Strangers on a Bench - EPISODE 79: Cormorants and Lewis Hamilton

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Tom Rosenthal approaches a stranger on a park bench and asks if he can sit down next to them and record their conversation.This is what happened! Produced by Tom RosenthalEdited by Rose De LarrabeitiMixed by Mike WoolleyTheme tune by Tom Rosenthal & Lucy Railton Incidental music by Maddie AshmanEnd song : 'World's Best Kiss' by Toby SebastianStream it here : https://ffm.to/worldsbestkissListen to all the end songs featured on the podcast (so far) on one handy playlist :https://ffm.to/soabendsongs————————————————————————————Instagram : @strangersonabench Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello. So it's bother you. Can I ask you a slightly odd question? I'm making a podcast called Strangers on a bench where essentially I talk to people I don't know on benches for 10 or 15 minutes. Are you up for that? Do you want to give it a go? Is there a day of the week that you favour? Oh, I'd have to be, yeah. I was going to say Friday or Saturday. Friday because it's like Christmas Eve. I've grown to love Christmas Eve because Christmas Eve is the day before Christmas.

So Friday is like that because it's the day before Saturday. So I think Friday is a favourite day. But also Sunday's become a favourite day. From being as a child my least favourite day by far because obvious reasons of... School and whatnot.

School next day. Hated school. Why do you hate school? Well, I wasn't very good at it. I wasn't very good at learning. wasn't very good at concentrating. Doesn't sound like the place for you. No. Where should you have gone?

Well, I suppose school would have been fine if it was more kind of designed towards the arts, you know, and smaller classes and less strict and more books and more painting and more playing and more sports rather than all the shit that we had to learn. I learned more when I left school than I did before. Because I left school, I could hardly read. I went away to drama school when I was 20.

Well, first of all, I went to a youth theatre. Right at the end of school, my mom forced me to join a local youth theatre. I reckon that was when my education started. She forced you? Yes, she did. Why did you need forcing? You went into it. Yeah, I wasn't interested.

But my mom ran a youth club. So she knew the geyser that ran the local youth theatre. And I'd done a few plays at school just to get out of class. I quite liked it. Anyway, she saw something that I didn't see or kind of thought. What was that? I don't know, maybe that I could do it. Maybe she had a plan.

You know, because she got it right because I ended up becoming an actor. So she definitely... Good old mom. Good old mom, mate. Absolutely. Always trust mother. Yeah, I never really kind of got it how a stroke of genius that it was. Because I really was going nowhere. Did he thank her?

Yeah. And I also thanked her by her coming to see me in shows and see me on telly. So she was probably as proud of mum as you can get. I was in the Lion King for a while. And she used to come down. She lived in North Wales. The day show. Yeah.

So she used to come down quite a lot and see it. And I always had put her virtually in the same place at the front of the circle. So I knew. I always knew where she was. And I'd always bow to her. you know. Yeah. I could see how marvelous she thought this whole thing was.

So it was pretty poetic. It was pretty nice, you know. Do you remember what she said to you to persuade you to go the first place? Well, it really was forcing it. I'd got tickets to a football match on the Saturday. And on the Friday, there was a youth theatre meeting. And she literally took the ticket that said, you're not going tomorrow.

I've got the ticket. The deal is, you go tonight. And then when you've been, tomorrow morning, I'll give you the ticket, you got the football. I went, wow, you know what I mean? I wasn't too chuffed with that behavior. Anyway, she had me over a barrel. So off I went.

I didn't particularly enjoy it. Then the next week there was somebody that we knew that was in the sixth form. I pretty much looked up to was in the youth theater and I didn't know this. His name was Dewee Hughes. Very funny and charming and handsome and talented. Anyway, the next, I said, I'm not going, man.

He said, it's too late. Dewe's going to pick you up. He's outside the door now. I'm not going to send him away. He's in his car. He's picking you up and you're going. And I went, Mom, you've done it again. Sure enough, I remember it was a white marina estate. I think it was his dad's. Off we went. And then I was given a part and I was kind of like embroiled. I'd be letting the side down. And I really began to enjoy it. More than anything else, I began to enjoy the people. It was the theatre people. What was it about theatre people that you enjoyed?

a freedom, you know, arty people, I was kind of fun more interesting than... Who were you hanging around with before that? I mean, I just made at school. I mean, I had good friends and stuff, but it was suddenly, it was a bit different. With your crowd, suddenly you found your people. Yeah, exactly, exactly. They were extraordinary. The girls were funny and gorgeous and charming and cool.

