Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Brian Cox

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

British acting royalty, ‘Succession’ star and BAFTA winner Brian Cox joins us in the Dream Restaurant this week. Yep, it’s another national treasure. But does he think that dark matter is evil?Brian Cox’s directorial debut ‘Glenrothan’ is in cinemas on Fri 17 April.Follow Brian on Instagram @coxusaWatch the video version of this episode on the Off Menu YouTube on Thu 16 Apr.Off Menu is now on YouTube: @offmenupodcastFollow Off Menu on Instagram and TikTok: @offmenuofficial.And go to our website www.offmenupodcast.co.uk for a list of restaurants recommended on the show.Off Menu is a comedy podcast hosted by Ed Gamble and James Acaster.Produced, recorded and edited by Ben Williams for Plosive.Video production by Ben Williams and Megan McCarthy for Plosive.Artwork by Paul Gilbey (photography and design). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, it's Ed Gamble here from the podcast that you're currently listening to. Huge news, guys. My brand new stand-up tour, Fresh Hell, is on sale now. Tickets are available at edgamble.com.com. Look at the full dates. I'm going all over the UK and a bit of Ireland. Come and see me in my brand new show, Fresh Hell, Edgambled.combele.com.com. Welcome to the off-menu podcast, taking the wine of conversation, pouring it into the blender of the internet,

hitting the blend button of friendship and pouring it into a lovely big glass of podcast, James. That's a gamble. My name is James Acres. So together. We own a dream restaurant in every single week. We inviting a guest and asking their favourite ever start a main course dessert, side dish and drink, not in that order.

And this week, our guest is... Our secret guest is... Our secret guest is... Brian Cox! A returning guest. No, not a returning guest, but our first same named guest, James. Of course, we've had the scientist,

Brian Cox, but he would never come back because we upset him by asking him questions about science. We now have the wonderful actor, Brian Cox, James. What an actor, what a career, what a man. A national treasure, of course. National treasure. Absolutely love Brian Cox. I was a fan of Brian Cox for a long time, and then he did succession and, like, went to even higher heights. The stratosphere.

So quite excited and intimidated, a little bit nervous about interviewing Brian Cox. What characters this man has played, James? Logan Roy, of course. Logan Roy, of course. But you've got to be looking at Hannibal Lecter. Yes, you pointed out, it's our first. William Stryker. This is our first lector, of course.

It's our first striker. And our first striker. Yes. Our first lector, not our first cannibal. Really? Sebastian Stan, did he play a cannibal? Of course. He did play a cannibal. Yes.

He ate who he's trying to eat Daisy Edgar Jones, wasn't he? Yes. Well, we can maybe ask Brian about human flesh. Yeah, we have to. Yeah. We've got to ask the cannibals, then. Yeah, yeah. We always have to ask the cannibals about human flesh,

and we always ask people who pick iced tea if they've met iced tea. Those are the two rules of the pod. We're bound to those and we can't help it. I'm at the tide when that happens. William Stryker does he eat stuff? Not sure. I don't think he sees Stryker eat. Not really.

Doesn't like mutants, though. Doesn't like mutants, which is a shame. We'll probably drill into that. We'll drill into that because he should... Yeah. But as far as I'm aware, James, Brian Cox, does not play a cannibal in his new film, Glenn Rothen.

Lovely segue. Thank you. He's directed it. It's a directorial debut, which I'm most excited about when actors, like, direct a film for the first time.

Yes, you can get into the nitty-gritty with him about the directorial process. Yes. And I'll just wait for the food stuff. Okay. Yeah.

Well, that's your prerogative. But interestingly, James. Yeah. He plays in this film part of a family business. Yeah. Alan Cumming is in this film, but they run a whiskey distillery

This is the family business is a whiskey distillery, which is a drink. Which is the drink and this is a food podcast. So will he choose whiskey as his dream drink? Human flesh and whiskey. I'm not sure he does that in Manhunter. He doesn't say human flesh and whiskey and then do that. Pretty sure he doesn't. Glenn Rothern comes out in UK Cinemas this Friday.

17th of April. 17th of April. It comes out. We'll ask more about that. I can speak to Brian more about that. Yes. If, of course, he hasn't said the secret ingredient by there. and then we'll have to kick him out the drink restaurant.

We will have to kick him out, yes. And this week, the secret ingredient is, Bore. Or... Succession. Maybe specifically, if he wants to eat it on the floor. Yes, or on the floor. Bore on the floor, one of the most iconic scenes from Succession,

which is, let's face it, a series of iconic scenes. It's iconic scene after iconic scene, and they all make sense in order. Crucial. That's good writing. Yeah. That's what I struggle with sometimes when I'm writing. Yeah.

I'm sure I write iconic scenes. Yeah, yeah. But they don't make sense. in order. That's the thing of us stand-ups, man. Yeah. We write all these routines. I call them.

Which is iconic scenes. Yeah. And then we have to like put them together in a show. Yeah. But then you sit down and write a script. Yeah. That approach doesn't work. Doesn't work.

Just go from that idea to that idea, willy-nilly? Yeah. You really appreciate. There's people who write succession. Yeah. They really know what they're doing. Yes. I'm not asking a lot about films and them.

Tell him what he's been in. Give me a break. I tell him he's. been in so much stuff. Super troopers. Well done. Thank you. It's a new one coming out.

Really? Yeah. Pretty cool. And this is on YouTube as well. You're probably watching this on YouTube. If you are watching it on YouTube, or you're listening to it, why not watch it on YouTube?

Yeah, yeah. Do both. See which one you like the best. If you are just listening to this, you do want to watch it because James got a new t-shirt on that I like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is fresh on today.

Fresh tea, baby. I saw Paul Mascale wearing something similar. I don't think ever say that. As a man, never say you're wearing something because Paul Meskow was wearing it. Really? Yeah. Why?

Because A, you sound like a little bitch, and B, B, no one looks like Paul Meskaw, apart from Paul Maskell. I look pretty similar to him. Because of your lovely little earring. Well, that's in the post, I'm definitely going to do that. You should dress more and more like Paul Meskul every episode. Yeah.

Yeah. More like him a dump sitting there. Yeah. until the inevitable Irish accent. Yeah, but I'll never do like the exercise of anything or get buff. No, no, no, no. I'll dress exactly like him and do the voice. Yeah.

We've got to get him back on. Yeah, tasting menu for Paul, if you're listening, Paul. Tasting menu for you, Paul. And don't be shocked when you arrive. James is going to be dressed exactly like you. But in which film? Gladysa. Gladys too.

