Carl Donnelly: The Fork Awakens - A Vegan Odyssey Through Comedy, Lost, and Star Wars

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, Screen Rats, and welcome to another episode of Television Times.

You find me here in the midst of the first few weeks of owning a car.

Me and my family recently purchased a car, and my wife drives, I do not.

I have a full motorcycle license, but that is of no use.

And since having kids, it's just like the idea of getting on a motorbike just seems so dangerous and exposing and like, no, thank you.

But getting in the car, I feel kind of like, I don't know, I have some PTSD from when I was a kid and my dad used to drive really, really fast on mountain roads and scare the shit out of me, which I think brought on some kind of fear of heights and whatnot.

But also I didn't realize until recently, getting back in the front seat of a car that, ah, that's the feeling again.

There's the feeling of like almost catastrophizing what I can see in front of me.

It's like being in your own personal episode of Final Destination.

Good new movie, by the way, Bloodlines, check that out.

Yeah, I can see all these terrible things happening in front of me before they do.

And if a car just moves ever so slightly wrong or if I don't trust the driver in the next car, I don't want to make my wife feel nervous about how she's driving.

But inside there's a whole load of shit going on in there.

And yeah, it's a little terrifying.

And I don't mean to sound all wet, but like I find cars quite scary.

I really do, especially when they're on a motorway going really fast.

And this is from a motorcyclist.

So, you know, you tell me.

But we're in the throes of the first unexpected payment.

One of the tires was a little flat and it kept having a slow puncture.

And you have to go now pay for air in the supermarket garages, which is really fucking annoying because it used to be free.

So you're just wasting money trying to work out if the tire is going down.

So she went to QuickFit, you know, you can't get better than a QuickFit fitter.

And yeah, had it all sorted yesterday and it cost 300 pounds.

Unexpected purchases, right?

You're trying to budget for a month and then suddenly you got car things.

But we knew this would be part of it.

We knew this would be part of it.

So I guess that's just the way it is.

It's very hard for someone like me to sort of, you know, suck that up.

Right, let's get to today's guest.

Now today's guest is Carl Donnelly.

Carl Donnelly is a comedian.

He's been doing it for decades.

I think about 20 years or so.

And yeah, very funny man.

He's I call myself half Irish.

He says second generation Irish, which I think is a much nicer term, actually.

And yeah, we had a good chat covering subjects that I didn't think we would.

Again, it's one of these kind of do we get to television?

Yeah, we do eventually, but via things that you wouldn't expect, like football, me talking about football.

Hilarious.

We talk a lot about Ireland.

There's a lot of food chat.

That was quite unexpected.

So that was nice.

And yeah, we do get around to TV and we talk about, you know, the leftovers and lost and things like that.

So, you know, it's a good chat.

And we had a bit of a technical thing in the middle of this one where his hard drive or whatever was too full and then it stopped recording and we had to mess around.

So I hope it sort of sounds seamless to you guys.

But there was a bit of a weird bit about I think about 40 minutes in we had to start again and do another 20 minutes, half an hour.

So anyway, let's get on with it.

This is me talking to the very funny Carl Donnelly.

Can Mr.

Carl Donnelly please make his way to the stage, please?

Thank you.

Roll up, roll up, and welcome to another edition of Television Times with your host me, Steve Otis Gunn, where I'll be talking to someone you do know or someone you don't.

It might be funny, but it might not be.

But it's always worth tuning in for.

So here we go with another episode of Television Times.

How are you doing?

You all right?

Yeah, I'm good.

What a lovely sound.

Oh, thank you.

Is Mike all right?

Some dulcet tones.

How are you?

I'm all right.

I'm a bit sniffily today.

My daughter's had this little cough and cold last week, and then lack of sleep has just meant that the cold got the better of me.

So I'm all right, but just a bit sniffles.

I find because my eyes have finally had to give in to glasses, that when I put them on and I do pods, I realize that that bit is just making me go, you should a little bit like that.

Oh man, I got my eyes tested.

I used to wear glasses.

I got laser eye surgery 12 years ago.

And for some reason, I thought they were starting to go a bit bad again.

And I went for an eye test and I said, no, they're still 2020.

It was just tiredness.

Oh, that's good.

I tried everything.

I use reading glasses for the computer stuff.

I've got these proper glasses, which sort of stay in the studio.

I don't usually take them outside because I'm scared to lose them because they're hundreds of pounds.

But I got these ones from like Amazon.

They've got little pinhole glasses.

Have you seen those?

No.

You look like you're in the pet shop, boys, but they've got tiny little holes all over them.

And you put them on.

Yeah.

It makes you look through one of the tiny little holes at a time, which trains the muscle of your eye.

But I don't know if I believe it.

I keep getting served up videos on my Instagram of these mad biohack types.

And they keep saying that you can fix eyes by doing sun gazing, staring at the sun at certain times of the day.

I mean, it's absolute bollocks.

But yeah, this guy was saying he wore glasses and now he doesn't anymore because he gets up and stares at the sun for 20 minutes just after the sun comes up and do it just when the sun's going down.

And it's all, I mean, it's that classic thing of, it probably worked for one person ever.

No, it's never worked.

Of course not.

They've just gone with all the things that you're not supposed to do.

And they've just said that it's now good for you.

You know, drink bleach, stare at the sun.

What else?

Stand on the live rail of the tube.

It's good for your legs.

It's part of the big anti-sunscreen movement at the minute.

There is not.

I'm fascinated by it.

I talk about it in this new show I'm doing.

I've got a bit about biohackers and all the bollocks that I keep getting.

I think because I've looked at a few things, because I'm middle-aged, I just want to try and be relatively healthy.

And the moment you look at one thing, the algorithm just goes, right, let's serve you up some absolute toilet.

And there's people now that are saying that sunscreen is why we get sunburned, because we've basically trained ourselves out of being able to cope with the sun.

And they're like, people in the old days didn't wear sunscreen.

So yeah, but I don't think cavemen just sat in, they didn't go sunbathing, did they?

And they died at 42.

Yeah.

And yeah, I reckon they probably sat in shade at the peak of the day.

Like, you know, I think they probably just understood that they probably had a few of the cavemen got burned and they were like, oh, let's not sit in the sun.

And then they have hair.

The hair would have protected them.

Exactly.

Yeah, it's always nonsense.

That's funny, because my in-laws, I love them.

But every time I put hand sanitizer on my kids' hands, it's like I'm poisoning them.

They always say, oh, the alcohol is not good for them.

I'm not giving them a whiskey.

Yeah, just touch the dirty Greg's toilet.

I need to clean the house.

I know.

So that's pretty much.

I'm enjoying your posters, your old posters that you put up.

Yeah, they're fun, aren't they?