The boys were funny. Poise, Alec. There was just something about all this. There was something about the youth theatre that I really liked. There was a geyser there who became my best friend, like no other friend that I'd had previous. And before I knew it, I was totally in love with the theater. I ended up working doing loads of things backstage,

working on Welsh National Opera, Baller Rombair, just brilliant. So I had this rife life of theatre, you know, where I worked during the day and then rehearsed during the night and did shows. And then I got a job with the Theatre Clued, playing the Pantamemann. And then I thought, well, I better go to drama school and learn how to do this properly.

So I came to London, I went to Rada. So that was that really. That was my mum. Wow, mom, eh? Yeah, good old mum. Amazing, really. That she did that for me. Has there been any moments in life and you go,

oh, I wish my mother didn't do, you know, any painful? You've been happy the whole way through. Yeah, really, even when, because there's been lean years, you know. What'd you do in a lean year? Read, watch telly, see friends. Go back home. Where's home? Well, home is in where I was brought up is North Wales.

What was the kind of typical Sunday like in your hometown of going up? Oh, well, when I was tiny, it would be Sunday school, the noon, which was awful. Why? I just couldn't see the point. I knew that religion wasn't going to get me. I knew it was... What, straight off? Yeah, I knew it was...

Age what? Tiny, you know, like six or seven. I was like... Not for me? It certainly wasn't for me and I certainly didn't believe. To me it was the same as Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy. Did you believe in Father Christmas? Longer than you believe in the evening.

No, no, not for very long, no. But you know, in the morning it was pretty much dicking about with my brothers and my sister. Mom would cook a roast which was always fabulous. Another win by Mom there. Another win by Mom, yeah. Relentless, relentless victory to Mother. Mom was pretty special. Where's Dad?

Who's Dad? Dad was there. Dad was very present. Not mentioned yet. No, blessed. Sorry, Dad. There was not wrong with that. Dad was all right, but he just wouldn't have said,

look, you're going to the youth theatre. He was there to back you up and stuff. He was a good man, you know. But he hadn't got the vision like Mum had, you know, for me. Did she do this for your siblings as well? Was it just you? Just me, I suppose. My brothers were maybe doing a,

a little bit better than me. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So you needed a bit of a boost. Oh yeah. I worried. No, she was worried about me because I was, you know,

getting into trouble, getting into fights. Bit of a terror, I suppose. And then she had a light bulb moment. My mum did. And forced me to join the youth theater. Bless her. Because of this act that she did for you,

have you been keen to do similar acts for other people? Oh, good question. No. No, and I think I could probably do. I probably could do more with my life to inspire and help others, I think. I've turned my back a little bit on the theatre. I'm 63 now and I'm kind of, I do more in the way of voiceovers and TV really.

I haven't done theatre since before COVID. So I have plenty of time on my hands. And I have thought locally about joining a youth theatre or something and just to help out, you know, or to direct or just to be a... Because I think I could contribute. So I'm kind of... I think I'm ready to volunteer in something, actually. You can always help, can you.

Completely. It can always help. Totally right. And I'm quite lazy, so I come down here and open a book and chew the fat with folk and watch the boats and stuff. When I kind of think, you know, do something a little bit more useful. I mean, the boats are quite interesting. And it's great.

I could sit and watch. for hours. Could you describe what is in front of us? There's about one, two, well I'll count them. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, thirteen, fourteen, fourteen small little sailing boats and a dingy out there which looks after them. Oh, there's also two, two paddle boarders, three paddle boarders, but they go around four boys. There's a little track that they do and it's it's pretty calm so they're going pretty slowly but it's beautiful to watch and it's clouded over so it's there's a kind of like metallicness to the sea the sky looks pretty dramatic like at any minute now there

could be quite heavy rain good description what does it will make you feel when you look at it calm calm and um hi I am nice to see you pictures I'm there until tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow. I'll go and see them tomorrow. Grand. I will. Nice to see you. It's all right, mate.

