Perfect Day with Jessica Knappett - EP3: Jessica Gunning

Episode Date: August 8, 2024

In this week’s episode Jessica Gunning joins Jessica Knappett to describe her perfect day. The pair discuss Gunning’s role as Martha in Baby Reindeer and the fallout of her new fame, her earlier acting jobs including being the ‘exposition lady’, a baby sitting incident involving Jess Knappett, getting injured on set and an run in with Jude Law and Keira Knightley.  Like and subscribe for brand-new episodes every Thursday. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok @perfectdaycast. And why not get in touch: [e-mail] A Keep It Light Media Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I've gotten into Keira Knightley's dressing room and started to make a little coffee. Hello, I'm Jessica Nuffitt and welcome to Perfect Day, the podcast which finds out your favourite people's perfect day by asking their fantasy morning, afternoon and night. Today I am beyond thrilled to welcome onto the podcast my friend the amazing Jessica Gunning. Jessica is an incredible actress who's had roles in so many great shows including Back, The Outlaws and Fortitude. But you may be one of the 60 million people to have watched her groundbreaking performance as Martha in Baby Reindeer. And guess what? We have a good old natter about it. I should hope so too. Not only that, we

talk about her love of family, a babysitting incident which does not show me in the best light, some acting faux pas and a little bit more about baby reindeer because I can't get enough of it. Welcome old and new to the Perfect Day Club. I've kept your seat warm. This is Jessica Gunning's Perfect Day. Oh, we'll just start then. Hi, Jess. Hi, Jess. Hi, mate.

Thank you for being on Perfect Day. Thanks for having me. Thanks for coming here. Thanks for... We are obviously going to talk about your perfect day. I think we should maybe tell the listeners, I feel like we should just announce it from the off. We are lovers. We are lovers.

Oh, no. We are lovers. Oops we are lovers oops no we we are friends of old aren't we friends of all i was trying to work out how long i've known you i think maybe about 13 14 years i'd say oh would you think it's that long yeah i think it is and it's quite frightening i met jess gunning on the live comedy circuit Jess used to do this incredible maybe you still do it no I don't you're not gonna you're not gonna bash it out for the world varieties imagine she used to come out oh my god it was so funny and do this it's like I think it's actually on on YouTube but I think it might be yeah but I used to conduct the audience as if they were the orchestra.

But actually I was thinking about Perfect Day because I also used to have a sketch, I don't know if you ever saw it, where I only ever did like three sketches and then I got scared. There used to be this thing on Channel 4, it was like three minute wonders, which was like a day in the life of somebody and you'd follow them around for like three minutes in between adverts. They'd do, hi, you're joining me as I'm about to go into my office job. So I thought it'd be really funny to do one where it's the woman who sings the songs you hear in

super drug because you have to have covers and i was like you join me here where i'm about to lay down some tracks on my new album charity hits of the 90s and then i sang perfect day but i had to do all the voices so i was like such a perfect day like imagine that you had to do all of them did you do that yeah so that's what the sketch ended in perfect day yeah oh my god such a perfect day like doing all of the different food animals oh that is so how funny would that be if you had to do like a big compilation so then it was like three animals trying to do all of them just and also I said something like, we're here. We've got the studio for 10 minutes as I'm about to lay down some tracks.

I just thought of a, oh my God, okay. So hard to put a video. So I thought of that today. Oh, that's so funny. Unfortunately, you can't put music in podcasts anymore. It's called Perfect Day, but I don't know at all what you're referencing there, Jess. Absolutely no idea. So how are you? I mean, where do we begin?

Where do we begin? A few weeks ago, I saw you a few weeks ago, you came to a 40th birthday. That's been something that has been heavily chronicled on this podcast, unfortunately for everyone. heavily chronicled on this podcast unfortunately for everyone and I I mean I can't imagine what a big few weeks it's been for you because looking back that was only a few weeks ago and baby reindeer hadn't come out nobody was talking to you about it at that party you could just go to a party and be a normal person and now what yeah now how, now it is a bit different. How's your life? Well, I feel exactly the same. But then when I go out, I do kind of think, what are people looking at?

And then I'm like, oh, yeah. Because I forget that I obviously look like myself. So I've had a bit of a mixture. The poor lady the other day, when I came out of my car, she screamed in my face. Because she'd just finished watching episode seven and left it at her house. And I was there.

So I was like, I'm so sorry. Imagine that. It's terrifying. But then loads of people are coming over and being so lovely about it too. And really moving stories we're hearing, both me and Richard. It's kind of incredible, the response it's had.