This is the of menu of Brian Cox. The actor. and direct. Welcome Brian to the dream restaurant. Well, so far, it's nice to be here. Welcome Brian Cox to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. Can you say that again in English, please?

Welcome Brian Cox to the dream restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. Okay, bye. James is a genie, so he's welcoming you to the dream restaurant. All right, fine. Well, do you rub them up the wrong way? I rub them up the wrong way, yeah. It's always good to rub the genie.

out the wrong way. Because then he can shut the fuck off. You know what I mean? Feel free to swear, by the way. Oh, I can swear. Yeah. Yeah, well, I never used to swear

until I did this TV show and it's affected me. No, I'm telling everybody to fuck off on a regular basis. People love it, right? People want me to talk the fuck off, and it's the easiest thing to say. And they say, they come up to me and say,

can you tell me a fuck off, fuck off? And they go, oh, no, wait, I know, you've got your fuck off. Now, fuck off. Do they ever interrupt you while you're trying to enjoy a meal? No, no, I wouldn't let them near me. No, I've strict instructions for restaurant tours to not allow anybody in it. It's like the worst time was when you come out of the, like I went to the theatre to see this.

Oh God, what's the play called? I can't remember the title of the play, it was brilliant with Roslyn Shanks at the Windham's last night. It was really excellent play, really great play. But you come out and all these, you know, could you sign this, could you sign the next one? You know, you could be signing a check for all you know. a lot of money to come at you just don't and yesterday I finally had to turn and said

well you just all fuck off and they go they're like rats is scumber away but delighted as well they got the fuck off yeah people shout popadoms or bread at me

and stuff like that because of this podcast do people shout fuck off at you no no because it wouldn't be more than the life's worth they did that quite frankly too scared

yes because I have a lot of equipment around me. Yeah, of course. You've just directed a film for the first time. I have. You've just directed a film for the first time. I have. It's very exciting. I love it when actors, like, step into the director's chair.

Well, I've never expected to do it. I mean, it was the last thing in the world I thought about. I mean, I've acted for 65 years, this is in my 60th year of acting. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I'm dreading it. But anyway, so, so anyway, so I've never really bothered.

lot about any of that. And then finally, my friend Neil Ziger came up and he said, David Ashton, who I've been doing, because I love the radio. The radio is my passion. You know, that's the great thing about coming back here because they still do radio and they still have radio drama. You know, if you two have a, you know, have a problem, you should get yourself with the BBC drama rep because I'm sure you could do very well. Yeah. Anyway, just giving you advice for the future. Thank you.

Keep it coming. But, no, the radio is great. So he wrote this series called McClevy, which I've done for 20 years, David Ashton, and then he wrote the script, and then it was like I said, and you're directing it. And I said, what do you mean I'm directing it?

He said, no, you're directing it, you're going to direct it. I said, well, that's the first time I've heard of it. He said, no, you're directing this film. So I said, oh, okay, I'll direct a film. And it was tough, but I loved it in the end. Because I realized that so much of what goes on of cinema, especially with, it's all about directors and their concepts and I can't fucking stand concepts, quite frankly.

I want them to go and take that concept and shove it up there, you know what, but most of the time. But, you know, with somebody who just comes and does it, and especially when you've got the actors, you just let the actors do the job. And when you've got people like Shirley Henderson or people like Alan coming, you know how to stand and tell them what to do because they know what to do. Yeah. Let them do it.

But I think too many times where, you know, we're all, you know, James Cameron bound. And it's always to be, you know, plastic. And, but plastic that moves, you know, pretty well. You know what I mean? Now, we've been to ask you a lot about food. Go ahead. You had listened to the podcast, but you have a few notes for us. Yeah, I just think it's a wee bit bourgeois.

I really do think, you know, you're talking to a sort of middle class converted. Or even people who haven't quite made middle class who think, oh, this is another program. I can listen to about food aspiration. So I'm going to talk about what it was like in the 50s, about when you were, I was a child of the 50s. So I remember rationing. And I remember when you, you know, I did my sweetly ration. And my dad was a grocer, ironically.

So I remember that there wasn't everything. And that's actually the interesting tradition about Scotland. Is food is on hand. You have to, there are things that you, of course, prepare. But basically it's what you've got. You deal with what you have. And that's why porridge and oats has been the biggest thing. I mean, they used to keep porridge.

Actually, in the old days, they would keep porridge in drawers so you could cut it and serve it. Freeheat it up. I didn't know that. I wouldn't think of it very nice to eat porridge. But they did that. Yeah, yeah. So it was just ready to go. Ready to go.

So it was a ready meal. They baked it, kept it in a drawer, and then you cut it, you cut your sleeve. add your hot water and there it was. And then usually they recommended, well, always, it was honey because there was never any sugars. So honey was a very healthy aspect of it. And the food really fundamentally was quite healthy food in that sense. And the same way that, for instance,

like the lunch that we would get, but that was the other thing. Lunch is a completely angle, it's a completely English concept. Because we don't have lunch in Scotland. We have dinner or dinner. or dinner, depending which side of Scotland you come from. When I come from it was dinner.

Why, why are you going for your dinner? And the dinner meant that that's what you, that was your lunch time. But lunch was never, never, so there was dinner, dinner, there was tea time and there was supper. So you had dinner, tea time supper. So dinner was a lunch and that would probably be a soup of some kind. Usually a ham broth soup. That was very popular within working class community. You got a ham broth and you add vegetables to it and you cooked it up and it was delicious.

Because it had all the natural ingredients from the bone, from the marrow of the bone. And that was your lunch. Oh, or dinner. Sorry. See, I've got some language. And then in the evening, you'd have your tea time. And your tea time would be anything really. Sometimes it was usually bacon, you know, bacon and eggs for tea, not for breakfast, but for tea.

and then supper time was late at night and then you had your fish and chips so you had your fish and chips before retiring which was always a bit odd but it's true and the great thing where I came from in Dandie is all the fish and chip shops were owned by Italians they were all Italians so you

and they had these Italian Scottish accents so I was a wee boy I would go in there and I'd be muckering and the guy with you if you want the fish and a chip eat the fish and the chips If you didn't want the fish and the chips Don't a macaron with a sat dish Which was the salt dish

I said sorry That was the sort of And it was this kind of accent That you could do So you had the Esposito families The suavis The del Nervos The Patronis

All these Italian families Cooking the best ever Fish and Chips You know They just had the right amount of batter The headocks were just incredible Well we always start With still a sparkling water

Do you have a practice? You see, that's how bourgeois you get. We always start with still a sparkling water because this is such a vital... You mean water with bubbles? Yeah, yeah, sorry. Would you like still water or water with bubbles, Brian? Yeah.