Take care. Take care, mate. Lovely fella, nurse he is. What's his name? Damn, Greg for a while. Just along here, that's one of the beauties of this is that you get to know folk. He stopped like you did and said, can I take your picture?

He's a nurse, but his number one hobby is taking pictures of local people and he's really good at it. And then we've been, we've been piles since. How do you feel about having a picture taken? How do you feel about having a picture taken? I like it. What do you think about your face? Um, I like it less and less.

As I get older, people say, ah, you know, you look good. And I go, ah, yeah, but old, wrinkly and old and gray whiskers as opposed to black whiskers. But, yeah, fine, really. Hell, I've not got that much of an ego anymore, really. I don't think, I don't really give it down. When did it go? Quite late, later than I have liked. Really?

Being an actor, you're kind of like. You have to keep your head in the ego game. Yeah, you don't have to. But you did. I did. I did, yeah. I've only just beginning. Oh, really?

It's a beginning to feel like I'm dropping my ego, you know, my competitiveness and my... What is emerging in the space? I don't know. Hopefully, a calmer, more of a listener, more of a... Lover? That'd be nice. That'd be really nice. I met a French girl a couple of months ago.

That's exciting. Her name was Virginia, and she's really lovely. And she's hopefully coming over this week. But she's done this before. Said I'm coming over. And coming over, can you meet me? And I was like, yeah, great. And she never came.

And she's coming again? But she might not. Is she? Is she? So the big week next week? It is a big week. How are you be waiting? What were you be prepared?

I'm trying to be cool about it. Because I'm really quite, I'm really quite, I'm really quite, I'm really quite, I'm really quite, I'm really quite, I'm really quite smitten by her. And, um, what is it about her that you, she was, she's an amazing kisser. The way she kissed me, just knocked me for six. Tell me about it. I don't know what it was about, what, I felt like I'd never been kissed like that before. It was incredibly tender and I just felt love exuding from her. There was something really special about her kiss.

I said, wow. And she said, what? It just wanted to her every time. And I went, that kiss was amazing. And she says, it takes two, you know. My kiss is only as good as yours. And I went, if my kiss is as good as that,

I'm a happy man. That's lovely. I was like just... Do you think honestly that greatest kiss you're like? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's nice to hear that, you know,

you might have to wait until 63 to get the best kiss to your life. Yeah, there you go. It was that good. I mean, I was totally in love with the mother of my children. She never killed. me like that. How did you meet in the first place?

Hinge. Dating out. I'm slightly embarrassed to say. I know why are you embarrassed to that? I don't know. I can't explain that. There's something about it that doesn't sit well. But I've met so many nice girls.

Well, I don't think it's... It's just a vehicle to feel to me. And then once you're meeting, you know, it's like it does a date for you. Yeah, I'll buy that. What's on your profile? What's what you say about yourself? say about yourself um i'm quite i'm quite coy really i don't i don't give away too much i just put just put loads of photographs if you if you if you like if you well as many is that i think

there's six that you're allowed okay what are your photos of no selfies are there any other people in the photos it all just no you're just me you should put one photo maybe me and you do one photo now and then we'll put it on to the same i won't do it i won't put it on are they quite kind of posy photos are they quite relaxed me yeah um There's one that I like most is I'm at a wedding in France. It's in profile and I'm talking to somebody in front of me. There's another one with a dog with my friend who I dog sit quite often. Oh, that's classic. Getting the dogs in.

Get the dog, absolutely. Yeah, especially the dog's cute. Yeah, and the dog is cute. There's another one of me. There is one with somebody else. It's me and a mate Delroy. We're on tour and we're in a dressing room and we're dancing to a, I think it's a, Whitney Houston tune whilst we're brushing our teeth.

Oh, fun. That's a fun shot. So you have got one friend shot. Yeah. But yeah, that's hinge. So it works. And so Virginia. I never would have met Virginia.

Yeah. So if she comes, the great kisser next week, yeah. How are we, you know, how are you trying to move it for? I mean, were you, is it, are you just trying to get your kisses in while you can? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not trying to go, look, can you come every every month or whatever?

Oh yeah, I might, yeah, I might. I'll see how it goes. I mean, I've only spent, we met at about 8 o'clock on our Saturday night. And the following morning, I think she was on a plane back to Leon. And we haven't seen each other since. So we spent the night together and then she'd gone up just after lunch on the following Sunday.