I dug them out for a little PR thing.

I'm so bad at nostalgia.

I'm not really a reminiscer.

I like to sort of, in a bit of a hippie way, I like to always just be in the present and not heart back.

But I've got a suitcase full of old posters.

I always check every time, at the end of any festival, whatever, I just chuck a few flyers and a poster into a box, basically.

But I never looked through it until this time when I found them.

I was like, oh, it's quite fun to actually realize I've got some history.

Yeah.

Does it feel like a long time ago or does it feel like, oh, my God, that's 20 years ago already or, you know, how's it feel to you?

Yeah, it feels like an eternity.

I think 20 years in comedy feels like 50 years in a normal job.

Right.

It just feels ungodly.

I feel like, you know, sort of, it's, I don't know.

I feel like as I've hit middle age, I feel like it's a bit of a, I feel less and less, not proud of being a comedian, but I'm like, I should grow up at some point and get a real job, you know.

No, but you look more gentlemanly as you're maturing.

If you know what I mean.

I do, but I need a haircut.

So I'm looking a bit, I think I'm a bit disheveled because I normally get my hair cut about two weeks before it gets to this level and it's normally, I've just muted myself.

But I was penciled to do an advert, so I had to keep things as is and it sort of fell through just before the weekend and I haven't got around to get a haircut.

So I feel a bit disheveled at the minute.

Really?

Frizzy.

I did a show at Edinburgh last year and it was called Uncomfortable and I grew my hair really long for the first time, really long, like Richard Herring Long.

Oh, really?

In Edinburgh in August, with that hair in hot rooms.

Hot, sweaty.

I couldn't wait to shave it off.

I mean, I could not wait.

And I went drastic.

I went full on, you know, number two.

It's a very, yes, it's a moist month, isn't it?

All round, like frizzy.

My hair is always frizzy in Edinburgh.

Oh, really?

Because you get wet and then you go into a hot, steamy venue.

Yeah.

It's always a sweaty month.

I always really have to sort of fumigate my stage clothes after that month.

I always forget how wet it is outside.

Yeah.

Like flying outside.

Just constantly had to buy a rain jacket.

Yeah.

And it wasn't even a bad one last year.

Last year was actually a pretty dry month.

I remember being shocked, but I remember I've done Edinburgh's that were like non-stop rain over the years.

And they're first grim.

So it's like, have you ever done a Glastonbury when it's wet?

Yeah.

Yeah, I did.

It's just a different beast to it.

A sunny Glastonbury is one of the easiest, you know, even though it's a massive festival, but you walk everywhere.

It's 45 minute walks for some reason, no matter what you do is a 45 minute walk.

When it's dry, you know, the walks aren't too bad.

When it's wet, it feels like, you know, walking a thousand miles everywhere.

Yeah, it's like one of those dreams where you can't walk up a hill.

So, like you, I grew up half Irish.

I just wondered, did you go to Ireland a lot as a kid for holidays and stuff?

Loads.

Yeah, because both my parents...

My dad was actually born in London, but his parents had just got off the boat, essentially.

All his friends were Irish.

My dad was essentially Irish, but just had an English accent, you know, that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Where my dad would have never said he was English.

And yeah, just everything, he wouldn't have listened to a bit of English music.

You know, everything around the house was Irish.

My mom's from the west of Ireland.

So like, yeah, I mean, so we spent every single summer in Ireland like after school holidays started, we just decamped to Ireland.

So I spent pretty much, you know, a month in Ireland every summer.

You know, and then I've always gone back quite a lot as well.

So I spent a lot of time there.

I feel very at home in Ireland when I'm there as well.

Yeah, it's strange, isn't it?

I had a conversation with someone last week about flags.

And we worked out the reason I don't like flags is the half Irish thing, because I'm always uncomfortable around a flag.

So like a British flag or English flag.

And I don't call myself English.

My mom's born in London.

But the family's all Irish and my dad is Irish.

She doesn't consider herself Irish at all.

She's like a Brexit Brit.

But I grew up there for about five years in Kerry when I was a kid.

So I sort of lived in London and Kerry.

It was like so different.

Can you imagine?

And it was back when Ireland wasn't particularly, you know, all cool and liberal and like it is now.

It was a bit more IRA-esque and, you know, a bit more danger around.

But yeah, there is a pull to it no matter what.

And I do feel like for my kids, like I talk about, you know, they have these cultural days at school and everyone goes in in their cultural dress.

And I'm like, we could lean into the Irish thing if you want.

They're like, no.

My daughter, she's five, but she loves a bit of it.

We took her there a couple of years ago and traveled around and showed her all the places I spent growing up.

And, you know, she's really into it.

I have quite a lot of Irish music on around the house.

It's sort of one of the mainstays and she really likes Irish music.

And I think I've got quite early doors.

I've got her into the fact that it's part of her and that's good.

They did a thing at our school where, you know, everyone was sharing words from their language, like their parents.

There's a few kids whose family are from like, you know, different parts of the world.

And so the kids that can speak a second language were all sharing like how you say good morning in Turkish, whatever.

And Twyla said, Oh, I can speak Irish and she can't.

I can't speak Irish.

My parents couldn't speak Irish.

But apparently she said, Oh, what can you say?

And she goes, I can say good morning in Irish.

And then she got a whole class to stop everyone.

Everyone listen, Twyla is going to say good morning in Irish.

And the teacher was like so excited.

She'd never heard any Irish before.

And Twyla said, top of the morning.

And it's purely because I think I said it to her as a joke, maybe once when she was three, she just logged it as speaking Irish.

I saw your bit on Irish names, especially like female Irish names and baby names and stuff like that.

Made me laugh because we did do that.

My daughter's called Reeveka, but it's spelled R-I-O-B-H-C-A, especially Rebecca.

We live in Newcastle.

She's the only one, obviously.

Of course.

We've given the kids, everyone else has got a middle name or we've leaned into the Irish in one of their names, if you like.

My son, his middle name is Padraig, but spelled in the hand trim way with C.

He hates it.

He's like, I'm fucking changing that one.

I mean, it's not going to have that one.

But it's your granddad, Padraig.

He goes, I don't know who that is.

You can try with these things.

I know.

Me and my brother always resented our names, but my parents didn't give us any middle names, and we both got really boring first names.

My name is Carl and he's Wayne.

We both always felt like it's rubbish, just one syllable boring name.

I would have preferred a slightly more interesting name.

Well, you could be like KR-L or something, like a sort of rapper Carl.

Sounds like Superman's dad.

It does.

Your surname is what gives it all away, right?

So it's like there's no getting away from that.

No, no.

So it is like very, very Irish.

I wish mine was because Gunn is very like, is it Irish?

Is it Scottish?

What is it?

