Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Christine Baranski

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

This week we’re beyond excited to welcome the fabulous Christine Baranski to the table. Christine joined us fresh from rehearsals for her West End debut in 'Hay Fever' alongside Richard E Grant, so we had plenty to talk about. We heard about Christine growing up in a Polish-American family in Buffalo, her nana’s theatrical influence, the Christmas traditions she keeps alive with her own family, how she went from Broadway to becoming a television star in Cybill and also some fab on set stories from The Gilded Age and Mamma Mia - plus we get Christine’s take on whether a third film could be on the cards 👀 Thank you Christine for such a wonderful afternoon. You can see Christine alongside Richard E Grant in Hay Fever at the Wyndham’s Theatre.Listen & watch Table Manners here - https://tablemanners.komi.io/Follow Table Manners on:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tablemannerspodcast/TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@tablemannerspodcastFacebook - https://www.facebook.com/tablemannerspodcastYouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@TableMannersPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and we're in Mom's Kitchen for, well, you are so excited, Mom. I'm so excited. I'm a super van burging on stalker. Oh, I think. Because I'm so excited by meeting Agnes, Diane, Tanya. Oh my God, Mom. We've got Christine Baranski coming on the podcast, aka Diane Lockhart, Tanya from Mama Mia.

Yeah. And Agnes Van Ruff. I'm from Gilded Age. Wow. First name terms. I just know she's going to be... Hair's looking great, mum. Now, I'm trying my best. Wait to see her hair, Jess.

She has the biggest, best hair you've ever seen. And if she doesn't, I'm going to be really miserable and disappointed. Oh, God. Won't let her in. Yeah. Christine Bransky is coming on to talk about being on the West End with Richard E. Grant in Hay Fever at the Wyndham's. and that just sounds perfect to me.

Noel Coward. Noel Coward. Christine, Richard. Perfect. We're going. I think I'm going to miss it because I'll be on tour. No, we'll find a spot. Oh, I'd like to.

She's in rehearsals, so she's coming straight from rehearsals now. And we're very excited to have it. And mum is on cooking duty. What have you made? Oh, God. I've made salmon with turmeric, chili, ginger, and vermerich. Shelley noodles. Come and tell everyone where it's from. From our favourite cookbook of the year. Tis the cookbook of the year for me. It's the greatest drabake cookbook by our gorgeous John

Gregory Smith who's getting married soon. Oh nice. We need to send him a wedding present. It is the gift that keeps on giving. I think it's probably the cookbook that we've used the most. I haven't done a salad. Do you think I need a salad to go with the salmon? It's got vegetables on it. Does it have like beans and stuff in it? No. What's it? It has. Spring onions. That's not a salad, ma'am. Shall I do a little gem salad? I would have done it with like sugar snaps or...

Well, he didn't say to serve it with anything because it's like with vermicelli, but I could just do some little gem lettuce. Or broccoli. Maybe broccoli. Do broccoli. Okay. I think broccoli was some sesame oil and lime and sesame seeds.

Okay. Okay. Fuck off. I haven't got... I haven't factored that in. Okay, I don't right then. Hold on, I have to get my broccoli out. Christine Baranski coming up on table manners.

Christine Baranski, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. As I told you at the door, you may not be allowed to leave. Fine with me. I'm in good company. No, mum, just tell Christine what you do when you go to the hairdresser. I take a photo of you. No.

I'd like to that my hair. I want big hair like Christine Baranski. Oh. Well, I lucked out. I do have nice, you know, I have nice thick hair. You've got very thick hair. Can you do it? yourself well? I can. My little secret, I have electric curlers. And what I do, it's good old-fashioned

electric curlers. And I put them in just for maybe 10 minutes, take them out and either put a Velcro in, like a big Velcro, and then take it out. And I get that sort of blow-dried look. Because I don't know, how do women blow-dry their own hair? I'm so bad at it. Well, do you really want to spend that amount of time going like that? It's like a barcloth. It's, you know, it's sourcing. So hair is an issue. Yeah. It's a real thing for women and for men now, too.

How are you going to wear it on hay fever? I'm going to have a wig. Are you? And it's 1920, so it's short. And I sort of love this look, but it'll be a bob. The women then had a bob with various hair ornaments and, you know, beautiful costumes. Where are we up to in the gilded age in terms of time? Is it 19?

Oh, no, it's 18. Still 18? Oh, yeah, we're still in there. Okay. Because there was a motor car in it. Yes, but that was just the beginning of a motor car. No, this Gilded Age takes place shortly after the Civil War when there was an economic boom in the north,

and it was really the beginning of American capitalism. And you're seeing this extraordinary display of wealth because these robber barons were rather like the robber barons of today, these billionaires, they were just making so much money, and they invested it in buildings and architecture and a way of life that imitated European royalty, really. They wanted to live like princes and kings, and so they imported all of this, all of this furniture, paintings, whole buildings from Europe to replicate palaces and villas and castles. That the Europeans could no longer afford to maintain that.

