Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - Jason Isaacs

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

We’re back in the UK, and we have an acting legend joining us this week - it’s Jason Isaacs! Jason had already been in touch earlier in the week to apologise for ‘being a vegan who doesn’t like vegetables’! But no bother! We cooked up a storm and we love a challenge. And Jason more than made up for it with his excellent table chat; we heard about working with Gillian Anderson on their new film ‘The Salt Path’, filming White Lotus, how he married his wife for the health insurance, his encounter with a ghost, turning down West End shows, and we discover that men who are vegan have better erections… Plus Jason even treats us to a magic trick, the must see video will be on our socials this week. Don’t miss Jason’s beautiful new film The Salt Path, which is out in cinemas this Friday the 30th May. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm here with mum and you're looking glorious in a striped... would you call that Breton? It is of a Breton range. Of a range what? M&S? It's sea salt actually. How are you mum? Poor M&S, don't even do it. Don't go there. I had to go to Colliers Wood this week. Oh my goodness.

But I realised I have an M&S addiction and it's dreadful not being able to order online. Please M&S sort it out. For people that don't know what mum's talking about M&S have been cyber attacked. And they're not taking online orders. So you actually have to schlep to... I have to schlep to Colliers Wood. It was quite interesting. Where's Colliers Wood? Right beyond Tooting. There's a big area, it's got loads of shops, it's kind of fantastic because it's got a huge M&S, it's got necks, boots, all of those sorts of things in Colliers Wood.

Okay, well we have, we haven't recorded for a while have we? No, I want to talk about, first of all thank you, Ravinda Bogle, for inviting me to the launch of the Jocconi. At Fortnum & Mason. At Fortnum's. Oh my goodness. So good. Yeah.

What have I been doing? I've been working on music. I have been eating out a lot of really great restaurants. I've seen time. I know. Oh, I sang with the Sizzle Sisters at the weekend in Glasgow. Looking glam. Most incredible show.

Was it fun? And great crowd. Just amazing. Sizzle Sisters are brilliant. You can listen to Jake on our podcast. Jake Shears was on a few years ago and has such a beautiful story about the song Mary. So we have Jason Isaacs coming on today, who people all know from being Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter. He was in The Patriot. He was in The Death of Stalin, one of my favourites.

Obviously the new White Lotus series. Quite a fab storyline in that. And we are talking to him about his new film that he's in, which is a best-selling book. I've read the book. Did you? Yeah. When?

A long time ago. OK. So the book is called The Salt Path and it's by Reina Wynn. And it's about Reina Wynn and it's about Reina and her husband, Moth, losing everything and being homeless and deciding to just walk the coastline. It never really worked out. I might ask him what was the impetus behind walking the coastline? What made them do that? They had this book, didn't they? They had a book, but I don't know what gave them the urge or motivation to do that. They had this book didn't they? They had a book but I don't know what gave them the urge

or motivation to do it so I might ask him that. But the character that, the character, the man that is still alive that Jason plays is called Moth and he has this degenerative disease and so he's completely brilliant in the film. Yeah. He was absolutely amazing. I thought he was. And it's a really touching film. It's with Gillian Anderson who plays Rayna, another former guest. And it's quite a gentle film and it's quite peaceful. I couldn't work out how they went that far with such small rucksacks. I know. With their clothing.

I imagine. Actually, Gillian wore a top that was the same material as a pair of trousers of mine. Oh fabulous. Well let's talk to Jason Isis about this. I'm going to ask him about that. Now we got Jason's dieteries in. Well I think he's going to be my favourite vegan ever. Okay so you know we love vegans by the way. Yeah we do.

We mum is completely changed. And we don't mind fussy eaters at all do we darling? No we don't but we got told that Jason didn't have any dieteries and then we got told that Jason did in fact he was a vegan that didn't like a lot of things. So we were like okay right what are we gonna do? Now one way to shut Lenny and I up is to deliver the most charming email ahead of saying that you have quite challenging dieteries. So this is what we got. We got an email from Jason Isaacs. Hi ladies, Jason here. The other side of the world on my knees in marigolds cleaning up my mate's flat I've been

staying in. The glamour, the filth. I'm really looking forward to sitting down in yacking next week but wanted to give you a heads up that I'm a total fucking nightmare to cook for. Genuinely, I'm so so sorry. If it's any consolation, I don't shut up. So you two can just munch away and point me at a mic. I'd be really happy with a bowl of crisps and a jam sandwich. Or we could get...deliveroo. However, if you are going to torture yourselves, I'll wash up honest.

Here's the nightmare made flesh. I'm a vegan for a start. I could stop there, obviously,'s bad enough and I hate it. Why are you a vegan then mate? We'll ask you. Okay. But I'm madly fussy like a toddler too. I basically only ever ate meat and potatoes my whole life till a few years ago so I don't like most vegetables. Which ones I hear you groan? I'll tell you. Here is the list guys. Courgettes, celery in brackets, and it's nasty cousin celeriac. Okay. Fennel, asparagus, cucumber brackets. I know, I know, it's a fruit.

I'm an actor, not David Attenborough. Olives, capers, definitely other stuff I can't remember. Well, now I'm scared that he doesn't like tomatoes. So fingers crossed everybody. Quite partial to a bit of tofu in any context, because I have to be. And all the really shit for you, fake meat products that will kill you quicker than smoking,

and spicy stuff, especially if you need chopsticks to eat it. Jews and Chinese food, what is that about? Bet you wish you'd never ask me now, don't you? Nonetheless, I can't wait to meet you. So yeah, we were like, oh, you're forgiven, it's fine. So I gave him three options, because I was just like, look, you're forgiven. It's fine. So I gave him three options because I was just like, look, let's just make this simple. So I gave him three options

and one of them was mushroom lambosans. So lambosans are Turkish kind of pizzas. You have them and they're so delicious and they have kind of minced meat and pepper on them and onions and they're delicious. Do you say it lamashens? I don't, my Turkish best mates say lamashen. Anyway, we're having lamashen, sorry to all the Turks that are listening, but mushrooms.

So instead of the minced meat, we're having kind of grated mushrooms. And then I've made some homemade babaganoush. I've made homemade hummus with crispy shallots on top. And then I've also tried to make homemade flatbreads, but I have got a backup of M&S flatbreads because mine look quite rustic. No, they look great. They look rustic, darling.

But I don't know. They look fab. So that's what we've got. And then- Thanks for cooking, darling. It's all right. And then my son made some vegan cookies yesterday that I thought we could do vegan cookie ice cream sandwiches. Have you got ice cream?

Yeah. Vegan? Yeah. So that is what he's getting. So fingers crossed everybody. You've got a new lemon jar. I know it's really sweet isn't it? Lovely.

I've even put a table cloth down today. Why did you do that? Because my friend sent it to me and I think it looks really pretty. Gorgeous. Jason and I's its coming up on TableMonger. Jason Isaacs, thank you very much for being here. Will you say that now? Well, yeah, I mean, listen, you charmed us with that email. Oh, thanks very much.

My apologetic email that maybe people at home should know that I don't eat anything. I hate food now because I went vegan so now there's no pleasure left in life. I've got a lot of questions for you. And I hate all vegetables. So, okay, firstly. No, I'm gonna start with this.

I've come to your house, you've cooked for me. I was well brought up and so I was told never go to a house if I didn't bring chocolates. I brought you both that there, which is a little. Oh my God. Oh my God, I love you. You give us face masks. Little face, steamy face masks.

What are you trying to say? Nothing, I've not. I just thought. Can't share you. Ladies love a little face mask. That is amazing. I wish I'd had this earlier actually. Thank you.

It's a pleasure. Have you put one on this morning? No, I've not. I've done it this morning. Self warming soap. Give me your glasses. No, no, no. I feel very rough. Just you put one on this morning? No, I've not. I've done it this morning. Self-warming sleep. I feel very rough. Thank you, glow getter.