Well, I think the Irish would know Gunn with two N's is an Irish surname, but I think it travels, people wouldn't know, I'd say.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

It's not an O whatever or, you know, max.

You know, I always find it like funny when you see Irish Americans on TV and they've got, you know, Rob McElhaney with, I mean, the most Irish face you've ever seen.

He looks like he's in, you know, some kind of Irish crime drama and his big American voice comes out of his face.

It's weird.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But then you often get, I mean, they lean into it harder, don't they?

I mean, the Irish Americans.

It's the same, you know, it's a whole plastic paddy stereotype, isn't it?

Yeah.

You know, I think I used to give my mates, I've got a lot of friends who are second generation Irish because I grew up in Tootin where I grew up in South London, was basically an Irish enclave, like, you know, up until 20 years ago, you know, it was like, it was sort of like the Kilburn of South London, basically.

All my friends growing up were second generation something, I'd say 90% were second generation Irish and the other 10% would have been, you know, Pakistan and China and Sri Lanka and whatever.

Yeah.

And so there was no one who was second generation English in my entire school.

Like, weirdly, I always felt even though my parents and the household was Irish and I spent a lot of time in Ireland, I always felt English with the Irish family.

Yeah.

But a lot of my friends leaned hard.

Like, one of my mates, I remember like the moment he turned 18, he got a big bloody leprechaun on his shoulder tattoo.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Some of my mates would say they were Irish.

And I would always say like, yeah, but come on, like we're born and raised in schools and everything we've experienced is we're in England.

You know what I mean?

I would say like, you've got to give that a little nod.

You can't just totally ignore it.

But then saying that, I'd say as I've aged, I've leant sort of more into the Irish heritage than I think I did when I was young.

I think when I was young, I just wanted to be different to my parents.

You know what I mean?

I wanted to go my own way.

I'm sure you've got your passport sorted.

Well, do you know what?

I never applied for it because of that very reason.

I was like, really?

Do you know what?

I'm born here.

I'm raised in England.

I'm going to have an English passport.

And it wasn't till Brexit that I was like, well, fuck that.

Exactly.

We all got the fucking pen out there.

Jesus, it's about time I get the proper one.

So, you support Tottenham Hotspur, and I'm not a football person at all.

But when I was a kid, my uncle once, when I was 11, got me the full, it was the sort of Glenn Hoddle, I remember names like that, Panini Sticker Times.

And he got me this bag, like this Tottenham Hotspur sort of football bag, I guess the over-the-arm one, and a blue and white hat and a scarf.

And I thought, I'm going to go into school, and I'm going to be into football, because he got me into it.

He made me watch it.

I thought, yeah, I guess it's all right.

And I was watching it, and I was sort of like, I now support Spurs, it's just the way it is now.

I walked in, got battered.

It turns out everyone in the school, because it was Dagenham, supported West Ham.

And that was my only Spurs thing.

And I remember going back and throwing it at him and just saying, fucking, why did you get me into the wrong team?

They all hate me.

And that was my only foray into supporting football.

Well, I was the only Tottenham fan in my school, because I grew up in South London.

So all my mates were Wimbledon or Crystal Palace fans.

And a few of the guys from overseas, like, yeah, I've got a couple of friends, they moved over from Ireland when I was young.

And they all support Man United and Liverpool.

So I was the only Tottenham supporter.

And it was purely because my dad just picked them.

So again, my dad didn't really have any link to a team.

He didn't have a parent who was told, no, you're supporting our local team.

So my dad just picked Tottenham because they were successful when my dad was young.

Oh, really?

And then I then got the curse of this is your team.

But now I had to grow up in the era when Tottenham was crap most of my life.

That's interesting how yours was just picked by your dad because I do wonder about that.

Like I live in Newcastle, but we have no links to it.

And my kids are growing up here, but they're not even, well, the twins are born here, but my son isn't and my eldest son.

And he's starting to show, you know, fuck Sunderland, you know?

Yes.

He doesn't really support Newcastle, but you can see that if he had to choose he would.

And I keep trying this because he likes football.

I'm saying, do you support them?

And he goes, no, I don't really support anyone.

If you're going to get into a support in Newcastle, now's the time, you know, let's sort of hit a bit of a nice wave of success through some quite shady, you know, financial...

The money, yes.

Yeah.

Let's not ask where the money's coming from.

Although, you know, every football club's owned by some conglomerate or billionaire.

Like, as much as I get it, like, you know, but yes, being owned by the Saudi royal family has its ethical dilemma.

But I'd say there's no such thing as a good billionaire, is there?

Do you know what I mean?

This site, the money's doing bad shit.

Wherever, if you're a billionaire, that money is not clean, is it?

Have you seen there's a new, it's a HBO film.

It's called Mountain Head written by Jesse Armstrong.

Succession.

It's just come out.

It's really good.

It's about these three, four guys who go up into like one of the owners, sort of mountain, it looks like a bloody layer, to be honest with you.

And while they're up there, one of their social media platforms has got this new sort of software that allows people to make deepfakes.

So while they're up there, the world just turns into chaos and they start deciding what to do, how to chop up the world and then it takes a really funny turn.

It's really clever.

It's highly recommended.

It's really good.

And they're all billionaires basically, and they're all sort of competing, who's got the most money and all that kind of stuff.

It's a really good take on it, I think.

Well, there we go, it's television.

That's a HBO film, that's a TV show.

There we go.

So yeah, I was going to say, what's this?

Oh yeah, and you're a vegan.

Oh my goodness.

So I've been vegetarian for 30 something years.

I'm on your semi team.

Yes.

I've never been able to take the big plunge.

I sort of feel like I should ethically and for good reasons, but I'm sort of, oh man, I'm really sick of corn already.

So it's like, yeah, corn.

I mean, corn's got a couple of vegan things.

I've never really gone in for corn.

I feel like, you know, I went vegan, what now?

Probably 13 years ago or something like that.

And mine was sort of a mental breakdown.

But, you know, I was in a way, I was going through a divorce.

I was changing so much about my life.

I just went on this mad, you know, I mean, I sort of, I would argue I was in the midst of a psychotic episode.

I went off and drank ayahuasca with a shaman and traveled around India.

I did all the sort of cliches of somebody going through what I think was like an early midlife crisis.

I think I'd always thought about giving up animal stuff because I was always a bit of a weird begrudging meat eater.

Like, you know, I just grew up with it.

It's again, my parents were very meat and two veg types.

Yeah, boiled bacon and all of that stuff.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, you know, sort of liver and bacon all the time, like all that stuff.

And actually one thing I took from it was I always ate a lot of offal.

I used to eat a lot of liver.

I used to eat like lamb's hearts and things like that.

Yeah, my granddad used to do that.