So they were selling off their houses. Do you know what I mean? And that's why in the Gilded Age, we called the million-dollar princesses. The mothers wanted their daughters to marry European royalties. They had the money. The American families had the money. The Europeans had the titles.

So that's the story of Consuela, Banderbilt, you know, she didn't want to marry the Duke, but she did, and then she wound of having a rather really worthwhile life because she became someone who was very active politically for women's rights. Anyway, it's a fascinating age, and so many Americans, and probably English as well, do not know about this period in American history. Yeah. Yeah. And the old money, your old money, aren't you? I'm very old money. Or old no money now. Of course she's old money. No, she's old no money. Oh, oh, oh, because I lost

the money. She lost all her money. How many seasons? How many seasons? You're on to four now, aren't you? You, have you seen the fourth season? No. Maybe you haven't. It's, oh, no, of course you haven't seen it. You've seen the public has seen three

seasons. The fourth season will be released in November in America, but I don't know when. I think it's January here. Yeah. Oh, you're going to love it. It's so extraordinary. in we're we're hoping for a fifth season because it's become so popular. I haven't watched it yet I am desperate to, I'm going on tour soon. I'm going to be in America, so I'm going to enjoy this.

But my mum and everyone that I speak to that has watched it is obsessed. And you have a huge gay following. I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've got a lot in common. We do. And also, we have something else in common that we go to Skokalos.

where I've got a little house. No. Yeah. No. Was this before Mamma Mia? Yes. I loved Scopolo. It just come back.

Was it spared all the fires and all from, you know, because Scoplas wasn't hit by fires. Thank God. We shot Mamma Mia one in Skiatos. Yeah. And Scopoulos, but Scopoulos, all that green, all those beautiful evergreen trees. It's gorgeous. That's where I shot, does your mother know, on the beach?

Castani Beach is now a big kind of party beach. And I feel like you're responsible for that. Yeah. Okay. It wasn't a beach before. They kind of created it for the film. And then it became the Mamma Mia beach. But Jessie also was in a Mamma Mia, choosing someone to appear in Mamma Mia.

So she knows Judy Kramer very well. Yes. Judy Kramer. I know. Well, I mean. She's now my girlfriend. She's fabulous. She is fabulous.

I have a beautiful place to live in London, thanks to Judy Kramer, because I said, Judy, I'm coming to London to do this play. Any ideas? I think I'd like to live kind of Chelsea Kensington. She had a friend who rents out a townhouse. I'm now in this beautiful, beautiful neighborhood in Kensington. But Judy and I, she's Tanya One, because she was the rich. She identifies with Tanya. Tanya, of course, Judy.

Cramer. Anyone who knows Judy Cramer would know she's T. T1 and I'm T2. So when we do emails like, hi T1, T2 here, do you know, she put me onto hairdressers, reflexologists, physio, color, you know, I have Judy Kramer's team for, you know, while I'm in London, not a bad team. We're going to talk about many things, but I do feel like we should talk about Mamma Mia 3. What do we feel? Well, everybody asks about it. Judy is working on it. I can only say, you know, I've always been reluctant to say anything because it goes viral and it spreads like brush fire, even if you say maybe everybody, especially the gay, say, oh, no, it's happening.

I don't know if it's happening, but Donna Langley, who is, you know, the head of Universal Studios, she greenlights projects. She actually was on a red carpet saying, yes, there will be a mama, ma-a-ma. me a three. So we're campaigning for scopoulos. Oh, I know. I want to return back. Yeah. Oh, that would be so great to go back to Greece. We had so much fun. And can we go back to where you grew up? And who was around the dinner table and what was a memorable dish from your childhood? Oh, it's so sweet. As I was driving here, I was looking in the neighborhood. I thought, this is somewhat like where I grew up because it was a real neighborhood. It was a Polish-American neighborhood. and all the houses were all close together.

Everybody had a little narrow driveway. My best friend was right across the street. The town park was right down the street. The public pool was there. I walked to grammar school. I walked to church. I grew up in a Polish Catholic setting. And it was a blue-collar neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.

