How To Fail With Elizabeth Day - Luke Evans, Sarah Solemani & Elizabeth Day: The Making of The Party

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Luke Evans and Sarah Solemani join Elizabeth to talk about the journey of Elizabeth’s 2017 novel The Party to its new five-part ITV adaptation.  Luke stars as the show’s protagonist, Martin Gilmour, and Sarah stars as his wife, Lucy… oh and she also brilliantly adapted the novel for screen.  The trio discuss the making of this exciting new drama for TV, how Luke discovered the book and kick-started the process and what the show is about. They discuss themes including: sexuality, the class system in the UK, shame, women leading production, culture on sets in today’s world and friendship.  This bonus episode is brought to you by @arlalactoFREE - all the taste, easier to digest. IN THIS EPISODE 00:00 Introduction 01:42 Luke Discovers the Novel 02:51 Finding the Screenwriter 04:45 Adapting Into Five Episodes 07:13 What The Party Is About 09:44 Casting Lucy and Onscreen Marriage 13:04 Collaboration and Set Rewrites 18:09 Women Leading the Production 19:35 Set Culture and Final Day Speech 21:15 Author Visits Set and Craft Details 22:26 Friendship, Desire and Identity 25:08 Class, Shame and Final Takeaways WANT MORE? Luke Evans - swap.fm/l/2AAJhVeDNGdKIJGdznR9   LINKS + MENTIONS: The Party starts Sunday 11th October 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX. The series airs for three consecutive nights: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, concluding with the fourth and final episode the following Sunday 18th and Monday 19th. Or you can binge all five episodes on ITVX.  Join the How To Fail community: www.howtofail.supportingcast.fm/#content Elizabeth’s Substack: www.theelizabethday.substack.com Subscribe on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts Leave a 5⭐ review – it helps more people discover these stories Instagram: @elizabday TikTok: @howtofailpod Podcast Instagram: @howtofailpod Website: www.elizabethday.org Join our community of subscribers here: https://lnk.to/7i0moR  Have a failure you’re trying to work through for Elizabeth to discuss? Click here to get in touch: askhowtofail.com   Production & Post Production Coordinator: Eric Ryan   Engineer: Matias Torres Assistant Producer: Shania Manderson Senior Producer: Hannah Talbot Executive Producer: Alex Lawless How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [e-mail] LOVE THIS EPISODE? Follow How To Fail & Elizabeth: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of How to Fail is brought to you by a lacto-free. Hello and welcome to this very special bonus episode of How to Fail. Today, I wanted to share with you what can only be described as my own decade-long failure to get my work adaptive for TV. But we can rejoice because it's finally happening and it was totally worth the weight. A five-part drama based on my 2017 novel The Party is coming out this Sunday. And although I'm biased, I do think it's really rather excellent. And the reason it's really rather excellent is largely because of the two people I have sitting in front of me.

They are my trusted creative collaborators who have also now become dear friends, Luke Evans and Sarah Soleimani. Luke is a How to Fail alumnus. You can hear his episode from 2024 in our back catalogue. He plays Martin Gilmore, the protagonist of the party. Sarah Soleimani is Luke's online. on-screen wife Lucy. She also adapted the novel brilliantly for screen and is the show's showrunner. Before we dive in, here's a little teaser of what you will see on ITV. Can you tell us what you were doing at Denby Hall, Martin? Where were you at the time of the shooting?

Just forget all the nonsense of the past for one night. What happened at university between you and Ben? There's a story out there. We are in this together. We always have been. This is we're coming out now. You have to tell them everything. I can't. Can he ever tell the truth? What a joy to be sitting here with both of you. Thank you for making the time in your very busy schedules.

Perhaps we could start, Luke, with you. For anyone who hasn't already heard this story, how did you come across the party in the first instance? Well, it was COVID. And a friend of mine had, read your book and said, you should read this. It's really good. And there's a really good character in it that you could play.

And of course, that spiked my interest immediately. So I bought it, picked it up. Probably the fastest read I've ever had, because it is a proper page turner. And I immediately could see how this story could be segmented into a very, fun, exciting, gripping thriller. The first step, of course, is how do you turn a novel into a script? And that requires a lot of work.

Very clever people write scripts, I've realized, because I have tried and it is not, will never be part of my CV. That's when we came to this wonderful, talented person here, Sarah Soleimani, who we met via Zoom. via Zoom, you were in Los Angeles and God knows where I was. And immediately, I mean, now I know you as a person. You ask many questions. You're a curious person, which is obviously a wonderful thing as a writer.

