back to that just briefly, something I hate in an edit, there are two things I can't stand when I'm watching something, it takes me out of television.

I don't know what it is about it, but it just says it's not real.

One is when you see someone speaking from the scene that's about to come up when you're still looking at the last scene.

That drives me mad.

I think it's been done a lot more lately to speed things up.

But also, what I've noticed is happening a lot more, especially in Australian stuff for some reason, you're cut to the next scene, and it's the same people at a different point in time.

I'm so used to it cutting to a scene with other people and then coming back.

And then when I was watching your show, Man Struck Woman from 16, 17 years ago, it is that, but because you're all different characters every time, it doesn't do the same thing in my brain.

It's like, I don't know any other telly that does that now.

Yeah, I found the way, because also because it was contemporary television, we weren't dressed in like, the characters weren't particularly identifiable.

It was us with slightly, pretty much the same hairdos.

And I always wondered if that would jar, because it was a mix of recurring sketches and one-off sketches and stuff.

The good thing about that show was that all the wardrobe was contemporary.

So what they did is that you buy your loads of clothes and then you'd have a massive sale at the end.

You're like, do you want this Paul Smith jacket?

Yeah, 30 quid.

Did you get to keep them?

Yeah, my son wears it now, isn't he?

He's been walking around with this from 16 years ago.

Still got it.

I was a bargain.

I worked on a musical once called Shoes, and it was all about different brands of shoes.

It was like an opera.

So you had these opera singers, and you had a band and you had actors.

It was really, really good.

And basically all the most fanciest shoe companies just came and delivered all these shoes.

I'm talking like Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo, Birkenstocks, Hushpuppies and Salvatore Vanagallos.

All these really fancy shoes, because they were the songs about these shoes.

And of course at the end, they were all just given away.

Because some of them had like drill holes in them because stage management drilled them.

You know what I mean?

So my wife has got a pair.

They don't fit her, but they're worth like two grand or whatever, these pair of shoes with the red bottom.

And I remember calling her and going, what size trainers are you?

I guess we're just taking them.

John Lennon thing, isn't it?

Yeah, is that what he said, yeah.

Well, I once talked with David Essex and have a name jump, a bit of one that no one gives a shit about.

Did he do You're a Star?

He did all kinds of weird songs.

Sorry, David.

He was doing Aspects of Love, and nobody seemed to know who he was.

By no one, I obviously mean the backstage crew, not the rest of the cast.

But I knew because my aunt, when I was a kid, was mad on him, and she went to the top of the pops, and David sort of looked at her apparently, and she got all funny and came home saying that David Essex looked at her.

So I am like 20 odd years later, like working with him.

I put his mic on, and then I just sit and chat to him.

And I was the one that would like listen to his stories, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

And he'd tell me about, yeah, well, you know, when I hung out with Yoko and John in 1978, I went over there, stayed in the Dakota building, yeah, and John said to me, you know, I'm not doing the ascent.

He says, it's funny how like when you've got loads of money, nobody wants you to pay for anything, you get more stuff for free.

You're just telling me all these stories.

So like for me, that always equates to that.

And I've seen that too.

I've seen people with extortionate amounts of money not get charged for anything.

He still owes me a tenner actually, David Essex.

Yeah, he bought this tenner in Plymouth.

Classic Essex.

He goes, ah, I don't carry money, Steve, got tenner.

And then you feel bad like asking for it back, asking a millionaire for money.

You've got a story for it now, haven't you?

David Essex owes me a tenner.

Let's hit one or two more of these.

How are we doing for time?

I haven't even looked at me watch.

Sorry, these, I've never realized.

Yeah, they're madeleines.

Yeah, but they look like, once I've nibbled that bit, they look like clogs, don't they?

Yeah, I guess they could be like, what's his name?

What's that?

Australian comedian Sam Simmons, you seen him?

I've seen Sam Simmons.

I've seen him years ago in Edinburgh.

He's very good.

No, I go to Edinburgh because I love comedy.

And I do do stand-up, I do stand-up at the stand.

I generally do it around the Northeast.

I'm not at the stage, because I started late, and I've got kids.

I don't chase it.

I don't go around the country, but I'm at a level where I've got enough people that I can sort of gig, you know, enough.

No, I've always been like a stand-up fan.

It's really weird because I meet some actors, and they're like, oh my God, theatre is my first love.

I love being on the stage, the smell of...

You know, and I'm always like, I've done theatre in my time, but I've always loved television, film, and I've loved stand-ups.

I used to watch stand-up specials, and it used to be a thing when we'd die, we used to watch films, or we would watch, you know, watch television.

That was our binding thing, really.

So when the video came along, we used to have tapes, and we used to all watch Faulty Towers, and we used to have tapes, and you know when you used to make your own tapes and stuff, and you used to call it the very best of comedy one, the very best of comedy two.

And I say that, but it was...

Draw your own inlay cards.

Yeah, oh, it did that, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it did like, so we'd watch Faulty Towers, we were on the Rise and Fall of Reginald Perry.

Oh yeah, fantastic.

I re-watched that recently in lockdown.

So good, it's bleak though.

It's about a midlife, might have been a midlife crisis.

Yeah, man wants to end it all and start again and can't deal with anything.

It's, we watched that as a family.

I remember watching that as a kid.

And whilst we were on there, oh, and then sometimes it'd be odd, it'll be all right on the night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is basically TikTok now.

Yeah, yeah, but I used to love those things.

Once again, Dennis.

All the outtakes.

Dennis Norden, was it?

Dennis Norden, Keith Barron getting cramp during GT3.

That was always a, I'll say, the names.

Oh, I've got cramp.

Oh, hilarious.

You still love it?

That was a Christmas thing, right?

They would do one, but they do it, they do it maybe like every now and again.

They do it on a bank holiday or something.

Back in the day, that's what I call music, sort of thing.

Yeah, he's sort of going, are you one of those people?

Did he have another job?

Let's stumble over there.

No, no, he was also, he was the slowest talking man.

He wouldn't be on television now, apart from the fact that he's dead, but even for the live, he was so, so slow.

You get occasionally, you still get starstruck, and you get to...