Yeah, well, it is an incredible performance. I mean, you've blown everyone's minds. I always knew you were brilliant. I said it first. And I've been saying this for years, and I always knew it. And every time you'd get a job, you'd come to me and be like, Jess, I'm doing this massive show with Stephen Merchant and Christopher Walken. I'd be like, yeah, yeah, this is going to what like you know not to say that Outlaws hasn't been

a big show but yeah and you'd be like and then you'd be like I'm doing this Netflix show it's just this guy's Edinburgh show that they're turning it and I was like yeah yeah yeah sure sure that maybe maybe this will be it maybe it won't yeah but for it to be it's been in it I mean what an insane insane ride and also just know, I know. And also just your performance. I don't know how you managed to bring, I mean, I've sent you lots and lots of voicemails about voice notes about this. Lovely voicemails.

But just the, oh my God, the power of that performance, the dimension, how much nuance you brought to it, how extraordinary it is to go through so many feelings with one character with one performance it's you're funny you pity her you're so cross with her yeah and you know and you're bringing all of that it's all down to you really I think Richard's incredible as well but

like and his writing was great but I just have this really usually I've said before like when when I get auditions through, I don't know if you're the same, I just think, if I'm right for this, I'm right for it. I'll do my thing, go in, and if it's right, then it's right. But for this, I was like, I have to do this because I could see her so clearly and it could so easily have gone another way

where somebody was playing her as scary or playing her. I think you just ruin Richard's brilliant writing if you see her in that way. I never, ever saw her as a villain or anything I just was I really felt for her yeah and I wanted and I kept saying that every time I went into the auditions I was like I know how to do this I know I know what you want from this I think and usually I wouldn't be like that but for this I really I really did and I'm really proud that I did um and I'm really proud of Richard actually as well because obviously I was with him all the time with with my scenes with him but I actually

obviously wasn't involved in in um episode four but watching that back as someone now who knows him really well I just was like oh my god what a brave job he's done so brave yeah and and you know obviously there's been a lot of backlash in terms of, I mean, I'm assuming you know about this. You haven't been completely protected from this. We try not to look into too much, in all honesty. No, but as in, you know, the annoying thing about what has happened, what was a beautiful piece of art, piece of art an incredible story so brilliantly told about the cycle of trauma and this incredibly complex subject of having a female stalker as a man and yeah um male to male sexual abuse and trauma you know to have told that story and then unfortunately the thing that's really annoyed me

about it is that Piers Morgan then gets to sort of somehow finish the story or have some involvement in the ending. You know, that has, I think, been like a huge disappointment for me as a viewer, which obviously is something that has come out of all of this, you know, the criticism that it's had about safeguarding and all of that. But I'd be interested to know what your take is on that and you don't have to say too much if you don't want to I think I don't think we thought it would be as widely watched as we as it was and I think that Richard has every right to tell his side of this story in an artistic emotionally truthful way and I think as he said before he's not doing a documentary identities were changed for a reason and it was never the point of it for it to become this kind of but i get it i get the fascination and i get the kind of wanting to discover real identities

of people but it kind of it's the same it gives me the same feeling as when they talk about acting and they're like you should only play something you've experienced it and it is a bit of a mind field to discuss in this day and age in terms of of what we can do as storytellers and what we shouldn't and i think that um it's a story we're telling and i think we're allowed to do that and i think richard's been really brave in how he did that. And so I just kind of keep going back to that and trying to keep going back to the show just to be like, actually, what was told in that

was really hard for him to do. And it was really brave doing, you know. The annoying thing that so much attention now has been taken away from that, I just want to stick up for it and say that I think that the focus should be on the story itself and the incredible performances what positivity has come out of it yeah um as far as you can tell in terms of like you know what have the viewers been been saying to you guys

yeah well I'm not on social media so I I don't get kind of an immediate feedback in that way but I know that um Richard is and he's been receiving some really moving messages. But he works with a charity here in the UK called We Are Survivors. He's one of the patrons of it. And they have seen a 200% increase in people in email referrals, people getting in touch. And 60% of those have cited Baby Reindeer as the reason why. And I think, you you know we're really lucky in this industry to even work yeah let alone do something where you feel part of something that

makes someone feel less alone if it's just reached one person in that way then I think it's a really special story to tell because you know there's people out there who for the first time didn't feel lonely and they were like oh this, this has happened to somebody else. That scene at the end when he goes back to the Darian character, so many people don't understand why he goes back, but so many people who've been through that do. They say that's the bit that made most sense to them, actually. I thought it was incredible.