And you were very similar too, actually. You always ask lots of questions. It must be something that writers do because you gained so much knowledge and you talked about to me personally on such a level. I often forgot that we were actually, you know, thinking about the book. You were just asking me about me. but of course it all informed so much when you finally said yes to doing it.

Yes, and I'm so grateful to you for multiple reasons and one of them is that you kept the faith for that length of time. And when I got an email saying, Luke Evans is interested, and then Sarah Soleimani is up for potentially adapting it, I was so thrilled, and I did not think it would happen. I was like, no, there's no way.

These are two A-list talent. There's absolutely no way it's going to come off. And it has. And that is so largely, Thanks to you, Sarah. I can't thank you enough for doing this. I've been a long-time admirer of yours as an actor and as a writer. And yes, we met over Zoom as well.

And you looked terrifyingly chic because you had slicked back paroxy blonde hair. And you were dialing in from Palm Springs. Oh, there you go. Oh, my gosh. A writer's retreat. Can you tell us a bit about the nuts and bolts of taking a novel and turning it into five one-hour episodes. of television. Where do you start with that?

When you read anything, you just trust your instincts. And when I first read your brilliant book, I was just taken by the story. I just could see the characters. I could see, I knew, I felt like I knew the world. I related to the idea of a young working class boy getting into this boarding school and it changing his life and even his class. It's funny because with TV shows I write, I can often know the first scene and I know the last scene

and I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get from one to the other. And then that to me is the joy of writing because I know where I'm going to get and I just write. And then you know from when you've got the sort of five laid out, you know if you're doing one a disservice or you're making a move that doesn't feel quite right but you don't know why. That makes such sense now as to why we get on so well

because that's how I write books. Wow. I know the beginning and I know the end and then my characters inform how we get there. Right. Wow. So there's often a point when 20,000 words from the end of a manuscript, I'm like, oh, what do I do now?

Because I've got to tie up all of these loose ends. But that's so interesting because I think, hopefully in the book, but definitely in the show, it is so character-led. And yes, it's a thriller and it's riveting and it's entertaining and fun and there are lots of twists in it. But the characters are so deep and layered and believable. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you both.

What is the show about? Okay, give us your pitch for anyone who hasn't seen it trailed already. Luke, what for you is it about? Well, I would say the story revolves around two principal characters called Martin Gilmore and Ben Fitzmores. The story itself revolves around three timelines. One is the present, which is the party itself. One is past the present, which is the police investigation because of what happens.

And then there is these several different timeline flashbacks of Martin and Ben and where they originate from and how they become part of. each other's lives. Through those three timelines, we're introduced to the other people that are part of these characters' lives. Sarah is Lucy, Martin's pregnant wife. Lydia Leonard plays Serena, which is Ben's wife, but also you see these characters in their younger selves as well. It's a story of loyalty, of almost obsessive loyalty, of an outsider who really wants to belong and comes from not belonging anywhere. It's a very interesting, very topical observation of the British hierarchical class system, which I would say is as prevalent now as it's ever been, even if we think it has. It takes you on a journey of questioning what one would do for a friend when you sacrifice so much by making decisions not for yourself but for someone else.

And the destruction and the toxicity and the pain and the damage that causes not just you, but everyone around you. And I feel like that to me is what is the crux of my character's journey, but also of Ben's character. and but it's all wrapped up in this celebration of this wonderful, beautiful, coloured, very wealthy, opulent party where, you know, behind the scenes, it's a quivering house of cards.

That is so well explained. Can you write every single word? You need a lie down now. You need a glass of gin. Yeah, you need a nap. That was astonishing. Thank you. Nailed it.

And as you mentioned there, Luke, Sarah, you play a married couple on screen. You'd never met each other before filming this show, had you? No, no. Once Sarah had said I would love to play Lucy, in my mind that was it. It was a done deal. It was concrete. And at one point, you were questioning it because you're so busy and you live in L.A. And you've got young children.

And I was freaking out. Because at that point, I was already, you know, I quickly start to solidify things. It's a very bad thing that actually shouldn't do because in television and film, you do change a lot of stuff, even on the day, as we did with script. But I often need, it sort of gives me a backbone to stop worrying. And I knew, even though I never worked with you, that I was, I was like, she's Lucy. And I just knew that I had to go on the journey with you. So the moment when you were, you were questioning whether you could make it work. you wanted to do it, but whether you can make a way.

