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

Today, I've got one of the greats, one of my all-time favourite Australian actors, Stephen Curry.

I love this guy, he's amazing, and you'll definitely know his face if you don't know his name.

Not to be confused with the American sports person, obviously, that's someone else.

And, you know, I've been watching this guy for years.

I didn't even realise he was the guy from the castle.

That's how long I've been watching him, that comes up.

But he was just so good in so many comedic roles that I've seen him in in recent years.

That when I started this podcast, I was like, if I could get to speak to that guy, I just know we'd get on.

Do you know what I mean?

And fucking hell.

Didn't we just?

We had this great chat.

I stayed up very late, my end, to sync up with the Australian time zone.

And I chatted with Stephen and it was like, it was just like talking to a mate.

It was fantastic.

And, you know, we chatted about his role in the Marvel film, Thor, Love and Thunder.

And, you know, you think I would impress my son by saying I've spoken to someone from the Marvel universe.

You know, my boy was like, yeah, he's not in it very long.

I'm like, yeah, but it still counts.

But anyway, I really like this guy and he has been in one of my favorite films.

And I was watching it for a while before I even knew it was him.

That's how good he was.

It's Hounds of Love.

It's a dark film, a very dark film, but I don't think any other movie has really dealt with that particular subject as well as that one did.

He's also a man who I am envious of in many, many ways, but none more so than the fact that I found that he's not on social media.

It makes me like him even more.

And there's loads of TV shows that you might have not seen because they're not over here.

Population 11 was great fun, which I saw recently, which he was in.

He's obviously in Bay of Fires as well.

And 10 Pound Poms, which I know is on the BBC.

I haven't seen that one.

And Spreadsheet, which I believe is now on Channel 4 with Katherine Parkinson.

Brilliant, we're watching that right now.

It's so much fun.

Okay, here we go.

So let's get into the chat now.

This is me talking to the brilliant Stephen Curry.

Roll up, roll up, and welcome to another edition of Television Times with your host me, Steve Otisgun, 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.

Am I too loud for you or am I okay?

No, you're perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

Because this is the world of technology.

It's amazing, isn't it?

It is.

I'm pleased to meet you.

Yeah, nice to meet you too.

Big fan of your work.

It's very strange to be talking to you in the middle of the night in England.

Oh yeah, hang on.

What time is it?

Oh, it's not that bad.

It's about half 12 here.

Oh, half 12.

Oh, that's good.

I've been listening to a bit of your stuff.

I really like it, mate.

I'm yet to get the image of the comparison between the Beatles playing up on the roof of Abbey Road and you coming out of your father's ball bag.

It's a great image.

I don't mind the image, but it's confusing, but at the same time very comforting.

Is that weird?

I don't know.

I like your honesty.

Oh, thank you.

I put that into my Edinburgh show and it did confuse people.

And if they hadn't seen Get Back, it was really confusing.

Or you've seen the Beatles gig on the roof and they'd be like, no, I've lost them.

Got a woman from Prague and a critic from Norway.

This isn't working.

Yeah, look, the critic, the Norwegian critics are known as the toughest as well.

So I prefer a Danish critic.

The Danish critics, I find them a lot easier.

As long as you give them a sugary biscuit, they tend to be pretty happy.

I love Danes.

I watch a lot of Danish TV, I must admit.

Danish and Swedish.

Cheeky Danish crime drama or something.

I mean, they do it well.

Let's be honest.

They do.

There's a lot of dead women in the woods.

But yeah, there's a lot of woods.

There's a lot of woods.

It always gets me in Australia.

I don't know about over in the UK.

But in Australia, there's always people who get like bodies that get found by dog walkers and joggers.

Oh yeah.

And I think in Australia, because there's so much forest, I just think it's lazy.

I think it's lazy.

Like go further into the woods and just dig a little deeper.

I'm not a murderer, but if I was, I'd be good at it.

Oh yeah, yeah.

You'd be like, what's his name?

The guy in Wolf Creek?

Yeah, Mick Taylor.

Mick Taylor.

That's it.

Yeah, yeah.

I do enjoy those tests.

It's the most creepy laugh in the world.

It's really bad.

Apparently, they're making more.

I kind of look forward to it.

It's fun.

They're making more Wolf Creek?

Apparently, there's a film and a series, but I don't know how true it is.

That's what they say online, isn't it?

Well, they've made two films and they did make a series on Stan over here.

Yeah.

Which was pretty great.

I worked with Greg McLean, actually, who wrote and directed it on a film called Rogue.

Oh, right.

About an unfeasibly large crocodile.

Yes.

Which didn't do much business when it came out.

Is that the one with the geezer from Alias in it?

Michael Vartan.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I do remember that.

And it was interesting.

It didn't do a lot of business when it came out, but it took a pandemic and lockdowns and Netflix to pick it up, to all of a sudden for me to get people coming up saying, geez, you've lost a lot of weight since Rogue.

It's always good because I don't know whether it's a compliment or not.

It sounds like it should be a compliment, but it sort of comes out as like, I expected you to be a fat bastard in real life, which is fine.

I think you just don't look much like you did when you were younger.

So it's hard to kind of, you know, I didn't realize that was you in the castle.

Put it that way.

I had no idea.

Well, that's good.

Because I'm from over here.

I don't know you in that way, but I've obviously seen that film and heard the narration.

I should have picked up on it.

But to me, you just look like two different people, mate.

Well, that's what 28 years will get you.

Yeah.

I'm blonder these days than I have ever been.

Blonder and more.

What do they say?

Men age better and all that sort of stuff.

I don't know if it's true, brother.

Well, my wife has suddenly got to the point now where she's decided no more hair dye and I'm loving it.

She's just growing it out and she looks hot.

I think this fear of gray hair is one of society's big issues.

They've got to sort out frankly.

I think gray hair is good.

Yeah.

I agree.

My mother-in-law, she's 70, but she used to dye.

You know, women sort of at a certain age dye their hair red suddenly for some random reason that like lies in the middle for about 20 years.

When they stop, it's actually really nice.

You know, you don't need to look like that.

As long as they don't go blue.

I think once you get to blue, then what you're doing is you're just giving out too many hard candies and you're coughing through too many theatre productions.

And it seems to be like when you do a theatre show, it seems to be the matinees.

If anyone on stage has to smoke and they smoke these herbal cigarettes now, because you can't legally smoke a real ciggie on stage, three people with blue hair have to make a point of going...

Yeah, they do.

They can't even smell it.

It's psychosomatic.

I know what you mean, because I used to work on plays and we'd have like, I used to work on Inspector Cause quite a lot and they had this big, the house collapses and all this, you know, dry ice comes out.