He'd come home with like pig's hearts and fucking, there was a cow's tongue in the fridge all the time.

I was like, I'm giving this up immediately when I leave.

Then the weird thing is, as I towards the last 10 years of my meat eating, I was eating as much of that as possible.

Really?

Because I always felt like everyone else is avoiding it.

If the animals died, I felt like I should eat the bits that people aren't eating as a sort of, I'd feel bad if it died for nothing.

Like Native Americans eat all of it.

Yeah, and I did that and then part of me was like, if I'm doing that, I've obviously got some awareness that I don't feel that comfortable with it.

And then, so when I was changing everything, I went off and I had space.

I went off and like smoked DMT and did ayahuasca and these things to try and work out where I'm going.

Having just gone through this massive life change of a divorce and then just weird, just clicked into place.

So one day I just was like, had this experience where I was like, I just, I can't do it.

And I'd stopped instantly.

Overnight, I gave up everything and I've never gone back.

So I sort of, I didn't do it in that thing that I read or watch a documentary or read a book and start thinking about the ethics.

It was just a moment of going like I'm out and stopped.

I almost did the retrospective reading on it to see why people have gone vegan.

Like, you know, and they've done it as a conscious decision.

Mine didn't feel like a conscious decision.

It felt like a sort of an unconscious, all right, I'm out.

Yeah, it just sounds like another switch to be more like you, the you you want to be, right?

So that's like the real you doesn't eat me.

Yeah.

And I've never questioned it since.

I've never like, you know, I think some people go into it for health reasons or some people really overthink going into it.

And they're the ones that often I think wobble or give up, you know, and actually mine just felt like a switch clicked and I've never ever missed it.

At no point am I out thinking I'd love a burger.

Doesn't even cross my mind.

I've only had two things like that.

One was vegetarianism, which I just, I think I was 16 and I just went, yeah, I'm not doing this anymore because my Irish grandad, I'd go into the house and he would always have a pig's head on the table.

I remember one time he cut off the ear and he threw it to me.

And I was like, what the fuck is this?

I'm not putting that in my mouth.

And he'd be like, eat that old shit and you'll like that old place.

And I'm like, I'm not eating a pig's, it had hair on it.

And once he threw a snout, he cut a snout off and he threw that as well.

And I was like, oh mate.

And my grandad would get the, there's a bit in a pork chop that used to pull out and chew it and goes, ah, nature's chewing gum.

And there was a couple.

And so when I left home, I was like, all this war food's got to start, man.

But there wasn't a lot of veggie food around when I left home.

So it was like a lot of, you know, cheese and tomato mini pizzas from Iceland and stuff like that.

But I mean, now, what a time to be alive.

But it is funny, like I had that for years.

I would never ask you this.

Why did you do?

People would ask me, so why did you give up meat?

And it was always, unfortunately, it wasn't environment, it wasn't the animals.

It was just disgusting.

It was just absolutely revolting idea to eat these lumps of dead things.

It just seemed odd.

What strange things we're doing.

That's where I think I'm at now with it in the sense of, because it's been so long.

Like the thought of it, I now, I think, it doesn't appeal to me at all.

I think it sounds a bit gross.

So that's why I probably don't lapse or think about it.

Like, oh, I'd love to eat a bit of bacon.

I wouldn't actually.

You said those like biohacker dudes.

What's the guy who infuses himself with his son's blood and plasma?

Brian Johnson.

That fucking lunatic.

Yeah, I listened to him on a podcast recently.

I'll listen to it, but obviously he's deranged.

He's weirdly vegan.

Yeah, there's the other crowd who are just like, Oh, you must eat protein, protein, protein, protein.

You must eat chicken.

So I've had times where I've thought, I just have to bite the bullet and maybe start eating chicken, right?

Otherwise, how am I going to survive?

And then I think, well, I have survived and I haven't had it.

And I'm sort of okay.

Get lightheaded sometimes.

But you know, I haven't been pounding protein.

I've had some nuts and some whatever's available.

I mean, I'm quite lucky in that I love sort of Asian food like in terms of every all of, you know, most I'd say like Japanese food and yeah.

And then also in South India and things like that, you know, so I probably eat tofu, you know, seven times a week, whether it's lunch, dinner, whatever.

I'm pretty healthy, you know, I sort of go to the gym a bit.

I've never ever felt like I'm lacking in anything.

And I've gone through phases where before I got married in 2018, I wanted to get in a bit of shape and I got personal trainer for a few months.

And I mean, he got me in an amazing shape.

And he made me do the thing of logging every macro and all this nonsense.

So I was putting every bit of food into this app and the app would give you a breakdown of protein, carbs, you know, and it would break down your nutrients and your vitamins, everything.

It was amazing.

I did increase my protein intake, but like all with, you know, tofu and seitan and things like that.

Yeah, I was getting as much as any online nutritional hack would be saying to get, you know, and I wasn't lacking a single thing.

I mean, I'd be scared that I'd just turn me into sort of a math neurotic system where I'm just looking at everything in numbers and.

Yeah, it does.

And that's why like I only did it.

I did it up to the wedding and just to get in shape.

And just for a little bit of challenge, it was nice because, you know, I thought, I've got three months to see what sort of shape I can get in.

I ended up ending in two months and I broke my arm snowboarding.

So I couldn't then do the exercise that I wanted to.

Yeah, like it does.

You obsess about it.

And then I didn't want to be like that.

So I just did it for that period.

And then I learned a lot.

And it's taught me of just having a background, rough understanding of what is in certain foods.

Yeah, you can sort of look at it, can't you?

You got a banana, 89 calories and potassium, blah, blah, blah.

I have that information, but I don't work on it enough.

But I also don't think, you know, I don't ever want to be thinking about calories in and calories out.

I think if you're just active and eat all right, you'll be fine.

Because a lot of vegans are overweight.

I've noticed that.

So why is that?

What's going on there?

What are they eating too much of?

I think it's probably like just too much bread, pasta, you know, I did exactly that thing when I first went vegan, because it was a switch and I didn't do any planning or prep.

You know, I ate like a 12 year old who's been left to his own devices.

Yeah, just all I ate was bread and crisps and you can eat that.

You can eat so many.

You got the Irish genes, so you're a potato boy.

Oh, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Then I started suddenly going, all right, I can't just live like this.

I started recalibrating a bit.

And once I started actually just learning how to cook food from certain cultures that have a bit of more of a leaning towards vegan and vegetarian food, you just realize actually you can eat amazing food nonstop and get everything your body needs, you know, without overthinking it.

I do agree with you because I spent a lot of time in Japan and I've been to India about four or five times.

And if I could eat just one style of food for the rest of my life, I wouldn't touch European food.

I would be eating Japanese, Thai, South Indian like you.