I was like, no, no, no, please tell her that she has to make this happen because I saw the journey with you, you know, and so it was, yeah. Thank you for that. No, it was how I feel. And you were brilliant, Lucy. And it's a complicated role to play for various reasons that will become clear when people watch the show. What was that experience like for you, sort of getting to know Luke on set?

I mean, I think most people would be like, I'm happy to get to know Luke Evans. Yeah. But is he an actual not? nightmare behind closed doors. Well, I didn't know, you never know what someone's really like until you start, you know, you do a production, you have lots of challenges, you are getting to know a person really in conflict more than when things are a smooth sailing. And I didn't know, I didn't know him before we agreed to do the show together.

But the first sort of sign that he was a very special. person and creative was when he received the scripts and I'd really fleshed out the female characters and gone into these other storylines and the wives and the mother and I didn't know how he'd respond to not centering on him and Tom's character and he really embraced the scripts and I said I didn't do you mind that it's less of you here or that and he went no that's what makes it better. That's what makes a good story. And that relaxed me a bit because I felt that he understood to make a really good show would be about a collaborative experience. And then I got lucky because he, I hate people who gush, you know, on actors who gush over each other.

But the truth is, Lucas, my dream kind of actor, because he takes the work really seriously, doesn't take himself seriously. And I was actually working with Nicole Kidman. I'd written a show with David E. Kelly for Nicole Kidman. And me and Nicole were on a Zoom. And I said, I'm thinking of doing this show with Lou Kevons. You just work with him on Nine Perfect Strangers, which I like. And she went, he's just, he's the best.

And she was right. Wow. Thank you, Nicole Kidman. That's lovely. You mentioned there that sometimes things would change on set as you're filming. I'm really interested to hear more about that. Like how much of your role ended up being ad-libbing according to circumstance, Luke,

and how much Sarah did you have to sort of rewrite on the fly? Were there things that kind of went wrong and had to be worked around? And the final question of sort of multiple questions in one, it is so current this show. And I wrote the party originally in 2015-2016. It was published in 2017. In the 10 years since, so much has changed politically.

and there is a line in there, for instance, about reform, which is one of the zingers, one of the many zingers of the show. But how much were you writing to current affairs as well? Should I start with you, Luke? Well, I mean, I can come from an actor's POV of this, which is you very rarely have a writer on set, you know, or a showrunner that's there, because usually they're holed up in a hotel with a computer,

going through the notes in the studio, and you see them every couple of weeks and they look more and more like Gollum because they haven't seen sunlight, you know. And having Sarah on set with us every day with our scenes, we talk them through and sometimes changed them, not that we changed a lot, to be honest with you,

but what was lovely was Sarah was often there when she wasn't in the scene. And I mean, I love being directed by people who were actors most of the time because they understand how we feel. And we do think differently to directors. And sometimes you're with directors who are a bit dictatorial, slightly inhumane. They don't get that you have a process as well, you know, and just do it, you know.

And sometimes if you're in the actor's position, sometimes you go, I can do it, but I know there's a better way to do this or a better way to say this. My delivery's not coming up and you would always pick up on it. And every time that happened, you'd go, you'd just come in and you'd just whisper something in my ear. And of course, we have to say, how do you would always pick up on it? say how wonderful Vivian the director is because she allowed this and she was very collaborative and she understood that having you there was such value. So when you were there and when you'd come up and you'd go, try this one and she'd whisper something in my ear and then she'd wander off sneakily through the crowd, back to the playback

screens and we'd try it. And that, you know, I come from theatre. I love that sort of trying new things every night and seeing if they work and often they do because it's, it was instantaneous. And I think that's my POV, but I'm sure as a writer, when you're watching something and you see something,

it's very, very different. To your question about the ad libing, really the secret, there's a musicality to screenwriting. There's a rhythm, especially with our show, which is a drama, but there's a lot of funny beats.