I love that about this job, is that eventually at some point, you end up working with people who you've grown up admiring and stuff.

It's amazing, you get to see...

You get to see what they're really...

And when they are the sort of people you hope they're gonna be, that's always like Robert Carlyle.

We worked with him recently, and then the faulty thing, and it was just, you're just going, oh, he is, he's a sound bloke as well.

As well as...

He looks really lovely.

To me, he's always bedby, he's always terrifying.

Yeah, but he's such a...

No, he's so silent, he's such a good cunt, and they were all really welcoming on the full monty.

Just really sort of a sound bunch.

And it's nice that, because if you meet someone and they're a dickhead, it's a disappointment.

I'm always slightly aware of that, even though I'm aware that my level of recognition is much further down, there's still certain shows that matter to people.

So if somebody comes up and then they have a bad interaction with you, that then mars their experience.

And I think those things, those shows and things really matter.

I remember going to, I mean, Jeremy Bullock, who played Boba Fett.

I remember I was in Liverpool and I was doing a, I was working with Brian Cox, Mark Strong, Paul Bettany, you know, really good cast and stuff.

And I got on the ferry with me son, who was four at a time.

I was like, oh my God, they're doing a small sci-fi convention at the leisure centre.

It was like 10 o'clock in the morning, there was like Jeremy Bullock and like two people played, like, you know, basically had two lines on Return of the Jedi.

And I remember walking up and I was like, hello, Mr Bullock, could I get a photograph please?

Because even though, you know, he just, and he was absolutely lovely.

And that whole, just having that small interaction meant a lot because it meant part of the show.

And I ended up doing a convention with him years later.

And he was a lovely bloke, but though that is important, even if you got a small part of something that matters to someone, it's important to know what that means to people, I think.

Yeah, I think that people do have long lasting memories.

I mean, I remember when in the late 90s, my girlfriend at the time worked in Pizza Express in the West End, and she went up to Eddie Izzard and he was really rude to her apparently.

And I was like, well, she went up to him and went Azerbaijan and he was like, whatever.

I mean, she was like, sorry, she's she now.

And I met Eddie Izzard about three or four years ago and had breakfast with her in Eastbourne and beautiful interaction, absolutely perfect.

We had a really good conversation about politics, changed my mind completely on a lot of things, set me straight, made me happy.

And I left thinking, well, she was probably wrong then because this person's great.

You just remember these things.

Context is everything as well.

I've had to stop, there's a point where people come up when I was eating and I go, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then sometimes you'd go, I'll let me finish my dinner first.

Once she's finished all your kids and stuff sometimes, if it can be quick and stuff.

And people have bad days and stuff.

You don't know.

Some people in the middle of something awful that's happened and their head's spiraling and they're ruminating and somebody comes up then and you've got to accept people carrying.

I wouldn't dream of going up to someone if they had their kids, which I've heard a lot of stories about.

Oh, people, yeah, yeah, people doing stuff.

And sometimes it's how you do it and stuff.

It's always in the approach.

What I don't like now is, I don't ever mind anybody sort of come and ask them for a photograph.

It's when people do it surreptitiously.

I fucking hate that.

Or video.

Oh, I've said at the end of the night, somebody's just, you can see them over the shoulder.

And you go, do you know what?

Just ask, please, don't fucking do that.

That's snide.

That's bad, bad manners.

So you're able to wander around the streets or do you get hassled a lot?

No, I can't, yeah.

I mean, I feel very fortunate.

I'm not, I've never been ambitious.

Well, I probably wasn't as young, but I'm very grateful for what I have.

I want to keep that balance.

I want to keep doing interesting jobs.

I try and keep moving and trying to do different parts so I don't get time casting stuff.

And I want to spend time with my family.

I want to, you know, I don't, often when a job comes through, this sounds terrible.

I should be sort of, you know, No, I know what you're going to say.

I should be going, I want to go to Australia.

I want to be in Pac-Man.

I want to be in Star Wars.

I just go, I want to work with good people.

I want to make interesting work, entertaining stuff.

I want to have the balance so that I can do stuff with my family because that's what happiness is, really.

I mean, it's in those, it's having that balance.

I've seen people who've chased and chased and chased stuff and you go, you're never going to get what you need from fame.

I've seen it.

I've seen people and you just go, you're never going to be, that's not where your happiness lies.

It's in day-to-day stuff.

If you can do a job and get reasonably well-paid, that you enjoy, then you won't, yeah?

But I don't really think I'd go further than maybe a little bit south and a little bit north.

Yeah, would you do it locally?

Let's not bore anybody with a list of venues, come on.

Did some in Thailand.

I find it easy to write.

That's quite far away, though, Thailand, isn't it?

I'll go a little bit south in Thailand, obviously.

I was on tour with this, and I went to a comedy night, because I just seek it out everywhere.

That's the funny thing with me, is I've always been a massive fan of stand-up.

I used to go to the comedy store in like 1988.

I'd love that, though, about stand-up.

You know, especially doing like, you know, Red Raw and that, and you'd see people starting out, and I'd go, or there used to be, Long Live Comedy used to be at the Dog and Parrot above, there was just a bit of a room there, and you'd go, I don't get it.

Well, they're not very good, do you know what I mean?

And then you'd see them like eight months later, and you're going, oh, hang on.

And then like a year and a half later, you go, I get it now.

They're really good.

They go, I've just, it's when someone just drops, and you go, brilliant, I get it now.

The thing with comedy I find hard is what is funny, I remember Alfie Joey talking about that, because I was always wanting to start, I didn't start until about 33, and I was always going to Latitude with, do you know Dustin Denry Burns and Seb Cardinal?

It's a sketch show called Cardinal Burns.

Yes, yeah, of course, yeah, of course.

And they were performing.

In fact, me and someone watching that had bought the DVD, and I was going, yeah, that's on, this is good.

And again, there's stuff in that, you're going, that wouldn't get made today.

There's a couple of sketches in that.

They had a little moment, didn't they, about 10 or so years ago.

Yeah, yeah, and I think they do a lot, I think they do a bit of script writing and stuff now.

They're very funny, and then, you know, talking to them and sort of trying to do a bit of research before, and go, now, how do you get started?