Yeah, I love that in India where it's like veg, non-veg.

I love that.

I'll just go that way then.

There's all the food I need.

Don't have to ask the question.

I guess vegan is slightly different.

Yeah, but even in South India, you know, a lot of it is, it says veg, but it's vegan.

I mean, no one's putting dairy and dals and things like that.

And they say cooking it wrong.

So, yeah, it's amazing.

I'm lucky that my daughter loves like, my daughter's five and her favorite food is ramen, which blows my mind.

Wow, you've done really well.

I think I had my first ramen when I was about 30.

Same here.

She had her first ramen, she was like two and a half, and it's her favorite food.

Same with olives.

There's certain things like, olives, I don't remember things like avocados existing.

I was talking to this with my wife the other day, avocados, because my daughter loves avocados.

It's constantly, we've always got it, it's inside everything.

I was like, I don't think I'd had an avocado until I was 30.

Yeah.

I can remember when I first had a black olive.

I was watching a movie in the cinema in Wimbledon, and I was trying to be healthy and I thought, I didn't realize how much salt was in them, but I took a jar of olives, little punnet of olives from Sainsbury's, and I sat there and I thought, I'm starting a new tradition.

Instead of popcorn and sweets, I'm going to start eating olives when I watch a movie.

I did it for a little while.

You do it twice and it's a tradition.

Yeah, of course.

At first, I was like, these are disgusting, a bit like beer or coffee, black coffee when you first drink black coffee.

It's like, come on, no one drinks this.

Now, I can't drink it any other way.

Same here as well.

Taste buds change, don't they?

People who don't as well.

I was at my aunt's yesterday, and she offered me a coffee and I said, yeah, I'll just have a coffee.

And she said, I like milk.

I said, no.

And she goes, sugar.

I went, no.

And she was like, well, how can you drink it?

Yeah, because that's the coffee.

That's coffee.

It's meant to be.

That's how it's meant to be.

You're adding things to take away from the coffee taste.

You go to America and they got like a giant four litre Frappuccino with cream and ice cream coming out of it.

I just don't understand.

I mean, I'm such a snob with coffee.

It's unreal.

Like I've got like a V60 filter can.

I slow filter it in the morning.

Actually, yesterday, it was Father's Day.

My wife bought me a Father's Day present of a little thing called an Aroma Boy coffee filter machine.

It's a tiny little thing, makes two cups.

Oh really?

And it's lovely.

And I've used that last two days to make my little morning filter and it's great.

I've got a little favour to ask you.

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But for now, let's get back to the current episode of Television Times.

You do well in the Old Melbourne Comedy Festival.

I've just been going over for quite a few years and I've done a few things over there.

Yeah.

I mean, my wife's from there.

So that's why we sort of spend a chunk of the year there.

I love it.

I love Australia.

Thinking of like, where do I want to live eventually?

Yeah.

Melbourne's the one.

Like, you know, it's...

Well, I mean, best Asian food outside of Asia I've ever had.

Amazing.

It's basic.

And it's also very cultural and it's very European Melbourne.

Yeah, very.

Which I know it sounds a bit weird to want to move somewhere that far away, but keep it European, right?

But it's got so much European influence and as well as Asian influence, but like, it's so much culture, but it's also a bit quieter than, say, London.

The roads are wide.

For sure.

Good transport, you know, good coffee.

But it's also nicer weather, even though in terms of Australians take the mick out of it for having bad weather, but compared to the UK, it is paradise.

Yeah, I know.

Oh, it's so cold.

No, it's not cold.

No, exactly.

You've got trams, you've got like trendy, I don't know what the area is near the, I think it's called like His Majesty's Theatre.

And there's a load of like graffiti on the walls, that kind of trendy area.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I like it up there.

You always bump into someone from Neighbours.

There's a famous alley.

Have you ever seen the show The Leftovers?

Yeah, of course.

I love The Leftovers.

There's a famous scene in the final season of that that's filmed in that alleyway.

That's my favourite ever TV show.

I just actually recently finished my second watch of it, maybe third, actually.

I watch it once a year.

I go through the whole season.

First season is a bit...

Yeah, but when I first watched it, the first season blew my mind.

And then I just loved every season.

But when I've rewatched it, the first season, I think, isn't as good as the other ones.

I think it looked like it was going in a different direction because you had Matey Boy from...

Here we go.

I'm going to start doing this now.

What's his name?

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Peep show guy.

Peep show?

Which one?

Oh, I know who you're talking about.

Yeah.

I know his name.

He's got a funny name and I've always known it.

Anyway, I'll put my peep in the funny voice.

But when he turned up and I was like, oh, this is strange.

That's a strange role for him.

Yeah.

And I felt like that was going to go down that kind of weird sort of almost like, you know, youth TV kind of like the OA.

And then it went a different way.

And now season two.

My God.

I really like the OA actually.

And that got a lot of shit.

No, that was good.

I got a friend in that.

He plays the sheriff.

Apparently might come back.

There's a rumor that it might come back.

I've only watched the first season and I know like the ending upset people.

You know what I mean?

But I really liked it.

And I think that's up with The Leftovers as well.

I think some people watch it and they're like, what is this all nonsense?

And actually I think that's what I want.

I want something that doesn't tell you everything, doesn't give you every answer, leaves you wanting and wondering.

Actually, at the start of this year, I went back and re-watched the entire Lost.

Oh, you did?

There's 120 episodes.

I remember that.

I was fucking forever.

And I remember it went on so long Lost originally that I remember just giving up.

I remember being so bored by the end and the end felt unsatisfying.

When you binge it over a couple of, I think I did it in six weeks and I was watching a lot of it on the move.

Like I'd download a couple of episodes.

I was getting a train to a gig.

I'd watch one episode there, one episode back.

So I rattled through it in probably six weeks and I loved it.

I thought it's so much better than when I first watched it.

Yeah, and I did it just after I rewatched The Leftovers.

So I was like, I just want to go because I love The Leftovers so much that I thought I need to go back to Lost because obviously that's the one they did before.

Yes.

And I was like, I need to know if this is as good as The Leftovers.

I don't know if it is, but I loved it.

It's amazing and it's so much more satisfying than when I first watched it.

The Leftovers was just such a groundbreaking show that I sort of still remember so much of it.

I can't imagine rewatching it until I've forgotten it a bit more.

I've watched The Sopranos twice now and I know I'll watch it three times.

But I want to be 70 or something and have nothing to do.

And Lost was kind of...

I think I saw the first episode of Lost like four times before I got to the second episode because I was like, what the fuck is this?

This is rubbish.

And then eventually I committed and I think it was quite close to the final season.

So I think I was sort of watching them all and then the final season was kind of on.

