Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S10 Ep 6: Dawn French

Episode Date: October 21, 2020

As you know - mum's chicken soup comes out for the big guns and this week's guest is no exception. Soup was demanded and joyfully served for the brilliant Dawn French to commence an evening of intriguing and confessional conversation. A fellow foodie, Dawn tells us all about what makes the Cornish pasty, her favourite eating spots in Cornwall, making ‘breakfast cake’ in lockdown and her experience of boarding school dinners and butter. We talk about disastrous auditions, a shared love of Drag race and falling in love. What a delight it was! Check out Dawn's brand new book ‘Because Of You’ that is out now x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm here with my mother. Hello Jessie. Hello, we've had the news about the old tier two. But I'm bubbled with you darling, so that's okay. Is that a thing? Yes, you're allowed to be with people that you're in a bubble with. You can be in my bubble, you can bubble with me. Thank you darling, I'm just buying a fire pit.

So yeah, we are not prepared to go back to Zoom. However, there are a few in this series that are Zoom, but that doesn't matter. We aren't prepared to do that, so we're going to find a way to... I've got my gazebo out. ...get people brave in the cold. We'll get blankets, just like Soho Farmhouse.

A fire pit. Fire pit. Should I get a jacuzzi as well? I'm like, Mum, that sounds like a sex party. Okay. Basically, we will carry on because, well, we quite enjoy this and I quite like the idea of mum having a marquee in the back of her garden for the foreseeable future.

And a fire pit. What about people going to the laboratory? They can piss in a bush, mum. Okay. We have the, I mean, we've wanted this woman for a very, very long time. I think since the beginning. She was number one on our list. She's always been on the big list.

Yeah. We were supposed to do this tomorrow morning. Yeah. Had a nice little brunch sorted. Green shakshuka mum was going to try. Yep. I was going to try and bake a challah. I wasn't really, but...

Babka. A babka. Oh, shit, I need to make that babka. Tomorrow. And then they pulled the old tier two fast one on us. So Dawn French obviously wants to do this podcast in the flesh. So we've rearranged it to Friday. We will be out by 12 o'clock tonight.

Well, it depends. We're going to celebrate her new book. And yeah. And so Dawn French is coming over for uh friday night dinner which she requested and i pulled the stops out darling and i helped too you did darling and it made a big difference and there was nothing more romantic than skimming the scum from your chicken soup today really mum it was quite a beautiful moment for you and i calm collected scummy yeah and yeah we've had it already not scummy oh okay whatever anyway so we're doing chicken soup and matzo balls aren't we yep and then that will win a row yeah then we've got the trusty i feel like we've done

this a bit too many times but it doesn't matter because it's delicious and it's friday night dinner and we did have to change tack at very last minute minute. So we're having chicken and apricots. It's in the Table and Martiner's cookbook. Don't worry about it. We've only done it a few times. I think we've done it for Haim. We've done it twice. We did it for Haim and Loyal Khana.

Also, dessert. Mum, this is something that you were going to do for Grace Dent, but we vetoed it with a trifle. What I've done is I did an apple with almond pudding. So it's a kind of gluten-free thing where you just put almond sugar butter. Did I just hear the words gluten-free come out of your mouth?

But I have now put it in a pastry. So I thought this would work very well with figs. So I've done a fig and almond tart. It's kind of frangipane. Well, it looks lovely. It does look nice. I'm going to have it with...

We're going to have it with fresh cream creme fraiche I don't think I've got creme fraiche you need that go and get it then darling no I'm not going to cool

okay fine great I can't wait we've got Dawn French coming up on Table Manners Dawn French is in our house on Friday night. Yeah. She's requested the chicken soup. We're going to deliver it.

And you're sitting here having champagne with us. And we're toasting your book. Yeah, thank you. Which I finished today. Just let me know this. How many minutes is it to the chicken soup? I just need to know. Do you need it more than the champagne?

No, no, no. I'm just checking. Just give it to me as a motivation. It's ready. I'm just going to start. I'm going to put the heat underneath it, no, no, I'm just checking. Just give it to me as a motivation. About, but it's ready. I'm just going to start, I'm going to put the heat underneath it. Okay, so it's within... Are you hungry?

I am hungry, but let's talk first. Let's talk first. No, no, we'll talk for 20 minutes. All right, all right. That'll be, oh, that's fantastic. Oh my God, this is like, this is like when I deny my daughter the biscuit after dinner.

Like, and I have to go, you have to wait until you can, Dawn, you have to drink that glass of champagne before you get your ticket. Champagne, cheers. Thank you for that. So I finished it today. Did you?

And I had a lump in my throat. Oh, good. The ending. The ending. I didn't see that coming. We can't give the ending away, sadly. But it is quite a big twist at the end. Yeah.

And it was really beautiful and really touching and moving. And I was gripped. It was a real page turner. Good. So it's really beautiful and really touching and moving and I was gripped. It was a real page turner. Good. So it's the first book that I've read of yours. I'm so sorry. No, no, it's not compulsory.

Obviously I respect you slightly less now. But that's okay. I haven't even started it. Your choice if you want a less rich life. Okay, so which one would you say I should read next? Well, isn't it weird because i would

always say start with the autobiography okay fine which is called dear fatty which would have been helpful for tonight well yes no yes no it's quite it's actually sort of out of date now because i've finished it lots of years ago so i've had you know whole new chapters since then but um that's always a good starter and i wrote that really because somebody else wrote a book about me and i don't know if you've ever experienced this but it is very any i can write a book about you tomorrow if i like i anyone can write a book about you and it's up to me how precise it is and how accurate it is and it's a very odd thing to be it feels like you're being bullied oh and so the woman who wrote the book is a very bad journalist.

Do you know her? I don't know of her. Was she obsessed with you then? No, I think she'd done this before. She'd written books about other people. Her income was to write books about people without their permission. The unauthorised, you know. Oh, yeah.

But what she did that was not okay was that she started ferreting about in my daughter's biological mother. She started that kind of stuff. So I had to, you know, take some serious action to stop that happening. And really because she wrote this very inaccurate, very badly written, I have to say, but that's just my opinion. But inaccurate book, full of inaccuracies that upset my family such a lot so I thought well as an answer to this sort of in revenge I better write I better write the story myself I can write it better than this so I came to writing that autobiography not really the best way I was pushed but while sitting down and writing it which I thought was going to be like homework,

I just thought, ooh, I really like this. I like writing. This is good. Have you ever written a book before that? I hadn't written a book before that. I'd written a lot of work that I've done, you know, a lot of sketches and stuff like that. But I hadn't written anything like this.