Yeah, and to go back and to... Because all you're really looking for is for the wrong to be right yeah yeah that's how that was my interpretation of it and that's why this continues and really um like difficult ending when he goes back and and then he goes into that pub but also is he gonna stalk the bar like it's such a great ending is it so many people have come up with what different ways they received it and I think that's brilliant. It's always such a good sign of a good ending

when you've got to, it's left open to interpretation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So how, I mean, how is life now? I mean, it must be. Yeah, it's good. I mean, I feel, like I said,

I feel exactly the same but it's lovely and it's great and it's good. I mean, I feel, like I said, I feel exactly the same. But it's lovely and it's great and it's crazy. But I think because I've been acting now for 17 years, I've kind of, I'm still myself in it all. I think if this had happened maybe 10 years ago, I don't know if I would have known how to really handle much of it. But I feel like, OK.

Yeah. Yeah, and really proud and just chuffed that so many people watched it well you should be because it's incredible and I hope that people go back over your back catalogue and have a look at everything you've ever done because everything that Jessica Gunning has ever done is incredible and the way that you can flip from comedy to try I think I think you're and I've heard Richard Gad say it too, I think you are the nation's finest actress. I do. It's going to be exciting to see what you do next. What do you want to do?

I don't know, you know. Yeah, I love doing drama and comedy. I love a bit of everything. Because I'm pitching the sitcoms. I thought now I'd be having a good time. Can you read the script? I'll just leave it. I'll leave it with you agent it's funny though it comes out of the woodwork

oh really oh no you spoke to us about 17 years ago I'm like oh why hello are you reading it now are you that's funny just get the dust off do you still want to we were thinking a blab

on channel 4 if you don't that's very in joke it's like a 10 minute taster that they give to people on channel four who are up and coming i don't want to slag off um a production company because obviously it's a very it's a very nice thing but um richard when has got obviously, incredible meetings after this thing and everyone kept saying to me, what have you got through? And I have got... I had something through for... One of them is a shark.

Celebrity infested waters. Celebrity swim with sharks. And the other one was for an Australian touring production of Peter Pan to play Smee. So I was like, oh, the offers are flooding in. Watch out. No, but I don't want to diss. Obviously, it'll be a brilliant production,

but yeah, I was like, wow. Because they were like, offers will be flying off the table. But they want you to audition, right? Do a Zoom audition. I think they probably did, actually. Oh, man. Not even offers. Oh oh that's so funny oh i can i mean there's just so much i can see you doing i i just think you're

you're gonna go into feature film land now aren't you do you want to or is it going to be a theater move it might be a theater move this move would be nice but we also i've been writing something for about a million years that now hopefully is getting a bit more made. I know about this. I don't know if we're allowed to talk about it. Oh, talk about it. It's with Kate Blanchett's production company because I did a play with Kate about five, six years ago

and we're good friends now. Everyone who meets Jessica just becomes her friend and wants to work with her and tries to make things happen. That's basically the pattern. But her and her husband have got their production company and I had this idea with my friend Joe Dockery years ago that was a pilot. But again, after Baby Rain did,

things have picked up with that. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Because it was such a good idea and such a great script anyway from the off, but it has been years. Yeah, about eight years, I think now. a classic example of like yeah how it's unfortunately in this industry not always enough to just have written a good script like a really good script and have Kate Blanchett's production company on board that's not always enough to get something made then you also need

to be trending at number one starring in a show on number one netflix for weeks and weeks and weeks and everyone's talking about it and everyone from every single country in the world knows about it then you might get to have your film made if you're lucky after your touring production of peter pan in australia Peter Pan in Australia. But this is so great. And there are so many more questions. But we are really here, Jess, to talk about your perfect day. Shall we do it? Yeah, let's do it.

So, Jess, your perfect morning. Yes. it was really nice to think about this actually because well at first i was trying to be funny in my head about and think of funny answers then i was like i just can't think of anything but then i was like it's quite hard to answer it like yeah and then i fall over um spray you know like bringing the flag out of my sleeve. Yeah, so I was trying to be clever. It's the same reason as why I never used to write a diary, because I'd be like, I've got to be interesting. You should be keeping track of what's going on. I now need to remember all this stuff.

For the old memoirs. Yeah, I was trying to think of, you know, clever answers. But actually the truth of, well, the first thing I'd ask is if the day can be double the length okay can i have like a 48 hour day sure great because i've got loads of nice little things i'd like to fit in okay great well let's just so i love the idea of waking up without an alarm yes but not super late so you're like oh god it's 10 or whatever yeah but like nice and early but without an alarm yeah no but guilt free guilt free fresh bed sheets fresh pjs maybe even shaved legs nice

and smooth lovely do you know what i mean just fresh so you feel so fresh and silky silky fresh and silky and then i also have got well i've got loads loads of kids in my life I'm really close to lots of mates with their kids and sometimes if I sleep over at their house one of my favourite things is to hear them pad in and when I'm asleep and be like little kid