And so I caught up and that's kind of the way to do it, isn't it?

Because then you're not waiting two, three years.

There's a lot of filler episodes.

There was 20 episodes in season, basically, wasn't there?

Some would argue filler seasons.

Yeah, I mean, I would not disagree.

But actually, I don't know, I felt, what binging it, I felt really satisfied.

There's nothing like that on now, isn't there?

There's nothing that would fill that gap.

No, not at all.

What was that other show?

Just reminded me, it was something called, was it called The Event?

The Event, like something happens.

I have not seen it.

At the same time, another kind of cataclysmic, what's going on or the new one this year, you must have seen that.

What's it called?

Paradise.

I don't know if you've seen it or not.

I've not.

I mean, to be honest, I've just been doing it.

Lost was the first quarter of the year.

And then since then, basically, my daughter has weirdly got into Star Wars the last few months.

In an offhand comment, I think we were out and we saw something like a picture of Darth Vader or something, and she went, what's that?

And I went, oh, that's Darth Vader.

And she said, who's that?

And I went, it's from a film called Star Wars.

And then she was like, what's it about?

And I told her the story.

And on my life, she was like, every twist and turn, I was telling her, she just couldn't believe how exciting it was.

I sort of gave her an abridged version of all nine films.

Really?

And I'm not a big Star Wars fan.

I'd say I've watched four or five, six, which are the originals.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've watched them a bunch of times.

Then I was probably, well, I would reckon I was 19 or something, maybe 20 when the next round came out, The Planet of Menace, forward.

Planet of the Millennium.

So I watched them a few times, and all of them at the cinema as well, and then probably rewatched them.

And then I've watched the new ones just on when they went on Disney.

So I knew enough to be able to give her a rundown of all nine.

Yeah.

And she loves it.

And then I bought a couple of books and I've gone back and rewatched it also.

I know the story better to tell her.

She's actually watched A New Hope with me.

How did she find that?

Because it's quite a slow film for a kid.

I mean, she's got really good attention span for watching stuff.

If anything, we had to forward a few bits to get a bit scary, like when they're trapped in the waist thing and it's squashing them and there's a big snake.

Bits like that are a bit perilous for a five-year-old.

But no, I think it's just, it is a great piece of storytelling in Star Wars, isn't it?

So I think I've trained her quite a lot into liking a good story.

For my last few months, I've just been rewatching Star Wars secretly so I know the story.

I've gone off and watched all the spin-off shows.

So I've just finished Andor season two.

I've never watched any Andor.

And I was never that big a Star Wars fan and suddenly now I'm the biggest Star Wars nerd.

But I love it.

I'm currently watching The Acolyte.

That's another one I'm adding to my repertoire.

You've seen Obi-Wan?

Do you know what?

When it first went on, I tried watching it for it was absolute shite.

And then now in this new wave of having to know about it for my daughter, I've re-watched it and actually enjoyed it way more than I did originally.

Yes.

Having re-watched the films and getting the story into my head and the chronology of it, I found that Obi-Wan a bit more enjoyable.

I think that's part of the thing of having kids.

I think I was actively not a Star Wars fan.

I was always the guy going, I'm more into Blade Runner, watching that childish shit.

And Indiana Jones and Back to the Future.

That was my jam.

And having kids, at some point, I was on tour doing an opera or something.

I stayed in a premiere and I thought, I've got two days off, I'm going to roll through them all.

Yeah.

So I watched them all.

And I enjoyed them.

They were okay.

I wasn't like going, oh, wow, I'm completely changed.

But then having kids, you watch more of it.

And then again, like you, I suddenly know everything.

And I'm watching all the spin-off shows.

Yeah.

Suddenly you're in the world.

And then you can even know the order of things.

Yes, of course.

I mean, yeah.

And it's like, I never knew any of this.

This is the whole universe that I never knew anything about.

And I'm suddenly like, you know, I even watch, what's the kiddie one?

Skeleton Crew.

I even watch that.

I've not watched that.

That's next to my after I finish the acolytes.

Skeleton Crew is lined up.

Don't you worry.

But I will say in its defense, not in its defense, it doesn't need defenses on the ground.

The most successful ever franchises, but the original three, four to six are, in terms of storytelling, perfect.

You know what I mean?

It is, you know, that classic, you know, the hero's journey is told amazingly.

If you try it against any story, I think it holds up.

Absolutely.

I'm showing my son a lot.

He loves comedy.

He's a big comedy fellow.

And so we're going through a bit of a phase of, I don't know the exact times, but like sort of Mitchell and Webb sketches, Armstrong and Miller sketches and Harry Enfield stuff, like I Saw You Coming, those sorts of things.

I'm showing him little bits, because there's nothing like that really on anymore.

And I showed him last night, we found this old Armstrong and Miller one where Ben Miller is going to buy a computer and Alexander Armstrong's character is trying to upsell him a lettuce leaf that just sticks to the back of the laptop for no reason whatsoever.

It sounds so stupid, but it's so brilliant.

It's got to be 20 years or more.

Just some of their sketches.

I remember some sketches from their shows.

Do you know one of my favorites from Armstrong Miller is the one where it's like a job interview.

They come in, this is a boss and he's chatting some, okay, yeah, yeah, tell me more.

They do two minutes of chat and then it goes, all right, thanks for coming in.

We'll give you a call and they walk out the room and he turns and picks up his phone to his receptionist and goes, kill them.

Yeah.

It's just a series of the same sketch.

I think it's such a funny concept.

It's so silly.

I think might be based on the Phantom Menace, by the way, just as a reference.

I think it's when the Jedi's go to the ship at the start and the Captain Sneaks off and calls Darth Sidious.

What do we do?

And I think he goes, kill them.

Right.

I think that is a reference that is snuck in there.

I took it as Dr.

Evil, but that's me getting the parody from the parody.

But there was so many sketches from that period that are just so perfect.

Like those Harry Anfield ones where people are coming in just buying shit for like a fortune is just so current as well.

Coming by a rusty old lamp for six grand.

I see stuff like that all the time.

And quite often is some crap that would have been in your house as a kid.

And someone's jazzed it up.

Yeah, stuff you've thrown out.

Yeah.

Just get a skip from like 1995, put it in a garage, open it up 30 years later, sell it all.

That's what we should be doing.

It's like vintage clothes.

You're going to like a hipster vintage clothes shop in Shoreditch.

And there's all your shitty, you know, sort of kappa zip up, you know, tracksuit tops.

People would have just been like, you know, they had a very brief period in the 90s were quite worn.

And then it was like, no, this is shit.

Yeah.

And now they're being sold for 50 pounds in Shoreditch.

Just a bunch of 21 year old hipsters walk around looking like they're 90s teenagers.