So did you know you had a book inside you? Well, do you know? Or two or three or four. How uncomfortable it is to have a book inside you. But I, no do you know I was so busy doing everything else I didn't really think about that but what I did discover when I started to write was that it was quiet and just me on my own with my own head you know did you like being on your own with your own head I mean you know what I think I've discovered about myself through writing is that I'm a kind of functioning introvert that's who I really am now I know people are very surprised by that can you

yeah good because I think a lot of extrovert people are not really I'm a functioning introvert as well darling if you if you were given a choice of being quiet and maybe only your own family around you or lots of people in a huge social life, what would it be? And that is where you are not a functioning introvert. Mum, you were hosting my birthday last night like this with a glass of champagne and you were telling me I prefer to be with you and my close people I found it very difficult in lockdown being on my own oh did you I like

living on my own but not having social contact so you're not a function basically what we're all right then but you've got your husband there and your daughter. Yeah. But they understand me, that I'm quite hermity, actually. But most of my life has been about, you know... Being out there. Well, and being in collaborations, being in a double act, being in a group, being, you know, a bit jazz hands. And don't get me wrong, I love that part.

But really, I'm very at home on my own with the door shut writing that is my biggest love that's my biggest love and I came to it quite late by writing that has it been harder to go back on the stage since being becoming this writer and understanding yourself better not really because exactly that and I think that the more I spent time on my own, although I'm not entirely on my own because I'm with all these characters in my head and I'm with my actual family. But the more I did that, the more I thought I need little pools of showing off. You know, I need to go out and connect with other people as well. I need to do this other part of my life. And for me um both things happen you know I can do a bit of theatre I can uh be in a tv series or I can do something on audible with Jennifer or you know

whatever luckily I've got those choices I mean obviously when the lockdown came where that was a bit scary um I was in Cornwall and in fact I was writing the second draft of that book which I was due to be doing then anyway so pretty much all the way through lockdown I was writing the second draft of that book, which I was due to be doing then anyway. So pretty much all the way through lockdown, I was having the normal work life that I would have. You know, there wasn't anything very different in that way, except for that my daughter, my stepdaughter came to live with us. Son was out the road with his girlfriend, but not very far away. So I carried on doing my normal job during that time. So in a way that was helpful because it didn't feel too weird but what did happen like for a lot of performers like me

is that um and maybe this happened for you as well Jess I don't know is that there was a day when I thought 18 months of work has just disappeared because theatres are shut and you know I was due to do a bit of theater work and i was due to tour had it been announced yet yeah hadn't been announced yet but it was all you know in the diary and i knew what was going on new mortgage was paid knew that you know all the things you do when you plan your life and if you're self-employed and you work in the arts you you put your life together like a jigsaw don't you and you're lucky that it comes together like that but suddenly I thought oh my

lord this is this is odd this is really frightening insecure strange time but writing was a real anchor for me to something that I love to do that was supposed to be doing anyway it was a calming and good and gradually things have clawed back obviously we're still waiting for theatres to open up but yeah you you know, like everyone with these discrepancies, I can't understand why you're allowed on a plane and not allowed in a theatre. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Or you're not allowed at a football match, but you're allowed in the theatre or cinema. And a football match is open air, which I don't understand. Yeah, that's very odd. Do you go to football? I love football. Do you?

Who are your team? Manchester United. Okay. Like, Dawn, you know that, that you're from Manchester. Sorry She would if she could. Do you? Who are your team? Manchester United. Okay. Like the ones who know that, that you're from Manchester but you don't have a Mancunian. Sorry, I'm from Manchester. Are you?

Yes. Okay. Manchester's having a horrible time at the moment with all of this. Horrible. And I feel very sorry for... I feel sorry for... You've got a family there?

Yeah. Well, only my cousin. That's where I was brought up. But I feel very sorry for people in Manchester because I think it's not terribly clear and I think Andy Burnham's fighting for them so they get proper, you know, compensation. Yeah, well, he's a ferocious advocate, isn't he?

Yes. Jennifer is a giant Manchester United fan. Is she? I didn't know that. She is. Yes, she is. And she gets a lot of stick for it because I think...

Why? Because Manchester, as I understand it, I'm not a football expert. No, I know what you're going to say. But I think because they're big and famous and whatever, lots of people follow them. And she doesn't come from Manchester? Do you know, Jennifer is, like me, from a forces family. So she's travelled around a lot, but they ended up near Manchester.

You see? They ended up in Cheshire. Oh, that's it. So she does have connections there. Yeah. But she's got she's got a good line and you should get her on to talk about it she's got a good line in deflecting any of the nonsense that comes with that yeah so growing up yeah forces family you were traveling

about quite a lot all the time sometimes every three months sometimes every six months sometimes every 18 months usually maybe two years would be the longest you stay anywhere so I went to something like I can't remember exactly now but it's something like seven or eight different junior schools oh my god and then when it comes to secondary school you end up in boarding school you end up in boarding school but for my family the that was amazing an amazing opportunity because a they couldn't afford it to send us to boarding school. This is posh. They would not have been able to afford that.

And the forces pay for you to go because you have some kind of constant in your life if you go there. Slow me here. Oh, what, with the drinking? Sorry, we're not going fast enough. I'll really try to go. I'm a bit alcoholic.

So, yeah, I went to boarding school and was there with a lot of posh girls. Where were you? In Plymouth. But a very sweet boarding school, I have to say. I've still got very good friends from there. So you're very committed to that part of the... West Country.

It's very odd for me because the Tamar River divides Cornwall and Devon. And it's a bit like the Lancashire-Yorkshire divide, you know. There's quite a lot of rivalry. And I have a lot of family from Devon, from Plymouth, but I also have a lot of family from Cornwall. And some of the people in Devon would never dream of travelling across that bridge to Cornwall.

They just wouldn't do it. It's mad. And why would you do it? Why would you go there? It's a good bridge to travelwall. They just wouldn't do it. It's mad. And why would you do it? Why would you go there? It's a good bridge to travel. On the train. On the train. It's great.

Lovely. Yeah. The Brunel Bridge. It's wonderful. But yeah, I've got family that just will not come into Cornwall. And I've got family that will not go into Devon. So I'm sort of, I'm always a bit scared to say that I'm Cornish or from Devon. Because when my brother got married, right, he married a girl from Yorkshire.