and my little nephew I just love when I stay over there hearing them come and wake us up which is cute so something like that so sweet so maybe maybe like I'd wake up in like a big house with all my friends are living or they're aware we're all together for a weekend away my friends my family in a big house maybe by the sea in like Anglesey or something great spot yes wake up all like not naturally hearing all the bustle of happiness in the background one of my favorite things from like being a kid used to be like going to sleep and hearing people talking i just love that sound yeah like a bit of dirt and a bit of clearing a bit of

like pots and pans such a nice reassuring you can get that like yeah it's a sound to go to sleep i'd love that yeah because it's so satisfying isn't it that feeling it's a real real safe feeling so i'd wake up to that and like hear people bustling around and just have a nice chilled morning with all of them a nice coffee ofs yeah um nice chats nice laughs do you ever have like a thing where you go away with you know i really would like thing where you go away with your friends and family? No, I really would like to do... I go away with my family quite a bit. We did go to Anglesey a few years ago and that was really nice.

We were really by the sea, which was lovely to be by the sea. Do you like a bit of sea air? I like a bit of fresh, bracing sea air. Yeah, nice, innit? Not necessarily super sandy. No, no. I'm not that big fan of super sandy. But, you know, nice, fresh.

Even if it's a bit cold, don't mind kind of nice i think people are either either cold or hot people aren't they are you so you're a cold person yeah i'd rather be too cold than too hot yeah yeah yeah which would you rather yeah i would rather be too i'd rather be too cold and put some layers on but i but i hate i actually hate being cold makes me quite you know when you're filming and you get cold oh and it really shivers your bones but i get no i get angry i get like really grumpy when i'm cold i did this thing for sky called fortitude oh which was filmed over in iceland that was another one where i was like, this is going to be it. I'm not saying it wasn't, but... But I played this woman who killed her mum with a fork

and then ripped her open and was sick inside with this frog... It was so weird. It was a comedy, you know. And they had this shot on the next episode where you follow my bloody footprints out the door and then you're i'm there and i'm like swaying in this night that's just covered in blood and you see the whole of the land the town of fortitude and it was a great shot don't get me wrong all of like the

camera guys like geeking out about it because it was like trailing through and then they were like right we've we've made the path of bloody feet you just stand there so i was there in my nightie no shoes there and it was like oh my god this is epic and then i was because we were in iceland they did have ironically didn't snow so they had to bring in loads of fake snow so i was like this is fake snow isn't it and they were like no it's real snow and i was like oh okay i don't have any to have any shoes on but they were like one more for the shot so i was like it looks so good it did look so good and they were like one more for the shot so I was like it looked so good it did look so good and they were like

it looks so great and I'm like yeah okay and then this big Icelandic girl like swooped in and was like she'll get frostbite

and like whisked me off but apparently you're not meant to put your feet I was gonna put my feet right up near a radiator and they were like no no no don't

it'll be worse the pain will be worse but it was really like they were really it was bad well you actually get frostbite yeah yeah I didn't really so I was like let's do this for the shot but really like, they were really, it was bad. Well, you were actually getting frostbite. Yeah, yeah.

So I was like, let's do this to the shop. But yeah. And then they were like, no, get her out, get her out. It sounds really diva-ish, doesn't it? But you just,

like, excuse me, can I have a hot water bottle, please? And then you see all the crew around you in your own way, like lovely warm puffer jackets and you're in a nightie

standing on ice. What's she moaning about? Bloody actors. I'm like, oh, I think I can't feel my toes. So temp-wise of my perfect day would be one of those days it's like blue skies but crisp. Oh, lovely. What else are you doing on your perfect morning?

Have you got any other activities? Because we've had to make it longer or are we just getting straight into lunch? Probably going to maybe a little walk on the beach with everyone just nice like laughter fun chilled yeah yeah i think in uh on a cold a cold anglesy beach um a cold anglesy beach please uh and and finding some little shells i do with all the kids that'd be so cute maybe yeah shingle shingle underfoot yeah collecting some nice little gems oh that'd be nice yeah everyone will just get along on the perfect day of course yeah and all the kids would get along and all that stuff is great yeah yeah because i've been lucky to like i've got quite

a lot of mates down in London near me whose kids I've seen grow up and it really is like, not to sound too cheesy but it's genuinely an honour when you are like let into a family's house and the kids call me Auntie Jess and all that, but I've seen them grow up you know

you are such a good friend in that way and it really is like a privilege to get to see them grow up into these amazing humans. Yeah, I love it. Do you remember when I made you look after them? I was just thinking about that. I think I was filming Taskmaster.