And because it was Polish-American, my grandmother, my nana, lived with us. She was my father's mother, and she lived with us until I was eight years old. And it was a very happy childhood up till then because we celebrated Polish traditions and my grandmother and my mother were wonderful cooks. And I remember growing up with Polish cooking and Christmas was Polish mushroom soup and pirogis and beautifully prepared food. And we would sit at Christmas Eve for what's called Vigilia and have. the Christmas Eve and then go to midnight Mass. Much of my upbringing was based on Polish Catholic

traditions. And as I said, I went to Polish Catholic school. I mean, we didn't speak Polish in the school, but it was Polish American. And we had to go to mass every morning and certainly every Sunday. And then I went to high school at an all-girls Catholic high school. So my upbringing was very much influenced by a Polish-American background and by people who loved Polish cooking. The sad thing is my dad died when I was eight years old. Oh, that's very young. And my mother who loved cooking, and she was a wonderful baker. She could follow a recipe precisely, and she made wonderful cakes, pies, donuts.

She loved being a housewife. When my dad got back from the war, they got married. and she was one of those 50s housewives. She wanted to stay home and have a family. Well, he died suddenly of an aneurysm, and suddenly she had to be the breadwinner. So after that, I became like a latchkey kid who came home, and I knew Mom was going to come home from work,

and she wouldn't have time to prepare a nice meal. So it was canned food and frozen food and food that was quickly prepared, and she'd come home from work, usually in a bad mood, from having a stressful job. So there were two parts of my childhood. One was before my father died, and then after the age of eight,

we moved away from my beloved grandma, and then it was another, we moved into another house, and I had another kind of childhood without my dad, with my mom having to be, you know, the single mom raising kids. Was it just, you were you and I only, child? No, I had an older brother. And so take us through that Christmas Eve Polish dinner. Is it lots of fish? It's fish. It's a day of fast. So we had breaded, it was usually breaded, flounder, and homemade pierogi and cabbage. But the paste resistance was the Polish mushroom soup.

And that was made with imported, they called them Ghibit Polish mushrooms. And they would usually, we'd have to go to the Polish market to get the Polish mushrooms. But it took a few days to make this soup. And so the house smelled. I mean, I still, I can, you know, just recall how the house felt. And, you know, when there's cooking going on for days in a house, the vibe in the house is just so beautiful. And there was great caretaken with the setting of the table,

the white tablecloth and the candles. the decorations. And I was a little girl, and I remember just loving, just the atmosphere in the house was so happy. And then after dinner, we went into the living room and sang Christmas carols. Some of them were Polish Christmas carols. Some of them were, but we all sat around and sang Christmas carols and then open presents. So Christmas, for me, is the happiest memory for me as a child was the Polish Christmases. And then not having them after my dad died, it was never quite the same. I'm sorry.

Oh, that's all right. Every life has some story. When did you start acting then? Did you go to an after-school club or was it later? So this grandmother that lived with us, she was an actress in the Polish theater, in Buffalo. And she married my grandfather. I did not know my paternal grandfather. He died before I was born.

Was he Polish as well? Oh, yes, he was Polish. And they acted in the Polish community theater in Buffalo. And my grandmother also sang. She sang in operettas and she had a beautiful singing voice. But I remember growing up with a woman. We shared a bedroom. We had twin beds and she and I shared a room in the back of the house.

And she was warm and emotionally generous and eccentric. And I always said she was like my anti-Mame, you know. She was kind of worldly. She had European friends, you know, friends who definitely were Polish and they came. And sometimes they would party late into the night. And Nana was there singing and making a lot of noise in the living room with their friends. But she had a great influence on me. She had a real theatricality to her.

think she also loved performing, she loved singing, she loved Polish dance. My fondest memory of my father was going to see a Polish dancing and singing troupe called Schlonsk, and they performed in Kleinhands Music Hall, which was like the Carnegie Hall of Buffalo, still is. And he took me in, this was shortly before he died. I was a little girl, must have been seven or eight, and I was on a date with my dad. He was a very big man, tall man, and I was sitting on the aisle, and he was sitting next to me, and it was all of this Polish folk dancing, right? And they, beautiful, beautiful costumes and twirling, dancing and everything. And at the curtain call, this troop of singers and dancers, they had these beautiful long scarves. And they waved scarves at the audience.

to say goodbye. And suddenly I heard my father, because the audience was applauding, and I heard my father shouting, Bravo, very loudly. And I looked up, and tears were running down his pace. And he was shouting, and I was so embarrassed that my father was, you know, I'd never heard such a thing. And I said, Tatush. Tatush means father in Polish.

He said, Tosh, stop, you know, stop. And he was so moved by the performance. And I will never forget that because I thought, well, my father had such a love of the performing arts that I think that lasted me my whole life, that my father and my grandmother loved music, they loved ballet, they loved certainly Polish folk music. And so I grew up with people who loved, who appreciated performance. And my dad wanted me to study ballet. So from a young age, I went to ballet class.