Water, yeah. Well, the problem is nowadays, because what they do, and everybody doesn't realize that's now, fluoride is terrible. And there's so much water, there's fluoride in all our water now. And we should stop it.

Because fluoride causes the deterioration of the brain. It's one of the things that contributes to Alzheimer's is fluoride. So you shouldn't drink anything with fluke. Drink bottles, bottle water, but not fluorided water. Okay. Because all the dentist people are going to say that. Because my dentist always gave me fluoride toothpaste, which I, and of course I'm now mentally deficient as a result.

Which you can tell by sitting here. Oh, yeah, you mean, this is a podcast about the new news. You keep talking about food. You keep on asking you about current events. You keep on talking about dinner. And like, it's very concerning. Yeah, sorry, yeah, I didn't want to attempt to the accent. Do you have a preference?

So you want fluoride-free water? Fluoride free water is very important. In a bottle? Yeah, bottle water is... Do you have a... Scottish water. It's Scottish water, famously amazing, right? Scottish water.

But, of course, they put fluoride into the reservoirs, you know, and it's not good. Right. And it was a big thing about the teeth. And, you know, your teeth are fast. It's like that you, even a corpse has good teeth. The old phrase. And when you find a skeleton, you usually still use its teeth. Oh, yeah.

Skeletons, say what you want about them. Fluoride is not a problem. Yeah, yeah. Get rid of the fluoride and you'll be fine. We haven't had much fluoride chat on the pod. We very rarely have a corpse brought up at this point. Yeah, actually. It's the early someone's brought up a corpse.

especially in a positive. Yeah. Yeah. Popadab is all bread. Popadab's all bread. Brian Cobbidum. Popadum. Popadum is nice.

Popadum. I mean, that's the other thing too, that the great thing about growing up is you get experience of other people's food. Yeah. You know, and I love that.

I mean, for instance, where I live now is in Primrose Hill. And there's a wonderful Cypriot restaurant called Lomonia, which I recommend to anybody. It's probably, it's a, it's a Cypriam restaurant, which is Greek.

But it's a family restaurant has been going for nearly 50 years. The people are on it. And the food, the cleftaca, is just, they have this lamb shank that they cook all day. It's a slow cooking lamb shank, and it's absolutely delicious.

And the other thing is, what's the famous cheese in Greek? Fethe? Hulomi. No, I touch you. You never touch it? No. The best cheese they have is called saganaki.

Oh, yeah. Have you tasted saganaki? I've had saganaki. Saginaaki. Have you heard Saganaki? No, I'm not. Tell us about Saganaki. It's less squeaky than Hulomi. It doesn't have the squik.

Yeah, it doesn't. It bakes very well. You bake and it's hot. Yeah. It's absolutely delicious. It's got more of a sort of stretch than... That's right. Yeah, it's delicious.

It's really, really good. Really, really good. Oh, that's good. And so that's very good. And then we have a very good fusion restaurant where they do a lot of stuff. So, you know, you have food. That's why I couldn't say, oh, my ideal meal is this. I mean, my ideal meal is the one I eat when I'm hungry.

We are going to force you to give your ideal meal, though, Brian. That is the format. Yeah, we're naughty boys. Yeah, we will. We understand it's an annoying question, because if someone asks me, what's your dream meal, I'd be like, well, it depends on the day. Well, I'd like loads of things.

Yeah, no, no, no, you can't. Actors have tried this with us in the past, and we know now we're going to have to nail you to the wall of us. You want all the dips for the popadom? Yeah, yeah, I love pomatom. I mean, I love them. I love chapati. and other pompadoms, because the thinner the bread, the more purchase you get.

Whereas the bigger, the thick of the bread, it sort of absorbs it too much. And you never get that, you know, extra thing that you get with, for me, with a chapati or a pompadom, you know. A dream starter for you, Brian Cox. Some kind of soup. Probably the, I mean, this would, you know, different seasons. But the ideal soup for me is gazpacho. Oh, nice. We're going cold.

Yeah. Lovely cold soup. A lovely cold soup is a great way to start the meal. you know, and it's healthy and it's invigorating and it sets you up. I think Gaspatchezer is a great, great meal. But of course, you would think more in the sort of summer season for Gospatia. It's more or less a summer thing, but I take it all the year round.

I mean, you can get it all the year round nowadays, you know. And some of these Gaspachos that they sell as Gaspatres are really quite good. They're really quite good. When you think about your dream restaurant and the dream meal, do you have a particular place in mind or a particular season? Well, it depends really on the restaurant. You know, I mean, there's a wonderful restaurant now in Primrose Hill called Michael Madra. And that restaurant is just brilliant because the Sunday roast there is to die for.

To die for their Yorkshire pudding. Michael's Yorkshire pudding is beyond a dream. And if you ever want to have a really great good Sunday meal, can you travel? Oh, yeah. We're allowed. I can travel. I'm allowed to Primrose Hill. My mummy says I can go there.

You're allowed to go to Primrose. I have to take the lamp with me, of course, because he's a genie. So I would have to go on, go to Primrose Hill with a lamp. Oh, I'm letting him up the wrong way or the wrong way. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, we're safe.

But that, that, there's Michael Nader is just that. I mean, I've walked by a set restaurant for 30 years and he didn't go into it. And now I've been hooked, I go there every Sunday. It's just incredible. This guy doesn't like your sheer puddings. He always,

slags Yorkshire pudding. I don't like Yorkshire puddings. There's nothing for it to be said. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can't, I'm speechless. What makes these Yorkshire puddings special? Do you think even I, as a Yorkshire pudding, I would like that?

It's the Yorkshire pudding, but it's with the gravy. That's the thing that makes Yorkshire pudding. It's not just Yorkshire pudding on its own, because it's to dry, but if you eat it, if you cut it and have it with the gravy, it's delicious. Yeah. It's delicious. Ed.

My issue with them is they take up too much real. estate on the plate. Yeah, it's laughable, isn't it? He's doing a cooking program. It's too much real estate on the plate. It's too much real estate on the plate. Is this the right pursuit for you? I question your career choice.

Look, good point, Brian. Look, they say they're huge and they don't, they taste like play. Get a bigger plate. That's all you have to do. No one said this to him before. Get a bigger plate, you moron. And then just say, if you're worried about the sight of your Yorkshireman, just say, hey, chef, give me a bigger plate.