And I remember, you know, we'd get all over here is fucking hearing aids.

We're going, yeah, just whistling hearing aids and people coughing when the dry ice came out.

It's like, yeah, we used to just laugh about it.

Yeah.

And there's two regular heckles that aren't meant to be heckles.

One of them is, what did he say?

You hear that a bit and then you also hear, oh, I don't like this.

From the front row.

It's like they've lost the filter.

I'd like to get, I can't, I'm 48.

I'm looking, I reckon I'm going to ditch the filter at about 72.

72, that's quite late.

I think they start earlier these days.

What, to ditch the filter?

Yeah, to just say what you want.

I think it's around 60, I reckon, from what I can tell.

Oh my god.

Okay, well, actually, you know what?

Let's embrace it.

I might do it when I'm 50.

My wife was telling me about some podcast that there's a lady who tried being brutally honest or just giving an honest answer to every question for a year.

Oh, right.

Yes, man, sort of thing.

Yeah, I guess so.

But just sort of even simple things like, you know, what do you think of the food I've just cooked for you?

I don't think it's a good way to make friends.

I think there's a social contract that if someone's cooked you a meal, you don't say, I thought that was awful.

Do you?

Well, you haven't got the ex-sister-in-law that I had.

I made her a vegetarian, some shit or other.

It's the first meal I ever made for her.

And she said, it is not terrible.

Oh, my God.

And that's actually meant to be a compliment, though, isn't it?

Is that meant to be designed as a compliment?

I expected this to be shit, but it wasn't that bad.

Your heritage is Irish, right?

Is that correct?

Am I getting it all wrong?

Irish English.

Well, I've actually just done ancestry.com.

I just did that.

Who do you think you are?

Yeah.

How's that go?

I think it should be called Don't You Know Who I Think I Used To Be.

That's what I say at nightclubs.

It doesn't tend to get me in.

But it was good.

It was good.

It was a really interesting experience.

I didn't get out of Victoria, Australia, which I kind of suggested, but does that mean I'm indigenous?

And they said, no, no, no.

It's just the more interesting stuff happened after your fucked up relatives got here.

Yeah.

So, but now I've got, I know I've got English, Irish.

I've got 11% Northeastern Scottish, which is great because all my in-laws are Northeastern Scottish.

The only bad thing would be if I'm related to my wife, but the kids have turned out all right.

Yes.

You've probably got like 15 cousins, third removed or whatever.

In England, I had just, you know, your regular cousins or whatever.

But when I went to Ireland, I suddenly had third cousins, second cousins, half uncles at school with you.

You know, it's kind of happening.

So many of them.

Yeah.

Any Pikeys?

You say Pikey, do you?

Yeah.

Well, we don't.

What do we say?

Travellers?

We say that around here for rough people.

I live in Newcastle.

Newcastle.

I feel really bad because my son has started using that word.

And I'm like, you can't say that.

It's the last bastion of racism.

Oh, is it?

But we can still have a go at redheads and bald people or something.

Is that what it is?

I don't know.

Yeah, it's still sort of acceptable to sort of call someone a slaphead, isn't it?

There was literally an ad here.

So you got advanced hair over there?

Advanced hair.

What does that mean?

It's basically like a regrowth, hair regrowth company.

Right.

And they had this ad.

This was literally only five years ago.

They had this ad where it was a dude, a bald dude with no friends.

And then he kind of just looking a bit sad.

And then they cut to after he's been to advanced hair, he's now got hair and he's on a jet ski, right?

With this really beautiful woman on the back.

And he's wearing a singlet like a Wham!

style singlet.

Oh, right.

Choose life or something.

Well, no.

It says no hair, no life.

Jesus.

Some of my best friends are bald and they got lives.

They got good lives.

Yeah.

But they don't have hair.

Say that to the Rock.

Yeah.

Go on.

Go on.

You walk up to the Rock and you tell him no hair, no life.

See how that ends for you, champ.

I was watching something recently.

It was the hijack of flight 61, something like that.

It's from 1973 and the pilot has got like, you know, full head of hair and he takes off and then they have a fight and his wig comes off and he looks completely different.

I mean, he ages 30 years immediately.

And then when he put the wig back on, you're like, it's like a magic trick.

It really is quite impressive.

Yeah.

The change is dramatic.

I like the dudes.

See, as I was saying, I like gray hair, right?

And I like the dudes who are too old to have the hair color that they choose.

You know, when it's just a bit too dark, like you just go, split the difference, dude.

Oh yeah.

Just split the diff.

I once saw Robert Smith at a gate in Heathrow and I think he promised that he would stop doing all that shit when he got to a certain age, but he was there about five years ago with it all looking exactly like it did 1984.

Jet black.

I thought, Robert mate, you're getting on a plane.

I think we could all take a leaf out of Elsa's book.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Anyway, no, but look, I love Robert Smith.

You know, I'm a love cat.

Of course.

That's a great change.

Absolutely great change.

So look man, in case I forget to say it, because I can't not say this one.

I've seen you in a lot of stuff, but one of my favorite films and it shouldn't be a favorite film because it's fucking dark.

Hounds of Love, baby.

Hounds of Love.

What a turn.

That was incredible.

It's an incredible film.

The dude who wrote that, Ben Young, he wrote and directed it.

It was his first feature film.

And for anyone who hasn't seen it, it's full.

It's kind of loosely based on a few different couples who have gone out of their way to abduct and abuse and murder young girls, basically.

It's heavy.

It's heavy.

But the way he has made this film is about, it's sort of a more of a psychological study.

And he's got the masterstroke of closing the door.

You don't see anything.

I mean, you see things, but you don't see what a lesser filmmaker would do would be to kind of turn it into torture porn or something, you know.

He's a master of kind of leaving things up to the audience's imagination, which I think is far more effective and powerful as a filmmaking strategy.

But you in it, man.

I mean, you were sinister.

You were sinister in that.

It's just so different to how I've seen you in anything else, I think.

Did it feel different for you?

Or have you done things like that before?

Well, yeah, it did.

But for many years, I was kind of pigeonholed as the dipshit comedy guy who couldn't get laid kind of thing.

And that's fun.

That's really fun, playing people like that.

But playing bad guys is good because it's a...

There's like a box.

It's like an imaginary...

I describe it as an imaginary square, kind of like, you know, in pulp fiction, you know, Emma Thurman does.

Don't be a square.

That is what you're in as a good guy.

The bad guy just gets to...

The good guy can't put his toe over that line or he ceases to be a good guy.

Whereas the bad guy gets to take his shit on it, usually metaphorically.

But it's kind of, for me, it's a lot more fun to play bad people.