And of course, Jerry Seinfeld apparently does, he said if he ever had to do a workshop, he would just, he would walk in and they have the whole room, and he'd just pull down a board on it, and just say, just work, just work.

You've just got to, you've just got to do it.

My mate Alfie, he always said like, you know, brands are funny, you know, rather than, you know, you say, you say, you know, right, Coco Pops instead of some cereal.

Coco Pops is funnier than cereal.

You find, it's almost things like, almost like something being generic, specific and it's sounding funny.

But I always worry about stuff like that is how that translates.

I feel like a lot of my stuff translates well in a local audience.

I don't know how, I was thinking, if I went to the States and tried some open mic stuff there, you're going, they wouldn't know what that was.

Would that work?

I think as my wife's Canadian, I have certain Americanisms in my voice already.

Like I'm talking about people gluing themselves to the pavement and I said to the asphalt and I was like, oh, that's American, isn't it?

Because I'd say tarmac, wouldn't I?

Do you know what?

See, that's funny with the American, we took, hey, here we come, Paul.

Talking about happy days.

I remember watching Happy Days, right?

And I was watching one mate who was about 10 years old and he knew the difference between Americanisms, you know, you're almost done in a minute.

And Joni and Mr.

C had a big fight.

And he said, he said, you better get up those stairs now, I'm gonna come up there and glue your fanny to the bed.

I was like, holy shit, Mr.

C, that's extreme.

You can't, and I had this vision of a sped eagle and him with the fucking, I was like, ah.

And my mate looks at me and he's like, oh, that's terrible, isn't it?

Oh, fanny means bum.

I don't think I knew that until quite a long time.

What, the fanny bum thing?

Yeah, I don't think, I mean, because of fanny pack.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't think I knew before that.

I had no idea if fanny was a bum.

They have the opposite with us, don't they, with fag, with like the cigarette thing.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because people are going, oh, you're a fag, mate.

Easy.

Little bit of hate speech there.

The funniest one either, because I watch a lot, so I watch a lot of Australian TV, American stuff and whatever.

And then, do you know what Australians call the pavement?

Not the side, the billabong?

No, the sidewalk?

No, not so.

Footway.

Footway?

I never knew that.

Holy shit, that's literal, isn't it?

Yeah, to be fair, I've since found out that they also call it the footpath.

Footway is more of a sort of administrative term.

That's like German, German language is quite literal, isn't it?

I remember my mum was there, we were kids, saying it, very literal.

Do you know what the German for bra is?

That's Bustenholder.

Bustenholder.

I wish I knew it in German, but my favorite was in Munich, and Meet the Parents was coming out, or two or three, or it was probably Meet the Fockers or something, but it was Meet the Parents 2 or something, and it was still called that, and it was like, me, my wife, and my parents' dad.

Ha ha ha!

The Ron Seal film title.

I think I should leave.

But Tim...

Tim, what's it?

Tim Robinson.

Everyone tells me I should watch it.

I know that...

Sam...

Sam Richardson.

He's in there.

There's lots of people, Bob.

It's not just the one Bob, Ben.

Bob Odenkirk.

He pops up in it.

He was here recently at the time.

I went to see him.

Oh, you did the talk thing, didn't you?

Yeah, yeah, it was good.

I went to see Fran Lebowitz there.

They're great, though.

It's great to sort of...

I always think no one comes here, but everyone comes here.

They're all traipses.

Don't move it, because the house prices will shoot up.

But you know what I mean?

I'm straight.

I mean, you know, we talk about like, formulaic television.

This isn't that.

This is just throwing everything up in the air, and you don't know where it's going to go.

And one of the funniest sketches I've seen in years is one called, A Hat Has Its Day In Court.

Just have a look.

Have a watch when they're gone.

Yeah, they're only like 15 minutes of stuff.

And some of them are just weird.

Just weird.

But he's just gone, What Makes Me Laugh?

And I think that's sometimes the best comedy.

That's what we show.

It was called Detroiters.

They did it together.

That was really good.

Was it stand up?

No, it was a, check it out.

It's just like a two man, two person.

There's other people in it, but there's two office workers and they're in Detroit because they're both from Detroit.

And it's just funny.

I can't even remember what it's about.

I just remember really, really liking it.

It's about five years ago.

And then he went off and did that.

And Matey Boy went off and did, you know, fucking Veep.

I'm trying to say Veep.

Oh Veep, I've not seen Veep.

That's the American.

I'm going to rewatch Veep.

Is it good?

Because it's thinking about it can thick you in it.

Yeah, I'm going to, at some point, I'm going to watch the thick of it.

It's too soon because I tried to rewatch the thick of it.

And I remembered almost every word from the first episode.

I was like, okay, let's give it another 10 years.

Then I'll watch this all.

Then I'll watch In The Loop.

Then I'll watch Veep all the way through again.

It would become more and more, actually it's the worst things have happened in real life than they've happened in that TV show.

Oh God, it's just depression, isn't it?

In front of, you know, look at Biden and I go, I mean, no one wants Trump back, but you just go, it's not ages, go, he is too old.

Old man Clusterbond.

Old man, yeah, old man.

He looks like a marionette.

When he comes down the steps, he looks like a Gerry Anderson sort of thing, like, please don't call.

I mean, he's a lovely man, but like, it's too fucking old, there should be a cap on this.

You can't do another four years.

You can't do another next year and stuff, you feel like, and that's not, you just go, it's not sustainable for next five years.

So I, you know.

Have you ever heard of the, is it Neil Postman book?

What about the television?

He talks about, have you got it?

Yeah, do you know it?

Yeah, yeah.

You've got it on the shelf.

Yeah, yeah, I've got a different cover, but it's-

Yeah, this is the redo.

Because this is the one, so it's quite early on, isn't it, where he talks about the American presence and how television changed voting practices, and how it was, isn't it all but one or something of the American candidates who have stood, presidential candidates have been taller, and how people are impacted by the visuals.

Taller than the one they're facing.

Taller than the one they're facing.

People used to rely on policies and voice and stuff, but once you get to the visual media.

Well, they're already doing it with Starmer now.

Regardless of what you think of Starmer, everyone's doing the sort of Josh Whiddick and Rush.