Because I love your viewers and pudding. I don't want it to shrink, so I'll have been a bigger plate. Okay. Thanks, Brian. I'll ask for a bigger plate next time. Good. That'll so be a problem. Brian, before we continue, I've got to tell you, you're in three of my favourite films of all time.

Can you guess just by your experience of me so far, what those films are? I have no idea. You wouldn't even be able to... Well, I've done so many of them. Yeah, I've done so many. 65 years, but I mean, I've done... I've done over 200 movies. You have?

Yeah. Well, I'll maybe ask you questions about them as we go on. Okay, okay. Then you don't have to reveal it, and that'll guess from your question. Yeah, okay. So guess what film this is from this question? Yeah. Who do you think is the Zodiac Killer?

Oh, the Zodiac Killer? Yeah. Who do you think the Zodiac Killer was? I have no idea. Oh, come on. Brian. You were in the film. Yeah, I played the guy who defended Jack Ruby, by the way. Yeah.

And he failed there. Your dream main course, Brian? My dream main course. Ah. Well, I have two dream main courses, really. It depends on what I'm feeling like on a particular day. But I love lamb. So anything, you know, lamb biriani or,

or an Indian lamb, I just absolutely do. And then I love, the Greek thing is to go back to the fish. The seabream, I love the Greek seabream, which is absolutely delicious. You've got to bone it because it's quite bony. But it really is a very, very, very tasty fish. I think it's more tastier than the Doversoil, which is incredibly expensive. Yeah, the seabream is manageable. That would be grilled, like sort of barbecue?

Do you have that? Yeah. Absolutely delicious. Yeah, really good. So you probably aren't going to enjoy us trying to make you choose between those two things? No. No. Should we do a few takes of each and then we can pick one later?

I'll never listen to this. You will listen to it. I think you'll listen to this. Yeah, I think you'll listen back to this a few times. It'll become like your bedtime. I'll get my lawyer to listen to it. That's what I have to do now all the time. Yeah.

Brian, you know you went too far. Oh, okay. You've got to learn to behave yourself. I don't think you need to learn to behave yourself, Brian. Fantastic. We're loving it. Good. You deliver my favourite monologue maybe in a movie history?

Adaptation? Yeah. Yeah. When you play Robert McKee. When I play Robert McKee. You're given a, for the listener. You're giving a seminar and writing. Yeah.

And about life, you know, about how he knows nothing about, you know, fuck all about life. It's so good. I mean, when I blame to, I know, Nick Cage, by the way, Nick Cage is such an undervalued actor. He's an amazing, because in that film, the way he acts with his twin is incredible. Yeah. I mean, to see what Nick does in that movie is just, it's an incredible performance.

Yeah. And it's not given the due respect that it deserves, actually, because he's so eccentric. Yeah. Nick Cage, but he's one hell of an actor. Oh, I love him. Yeah, he's amazing in that. Everyone's performances. I think Chris Cooper wanted an Oscar for that.

Oh, Chris is wonderful. Yeah, he's a wonderful actor. And I didn't know who Robert McKee was when I watched. I didn't know he was a real guy who gave these writing seminars. Well, Robert was very funny because I remember when we were doing it, and Robert was very nervous because they included him. They thought they were going to humiliate him. He was worried that they were going to humiliate him,

but not at all. They had huge respect. And I said to him when we did the scene, when there's a scene in the bar between Nick and I afterwards, we were talking quite quietly. And I said, and the guy came, the first assistant came up to the director, which was, what's his name?

The lovely guy who directed him. Oh, Spike Jones. Spike Jones, yeah, Spike came up to Spike. And he said, well, finally you've got your Obi-One Canobee character. And I said, you know, and I told, And I told Mackey, Robert, I told him that. And he went, oh, thank God. Thank God.

He thought he was going to be rubbish, you know. Yeah. So he thought, oh, I'm Obi-One Canobi. That's good. Do you remember much of that monologue? Yeah. If you ask me, of course, I'll kill you. I'll reach out my long arm and scrans, spangle you.

Do you remember much that monologue? Do you remember it? And why the fuck? Are you wasting my time with it? I remember that line? That's not quite the wrong, but I understand. I can tell by the way you said it. A child watches his mother beating to death on the steps of a church.

Yes, that's right. You did it in your own style, I'd say. You made it sound like your stand-up. I would do it in my own style. If I was playing that role, I'm not going to nail it like. I'm going to do it how I would do it. Yeah, yeah. And the film probably wouldn't do very well.

A different film. Very different film. Robert McKee wouldn't be as... I don't think anyone would be calling that character A.B1 Canobi if I, if I performed it. More C3PO. Yeah, more C3PO. Yeah, I would have thought so.

Yeah, okay. No, go on. No, no. Feel free, Brian. No, I'll pass. We can go half and half lamb and sea beam if you want. Yeah, I mean, that's fine. Yeah.

I thought you'd be okay with that. So it's a birriani. You want the lamb, lamb birriani? Yeah. of lamb, yeah, with one of those exotic Indian sauces. Do you have a particular go-to Indian restaurant that you like to go to? Unfortunately, no, because we used to have an Indian restaurant up in Primrose. I try to travel nowhere else, but in my local area.

Yeah. So we don't have an Indian restaurant, which is a great shame, actually. There used to be one, but there isn't one anymore. So I have to go to Kensington or somewhere like that and get a bus pass. Your dream side dish is. Well, I love peas. Yeah. I absolutely love peas.

I think peas are very underrated. Like Nick Cage, the Nick Cage of the vegetable one. Yes, that's very well put. You know, you're working with somebody very intelligent. You should be very thankful. Yeah, I have a lot of them. I say this to him, Brian. He should be very thankful.

You should thank me every day. I do thank you every day. No, that's right. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely that. What did you just say? He said that peas were the nick cage and the vegetables.

The peas are great. I love peas. How do you want these peas prepared then for your dream meal? It's simple, soft, not too hard. And well-cooked in salt. And yeah. And then because the gravy, you know, when you have the peas attract the gravy

and that works very well. One of my other favourite films that you've done is with another director, interested to hear what you think of because he's very particular and precise is uh you in rushmore oh with west anderson when arson who you've worked with twice is it yeah you did fantastic mr fox as well yeah which must have been very different although he had you when you're doing fantastic mr fox he had you acting it out still well i would suppose he had unfortunately michael gambon was still alive then so that's something's rather wrong no no we've all we've all got a lot more work

Yeah, yeah. Michael was a friend. So why did I say it that way? Michael, he was very funny. He was just one of the... But I remember I played Iago to his hotel, and he was just so naughty. Because in the mad scenes, he used to go,

I love you, I love you, I love you. I love you. Because nobody would understand that he was saying, I love you, I love you. And I'm going, Michael, don't do that to me when I'm on stage. He was going to trophy throwing.