And sure, you're most likely going to die at some stage, but even that's kind of pretty liberating, because then they can't get you back for the sequel.

I've had a lot of people tell me that they loved it and it's one of their favorite films, but they'll never see it again.

And I think that is a great review.

Do you know what I mean?

That's how I feel about Gladiator.

Watch it once, never see it again.

Revenge of the nerds.

Don't want to look at Russell Crowe and go, wow, he really doesn't look like that anymore.

No, don't tell Russell that.

It's like telling the Rock, he's got no hair.

He's got thick head hair, doesn't dye his hair.

Doesn't dye his hair.

I saw like even flickers of menace in, I don't think many people in the UK have seen Population 11 because it's not available over here.

So don't ask me how I've seen it.

It's coming out, it's coming out.

But yeah, in there, you're a little quirky sinister person as well.

Yeah, sort of red herring, red herring sinister.

Oh, spoiler alert.

But yeah, I mean, that show is one big red herring.

It's great.

I'm very impressed by what they did with that show.

And that's Trent O'Donnell directed the first, actually Ben Young, who directed Hounds of Love, also directed the middle four episodes of that.

But yeah, Trent O'Donnell, who's arguably the best comedy director in this country, directed it.

Phil Lloyd wrote it and Jungle, who do a lot of stuff over here.

He might have seen No Activity.

Oh yeah, I've seen all that.

Yeah, of course.

Squinters.

Yeah, yeah.

Look, they're...

Yeah, so Trent directed that.

It was a great thrill to work with him and now be able to call him a friend and hopefully never hear from him again.

When I'm watching a show like that, I have to admit that, like, I'm watching it and obviously I'm into the story, but also I'm thinking, how the fuck do they get anything to that town?

It's in the middle.

You know, a town like that, having like even Coke in the fridge to me is like almost baffling, you know.

I do like that that's the thing you're wondering about too.

Now, you know, it's funny, mate, it is.

And that town is actually probably even more remote than it appears in that show.

Derby in Western Australia is one of the most remote towns in the country, and it's a country with some really fucking remote towns.

So much so that, and it doesn't seem to be a lot of communication in the town, because a lot of people knew the show was there.

You'd think nothing really happens in this town.

You'd imagine, you know, a TV show comes to town that might get around.

The dude at the servo, which was next door to where the whole cast and crew were staying, because it's the only place in town to put anyone up, he looks at me as I'm ordering a couple of dim sims and a few potato cakes.

My body's a temple.

And he goes, mate, please don't say this the wrong way.

I said, yeah, okay, I already am.

But yeah, he goes, you look just like Stephen Curry.

And I went, oh, I've heard that.

He goes, yeah, but as if he'd fucking be here.

It almost sounds like an insult.

Don't take this the wrong way.

I know.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you look exactly like that ugly bastard, Stephen Curry.

Thought he might have thought I look like Stephen Curry, the basketball.

Yeah, yeah, I was going to say that.

Because I've got this mate, Rob Morgan.

He's Robert Morgan, an Australian actor, and he gets a mistake.

Oh, yeah.

American actor, Rob Morgan.

Both of them come up when you IMDb.

Yeah, I got told on a low budget economy flight in America about four years ago that that was not my credit card that I put forth to buy one beer.

He said, I'm sorry, sir, this is not you.

I may as well have given him a card that said LeBron James.

That's how they saw it.

Yeah.

Right?

No shit.

And I went, would you imagine that there are two people in this world with the same name?

He said, I'm going to have to see some photo ID, sir.

And so I give him my photo ID and he goes, Brian, Brian, you've got to come see this.

Brian comes down and goes, no shit.

That's you?

I said, yeah.

And I was here first.

Fuck.

Now give me the beer.

No, I didn't say that.

I'm not a confrontational person.

That's what I practice in the years subsequent.

That's what I would have said.

But what I did say was, yeah, absolutely.

Thank you.

You should have pulled out a DVD.

Do they make DVDs anymore?

I don't know.

Yeah, check this out.

Who do I make it out to?

I got invited to the White House to have dinner with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.

And it took me around about three seconds after I opened up the embossed card to realize that someone had fucked up.

Someone in the White House said, get Stephen Curry's management now.

Send it now.

Okay, okay, sir.

Okay, sir, I'll send it now, sir.

It's in Melbourne, Australia, sir.

Anyway, so I get the embossed invite.

Before that three-second moment where I realized they had the wrong dude, I thought, far out, I didn't know Barack Obama was such a fan of The Castle.

Who is cancelled culture?

Can I ask that much?

The fuck are these people?

I was raised a Catholic, right?

Now, I haven't been in a church outside of a funeral for 30 years, and in no way do I identify as being Catholic, but I did hear some Bible readings in the first 18 years of my life.

And the one that always stuck in my head was people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Now, let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

I think cancelled culture, I don't know, man, look inward every now and then.

Fuck's sake.

Has anyone done the joke on late night television yet?

What about Diddy?

Diddy?

Sure fucking did.

I don't know, I don't know.

I've got to workshop that.

My son, my nine-year-old son, we were going to the supermarket the other day, and this is a true story, right?

Hot day, sun's out, and he said, let's go, and I said, no, no, you've got to put a hat on, dude.

And he goes and gets his favorite hat, which is a big sombrero.

He loves his sombrero, so it's a huge sombrero, this thing.

And he wears it down to Coles and this young work white lady on the outside, my son goes in and she stops me and says, excuse me, are you familiar with cultural appropriation?

I said, yes, but he isn't.

What?

He couldn't give a shit, he likes the hat.

A nine-year-old can't wear a sombrero because he's not Spanish.

Are you joking?

No jokes.

Go to any London Mexican restaurant with a bunch of handoes and they're all fucking wearing sombreros and getting hammered on tequila.

They're cool hats.

They're cool hats because my hippie friend who probably will end up running a cult one day and likes wearing t-coats, he's on his head and his favorite one is like a Bob Marley one, but he's a white dude.

Is he allowed to wear that?

I think a white guy who dreads spells trouble generally on a backpacking trip, but I don't know.

Smells trouble, they smell of trouble, they stink.

I don't know.

That does seem a bit odd these days, I guess, but I mean, I don't know.

I just don't know whether the pendulum has a bit to come back where we can just go, it's all right.

Otherwise, you're doing St.

Patrick's Day, what am I going to start going mad at English people because they're appropriating my heritage?

Because walking around with a fucking leprechaun on the head.

I don't know.

Yeah.

When my father died, my niece, his favourite song was the Banana Boat song by Harry Belafonte.

And my family, we all love to sing, we've all been in bands and stuff for years, and we were going to do an acapella banana boat song for my dad.