Oh, he's got that dot.

So now that's started.

That's kind of the beginning and the end of him in a way.

Even if he gets in power.

He wants to become ridicule, yeah.

Just because that's what he'll be, be a spitting image.

I think stuff like spitting image, that didn't do him much favours, but there's a few people like David Steele.

I'll never forget it.

No, and that's it.

Once that's, you know, cause it's slightly an idea, you can't, you know, once an idea has taken hold and stuff like that, once that visual's there.

Also Rishi Sunak, I mean, when they stand him next to everybody.

I didn't realise how tiny he was.

Cause he's got the-

He can't be that small.

That's gotta be like a joke.

Objectively, he looks like he's got a tall, slender physique.

Do you know what I mean?

But then you see him and it's like, has that been photoshopped?

Yeah, I always think that.

I go, he photoshops.

It's like that Daryl Hammer movie they tried to make of the 40 foot woman or whatever.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They do those perspective shots.

Yeah, I'd love to see him stood next to Greg Davis or something like that.

I would, that would be me.

Richard Osman, Greg Davis, him in the middle.

And then, look, Richard Schumacher.

I'm running the country, you guys.

That's what I told you.

Shall I do one more?

I did want to ask you a couple of things.

I love chatting about telling stuff.

Well, one thing I know is like, you've worked with, so I do know this, it's in Kill List.

You had Neil Maskell and Michael Smiley in that.

I find those two guys, I know Michael Smiley was a comedian before, but I find those two guys to be the scariest motherfuckers on television.

Like him in Utopia, when he was in Utopia, I'd never been more scared of anybody, ever.

And Michael Smiley, when he goes full on, he'll fucking kill you, you know.

When he goes like that, I'm like, I'm terrified.

What was it like working with those two?

They're ace.

I mean, they're such lovely lads.

And the scene we did in Kill List, we improvised a lot of that, because I played an annoying Christian singer in a restaurant, and he comes up to me like, I'll fucking shove that fucking guitar you're fucking in, because Jimmy, no fucking Jimmy Hendrix, you ain't.

And you know, he's riffing on that.

It's a great script, but their sound, and weirdly, I've worked with both of them separately.

I did Doctor Who with Smiley.

In fact, sometimes you get a fan letter.

I got one sweet center picture of Smiley going, Oh, I love you in Doctor Who, can you sign it?

I was quite tempted to just sign it, and there we go.

Fuck off.

And actually, I wrote a Radio 4 play about, because I've got Tourette's and OCD and stuff like that, called Neurotics Anonymous.

It was like a comedy about a self-help support group that had different neurological conditions.

And I got Smiley to come in, and he was great.

He played a guy called Bean who had Tourette's and stuff, and he's great.

And Maskell's lovely, and Neil's lovely.

In fact, we ended up doing an episode of Strike.

Do you know what I mean?

Strike, that's the, well, I was going to say Robert Galbraith wrote the book, so it's JK.

Rowling.

It's her, you know, crime sort of series, private detective stuff.

And actually, yeah, we played this quite dark scene where he was smashing into his flans, a big tussle.

And then we fucked off that night and went to see Daniel Kitson down at the Angel.

He's amazing in Kitson.

Cause he'd seen, I mean, like, Neil had seen like a couple of weeks before, and he went out and fucking saw him a couple of weeks before.

He didn't do any of the same stuff.

He talks exactly like that.

Fucking, you know, fucking Neil, he talks like that.

Oh, Ben fucking hell, do you know what, he popped up, he popped up, did I see him in...

He's in hijack right now, with he just on the plane.

Yeah, yeah, he's the bad guy in that.

Well, I assume he's the bad guy, I'm four percent...

He's done what is good, Neil.

He's instantly scary, makes my bum sprain, you know.

Yeah, now he's fucking his son.

If he knocks on the door and went, oh, he can't, I'll be like, fuck it now.

He is nice, but I know those are the sort of people that can just turn that look and you go, oh, shut the fuck up.

He's little, right?

He looks little.

Yeah, he's a little terrifying man.

It's not massive, he's got staunch, he's got, you know, he looks like he can handle himself.

He's doing funny stuff too, because he was in that Dylan Moran thing.

The TV show you're thinking of is called Stuck, and it's not Dylan Moran, it's Dylan Moran.

Come on, Steve.

He was doing a comedy role, I've not seen him do that before.

He's great, he's great.

There's some great people out there, and I love it when good people do well, do you know what I mean?

And then he starts to go, I'll tell you what I was watching, I was watching them, watching The Responder, we started on that.

Yeah, I watched the first episode with my wife, and then we paused it because we were too tired.

And then you pick up.

I want to go back and watch it, I think it'll be for me more than her, I don't think she can tune in to the scouts.

Okay, I mean, it's dark.

It's very interesting, because it seems to be only on the second episode, but there's the therapist in it, I was like, that's Elizabeth Barrington, and she's an actress, I don't even know her, but if you look her up, you go, oh yeah.

And actually, I just watched it with Liv last night, it's very sort of dark, and he's going, you know, he's like, I can't fucking show them, dad, can I?

I can't show them what's up here.

You know what I mean?

She's trying to sort of get him to go to a safe space.

And I went, we're both in the office, because obviously he was.

But she played the really, she played the really, I think in the second series, really boring.

She was like a really boring office temp or something.

And the shots of Martin doing this, Martin sort of eye-bow raising the camera and stuff, like fucking hell.

Because it's weird, because when you know someone, and I was like, no, I'm buying it, I'm buying it.

He's doing a really...

Do you know him because he was married to your friend?

I know, Martin, if we stop, yeah, we'll chat and stuff.

Because at the time, when we were doing Man Struck Woman, him and Amanda were together, and then he'd come down set sometimes.

But I also know him because I did a bit on Nativity.

Oh, yes.

Oh, you did his one?

Yeah, I just did it, yeah, a couple of days on that.

Bye Because I love his journey too.

I attacked the block and I loved that movie at the time.

And I lived in North London when that came out.

And I remember me and my wife watched it, and then we went for coffee in Muswell Hill the next day.

And Jodie Whitaker sat down next to us at the table, and my wife was like, that's the woman from the fucking film we watched.