And it's like, you're getting stung there, man.

You could go and find that in a charity shop for two quid.

Well, let's hit a few format questions to see if we can.

So I'm going to ask you a new question, which has got nothing to do with television, but can you do any impressions?

Can I do any impressions?

People started doing them, so I thought I'd ask.

Do you know what?

I can't do specific impressions, like in terms of, you know, if you said to me, do Michael Caine, I can't do like that.

Yeah.

But I do speak in accents non-stop, you know.

I often just will drop into, in my head, I've always got my mom's voice and like, I've got one mate whenever we're together, we almost exclusively talk in sort of a slightly Northwest camp accent.

Okay.

Just, you know, just sort of like quite a camp, sort of, you know, like Manchester guy, you know.

I'm constantly doing accents and it's almost like a Tourette's thing.

I'll do it, I'll talk to myself in accents, just walk around the house.

But no, actual accents, like impressions, no, I'm not.

I've nailed a few in the past just by accident.

Do you remember when the Osborns first came on?

Oh, do I?

Yes.

Yeah.

And I remember once just watching a bit with my, I think it was my ex-wife and I went out of the room and I shouted.

In that, he was always, like, you know, Ozzy Osborn was always going, Sharon, from, you know, like whatever.

From another room, I shouted, Sharon.

And it was exactly the same as Ozzy Osborn's voice.

But it was a one and done, just pure luck.

I just hit it.

I remember trying to recreate it for, like, about a week and couldn't do it.

So, yeah, I've not got that.

You know, I know a few impressionists and, you know, sort of, do you know Luke Kempner?

Have you ever met Luke?

I know Luke.

I did a panto with Luke about 10 years ago.

Now in Les Mis.

And, you know, I've spent time with Luke over the years and, like, he's amazing.

He's the attention to detail.

They really focus on little moments in the intonation and all that.

I just don't have that sort of mind.

He's very good.

I saw his one man show in Edinburgh a couple of years ago, the police show.

It was fantastic.

Yeah, he's a talented boy.

Yeah, he is.

But there's like, I can't do Dublin accent.

I've never been able to do Dublin accent, but I was watching The Apprentice recently and they had this guy and he had a really good name.

I wish I could remember.

It's like something Derrigan.

Derrigan Juergen or something.

His name was that.

And every time he didn't like something, he'd just go, I don't like that.

I don't like that.

I don't like that.

And he just kept saying it.

It was like, completely nailed it.

Yeah, I think I did that as a kid because I lived in Ireland, like I said, I used to try and learn the Kerry accent to just try and blend in if anyone, if I was in a space where I didn't think I should be English, if you know what I mean.

So I'd like put it on a little bit.

Yeah, I remember a friend of mine moved to Ireland.

Yeah, we must have been, I'm going to say, eight or nine.

And his parents were Irish or lived around this corner from me.

And but they moved back to Ireland.

So he was like, you know, South London boy moving to Ireland.

And obviously, like, I think to fit in over there, he started picking up the accent so quick.

He came back to visit us.

I reckon it was nine months after he had moved.

And he sounded like Brad Pitt in Snatch.

He just led so hard.

Really?

He literally left and he was a South London boy.

You know, we were all working class South London boys.

You know, and he literally showed up in the outside the playground when we were coming out of school.

He was like, Jesus, Led, that's good to see you.

And we were just like, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Have you seen Mobland?

Have you seen Pierce Brosnan in Mobland?

He's forgotten how to be Irish, so he's really putting it on.

Sounds Welsh.

It's a great show.

Is it?

Because I've heard Mick Speedy, one of my friends, a good friend of mine, really hated it.

So, okay.

But I like to look at some of the clips.

And then, you know, I've got a sort of love hate relationship with Tom Hardy.

I think he's either great or I find him quite distracting.

I feel like he's the greatest living actor or something.

I think he can be.

I think on his day, but like I think sometimes he overdoes, it's like he's doing an impression of Tom Hardy.

You know, it's all a bit over the top of that.

You know, like, oh, man, do you know what I love?

I think Inception is my favorite ever Tom Hardy.

I think when you watch Inception and see Tom Hardy in it, you watch it and you're like, that's bond.

That should be bond, you know.

He should have been bond for sure.

He absolutely should have been bond and just purely just play it as that character from Inception.

He's so cool and just like, and I think sometimes, you know, I've watched stuff where I just find I find him distracting.

I find the sort of character I can't watch Peaky Blinders with him in it.

I tapped out of Peaky Blinders at that point.

I know what you mean.

And I thought, shut up.

Back to Bane.

It is almost, but like it's just.

Yeah, I mean, I like him.

Ever since I saw him doing the crazed film, I was just like, okay, I don't know who this guy is, but he's fucking amazing.

Haven't been able to look away since really, if I'm honest.

But in Mobland, he's good.

He's intense.

It's very charming.

And charming, yeah.

And he's not quite as cockney or anything like that.

He's got this quite well-spoken.

I really like him as well in interviews.

I think he comes across great in interviews.

And I think he's a really like seems like a cool guy, keeps himself to himself.

Like I really respect him, but I just, yeah, I just find sometimes I think that I love him.

And sometimes I'm like, come on, come on, Tom, tone it down a bit, just calm down.

He's probably been told to turn up the Tom Hardy, right, for that role.

Like if you've seen the film Havoc, he's up to 11 on that.

I didn't like Havoc.

Yeah.

It's that same thing of like, you know, when like the John Wick film, when I watched the first John Wick film, I thought, oh, this is fun.

Cause it's sort of like, do you know when you first watched The Raid?

Well, that's the same director as Havoc.

It is, yeah.

When you first saw that, it's that constant frantic, do you remember seeing the film Crank with Jason Statham?

Yes, and Crank.

The moment it starts, it's chaos and then it ends.

And you're like, oh my God.

And it's not great, but it's fun.

And I found with the first John Wick film, I was like, oh, this is like, yeah, it's fun.

They've made like a raid, but with Keanu Reeves being like, quite cool and doesn't speak much.

And I was like, that's an entertaining concept.

And each film, what they've done is made it more chaotic and ridiculous and it's diminishing returns.

And I found Havoc, obviously it's called Havoc, that's what they're doing.

But I found it too much.

I feel like this has given me ADHD just by watching it.

Well, the funny thing was when we watched Havoc, I had Mobland lined up as well and I didn't know which way to go.

And I'm glad I went that way because Havoc was what it is.

Where as Mobland I actually really enjoyed and thought was really good and sort of filled that kind of Sopranos top boy missing bubble.

That's why I enjoyed it.

And I know there's a bit of Guy Ritchie involved in it, but he can be in it too.

But it's good.

I mean, I would say late stage Guy Ritchie.