His favourite song.

What's the lyric?

And she said, you can't.

Okay.

And we said, why not?

And she said, because it's not yours to sing.

It's like, well, neither is Purple Haze.

Well, neither is actually Yellow Submarine for that matter.

In fact, all the songs that are mine are shit.

I don't want to play them at my dad's funeral.

I want to play his favourite song.

Anyway, I don't understand it.

I don't understand it.

I guess if you're being an actor, you're also going to be at the forefront of all of you have to play the thing you are, which I get it to some extent, but obviously it's just called acting for a reason.

Yeah, that one's a weird one, man.

That one's a weird one.

It's like My Left Foot's a great film.

You know, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

What about Forrest Gump even?

That probably couldn't even make that man.

No, it would be.

I'd make that man.

There's no way.

But it will come back around because, you know, you just need to...

You know, if my grandad was alive, he'd just be walking around and going, what they eat is a good world war.

And I kind of think, yeah, he's kind of fucking right actually in a weird way.

Get some perspective.

Everyone's moaning about how terrible the fucking world is.

Have you been outside?

It's fine.

And again, it feels like we've just met and it feels like I'm moaning about work culture.

No, no, no.

I think there are some very, very, very valuable lessons that have been taught to us.

I get that.

But it's just, I think it's pendulous.

And I'm hoping that it just comes back to a little bit of...

A sensible...

Yeah, let's get it.

Let's take the Salem witch trials out of it a little bit.

I think so.

I mean, obviously, there's a lot of good comes from it.

And I, you know, I want to live in a progressive, liberal country where everyone is accepted and nobody's punched down upon.

But I think Bill Maher said it quite well.

He said something like, can we just...

The train's gone a few stations too far down the track.

Can we just reverse a little bit?

And I do agree with that.

It's just, it's gone a little bit fucking nuts.

Yeah, but you know, it's all right.

Everyone's having their say.

Isn't it lucky that everyone gets to fucking share every single thought they ever had of coming hot?

No, coming hot is good.

It's great.

Because I was wondering if I'd even have any energy at this time of night.

So what was it like being in Thor?

Sideswipe.

Oh, pretty quick.

You're my first Marvel guy.

Well, I did Blue Face in that.

Yeah, I know.

Don't know if that's been cancelled now.

I don't know.

It's hard to know.

It's not a Belgian smash.

It was interesting, man.

It was the first big sort of Hollywood film I've ever done.

I'm only in a couple of scenes of it.

So let's not gild the lily.

But it was a great experience.

Tyker is, I've known him for a bit and he's hilarious.

The audition for it was, I had to do it once as an American and once as an Australian.

And they didn't even mention that he was an alien king in this audition.

In fact, didn't even mention what the name of the show was.

Just it was some Marvel thing.

And so I did it as an Australian and I did it as an American and got the role and then I get there on the first day and I've had three hours in makeup to look like this blue king guy.

That will be in the show notes.

And then, anyway, I get out on a set after sitting there all day.

It was my birthday too, you know, by the by, but still thought I might colour the story with a little bit of that.

Anyway, so I get out there and then I walk out in front of 400 crew members on this huge sound stage and I'm standing between Chris Hemsworth and Chris Pratt and I don't know what I'm doing yet because I haven't had a chance to sit down with Tyker for five minutes to work out whether it's an American or an Australian accent.

And he goes, and I said, what are we doing?

He goes, oh, that whole scene that you were going to be doing, we're not going to do that now.

We're just going to improvise this thing where you basically, there's cat shit all over there, spaceship.

It's not in the film, by the way, I might just practice by saying that because I must have been pretty good.

I said, right, he goes, yeah, so just improv, Chris Prattle to say, you know, whatever, what's that?

And you just say something like that's cat shit.

And I went, okay, cool.

He goes, all right, turn over.

I'm going, hang on, hang on, Australian or American?

And he goes, this is a $150 million film, right?

You'd think the organization would be better than this.

And I said, yeah, Australian or American?

And he goes, oh, just try it as Australian.

So I went, okay, cool, action.

What's that?

That's cat shit.

All right, cut.

Oh, that's not working.

Um, how about this?

How about you just try it as an alien?

I went, okay, what does an alien sound like?

It gets what you're telling me.

All right, turn over.

And he goes, action.

And then Chris Pratt says, what's that?

And I say, that is cat shit.

And he goes, cut, perfect.

All right, that's a wrap.

And I went, hang on, is that my accent now?

And he goes, that'll do.

See you tomorrow for the scene you were gonna do.

So all of a sudden I get home going, what is going on here?

I've worked on films worth, that have cost $4 to make.

And I got a chance to sit down with the director to at least work out what my character sounded like.

Anyway, it was hilarious.

It was a great experience.

That's great, man.

I think it's one of the biggest CGI films I've ever seen.

I saw it at the cinema with my son.

I mean, you're saying the sets were really, really big.

Anyway, so how much of that was real?

Because it was huge.

It's a thing called the volume.

So they basically had this 270 degree screen that you're in front of and sort of surrounded by.

And so everything at one stage, I even said, where are these bats coming from that I've got to tell Thor about?

What are we going to look at?

And the first day they looked at me and went, well, where they are, but they're there.

And I looked up and there are these bats.

Oh, right.

I was expecting like a tennis ball on a C stand or something.

Like, you know, that's what we're used to.

But yeah, it was crazy, man.

It was a great experience.

Actually, the best part of the experience was going to the movies with my boys.

They'd seen a photo of me in the blue makeup.

And so when I came on, I get this little elbow on my rib from my eight year old going, Dad, that's you.

Right?

And I went, yeah, yeah, it is.

And he goes, you're talking to Thor.

Right?

Which made the entire experience so worthwhile.

I didn't have the heart to tell him he used to be on Home and Away.

I left that out because I feel like that would be negative.

But no, it was wicked, man.

It was some it was a good experience.

And you know, it's so funny.

That's a flop.

That's a flop.

That's a Marvel flop because it only made just under one billion Australian dollars at the box office.

I'll fucking show them flops, mate.

I've got a little favor to ask you.

Could you please follow us on social media?

And if you've got time, leave a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get them.

It all helps drive traffic back to the podcast.

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

You were in Neighbours?

Was it like a recurring character?

I was in Neighbours three times with three different characters, which is always an indicator that you were excellent in the first two roles.

Really rememberable.

So they just go, I'll just play this one as well.

Now I played a character called Greg Bartlett.

I was in it for a month and he mugged Granny Helen.

You remember Granny Helen from Neighbours?

And how did he?

I mugged her and then moved in with her.