But they got married in Cornwall and her dad stood up at the wedding and said how delighted he was that she'd married a Cornishman and the Devon lot started to hiss. I mean, not in a funny way, in a kind of bring it on way. Oh my God. So he very quickly corrected himself and said, sorry, sorry, I mean that you've married a Cornishman

that we married a Devon boy and then the Cornish lot started and he's like, you just't go there that's so i just am from the west country you're gonna write a book about this the west west you know it's it's just part of my family stuff you know half of them are from there and half of them believe me if we need to unite against people from further up like we do like We like London, yeah, we do. We come together. We come together for the football. We come together for whatever we need to,

if there's any enemies. But when we're left to our own devices, it's like people who live in villages next door to each other, isn't it? We love a bit of, you know, we love to argue with each other. So why did you choose Cornwall over Devon? My heart is there really and my mum sadly my mum died about eight eight years ago eight nine years ago now but my mum lived in Cornwall

and so as I was getting older and as I knew I wanted to write more and I wanted to separate myself away from because I was only living near London because I didn't know London that well I spent all all my adult life in London because that's where college was that's where work was but I always my heart was always at home by the sea so um I knew I'd go back down there eventually so I did 16 years ago I went back down and did your kids go my daughter came with me um although she was at various schools at that time but she came with me and then was at various schools at that time But she came with me And then I got divorced

And then I chose to stay there And then I met a Cornish man So, you know You met a Cornish man Who has a Foy life jacket on No, he's not He doesn't No, it's a Foy life boat jacket

He's a He hasn't got a life jacket on He's on the lifeboat, yeah In Foy That's so He volunteers on the lifeboat Emergency. He's a lifeboat. He's on the lifeboat, yeah, in Foy. That's so... He volunteers on the lifeboat. Are you... Amazing.

Yeah. You've got yourself a man in uniform. I have, although the uniform is mainly sort of rubber boots, to be honest. So when you were hermited away, writing your book... Yeah. This book? Yes. This very book, in lockdown.

Yes. Who did the cooking did mark bring you little soup songs and as you were sitting there he did uh yeah although he didn't really stop working because he works uh he runs a rehab and so um lots of people were in all kinds of trouble weren't they during the lockdown and so his rehab closed and he opened it as a homeless shelter for a while and then he had to kind of help people find homes to be and so his rehab closed and he opened it as a homeless shelter for a while and then he had to kind of help people find homes to be in so he was going into work pretty much every day but we did all there was four of us there was mark and me and my daughter billy and his daughter

lils and we pretty much took it in turns to do the cooking so we had those interesting moments where you know my daughter was cooking um not at all frightening um who doesn't really cook um how old is she uh 29 i mean she she does cook she can survive yeah uh but she wouldn't be cooking for other people not certainly not people who wanted to live um and then lils who's actually very good at cooking and then Mark who's really good and then me is okay so you know we took it in turns everywhere there was a lot of tolerance to begin with kindness yeah kindness all of that uh and we watched a lot of RuPaul oh oh god love it god love it so that was Billy and Lilz and I went in the back room and watched it we had face packs and RuPaul that was mainly what Lilz and I went in the back room and watched it. We had face packs and RuPaul.

That was mainly what we did during lockdown. Okay, who's your favourite queen? Oh, my God. I love all of them. Who's my favourite? Shall we tell you who we had on? Yeah, actually, I think they're coming on next week after you. We've got Shea Cooley.

Oh, have you? Yeah, he's a delight. Did you like the British one? I didn't watch it. Oh, come on. I had a bag of chips. I know I had a bag of chips. Well, when it first started, I thought,

surely it's not going to be as good as them. But it was great. Here's a spoiler I'm going to give you. A little scoop. I'm going to be one of the guest judges. That's huge. They did originally ask me if I would be a full-term judge, but I couldn't.

I just couldn't because I don't live in London. But I am going to be a guest judge in a couple of weeks. They had to stop everything, didn't they, on the British one, and now they're starting it all up again. But I think there's going to be sort of perspex between each judge kind of thing. So I won't be able to touch Rue, that's a shame,

because I really do want to touch Rue. I love Michelle Visage. Do you think Rue would let you touch? Maybe. Well, you might have to go into quarantine like the British Bake Off before you go there. You bubble this Michelle. That's amazing. Yeah, you could bubble with them.

That would be fun. Do you know, I haven't got time. I think I'm working up to literally the day before. What are you doing when you say you're working? Oh, lots of things. I'm doing lots of things. Take it from the top. I'll tell you what, I've just finished.

Yeah. I've just finished five weeks of filming in Wales. And this was the first bit of filming I did after the lockdown, where I've played Beatrix Potter in a film that is for Christmas for Sky. And my friend Abby wrote this film. She originally wrote it as a little 15-minuter, but Sky liked it, so they've extended it. And it's about the day that the real Roald Dahl

met the real Beatrix Potter. And this actually happened. He was six and she was 60. Oh, wow. And he went to her house and met her. I mean, obviously she didn't know she was meeting the future Roald Dahl. The future fabulous writer. But look how much her writing influenced

his i don't know when the last time was you ever read a beatrix potter but they're dark they're dark they really are i mean everyone's in cutesy things but they are chopping each other's tails up and mrs tiggy winkle yeah samuel whiskers has got a lot yeah rats are eating kittens yeah you know it's it's it's it is dark stuff. Yeah. Oh, that was it. So that was great, but it was five weeks of filming in Wales

and the reason I thought about it near Cardiff, but the reason I thought about it is because we all had to bubble for that. So we were in what they call soft isolation. So I was in a little cottage

and I literally would go to work, back to the cottage, work, back to the cottage. I didn't go home for five weeks. Didn't, we all were tested every 48 hours everybody in the crew in well they were it's good you know they have to insure it so you know it's lots of money isn't it so they they have to make sure everybody is I mean only the other actors were people without masks on and I knew that everybody had been tested they knew that I had and the crew

all in full PPE I know it was very odd I saw people for five weeks from there whilst we get the old chicken I feel like it's been 20 minutes

we've plied Dawn with two glasses of champagne what are you looking up there at? the oven her timer yeah lovely I'm really happy that you requested chicken soup because my mum's is Dawn with two glasses of champagne. What are you looking up there at? The timer. The oven. Her timer. Yeah. Lovely.

I'm really happy that you requested chicken soup because my mum's is amazing. That's where the love is, as far as I know. Any Jewish families I know, that is the... It's like pasties in my family. If your mum makes it or your auntie makes it, it's like bloody delicious because it's just got love, love, love right in it. Your family make pasties oh yeah

do you make pasties i don't i'm no good at it well you ought to start trying to but whilst i've got a mother-in-law no mum anymore but a mother-in-law who makes really good ones really good ones i'll have two i'll have two um so so what's in the filling of your mother-in-law's? Well, let me tell you this. Okay. Let's get this right. Okay, yeah, let's do it. Oh, look what's coming towards me.