You know, ah, no. And he'd stop acting. He'd build up to something. And I'm going, oh, yes. And then he stopped. And I said, where'd have you've gone? It is notorious, but brilliant, absolutely brilliant. So you were both in Fantastic Mr Fox doing the voices?

Yes, I go. Well, I actually originally was playing that part that he played. Oh, I see. And then I was replaced. Oh, Garno. So there was a lot of bitterness about that. Yeah, yeah. Well, you didn't replace you in Rushmore, which were fantastic in.

No, he didn't place me in Rushmore. Well, Rushmore was the first film, so I couldn't have been replaced. Because the only one he made before that was Bottle Rocket. Yes. Yeah. He got to do a bit more of, like, his... own thing with Rushmore? Was there a sense of like...

Well, Rushmore, I think Rushmore is good. I think he's become very fantastical, you know. I mean, he's followed the fantastical Mr. Fox. Yeah, yeah. Become more Mr. Fantasticical than Mr. Fox. So I still like Wes, but it's an acquired test, shall we say. Yeah, he's got more and more precise and be able to do whatever he wants. You can tell it to films.

Just in terms of his visual sense. Yeah. And he always has great actors. He's lucky that way. He worked with Bill Murray did a lot of his films, many, many of his films. And then Rafe has done, Rayfe Finance has done the hotel, the Hotel, the Grand Booth Hotel, which is really excellent, really excellent. Is it true that Bill Murray financed a lot of Rushmore as well? I don't know about that.

So I wouldn't swear to it. I know it could be possible. It could be possible. But he probably needed the work, so he probably needed some kind of, you know, something that could show he. craft too, so he probably may have decided to finance it. Chuck a bit of money at it, why not? Yeah, yeah.

I might start doing that. Oh, yeah? Yeah, but buy myself parts in films. That's pretty good, isn't it? Yes, but it's a sticker in, you know, because they always go, that's the guy, that's parts of film.

Too late, I'm in a film. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been in a film with Bill Murray, of course. Have you? Of course. Brian doesn't know this. Have you seen Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, Brian? What?

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire? No. No. Well, James is in that. I'm Lars Pinfield. You probably know the character. No, I have no idea who you're talking about. What is it?

You know Ghostbusters. Yeah, they still make them. And there's Ghostbusters. Well, there was the female Ghostbusters. Yeah, after that. So then they made a couple more, and there's one called, the most recent one is called Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. And James plays Lars Pinfield.

Oh, right. Scientist. Yeah. Is that made here? Yeah, Redding. Yeah, we're doing. They made it in Redding. Yeah, yeah, mainly.

There seems to be an act of desperation about that. No, no, not desperate. No, no, not desperate. Do you mean making it in Reading or casting James? No, no, no, no, not casting James. No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, James. I meant making it in Redding. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Ghostbusters was originally set in New York. New York, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but, you know, Redding's very similar to New York, though. You've been there. No, I've always tried to. to avoid it.

Oh, well, you should go. It's like, it's like New York of the UK. Yeah. I must have missed out. You must have missed out. Your dream drink. Now, we're excited about this because obviously... Margarita.

Okay. We were going to make a wonderful connection between drinks and the new film. Obviously, there's a whiskey. I used to drink a lot of whiskey. Yeah. But eventually, you can't really drink a lot of whiskey you get to my age. Right, okay.

You have to sort of. temperate a bit. I mean, my favorite whiskey is still my favorite whiskey. And I occasionally will, I'll have a smell of it more than even a drink of it because actually I even smelling whiskey is as good as drinking it. And people don't realize that. So it's called Lagovulin. Oh, yeah. And it's the peaty whiskey. It's an Ili whiskey. It comes from the same river as Isle. What's the other whiskey called? Come from Eiley. His name's gone. Anyway, it's the same. know that. My dad loves this whiskey.

Yeah, it's the same river. It's the same river, but it's different. But one is, it's, this is the peaty. It's, it's the part of the river which has really, you know, got that, that peat taste. And it does that. When you drink it, it goes down and then it makes a sort of, in the center of your body. Yeah. And it's, wow. It's amazing how you can acquire that sort of taste, because my, my dad drinks that sort of whiskey.

And I remember maybe when I was 16 or 17, he was like, I have a taste of this. And I literally could not believe a human being was putting that in the, their mouth. He cried. It was mad. I didn't cry. You told me you cried. I think I've never told you this story before. We've done 300 episodes. All right, boys. All right. Sorry, Brian. I don't want to throw a bucket of water.

We don't like doing this in front of guests normally. Sorry. The pete and just the way it feels in your mouth and it absolutely takes your head off. But now I would absolutely drink. Yeah, but the thing is you don't let it sit in your mouth. You have to swallow it. So the thing is to do, to breathe in, take it. And that's where, when hitch there when it gets into the gut and it does that pow and it spreads through your bottle.

Yeah. Yeah. In fact, you made me want to drink. It's one of my dad's favorite whiskeys. When I go home to see my parents, if he's got a bottle of that, we'll stay up and have. No, it's a great whiskey. Really great whiskey. But I do drink margarita.

But margarita is good. Well, tequila is really quite healthy because it's from the agave plant. So it's a very healthy drink, you know, actually. believe it or not. I mean, apart from any of the syrup stuff that they add to it. But actually, tequila itself is really good. And it's an upper. It's the only alcohol. It is an upper. Yeah, it is an upper. Yeah, it's not a depressive. Yeah.

No, you don't get very many tequila drunks falling out of pubs. You do get whiskey drunks falling off of, not tequila drunks. Do you have any way that makes an amazing margarita that you go to? I haven't, well, the guy who did it was a guy when I, I was doing Rat in the Skull in the 80s, and we went to New York, and there was a guy called Neville, who was from Jersey,

and he used to make them in the bar, which was, I can't remember the name of the bar, but they were the best I've ever had, and I haven't had any since. I mean, because he was very special. He did them very special. Did you do the salt round the rim and stuff? Yeah, all that, the whole thing.

When you're drinking it with the salt around the rim, are you rotating the glass with every sip, or are you just drinking from the same bit every time? No, no, no, no. You should rotate the glass. That's the idea, you know, and the salt. The salt sort of alleviates the sweetness. Yeah.

Which is, and I, it's really, I love it. It's good. The salt around the room is so important. I was speaking to someone recently who's like, I don't like the salt around the room. So they have a sugar rim. No, no, no. Which is madness to me.