So I mug her and then run off with her handbag.

And then the next day, Jim Robinson and Helen are in the coffee shop and they see Greg Bartlett come in with the 50 bucks that was in her purse and try and buy himself a milkshake or something.

And then Jim goes up and grabs him by the scruff of the neck.

And Helen says, No, Jim, Jim, no, we need to understand that wayward young people need guidance.

He's moving in with me, which happens in real life anyway.

So then a month later, I stole Doug Willis' drill and fucked off out of it in Aaronsborough.

And then two years later, I was Toad Fish's mate Ted, who was like this gambling guy.

So memorable for my role as Greg Bartlett and even my first role, which was one scene in the coffee shop a year before the Greg Bartlett one, in which I tried to light a ciggy in the coffee shop.

On the truck you're out.

No, she just comes around the corner and says, hey, how's about you put that out?

And I had one line and the line was, how's about some cake?

I didn't win a Logie or a Bafta or anything for that.

That's cool, man.

Yeah, because a lot of people over here don't know they get roles in Coronet Street East Enders and they'd get like three roles, go back, play someone else.

It's just how soaps work, because you're supposed to forget, I guess.

You just sit and forget.

How about this, on Blue Heelers, did you ever get Blue Heelers over there?

I know what it is.

Yeah, I've seen it.

So that was the same thing.

Every every Melbourne actor did Blue Heelers in the 90s, like Cory or Easties or whatever.

And I played three roles in that.

And the second one was a sort of a, I guess, I don't know what the word would be, quite a simple young chap, let's just say.

Who got caught molesting a dead heifer, right?

No jokes.

Okay.

And then I did that.

And I thought I did a really good job of that.

But obviously I wasn't even memorable in that because they got me back a year later to play another character.

Like if you can't be memorable as the simpleton molesting a dead heifer, you got problems.

Did they stick a mustache on you or something?

No, they just put a hat on me.

Backwards, a backwards hat because I was pretty cool.

That was a cool dude.

Yeah, skateboard.

I think there might have been a skateboard under the arm of some sort.

Oh really?

I could work on Blue Heelers.

You could do it.

You could write for them at this rate.

Right, we've got to get some format questions.

Oh, this is what I love about your show.

You often say this, we should get some format questions in and it's like...

It never happens.

And it's like nine-tenths of the way through the show.

That's what I love about it.

Anyway, sorry, I keep blocking you.

No, let's see what I've got written down here.

Oh, Mr.

Black, what happened with that?

Because I love that show and I heard it was going to be made in America as a remake or something.

No season two.

I like that show too.

Did it play in the UK?

I saw it in the UK.

I don't know if it played in the UK.

Oh, wow.

You're giving away a lot.

Yeah, no, look, it was interesting.

It just kind of, I don't know, I enjoyed that first series.

It probably had a bit to go.

We were starting to develop the second one and I was kind of starting to do a little bit of sort of additional material on it and it just fell over.

It's kind of hard.

In Australia, there's no money.

So things have got to basically rate their balls off to get a second run, unless they're sopes and they don't really care.

But yeah, so Mr.

Black, yeah, comedy, effectively a sitcom, I suppose.

Yeah, it was cute.

And what about the American remake?

Was that real or was that just lovel nonsense online?

It was talk.

It was talk of it and it started getting some movement, but then it died in the arse.

Yeah, it's a shame.

I thought it could have been a really good show, that one.

I really enjoyed playing it.

Again, asshole.

I like playing an asshole.

Yeah, you're good in that.

But yes, there was another thing as well.

I'm piling through these quickly just to see if there's any gold.

Talking of gold, the nugget.

Did you notice Zac Efron stole your idea recently with the musical?

Well, my friend Tony Hayes actually wrote and directed that.

And I sent him a text saying congratulations on the nugget too.

And he didn't reply.

I thought it was pretty funny.

I thought it was pretty good.

Now, the best thing about the nugget was at the premiere.

So Eric Banner and myself and a guy called Dave O'Neill played the lead, three leads in that.

That was 2001.

At the premiere in Mudgy, which is a small country town in New South Wales.

That's a good name.

We turn up at the main drag and all the town have turned out to check out the premiere of this film.

And we're in the back of a Ute.

Hey bales, everything, right?

And we're in suits and Eric's in the middle.

I'm on one side, Dave's on the other.

And the radio announcer, who was the MC on the street goes, Ladies and gentlemen, here comes Eric Banner, Hollywood superstar flanked by two security guards.

I'll always remember the joy on Eric's face and kind of the look between me and Dave going, you know what, that's just showbiz, baby.

That's just showbiz.

The original Hulk.

The original Hulk.

He went off and did the Hulk straight after that, actually.

It's interesting because it's a film that, you know, it gets the piss taken out of it, but it's kind of a good go-to.

If I host a lot of stuff, like I'll host the actor awards, AFIs, whatever, which is like BAFTAs over there.

And if you ever make a nugget joke, it always goes well because people know it, like everyone knows it.

Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we celebrate some of the greatest Australian films of all time, Gallipoli, Mad Max, Breaker Morant, The Nugget.

And I go, oh, hang on, who put that in there?

And then look around and say, take out Breaker Morant, that kind of stuff, which seems to, I don't know, the audience seems to like it.

We like to take the piss out of ourselves a little bit.

Did you do stand up?

You come from stand up.

Oh, did I do stand up?

I did a little bit.

I do it sort of, as I say, I host a lot of stuff.

So when I host stuff, I'll do it, I'll do, you know, 10 minutes at the top of that.

I've found stand ups on the whole to be fairly depressing people to be around.

And I'm sorry, and this is not, this is not a, I'm not having to go at anyone by the way.

But it's kind of like, I think if you live and die on every joke, I don't think it's good for your brain.

I do some in my, what I was doing in Edinburgh, but I came back from Edinburgh going, oh yeah, I'm not a stand up.

I didn't think I was, but now I definitely know I'm not.

Did you get your head shaved at the end of the show like you were going to?

No, man, kept it long.

Because I had a dream.

I had a dream that I cut it off.

And then when I woke up, I was relieved I didn't.

So I figured that that is probably an internal thing.

I mean, I would love to cut it off.

I hate it.

But I have a recurring nightmare that I'm playing for the Collingwood Football Club, my favorite Aussie rules team.

Because I pontificate so loudly when I go to the games that I feel like that's my karma.

Is that if I'm, I can't play footy for shit.

Right?

Yeah.

But gee, I like to tell people what I know about it.

It's terrible.

Because I've got to, I've got to fashion ways to be away from the ball.

I pretend I have to do up my laces and getting distracted by people in the crowd and all that sort of stuff.