Oh, my God, that is it. There we are. It's all for the soul. That is good. God, that looks good. The traditional Cornish pasty only has certain ingredients, and if you use the other ones, it's not a traditional Cornish pasty. Okay, fine. So that is pasty. Okay, fine. So that is skirt beef.

Oh, okay. It is a swede or turnip, some people might call it, potato, onion, pepper. Yeah. That's pretty much it. Okay. There are people who claim they're making a Cornish pasty and might do something like, for instance, put a carrot in it. Oh, and that's just not on. That's not a traditional Cornish pasty.

That's not it. So would you be offended if you saw a carrot in your pasty? I'm not offended, but I don't call it a Cornish pasty. What would you call it? Just call it a pasty and say it's exotic or experimental or something like that. Good for you, trying the carrot. Good for you. Yeah.

It's like if, well what what would be in there that would be completely wrong well you see if there were some noodles in there that would be all right that would be okay that would be all right we're not a noodle family a loction family yeah we're not a loction family my when i first met len he had been looked after in when he'd come to london from the midlands he'd fallen in with a big jewish gang of kids that he'd met i think it's a nightclub originally and they took him in and all their mums took him in and they are called the loxian gang and they all looked after him and they're still his very close friends and they're my very close friends oh that's so and that's it's parts of the

loxian gang that i have spent passover with in. Yeah, and that's where I've had chicken soup before. Am I allowed to slurp away at this? Please, slurp away, but I am going to carry on asking you questions. Have you got any rules? Are there any rules? There are no rules. It is eat and drink and tell us everything. So, growing up, I want to go back to RAF, moving around all the time.

Little time and mile away. Oh, yeah? Oh, God, no. You just savour that for a second. Just take that matzo ball in. It's good, isn't it? This is just gorgeous. It sorts you out after a week

of, I bet you've had a mental week of promo. Oh my God, this is so good. Anyway, yes? So, growing up, who was cooking and what were you eating and what was kind of a regular thing? Growing up, my mum did most of the cooking in our family, but my mum really wasn't a great cook, I have to say. Okay, fine.

Didn't believe in salt, pepper, any spices, anything like that. Yeah. Didn't know, I mean, she would call, she would regard spaghetti hoops as foreign because it's pasta. You know, it's like exotic. would regard spaghetti hoops as foreign because it's pasta you know it's like exotic so my mum overcooked everything every vegetable we had was overcooked everything but I loved her food and my mum especially would make a stew that expanded the food for lots of people because my mum brought up her brothers and stuff like that and that stew was was chicken, of course, bits of chicken. And that would be the expensive part. Then everything else was grated.

Carrot, onion, potatoes, grated. Just make it big. Lots of stock. Make it huge. So that food is... Expandable stew. Yes. I love that.

Got very used to having a very full tummy all the time. Which is why I'm a little fat girl. Yes, please. Lovely. Thank you. Did you find it hard moving around or did you quite... I did. I used to

get quite stressed. I would sleepwalk. Do you need salt? No salt. It's perfect as it is. Thank you. Oh my god, Dawn, you're the only other person that does this. I know. Well, like, I've never seen a... You're not Jewish, are you? I'm not jewish no this is this is amazing you have spent time with the loch and i definitely

have amazing i definitely have dawn is um is crumbling her master yeah and i because i like it to be a little bit yes yeah lovely and with the occasional bite of a crunchy bit oh thank you lennyny, for this. You've had many a chicken soup in your time. You cannot know how lovely that is. Wonderful. Is it nice? So you used to sleep here.

And I tell you, cherish your mum's food. Cherish your mum. While you have your mum with you, cherish her and cherish her food. I'm not that old. I know, but we all go up the old step ladder. And I miss my mum's food such a lot, even though it was very bland. She wasn't particularly experimental,

but it was her food and it's cooked with all the love, you know, like this is. Fantastic. I mean, how was school dinners at boarding school? Well, I never minded school dinners. I've never... She wouldn't let me have them, because I would have enjoyed it too.

I mean, I was... I like school dinners too. I made never, I quite like them. She wouldn't let me have them because I would have enjoyed it too. I mean, I was, I like school dinners too. I made best friends with the dinner ladies. Oh God, yeah. Love school dinners. But it was weird

because we were at boarding school, I was at boarding school, you know, so you were there in the evenings and stuff. Had a few little disasters where at tea time at the end of school day

there would always be, you could have bread, butter, jam, you know, like a sandwichy sort of cakey thing at the end of the day and then you come back and have an evening meal and I remember the very first time I went into the refectory you know age 12 or whatever I was I was so nervous of it all and on the table were white plates with pats of butter that I thought were cheese and it was cold you know it was from the

fridge it was cut into squares so I believed this was cheese so I just picked it up and ate it and then of course other kids were looking at me like what is she doing but then I had to do we always eat it like this you know where you have to front it out you just because you've done such a stupid thing but now you have to keep going so yeah I yeah, I used to eat pats of butter. And, of course, once you started doing it, you're doing it for seven years then. No, you really committed to... I kept doing it. And convincing people.

I could not give in to the mistake. That's ridiculous, isn't it? But were you in boarding school in... In Plymouth. In Plymouth. So Cornish butter's quite nice, isn't it? Yeah, pretty good. But still, you shouldn't be

just eating it in great slabs to be honest. So we've had the Cornish pasties Bec. Yeah. You must be surrounded by fantastic food. What down there? Yes. Yeah I've had to learn about fish. Really? We didn't really have much fish in my family. I think we're a bit fish afraid you know because you have to know about fish a bit, don't you? And I don't think my mum did know. So I never really used to eat fish and I would avoid it. And I did have a horrible incident with some... We lived in Cyprus for a while because my dad was posted there.

And I had some shellfish and my face completely exploded and I had to go to local hospital when I was a little kid. So obviously it was off oh you're not allergic? I don't think I'm allergic but I do avoid it I do avoid it, I've had odd little bits when like if I went to someone's house

and they made lobster and nobody had asked I'll have a go and I've been alright, I think it was just off, so my memory of it is not great but since I've moved down right. I think it was just off. So my memory of it is not great. You know, not great. But since I've moved down there and since Mark, you know, he goes fishing a bit and we get fresh fish, I've learned to trust fish a bit more.

So where are some of your top spots to go and eat in Cornwall? Oh, God, there's so many. We've got a great place in our town called Appleton's with a new chef who's come down there. And he's opened up, and I think he used to work for Jamie, who had a place up on the north coast. I'll tell you a place that I shouldn't really tell you about, but try not to tell too many other people. And again, the clue is in the name.

There is a place called... Hidden Hut. Yes! Have you been to the Hidden Hut? I love that place. Which place? Oh my God, we did! Not been to the Hidden Hut? I love that place. Which place? Oh, my God, we did. Not so hidden now, baby.