There's a lot of comic moments. There's a lot of satire. And really the secret to that is the casting. Because if it's cast right, the actor sings the music you've written and it's just it's the closest I'll ever come to being a musician I can't play the instruments but when I watch the tapes

and I see the actors say the lines and it's exactly how I had it in my head you don't need ad-libbing because they've connected to it sort of they've connected to the musicality of it the joy of being an actor on your own show that you've written is that some people don't tend to at a lip because you're there keeping it eye with the lines that you've written

and you've laboured over the lines and they're there for a reason and you've tweaked them and Luke was so specific even in the opening scene I'd put in a stage direction he clears his throat and he did that so it was very precise writing

so it was a joy for me just to see it be all the actors be so loyal to the writing. When I was writing the original versions of Martin and Ben, I had a mood board of very handsome men on this mood board. But Martin in my eyes was kind of sort of slightly Fay and Freddie Fox-like. And I had... And he wasn't available. No, that wasn't the case.

When obviously Luke came on board, I was like, God, that's incredible. and I know what an amazing actor he is. And whilst he wasn't initially the physical representation of Martin I'd had in my mind, as soon as I saw you, that day on set, you walked out dressed as Martin, having just done a take. And honestly, I did a double take thinking, that's Martin, that's Martin.

Because you were wearing a suit that was like brown and slightly cheaper material than the other suits. You were dressed so like Martin. And the way that you inhabit this character, I can now see Martin no other way than through your performance. And one of the things I'm excited about is you touched on Sarah foregrounding the women a lot more. And I'd love you to speak a bit to that and why that was important to you. And also, we should say Vivian Ander Reagan, who you mentioned there, the director,

a relative rarity still to have a female director and a female showrunner at the helm. Yeah, she's an incredible filmmaker. We were so lucky to have her. and you know we were there for months together we had young children and we became like a collaborative duo making the show together and that was an incredible experience can you tell us if you don't mind about your final shoot day and you gave a speech you said something about how the party

had been a really meaningful experience for so many people on the cast and crew Yes, that was one of the beautiful things. It felt like, well, I think both Luke and I, we want to not just make good work, but we want people to have a good experience. And we don't want to, we're not the type of actors that think that you have to really suffer and everyone has to be uncomfortable for it to be good. No, that the experience on the set should be good. It should be something that you have a good memory about and no one has to be really uncomfortable in suffering. in order to make something. And people come up to us and people were invested in the story.

It wasn't just entertainment. Everyone understood that. And the only people that didn't understand that were the supporting artists on the set because they had read the scripts. And they were there in the cold Welsh winter in not very many clothes. And I realized, God, we haven't told them the story. So during lunch, we gathered them all and I said, this is so important what you're

lending your time and your bodies and your call to this is the story and I told them from beginning to end and they were now wow okay and it changed the energy of the set and it was a good lesson to me

to always include the essays in what you're making not to expect that they know they don't get sent the scripts and I was very strong because it was my first time on a drama set and I got to be a supporting artist.

It's my first demand as executive producer. I did. I was like, don't care about anything else. Have at it, but I do need to be on set. And I remember being so humbled by the scale of the enterprise and by the sheer talent on view. And it wasn't just the amazing actor and every single actor knocks it out of the park in this show, in my opinion.

It was the man who ensured that my plastic glass, filled with what looked like champagne but was actually sparkling elder flower cordial was taken at the end of every scene and there was a line marked on that glass to ensure for continuity that it would be exactly the same level the next time the camera started rolling. It's right down to wardrobe,

to the people who dressed Luke as Martin in that perfect brown suit. The hair and makeup people. The blood spatters every day. We'd go back to those scenes for like a week and they would have photographs and have to put the blood marks in exactly. the same place and wet the blood and, you know, that stuff nobody sees. And it is artistry.

One of the ways in which the show differs slightly from the book is that Ben and Martin's friendship has many layers to it and becomes more nuanced. How important was that for you, Luke, to explore? This is a friendship slash relationship slash sexual dynamic. I've really seen in a good TV drama, you know. And yes, we do definitely take their relationship to a further level, deeper level than it goes in the book. But I think it's his representation of what some people go through. I would hope it's not a common thing, but it certainly does exist within society. I don't know whether that answers your question, but it definitely, it's painful.

Like, it sort of makes me emotional. When I got to there's certain scenes with Martin, where, you know, he finally releases this cloud, this darkness, this shadow that's been following him. I just felt this overwhelming emotional, like, release, possibly because I am a gay man, and I remember leaving home. and I had to leave home to find my identity, to find my family, my non-blood relation family, and my people. I did it much earlier than Martin did it. But I remember that feeling. And of course, he's in his late 30s, early 40s.