Well, it's insane. Well, it's not treating the drink properly. Yeah. I mean, they, you know, these drinks like margarita, they've come to their own identity through years of refining and refining and refining, you know, and they know that that salt makes that, because it's quite a sweet drink,

but it stops it being overly sweet. And that's why the salt around the room is very important. And a lot of people, you know, if I go to a bar and they serve it without salt, I will refuse to drink it. I said, no, no, the proper margarita has to be salt around the room. I completely agree. When you're,

this is what I'm thinking about, we're talking to you, when you're improvising on the succession, do you think the other actors find it quite intimidating because you're playing Logan Roy, so you're even more kind of like... Yeah, my guy, I didn't improvise all that much. You didn't that much?

No, I felt, I didn't feel the need to improvise. You know, I mean, the genius improvising who was terrified of it when he started, was Kieran Kalkin. Yeah. And Kieran became a genius. But he was panicked when he was first asked to improvising. As I remember, he said, what do I do?

I said, well, you make it up. And he said, really? I said, yeah, it's fine, you just make it up. Whatever, you know, whatever you feel is you're happening to your character at the time, and you just go with it. And then we couldn't stop him. He was like a tap that we turned on and we couldn't turn it off. He was brilliant, he's brilliant.

And he's got so much success now, and he deserves it because he's a really, I mean, and that boy was, you know, he comes from a very troubled family. You know, they've had a lot of tough time that family. And, you know, his sister was killed in a car accident. And they were a very close, very close-knit-father family. And, you know, before he came to do succession, he had a really tough time. And now he's flying, and he deserves to because he's a wonderful. And he's a wonderful guy, too.

Is there members of the cast who you still keeping contact with quite a lot? Well, unfortunately, no, because of work. You know, you move on to somewhere else and you're not doing with your team. And that was a great team. I mean, working with that team for all the years that I worked with them, you know, five, six years now. Over five or six years. It was four seasons, but it was over six years. And it was, they were just divine.

I mean, all of them were great. Even Jeremy's strong. Jeremy's a wonderful actor. He's fantastic. He's a wonderful actor. And to play with, he's great. He has a lot of other stuff. But there was never a time

when I didn't enjoy doing a scene with Jeremy and there was always an adventure in the scene. I was speaking the other day about just like the very few TV series that even have more than one good season let alone like four in a row, wrap it all up

everything's brilliant about it all the characters are memorable, the writing like it's so hard to get so many people all working at that higher, higher level. Jesse Armstrong. That really is Jesse Armstrong.

I mean, he has that, he has a unifying quality about him. And people, and we want to work for Jessum. We want to do our best for him. He's a wonderful producer, wonderful, and it was a great show, and it was always an adventure.

You know, some of the, it's still my favorite line is, I love you, but you're not serious people. It's still my very, and it says about, it says the whole thing, really, you know, that was my only, My only caveat about me is I felt he put too much pressure on the young people because we'd had so much about what their debate was throughout probably, certainly the first, the last series of the third series. There was a lot of that.

And then into the fourth series. But I felt that they should have killed me off one episode later. Because it was a burden for them to repeat, go through what they had to go through again. sometimes, and I think Jesse agrees with me. I think it became a bit repetitive in a way. Really? Yeah, but it's still brilliant. I mean, it still stands brilliantly of any show I've ever done.

I still think it's one of the best things I've ever done, you know, just as an ensemble piece, just fantastic. But I think Jesse had, you know, he's just an extraordinary man to work with. You know, he's just, there's a sort of, you know, and the fact that he went only to four series, I thought was incredible. brave. I mean, everybody thought, oh, we can get another series out of this. I knew, you know, because I kept saying, it was called succession. And you've got to see a time when they do the succession bit. And, and, and, but Mark was my only feeling. Just, just,

just one episode later, it could have been, it could have been set off. I mean, still the same idea, but just. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I, that episode where your character does die, is one of those few episodes of TV. I can remember, like, where I was sitting in my living room when I was watching it because it was such a shock. Yeah, I was like, I can't believe I'm doing this now. And in that sense, it worked brilliantly. I still think we could have had the shock, but I think we could have done it one later, you know,

and it would have been alleviated to stuff that the kids like they do afterwards. How many different places do you sit in your living room? I can tell you where I'm sat in my living room when I watch anything. On the sofa. Free on the sofa, because I've got cats, man. Oh, yeah, he's got a lot of cats.

I've got cats. How many cats have you got? Well, sadly, Pishy, who is our eldest cat, who was... I'm not a animal person at all, but Pishy was just this extraordinary. I thought he was a bit needy for me, you know, but he's just passed... Well, he's just passed away. Sorry, and he was 19.

Wow. Yeah, and he was just pure love. The kids is pure love. And I just, because it was always, you know, there on your lap and what you're not. First I thought, because I'm not very good with all of that anyway. But then in the end, in the last days of his life, we used to sit on the sofa together and we'd talk. Yeah.

I would talk to him. You'd go, you know, you know. I mean, probably I would have been certified. But anybody discovered me. I talk to my cat all of the time. I think I know what you're saying. I'm like, yeah, I'm agreeing with it. Brian's had too much flaw.

That's what everyone's worried about. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. But the wonderful about cats is they're so self-possessed. You know, they don't need anything. You know, they do that. You know, you're not, that's a problem with dogs.

You're going to wipe up their shit. That's Benito's life. He's wiping up shit all the time, that guy. He's a dog owner. I feel for you. But, you know, it's just, you know, cats don't do that. You know, they're affectionate, it feels like a privilege. Exactly.

Yeah, yeah. I know, of course, I took it for granted that, you know, with Pishi, I took it for granted. We've got another cat who's equally 19. She's still going, Princess. Wow. And then we've got this little bruiser called Bowie. You know, one of those grey cats?

I think they're a special breed. Yeah. I met a similar one in California, which was exactly the same-looking cat, with the same behaviour, very stroppy. Yeah. Very stroppy. A pretty short hair, maybe?

Yeah. Is that where the grey? The grey blue ones. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's something. Yeah, beautiful cats. Beautiful cats, but they can be a bit, you know. For instance, she was a female, and she didn't go on with Princess.

There was a lot of rowing between Princess and her. You know, the females, when they get together, they don't. The males, they don't bother, but the females, they get, eh. A lot of that goes on. We arrive at your dream dessert, Brian, my favorite course. Kranchen. Okay. Here we go.

Now, you know fully well, we don't know. You're so happy with yourself that we don't know what that is. You know what that is? Yeah. Sorry, I'm the ignorant one. Cranican is... Do you want to say what it is? Raspberrys?