I was like, okay, welcome to London.

That's what it's like.

She came here, right?

Not here to England, but we moved to London, sitting in like a tiny room in Hampstead.

Because I was like, we'll live in the shittiest place and the best place, right?

So we'll see everyone.

I nearly ran Ricky Gervais over on like day two.

It's mad, isn't it?

Went for a coffee.

Jude Law's sitting behind us.

And she was like, is that fucking Jude Law?

I said, of course it is.

Of course it is.

You're in fucking Primrose Hill.

It'll be one of them.

My first standup set was all about that, you know, about, you know, you go to London, they said, you know, there's actors in London.

I said, of course, you can't fucking swing a cat without knocking out an actor in London, can you?

There's fucking Trevor Reeve.

It was the position.

Fucking retro.

I love these references.

That's the thing.

I mean, you know.

Try these at the Red War.

Are you under 30?

Good luck with that, dickhead.

I had to fucking lose Michael Flatley's name from a set I was doing.

What?

Well, because I was doing this thing about being on the bus and not touching the buttons because of COVID and I'm like Michael Flatley on the bus or whatever.

All right.

And I looked at it, everyone was like 19.

I was like, they're not gonna fucking know who this is.

I know, sometimes what I've started doing is I've gone, okay, what are the references?

What are the references that would work now in a similar context that still feel sort of funny?

Because otherwise, if I'm mentioning Marion, who were like an indie band from like 94, it's not gonna land.

Except what I like to do is I like to stitch stuff into.

Sometimes I know there'll be a joke that is for two people in the audience, but for those two people, it'll be the funniest thing.

Because there's a reference, it'll be an odd little reference.

I think for one thing, I mentioned, I said like fucking The Tall Man from Phantasm or something.

Do you know what I mean, Art Script?

No, most people, it doesn't matter.

You've lost three seconds.

But for two people here, too big.

I like just seeding little things in.

That one's for you, that one's for you, that one's for you.

And then amongst something that's supposed to be for everybody.

Let's do one more for my point and I'll let you go.

Is there a TV show that you'd usually be a bit embarrassed to admit to liking?

I mean, if you are, you might not want to tell us here.

No, it's fine because I used to have a lot of snobbery about music and about television.

And I've got to the point now, I go, I acknowledge it's not the best bit of television, but it doesn't matter.

Channel 4 are very good at doing what I'd call comfort television.

Sometimes I want to watch a film, and sometimes I want to watch First Dates or Naked Attraction.

That's great.

It's mental.

Absolutely mental.

Why have you...

So it's that thing, what do you think?

Oh, I like her bottom.

And when they take the blokes, what do you like about his body?

And it's two straight blokes going, he's got very nice eyes, his toenails are very well trimmed.

I said this on the pilot episode, the fact that just no one looks good without a head, because all bodies...

Until the head's there, it's like, oh, she is pretty.

What the fuck is all that?

That's a bit weird, isn't it?

Yeah.

Just body parts, isn't it?

It's all that.

It's like a butcher's shop window.

And then you can see some people are way too excited when those things go up.

It's all right, mate.

Some people got a lot of fun.

Some people should be going on a date with anybody.

And then they do that funny walk and they spin and they look worse in clothes somehow.

Yeah.

How does that happen?

It's such a weird, I mean, that is a sort of thing.

Sometimes it is like, right, let's get stuck into a series.

Like we watched Beef, which is great.

That was great, wasn't it?

Yeah, Beef.

So good.

I tell you what's good as well, Hacks.

Have you seen Hacks?

Hacks, yeah, I love Hacks.

Isn't that great?

I thought the second, ah, brilliant.

I don't know many people.

That's one that's quite under the...

Yeah, I think it's big in America.

I mean, Gene Smart's well known for lots of stuff.

But if everyone that comes in, like, you know, the guy who plays the asshole comedian in the club and she pays him to shut the fuck up and never do comedy again, he's actually a stand up in real life.

So it is all the real people.

He's in it as well, isn't he?

He was the guy who plays Shooter McGovern.

Chris McDonnell, I think.

And he plays Shooter McGovern in Happy Gilmore.

Have you seen Happy Gilmore?

Oh, years and years ago.

Oh, my God, I love that film.

That film, that and Midnight Run, I can watch anytime.

I love Midnight Run.

Charles Grodin.

Oh, my God.

I watch them in Beethoven.

When you come back in, I'm like, Ah, fuck, Midnight Run's on, which means I'm not going to bed, because I have to watch this scene, and then that scene will be coming up.

There are three films.

Shut the fuck up.

I think for me, there are only three films.

This is not about films.

We have a little film thing.

Talking about films now.

There are three films I cannot leave the room if they're on.

One is Back to the Future, original one.

Oh, brilliant.

I'm going to watch the whole thing, no matter where it starts.

Midnight Run and Mr.

Bean's Holiday.

Mr.

Bean's Holiday.

Wherever it starts.

Then you're in.

That bit where Willem Dafoe is going on the travelator when he's doing that self narcissistic fucking film about himself and it's like, what's his name in it?

Clay Carson or something.

Have you seen it?

Yeah, I have seen it a couple of times.

Clay Carson in a Clay Carson production.

Yes, that's right.

His name's about seven times.

Yeah, I remember it now.

He's such a knobhead in it.

I love the TV.

The Mr.

Bean TV series is one of those things.

A few things we'll watch as a family now.

I think I was a snob.

Like you say about music.

You know, people, Darren says it all the time, these are the stories we tell ourselves and who we are and all that.

My dad told me at some point that he thought Robin Williams was a piece of shit.

So for some reason, I didn't like Robin Williams.

So I never watched his films until later.

And then I watched him and I think, he's great.

What's he talking about?

Right.

And things like that.

And even my own snobbery.

I watched the Wham documentary recently.

Hated Wham when I was a kid.

Yeah, great.

Thought it was absolute tosh.

Like, really piss poor music.

I mean, I kind of liked Wham rap, I guess, because it was weird, but, you know.

And I watched it and I felt nostalgic for it, even though I know at the time I was a big old teenage snob walking around listening to New Order and whatever else I was listening to.