There was a tipping point of Guy Ritchie and I feel like as yet, he's very much down that direction.

I've not enjoyed it.

I say enjoyed is the wrong word.

They're always entertaining, aren't they?

But The Gentleman, I've not seen the TV show, but the film, if it wasn't for Hugh Grant, I would have turned this off a while ago.

I'll have Hugh Grant in anything on earth.

I could watch him just talk.

I love him.

I think he's brilliant.

And The Gentleman, he was the only redeemed.

Oh, and Colin Farrell, actually.

Colin Farrell, when he's messing around, I think it's a great bit of cinema.

But I actually thought the film was total crap.

But yes, that's saved by those two.

But I mean, Guy Ritchie films, I feel like there's a real diminishing returns.

Yeah, it's like they've already switched the Guy Ritchie AI on or something, and they're just pumping them out.

Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?

It happens with a lot of directors, you know, where sort of there's a peak moment, and it's so rare that you get a Scorsese knocking out some of his best stuff late in the day.

Even Tarantino, I've got issues with.

I actually think Tarantino had a big dip, and then he's got better again, which is rare.

Where was the dip, in your opinion?

I mean, Hateful Eight, Django.

I didn't love Django, I thought, again, saved by a couple of performances, but I actually didn't like, I thought as a film, I didn't love it.

What else was around that time?

I didn't, in Glorious Basterds, I thought again, as acting great, I just didn't, I didn't love the film.

I loved all the early stuff.

The opening of that movie, though, is something else.

Oh yeah, yeah.

I mean, there's great bits in it, but I thought overall I had issues.

I just didn't love it compared to some of his other stuff.

You know, do you know what?

I really didn't like the Kill Bill films.

Me neither.

Don't like either of them.

Not for me.

But then I genuinely watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

I went in with low expectations.

I fucking loved it.

I thought it was so funny and brilliant.

And I thought it was probably like Leonardo DiCaprio was the funniest he's ever been on camera.

I just couldn't believe how much I enjoyed that film.

I thought it was such a return to form.

It's just for me, Pulp Fiction is just such a great film.

I can't fault it.

No matter how many times I watch it, I just can't fault it.

And then when I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I was like, yes, okay, this is my bag.

And everyone slagged it off.

That was a weird thing.

But I thought it was a great film.

I know it got a bit of, I suppose the ending did throw some people, didn't it?

But I just didn't care that it was a fantasy ending.

Like, it's almost like what we wish happened.

But, you know, I think that's forgivable after a great acting and fun and it's cool.

It looks, it's that thing where I think when Tarantino can make stuff that is cool, which is a weird, almost cringey thing to say.

But when you think he slightly misses the mark, it is grinch.

You know what I mean?

That's always my relationship with a Tarantino film.

And like Brad Pitt is on the roof and I think he's about 60.

He's got his top off.

He was about 30.

This guy is annoying.

That's unbelievable.

What a specimen of a human being.

And he's again, Brad Pitt.

Well, Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt.

Yeah, I mean, I think on his day, bloody hell, like, you know, I could watch those Ocean's Eleven films just for him eating food and saying little quips to George Clooney.

It's almost like I could have that as my background entertainment 24 hours a day.

You know, on his day, Brad Pitt is a great, you know, there's difference, isn't there?

There's difference between people that are movie stars and people who are really good actors.

I noticed it when I watched them.

I was flying back from Australia last month and I watched Gladiator 2, which I think might be one of the worst films I've seen in memory.

And Paul Mescal, who I think is a fantastic actor, is not a movie star because the film, I think, falls apart.

On his shoulders, he cannot carry the weight of a blockbuster.

Whereas someone like Russell Crowe, I think, pound for pound probably isn't as subtle, amazing actor, but he's a movie star, do you know what I mean?

And you watch the Gladiator original one and he's Charlton Heston.

He's those sort of actors that can carry a big film.

It's not everyone can do it.

Okay, I'm going to ask you one final thing and we'll call it a day.

What's your favorite TV theme?

Oh, TV theme.

I mean, we've talked about The Leftovers.

I think the theme from Is It Leftovers Season 2, which is that sort of country song.

Yeah.

It goes, everybody's wondering where everybody's been.

I think that's such a great, because you think it's going to be the same as Season 1, which is that gothic, epic sort of Max Richter soundtrack.

He did loads of original stuff on the soundtrack of Leftovers and it's really sort of daunting and this is going to be bad.

So Season 2, you think it's going to be the same music and the first time you turn Season 2 on, there's this really upbeat sounding country song that actually listens to the words.

It's quite sad and bleak and I just remember hearing that and thinking, yes, this is going to be a great season.

Has anyone ever done that before?

Like change the theme completely?

I mean, I know this original theme's the things that get changed a few episodes in, but per season, I don't think that's been done, is it?

I don't know, actually.

Maybe that's why it stood out so much and why it's stuck in my head, because I remember just being stuck, I thought it was such a bold move for a show that, you know, it was obviously it was quite cult compared to Lost, it was nothing in terms of numbers.

But, you know, I think the people that watched it and loved it were desperate for a second season.

And, you know, to totally just throw out a new theme song is that's bold.

It is.

It was a great show.

It was under watched.

I feel like it's one that people will find, you know, it was already probably 10 years later, isn't it?

I don't know how long ago it was.

Patterson Joseph, that's his name.

My internal Google got there in the end.

That's his name.

Finally.

Well, thank you for coming on.

Just right at the end.

Cheers.

I'm sorry about the technical difficulties.

Not my fault.

It's this company we can't mention.

I think it was my Google.

My Google apparently needs storage.

I'm going to look into that now.

I've been punished for not using Chrome enough.

That was me talking to the comedian, Carl Donnelly, about football, food, some television and a lot of Ireland.

I enjoyed that chat, regardless of our technical difficulties.

Check out Carl online, he's got lots of clips up, and you know, you can find his stuff everywhere.

He's a very funny man, and go and see his live show whenever you can.

Right, now to today's outro track.

Right, today's outro track is called Hypocrite.

Now, I wrote this song about a million and a half years ago in the year 1996.

It was originally written, I think, about John Major, but it ended up being about my dad, sort of an amalgamation of ideas.

And because I was talking to Carl about Irish music and Ireland in general, I thought this one was a good one to pop on here because it has a clear Irish influence throughout.

I wrote it in one go, recorded it around that time, and this version is from 2005, which I recorded in the town of Peterborough with my friend Desmond Pai.

So I hope you like it, this is Hypocrite.

That was Hippocrate.

Now I hope you liked that song, and I hope you enjoyed my chat with Carl.

Come back next week for another episode of Television Times.

But until then, thanks for listening.

Bye for now.

Look into my eyes.

Tell your friends about this podcast.