My mother then, after my dad died, she said she couldn't afford it. So I'd go one day a week on a Saturday morning. I would go down the block to Eugenia Zostompovsky's dance studio. Wow, that's so helpful. Zostompovsky. And she married someone named Smith. So she became Jeannie Smith. Well done.

From Eugene, Zostimpovsky. May she rest in peace. And I took a half hour of ballet and a half hour of tap dancing. That was my first training as a performer. How much can you learn an half an hour? But we had a dance recital. And we did tap and we had ballet. And from there, I entered high school and there was a wonderful drama teacher.

And I finally maybe auditioned for her or something, but by the end of my sophomore year, I started doing plays, and I think she recognized that I had talent. And so then I started doing more. And by my senior year, I played maim in maim. So that was our big school play. And so that's the beginning of the story. But then while I was in high school,

I read an article in Buffalo. Evening News, our, you know, local paper, that Juilliard was opening an acting division. Because the Juilliard School was known. What was it before? It was strictly music. Oh, really? Yeah. Juilliard didn't have dance and acting until the late 60s.

Oh, wow. So in 1968, it opened up the drama division. And I read about this and I thought, do anything to go to New York and to study. And so I put the article on my wall and I said, that's my goal. I really want to go there. So it's a long story of how I got in because I was waitlisted. But I did. I got into Juilliard.

And that was really the beginning of a very nice long trajectory because it was really good training. Can we talk about Hayfever? Yes. So you've just come from rehearsals. I know. How's Richard E. Oh, he's divine. You two together.

He should be here with me. Oh, we love him. I love him in a good word. Oh, God. I love, I do interviews, but my favorite is to do interviews with Richard E. Grant. You could have brought him. Could I? Yeah.

He's so welcome. I'm going to tell him that. How long have you been browsing for? I think we're in our third week, but I started working on the script months ago. I would take this script, which I have in my purse, onto the set of the Gilded Age and in between takes I would just be working, working, working

on Judith Bliss to learn the lines because it's an English role, of course, and I'm doing this on the West End with all English actors. How's the English accent going? I'm trying.

And it's terribly, terribly. It's Noel Coward English. You know, it's that. You sound perfect. Oh, you see. If you want to do the whole of this episode, practicing you're very welcome to go into that oh but then people would write in and say certain sounds were wrong so i sort of drop it but no it's it's challenging it's one of the

reasons i wanted to do it is because i have always from the time back at juliar no back in buffalo i remember getting recordings of olivier doing hamlet or seeing olivier's othello in the movie theater in Buffalo are going to Stratford, Canada and seeing Shakespeare. I've always been utterly captivated by classical acting and certainly by British actors. I have a crush on so many English actors, but so many great English actresses. I mean, you know, you've got Maggie Smith and Judy Dench, and you've got Helen Marin and Emma Thompson and Leslie Manville, and I Eileen Atkinson and Julie Walters. I mean, they're just one after another

of these marvelous actresses. And there's an English acting tradition that I find just, I love it. I've been inspired by it. So my desire to do this is somehow like a wanting to just enter that terrain of being on the West End with English actors doing a Noel Coward play as an American actress, but just sort of upping my game and trying to, you know, do this.

So it's wonderfully challenging. So do you live in New York? I spend most of my time in New York. My family home and where I raised my two daughters is in Connecticut. Oh, are you near like where Gilmore Girls is set? That's where I, yes. Stars Hollow. Yeah.

Stop! Yes, that's my time. That's my dream. Well, come and stay at my house. I have a lovely... Absolutely will. A lovely house on a lake. And yes, we have Gilmore Girls stuff all over the place.

Yeah. Can you imagine? So I've just introduced my daughter to Gilmore Girls. She's 10. And I felt like it was okay to... At the age. And I'm like, isn't it the best place? And I know you can go around there and, like, do tours.

It's amazing. But I don't know whether people that are residents appreciate that. But I really want to take my daughter when she's watched the first. series. We'll go and we'll go and fall and we'll go in like pit pumpkins. I don't know. We'll exchange information. You can be our tour guide. Yes. You come to my house. I'll feed you. Okay. Yeah, it sounds great. It sounds perfect. So Connecticut, was it a gorgeous place to bring up your daughters? Beautiful. Beautiful. And the reason we raised the kids there is because my late husband inherited his childhood home, which was an 18th century farmhouse in this little rural town of Bethlehem, Connecticut.

And that's not the Gilmar Girls Town. The Gilmore Girls Town, I think, is Washington, Connecticut, but I'm not exactly sure. I just know that there's all kinds of Gilmore Girls vibes in the town and notices of tours and all. So I think that's Gilmoreland. Is Harvard and Yale in Connecticut? Yes. Yes.