Not so hidden now. It's bloody great. They have feast nights there. It's so good. Oh, my God, it's so good. Where is it? Is it near Truro? Well, yeah.

Is that near you? I'm not very good with your jokes. Yeah, it's on that coast. It's at Port Scafo, a little bit further on. It's near Port... Yeah, Port Scafo. It's in the dunes. You park up in a car park

and you have to walk a little bit through some fields. And then you come to it. And it's like a sort of cricket hut. You can go there and get coffee and cake and everything normally. And that's all delicious and homemade and lovely. But one night a week, he will have a feast night. So one night will be a big rotisserie,

I don't know, thing, giant will have a feast night. So one night will be a big rotisserie, I don't know, thing. It's really... Giant thing. It's beautiful. And then lobster another night, a vegetable night. His dal, though, is bloody good. Brilliant. It's a brilliant place.

And you all go together. You take your glasses, your wine, your knives and forks, and your plates, and he just plops it on. That's fabulous. It's wicked. If the weather's nice,ops it on that's it's wicked if the weather's nice because it's out in the open yeah if the weather's nice it's lovely isn't it and you've got little candles on the table and flowers and you're overlooking the sea how another place i can tell you about in cornwall i can't believe i'm telling you my favorite things because then other people are going to turn up there do you need more this is all good because I've crunched everything into it now it's delicious

is a place called Edie's Kitchen in a very unlikely little road on the way down to Carlion Bay it's just a little row of shops and then there's Edie's Kitchen and this is a young couple who have opened a kitchen, he cooks

she's front of house and honestly I think it might be the best food, possibly the best food I've ever tasted. Oh, really? Gosh, where is that? In Carlisle Bay in near St Austell. Oh, this is so delicious. It's quite yummy, isn't it?

Oh, really good. It's really... Apricots and chicken, lovely. And they're tinned apricots, so it's not even like... It's really easy. That is it. Can I just say, well done for spinach as well. Oh, it's a bit cold, sorry.

Spinach is... No, why are you saying sorry? It was a bit chilly. I'm telling you, spinach is the king of vegetables. I love it. It's the best, isn't it? But it is slightly frustrating that you are promised this bag. I know, but what I love is you know that the thing that it boils down to or steams down to.

Yeah, it comes down to nothing. It's so good for you. Yeah. And it's so delicious. How do you finish? Do you just wilt it? I wilt it a little bit with a little bit of chili. Oh, chili.

Yeah, Mr. doesn't like the oil so much. Oh, did you not like it? Quite fussing. How did you do me? Wow. It was rather good. No, that's not true. She was in rehab.

No, I was not. In my family, because my mum ran the rehab the rehab oh really that was my mum's work so my mum was a bit of a social worker like you she was um but my mum set up places that women young women and their kids could stay together while they were in rehab that was her kind of big thing you keep families yeah yeah there's a place in london like that phoenix and she advised to the government for a little while about this because it's very successful. But anyway, she then wanted to set up another place,

a facility, I think that's the right word. And she wanted Mark, who was a colleague of hers, to head it up. So when my mum retired, Mark took her job. So he's the chief exec of Hamos House, which is a charity that helps people with drug and alcohol problems and all the affected others. And I was writing a novel, my second novel.

And in that novel, I was writing a character that was a bit of a cokehead. And in my family, if you need to find out about serious drug addiction, you should speak to your mum, because that was her work. So I called mum, who had retired at that point, who said to me, you need to go and talk to Mark and I thought who's Mark oh yeah Mark her friend her colleague but this time I was single so I've been how old are you just tell me this is nine years ago I'm 63 now so nine ten years ago so 53 54 so I thought yeah okay I'll go do my research for this book so I called Mark up and I said

mum says you can help me talk to some people that have done lots of coke and he said okay and what I really admired is both my mum and Mark although my research was important what was more important was that the people speaking to me should feel safe and protected and happy to talk to me so I love that everybody was secure so we go up to his office and he has set up a young man and a young woman to speak to me to answer my questions honestly and help me with my research but in his office right it's hard on on a podcast to explain this but in his office he had a white wall there right and he had a window there and he had put the two chairs for the people talking to me in front of the window so I sat down and they were sort of silhouetted which was not the best way when you're doing

research you need to see people's faces and I thought oh he's done the furniture wrong but okay I can't really reorganize the furniture he's done this kind thing did he do it on purpose no it's just the way he doesn't think about it. He's not aesthetically connected. So anyway, they sat there and I was thinking, I can't quite see them. But anyway, all right, they answered all my questions. They were lovely, helpful.

After an hour, he came in and said, well, just a cup of tea or, you know, just sort of finishing the meeting up. And then he sat down in the same place. So he's now silhouetted, right? Did he look good silhouetted well yeah but i couldn't quite see him okay so some would say yes very good um so anyway he's he's a silhouette against the the window i'm here with the white wall behind me and i'm actually

thinking i've done my research i'm ready to go well i'll just so what you didn't fancy him straight away not Not at all. I'd met him a few times. He's now covering his face. I know. I'd met him a few times, but he's my mum's mate. He's my mum's colleague. He's, you know, in her life.

He's professional. No. Professional. He was free. He was at that point, but when I'd met him before, I wasn't, so I wasn't looking,

you know, all of that. So he's just a lovely guy, just a lovely guy helping me out. So he's sitting there with the with the window and the light behind him and um i'm literally filling time while i just being polite just going so how's your life mark um in my head i'm thinking not i'm not really that interested but anyway yeah talk if you like um and he starts to talk and he's talking about his

children his beloved children who went to live with him in you know when he got divorced and as he's talking about his children no word of a lie behind him out in the world there was a cloud but the sun came out from behind the cloud and sunbeams like from god came in through the window bounced off the wall behind me back onto him like felini had lit him oh my god so he's just talking about his kids and i literally go from just listening to oh my god oh my god look at him it was heaven sent it was like that now my mum of course when i later told her about this said that, that is your dad. My dad died when I was 19. So that is your dad saying, look at this man.

He put the spotlight on him. Honestly, it was really like it. It was like that on his face. Blue eyes. I shouldn't be too nice about him while he's sitting here. I'm never that nice to him. But anyway, it was just like, I thought, my God, look at him. Like breath going, I have to him like breath gone i have to know

this man i have to know this man so anyway i left there feeling a bit fluttery and i went home and i called my mum who he was a great friend of and my mum had known him for years and her colleagues and i said mum seriously i think i'm a bit sweet on mark so she went no no no no no no no why did she say that exactly what do you mean she she went oh too young far too young for you i said how old is he and she said well i can't i don't know how old he is i said well so what are you talking about anyway we had a bit of a moment and i love my mum like you love your mum and i thought well actually if my mum thinks this is wrong i would i would listen to that anyway put the phone i thought a bit odd a bit odd, a bit of a strange response. But she called me back and she said, I'm so sorry about that.