It's pretty sad.

For my years and thirds, I still have dreams where the cast are on stage and I'm in the auditorium and I'm supposed to mix the show and I don't know the show and the mix and that's still in the fucking flight case and the audience is all sitting down.

I'm like, what?

I don't even know what this fucking people's mouths are moving.

It's the worst.

That's the post-pubescent, forgot to wear clothes to school nightmare, isn't it?

That's the parallel.

So format, come on.

OK, so we'll do a few of these.

OK, here we go.

OK, have you got a jingle?

Oh, well, you know, it's probably pretty self-evident, the best theme song ever written.

And now the world don't move to the beat, I just wonder what might be right for you.

Bum bum, it might not be right for some.

Yeah, different strokes.

Different strokes.

Different strokes are closely followed by born in an egg on a mountain top.

Monkey.

Monkey is monkey.

Yeah.

I just like the funky ones.

I like the funky ones.

I don't know whether it's cultural appropriation or like those songs.

Dripitaka.

Dripitaka.

Oh, no, that's cultural appropriation.

But yeah, look, I think different strokes, it's kind of, it is just one of those shows that was so formative for me.

Like, it just came around at the right time when I just wanted to do it for a job.

And I thought, I was so jealous of Gary Coleman and, and what was Willis' name?

What was his real name?

Didn't they all have terrible lives afterwards?

Yeah, I think he got caught robbing a service station.

And then the older sister, I think she might have died fairly young as well.

Yeah, terrible.

I think it's like Poltergeist vibes, everything went wrong.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you know, then along come to, they got nothing but the genes, but they got different strokes and a pretty shitty future ahead of them.

Yeah, but no, I love that.

It was great.

I'm a real fan of 80s sitcoms and mainly American 80s sitcoms and all those ones like Family Tires.

And have you seen them as an adult if you look back at them?

I have.

Family Tires holds up the best, I'll be honest.

I think performance wise, Michael J.

Fox, who was shooting Back to the Future at night in the last season of Family Tires, by the way, right?

That's crazy.

Like crazy after Eric Stoltz got the ass.

Yeah.

Have you seen that footage?

I like watching.

Yeah, it's unbelievable.

I like watching all of them.

I like watching the audition reels of everyone who's ever going to be famous.

Oh, you've seen the one for the little kid in ET.

You've seen that?

Elliot from ET.?

Dude, see it.

Put in into YouTube something like Elliot ET audition.

His performance in this audition is so brilliant.

It's so heartbreaking.

I can't believe this kid didn't go on to be the biggest actor in the world because his performance is outstanding and he finishes it and he's crying and he finishes it and there's silence and all you hear is Steven Spielberg in the background saying, You got the job kid.

Have you had a terrible audition or one that you've gone to and you thought you got the gig or they say yeah you've got it and then you leave and you never hear from them again?

Well, we're getting off format but I'll tell you this one.

No, we can get off format.

I auditioned for Charlotte's Web, you know the movie Charlotte's Web?

And in Charlotte's Web, there is a character called something like Wacky Farmhand or something.

Well, he's got a name but he's like the Wacky Farmhand and it's a supporting role but it's kind of like a comedy role, a bit goofy but it was going to get seen by lots of people and I was pretty excited.

Anyway, I went in and tried to go full wacky and these two American producers never looked up from their blackberries which dates it.

Anyway, I never looked up and the less they looked up, the more I was trying to kind of hammer.

Anyway, at one stage, this guy, the camera operator who I had known for years and used to cast things out of Melbourne, he pops his head around from the side of the camera and he goes, what happened to your comic timing?

And I went, pardon?

I said, pardon?

Because I want to stay in the American character.

And he says, you used to have comic timing.

And I went, oh, I'm out.

Thank you.

Thanks, guys.

Again, they didn't look up.

Thank you.

Anyway, a month later, I get a phone call.

You booked it.

I went, what?

Show us where?

We go, yeah, you booked it.

And I said, what, the farm hand?

And my agent goes, no, no, no, Happy Village in number two.

Yeah, I said, what does Happy Village in number two do?

I mean, always a good sign when they don't have a name.

And she goes, he's got one line, and it's, what an amazing pig.

They get AI to do that now, wouldn't they?

Oh, yeah, they wouldn't.

They wouldn't be casting the wacky shit guy who used to have comic timing to do that.

That's for sure.

Okay, give me a number between one and 22 and we'll see what pops up.

It would have to be seven, wouldn't it?

Seven.

A TV show that you normally wouldn't admit to liking, but you do.

F Boy Island.

F Boy Island.

Dance for Fuck Boy Island.

No, I don't.

I don't.

So that's being facetious.

It's the worst show.

Is that a real TV show?

Yeah, yeah.

A bunch of fuck boys on an island and a bunch of girls just kind of get try to avoid, you know, being, it's horrible.

Can I be honest with you?

I don't understand Taskmaster.

The English one or the Aussie one?

Oh, just the show.

I know it's a popular show.

I've watched it a couple of times going, I've got to be able to get this.

I don't get it.

I think it's very English.

I've watched a couple of New Zealand ones.

It just seems a bit naff.

Sorry to say.

I don't understand it.

It's a bit edgier in England.

They got Greg Davies literally trying not to call everyone a cunt every five minutes.

So it's a bit funnier.

Well, yeah.

And I have watched one episode because Parky, Katherine Parkinson, did it in the UK and she told me about it.

And I kind of went, Oh, all right, no worries.

I'll have a squeeze at one of her episodes.

And I watched it and I liked her.

I've always liked her.

Yeah.

She was really scatty on it.

Yeah.

And she won it, I think.

She won it?

I don't think she won it.

Anyway, she was the one that you took the best out of every episode for doing bad.

Right.

And I only saw one of that and I liked her, but I just don't understand the concept of it.

Anyway, I like it.

My son likes it.

My wife hates it.

She can't stand it.

So it's one of those TV shows.

Yeah.

Sometimes you're watching it, you think, oh, why am I watching this?

Because there's so many now.

But I do enjoy it.

I think it could be...

They're doing a junior Taskmaster too for kids.

That's going to get syndicated all over like traitors.

Do they do junior MasterChef over in the UK?

I think they do.

They definitely do junior Bake Off.

I reckon it's all bad.

I reckon that's bad.

You tell me, off the top of your head, you tell me one kid who's had great success at an early age and it's worked out really great for their psyche.

Michael Jackson, clearly.

So what do you think will be the biggest TV show in the year 2050?

Ah, look the way we're going.

It'll be a reality show.

It'll be called What's That Smell?

That sounds like Is It Cake?

Netflix are going to grab that one.