Because do you remember you also got locked out and there was a rat? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a lot of stuff going down you said to me like oh anytime i love babysitting i'll babysit her anytime and i was like okay and then you came over and we'd failed to mention that she'd had her jabs i know i couldn't i couldn't when babies have jabs they get a fever and you're supposed to give them cowpoll every four hours or something and i just forgot to tell you that i mean the worst and i was just like off like i don't know trying to throw 15 balls into a hoop while standing on my head with you know alex horn standing there getting

all the information on the task and my baby's at home crying in your arms for hours on end i'm so sorry can gonna take this opportunity to say to publicly apologize but i was like she was like a puzzle i was like usually i can what is happening and then when i got home i was like i really failed today it took me forever to to calm her down and then you were like mate you forgot to say she had a job so i was like oh my god it's so bad now when I look back on it, but that is also not that this is about me, but it just is a very classic example of how unprepared I was for motherhood.

And when I look back on it and how in denial I was about being a mother and what you're supposed to, I mean, it sounds very neglectful, but it was just classic. Like, well, I've got to go to work. So here you go. Off I go.

So the reason why I had this chilled out long morning is because one of my perfect things to do is actually work. I love filming. So that would probably be my afternoon and i'd make a day a day of it so i'd have a whole day filming in the afternoon with this extended time and so i'd have this nice relaxed morning and then maybe i don't know get picked up from there and off we go to set because i love it i'm such a geek that's so nice what is it that you love about it so much i think i love when i love feeling part of a team always but i also love that i remember a friend of mine who is now um a big old writer for

many a show but we met when she was a runner on law and order uk which i was in obviously as you know but and the cctv lady in Law and Order UK. You were like Mrs Exposition or something. Well, I was just the one that was like, Sarge, here's the folder. And you have to try not to do a funny face at the end of it. Because then they leave it for ages and you're like, show you through.

You can't be like... And also it's one of those jobs where there's amazing supporting artists who are regulars there because it's a big, bustly office, but they just all thought I was a supporting artist who'd been given lines. They're like, how do you get a line? I'd be like, I went to drama school.

That exact same thing happened to me on the Alan Partridge movie, on Alpha Papa, and I was a police officer, but I was a young, upcoming actor. Steve Coogan and Anna Maxwell were looking at me like, why is this essay talking to me? So for the first, about the first week I didn't say anything, didn't have any lines I was just in the back of shot. It's only when

we did a scene they were all like, oh my god she's actually part of the cast. Still didn't talk to me much to be honest but I thought it would all change. Now I was one of you. I'm one of'm here guys I'm one of you that was really nice and also it meant that it was a slow

kind of ease into the TV world but I got to learn on the job without having the pressure of leading a scene or having any lines but then when I met my friend, my lovely friend Marnie she was a runner and i remember she on the first day i was like i'll get my own coffee or whatever because i just didn't like the feeling of like people going let me get you a tea and wait there but she was like

okay we do this because actors just wander off and get distracted so i'm getting you a coffee to know where you are sit there if my boss sees you at the coffee station i'll get told off like no know your place a bit and it was the best lesson was it because it really genuinely was because i was like it's the most freeing thing when you realize as an actor you're just a cog and actually you're just you're a bit annoying. Did you learn? I did learn. Did you learn? Did you? No. Because I seem to remember a story about you where you did get your own coffee. Oh, my God.

That's such a good thing. Can you tell that story? I can tell that story. So why did... Actually, I didn't learn my lesson. Because... I'm so happy. i was in um anna karenina um as you all know playing maid servant number two and right at the end not to spoil the film when she goes in front of the train my character was meant to go oh look at the lace on her um but i knew i was going to be cut from the film because the director went what's more without the line and i was like i'm not gonna be i'm not gonna be in this film

we were there for like five days to wait to do this bit which is fine because you're like oh my god we're you know in a studio and they take forever to like light and everything there's like half a page count a day on those kind of massive movies so you are waiting quite a lot of time in these in like the corridor of all the dressing rooms so i had my laptop my phone i was like pretending that i was a writer back then so i was like writing a pilot you know and so i would go i mean definitely were a writer and then by the friday we were all called down to set to do the scene and then he was like what's wrong with that line i was like i don't think a minute but i'm in this bonnet playing this maid servant and then when we we come back um i go into my dressing room my laptop my phone's gone

and jude law came out of his and he was like because your phone gone i was like my phone's gone yeah jude hi jude how you doing my phone's gone and then aaron Aaron Taylor this is mad isn't it Jude how are you doing Jude have they got your phone and then Aaron Taylor Johnson he goes is your my laptop's gone basically someone had done a sweep of the corridor and taken then they'd been very clever because they'd if someone was in they go we're just checking the lights aren't flickering and they weren't and then if they weren't they just took it all anyway this this runner girl was so mortified because she was like oh my god i should have come back and no i was like no you're in a studio it's like a safe secure seemingly place like don't worry she's like let me get you a cup of tea and i'll go i'll go so i have this bonnet on and i walked to the end of the