It wasn't that, I can tell you that.

And if I had to pick a side, it would have been Duran Duran.

Duran Duran actually probably more naff now, I think, about it.

I can't really work it out.

You get that snobbery that you have for things.

And then that starts to sort of drop off.

I mean, in the last year I went to see Elton John on Friday, last week, I went to see Billy Joel or something.

I love Billy Joel and I love Elton John.

And there's this sort of snobbery, I'm like, do you know what?

Fuck it.

I absolutely love him.

And for whatever they've put out, well, I mean, Billy Joel's not put out a new album for 30 years.

It doesn't matter, he's got such a body of great work.

I've got the nylon curtain in vinyl in there and I play it loud on it.

I've got, if you go in there, stereo from, I think the latest part of it is 1982 Separates.

Do you have records then?

I do buy records.

Only recently started buying records again.

I've got a nice record deck and...

Lovely.

You might notice it.

I've got a mini disc.

I've got fucking old records.

I've got all the formats so we can listen to all kinds of things.

Heat track.

No, I've got that.

But sometimes I do get the old...

I get the CD Walkman, wherever it is up there.

Oh yeah.

And I get nylon curtain, which is my favorite Billy Joel.

I get the big headphones out and I go for a wide headphones CD.

I'm telling you man, it sounds fucking awesome.

The CD is actually pretty decent now, I think about it.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's brilliant.

But that's snobbery.

You wouldn't have, yeah.

I would have thought, oh, what's this naff grandma shit, you know, at the time.

But now I think it's fucking hilarious.

It's so well done as well.

It's so easy to get physical comedy wrong.

I mean, just as an example, there was a weird...

Nick Frost and I had on Man's Track 1, there was a sketch called Tube Fight.

And it's like there was an attractive woman and there was one seat next to her or something.

We were both trying to fight over the seat and stuff.

And they closed off one bit of the track.

So we got on the track.

I tell you what, here, easy Ben, one idea at a time.

So what happened was on that, one of the extras on that was Roland from Grange Hill.

Oh, right.

Urker, what's his name?

I can't remember.

He was doing some extra work.

So me and Nick were like, fucking Roland from Grange Hill.

Anyway, so we hadn't really rehearsed this.

And it was just like, oh, just put together a fight.

And you come away from shooting it.

I mean, you shoot so much stuff when you're doing sketch comedy.

It's quite quick, you know.

I came away going, ah, because I know that when you get slapstick or you get physical comedy right, you have to put the work in to make it, but it's passable, do you know what I mean?

It's a bit of pressing up against you and you're mugging and stuff.

But I think it takes a lot of work to get physical comedy.

So this is the thing, when I moved back to London, I lived in Peterborough in my teenage years.

I moved back to London when I was 17, 18.

And I went to see Rowan Atkinson in something called The Sneeze.

And it was all about a sneeze.

He was trying not to have a sneeze and stuff.

It was like an hour and a half or two hours or whatever.

But he did that drum stuff in it.

He was doing all these different physical...

And I forgot that I saw it.

Until I watched these old clips and I thought, Oh my God, I did like him because I went to see that.

What the fuck is my problem?

But then you reassess stuff, don't you?

And you go, no, that's actually a good song.

And also that's the thing with music.

This thing with music and with television, sometimes they work because they're sort of cultural tempos and they'll take you back to a certain point in your life, won't they?

I mean, I can't listen to it.

If I hear Toploader, if I hear Dancing in the Moonlight, I know, ostensibly, it's supposed to be a bit now from that, or I hear Reach by S Club 7, whatever.

That takes me back to the Press Club.

We did a series called Clocking Off from the Shot in Manchester.

Yeah.

And that was...

Do you know about the Press Club?

I used to go to the Press Club.

I used to go there when I was on tour.

It's off of Deansgate.

Deansgate, yeah.

It was there because The Guardian building is there.

It was built originally.

It's got my camera taken off me every time I went in there because there was always famous people and they wouldn't let you keep your camera.

That was the deal.

The deal was, you're in the Press Club, it's open till 5, 6 or whatever.

Loads of noise in there.

No cameras.

Don't say there was a mix of like, sort of soap stars, TV actors, Coronation Street, footballers.

Whoever was doing the palace or the Opera House.

It was the 1975's mum.

She was in there.

Denise Welch, yeah.

Hang out with her and Tim Healy one night.

Gangsters, press people.

So there's all this mix.

But the deal was, you're off duty.

Really expensive cans of beer.

There's cans of Red Stripe, JD and Coke and some Red Stripe.

Walk across the sticky floors.

Then everyone starts doing karaoke.

Oh, with Charlie and...

Martin and Charlie stuff, yeah.

He used to get up, yeah.

I've had laser nights in there.

It's great, isn't it?

I don't think it's there anymore.

I think it's closed.

Yeah, I think it has, yeah.

It's the most unassuming...

A bit like Shuttleworths in London.

That used to be...

I never went there.

I used to go there all the time.

I don't know if it's still there.

It was the past day of the day.

It's Jerry's Bar.

Is it Jerry's?

That was the one by the Phoenix.

Yeah, that one.

That was Shuttle.

That was Peter Cox.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The same.

Cannes and Late Night.

Just put your name on the door.

The thing I loved about touring...

I mean, I used to do this.

Well, I'll say it.

Who gives a fuck?

But when I used to go...

When I was...

On any tour I was on, with Famous People or not, I would act like our show was the big show that was in town.

So I would phone wherever.

And I would phone ahead and I'd say...

Pretend to be like the company manager, even though I was the satan guy.

And I'd say, Hi, the cast of Bloody Blood.

I want to come down.

Can we get free entry?

Because, you know, everyone wanted money.

The sort of thing on tour was that Steve could get you in anywhere for free.

And I'd always phone ahead.

And if I didn't phone ahead, I'd just say I found ahead.

I'd find the name and I'd just say, We spoke to Jodie and they said that we could never save the sex.

Ashley, I was like, I spoke to Ashley and they said we could turn up.

There's only six of us.

There was going to be eight, but there's only six of us.

Is that all right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, come in.

And we'd always get in for free.

And we'd always get into those secret...