I was a late teenager. But it's something that only gay people ever experienced, you know. That suppression when everyone else is celebrating their first girlfriend and their first boyfriend. And a lot of gay kids grow up not being able to do that. And when you do finally find that, whether you're, you know, a late, you know, coming out, I often struggle with that phrase, but finding yourself, seeing you're real, seeing yourself, you know. It's a euphoric thing. And I think I felt that in certain scenes with Martin, where I just felt that, that strange, positive PTSD moment of that, you know.

And thank you for using your own experiences to give this character such depth because it can be very difficult for people to live an authentic life and sometimes that's a privilege to live an authentic life from an early age. Some of us it takes an endless amount of time to get there. And that brings us onto class, which is another major theme of this show. and Sarah, you said something so interesting to me about how, yes, the British have a complicated relationship with class

but we also have a complicated relationship with putting it on screen. Can you delve into that a little bit more? Well, that's why I was so thrilled to read your book because I'd been trying to get a story on the screen of a character that crosses class boundaries because I feel that's when you get class consciousness when you realise the material circumstances of your own life. for different to other people.

And they say a British man is born branded on the tongue. The way he speaks will determine his material life. And I couldn't get it on, I couldn't get various films, TV shows on screen. And it felt like the British class system itself was deciding the genre of something. So people go, well, you're down to an abbey, Ken Loach, what are you trying to make? I'm like, well, I want to mix it up. Talking about class sometimes sounds quite like six-form social studies. It's like, oh, we're beyond that now.

But when you look at something like COVID and you look at the group of people who have presented themselves as the people that are supposed to govern us and make good decisions for us, you realize that the class system does disadvantage people if it doesn't represent the people of the country. So there is a bit of that in there. there is the politics of that and also the education system Luke's character's life is changed because he gets into a certain school and we know that a certain school breeds our prime ministers

which I felt like we should address Was there anything that worried you about working with me in terms of I know it must be quite awkward sometimes if someone else has written the book that you're adapting.

Well, I love meeting you and you was, you were very trusting and you said, you know, I always asked novelist, do you want to write the script? Do you want to write a script? Absolutely not. And yeah, you were emphatic that you didn't want to write it. But you never know when, you know, you deliver something if a novelist is going to feel differently when they see their characters. You seeing us try and find a right home and getting rejected and keep going and pushing the

Bouldrop the Hill, that your championing of it was meant a lot to us. Oh, well, vice versa. What was your, what was the most surprising thing for you seeing the TV in production? So there were a couple of moments where it felt like you and I, Sarah, were sort of symbiotically connected. Because there were a couple of scenes that I felt I had imagined exactly as they appeared on screen. one is in the first episode and it's the rugby interaction on the playing fields of this school

where Martin and Ben meet for the first time and that's an incredibly surreal experience and feed into all sorts of magical things about art and the collective unconscious and that was incredible it surprised me how many people

had so much faith in it and was so bloody good at their jobs and that was a pleasant surprise And it also surprised me how included I was in the whole process. A book, you can write someone's internal monologue. And I was doing that a lot with Martin. On TV, you don't really get that privilege or that liberty. The dialogue has to do so much of that work for you.

And it's such an extraordinary skill. So to see it done so well was a real education. Was there a prankster on set? Were there any practical jokes? Was Tom, I feel like Tom Carlin, who plays Ben, probably had people laughing. Tom's just like, just a big teddy bear of a human being, the warmest, kindest, happiest person. I mean, we giggled a lot. We did giggle a lot.

Remember, so we were in South Wales through October, November, December and January. The sun really came out. And, you know, on any set, whether it's television or film, there's a lot. of downtime and these big party scenes would take a lot of setting up. We had 100 extras, you know, supporting artists and, you know, there was a lot going on. So we would often be in a room, all of us together. We didn't separate. We all sat together and the conversation never stopped. It never stopped for four months. And that says a lot about, you know, the warmth that we had for each other. And also the very sad days when one of the cast members would leave because it was

their final scene. And we were still saying. And it's a very strange feeling because you're with them every day, you know, 14 hours a day. Everyone wanted to be there and stayed there. Sometimes they'd stay even if they'd finish shooting. They wanted to be around it. And I think that's part of when you make it a good working experience, people give more because they don't just want to give the bare minimum leave. They want to be part of something that they're telling a story bigger than themselves. So that was, and also it made for great banter because we were, we enjoyed each other's company. Yeah, but you can sort of see what's very interesting is if you get on with somebody and you're with that person so, so much, when you then do scenes with that person,

there's a level of trust you have, you may not know them from Adam, but you've just, you know, we've had such deep and meaningful conversations during the hours that we spent together. And And then we'd go into a scene where we were, you know, husband and wife. And I don't know if anybody else does this, but in my mind, I'm like, I know this person better than I knew her three hours ago. And it means nothing to this scene. But because I'm building a real connection with Sarah as a human being, I'm feeling I can go further in the scene with her and trust her. And I mean, that's just human nature, I guess. you know, you feel like you can fall back and be caught.