Yeah, it's not great for a podcast, obviously. There's a thing. I love that. I didn't want to bring chocolates or flowers. So you have to lie down for 30 minutes with this on your face. And when I look 20 years younger when I finish. You'll look like Parker Paisley.

You'll look nine years old. Exactly right. Exactly. Anyway, sorry, I interrupted. No, I interrupted. Thank you very much. We're all Jews, so we interrupt. Is that just a thing? Do you know what? I heard a brilliant podcast a few months ago about linguistics, and people from the East Coast, and I guess all Jews, interrupt each other.

That's what conversation is. You talk until someone else takes the bat on. People from the West Coast or the Midwest don't. And so when they tested people's, I don't know, heart rate or whatever, when they got people from the Midwest to speak from the West Coast or Midwest don't and so when they tested people's I don't know heart rate or whatever when they got people from the Midwest to speak from the East Coast they thought they were incredibly rude yeah they interrupted whereas people from the East Coast thought that people are basically brain damaged for not speaking or were uninterested yeah it's just a different kind of cultural habit I'm just gonna go with that for all you haters on the comments say Lenny and I interrupt. It's a linguistics actual thing.

I think Jewish people do interrupt a little bit more than other ethnic groups. My wife is not Jewish and she grew up in Canada and she often thinks that I'm being incredibly aggressive when I'm just being passionate and Jewish. Exactly. About the salt or whatever the hell it is. No but that sometimes her daughter thinks we're arguing and we're just talking loudly. It's a little bit, yeah. And but back to this email.

Yes. You were in Australia, were you? Down under or on your knees? You had marigolds on. I don't know why you were cleaning your friends. Oh, I thought you were in America. This is not gonna go well. So I stayed at my friend's place in Los Angeles.

Yeah. Okay. And it needed a bit of a deep clean when I got there. Oh you did? So he's a very lovely man and he's very talented in many ways but cleaning is not one of his talents. So I got there and I thought I can't stay here and so I went out and I bought marigolds and got on my knees and I was scrubbing and I thought the glamour in between podcasts and talk shows here I am. But then I realized I was coming on your podcast and it's all about food and that not only did I go vegan a few years ago to punish myself

because life was going too well, but I actually hate most vegetables and you wouldn't know what's cooked for me. So I sent you a list of all the things I don't eat, which basically left crisps essentially. Yeah, that was quite helpful and I appreciated that. And you did kind of select out, I gave you three options and you selected something.

So I feel like- I'm not saying dealers choice. I said they all look good to me. Okay, that's really sweet. So I feel like- I was a dealer's choice. I said, they all look good to me. Okay, that's really sweet. So can we ask why you went vegan? Cause you seem quite resentful about the fact that you went vegan. Yes, it's awful.

If anyone says you don't do it, it's a nightmare. It ruins your life. So why did you go vegan? Because it was the middle of lockdown and my daughter, one of whom is sitting in the room here, my lovely daughter, Ruby, but she was, I guess, 15 and her sister was 18, who should have been spending her first year at university instead of spending

her first year locked at home with her parents. And of course, remember, we didn't know how this was gonna end, if it was gonna end, if the world was gonna fall apart and gangs were gonna kick the door down at Lisa. So it was pretty depressing. Just spent New Year's Eve, which is not something you wanna do with your parents, and it was New Year's Day,

and I said to her elder sister, who was isolating a bit too much, I felt, come on, let's do something fun together. Let's sign up for martial arts, or let's learn a language or something. She went, oh, just leave it, Dad. And I said, come on, let's do something together. It's January the 1st. She went, I'm doing something.

I said, what? Sorry, sorry. Oh, hello, a ghost just entered the room there. Yes. It's not very hot, but it closed. And she said, I'm doing veganuary. And I said, I'll do it. She went, I said, veganuary, Dad. It's vegan for January. And I went, know that. It's only very hot when it closed. And she said, I'm doing veganuary. And I said, I'll do it. She went, I said veganuary dad, it's vegan for January.

And I went, I know. She goes, that's no meat, no cheese. That's all I've ever seen you eat in your whole life. And I said, well, I won't. She went, it's not gonna happen. And that's all it took. She did it for 10 days. I'm still doing it five years later.

I still hate it. Why though? Why do you do it? You're that stubborn that you just need to. Because I'm not stubborn. Jessie knows me. Wow. It's also probably better for the planet. You must have felt better after a month,

but otherwise you would have not kept it going. No, I felt pretty good before. I miss meat every day. I eat all that horrible fake meat, which is probably worse for you. It is. It's all but gross. But Jason, the whole thing is that it's veganuary. You can stop after January. Where were you for the last four and a half years? I didn't realise. No I know it is pretty

good. I also have led a very very unhealthy lifestyle and I fly all the time. I'm doing everything I can to ruin the planet in every other way so I know to be vegan. I can be one tiny bit of virtue. So you're always on a plane so which airline does the best vegan food? No one I don't eat on the plane. I buy the food at the airport and I eat it before I go. Or I go to the lounge if I'm lucky enough to be flying business. What do you buy? I go to Pret or something and I buy uh or Leon. the airport and I go to the lounge if I'm lucky enough to be flying business. What do you buy? I get a pret or something and I buy or Leon. You know what I used to love doing? It was a terrible confession. Back in the olden days when I started acting when it was all black and white,

they would fly you first class places and now they fly you business. But in first class I would always eat McDonald's from the airport. I'd buy it, I'd sit in first class, it stinks. You're that person. And it would make people complain and ask if I had a first class I would always eat McDonald's from the airport. I'd buy it. I'd sit in first class It stinks that person and it would make people complain and ask if I had a first-class ticket and they would always check my tickets as Well, and they'd be upset to find out that anyway, I don't do that anymore. It's karma naughty I like to yeah, you like I've got two children funny enough one as I say sitting in the kitchen here Blowing my cover completely. Oh wow. Come on say what you just said. Ruby please come on the mic. He's not vegan for dessert.

You left that out of your bloody email. I'll tell you why. So a very good friend of mine his name is Gideon Raff. He's the guy that created Homeland and Tyrant and the Spy and whatever. He's a wonderful writer and director and he's a militant vegan and the sign off on his email is Someday we will come to look upon the slaughter of animals as we now look upon the slaughter of men It's a Da Vinci quote so the bottom of all his emails and he was Freakishly militant about it on set when we were shooting and he had like meatless Monday And if anybody broke it they were gonna be sacked he said and all this stuff So when I joined this mad horrible masochistic cult I wrote him a thing Oh, no, I spoke to my thing on FaceTime and I went I've joined this mad, horrible masochistic cult, I wrote him a thing. Oh no, I spoke to him on FaceTime and I went,

I've joined this mad cult, I hate it, I don't know how you live with it. Dessert's a nightmare. He goes, oh don't do dessert. We can't do ice cream. I went, I've known you for years. He went, yeah, yeah, we can't do ice cream. And that little crack, I have expanded to a huge open door now for all dessert. So you prefer dessert to everything else I should mention? I live for dessert. That's all I live for. I have done dessert but I've done a fucking vegan dessert mate. Of course you have. No it's better for you. No look I've got, maybe

it will satisfy enough, vegan cookies that we're going to do cookie sandwiches with a scoop of ice cream. Awesome. But it was vegan ice cream but I think maybe I've got some Haagen-Dazs in there if you need to have that. I like it when sometimes I'm given something and I don't ask and I assume it's vegan, knowing at some point that it isn't vegan, but what the hell? I, you know what, like, I don't know how

this is gonna go down with the vegan world that you are so disparaging about. I'm not, look, the truth is it's better for the planet, it's better for you. Yes, yes. Did you ever see Game Changers, that fantastic documentary on Netflix? Yes. So years ago I was in 2017 or something,

I was in Star Trek and I lived in Toronto and had this lovely house and so I had all the cast and crew over every weekend, I did a huge barbecue. And week by week there was always more meat left and I could never understand it. And they were all watching this documentary, What the Health, on Netflix, which turned them all vegetarian but they didn't want to tell me, they thought I'd be upset,

and said more and more animals were getting slaughtered for no reason. But What the Health is a rubbish documentary, because it makes all these claims which aren't true, and you can just Google it, and it tells you all these things that they said aren't true. James Cameron made his documentary about plant-based eating, he doesn't like to call it vegan,

he and his wife is their big campaign. And it's fantastic, it's all game changers, and you cannot challenge any of the science in it. And in it, instead of saying, this is good for you, this is bad for the planet, or these poor animals suffer, they just go, do you want to meet the strongest person in the world? He's a vegan. Do you want to meet the smartest person in the world?