And I guess that's the confidence going into it.

Well, yeah.

I mean, you get a copy of my book, actually.

I was bought up by thieves.

Everyone gets a copy.

So, yeah, yeah.

Brilliant.

My parents were...

That thing of just going, do something with conviction.

Well, they taught me how to steal and how to scour.

So that's where you got those skills.

My whole life is just trying to stop.

Is it non-uniform today?

Are they going to the allotment today?

What's going on?

Oh, this one, is it a strike day?

What do you mean they're off tomorrow?

I've done that before, I turn up and go, they're off tomorrow.

Oh, they're off more than...

I feel like they've been off for about three months.

Since COVID, it's like, they're going to the school.

I mean, the best news ever, even though that pay deal is shit, is that the teachers might not be going on strike in New York, because I can't take it, man.

I love my kids, but I need them to be out sometimes.

Yeah.

And when they were doing those kind of, they're off on Tuesday, off on Thursday, and the shitty one is at the school my son goes to.

His was the only class in that year whose teacher was in that union.

So everyone else was in, apart from him.

I was joking.

We should have a whip round and signed her up to the other union.

Pay your dues.

Do you want to join the NSA?

But then they went out next.

Anyway, what I like to do is this as well.

Rip up this one.

It's kind of over.

That's the questions.

Not that we really have, we did it that way.

This was a great chat, Ben.

I could talk to you for another hour.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Sure, we'll cut out this stuff like your original phone number and stuff like that.

Like if I said anything when I went, did I slag them off?

I know, I slag lots of people off now.

I was chatting with a knight though.

We were making sure on Dooley was up.

And we made Jill.

We were talking about some actors and you're sort of going, I'm not quite sure I get them.

And I came away and I sort of went, I think there are people who do acting and there are actors and there's a difference.

Sometimes I see some people and go, they're the same in everything they do.

You know what I mean?

Then you see actors and they've got some change of character, some versatility in some.

I never recognized him half the time.

It's like, oh, that's him.

That's him, yeah.

Like way far into the show.

It completely changes.

Yeah, some people, you know, some people are totally like, oh my God, that's them, you know.

Paddy, I love Paddy Considine.

Yeah, oh my God, yeah.

I remember seeing him for the first time.

He came out of nowhere and ruined my brass.

What's the, um...

Dead man's shoes.

The dead man's shoes on my fucking God.

What are you looking, you, you cunt.

I know, shit, there's another one there.

I'm well with him.

Well, we ended up doing the thing called, oh my God, what's that?

It was a period drama he did, and it was really weird seeing him, because he was doing like a cotton accent and a period thing, and you could see, it was the first time he'd done something that wasn't...

It's like when Michael Caine does an accent.

Yeah, but it was just like, it was strange, because we were surrounded by people who look like mulligan and her hair or something.

It was just a bit, My wife has left me, I'm in a spin.

We looked over there and he went, now he looks like mulligan and her hair.

It was one of the essays where they had glasses on.

It was all just, it was just weird.

But again, that's one of those jobs where you go, oh, what a treat just to work with somebody like that.

Somebody you really sort of admire.

You mentioned before getting starstruck.

Is there anyone you've met that you really are?

Even though you're at the top of your game and you've walked in and you're like, you really are like, I've got to hold it together.

For me, it would have been if I met David Bowie or something.

I met Bono once, blew my fucking mind.

I love you too, I won't have a word said against him.

But yeah, when I met Bono, it was like, oh, I'm one degree from everyone now.

Right, yeah.

And he took my hand and he was like, what's your name?

And I said, Steve.

And he goes, what are you doing here?

And I was like, I'm one of the sound guys.

But he goes, are you doing a great job?

I go, oh, thanks.

I couldn't not meet you.

I love you guys.

You're my favorite.

And he was just, he spent like three, four minutes just chatting to me.

And the edge was over his eyes with his little eyes, looking at me the whole time.

And I was like, the edge doesn't like me.

The edge doesn't like me.

God, I won't talk to the edge.

Don't talk to the edge.

Apparently the edge is lovely.

Well, I haven't, yeah, because I've had lots of experiences.

You sort of meet people and some of them.

I remember being in, my first TV job was The Thin Blue Line.

And I missed my graduation for that actually.

I had one day on it.

And like being in, I was in the Groucho Club for the wrap party and chatting to Vic Reeves, you know.

And I remember thinking, God, if a bomb went off now, the last person that he spoke to would have been me.

It's just a weird thought to have, watching him in a chat with someone like that.

You sort of get used to it because you realize the people are just doing their job.

But just before the pandemic, I went to the SAG Awards out in LA.

I'd never been out there because I had a sort of chip on my shoulder.

I had a bit like, oh, it's going to be disingenuous.

There's stories.

People went, oh my God, I love your work.

And then, you know, treating you like shit.

So I was a bit, you know, stopport skeptical.

But I was out there for, it was Best Ensemble or something.

And I went out there and I stayed with my mates, Murray and Gemma.

Murray works in TV.

He does music for Doc Tumor, he goes with all that sort of stuff.

And he was like, come stay with us.

You should go.

And I went there and they went to this party, I think it was the Netflix party.

And suddenly I'm on this verandah of stuff and there's like Brad Pitt's there and, you know, the wards is like Tom Hanks and there's Tarantino and Al Pacino and Michael Douglas.

And you're going, they're all walking past John Lithgow.

It was like being in a dream.

It was that sort of surreal thing.

And then I met Jennifer Aniston and then I saw De Niro.

And De Niro's like, I fucking love De Niro, you know.

And he was chatting to Leonardo DiCaprio and he was just leaving.

I thought, oh, come on, you got to do something.

I just stepped forward.

I went, Robert, hello.

Fucking turning into Porky Pig and just nodding and fucked off.

I was like, oh, fucking smooth, man.

Smooth, smooth.

So anyway, I fucked it, but it doesn't matter.

I was on Cloud Nine and I went round.

I went and sat on the corner.

I was like nearly fucking crying.

I was like, oh my God, I've just met De Niro.

It was a real buzz.

And it was one of those nights.

I was like, I don't need to go.

It was just one of those nights when you come back and go, and this is how I'd like to have done LA.