was it where's the kitchen and what down i was like okay oh my god so i went into the kitchen started to make a cup of tea and these kind of big like bouncer guys were there and they were like um can we help you and i was like oh god my laptop's gone my phone's gone just have this stolen they were the kitchen's actually next door and i'd gone into kieran outley's dressing room and started to make a little coffee scary guys like you're gay just this maid in a bonnet oh hello bane of my life flicking on the kettle and how do you can i ask you a slightly wanky question but i am genuinely interested in people's processes without like without it going to you know but let's say it's your perfect day yeah how how have you prepared and got yourself to the point where this can be perfect?

Like, what do you do? What did you do to prepare for Martha? Like, what's your process, man? What's your process? Well, I'm not very method in terms of, like, even doing it. Thank God. Oh, my God. Thank God.

No, but what I meant in terms of method was, like, accent-wise. I don't need to kind of speak in the accent or anything like that. Sometimes when actors talk about acting, i just get so cringe about it even when we talk about it being like a craft and an art i'm always like oh my god but that's what i love about filming because you are when you are on a crew you the actor is that is that we're such a small part of the big machine of it all that that's my favorite thing to realize so i love a call sheet i love a system i love how everything just works and when everyone's at the top of their game it's just amazing so i'd love like a really complicated shot say for example in baby reindeer the sequence

where i am coming in to visit him from the pub that's quite a technical shot because it's a whip pan so there's a guy with a steady cam it's a freaking heavy from the pub. That's quite a technical shot because it's a whip pan, so there's a guy with a steadicam, it's a fricking heavy camera. The timing is there's someone out there to cue me, there's, like, a timing to it all, and so everyone's ready to work together. They're cueing the essays a little bit earlier, they've got everything done and ready, and there's, like, a kind of rhythm to it.

Because the buzz you get from doing theatre or live stuff is obviously immediate and a thrilling feeling but when I'm doing TV stuff like that it's that same thing it's like everyone has to work together so you're tracking back the same time as the camera guy and it's just really satisfying so I love those kind of days

and I love when you hit it in awe and Veronica who was our director she kind of established the whole setup because she directed block one and that was the majority of my bits really because Josephine's incredible and she did the second book but Martha wasn't really in as much then it was more kind of voice messages and emails and things so me and Veronica developed like a really um close shorthand with each other so much so that like sometimes she'd be watching like a close-up

say of a moment and she'd come over in the gap and go you thought um that a bit late and i'd be like how the freak she was so in tune and precise yeah and she really saw martha how i did and so we had this and that is so satisfying to me when you are on the same page as someone technically and when they you can go and she goes do you know and i'm like yeah and i already know what the note is i love stuff like that wow yeah so it was amazing to and you feel like such of like part of the team and obviously richard was there all the time because he he wrote it and he was in it and just trying to like work out what he wanted from a certain moment and just try and um not translate it but work out what how i

could do what he wanted because often his he's on the receiving end of the thing so if he would never really say she was scary but if it was like oh it's a quite a strange feeling i can't really play that because i don't she doesn't intend it to be threatening or scary or strange so i'd have to kind of translate with veronica and stuff to be like okay what can i what can i think of for my character's background in in terms of what she's trying to do to him from martha it was so about him all the time so it would often be my answer or my clue was kind of in in donny richard's character. So I would track, preparation-wise, I would track, I loved the idea that she maybe would go home and imagine the next day's conversations and have a daydream about that

and the thing that was really interesting in how honest Richard was about how maybe he complimented her or flirted back with her is that I just always thought that would be beyond her wildest dreams you know so that first moment when they meet and he offers her the cup of tea somebody asked the other day do you think if he didn't she'd still notice him and it made me think as a character I don't know how often people did maybe recognize her or notice her or show her kindness really so it was a rare connection and so then when she's going through her phone which i imagine she does all the time to people to strangers to show that she's this you know hot shot lawyer and all these clients are in her phone

for him to then go you must have amazing dinner parties is like the first kind of yes and she's ever properly had because he sings back to her after the comedy club stuff they go for this coffee you know i always imagined her imagining going for this coffee with him as friends obviously in her head going we're just we're friends we're just friends and then thinking well what what funny things can i maybe say about the menu you know i want the scotch broth i'm not sure if it's and then he comes back and says this might be on the specials which is better than she even would have daydreamed herself so i just loved the idea of like the excitement what she might imagine him saying and then whatever he actually does um and all of that i would kind of consciously track but the writing was so

friggin good i just didn't really need to do that much really apart from just connect to her really and just so unexpected all of the time that i mean that extraordinary moment when um she comes back after we've seen all of his trauma and she comes back and you think oh thank god he's got her yeah you feel amazing a relief that she's in his life and she's not gonna do she's gonna somehow look after him or something I don't know you but you begin to really really understand it on it and there's also that through line isn't there all the way through of like he even him like questioning how much of this is he is he inviting into his life and all of that and And why haven't you quit the pub and all of that?