We've spoken a lot on the phone since. So... Oh, you spoke a lot of the phone, that's nice. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was imagining she was a bit of a mysterious... Yeah.

No. So you know plenty about her. I should call her tonight and find out whether she definitely is coming in. That's interesting. Hang on, so she... Yeah, so she's talking a lot, but then she's not turning up.

I don't understand that. Yeah, I think neither do I. So there is, you're right about the mystery. There is a little bit of mystery with her. What do you know? She's a teacher. She works. She's a one-to-one.

one teacher. And she likes a drink. She likes a drink. Quite a lot of drinks. Okay. How many drink? She's a big drink.

Really? Trank me under the cyber. Oh, really? Yeah, man. And whenever I was kind of like, like, should we go now, she'd be like, nope, let's go and have, let's go in here. And I go, oh, really?

Okay, let's go in here. It was quite fun. We had a great time. You got a done? It was like, yeah. Is this he didn't? Is it as he did your lovemaking after this? Can't be quite complicated, no?

No, it was fine. Luckily, yeah. It's got personal, I mean, so shit. Well, it's all anonymous, you know? Yeah, but then people will go, I know that voice, you know what that is. Bob and Bob. You know what you famous? Bob and Bob, yeah.

That's Bob. You consider yourself famous? Bob's talking to Bob. No. No, I think that... Have you ever been recognised in the street? Oh, yeah. It's usually after you've been in something.

You'll get somebody that'll just look at you, stare at you. and then point at you. Like that, quite aggressive, it's quite aggressive. And then somebody who might come in, are you, did you, did I see you in Crime Watch or whatever it was? Star of Crying Watch. I've seen you loads in Crime Watch. You have been up for an award?

Oh, yeah, I have been up for an award. I've been up for a few. I've been up for, um, I did The Lion King. Were you the Lion? No, I was Timoan. Also, I did another play in the, the West End and won the Evening Standard Award. Fantastic.

For best comedy. Okay. Let me get my awards here. Yeah, yeah, sorry. Never cut off on a man. Detailing his award. He's in the middle of it is. He's telling you, you have to remember, I didn't win any of these.

Oh, no, I did. The Comedy Award. That won. It was a group one. You didn't get your own little statue. No, I've never held a trophy last and gone. Thank you. Um, mum.

Oh. You would have said that, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah, I would have told them. That would have been my, that would have been my acceptance speech, wouldn't it? Anyone else who would have thanked? Apart from mum, we'd just total focus on mother. Um, yeah. Yeah, it would all be about mum.

Yeah. Not your dad. Your dad got his, you know, he made love to your mother, made you. I could say that. I mean, you know, without that, you're not here. Yeah, so I would thank my dad. Yeah. Right.

I would thank my dad for having it off with me. mom. Do you know about your conception at all? Do we know about how that happened, no? No, I don't know anything. I was, um, I've been having cranio. What's that? It's when there, these very clever people hold your head and try and cure you of certain, certain ailments. Clever people hold your head. Yeah, like, you know, cranio, the, um, crate, like you just, have you not heard of cranio? No. It's a kind of, it's a healing thing. Anyways, I got talking to this, this girl down here. Yeah. Because I, I suffer from, uh, vertico. And um, Vertigo is the one where you just feel a bit busy and embellanced and so yeah, it's it can be really quite awful. It can make you feel quite nauseous and very nauseous sometimes and dizzy and disorientated when you get it bad. And she said would you would you be a case study? So it's like, oh wow, that's that's a serious. That's free cranio. Yeah. So you put your head in her hands. Oh yeah, I put my head in her hands and also much she does she starts with the feet. What's it like for you? It's very it's very soothing. It's it. It's very soothing. It's. It's. It's. It's very soothing. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's. It's.

It's quite beautiful actually. It's quite a beautiful thing. I mean a long time ago, my son was struggling when he was a toddler. His immune system was down and things weren't woken up for my boy. He was an unhappy baby. And somebody suggested crania.

We went to this charity cranial up thing. This room was extraordinary. There was people who were really, there were children who were really, really struggling in there with all sorts of bodies that were kind of stiff. When these extraordinary people put their hands, on these children's heads, they suddenly calmed, you know, and all the tension went out of their body.