But he's my friend. And it's weird. And it's a bit weird. Yeah. She said, but of course you would like him. She said to me, because after your dad and your brother, he's my favourite man in the world. Oh. So then he and I got together and then sadly my mum died.

But when my mum was dying, she knew we were together. Was she young when she died? 77. Yeah, young. But as my mum was dying, she said, I can go because you've got him. So he's got a bit of a sort of guarantee, which is good. So you better live up to it, mate. Yeah.

So that was very touching. He just puts his fingers up at you, but it was a really beautiful ending to the story it is yeah but you know how sometimes you're not even looking at someone and they're right under your nose oh that is such a beautiful story are you very in love with your husband we've been together since we were teenagers

he's wicked he's amazing he's fantastic there must be nothing better none of our kids have quite kind of settled with anybody yet oh well you know they've got nice relationships but they haven't settled with anyone and i wonder what it's like really as a mom you your only happiness is if they are happy yeah isn't it so if you know that she's with somebody that and looks after her that's a huge thing it's lovely that you bring that she's with somebody that cherishes her and looks after her, that's a huge thing. It's lovely that you bring that up because Lee in the book.

Yes. That feels like a character. Definitely. Do you know this book, Jessie, to be absolutely honest, this book is a complete mother line. You know, I learned a lot from my mother in my, all the way through my childhood. I've been fantastically mothered. I felt safe and held. And although I warred with my mum, I had big battles with my mum,

it was in the sure knowledge that there would be peace and forgiveness and it would be over at certain points. We come back together and then you have another row and then you come back together. And we ended up as very good friends. That rowing bit was mainly in my 20s. and then you have another row, and then you come back together. And we ended up as very good friends. That rowing bit was mainly in my 20s, you know, it was that bit where you're sort of allergic to your mum for a while.

But my mum was on adoption panels quite a lot of her life, and she would talk to me about adoption and fostering and stuff. So when it came to when I adopted my daughter, you know, I listened a lot to what my mum had said and I I genuinely really believe that that your relationship with your mum not that my I mean my relationship with dad was very very important but different your relationship with your mum is the foundation of almost everything else and if you are as lucky as you clearly are and as i was to have a to be held and scaffolded so well by your mother it just sails you into your life so well and you will teach your daughter that same thing i'm really all about that line through the women in a big way again not dismissing the

men but at the moment i'm interested women are are the main event. So this book is about mothers, daughters and that connection even though there is a, you know, it's a tricky old story this book. I don't know if you know about it. No, I do know about it because Jessie's told me but she's not told me everything because I'm going to start it. Okay, yes. Well, suffice to say it's about a woman who steals another woman's baby. Yeah, she told me that.

So that is like the worst thing you could possibly do. However, I've tried to challenge myself to write a woman who does that terrible sinful thing for very good reason um and but does not return the baby ever because her need for a daughter is so huge and because she's such a great mother and as it, the woman that she steals the daughter from is in a very toxic marriage. So in a way, the daughter has been brought up in the right family. But who are we to say who the right family is? It's a moral dilemma.

And does the daughter, the daughter has a right to know. The daughter has a right. Of course, she doesn't find out until she's older when she has to find out. And you can imagine finding out something like that about your identity. And I'm interested in those themes of identity, like who makes us, who we belong to, whether you're made of the bones and the blood that you're made of, or whether you're made of your... What do you think? Do you know, I don't have the answers to it.

I've adopted my daughter and I adore her. But I am mindful always of the other mother who I don't know does she have any contact with her? no but someone I'm very grateful to and feel very protective of and so when that woman I was telling you about

who wrote a biography of me here's me saying I'm not going to finish this I just cannot stop when that woman wrote the biography about me and started to slightly circle around I just, the lioness in me really came out

and it was very difficult you know because I feel very strongly connected to the absent other mother who is part of our triangle, you know. And that's a very, it's an unspoken contract. And it's a contract between families that I will always honour. And nobody should come in between it.

It's my daughter's choice. It's nobody else's choice. So I have to, you know, take a lot of action to make sure that I don't go any further. But she's backed off me now, this woman. She doesn't come anywhere near me, thank God. But difficult. It's difficult, isn't it? Because you do anything for your kids, you know. That's your main concern.

Yeah, we become fixers, don't we? Yeah, we do. We do, yeah. And I think that line through, you know, mother-daughter to granddaughter, very, very strong. My own daughter's relationship with my mum was so fantastic and I know my daughter misses her such a lot it's a difficult old thing that but I would rather she'd had it yeah she had it and didn't have it was your mum funny my mum wasn't the funny one in our family my dad was and I think my brother is quite but my brother's quite shy so i think in our

family my dad and i were pretty much the performers if you like but um you're not the jazz hands performers but we would be the ones trying to make the other two laugh so my mum and my brother were more like the audience and my dad and i were the ones that having but did you go to university i went to drama college oh you, you went to drama college. To Central, but to train as a teacher. So that's where I met Jennifer. Were you both training as teachers? Yes.

We have absolutely no drama training whatsoever, which I think is patently obvious if you've ever seen us try to do any acting. Well, I want to know when you knew you were funny. I think it was a really natural thing. In my household, especially with my dad, rather than any corporal punishment or anything like that, we were never hit or anything,

but my dad would be a little bit funny, sarcastic. So my dad would say things like, oh, I think we all need to stop and listen to dawn because she's the one being a bit the loudest at the moment so everybody needs to be quiet and we're obviously we all need to listen to dawn and so you would be told carefully you know funny way you're being you're showing off a bit and you're being a bit loud but you get it it's all done with the funnies so it's all acceptable it's all fine so I guess in my household that was going on all the time but we also all shared a similar sense of humor like you do in families you have your own little codes don't you and your own running

jokes and stuff like we all love Morecambe and Wise a lot so you know and that was in the days when you only had a couple of channels so you would all sit down together and have that shared experience of it and it was just such delight and I love Monty Python and my family loved Monty Python so we do repeat the same sense of humor exactly so I don't know if I ever sat back and thought oh I'm funny I just knew our family was quite funny and that things were handled, difficult moments were handled with humour. Do you think you needed Jennifer to be able to bounce your funniness off of each other?