He's a vegan. Do you want to meet the fastest people in the world? They're vegans. And they tell you why. And they have those martial arts artists who is looking to recover from injury. But the bit that all the men remember is they take all these football players, college football players, and they go, how good are your erections? And they

go, what? And they go, we can measure them, measure your nighttime erections. And they give them vegan meal for three days. They go, I need red meat. And it turns out they've got much bigger, longer lasting, stronger, as in you can hang weights on them erections. When they're vegan, whether they stay vegan, I don't know. But that's the bit I remember. Dude, I'm not talking about the prosthetic, that was literally the most perfect segue into that, but I'm not going to do it. You're not going to go there. Not today.

Excellent. We're going to bounce right off that piece of rubber. Oh, shame. No, enough. Thank you. Thank you, mum. Okay. So, let's take it back to childhood.

Okay. Liverpool. Yes, that's right. I grew up in Manchester. Did you really? You both don't have accents. No. Why have you lost yours? I know why I've lost mine. Because my parents weren't from Manchester. Oh where are they from? Northern Ireland and Birmingham. Wow. You don't live

in Liverpool. Can you do them? Do the accents? It's very modern. That's the only one I can do. Birmingham was nice. Fish and chips.. Oh, you can do it, Lenny. You've got skills. Accents are musical. Can you do them as well? Yeah, I... No, she's South London. No, I think I'm okay.

No, if you can sing, you can do accents. I can do a good... No, if you can sing, you can sing. You can't say, you can't say. I can do a Miss Adelaide. Yeah, a Poison can develop a quad. Yeah, that's about as much as I can do. So I was offered there, I was offered guys to dance.

What, Miss Adelaide? Yeah, yeah. I don't see why you guys would So I was offered that. I was offered guys to dance. What, Miss Adelaide? I don't see why you guys would be putting it in a box. I was offered Sky or Nathan at one point. I did a recast and I went to the... and I said no, I can't possibly. I'm not a good enough singer. I love singers. I love your voice. This is years ago obviously.

Not that many years ago but I... I said... I got the producer's phone number. I was going, what are you fucking mad? Is this like the producer? have you got too much investment, are you trying to shut the show down? He said, no, no, I'm sure we can transpose it down and up. I went, I can't sing well enough. He said, people always say that.

I go, no, no, I love voices. I love musicals. I have the gayest straight man you've ever met in your life. All my playlists are show tunes. So anyway, I said, no, thanks very much. You should do your research. And then my wife's grandma was coming to stay for Christmas So she always used to do and my wife goes

Can you get us tickets for guys and dolls? No, I just turned it down. She goes well phone up See if you get house seats. I'm a that's a bit awkward. She was do it. So I phoned up and I went listen I'm definitely not doing the show But just so I can make a hundred and ten percent sure can have some freebie seats for Saturday night And they said yeah, so I went with my wife and my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law It was in a wheelchair so they made a special entrance first we get then they put a side room aside with champagne On an oysters on ice and the producer came in with this score and the cast now. No, no, no, honestly I swear to God you wouldn't want me in this show

He goes on it just be open-minded because Nathan she's talks essentially Nathan just goes out late. It's written for a stand up. So me, so me. Yeah, you could have done it. She sings, but Nathan just goes, Adelaide, Adelaide. It's not really a song, but Skye's the good part. So anyway, I watched the show, it's clear within two bars. It's way out of my, I couldn't possibly do it. But they give us the cast CD, which I keep in the car. And it stays there for weeks.

And I'm singing the stuff to myself. My kids are singing along with me and stuff. One day my missus goes, you're not thinking of doing the show here? And I said, no, no. She goes, but definitely. I said, yeah. She goes, you're not thinking of doing the show are you? And I said no no she goes but definitely. I said yeah she goes you sure? And I go yeah she goes then stop singing those fucking songs you're driving us all mad. Why is it that bad? She goes yeah terrible. I mean we can keep on talking about theatre

and everything but we need to talk about growing up where you grew up and we were talking about accents. Liverpool. Go on you get it back back on track, girl. Sorry, I've got to. Go on then. Liverpool, who was around the dinner table and what were you eating? Well, the kind of Jewish food that gave my father two quadruple heart bypasses, 10 stents and three ablations.

Deep fried and then fill in the blank. It doesn't really matter. So, chopped and fried fish. Yeah, filled fish. Well, so I've got a brother who's allergic to fish. So, one day a week he would be, I don't know't know, he was farmed out somewhere or someone else's house. And the whole house would stink of fish. That's the big problem about cooking a filter fish.

It stinks. It's a fantastic smell. You have to wear a shower cap and no clothes. Because everything smells of it. Thank God my mother didn't do that because I need therapy even more than I do already. How was her chicken supermatchables? It was fantastic, but all those things were fantastic. The reason they were fantastic is they were so rich with taste and spices and flavour and that nothing ever tasted like that.

Nothing I've ever ordered in public ever tasted like that, except the stuff that I have made myself. But it was, I mean, we loved griffinous, which is deep fried skin, but we loved anything that was so thick with grease that when you hit it with a fork, the grease would spray all over the room. We loved potatoes that were thick with oil. She never learned to cook. No one, no one ever showed her.

Her own mother was a horrendously abusive person who didn't cook and also dismissed her all the time. So she taught herself and there weren't cookbooks. I don't know, what am I saying? Of course there were cookbooks, but whatever. She was cooking for four boys and a husband who all ate like pigs, wanted two or three portions. She had to cook these industrial quantities of food.

And I think to my shame, that I'm not sure I ever thanked her, I was fussy. My brothers were all fussy about different things. I didn't like it if I could see the tomatoes in Bolognese or whatever for instance. But it was, she made all those things that are peasant food. You know, she got from my grandparents, Holland stuff, which is Karl's foot jelly, which seemed then to me

as disgusting as it seems to me now saying it, but whatever it is, it felt it was the fabric of our life. But I had this amazing experience, I don't know if 30 years later, we were doing Harry Potter publicity, and it was sent all over the world, and I could never do it. And then the last year, they said,

do you wanna do it this year? And I said, actually I'm free, I was always working. They said, you can go to Copenhagen. I'm like bloody hell the people went to South America But I went to Copenhagen and my wife came and they sent us some very fancy restaurant one night No, we couldn't get to that one. There was another called shape all I think So he comes up he goes on a mate I'm Paul from Essex Yes, and he said tell me about your childhood Tell me everything you ate to tell me the songs you remember tell me the smells you remember and I said well I grew up in Liverpool

And I told him the stories and then Emma told the stories about growing up in Canada and each course Was some oak cuisine some Michelin style version of what we ate But it would have a song to go with it and they have a smell to go with it and they come and say close Your eyes. It's Friday night. Your mother's cooking fish, you know, Nancy Snouch was playing on the 8 track And then each dish was some, the greatest possible version of what, although, wasn't as tasty as my mum's. It was, do you guys watch Hot Ones, over?