And it really was quite, it was quite, it was like a miracle. And it helped my boy. I've never forgotten it. When does this vertigo kind of come on? Scrolling, if you scroll too much with your phone. Oh, God, classic. If you look too fast, left, right, you know, if I'm very careful now not to...

Go to the tennis? Yeah, I mean, that would be, that would be, That would be hell. That would be crap. Especially if they were playing quickly. That would be rubbish. You're absolutely right. Or if you watch, I don't know, Formula One or something.

Yeah, Formula One. No, I'm the telly. Do you know when you get certain angles? Because I watch Formula One. I'm a big fan. Oh, you're a fan. No, I'm not a fan of Formula One. I'm a fan of Lewis Hamilton.

Oh, that's interesting, just Lewis Hamilton. Yeah. Why are you such a fan of Lewis Hamilton? I think she's an extraordinary man. Really? Tell me. I mean, sorry, that sounded like I was not in agreement. I just don't know enough about those Hemminson to have an opinion.

Can you tell me why he's brilliant? I don't really know that much about him anyway. But here I go. Yeah, that doesn't make sense, does it? Doesn't make sense, does it? Make it make sense. Let's try and make it make sense. Yeah.

The fact that what I think is probably a very rich and white, orientated sport, and he became the most successful ever. He's standing up for the people on the Gaza Strip. as a strip. I like the fact that he's done that. I love his style. Yeah. These are all very reasonable reasons. He seems to be a really, he seems to me to be a very, really good man. Nothing about his actual, his actual rating there, just to him as a man. Yeah, yeah, really. So you don't mind, he's not as about his moves or his overtakes or anything. I think he's, no, because I got into Formula One because I liked him. Really? How interesting.

I just never would have, I just never would have, I never would have guessed that. This and the beauty about talking to people. I'm a big fan, yeah. As you can, as you've heard. Earlier you said you were in love with the mother of your children. Oh, yeah. I did then. Oh, not anymore.

Right. We've been separated for 23, 24 years. Yeah. What was that separation like? Oh, dreadful. God, God, God. Yeah. Why was it so dreadful?

First of all, being separated from her, my children. And my home. Whose idea was it? Hers. She wanted to be with somebody else. Didn't want to be with me anymore. Who can blame her? But it was just kind of heartbreaking, man.

Yeah, that's difficult. How does she tell you out of Inja? It's not to ask you too many painful questions, but how was it broken to you? Do you remember what you were taking, where you were? It was a Saturday morning. I got two shows that day. We were in bed and I said something about

our relationship has become so cold. And I think that she'd been wanting to say to me that it's time that we called in a day. And then she jumped on that and she said, I want to split up. And then my world caved in. You didn't want to? No. Tried to persuade her otherwise. And then she was determined.

She was already, she was already seeing somebody. When did you find out about that? Oh, much later. And I left and I went to stay with a friend about two miles down the road. thinking that the sooner I left, the sooner she'd miss me and want me back. But she never did. Yeah. But she's with a really good man now and my children have grown up and they've got a pretty good relationship with her.

They've got a good relationship with me. So I'd say that things are pretty good. What was doing those two shows like on Saturday? Oh, fuck. They're dreadful. But having said that, it was the only time that really I was able to rest of it off. The rest of the time, it was just, it was all consuming. But when I was on stage, that was all consuming. So I'm going to the saviour?

Yeah, it was. If we go back to that Saturday morning, and I tell you, in retrospect, knowing what you know now, you can do one thing differently, from that moment onwards, what would you do differently? During the separation? During the entire separation, from that moment onwards. I would probably show less of my grief

to my children my daughter just this May was a birthday party lots of her friends were there and her mum was there and I was there and her mum's boyfriend who is now her husband and my daughter said

I wish you you hadn't shared so much with me and I went oh oh I'm sorry about that I didn't think that I had But obviously, she said so. I kind of, the only excuse I had, alibi I had,

was that I did turn to you, I think, because you were there and because sometimes I was so upset that I couldn't, I couldn't not being upset is spontaneous. It's not something that you've got control of. So maybe she saw things that she wish she hadn't seen, you know? I remember her words. You said, you could have protected me more or something like that, she said. But in the same breath, she said,

It's all right, though, Dad. She understood. Yeah. How old were there when... They were like three and four. All right. Tiny. Yeah, tiny.