Yes. Cream. Yes. Oats in there as well. Yes. A bit of whiskey maybe. Yes, absolutely. And honey.

And honey. Get in the fucking bin, mate. I know what it is. Call me off in the ground. Absolutely right. And also now, and itself, you can now serve it

semi-frozen, so it's really cool. Oh, nice. And that's really delicious. And that's a fantastic sweet. And again, it's a Scottish. I mean, of course, the boys who went to eating go to a thing called Eaton mess, and all they did was stole Kranican and called it and eaten mess.

Because eating is a mess anyway, so it's understandable. Yeah, I hope it burns to the ground. I hope it burns to the ground, and then they can call that a mess. I think you've gone a bit too far on that. Oh, sorry. Steady on Jones. Well, that dessert. Is this the first time we've had it on the podcast?

I think it's the first time we've had Kronikin on the... Delicious. Yeah. Do you have good memories of it? Do you remember right when you first had it? No, I had a... I think I had it, I can't remember where I first had it, but I think it was in Edinburgh.

I first had it at somebody's house. And I just thought, wow, what is this? And I didn't know anything about it, you know, about Kranican. It's really good. It's a combination of some of the best, like, Scottish products, right? And that's the other thing. It's Scottish products. And it's products of the ground, you know,

with raspberries and its oats and its whisky. And also they insist, and I don't even know what that is, but they say that the best honey is heather honey. Do you know what if a heather honey is? I know it exists, and I could probably taste it and say that's heather honey, but I don't know how they put in, how the heather's getting in there,

or what stage they put in the heather in? Well, the bees must screw the heather to get the honey. It must be what it is. Yeah. Good on him. So it's Randy Little Bees. The Reddy little bees, yeah, screwing the heather. Let's, hey, guys,

I think we've had it with the other, the flowers. Let's go to the Heather. We're coming, Heather. We're coming for you. We will be there very soon. These horny American B. You should have been that B movie that Seinfeld made.

You could have been a very cool horny bee character who loves the heather. I'd watch that. I'd watch that for sure, yeah, yeah. We do love to ask you, Brian, this is very important. If scientists found dark matter, and bought it back. What if it was evil? What would you think they should like? What is, where are these scientists finding the dark matter? Like out in the cosmos? They're looking for it,

aren't they? They're looking for dark matter, a lot of these scientists. But what if they find it and it's evil? But they're in a ship. Did they get out of their ship? I think they might have to get out of their ship to scoop it up, maybe. Scoop up dark matter. Yeah, yeah, if they scoop it up. But like, they're so keen to find it these scientists, but they haven't really considered, like, what if it's evil? So do you think, like, what if it's there? Yeah. Yeah, what if it's there? But like, but what if it's evil, Brian?

Well, I find it, I mean, they're scientists, so they should know that what the constitution of dark matter is. But they don't because they've never found it before is what I'm worried about. Yeah, but they're going to be interested. And you're worried about this. I'm worried about, are you worried about space? What's in space? No, I don't know about bother.

You give a shit about what to do. space, quite frankly, you know, it's there, you know. Yeah. I mean, it's too big a concept. You go, you know, you go nuts. I mean, that's why people go mad because they imagine what's going on out there and they think instead of what's going on in here. I mean, that's the problem, you know, human beings are so incredibly stupid. Haven't you noticed? Yes. Oh, yeah, for sure. They are so stupid because, and they make the same, all you have to do is sit in a car, sit in a car driving with people and you see the stupidity of drivers. I mean, they're like, idiotic.

Yes. Idiotic in their behaviour, idiotic in the way they drive, idiotic in the way they park, idiotic in every aspect. That's why I don't drive anymore. I stop driving. Mind you,

I did have a T-bone crash where somebody tried to kill me, but that was a different thing. Still food-related, the T-bone. Yeah, it was a T-bone. Yeah, yeah, so that's good. Yeah, they've still ties in with a pod.

They've just gone around the other side of the moon. Have you been reading about this? Oh, yeah, yes, yes. I was thinking why are we doing that? Well, I mean, the point is they go around the other side, what they call the dark side of the moon, and they realize, oh, no, it's sunny. And you go, that's huge.

I could have told you that. I was bright next time. I mean, because if the sun's shining there, it's going to be hitting the backside of the moon. It's only unlogical. You know, we don't have to have no sign this. They go, oh, would you believe it, the dark side of the moon isn't dark anymore?

It's got sunshine all over it. Oh, I found out incredible. Don't you, don't you find it incredible too, Nigel? Oh yes, I find it absolutely incredible. This is it. We've got to see a one-man show from you, Brian, at some point, about going to the dark side of the moon. The dark side of the moon.

Of course, Pink Floyd may have to change that song. Yeah, yeah. But their career's ruined. The all so bright side of the moon. They're like a bunch of idiots now. So just to conclude, you don't, you do think that dark matter is evil? Or you don't think it is. I don't give a shit about it.

Don't give a shit about it. That's the ruling. I mean, really, I think there are other things in life to worry about the other than the dark matter. Yeah. Well, we had the other Brian Cox on the podcast. Yeah. And he told us that it wouldn't be evil.

Well, I'll go along with him. I don't know. Do you think that guy knows what he's talking about? Yeah, of course he knows what he's talking about. I know Brian Cox. He's a very nice and very intelligent man, far more intelligent than I am. You've hung out of him? Isn't that confusing?

Yes, we've hung out together. That's confusing, isn't it, for you? That must blow people's minds if they see you together. Yeah. Because you've got the same name. That's why it blows people. That's one thing, one thing. Yes.

Because we have the same name. Same name. Yeah, but he's a different brand cox. Oh, yeah. I mean, there are many Brian Coxes in the world, unfortunately. There are a lot of them. But, no, I have great respect for him. And he's usually very right.

and he's, you know, he's, there's something logical about Brian Cox. Not about this one, about that one. We had him on this podcast and I don't, I don't know, Brian. If you, if you heard him on this, you'd think, like, he'd probably question his credentials. He got quite frustrated with us, I'd say, because we kept asking him if dark matter would be evil or not. And he probably thought that was a ridiculous question.

Yeah, I think he did. So why do you keep asking the question about that matter? Well, I knew that you'd take it more seriously, and you did, and I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, we really appreciate it. You never talk about dark matter. You know, there are other things, there are other priorities. Oh, hey, darling, before we make love, can we discuss dark matter?