You know Hot Ones? I've watched it, have you been on it? No, I wanted to go on it this year with the kids who played my kids in White Lotus, but they had Lisa on. You like spicy food. Mum, do you know about Hot Ones? No.

It's this guy, Sean, who, yeah. Is that the hot one? You eat different wings. Yeah, yeah. And it gets hotter and hotter. I would die. I can't even have the light one at Nando's. So the most amusing version of hot, this one's season 17 or something, it's phenomenally successful on a YouTube show. But the best one ever was Gordon Ramsay because Gordon Ramsay couldn't take anything because he's a proper chef, so he's got a very subtle palate. So he was crying, he was snorting orange juice and eating donuts and the rest of it. So I'm just too accustomed to my mum's strong taste, so he made us this beautiful meal, but the taste was too subtle

for me. I've burnt my taste buds out. I need stuff to taste. Speaking of food, I'm just going to put myama, I don't know if that, what we're discussing whether we think they're called Lama-jeans or Lama-jeans. Turkish pizzas. Okay. But anyway I'm just gonna deal with that whilst mum asks you more questions. So you know White Lotus sometimes they often bring people back in from previous series. Are you going to be back in it? Well, obviously I would do Mike White's shopping list, you know, if he asked me to, but if I was, people who saw it,

I can't imagine that character, I can't imagine how he would squeeze him back in. Well you could, you might be a born again good person. Yeah, well he is a good, who says he's a bad person? You've just come out of prison. Yeah, and then you're- Why is he going to go for a holiday, but where's he going to get the money from?

You become a priest or a rabbi or something in prison, and then you're going to do it to for holiday? But where's he gonna get the money from a priest or a rabbi or something in prison? Sure, and she do know what I think Mike is short of ideas. You should send the office Yes, I said it all postcard. Yeah, like Johnathan Aitken. I do know who I bring back Christian who played the hotel manager Fabian. He didn't do enough stuff. He's a genius. He'd disappear all the time Go back to Germany didn't have a giant part and I'd say where you going? I'll just go match Germany in one point I said, what would you do about there? He goes, I'm doing some work. And I'm like what? He's been playing Hamlet, Macbeth and Dorian Gray in rep for German National Theatre for 11 years in productions built around him and his band because his band have had six hit albums.

Oh wow! He's a renaissance man. And that's quite a small part in Whitelodges. It was but I would like to see his part expanded because he's a genius, he's an acting genius. So who was your best friend on the set? Well, Emma, my wife was there She doesn't normally come to No, I did come up, you know, I chummed up with because she didn't arrive for the first month It's my kids Patrick Salmon, Sarah Katherine became like my kids, you know

By proxy and I fell madly in love with them. I still retext his all the time. They are gorgeous, yeah. They're gorgeous people. I didn't expect Patrick to be nice because he's son of a famous movie star and he's such a fabulous, grounded person. And all three of them. I mean, I became friends with Christian and John Grice who played Greg slash Gary, spoiler. Not Walton Goggin.

Walton and Amy had the, so you don't really, you shoot when other people are off and you're off when other people are shooting. So everyone's storyline... You don't get to mix with the other storylines very much unless you... Oh, how odd. So, I don't know. I'm not friendly with everybody. Yeah, we see it all as one story.

Well, sometimes we're all on the beach together or something. Mostly, no, you shoot when other people are off and you're with your kind of story group. Was that hotel as gorgeous as it looked? Well, it's not one hotel. Yes, Jess is on it. Oh, I didn't that. Yeah it was like 10 different hotels. So people mostly the exterior is the Four Seasons in Koh Samui and a lot of people are going there now they're massively booked out particularly our villa. They only used the Four Seasons because I've been to the one in Hawaii that they used. Right in Maui. Maui. Well that was during lockdown. I didn't stay there but I went there.

So that was all done in one but now they move around different ones. So people who go there and go, wait a second, Sparrow looks different, the restaurant looks different, they're going to be very disappointed. But it is still gorgeous, all of the hotels are gorgeous. Had you been to Thailand before? No, but I've done it now. How did the food tell me? Do you know what all my mates said to me?

Oh you'd be in heaven there, vegan heaven. No, it was bollocks was it? No, no one, because we're in these fancy hotels so they make all these super fancy buffets and I go, got something vegan, they put potatoes out or they put onions out and I go, I could do with a meal, you know. Anyway, I ended up having tofu curry pretty much every day for seven months. Green tofu curry. Green or red. What about the noodles? Do they have noodles in the front? Pad Thai. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pad Thai. They could make you a vegan pad Thai, I should have read that. And you know, when you've had it 600 times, it's a bit boring. And you're not really on holiday really, are you?

We weren't on holiday. That's so, I got in a lot of trouble because people go, what was it like? And a lot of the other actors, they're very good kind of brand managers. They go, it was wonderful in Thailand, fabulous. No, you said the most iconic line that has like travelled everywhere now. Oh, it's a bit like Lord of the Flies. Yeah, summer camp and, theatre camp and Lord of the Flies,'s a bit like Lord of the Flies. Yeah, Summer Camp and, Theatre Camp and Lord of the Flies, or Summer Camp and Lord of the Flies?

Yeah, because it's a bit like, there's a lot of people away from home for a long period of time, away from their families, and it was everything. It was all the things you would expect in a group of people. Anyway, all these online Sherlock Holmeses

read a whole bunch of bollocks into it and started extrapolating from what they thought they could see in people's photographs about where the fault lines were in our friendships. It was just a complete bollocks, they have no idea. You're here to talk about a different film. Oh, well, that was a different film. Oh, yes, I am, that's right.

You're here to talk about- You're so professional, Jessie. It's very impressive. Yeah, she's very good. Very good, yeah. Thanks. But I'd read the book. Have you?

Yeah. She should have rayon, she's fantastic. So the book, sorry, the film's called The Salt Park. Yes. And it's a memoir, it's not a fictional book. No. It's a memoir of this extraordinary time in the life of Raina Wynne and her husband, Moth. And it begs us to believe,

if you wouldn't write it, it's fiction. It's so extraordinary. Have you met Raina? Yeah, yeah, I spent time with both of them. Does she look like Gillian? She looks enough like Gillian, yeah. I wish I looked like Moth. He's so gorgeous.

He just radiates Bonhomie as well. He's so handsome and striking. You were so Incredible in it. It was like I just I just gone from watching you play this like corrupt, you know guy Who Texan who's about to go to prison and then you're this salt of the earth warm? It was so beautiful to watch you so lovely to say but I honestly feel like I'm 1% of how gorgeous Moth is in person. He's like, it's like meeting a slim father Christmas. You cannot help but fall in love with this man.

He's the most extraordinary person. And did you meet him before you started doing the part? Yeah. Oh God, yeah. One of the great things about my job is that sometimes this stuff doesn't end up on screen, but you get to walk in people's shoes, you get to shadow them, you get to hang out with them, you get to ask them really inappropriate questions that no journalist would ever ask. People tell me things they've never told their family. And so Moth particularly, well let me tell the stories that people listen to just in

case without spoiling it. Moth and Ray were farmers actually from Staffordshire when they're in Wales and they had a little Airbnb but they have two kids who were off at university and his childhood friend offered them an investment opportunity to to give their kids a better future So they did it because they trusted him and it was a con and they ended up this terrible court case went on for years They're completely in the right, but they they had to they couldn't get legal aid They're trying to do it themselves It's really out of their wheelhouse and and finally it came to this big court case where they had a piece of paper that was Gonna all the other people who've been conned in the same way and I had gonna hand this letter over and the court was gonna go, oh I see it's

gone, you're fine. But they didn't give it in time so they got to court and they were told, I mean really blind side of them, you've got to get out your house in a week and you've got to give up all your money and you're broke and homeless and they just were in shock and they went home and in that week when they went to pack up their house they had a doctor's appointment. He thought it was the stress of the court case coming up and also he'd fallen through the roof of the barn about a year before. So his leg had stopped working, his arm had stopped working, his memory had started going and he was kind of, his bodily functions were failing. And they went to the doctor, they

thought they'd be told it was arthritis. The doctor sat him down and said, it's called CBD, it's corticobasal degeneration, it's a terminal neurological condition and you have possibly weeks or months to live. You need to go home, avoid the stairs and say your goodbyes. Well, they went home, but it wasn't gonna be their home much longer. And they just kind of froze. They didn't know what to do.