Do you know, the funny thing is that Jennifer's dad was also in the RAF like my dad. And actually, I found in my life, I gravitate towards people that are in the services because it's quite hard to explain it to people. you know the constant traveling and they're looking for new friends and the slight anxiousness that you get and the nomadic thing and you what you tend to do as a kid is you put on you're very worried about going to another new school and often at that school they've had kids from the forces so the local kids don't really mix with you because they know you're

going to be gone soon you know so you gravitate towards other forces kids and you put on a bit of a personality fireworks display just to make sure people are nice to you so when I met Jennifer it was a bit coming home because she was also an RAF kid and in fact so much so that Jennifer had lived on the same RAF camps as me but not at the same time and at one point Jennifer's best friend was a girl called Camilla Leng and then Jennifer's family moved on from that this is when she was about nine she moved on from that I my family moved into that camp and Camilla Leng became my best friend funny it's like that are you still friends with only way I don't know her anymore though we did contact contact her. When we first realised it, we contacted her.

And she was an army kid. But, you know, yeah, she'd been Jennifer's friend and she'd been mine. But she didn't know then, did she, that there was a kind of contact between all of us. But my love for Jennifer and my very visceral connection with her, I think, is born of this life that we shared, that experience that we knew together. And because she's just lovable. She's a great person. We're on to our last course, which takes me on to...

Courses, courses, of course it is. Only for the really special ones, Dawn, they get three courses usually. It's one and half. The chicken stew, we pulled out the stock, Dawn. Only you and Dermot. I thought that's all it was going to be. I filled up on that. This is amazing.

I'm going to explode. We can give you a portion. But last supper, starter, main, pud and drink of choice. Some people have a whole day of meals. But you don't have to. You can do whatever you like. Well, of course, you know, the point is if it's your last supper, you want to take something, it takes a long time to eat,

so you buy more time. But I'm going to forget about that. Starter, I think... I think the starter would have to be maybe a mackerel pate. Ooh, nice. But on a cracker, not on bread, because then I really would be, like I am now, utterly stuffed. Like a little cracker.

Little, yeah. Nice little... Even a bit of matzo, actually, that would do it. So that would be the starter. The main course would have to be, I know I'm repeating myself, but it'd have to be a pasty. Okay. I would honestly eat one every day.

Would you? Until I died, if I could. Do you have any condiment with it? Or is that like saccharine i mean that's just not what you might have you might have a bit of ketchup okay what you don't have is you don't have salad and you don't really have no pickle beans no some people might i wouldn't object to that no what makes the little hot thing in the pasty sometimes? Which little thing is that? Sometimes when you eat a pasty, there's a slight spicy pepper. Oh, hot thing.

I thought you meant a physically hot thing. Oh, no. It's white pepper. White pepper. And do they put a lot in it? Yeah. Okay. That's it.

Some people will put a little dollop of clotted cream in, just that will melt. That would be very nice. But that is a traditional cornish and is it a different crimping on the side the water pastry or would you like puff pastry like greg well this is where sorry this is no this is where we all we have big differences biggs would have a different pastry to me my mum i would have my mum's pastry and i actually have to say the last supper would have to be my mum's pasty second you know on the reserve bench is his mum fine on the third reserve bench is from the

butchering tower dress up the road fourth reserve i know a lot of pasty oh my god would be it would be uh ivy dudney's pasties that are made in plymouth so that would be the main course i'd be quite full by then yeah just't forget about that. Quite tempted. You're hungry. Okay. I've got eight stomachs. Five hours. All right.

Okay. Probably the pudding might be a tiramisu. Oh, just a favourite too. Great choice. Love it. Where do you get it from? Is there one that you... No, I can't.

I did, during lockdown, I did follow a recipe and it was online. It was just a lady, just a lady online lady online did you use lady's fingers yes dipped in coffee actually coffee coffee yeah any liqueur in there was brandy brandy in it and creme fraiche mixed in with uh with um cream no it should be mascarpone. Mascarpone. You're absolutely right, Lenny. Well done.

Definitely not creme fraiche. Not creme fraiche. Look, just erase that. Try and forgive me. Because you can't get past it. Because you have to put that with egg. You're right, mascarpone. And you have to mix it with egg.

Absolutely. I'm not sure there was any egg. Sometimes there was egg. And it was good. Good, and you can pipe it was good good and you can pipe it and were you piping and then little bits of it yeah well not very well what were you doing in lockdown i was piping actually i was piping i'll tell you what i did do in lockdown if you're at all interested look because i'm not great at cooking really and i'm certainly not

great at baking but i saw a woman make something called breakfast cake and breakfast cake is made with yogurt and flour and egg and stuff and blueberries and it's you make it in a ring which is impressive yeah and you put a bit of icing sugar on it and then i serve it with yogurt which is also got in it and a little bit of hot maple syrup oh nice i'll have to send it to you can we have that We'll give you our cookbook if you promise to send us a recipe. Yeah, all right. I'll send you that recipe. That is good. But that wouldn't be on my last supper.

No. The tiramisu would be on my last supper. And when you say... Drink. What's the drink? You're very... Honestly, I'm very lightweight. You're a bit disappointing.

I know. So sorry. So sorry. Sorry? But honestly, that's... I'm already goody. Giddy. Goody and goody.

Giddy and goody. She's a goody goody. But I... already goody giddy goody and goody and goody she's a goody but i my favorite drink is my best friend in the world's husband's cider which is called foy valley cider f-o-y cornish delicious but it's light and lovely really really golden gorgeous fantastic yeah that would be mine right i'm going to ask but you are so many different personas when you're up there so jesse would never do karaoke because i forced her once at club med to be whitney houston and she hated it traumatized her yes um but i love karaoke so which would be your karaoke song i I'm not sure I do love karaoke.

No, you don't have to love it. But okay. But if you're forced to. Why don't you like it though? Because I wonder whether it's artist to artist, performer to performer. Because I can't really sing that well. I really sing well in the car and in the shower. Oh yeah.

Really brilliantly. Okay. Brilliantly. The acoustics. It's amazing how I think um but really given because we've done quite a lot of parodies of songs and stuff yeah but once you're in a studio with headphones and a microphone and chords i just can't manage it it's called blood light isn't it my producer dave akumu would say when the red light comes on it he calls it blood light yeah

it is and he's like just And all your confidence drops out. Yeah. Do you know, once I went for an audition to be in the film of Mamma Mia, right? This is common knowledge to my friend, Jennifer. And I was told by the producers, because I said, look, I can't really sing. They said, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter, because Bjorn and Bjork, or whatever they're called, they will fix it all. They'll all be fixed up. Oh, lovely, thank you. Honestly, it doesn't matter how badly your singing is. You'll be all right. So I went for an audition and I went to... It was a big theatre in Cambridge Circus.