But then it starts to make more sense. I mean, we could talk about it again for hours and hours and hours and people are, and that's why it's so good. But that would be, like, one of my perfect days, a scene from a day of that, really, because the part was such a joy to play and such a gift of a part, but a real challenge, too. I really... Actually actually my friend andrew

when i got it he was like go for it you know what i mean but you you do get scared then when you get it i don't know if you get this and then you're like oh crap and there's a there's a world where you're not not to say i would have ever phoned it in but there's a world where i wouldn't have been as brave and there's a world where I went for it and properly felt it and did and I think I'm really glad that I did go for it but the environment has to be right for you to feel safe enough to do that and it's very obvious that that had that environment had been created and everything you're saying about the direction and Richard being around and you know the intelligence

of of what's being made like everybody everybody was at the top of the game yeah yeah and everyone was amazing people who worked on the crew everyone set designer everything was just amazing yeah so that exactly right it felt like the perfect time to kind of be brave with it all also incredibly challenging subject matter as well and it could have been one of those quite like bleak yeah bleak yeah things that everyone was just sort of getting through but obviously a lot of heart and soul went into it and i think that is actually what people are responding to yeah what you don't realize that that's the stuff that comes off off the screen off the page on through you onto the screen, into our eye holes. Have you got any more to add to your perfect afternoon?

No, probably just filming is my perfect afternoon. Just filming. That's so sad. No. Working. And then it would probably go into something cultural. I probably would go into London and maybe meet some friends and either go see a nice play or a nice comedy show

or a nice film maybe something that and again not to be too cheesy about what we do but um i've been thinking a lot about like films and shows that kind of changed my life a bit because i think sometimes with stuff like tv it can literally save people's lives like people talk about covid all the time they didn't feel lonely because they had tv on i know for my mum and me and my sister that's what we bond over we don't live together but we watch the same shows at the same time because it's something you can kind of share and talk about after and i think that's why i love watching goggle box because you just go oh and i really judge people who go oh who wants to watch people watching tv because it's so much more than that it's really warming and it's really moving when you see people reacting from all different

walks of life to one piece of tv or something and i think it has got the power not only to change lives i think that's very rare and and a real treat to be in but even just to entertain i remember my my friend was in a taxi once and she was think she hadn't worked for ages and she was thinking maybe she needed to kind of stop and get another job and the taxi driver recognized her from a show that she was in years ago and she was like oh yeah and he went oh i loved that show and they were driving along for quite a while and he went I don't know what I'd do without telly and she just was like oh that's why you know and I always think that's really emotional it's true because I'm the same I love yeah like watching stuff to escape or make me laugh or feel something or see myself on screen or see someone else on screen

you know see see shared experience or other. It's just, it's the importance of storytelling. Yeah. So that's where you'd be at a lovely matinee of something. Yeah, oh, I was going to go to that, it was going to be my evening, but yeah, maybe after filming Nip to a Matinee. Yeah, just really long day. Yeah, why not? Perfect night would be the theatre night,

but then after maybe dinner with friends. Oh, yes. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? How many? A nice bunch, probably like eight. Yeah. That all kind of know each other, but maybe don't even, and just find each other.

You know what I mean? We've got funny friends, just funny peeps, just around the table. Really nice laughter and chats. I'm really into at the moment like I'm really into what a knob into going for dinner with my friends into like feeling myself like myself I don't know and I love when you're with people you can just fully be yourself and I think yeah because I think you're also probably going through a bit of a weird time now where everyone is recognising you as

another character and I think that stuff will calm down but it's more important than ever to be with buddies isn't it? Yeah. So what else, anything else happening in your perfect night? I'm trying to think, what else do people You don't need to have anything else, I'm just wondering Somebody mentioned karaoke, that might be quite fun fun that's always fun you've got a great

voice as we've heard um i actually don't i think i've only ever done karaoke once i don't know why i'm putting that in my perfect day but just something that carries the night something that makes me sound fun yeah something that sounds really cool guys i did actually google like what would be a cool perfect day. How can I sound trendy? I mean, not say trendy is the first word. Keep saying it. Yeah, something to just, like, last the night on, I think, would be great. Do you have a normal night?