And before they knew it, the bailiffs are banging on the door. They were hiding under the stairs. He's a grown man and woman, and they just didn't know what to do. And this is where the film starts. They just were quivering on the set and they were holding a box of books. He has a brain like Wikipedia.

He loves books, self-educated thousands of books in his library. But he had one book in his hand, Beowulf in his hand, and had this box. And sticking out the top of the box was a book of the tour of the southeast coast of Britain, you know, a guided tour of walking it. And Ray said, let's just walk. Which is a bit bizarre thing to say to a man who's got one leg. He's got one leg and one arm. And it's quite hard to watch you as Moth walking because it looks such a struggle.

He drags his left foot like, and is it his left or right foot? His left foot. Yeah, and he drags it and it's kind of, you think... He couldn't hold the rucksack He couldn't sell it It took half an hour for her to move his legs and arms every morning to get him out of bed if he's to be able To stand up, but they had nothing and they had no friends would put them up They spent their last three under quid on two rucksacks

stupidly really thin sleeping bags in the tent and they took off and They froze and they starved and they were rejected by people and they were welcomed by people they encountered acts of extraordinary kindness and extraordinary cruelty and one of the miraculous things that happened apart from them discovering each other their stuff wasn't who they were is his condition started to I'm gonna cry now sorry this is started to reverse no doctors understand it to this day they've scanned him many times he's done many walks since but that but they it's not too much of a spoiler because it's not the secret

of what happened in the film. It's watching this love story unfold, this mystery. And when they got to somewhere, when it was after six months, they couldn't survive anymore and someone gave them a barn, because he started to forget again, he forgot all the things that happened to him on this walk that just happened. She wrote down as a 50th birthday gift him a memoir, this 500 page memoir of him, 300 page memoir, and their daughter who saw it went, it's really good, mum, you should try and publish it. Don't be ridiculous, I'm a farmer. Well, I am going to cry now, I'm pathetic. Anyway, it sold millions of copies. She's now on her fourth book.

They've had to do many, many walks. Moth is still alive. He's not particularly well, but he's alive and he's extraordinary. is still alive. He's not particularly well, but he's alive and he's extraordinary. And the film is such a love story to them, to nature, to the mystery of the human body and to the kindnesses they encountered on route. But the one thing... Don't just spoil it for everyone. No one will ever see the film now. No, but what do you think the motivation was to do this coastal walk? She's mental. Rave, you're listening. What's the matter with you? Yeah, but what?

The only thing that I couldn't work out I mean to be honest, you know One of the great things that I like about the book and and you know It's up to people to like about the film is that I mean I've been in lots of films obviously in TV shows and they're Constructed you construct screenplays and people contribute they develop people even the money that they suggest a traditional narrative structure This is what happened to them and a lot of the things they encounter I've seen one of you going why would they stick in that bit about the guy who's being mistaken for a famous poet because that's what happened and sometimes it's nice to go and see a story that actually

happened because we're so used to well structured stories we know where they're going and this is what happens these people why did she do it don't know. I mean they wanted some time to clear their heads. I thought I'd missed it. No no. Why she done it. They couldn't get a council house. Yeah. Because he wouldn't say I know I'm gonna be dead within a year which is what they've been told. Yeah. Because he didn't feel he felt guilty saying that. They didn't have friends, they felt they didn't want to impose on their friends and they were ashamed as well. They were embarrassed. They felt they felt disgrace. They stayed briefly with his brother but

essentially they were on their own she sold four books very well but the irony being no no she doesn't make a fortune but the irony being you know once they live somewhere his body starts to pack up his mind starts to pack up again that you know so I'm so talking about Moth how lovely is when I met him first on zoom and then in person and on zoom a few Times you know I'm asking him these difficult questions about his body packing up his bodily functions back up his mind packing up There's a super bright man and the first time I watched the zoom back to try and nail down his accent It's it's complicated. It's kind of stuff. It sure. Yeah, I think he had a dab from Burnley and stuff just mixture of accents I

Realized we're laughing all the time Laughing and laughing and I felt in the good mood, it's like when you listen to a, you know, one of those laughing, little machines that laugh, people put, you know, you can't stop laughing. And then I realized we're laughing while he's telling me about the most terrible things

that a human being can go through, what it's like to not remember the beginning of a sentence, what it's like for things to blank out, what it's like to need help going to the toilet, or what it's like, and he wanted me to feel comfortable. He's like and he wanted me to feel comfortable he wants anyone he's talking to feel comfortable so I go I wish you'll laugh at this Jason it's so funny when I go just try and brush my teeth it's not funny but he's such a lovely man he doesn't want to impose the pain of what he goes through on his wife or

his kids or on a stranger. Where does the name Moth come from? Aha! Should I tell you I want to fill mine. It's short for something a very common name come on you can do it. Timothy. Fuck me no one ever gets it. She's good. Lenny. Class act. It's the only one I could think of. No no you're right. She does Wurdle every day and it's whack. So I do Wurdle, Quaddle and Octordle with various people around the world. What's Quaddle and Octordle? Quaddle's four, Octordle is eight. I do Jeff Pope who wrote Archie, the Cary Grant thing. I do Wurdle, Quaddle and Octordle every day. I also remember you looking very dashing. I think I first fell in love with you

when you were in Death of Stalin. Oh, you found that? You were very handsome in that. Very dashing, you wore a nice uniform. He's a monster. But you look so good. You've got issues. No, you look so gorgeous.

Well, you like a man in uniform, obviously. No, I didn't think that. I'm learning a lot today. Just so I can let you know why I'm not- I'm like a Jew in uniform. A Jew in uniform. It's very human. Can I tell you why I'm not flattered by that?

Because I had my chest and arms and shoulders padded in that uniform to look like Zoukov. And I'm so much more like Charles Horty than I am like Brian Glover, which I not modeled it on, but there we are. Who directed that? Amano Yanuchi. That's why I went.

Oh, yeah. It's fantastic. But also my daughter, Axe, and she'd been in a film with Rupert Friend. Oh, Rupert was so funny in that. I didn't, I'm not sure if you do comment. He was very funny in that. Genies.

He practiced spitting in the, the characters tries to spit at someone's back That lands in his face Practiced and practice the practice he laid there on the bonus on his back in the trailer spitting in the air making it Over and over again talking of which look at this delicious food. Yeah, okay, very good And would you like to do a podcast when you know I've been asked and I feel the public shouldn't know who I am I feel like public shouldn't know who I am They won't believe me in character What I do like about you is that you are an open book, which I do think is quite refreshing Well, this is the public version of me. I'm much more of a dick in private. Anyway, here we are

Is he a dick? Don't ask my daughter! Yeah, but she would be very honest and say, oh god, yeah So Rube, honestly, you've heard me do a million interviews and stuff like that Do you think that it's really me that the public hear? Come to mind, come on. Well now I'm offended that we're not getting

the real Jason Isakson, you know? I think I'm less, I'm much bitchier. I've been asked to do a memoir, for instance, and all the stories I've got. I think you're being quite a bitch today. Am I? Yeah, I don't know. But I'm not naming names.

I'm not naming names. Sorry Rube, we got a little bit of a... I do think in private, you are a bit of a gossip. Oh no. It's true. It's true. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. Don't mime at me, Lenny. I am too, she's saying. Yeah. Okay, so listen. We have lamashens.