Yeah, yeah, what's that smell?

Because we'll all have smell-o-vision by then.

Oh, yeah.

And because it'll be on our VR headsets.

No, no, why won't have VR headsets?

We'll have a little chip.

And so we'll be able to press the button on our temple.

And then there'll be an olfactory element.

And basically, it's like you've got to guess what's that smell.

There'll be three smells that it could be something like it.

Like it could be a fart, it could be boiled eggs, or it could be a serious gas leak that may lead to a cataclysmic explosion.

And then you go, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac.

It's fart, asparagus.

Bum-bum.

That kind of vibe.

Well, there could be a whole load of them.

They sort of somehow reanimate a lot of dodgy people.

And then there's one called Like Who's Touching Me.

And you click on blindfold.

You gotta work out if it's Bill Cosby or Weinstein.

Who's hand is that?

It's that.

It's that.

Did you ever hear about the failed, and I can't believe it's failed.

It's had such legs on it, this one.

It was called Who's Your Daddy?

True story.

American pilot in which, you heard of this?

No, I have not.

In which, in which a whole bunch of people who've never met their father have to see a line up of dudes that might be their father.

For fuck's sake.

And if they can guess, then the person, each one of them says, it's almost like in Would I Lie To You?

You know, when the person goes, yes, this is Michael.

And Michael used to be my plumber.

I've got a great story about a time that my wife lost her ring down the toilet, and Michael, God love him, went all the way down a pipe.

He looks fatter than he is because he made the way all the way down the aspen, or whatever, right?

Yeah.

And so, yeah, ten blokes, and you have to guess which one is your daddy.

Cannot believe it didn't make it past the pilot stage.

And they're all different ethnicities, obviously.

Oh, yeah.

Well, look, anyone can identify as anything these days.

So, you know, we've got to cast a diverse, you know.

Oh, careful, careful, careful.

Let's not get another one again.

Have you seen the goodies in the last ten years?

I haven't seen the goodies in the last 30 years.

Gunn.

It has not aged well.

I loved it, but it is a relic.

Is it Benny Hill vibes?

Oh, sort of.

But it's almost like it wanted to be Benny Hill vibes because there's a couple of double entendre and whatever.

But it's just the gags just haven't lasted the distance.

I'm sorry.

But yeah, it's I don't know.

And my kids, I even tried to show it to my kids and they went, Why are they all riding their bike?

And it's like, if that's the question they're asking.

It's like, it's not a bike, guys.

It's not a bike.

It's funny, like trying to get kids to what like my son really likes Red Dwarf.

You know, Red Dwarf?

Oh, yeah.

Some of us are 30 years old more, you know, and he likes it.

Yeah.

And has it lasted the distance?

It's pretty good, but it's very sexual.

Oh, great.

Everything is sex.

And I forgot that.

It's not until you show your kids stuff that you go, oh, that's right.

Nineties.

Nineties.

Everything in the nineties is, you just watch any film or anything that you think was quite tame.

And two minutes in, there's a woman with massive tits.

And you go, why is she there?

That's not even part of this plot.

Yeah.

And she's there for that.

And she's never got any sort of, there's no rounded character arc for that lady.

No, she barely speaks.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

Yeah.

It was a fun time to do that.

A fun time to be alive.

But it's a fun time to be alive now.

It's a fun time.

It's a good time to be alive now.

That's why we should all be moaning about how terrible the world is.

Yeah.

Beep, beep, beep.

And I haven't seen Spreadsheet either.

Katherine Parkinson, and I've always been a fan of hers, but working with her on That Was Wicked, she is an absolute beauty, that lady.

She is so good.

So fun to work with and such a pro, but so funny, like so sharp.

And the kind of the bounce you get, there's just this kind of comedic bounce with her, which is just so, she's brilliant, man.

I can't say enough.

And I actually got the chance to meet her husband, Harry Peacock as well, who I've always been a fan of.

Ray fucking Purchase.

And Star Stories.

And Star Stories, yeah, that's right.

Yeah, so he and I managed to go and squeeze in a game of golf.

Yeah, I just kind of like, I like it when you meet people that you've kind of enjoyed from afar.

Yeah.

And they're actually even better than you had hoped.

You know what I mean?

That's nice.

I have had experience as well, I've sort of met people, you know, what do they say?

Don't meet your idols or whatever.

But it's great with people like, you know, with Katherine Parkinson, just you kind of what you see is what you get.

And she just loves it and she breeds it.

And as a result of that, I think there are two ways to go with that.

There's like, you become beholden to it or you become sort of, I don't know, in some way sort of solely identifiable by what you do.

But I think she's just, she's so good and such a good person.

Anyway, I can't say enough about her.

So, do you do any impressions?

You're a funny guy.

Do I do any impressions?

That's a good one.

Just off the top of my head.

All right.

How about this one?

You ready?

I'm not going to tell you who it is.

Okay.

It's going to be a tricky one.

This might be a tricky one.

Lisa, apologize to your brother.

What do you reckon?

Liz Truss.

Liz Truss.

She lasted a long time, didn't she?

What a great experience that must have been for her.

Yeah.

There you go.

Can you see that?

I don't think you can see that.

What's that?

Oh, my God.

I know, right?

That's bloody you and Liz Truss.

Because I know that podcasts are usually a very visual medium.

So I'm just going to hold it up again.

Hold it up again.

I'm just going to explain.

I'm going to explain to the listener.

Okay, the listener, we've got Steve and Liz.

That's both of you.

And that's not a wax figure.

That's not a Madame Tussauds or anything.

She does look like a wax figure.

You'd imagine she's in Madame Tussauds after being prime minister for four hours.

Exactly.

Well, thank you, Stephen, for coming on.

Could you say Steve or Stephen?

I didn't mean to ask you that at the beginning, but Stephen's good, isn't it?

Stephen.

My Scottish in-laws call me Stephen.

Stephen.

Stephen.

Stephen.

And it's like I feel like I'm in trouble.

Yeah, exactly.

Nobody calls me either.

And my wife's name is Nadine, right, which is N-double-A-d-e-i-n, and everyone here calls her either Nadine or Nadzie, which Nadze is, I don't know if you know over there, but it means testicles.

Yeah, of course.

And he doesn't like it.

And he keeps saying to me, her name is Nadine.

And I said, what's my name?

And he goes, Stephen.

I said, no, it's not Stephen.

It's Stephen.

Stephen.

And I know you wouldn't believe this, but people from different countries talk differently.

You fucking idiot.

And sorry, did I say that?

I think that I don't meet that many Steve's and they're always sort of my age.

There's no baby Steve's.

I don't think I think they're all gone.