But that really helped me. Talking about that interplay between cast and crew and how it's a collective endeavour, are there any stories that you can share from your time on set with maybe the crew's reactions? So there was a crew member who was literally with us every day, often as close as we are, you know, behind the camera. And very early on had mentioned,

everybody knew that he didn't, he wasn't somebody who cared very much about what he was shooting, he was there to make it, you know, and then move on to the next project, because, you know, they make TV shows and whatever. So I already knew that he wasn't somebody that knew what we were shooting. But of course, he's there every day, so he's watching it completely out of sequence, by the way.

So it must be very weird. But you can see why you'd switch off if you, you know, it's not in sequence. This must make no sense. Then we got to a scene maybe episode four or maybe even five. where I'm in the police station and we're in a very small interrogation room and it's quite a powerful emotional scene

and after the take somebody who doesn't watch anything he makes Vivian the director shouted cut and he went oh I'm going to watch this one yes I'm done he was like I'm going to watch this one

oh yeah that's the best review you'll ever get it was gold I had a similar experience. So we have, there's a sequence. I won't give too much away, but my character goes for a very challenging physical journey. And we were in a hospital for about three days doing very intense work. And I thought, you know what, I haven't got the energy in my legs to walk to the lunch truck.

I'm just going to like, I'm just going to pull the curtain across this bed. And I'm just going to lie down and just try and gather myself. but I could hear all the crew packing up and they started talking and I thought I was lying there, feet thinking this is probably like the least relaxing place to be

and as one of the crew members who was packing up we just went, that were good, that was. And it honestly was the best acting review I've ever had. Because they see so much. They see so much, so many takes.

Yes. They must switch off after a while or you think they do, but clearly some don't. Not when they have. Acting is this good. And those scenes that you're referring to obliquely that are Sarah are incredibly powerful. I can't even imagine what that took out of you.

Well, I wonder talking about shared collective consciousness, I wonder if hearing you give language to so many women who have suffered grief and gone through fertility issues, I think that subliminally came through me into the storytelling. and I think it's thanks to your sort of bravery and giving language to that that it's probably on screen Thank you for saying that what do you most want people to get from this show why should they rush away

as soon as they finish listening to this exceptional podcast episode or watching it on YouTube why should they now go and binge all five episodes of the party on ITV and ITVX I think if most people are honest, they will realize that they are carrying some darkness or some shame or some shadow that they haven't confronted. And we talk about it as a monster. Every person has

one, every family has one, some countries have one. It's a secret, it's an addiction, it's abuse, it's grief, it's something someone said, it's a melancholy, maybe you can't put your finger on, but you carry it in your life. And you get flickers, that maybe you need to deal with it. But often we ignore our monster and it risks becoming us. Or we run away from our monster and it will get us. But when you follow this show

and you see Luke's performance, you're witnessing a man who refuses to be dominated by his monster and he stares his monster right in the eyes and goes, you're not controlling me anymore. And I don't care if my life is dismantled. I'm going to be free. And it really is one of the best performances of a generation.

And I'm so excited for all your listeners to watch this masterclass in acting from Mr. Luke Evans. Oh, please. That's... Stop it. Why am I welling up? It's beautiful. That makes me...

That's sweet. Thank you. What about me as a supporting artist, Sarah? We can come on to that. Carry on, Lee. It's fucking brilliant. It's fucking brilliant. I am so proud of it.

And I just think there's nothing like it on. TV. You know, that is a story that hasn't been told. I'm so, so grateful. And I've been reining myself in because I tend to gush, but I really, really mean it when I say I love you both so much. And thank you for one of the highlights of my, let alone my professional career, my life, it has been working with you. So thank you so much. I'm proud to be a part of it, too. I hope you got as much out of this episode of How to Fail as I did. Brought to you by Arla Lacto Free, all the taste, easier to digest. Please do follow how to fail to get new episodes as they land

on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Please tell all your friends. This is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Original podcast. Thank you so much for listening.