People are listening. It looks amazing. That's very sweet. I've tried to make homemade flatbreads, which I've never done. That's an M&S one, so you can take your pick. I won't be offended. I'm not touching the M&S one. Okay, fine. But that's a mushroom, pepper. so you can take your pick. I won't be offended. I'm not touching the M&S one. Okay, fine. But that's a mushroom pepper. It's quite spicy, mum, I'm sorry. Awesome.

We've got some homemade hummus with some crispy shallots, babaghanoush. Fantastic. And then a kind of onion, tomato-y sumac, nigele seeds. So this reminds me of a fabulous showbiz story, I can tell you. Yeah, great. So I did this film, Black Hawk Down, and for which we all went training with the Rangers in Fort Benning in Georgia. It's a fabulous showbiz story, I can tell you. Yeah, great. So I did this film, Black Hawk Down, for which we all went training with the Rangers

in Fort Benning in Georgia. It was a real honor that the survivors of that battle came and the family members of the dead, and we felt a keen responsibility to try and not be showbiz-y and tell their story honestly. And they gave us all a ranger coin, and this note was passed under the door, supposedly from their dead colleagues,

and it said, please tell our story true. I don't even remember the bad grammar of it. It was very moving. So anyway, we arrive in Morocco and I've been, it's like a week-long improvisation. I've essentially been like their commander for the week. All the boys played along with it, you know. So we get there, we're on a big coach going from the airport. We pass the McDonald's. The Americans are like, ah, it's going to get McDonald's. And I go, no, come on kids. We're in Morocco. Let's have Moroccan food. So we arranged this meal that night, where we all go to a proper old Moroccan Riyadh.

And the guy with the Tommy Cooper hat and the lantern leaves us down the alleyways and stuff. We go into Riyadh, and they bring all this mezzo. And lovely Josh Hartner, who's a very sweet man, very sweet boy then, at 21, he goes, hey, Jason, can you order me some, like, something vegetarian? I'm vegetarian. I said, well, Josh, those are carrots, mate.

Those are onions. That's eggplant, aubergine. I'm vegetarian. I said Josh. Those are carrots mate. Those are onions That's that's eggplant aubergine, you know, because I know but it might have touched meat or so Could you ask so, you know, so I they all speak Arabic or French then Morocco's and I speak my schoolboy French And I said, can we have something he's vegetarian and the guy says to me in French. Well, that's a carrot and that's an onion I go I know I told him but he said just something that doesn't touch me So okay, so it brings out some other like a purple puree things It's over gene some kind of it because they do everything with a right. So it's this purple thing and Josh eats He goes. I'm here. This is delicious man. What's a cop and I said to go what's it called?

He goes my car up some Arabic name. I said I don't understand that. Sorry. What is it in French? He goes no, I got but over there and I go I'm so sorry and Josh goes I really like to order this thing again, man. It's fantastic. So I said, maybe someone else can write it down. The chef comes out, also speaks, it strikes me in Arabic and French. I said, I don't understand.

He says, it's not meat. Josh is like two bowls in now. He goes, it's not meat, it's brine. I go, it's in brine, is it? Salt water. He goes, no, brine, brine from bread. Poor old Josh chokes on his food I said I said not me just is before I'm head make you very clever

just starts crying god bless him yeah I've been eating since I was seven years old that was that but it looks like this is my point looks like what we're eating Oh god, that's fantastic. I love a mushroom. Right level spiciness with onions. I love the whole onion. Best thing about being married is that you could have every member of the onion family your whole life. Onions, garlic, leeks, and not worry about it. She's not going. She can't cite that in court, it's not enough is it? So your wife is Canadian did you say? Born in London and then moved to Canada for most of her childhood and then did a runner, came back when she was 18. And what food did you have at your wedding? Well our wedding is a bit of a... Ruby's going to pull the

face out of her face, they're just supposed to have a wedding. We were in Los Angeles. She was pregnant, Emma. She'd been sick for... She had lung problems. And we wanted to fly home. And I phoned my brother, who's a doctor, and he put us on to a lung specialist, and the guy said, you need to go to a hospital and have a check for pulmonary embolism right now. Because you shouldn't get on a plane.

Because she's had two calls of antibiotics, still got a lung ache. And we went... And I didn't have medical insurance for her, but I get SAG insurance, Screen Actors Guild. So we went to a registry office in Los Angeles and then we went straight to the ER. And then she was entitled to it. And then she got medical insurance, not that I ever put the paperwork in, because I'm rubbish and never claimed it back. But we didn't know and you know, if you go into hospital there, it could suddenly be a million dollars after a week. It turns out they did a bunch of scans, she came out, soundly disappointed, went, I haven't bloody well got a clot. And I went, that's good love, that's actually good.

Anyway, that was our wedding. That is so bonkers. To avoid, that is an amazing story. To get health insurance. But in America, you don't want to go to the hospital if you haven't got health insurance. My mate Daniel, I took him there for the night once took him. They just had a baby. So His missus couldn't take him So drove the other side of LA took him to hospital at like 2 o'clock in the morning

We left at 6 in the morning was 40 grand Oi And he had to pay five of it or something and insurance pay the rest and it was like 60 $60 for each neurofen and $10 for the cut and $20 for the water is a bunch of nonsense. So yeah So do you think Ruby is owed like a proper they've asked a lot Ruby and assistant Lily They've asked us a lot. So the thing is that's just our wedding anniversary January the third But the truth is our real anniversary was Halloween and we were at drama school together

And we went to a stage manager's party and we got behind these Venetian blinds and we started snogging on Halloween and that's for us That that is the nights that we became a couple No Although our feet were sticking out from under the blinds and I do remember other members of our year going who's out behind the blinds snogging? Someone said Emma and Jason and I went Emma and Jason? You're fucking kidding me give that a week. Anyway here we are 37 years later. So you should get married on Halloween? That's what I'm saying I said we knew our vows at a Halloween ball we're all dressed up and Emma goes I'm not dressing as fucking Frankenstein's wife I'm I were you can dress as anybody you like marry onto an area

I'm not doing it. But now she's come around. She said she will do it and I've said the kids now I said, do you want us to have a nice big wedding or would you like an apartment when you're old? So we haven't had one and can we talk about, I'm interested, your mother had four boys, that's four different bar mitzvahs? Yeah, yeah. What was your theme? Were you allowed a theme at that time? Was that your outfit and your hair? Oh Ruby, burying me, oh my god. It was the 1970s, it's not a good look.

So you're living in London then? Living in Edgeworth, yeah. I'd like to know about the outfit that Ruby's talking about. Which shoe? Stone Grove. Is that orthodox? It's a reformed shoe. I liked the, my mum was a very ardent feminist and the fact that the women made to sit separately

in all sorts of synagogues she wouldn't have. Neither would I. I mean, I saw that to be wrong too. But what I looked like, I had huge overblown hair dried, kind of bouffant hair, a gigantic white collar on a blue shirt, a velvet jacket, large, what looked to me like clown shoes now, and flares, it being 1976. And a gold chain, of course.

Oh wow. Oh, it was a present. It was a moment's present. Was a Mug and Dove on there as well? No, it was a bar mitzvah. Was a Mugg and Dovet on there as well? No, it was a little ID thing. In fact, years later I thought about it. I played a footballer called Tony Kay in a Paul Greengrass film. And we filmed in Liverpool, in the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool, in the sauna.

And there was a gangster in there talking to me who was lucky for Tony Kay because he owed him money from 30 years before. But they're the ones of the Paul's guys? No, no, there was a guy who... A whole other story you don't want to go into. But the point is I was in the sauna with a guy wearing a chain like I'd Worn my bar mitzvah and an ID bracelet. It was 120 degrees in the sauna I was thinking that is branding you and you're that tough that you don't care My friend got branded in the sauna last week. She had a little like an initial for her son Louis

She's got an L backwards. She's like branded a chest. Oh backwards is a shame. Yeah, I know, shame. Same as it wasn't the right way around. Nightmare. Have you got any tattoos talking about branding? No.