Like, do you have, like, bedtime rituals or anything? I'm fascinated by structure and routine. And I love when I hear that people have routines because I don't really have one. I need to be better at that. I kind of did after lockdown, I got into quite a good routine of, I went to the gym in the morning

and I was back and showered by like nine. So I was so smug with myself. Wow. Now what am I going to do? Now what am I going to do with my life? Now what am I going to do with my day? What are your things then that you can't that like you've taken on board that you can't not do now um try and i do try and drink a lot of water in the day do you yeah i do try i did have one of those big old things and then i lost it yeah

as long as i go keep going you can do it gross loads of actors have those i know and then i felt a bit like a knob coming to say you got this take some more sits keep going um i lost it yeah on a perfect relaxed night that isn't one going out i would like have a nice bath light some candles i love my little flat and so i'd be just in there, maybe put some music on. Do you do that? Because people have a hard time with actually doing that. I know, yeah. I'm not great at doing that, no.

Yeah. I had a box of Christmas presents that were like candles and lovely things from my family that were in my boot of my car. And my sister put something in my boot in march and it's last year and went are those your christmas presents and i was like um i'm gonna take that i should probably take them or what so those are the christmas presents that you'd been given at christmas you still haven't driven them down i hadn't brought them in and then i went and brought them in so when you my in my flat, you come in,

there's like a little bit before you go up the stairs. I brought the box in and put them there. And then in May, my sister came down to London for work and said, any chance I can stay at yours tonight? And I was like, I was filming in Bristol coming back and I was like, the presents are on my table. I didn't see the presents. Sure enough, I gave each one of those.

And I was like, I'm going to take these. It's because it's candles, and I don't know where to, like, store them, I think. I don't know what it is, but there is something there. I need to unpack. What a first world problem. Exactly. Such a first world problem. I don't know where to store my scented candles.

Obviously in the scented candles cupboard. I know what you mean. I think you're supposed to display them yeah you're meant to put them on your bath and then never light them because you never have a bath because you haven't got time or you don't want to give yourself that time yeah so i'd have candles yeah do you like candles i only like candles when there has been a stench. Oh, okay. Stench as well. Which actually is quite a common occurrence in my household.

But I'll occasionally light a candle if I'm just really trying to look after myself somehow. If people come over, you probably light candles. Yes, yes. To me, it's a bit of a wintry thing. But I am a big bath and candle girl. Yeah, I love a bath. I wintry thing but i do i am a big bath bath nice girl yeah i love a bath i never used to but i do like a bath yeah i do yeah so it'd be like that yeah i'd want to be yeah peaceful nice evening relaxing music yeah that would be nice as well as well as a night out with friends yeah you've done all of it today on this perfect day. Can you remember your perfect day back?

Shall we try and do it? Let's try and do it. What would it be? Okay, so you had your perfect morning. You woke up in Anglesey with friends and family and little children. Little ones coming to go, is she making it?

I love that detail. And then you had a little walk on the beach. Nice, fresh, bracing walk. Yeah. Crisp morning. And then a car would probably come and pick me up and then you had a little walk on the beach nice fresh bracing walk yeah crisp morning and then a car would probably come pick me up and take me to filming yes and that way you just look you just pour over your delightful core sheet and you'd have a very technically difficult day it would be challenging but lovely and then what else are you doing?

I pop to see a matinee or an early theatre show something funny, something moving something that makes you go oh my god I'm glad I get to watch this live and then your night is you're going for dinner with some friends funny friends crucially

and then you are going home having a... Funny friends, crucially. Funny friends, yep. And then you are... Going home having a bath. Going to just go home and have a bath. Put my candles out. Chill out. Yeah. Jessica Gunning. Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me. It really has been a perfect day. Nice. Well, there we go. A wonderful woman, a wonderful actress and a reliable babysitter. What more could you want? And if you haven't seen Jess and Baby Reindeer, literally drop everything you're doing right this second and go and watch it.

Actually, before that, why not like, subscribe and leave us a review and give us a follow on socials we're on twitter tiktok and instagram at perfect day cast we release a brand new episode every thursday and if funny women is your thing we've got episodes with amy gladhill and the drifters girls the girls Drifters, my sitcom to look forward to. So you're lucky. Count yourself lucky is what I'm trying to say. That's all from me now. From Yorkshire with Love, I'm Jessica Knappett, wishing you a perfect day. I'm Natalie Cassidy, and I've been wanting to do a podcast of my own for a very long time.

And here it is. I'm going to be talking each week to family, friends, most importantly, you. I want to talk about the issues that are bothering me, things that make me smile, and how we get through that washing basket without having a nervous breakdown. This is a podcast for the general public, for the normal people. So get on board, become part of my community and let's have a laugh. Mum? What is it? Are we there yet?

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