Yeah.

A lot of Steve's in Australia are stoves and they're dickheads.

Yeah.

But people who introduce themselves as Stephen, you kind of sit up straight around like they're a bit serious about it.

Yeah.

Do you ever introduce yourself with your full name when you're just meeting someone for the first time innocuously, like at the train station, an old schoolmate says, Hey Steve, meet Brian and you go in with the full name.

The people who go in with the full name freak me the fuck out.

Do you know Darren Brown?

Oh, I know who he is, yes.

So he was on tour in New York and they were staying in the same apartment that Tom Cruise was in for some film or whatever.

And my mate who did all this camera work said he got in the lift and Tom walked in and he goes, Tom Cruise.

And he just shakes everyone's hand and goes, Tom Cruise.

And he holds their hand and he leaves.

And he looks at them and goes, Tom Cruise.

And he just leaves.

He says his name to everyone.

All the time, like full name.

Tom Cruise.

All the time.

Tom Cruise.

Yeah, yeah.

What's that?

That's so strange.

What is that?

Well, he's fucking mad, isn't he?

His longevity is very, very impressive.

Every time you think, oh, that's it.

You know, the jumping up on the couch thing with the Katie Holmes thing on Oprah.

You almost thought, oh, well, cool, that's him done.

And then he just kind of went from strength to strength.

The guy's, he's over 60 and he's still doing all his own stuff.

It's quite something, but yeah, fuck an L, man.

How could you spend that long in Scientology and not be fucked up by it?

I don't know.

I don't understand it.

I've sold my soul many times over.

I've advertised a lot of brands, right?

I did commercials for Smith's chips, for Smith's crisps, you would call them over there, but Smith's chips over here.

And I did about six years of ads for them, right?

In the first year when I first signed the contract with them, it was quite a lucrative one.

It was great.

And they said, and also we would like to offer you a lifetime supply of Smith's chips.

And I went, you fucking beauty, because I love Smith's chips, right?

I actually genuinely do.

I'm not even paid to say that anymore.

Anyway, so this big box of Smith's chips comes a week later and I give them out.

I got a big family here, right?

And I give them out to the family, all the nephews, nieces, everyone gets one.

And I told my brother, who's a bit of a scavenger, I said, mate, how's this?

Smith's have said I can have a lifetime supply.

He rings me up after they finished their three bags.

He goes, hey, Steve, can you hit up Smith's for the next shipment?

Because we've run out.

I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I couldn't because not only had I eaten too many chips and I was fucking sick of them, I also just couldn't schlep in there after them having paid me quite well in actual money and then go.

Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on the lifetime supply of chips, promise, and make sure that don't skimp on the salt and vinegar kind of thing.

You know what I mean?

What is a lifetime supply?

How much is that?

See, it doesn't seem to be quantifiable.

Yeah, it's very vague.

Yeah, yeah.

So my friend tells me he's got 40 years of magic mushrooms in his freezer.

And it's like, oh, hang on, for whom?

40 years for whom?

Yeah, that's not an amount.

40 years is not a physical amount.

It's true.

It's like saying blue smells like cheese or something.

It's like, no, it doesn't.

Blue smells like cheese.

You're talking about blue as a color, man.

That's a nice call back to your TV show.

What's that smell?

It can be the tagline.

Well, that was the other one I forgot.

It could have been blue cheese, could have been a blue vein, a fart, a boiled egg or a cataclysmic gas leak that's going to blow up Piccadilly.

Or a lifetime supply of chips.

Well, Stephen, thank you so much for coming on Television Times.

You've been an absolute blast.

Steve, you're a legend, mate.

What are you going to trim this one down to?

You're usually just under an hour, aren't I?

Yeah, with the song and whatnot, it'll be an hour, roughly.

Oh, what's your song?

What's your ending song for this morning?

No, I haven't.

I usually pick a vibe and then see what I've got in the old catalogue.

How many have you listened to?

You've listened to a few.

I've listened to a few.

Because I got it.

I heard you very kindly sent out an invite last year and I was kind of running around like a fucking mad thing.

I didn't get time, but I'd seen your name on it and I went, you know what, I was looking for a new podcast.

What I like about your podcast is that you don't get bogged down in what it's about.

Like I like a stream of consciousness chat, very, very loosely based on what you're aiming to talk about.

Because I think too much formula bores me to fucking tears.

Yeah, I've got some of these with no format whatsoever.

If it's someone who's on TV, you can literally just have a chat and that's it.

But we can always try a few, but obviously, it's not a heavily format.

Do you have people who just like to wax lyrical about their wonderful career?

I remember a time back in 1956, I was, of course, one of the first people on television.

That was before colour.

I hadn't even seen anybody in colour before then.

Then I remember being very instrumental in television becoming a popular thing.

I haven't had quite that, but I've had people tell me that I'm a bit of a potty mouth and I should cut out the swearing.

Yeah, you're a fucking cunt like that actually.

Let's end it there.

Thank you, Stephen, for coming on Television Times.

Thank you so much.

Mate, thank you so much.

And I'm sorry to call you a fucking cunt.

That was so strange.

That's a stream of consciousness.

It's the Irish thing.

Oh yeah.

It's the term of endearment.

No, it's been a joy, Steve.

Thank you.

So nice to meet you.

That was me talking to Stephen Curry, the fantastic Australian actor.

Wow, that was a great one.

I really, really can't believe I got to talk to him.

That was fantastic.

Check him out online.

If you don't know his stuff, you do know his stuff, but check out all the things you haven't seen.

Population 11 is really, really good.

I'm gonna start watching Spreadsheet, and you've got to watch Hounds of Love if you haven't seen it.

Just watch it now.

And now to today's outro track.

Right, today's outro track is called Under the Radar.

It was the opening track from the album, We Argue in Silence, which I recorded in 2009.

This song was a sort of antithesis to social media.

Even then, three years in, I was really starting to feel like it was getting under our skin and being a load of old bollocks that it is.

And the fact that Stephen is not on social media just felt like, well, this is obviously the song I need to put at the end.

It's as clear as day, right?

Anyway, let's let this song speak for itself.

There is a really great line in here, and I don't want to quote myself like some kind of wanker, but it's something like, I'm in a social downturn and I can't afford another friend.

I love that line.

So this is it.

This is Under the Radar.

That was Under the Radar from the album We Argue in Silence.

Listen to the whole album on Spotify, Amazon, Apple, wherever you get music.

It's available now.

I really hope you enjoyed my conversation with Stephen.

It was a really good one.

Come back next week for our Christmas special.

Until then, thanks for listening.

Bye for now.

Look into my eyes.

Tell all your friends about this podcast.