Because I'm really concerned about it. Are you concerned? I don't give a shit, Brian. Well, somebody's concerned about it. The guy on the podcast. He's really obsessed with dark matter. I didn't even know what it was. I thought maybe is it shit, was it shit that somebody shits out in under space?

That could be dark matter, you know, flying turds. Yeah, it could be flying turds. See, this is good. This is how science happens. We're pushing the conversation forward. It could be flying turds. But I mean, I agree with you that if you bring it up as you're about to make love, it is going to be a mood, rooder.

Especially if you segue to flying turds. Yeah, exactly. I'd go post-coital for that discussion. Yes, post-coital. You both collapse onto the pillow. My head would just do touch it. I can't do any points. It's got on this.

Shave me, shave me. Save me. Save me. You're our second cannibal we've had on the pod? Cannibal? Yes. You had another cannibal? We had Sebastian Stan.

Sebastian Stan played a cannibal once. And now you are the second person we've had on who's played a cannibal. It's the 40th anniversary of when I played that cannibal. Yeah? This year. That's amazing. Yeah. 40 years. Still a better film than the other ones.

Yeah, the other one's a cack. I mean, they're good films, but... Silence, I want it less fun. Yeah. Well, look, Brian wouldn't like silence. Yeah, I love both films, but... He wants his lamb sizzling and on his plate. He doesn't want it silent.

Yeah. If we... I had my revenge on that. Did you? Yeah, I cast the director, Jonathan Demi. Yeah. In a TV thing I did, I had to have a director. And I was going for Jim Jarmish to start with that.

I thought, he's too socialist. And I thought, mm, Jim Jarmish. I thought, I know what, Jonathan Demi. And I can get my own back. And at one point, Jonathan Deby, I said, Jonathan, can I just say something? One of the things that actors don't do is look into the camera. It's very disconcerting when an actor looks into the camera. So could you please not do that?

Because he did have a habit of looking at the feeling. God rest his soul, because he's no longer with us. But I said, Jonathan, please. I'm trying to avoid that if you can. Oh, I love that. If at the end of your dream meal, say we had to send out some human flesh for you to eat. No. Which part of the person?

I'm not accountable. But we have to. Our hands are tied it. And not a method actor either. We've established this. Yeah. We certainly would not eat anybody. Yeah, no.

We have to. What do you mean we have to? We have to send out some human flesh for you. No, you don't. We have to. Our hands are tied. Then you can't send of your hands are tied. You can't send out of human flesh.

Good point. If you had to eat a bit of a person, if you had to beat a bit of head. No, he's gone. Is you losing it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's best to just let this ride out. It's best to answer, actually, Brian, so what part of me would you eat? No, I'm not, no, that's banging to his fantasy.

I'm not fucking banging into his fantasy. See? His fantasy is his own fantasy. He should be hospitalised. Gladly. Gladly, yeah. Yeah, I agree. Take me to hospital. Right, I'm going to read you your menu back now. See how you feel about it.

You would like fluoride-free, bottled Scottish water. You would like pop up in arms of all the dips. You would like a gazpacho for your starter. How did you get that so quickly? Huh? I was reading your menu. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

Your main course, Lambiriani with Greek seabream as well, side dish, peas, of course. Drink, margarita and dessert. Now, I don't really know how to pronounce it, Cranican. Cranican. Cranican. Cranican. Cranachan. Cranachan.

Chechnac. Cranachan. Cranachan. Yes, you can. By all means. That's your menu. You're quite impressed how I. I got it so fast.

Well, yeah. It is impressive. It's impressive, isn't it? You're going to reveal the trick? You thought I should be hospitalized, but look how clever I am. Well, that still doesn't about the need for your hospitalisation.

Yeah, fair enough. Brian, thank you so much for coming to the dream restaurant. You're welcome. What if we just take you some of his earlobe? You eat that? No. I'm eating anybody's earlobe. I mean, I'll suck on.

a few, but I'm not going to eat anyway. Before making love? Yes. Instead of discussing dark matter. The earlob can be a great tender place. Yeah. It's a shame we've got to end the interview here. Because we're going down a path that I did not expect

we were going down. Well, there you go. Tender places. Tender places. Always end it tenderly. Thank you so much, Brian. You're welcome. Thank you, Brian.

Thank you. This is one of the worst things I've done for weeks. But I'm very glad to have done it because I realize we'll never doing it again. But thank you. You're both geniuses in your own field.

I'm still trying to find out where that field is. But you are geniuses in your own field, I take it. So thank you for the lack of validity of this whole experience. Well, there we are, James.

That's us told. Whoa, we got roasted at the end. We got roasted on the way out. I'd move the mic away from my face, because I thought we're done. Yeah. And then he roasted us. So I was like,

I can't even respond to this. I absolutely loved it. I love being roasted by growing roast. It was good stuff. He didn't say bore. He didn't even talk about bore on the floor, actually. No, we didn't come up. Well, that would have been harsh for us to bring it up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been tricking him. We didn't talk about autumn. We didn't talk about the wine in the blender. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of things that we could have bought up there. He's actually not in a lot of those scenes, though, to be fair. Sure, sure, sure, sure.

So that would have been a weird thing to bring out. I think we learned so much about him, about not just his career, but his view on the cosmos, life directors, what he thinks of them, what he thinks of people's work, what he thinks of us, we definitely learned. Yeah. Benito came out of that unscathed, I'd say.

The worst thing he's done in months? Yes, he did say that. He did say it's one of the worst things he's done in months. It energized me. I've never really been insulted like that. to such an extent that it energized me. Yeah. Gave me a buzz.

Glenn Rovin is out this Friday. Go and see it. Brian Cox's directorial debut. Alan Cummins in it. Yes. Yeah, man. Come on. Whiskeys, you know, maybe take a lagerie.

Margarita. Yeah, of course, sorry, margarita. But a lager of all than whiskey. With you to the cinema. Yeah. And watch it and just drink. And fill it pop from a little hit flow. Pop right in here.

I'm on tour, Ed Gamble, Dakota, UK, for tickets. My show's called Fresh Hell going all over the UK starting in late January, 2027. Come along. Come along, go and see Ed,

do his stand-up comedy. I am also touring with my show James Acaster until August, Jamesacaster.com for tickets. Yes. I'm in Blackpool tomorrow and Friday,

and I don't know, I don't think they're sold out, to be honest. I think one of them is, and one of them isn't. you know, come along if you're in Blackpool. It's actually the perfect location for this show specifically. Yes.

Because James' song strictly. Oh, Ed, we're not allowed to say that yet. Thank you very much for watching slash listening. We will see you next week. Bye. Fuck off.