No, you. No, you wouldn't let, no, no. I'm too scared. I'd have a nervous break though. I'm very indecisive. Most of the time I order something at the restaurant just for the way to get to the kitchen. I go, actually, you know what?

So the idea that I would live with a decision on my body, it's not unreal. Are you a Libra? you said that was such insight no no no you know why even astrology it's not whether I believe in us like you believe in gravity it's utter bollocks yes you tell me come on then oh Jesse shut up like Chelsea the idea that people can be divided into 12 categories of human beings, it's nonsense. Tismans, it's Jesse. The idea that your personality is determined by where the stars... Or crystals.

This is going really well until I just do this. Let me ask you this though, because I just stayed in a haunted hotel and it scared the shit out of me and I... Do you believe in ghosts then? I don't believe, I don't want to believe in them, but I'm terrified of them and I think one might have sat on my chest two nights ago. Oh, shut up, what happened? Do you want some more, darling?

I don't want more, although it's fantastic. Shut up with your plate. Firstly, why were you in a haunted house two nights ago? Well, I didn't know, I stayed in a hotel and I didn't know it was haunted. Which hotel was it? Jesus Christ, where was I? I was in Metz, we're called Metz, pronounced Metz in France. And I woke up in the night and something was pressing

on my chest and a wind was kind of going through the room. It felt like a plane was taking off, I felt like G-forces were on me. And I fought and fought and fought to come back to the surface, it felt like, I was wide awake. Wait, do you believe in ghosts? Because I'm terrified of them. I don't want to either.

I do believe in them and that's what scares me because I've stayed in a few, so I was in this film called Cure for Wellness and we shot in this compound of buildings Oh yes, this is the one! With eels and... Horrible! Well that series of buildings is one of the most haunted places in Europe and ghost hunters arrived every day and that's what a barbed wire fence up to keep them away and it was a series of buildings where Hitler was rehabbed after the First World War and then he used it to rehab the

injured Nazis and then he used it to rehab the injured Nazis and then when they lost the war the Russians took it over and they sent all their political prisoners there and they Lobotomize them they called it psychiatric hospital, but it wasn't where they kind of been loads of mass murders there And they read they refurbished one building first to shoot him But the other buildings were still dilapidated and he shot myself I didn't want to look up any of the windows case I saw a silhouette there and I remember I thought is it really I looked't want to look up any of the windows in case I saw a silhouette there. And I remember, I thought, is it, have they really, I looked up what, there'd been loads of murders there, and most recently there'd been a serial killing there.

A photographer had killed all the models on a shoot there, and it was, and I looked further, I searched online and it was for a fetish magazine, and it killed them with a frying pan, and to this day, I don't know if the fetish included the frying pan or whether they're on lunch or not. That's why I want to know. Oh, is he going to fry them? No, some of those cannibal people do those things. Mum, that's what you did to the intruders when they came in. Yeah, that's very useful.

I hit them with a frying pan. Anyway, I am scared of ghosts and I don't believe, so I do magic, lots of magic. I like close-up magic and I like magic. I always have since I was a kid. And you do magic? I do magic lots of man. I like close-up magic and I like magic always have since I was a kid and Do magic I do magic Yeah But my point is that so I know about what fake psychics is fake mentalism and fake cold reading and hot reading all the stuff And so I'm disturbed by the fact that there are some things I can't explain because lots of things I can explain where people

Are on television doing stuff and I'm like, no, that's just a trick But there are some things I can't explain in life and I'm relentlessly curious about those things. Can I do magic? Yeah, I'm never far away from... What have you got? I've always got cards in my pocket. Oh my god! Stop! Okay, well this leads us on to you've just been at Great Ormond Street this morning, haven't you? I have. I did Magic Streets for a kid this morning in the cancer ward. Yeah, yeah.

How did you get connected to Great Ormond Street? So I was in a film with Peter Pan. Maybe one of the best songs I've ever been, actually, which is ironic because it was the biggest flop. And it kind of destroyed everyone's career for a while. Who did you play? I played Wendy. No, I played Captain Hook. Who do you think I played and played?

Captain Hook and Mr Darling. Mr Darling, not J.M. Barry. Oh no, but he's not in it. I got confused because you were talking about J.M. Barry and I thought maybe it was involved in Rick and Fer. I know you wrote it. So he left his royalties to Great Ormond Street Hospital and in fact the British Parliament brought in an ad for the film.

And I thought maybe it was involved in Rick and Fer. I know you wrote it. So he left his royalties to Great Ormond Street Hospital and in fact the British Parliament brought in an ad for the film. And I thought maybe it was involved in Rick and Fer. I know he wrote it. So he left his royalties to Great Ormond Street Hospital and in fact the British Parliament brought in an act that extended his royalties because most royalties stop after 50 years so money continues to go there so I have a relationship with Great Ormond Street and I get to go and help them raise money for it's an amazing

magical place it's the best place to send your kids if they're sick hopefully nobody listening will ever have to send their kids if you do there's no better place in the place to send your kids if they're sick. Hopefully nobody listening will ever have to send their kids. If you do, there's no better place in the world to send your kids. And they're also a center for incredible research. And at the moment they're building a brand new giant cancer center. So I'm hoping to raise money.

But also when I go, if anybody's interested in meeting someone from Harry Potter, I go around and I meet the kids and give them autographs and do magic tricks and stuff like that. So this morning I was with this lovely kid called Alvy. And he's been there for a while, he will be there for a while and he was a Harry Potter man. So it's one of the great joys. It's a bit naff being famous, it feels empty and I get embarrassed

by the social status you get when you meet people who are genuinely impressive and do extraordinary things. But if you can use it sometimes to, you know, lighten people's load or do something good, it just feels like it's swinging the pendulum. Seems like you do quite a lot, Joseph. Growing up, my mum always did something of service. She didn't work, she was from that generation of women who didn't do jobs. I'm sure she would have run a country if she had,

but she did Samaritans, for instance, growing up in Liverpool where you weren't meant to meet people, but they were always at our house for dinner. And then she did, during the 70s, she smuggled Jews out of Russia. We had a bunch of political dissidents staying at our house. KGB were monitoring our house, our phones were bugged.

She and a bunch of other North London Jewish women pretended to go on holiday to Russia and they smuggled in medicine and stuff, Jewish stuff, minorities and stuff like that. And they smuggled people out. They demonstrated in parliament. They were always doing stuff. This was your mum? When she was older, she never stopped doing stuff for other people. Now, she was a bit broken, my mum.

She'd been broken a lot by a terrible childhood. She was a very damaged lady, but she had a huge heart. She always sided with underdogs everywhere. And she worked for them all her life. And being an actor is a, you know, I enjoy it. I enjoy lots about it, but I am often ashamed of the way you get treated and the fact you get free shit. So any stuff I can do that offsets that it's not become a good person I'm

essentially instinctively rather selfish and I like flattery and all the other stuff that comes with it but my there is a better self in me that knows the more I can do for other people the less I less shitty I feel about you really admire your mom you've talked you've mentioned her she was a nightmare my mom she was a very very typical woman Linda actually her name was Sheila she went to nightmare, my mum. She was a very, very typical woman. What was her name? Linda. Actually her name was Sheila. She went to school and there were five Sheilas, so they called her Linda. Because of that she didn't give us any fucking middle names. I've always wanted a middle name, I've got nothing.

What a shame. I know. Did she have Linda as her middle name? That's what they're, the two of them. I'll call you Linda because there are too many Sheilas and she was Linda for all of her life and she resented it. That's my gaga. So she stole middle names off of someone. There's no more Lindas in. I don't know if it's a current name.