And I went up the stairs and sitting in the room were a lot of guys, gay guys, I'm guessing, gorgeous, happy people at their computers all going hey Dawn lovely to see you, lovely to see you as I'm going for an audition, oh good luck it'll be fine and I went into the room next door and the musical director came in, he said let's

just have a little canter through mamma mia honestly do you want to hear the sound that came out of me? Mamma mia, here we go you want to hear the sound that came out of me? What? Mamma Mia! Here we go again! Aye, aye! How did I forgive you?

One note. Couldn't get off one note. Oh. Stayed on one note. Anyway, ooh, okay, we're not managing that. So let's move on to... Name any other... Money, money, money. Money, money, money.

Let's do that. I go, yeah, okay, sorry about that. I don't know why I couldn't get off the one note. So off he goes, plinky plonky plink. And I go, yeah, okay, sorry about that. I don't know why I couldn't get off the one note. So off he goes, plinky plonky plink, and I go, money, money, money, must be funny in a rich man's world. This is what I was doing, loudly. So anyway,

he went, ooh, anyway, right, lovely, lovely to see you. And I was thinking, well, it's all right, because she told me that he's going to fix it, and that isn't my real voice. I can sing much better than that, yes. So I come out of the room and all the guys who had greeted me before, just their heads were down like that.

Oh my God. Total shame. All completely looking away from me. Because it was just so awful, the noise they heard. And I went down the stairs and literally I switched my phone on. And by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs,

my agent was on the phone going, love, love, it's just not going to work. Hold on. But it's not like Meryl did the performance of her life with the singing. She did pretty well. The person who didn't was... Piers.

You said it. Oh, mate. But I did worse than that. It's not good, is it? But that's what happened to my voice. I've seen you sing, though. And yet, in the shower, I'm magnificent. What are you singing in the shower?

Do you want cream darling? I'll have a tiny, tiny bit of cream. Do you know what I really want? What? Yoghurt. It's a small black coffee. I'm going to give you that. Thank you.

This looks good. God, this is great. Supper, thank you. Such a blower. Just what I need. Figs, lovely. Crunchy and chewy. Yeah, well figs are, figs are, they're in at the moment, aren't they, Mum?

It's a good time for them. Dawn French, do you think that you've got good table manners? Kind of. I mean, look, I've got my elbow on here. I don't think that's... We're sitting at a breakfast bar. Yeah, it's fine. Okay, okay.

I think pretty good. I know that my mum told me that when they were little, she used to have to sit up so straight that you could put your arms back and put a broom handle through the back of your arms there. Oh, my God. That's uncomfortable. And that is how you were supposed to,

and you take the food to your mouth. You do not take your mouth to the food and all of that. They were taught to sit that straight, that you could put a broom handle across your back, through your arms. That's mad, isn't it? Dawn French. Yes.

What an absolute pleasure to cook for you. She's been gorgeous. Thank you for cooking for me. I really appreciate it. I properly appreciate it. It's such a pleasure. Can I just say, your hair is so beautiful and shiny.

It's the most glossy hair. How do you do that? Product. No, that is shine. Is that a hair straightening? Like, you iron that? This. No, that is shine. Is that a hair straightening? Like, you iron that? This is hair straightening. Yep.

I put cement thermique. Ever heard of it? Oh, I've got that upstairs. That's what goes in. Just that. Shall I give it to you? What goes in, and then the irons go. And a good cut.

Obviously a good cut. That cuts fab. And some colour. You won't believe that this is not my natural colour, Lenny. No, nor me. I am 63. How old are you? I'm 69. Are you? Yeah. Come colour, Lenny. No, nor me. I am 63. How old are you? I'm 69.

Are you? Yeah. Come on, Lenny, you look pretty good for that. No, I don't. Yes, you do. You look freaking great. You look gorgeous. But can I tell you, the one thing that I ordered before we went into lockdown was hair colour.

I thought, there's no way I'm going fucking grey and fat. That was so wrong. Fucking grey and fat. Jess, I've met someone that I want to be my new friend. Join the club, mum. Join the back of the line. I just loved her. I loved everything about her her warmth her intelligence I love the way she talked about women about that line between grandmothers obviously mums daughters I just thought she was great and I loved her husband he's her bloody lifeboat man. Saving lives. On the lifeboats and in his rehab facility.

Just fab. Loved everything. She was well up for the food. Oh, Mama. Just try those. Mum just got the truffles out. You know Mum's had a good night when she brings the truffles out. How nice are they?

Right. We're all going to go and live next to Dawn in Cornwall. Yeah. We're all going to eat Cornish pasties this weekend. Yeah. We're all going to read her book because of you. I'm going to do the whole day tomorrow. Gonna have a Dawn day. Day of the Dawn. Day of the

Dawn. Thank you, Dawn French. We knew that we were going to love you, but we didn't realise we were going to love you this much. Completely in love. Right, people have been email emailing him there's been a lot about the rainbow bagels this is from hannah green re-bake off never mind rainbow bagels let's just talk about how much they all needed your triple threat brownie recipe my soul how did they not all ace the bake of the year did feel for them all over complicating their recipes and the disaster unfolding let's discuss tanya mason oh you're not going to discuss that with her no i'm not all

right i don't think we can discuss it well first of all they needed our triple threat bounty recipe definitely they were a disaster on bake off this week paul hollywood didn't even know what to say well tanya i'm gonna yeah she agreed rainbow bagels are a travesty and she also adores leopard print and a red lip yeah simon atkins i had never heard of such a travesty yet since googling i now need to have one you may have inadvertently upped their popularity this is about rainbow i hope i haven't this one's quite funny about a wedding where are you oh here we are nick bain hi jesse and lenny so two of my best mates are currently going full on gay bride wars about who gets to have champagne kisses played at their first dance. We've so far suggested that they, A, marry each other, B, both have the song,

but neither option is going down well. Would you be able to help us resolve this? This is not about the podcast, I'm not reading this. Oh, Mum doesn't like a little spotlight shining on the older pop star over here. Sorry, they're just commenting about which song is going to be their first dance. I'm so sorry that someone

wants to ask me a question, Mum. Can you just let me enjoy and bask in this moment for a second? I think you should marry each other and then rewind the song. Champagne kisses. There you go. You're sorted. I love that we've also had a German-English translator emailing in

about me talking about whether it's Reisling or or risling with my mention of the third reich thank you so much we all now know that it is risling and reich is right before he and the yeah it's amazing how international our listeners are and how informative you are and i love that you're following your query it was a query and i'm glad that you've sorted it out i'll never say riseling ever again riseling thank you for everyone for emailing in and sending loads of love and please keep on emailing us because you TableMannersPodcast.com Thank you for listening. Table Manners is produced by Alice Williams.