It's another part of Connecticut. But he, when I got pregnant with my second daughter, Lily, It was clear because we were theater actors that it was really hard to find a place to live in New York where we could afford an apartment. It was getting very expensive in New York. And we were basically theater actors. This is before I had a television career. So he had this house in a lovely rural part of Connecticut, forests and ponds and winding roads. And it was so beautiful.

And it was a house with no mortgage. and the price tag was that it was two hours from New York. And so I would commute when I did plays. I would get on the bus. I'd get on the 415 bus from Southbury, and Southbury was a half hour from where we lived. So I'd drive to the bus station, get on a bus, be on the bus for two hours,

get off at the Port Authority in 42nd Street, walk to the theater, do the play, and then go back to the Port Authority to get the 1115 bus home, which got in it one in the morning, then I would get home. And then I'd get my sleep and I'd wake up and take the kids to school. And that was my life for quite a while. You must have loved this person a lot. My love.

Well, you know what? Your life in Connecticut? I did. And also it was a choice we made that, no, we were going to raise our kids outside the city. So, yeah. It's a lovely place to raise children. And it's supposed to be autumn is your best time. Oh yeah.

Well, we have tourists come in autumn because it's so already. It will be me and my daughter. I am. Oh, you'll come. Oh, I can't wait. It really is beautiful. And I used to watch Sibyl so religiously. Yeah.

Was that the kind of break for you in television? Yes. And I didn't, you know, I had this theater career with the buses back and forth, back and forth. And I'd be a person. approached about doing a television show and I'd say don't want to raise the children in L.A. My husband and I didn't want to move to Los Angeles. I didn't want to uproot them. You're so East Coast though.

That's like so New York. And also being someone whose childhood was rocked by having to move and change schools and change houses. And I know that that's a big deal for kids to be uprooted. I didn't want that, neither did Matthew. We didn't want to uproot them. And we weren't, I was not keen on a Los Angeles life with all that cars and all this. It's just not my kind of town.

So we didn't, and I resisted doing anything that shot in L.A. So I'd say if there was a comedy that shot in New York. But at that time, this was the 80s, they weren't shooting shows in New York. They were shooting law and order. That was the television show. and every theater actor was on law and order, but they weren't doing. It's not like it is now where they do so many shows in New York.

Finally, though, Carsey Warner, the people who produced the Bill Cosby show and Roseanne, they were big, big producers. They actually asked if I would be interested in reading for an American version of AbFab, absolutely fabulous. And that perked up my ears because I thought, well, that really could be fun. And then they said, but we're also casting the role of Sybil Shepard's best friend in this sitcom. And I was really reluctant, really, really reluctant.

But it seemed to me a time in my life when, in our life, where it was like we were looking at school tuitions and what the cost of raising the kids would be. And it's like, okay, well, I'll go to L.A. and I'll meet. But I read the script, and it was written by a man named Chuck L.R. Who now is maybe one of the top most successful television producers, writers in Hollywood and maybe in history, you know, the Big Bang Theory. And I read for it, and they really, really, really wanted me to do it and Sybil approved and the network reluctantly approved and so I thought well we just, Matthew and I talked about and said look why don't I just commute for the first year. We'll see how it goes. And so I wound up commuting on that job too, which was much longer commute because

I would finish the show and get on a red eye and get home and have the hiatus and then go back. but that lasted for three and a half years, which was enough for me. It's a big success. Yes, it was a big success. And if you watch the first half year, the first 13 episodes, I mean, I won an Emmy after only a half year of being on that show just because it was so good. And that character just popped. And he wrote wonderful lines for me. And she was sort of a perfect character for me at the time because I had been playing roles like that in,

in the theatre. So I knew how to do that kind of comedy. So it was indeed, it changed my career. It changed my life. Oh, it looks lovely, Mum. Oh, gorgeous. Gorgeous. Mom, what have you made?

I've made salmon with chili, turmeric, dill, and the spring onions and ginger and all sorts of things on it. And I hope you like it. I'm so impressed with people. Don't be impressed. It's not hard. Are you not to cook then? I can cook.

It's just, you know, I need to cook for people. And when I was a working actress, didn't have a lot of time. But on my day off, I loved to cook. The time when I became a really good cook was when I was pregnant. And I had a huge appetite. And I was doing a show with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close.