And then the next day I went to Amoeba Records and spent a fortune on soundtracks.

It was really being like a fay, like a really, I mean, that is like off the scale.

I mean, my version of that is the Bono night because it was the GQ Awards 2011.

Look for photos online.

And it was just all these round tables and every table was the most famous people of the time.

And I looked over there, there was a whole of Duran Duran.

There was Keith Richards on his own.

Johnny Depp was hiding backstage.

We brought him out.

It was David Mitchell hosting Jimmy Carr.

And then the funniest thing for me was this group of lads came up and they're all in little tuxedos.

And I was like, oh, who are these guys?

Do they like competition winners or something?

I go, no, they're called One Direction.

I goes, what's that?

So I didn't know who they were.

Obviously I wouldn't.

But it was just all the most famous people.

I can't even, Boris was there backing, I just remember him dancing, backing into some women.

Oh yeah, sounds very Boris, doesn't it?

Oh, I had to put his mic on four times in about two weeks at one point.

Did you?

Did you have to do the sound stuff for Boris?

Definitely can't this.

And then, I put Boris' tie down, it's a big tie, and I put his mic behind it, and I flattened it down, and I went to get something.

I came back, his hair was up here, the tie was over there, and the thing was there.

And I went, you can't go on, and I had to flatten it down, I had to kind of, I just remember putting my hand accidentally through the buttons and touching his sweat.

And he goes, oh, okay, okay.

And then about a week later, I was doing some other thing in Bromley, and he walked past me, and he went, you!

And I went, hi again, yeah, I'm here.

But he was really nice to me a couple of times.

There was this time where, you know, the crew only got like sandwiches for lunch.

And Boris sort of ushered me outside to where all the salmon was and all the cool stuff.

And he said, oh no, come with us.

And I followed him out, and there was this just opulent fucking spread.

And I was like, you know, well, yeah, I'm having some of this.

Of course you are.

Motherfucking salmon.

Well, that's how he's got, I mean, that's how he got as far as he did, isn't it, by being, by being charming.

He is funny, and he is charming, and you would want to have a beer with him.

Well, that's just a little bit like this thing with sauce mom.

The people are, people think, oh, I like them.

Do you, what about the policies?

And you're going, yeah, but they're funny.

And you're going, they might remember, they're going to fuck you over.

When you go, I've been working so much and my pension's gone.

Do you know how funny it was then?

No, what you fuck?

Liz Truss, no, you didn't do that.

Yeah, well, that's the thing, isn't it?

I mean, what was that?

I mean, when you just went, that was the peak.

We just went, how the fuck is she prime minister?

Well, she wasn't really, was she?

No, really, just like.

I mean, she went to a pub in Greenwich, she scribbled on her beer mat, quasi-quantum went, yep.

Then the queen died, she paused everything, she came out for three days, she met the queen, killed the queen.

Met the queen, killed the queen and fucking.

Right, I fucked the economy, I've killed the queen.

I think I'm done glancing.

Because a law they passed through, this protest law, a lot of stuff has sneaked through in there.

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff, you know, the anti-protesting stuff, the right to a peaceful protest.

Yeah.

Has that come through yet already?

I think it has gone through.

Yeah, didn't they sneak it through before the King's thing?

Yeah, I think so.

And I think now, because of that, you're going, you what?

Get good gags out of it, didn't you?

I've got a gag about going in the lid or getting sprayed with orange paint.

Did you?

Is that what you're propped?

This is where I proceed to pull out a tiny jar of olive oil covered in orange paint.

I just pull it out at the end, something you do with like, you know, you can try and stop, oh, maybe you're never going to stop the Mediterranean diet.

But yeah, I love silly shit like that.

But like, I hope they don't think that.

No, no, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know I'm joking.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, Matt, I don't know how we, let's wrap this up in a way that I can wrap it up.

So, is there anything you want to promote or tell people to watch that you're in?

No, I don't know what, listen, if you've got streaming stuff, do check out, Lockwood's really good and it did deserve a second series and stuff and I think the writing on it and their performances and everything's great.

So, check out Lockwood on Netflix.

If you've got Disney+, Full Monty, it's very, it's very on point as to where we are as a society today.

You know, and it starts off basically the same, we're seven, you know, 25 years later, seven prime ministers later, and you realize we're kind of, we're in a probably in a worse state and stuff.

Some beautiful performances, Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Sophie Stanton, and great writing as well.

So I'd give that a watch.

It's all set in Sheffield again, no?

It's set in Sheffield, yeah, it's set in Sheffield.

We shot, although we shot in Bolton, Highfax, stuff like that.

But yeah, it's all set in Sheffield.

Sheffield very much, you know, is, you know, one of the characters really.

Yeah.

But it's definitely, it's worth a watch.

Thank you, Ben Crompton.

It was great.

Thank you, man.

How great was that?

Part 2 of the Ben Crompton interview.

I know it was a few months ago and some of that information was a little bit out of date, I guess, and the politics and everything, but, you know, that's a little bit of politics in the end.

Right?

Now, I've had a little back and forth with Ben since then, about 1970s public information films and that goddamn nosy bonker thing, which I think we mentioned last week.

So, anyway, I hope you enjoyed both those episodes.

Next week, we'll be back to our usual sort of episode, which is one person per week.

Okay, now to our outro track.

Today's track is called After the Fireworks.

It is the title track of an album I made in 2008 in Ireland, America and some other places.

It was released in early 2009.

This track contains vocals by everyone that was on the album, basically my friend, Andrew P.

Stephen, Taranee Mean, who does a mean vocal in the verses, and my future wife, Alyssa, also features on there.

But yeah, it basically is an ensemble vocal sort of situation.

At different times, you'll hear different voices.

Massive song.

The title track to the album.

So this is the song After the Fireworks from After the Fireworks.

After the Fireworks.

We'll get it remastered soon.

I hope you like it.

There you go.

I don't need to remind you of the title of that song, do I?

Now, I really hope you enjoyed both those episodes featuring Ben Crompton.

I had a whale of a time talking to Ben.

It was just such good fun.

Easy.

Now, if you like the show, please follow us online, leave a review, find the socials, and we'll see you again next time.