So hang on. So she... What age is she talking about being that eight? Well, the next... However long. Yeah. I mean, you know, you're picking up children, organizing things. I mean, it never ends.

There was a time when both of them individually said to me, when they were young adults. they said, don't pick up the phone to her anymore. She hurts you say to her from here on in, it's text or email. Why do they say that to you? Because they saw me, they saw the distress that she used to bring to me. And is that because you still love with that? Well, she kind of, she would continually tell me that I'd get things wrong, you know,

that I was a bad father, that you should have done this, you should have done that. Why didn't you do that? Your Sunday money. You didn't do this. You didn't, and why the hell didn't you do it? I need more money. Why didn't you? It was always, I was always in trouble.

Always in trouble with her. And obviously, the children heard bits of it. Damn it. So they were witness to it, you know, and they said, don't pick up the phone anymore. You take away people's sanity by continually telling them that they're not good enough. That's what she did.

Sounds like it's really taken a kind of, at least the way you talk about it, it sounds like it's really taken a chunk out of you. Yeah, it did. It did, yeah. I still loved her and I loved our house. I loved the family. The whole thing was, I felt very alone very quickly. It's easy to forget that, you know, when people think of a divorce or whatever it is,

a breakup, you think, you know, just about the couple spitting up whatever, but you forget all the stuff like the house and the... The kind of principles of a life set up, you know, with others, then it's just gone. Taken away. All the routines and the little things. All gone. That's a lot. It's a new life, very quickly, a new life that you don't want.

Yeah. I think I've seen you down here. I have been down here once before. So you might have seen me walk about. You interviewed a girl. Yes. Correct. And it was just over there.

It was just over there. Yeah, I remember that. She's episode 40. Wow. Well, well done. She was great and there was a seal that day Popping up yeah that happens Did you ever hear the story of the it's not a story it's a fact

Well it still could be a story Humpback whale Well there's one here yeah I've got a friend just I wasn't a friend at the time I knew Justin I would deep deep into a book And Justin came along and poked his head by the book and went Sorry to disturb but I thought you'd probably like to know No, there's a whale. And I went, fuck off. And I looked out, and sure enough,

about halfway between here and the horizon, a humpback whale breached, and I went. Quite loudly? Yeah. And this, this, it must have breached about, I don't know, 12, 15 times between there and there. Amazing.

How long was it hovering about for? I reckon a good half an hour. What a sight? See if you stay here long enough, you see everything. Yeah, well I've seen also my favourite bird. I love cormorants. And I was sitting down further up where it's less busy earlier on today. And there was a cormorant fishing in front of me for ages.

I don't know much about cormorants either, but I just know I like them. It went over to one- Like Lewis Hamilton? Yeah, yeah. Comerance and Lewis Hamilton, man. Those two. I don't know anything about them, but I love them. What's the come in your life then?

What have we got to sort out? What's to come? I've just done a demo for a game. It's an alternate reality where Napoleon Bonaparte, he won the Battle of Waterloo, and he's now taken over the rest of the world. I think this is what the game is. I'm not a game.

Game. Oh, so you're playing the voice. I've been doing the voice of Bonaparte. Do you want to hear a little bit of Napoleon? I can play your recording, which would be quite interesting. This is you as Napoleon. Yeah, let's see if I can get it right. Great.

That's right. Wow. Is that you? Your patience aren't courage to you of you neither worldly goods, no glory. No glory. I shall lead you onto the most fertile planes. You've had enough, haven't you? I mean, it should go forever.

I particularly like the way you said glory. Glory. Glory. I was going to ask, what are we going to say? What are we going to say? Yeah. When I said what's going to happen in the rest of your life, you answered with the Napoleon role.