No, but they do go in fashion. So, you know, Lily and Ruby, which are essentially upstairs downstairs names, they're maids names, as my grandmother's name Lily. And then Lily named her little sister Ruby when she was in and she wasn't brooking any change. We said, oh, let's write that down and we'll become this. She goes, no, Ruby!

We said, well, Ruby's, well, that's definitely on the list. And she then renamed all of her toys Ruby. Ruby Teddy, Ruby Elephant, Ruby. So Ruby was always gonna be Ruby. It's a good name though. It's a very good name. When Emma was pregnant with us, we were at the premiere of Black Hawk Down,

and a guy comes up to me with two assistants out of the side, he's got four assistants. And he goes, hey Jason, how you doing? Remember me? And tells me his name, which I don't want to say now. And I go, yeah, I do. He was an agent. I met years before. He was the director of a film I'd been in, but he was an agent. I said, how are you doing? Remember me? And tells me his name, which I'm not going to say now. And I go, yeah, I do. He was an agent. I met years before.

He was the director of a film I'd been in. He was an agent. I said, oh, sure. I remember. I went back. We came to a house for a barbecue. I'd never seen a house with a tennis court and a swimming pool before. And he goes, yeah, good you remember.

Is that your lovely lady wife I saw you with over there? I said, yeah. He goes, may I ask, is she with child? And I said, she is. She's pregnant. He said, that's fantastic. And I either sat in the system and went, it is. That's wonderful. That's great. He said, do you know what you're having? And I said, yeah, we she's pregnant. He said, that's fantastic. And I decided, and the assistant went, it is, that's wonderful, that's great.

He said, do you know what you're having? And I said, yeah, we're having a little girl. He goes, they're the best. And the assistant goes, they are, they're the best, girls are the best. He said, do you have a name? And I said, yeah, well, after Lily, after my grandma, he goes, Lily's a beautiful name.

And I said, well, thanks so much. I said, obviously, if my grandma were to be called Bertha, we would have thought differently. And he just pulled, stopped, thanks very much. I said, obviously, if my grandma would be called Bertha, we would have thought differently. And he just paused, stopped, and he went, you remember my wife's name is Bertha. And I'm pretty nimble on my, I can think of some way out of most things, and I just had nothing, and I went, oh, yeah.

Nice to see you. Right, whilst you talk about the last supper, I'm gonna get the ice cream out. So I'm gonna give you a last supper. Okay. But I'm going to allow you to transgress. Well then I'll have spare ribs. Yeah.

For dessert, I'll have spare ribs, a slow cooked lamb. Yeah. Say the exact ribs, cause you have a specific. Well, okay, there was a restaurant, I mean, right, there was a hole in the wall called the Man Hong in Edgewater, I grew up, made these ribs, we never knew what they were made of, we never knew what the recipe was. They were so delicious that I have crossed oceans of time, I've driven for hours to go there.

I would buy three portions, one to eat in a car outside, one to eat in the car on the way home and one to then share with Emma when I got there for years and years. My brother-in-law, who is a brilliant chef, chef, he was a head chef in restaurants for a long time, now he has a denim company. He at one point went, you know what, they're the best things I've ever tasted in my life. I'm gonna spend a week and I'm just,

I'm gonna work my way through. And which is this restaurant? It's closed down now, it's a tire shop. And then when I went, I went there and I had a burst tire and they went, I said, I used to come to this restaurant my whole life. My whole family came here. He said, you ate it in this place?

Jesus, when we knocked it down, the kitchen was like four inches thick in cockroaches and dead rats and all. I went, well, whatever they did in there, it's that I've been in search of ribs that tasted like this in some of the most expensive Chinese restaurants in the world, never had anything like it. So it's spare ribs to start?

No, no, this is my dessert, because although I'll have a vegan meal. Okay. I still do care. To be honest, I make jokes about it. I do hate being vegan and it is a nightmare and I do miss me every day But I do think it is the right thing to do for the planet and probably for me, too So yeah, that's a vegan you I just because we are gonna save the world today. It is vegan ice cream I recognize it from a distance and you know what being ice cream always is and most vegan sweet things are

Fucking coconut and you see it. It's a tiny writing like they've written your name on a grain of rice. Who wants coconut? And you go, I don't want coconut. Do you not like coconut? Well, no, not when you pretend it's vanilla or strawberry or chocolate. Trust me, my vanillas are definitely going to pop out. Don't do it, then. Yeah, I can't afford to. My favorite dessert is actually sticky toffee pudding in the ice cream, you know.

Oh, really? There's no greater dessert in the world. Do you think? Yeah. With all the sauce that comes with it, the kind of caramel toffee sauce and the world. Do you think? Yeah. With all the sauce that comes with it, the caramel toffee sauce and the scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. And your favourite, vanilla is your favourite ice cream? Yeah, yeah.

With that. Could you give us a nostalgic taste that can transport you back somewhere? Take me back to my childhood. When I was a kid, I just couldn't go, I still can't get enough of sweet things. I can have a whole packet of biscuits, I can have a whole cake without even thinking about it. But when I was a kid, my dad used to, my dad still plays golf. He's 92 though, he rarely hits the ball.

But he used to take us on Friday after school. All the men would go to this golf club and they'll throw all the kids in a field with cut down nine irons, buckets of balls, and Coke floats. We'd have a big pint glass with Coca-Cola in it and vanilla ice cream which frothed up and I just lived for Coke floats. I remember being in the field with Keira, I remember the smell of the grass, I remember

the sense of naughtiness. I knew my dad was having a beer with some other people. It was so evocative of other things. Obviously the taste of my childhood is Friday night dinner. We had different things every night but Friday night was always chicken soup, chopped liver, roast chicken and potatoes that would give you a heart attack. I miss that. I think that you should write the story about your mum.

You're not the first person to say that. I mean it's just a no-brainer, surely. She was so complicated. And those group of women. Oh those, yeah the 35s, they were amazing. These women, they generally smuggled people out of the country and they foxed the KGB. You know what else they do? They developed amongst themselves actual spycraft. How to keep things secret from the KGB, how to pass secret messages, how to smuggle things into the country, how to win, how to protest.

They were extraordinary activists. Maybe, maybe. I don't know, I can write my mom. I had such a troubled relationship with her. She had dementia at the end. I think I was waiting for an apology from her. But in the end, she turned back into the sweetest child. And I was holding her hand when she took her last breath.

And it was, I didn't get the chance for, I guess, the big conversation I thought we needed, but maybe I got what I wanted, but I got what I needed in the end. All the layers of protection and spikiness and anger dropped away from her. Oh, Jason, it's been such a pleasure to have you on. I feel like we could do a part two.

No, I think we could do a week. I feel like we could be friends. I feel like we might be friends. With Jason Isaacs, yeah. Thank you so much for coming on, for being so transparent, for being so opinionated, for being so fabulous. You are welcome any time you have to promote a film and we will feed you well.

I'll be back every week. And I've resisted objectifying. You did really well. But the thing is... I do think you're very handsome. No, you fancied a man with a fake chest, you know. And a fake willy. You know, and a fake willy. You know, and a fake Willie. You know. Well, I feel like we were just getting started with Jason Isaac.

I think we need a week. Thank you so much to Jason Isaacs for coming on, for giving an anecdote about literally everything. Everything. I loved it. I loved it too. And although self-proclaimed fussy eater ate everything. Yeah, he was good at that. Thank God.

Yeah, it was good. Lovely to meet his daughter as well. Oh yes, Ruby. Food was absolutely delicious. It was a bit spicy though. A bit spicy for me. Could only have half. But it worked. It was a really nice lunch to make actually.

Delicious. Really lovely. Flatbreads I need to work on. Quite chewy but full of flavour. No I thought they were gorgeous. Thank you to Jason Isaacs. His film The Saltpath is out this Friday 30th May. Go see it. It's really beautiful. We'll see you next week!