Tom Stoppard play called The Real Thing and it was a red hot hit on Broadway. And yet when I would go, go up in between scenes when I wasn't on the stage and I'd be looking at cookbooks, what I was going to make. And then I spent my day off cooking because I had a wonderful appetite, a robust, pregnant lady, yes, please. Then I became a good cook, but I don't, you know, unless I have, oh my God, that looks good. Unless I have people to cook for, I'm really not going to bother just to cook for myself, you know. Also, it takes a lot of time and then I usually have other things

to do. So that said, I did a be my guest episode with Ina Garden. Wow. I went to her house, but okay, well, I'll do you know, Ina Garden and be my guest. Mom, do you know who Ina Garden is? I know her name. Christine, will you explain to Mom who Ina Garten is? Well, she's just one of the great most well-known ladies in America. She, you know, started a business called the Barefoot Contessa. Oh, yeah, I know of that.

Okay, in East Hampton, went on to become. a world famous, highly successful cookbook writer. Now she's just an icon, and she has her own TV show called Be My Guest, where she has people like, you know, come into her kitchen and she will cook with you. She'll say, what do you want to cook? And because I love Italian food, I said to her, I'd love to learn to make a bolognaise sauce. And she taught me to make this. Bolognaise sauce and I make it from my grandsons and they love it and now I've made it over and over.

So it's one of my great joys is making Ina's Bologna's sauce. What's the secret? Yeah. Very basic. Basic. Milk? Is there milk in there? No.

To the Bolognaz sauce. There is cream. Oh. There's red wine in it and cream. Yum. What's this for, Mom? This dipping. It's to go on top.

Okay, fine. Go on top of this. Yeah, if you like it. Lovely. Thank you. Thanks, Mom. That's great. I hope it's okay.

It looks perfect. So maybe with Aina as a friend, I mean, how can you have Aina Garden as a friend and not be a cook? She's going to get me to cook. This is great. That is great. And it's so healthy. Do you like it?

Love salmon. I also love really thin noodles. I mean, vermicelli. They're really nice. Well, they're like Asian noodles, aren't they? This is a great recipe. Great recipe. And it looks great.

It's just hard to eat it gracefully. So if you see a noodle going... I'm shoving it in my mouth. You know how when you were a little kid and you did that thing with noodles? And I told you how impolite it was. So you said that Italian is your favorite. So I'm interested, we ask everybody their last supper. start a main, pud, drink of choice.

You don't have to die, you can go to a desert island. And what would be your last supper? It would probably be a very, very cold, very dry. Grey goose, vodka martini. Dirty or? Oh no, so dirty, no, vermouth. Just a twist. See, I told Jesse this, but none of us felt confident.

No, I can't do it. You wouldn't have had one now. No, couldn't. No. But I will on a night off, I do. Have you had a good one since you've been in London? London has wonderful, and I'll tell you why. Oh, tell us where.

Oh, well, the famous Dukes, Martini, of course, but they're renovating, so I don't know what's going to happen. They're so strong. I know it's like... No, you know what? They're like rocket fuel. It's called Potaki. I don't even think they carry this. vodka in the States, but there is a Polish restaurant, you know, Ognishko.

Here? Yeah, in London. I don't know. Oh, my God. There are two great Polish restaurants in Kensington when I was doing Mamma Mia. Oh, there's a Polish club. That's it. Oh, it's in the Polish club.

It's in the Polish club. It's, we've been there, Jessie. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. It's right next to the Victorian. It's next to the V&A. Yes, the V&A. It's on that road.

You can rent it out and the food is great. And it's like shabby sheet, isn't it? Yes, it's wonderful. It has an old world quality. But they serve that vodka. Okay. And I had... Which one is it?

I think it's called Potaki. Okay. It's like rocket. It's not like other vodkas and it's so strong you think, okay, this can't be good for me. But you have it anyway. What I love about a English martini is it's half the size. of an American martini. And I think what you want from a martini is enough of it to just get your,

I always say it just brings my shoulders down. So that's like, how many sips do we need? Four, five sips. I don't drink martinis. I love them. They're great, but you can't have more than two. No, I'm good for one and a half. But an American martini, because in America everything's super-a-sides.

Oh, they're huge. But the thing is by half, you're half. Halfway through that martini, it's already getting warm. You never drink a warm martini. You need an ice cold brisk martini. Even at the Carlisle, where they serve it in a carafe, do they? Yeah, they do that. Yeah.

Anyway, I love the English martinis. They're wonderful. So, you asked me about my last supper. Yeah. So it would probably be a simply great steak or poif with the most gorgeous French fries. See, I'm very basic. So I don't need fussy, fussy. Okay, we've got the steak of parva.

We've got the dirty martini. Is the martini the starter or are we going to have... It happens well before, well before the entree. Okay. Because we just have to get the shoulders down and a bit of conversation. And then we can... And then we'd have wine with your meal. Okay, good.

Probably. A great French... Nice red. Fornamilion. Yeah, I agree. And then put you into dessert? You're going to laugh. You better be.