But if we're not talking about work, this ego of yours is dying and all that, what's going to happen in the rest of your life? I don't know. I mean, I've got health issues. Oh, are you dying? I could be dying. I had a biopsy on my prostate the other day

to find out whether the cancer that I've got there is growing. On Tuesday, I'm getting a test result from a biopsy. that might have something to do with the rest of my life I've had this condition for 10 years but it's been what's the condition

prostate cancer okay you just been living with it yeah and it's been so little that it's been fine so you worried yeah I'm not I'm not losing sleep that's good so I can't be that worried

I think I'm quite positive about it yeah I think it'll be all right great I mean is there an argument for saying, even if they say to you, everything's as is, you should be doing the things that you should be doing if they say you had a year to lip. Do you know what? Yeah, good point. And what are those things? What would be your kind of first thoughts? Oh, I'd get involved with more things. I'd see my friends more. I'd travel more. I'd stalk my kids more. I'd be

more demanding about seeing them. I'd be quite a lot more active, I think. So potentially, big moment on Tuesday but who knows could also be yeah yeah yeah but it's good to have these members to consider what we're doing in our lives no yeah yeah yeah here what haven't I asked you I don't know we don't we don't we don't quite love ground done quite a lot haven't we actually we've done a lot about my family we've done a lot about my career we've done a lot about the best kisser on the planet all your awards my awards we could we could talk about what were my awards my awards Let's go back.

Let's go back into the other words. Yeah. Yeah. If I ask you, you know how sometimes one remembers things from, I don't know, a long time ago or whenever, and it's a memory you don't know why you remember, but you do. Can you think of something that springs to mind? I used to do a milk round and it's kind of neither here nor there, but it stayed with me. haunted me for quite a while and it made me closer to my brother.

I've lost a brother through suicide. It's not that, but it's, there was a time when another brother, he was unhappy and I didn't know how unhappy he was and we weren't a family that really talked about our feelings so much. If we had, maybe my brother didn't do what he did to himself. But my other brother, he was in the merchant navy going all over the world. And I just thought he was a brilliant life he was leading. And I didn't, he kind of touched on the fact that he didn't like it to me. And I was dismissive of it and was like, nah, it's brilliant.

You do this, you do that. It's great. And then he just would go quiet. And then I remember I was walking down this road to the farm to start the millcrown, 5.30 in the morning. And my dad was taking my brother to Liverpool. to get the boat to go wherever it was going to go. And it was kind of dawning on me. This was bad for my brother.

And I remember my dad was driving at the time rather groovy little sky-blue triumph dolomite. I loved this car. And he was in this car and he was driving along and my brother just turned and put his hand flat like that to say goodbye. And I could tell that he was distraught just through that wave.

And I thought, damn, I should have... listen to him. It was just inconsequential, this wave, this wave that he just did. I don't know why that came into my mind. Yeah. Well, it's just a small movement, isn't it? But you knew it so well. Yeah. And it makes me emotional thinking about it. So it must have been quite massive, actually. And it bonded me and him somehow, because I've never forgotten it. And I think our relationship grew, even, you know, grew from there, really. We're pretty close now me and my brother

I feel like I should ask about your brother that died for my suicide Right He had a traumatic time And he ran away to the Netherlands To work When he went It was a time when then I was going to drama school

It was kind of big time for me As well as a big time for him We kind of went our separate ways I didn't make an effort to see him He didn't make an effort to see me and that was that really and he couldn't take it anymore whatever he was going through

he couldn't take it anymore and he so he did away with himself what impact did that have in your life after that the the biggest thing was that I wasn't there for him so I will always carry that

I wasn't close enough to him for him to reach out and then I kind of look back and I kind of wish that I'd, I'm not saying that I could have prevented him doing what he did, but it would have been reaching out is kind of being there for somebody, right? Yeah. So that impacted me greatly was the fact that I wasn't there for my brother. And that immediately when I was told, that's what, that's what I just, that was the weight

that hit me straight away. So we've covered a lot of ground. You're ready for the last question? Yep. Either answer this in a now kind of way or a grander kind of way, however you want to do it, you can do it. What are you going to do next?

It's going to be more of the same, really. They don't really anything dramatic, unless maybe on Tuesday, if I find out something really bad, then my life might change dramatically. That could be something quite big. That could happen. That's a huge cat.

Did you see that cat? at the size of that cat? It's just me or is that a huge cat? I'm glad you noticed it as you were talking I thought that's a huge cat. But I thought I can't interrupt your big last closing statements with huge cat. So you did it for me so fantastic. And also you don't see a cat at a beach. No. Yeah, weird. Well thank you so much. Talk to me. Good mate. You've been really good. That was good. That was good fun. Thank you very much. I enjoyed it. There we go. Done. Goodbye.

to come around Want some awards raise some good kids Just have the world's bed My clothes that I Won some awards raise some good kids Just have