No matter where I go, I could be in the fanciest French restaurant. And I'll say, do you have chocolate ice cream? Oh, God. And if they have chocolate ice cream, I just say, I just want one scoop of chocolate ice cream. This is like my mom. One scoop of chocolate ice cream. which probably reminds me of when I was a little girl and we had chocolate ice cream

and it remains my favorite dessert. So maybe for my last supper? Two scoops of chocolate ice cream. Maybe three. See, it wouldn't be the one I choose chocolate. Which one do you go for vanilla? I like cassata, which is that it's kind of,

it's almost like a cake and you slice it and it's got like tuti-frutti in it. Oh, why? You put in Panatoni. It's cassata. Where did you get that? Well, we used to get it. the Italian near Claire, now they've changed hands.

But I like vanilla, to be perfectly honest. A great vanilla is wonderful. And I've got vanilla to go with the dessert if you want vanilla, but you can have crem fresh. Have you ever put maple syrup on vanilla ice cream? Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, there we go. Absolutely wonderful. If you don't have chocolate sauce, it's just as good.

Oh, that's a good trick. Okay. Now, can you tell us, tell everybody about Hayfever the play and who you're playing? Halk Howard wrote it when he was in his 20s, which is hard to believe. It's one of his earliest plays. It is about an eccentric English family. The woman that I'm playing is Judith Bliss, a retired stage actress, very well-known stage actress, who's getting a bit restless and living in the country, longs to get back on the stage. She's married to a novelist, and he's upstairs writing his books.

and I have two children, grown children living in the house with us. And it's the story of a Saturday into a Sunday with all of us inviting a house guest that the other people did not know. Other people were being invited. So it's a clash. It's a situation comedy, basically. And it's, well, it's very funny. It's no coward, but it's a showpiece for,

for actors. It's an ensemble piece and it's a wonderful role for an actress. I'm surprised it's not done more often. Have you played it before? No, no. But I've done Noel Coward before.

I've done three other Noel Coward plays, of course, in America. I had the pleasure of doing private lives back when I was in my 20s. I played it and I did Blythe Spirit also and a play called Fumed Oak. But this is a real showpiece for an end.

actress, perfect for at my time of life because she's, she feels that she's getting old and she's not quite ready to retire and she has one more play in her. And so I always say, if this is my last play, it's the perfect play to say, okay, bye. It won't be a last play. Can I, you've played in the good wife and the good fight. Yeah. You played quite a political person. I did. She was She's a, gosh, she was a very passionate feminist. And that arc, well, certainly good wife, not so much, but by the time we got to good fight, Donald Trump was president. And the writing became a lot about Diane, this passionate feminist lawyer trying to live through an era that was, you know, just making her feel insane.

And how's that going for you? Oh, we won't get into that, but I don't know where Diane would be now. But, you know, banging her head against the wall. I thought, I was thought that that show really was the best reflection of what people were living through at that time. And it had to end, and the Trump administration has continued. But for anyone wanting to know kind of what the era was like, that show was so brilliantly written. term though we didn't know he was coming back no but if you look at the last that our very last episode that audra and I play outside and we look we see him coming down the escalator again as he

announces that he's going to run for a second term and that's where we end yeah end the show should I get some dessert that was really delicious I loved it was sublime whilst mum just sorts bits out have you got any food food combos where it's so wrong it's right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm thinking because I'm so not a foodie. Well, no.

I think if you put bacon into anything, it's probably good because it's so bad. Do you know what I mean? I know. Have you tried bacon ice cream? No. Yeah, I tried it in Portland years ago. How does that work? How can you have ice bacon?

I mean, bacon has to be. It kind of, I think it was either like a crumbly bit. They also had turkey skin, like chicken skin. It was delicious, to be honest. They can make ice cream out of anything now. Or pizza, but I think a bit of bacon, like on top of crispy bacon on top of the chocolate. Could work. Absolutely.

You know. Oh, lovely, mum. God, that's gorgeous. Did you bake this? Yeah. She's good. She's good. I don't know.

I'm that good. Would you like ice cream with it or crem fresh? Cremfresh, thank you. Mom, will you tell everyone what it is? It's a plum and frangipan tart. That looks great. Shall I give myself the cram fresh? Thank you.

Jesse. Yeah, perfect, Mom. That's perfect for me as well. Thanks, Mom. What do you think, Christine? Oh, gosh, this is so good. I mean, it's better than chocolate ice cream. Oh, stop it.

Almost. You know I love you. You don't know. No, most. As good as... Mum, this is heavenly. It's so... The crust is cake.

Did you make your own pastry? Yeah. Because it's a patty soup. Really impressive. Come on. This is grub. Tell me the fruit again? It's just plums.

Plums. But it's with French Japan, which is almonds. Yes, that's what it is. My mum made almond pastry and we made... We did the almond pastry for Easter. actually it does have ground almonds in the paste right yeah you did it for easter gone what would you be having at easter oh easter we would do colored eggs of course we do polish sausage and something called shan which is ground beets with horseradish and we

would put together this meal and then put it in a straw basket and then take it to the church on Holy Saturday to get it. And everybody, all the whole neighborhood would show up in the church auditorium and get the food blessed. And then we'd have the food the next day for breakfast after Mass. So sweet, these traditions. But the almond pastry we would make either for Easter or Christmas. And that's where you hope that the,

dough rot, you know, that it puffs and sometimes it doesn't puffs. So you just, it's like a flat croissant, you know, that didn't quite work. So, you know, I've made successful almond pastries and not so successful almond pastries. So you have kept up some of the traditions with your girls? Oh, yes, very much so. Yeah, we still do Polish Christmases. Yeah, I would like my grandsons to know what a Polish Christmas is. Yeah, I think people that are, are long. longing to get back to traditions. Before we let you go, and you may have already answered this, because there was this moment when you talked about the mushroom soup,

is there a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere? Yeah, the mushroom soup, I'm afraid, the taste of the mushroom soup. A warm chocolate chip cookie. Where was that? Chocolate. Chocolate. You love chocolate? Do you like English chocolate, like cabarees?

No, what's English chocolate? Well, English chocolate, Cadbury's chocolate. Dairy milk. Oh, Cadbury's, yes, yes, yes, yes. You make it sound so much more regal. Cabberries. Oh, Cadbury's, sorry. Oh, I see Cadbury's.

Do you like a Cadbury's dairy milk? I like dark chocolate. I like bitter, bitter, the bitter, you know, like 80% dark chocolate, that sort of thing. I don't go to sleep at me. I don't do a milk chocolate. It's like a vermouth and a martini. Sorry. A white crust.

It's like non-alcoholic wine. If you have a dinner party, what would you cook for people? My new recipe of sauce bolognaz, my Eina garden. If my four grandsons, the last time I made it for my grandsons, they had a second helping and one of them had a third helping and then they asked for it later on while we were watching a movie if there was any Bolognaz left. Oh, the mother's house. And I take no credit for it.

I'm going to look up that recipe. Yes. It's like an everyday recipe. Do you like music in the background when you're eating? Yes, I like music in general, anything. So what would you hear? Oh, while people are eating, maybe some French cafe music or something just nice and easy. Not too, too classical, because then it seems a little snooty, but just relaxed.

Jazzy. Christine, you're such a joy. I mean, we knew this was going to be the way, but you've absolutely... I'm a little tired from after rehearsal. Oh, dear. Don't seem tired to us. You're fantastic. And we appreciate you so much for coming over.

You're so sweet to have it. And we're definitely... For cooking for me. Oh, such a pleasure. Such an honour, really. No, I really admire a great cooking. Christine Varanski, what a gal. and the hair

the face, the suit, the voice. So classy. Just gorgeous. You see why I've got a crush on her? Yeah, I mean... Have you got a crush on her now? Yeah. But I feel, lucky me,

I've got the Gilded Age and Good Wife and Fight to watch. Have you never watched them? No, I don't know where I've been. She's like the best thing on TV. But she's just so fantastic. She's amazing. She's, I just, it was an incredibly camp moment when you got your fan out. And you're sitting, fanning

whilst chatting to Christine Beranski. Sorry. It was camp and fab and I liked it. Why was it camp? It was hot. No, I don't know about camp. Christine Baranski and Richie Grant are in Hayfever at the Wyndham's Theatre in the West End.

Go see it. No doubt, she'll be fantastic. And we know her English accent. Was it Judith Bliss? Yeah, Judith Bliss. Daughter. Daughter. The food was so good.

Oh, good, darling. I'm doing that for a different. a party. That was so easy. Delicious, tasty. Yum. Yeah. John Gregory Smith. John Gregory Smith. Jesse, we need to send him a wedding present. Yes, we do need to send him a wedding present. Absolutely. Least a bottle of champagne. Where was the plum and frangip? Where was a combination of different

recipes that I put together? Can you say? Yeah, I can replicate it. No, but which I can't even remember, darling, some of the internet. God, you're that gal now that you can do. Just merge them, darling. There was not a soggy bot in sight. It was so crisp. How did you do this? I don't know, darling. It's because you had Christine and you just knew you had to nail it.

She loved it. It was delicious. It was just one of those recipes that were. Delicious. Good. It was good. Thank you to everyone for listening. And we'll be back for more Tablemaners Season 19 next week.