Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S15 Ep 9: George and Larry Lamb

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

We’ve got another duo for you! The incredibly charismatic George and Larry Lamb! They arrived with armfuls of bread - perfect to mop up Lennie's lamb harissa meatballs with.  Father and son tell us all about endless family holidays in Normandy, selling secret burgers, isolating with exes & there was potential oversharing on why oysters taste so good!To find out more about Wildfarmed - please visit wildfarmed.co.uk 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 my mum in Clapham. Hi darling. Hi mum, I saw you about 12 hours ago. Yeah. We had an event before. The mood wasn't as good as it is today. Okay, because you were backseat driving. Darling, I needed to be.

No. Because Chelsea were playing at home, we got stuck in the worst traffic, going to probably a place that we might never go to again. Yeah, the most horrendous soft play I've ever been to in my life. I mean, the kids had a great time. Yeah, they did. But I... There were hundreds of people there.

It was a lot. There were four birthday parties going on with at least 20 children in each booth. They had them in booths like this, and it was run by teenagers. So today... Very exciting. We've got a duo. Yeah. A family duo.

Yeah, like us. Yeah, who work together. Yeah. Who are stars within their own right, just like us, Mum. Yeah. We've got George and Larry Lamb coming on. Very exciting. George Lamb, you remember him from Big Brother

being kind of a bit loud-mouthed and gorgeous. Very excited. George Lamb, you remember him from Big Brother being kind of a bit loud-mouthed and gorgeous with salt and pepper hair. Very handsome. Six Music, music kind of, he was pop culture. And now he's gone into farming and education. And then his dad, Larry Silverfox. Gavin and Stacey.

Actor, he's been on Broadway, The West End. And he was on Strictly, Larry Silverfox. Gavin and Stacey. Actor that's been on Broadway, The West End. I think he was on Strictly, this Christmas special. Oh, was he? I didn't watch it. So, yeah, we've got Larry and George coming on. They have a company, an initiative together called Wild Farmed, which I'll let them explain better. But it's a regenerative farming business. So, yeah, they are very, very busy.

And apparently they're going to bring some bread today. Oh, wow. I'll get the butter out. What are you cooking today, Mum? Oh, it's tricky, isn't it? Lunchtime. So I've done... And it's cold.

She says it's not cold. No, but it's cold now. I've done harissa lamb meatballs. Lovely. Sweet potato mash. Nice. I've done my chicory and onion salad and you've done a green herb salad yeah and i have the old pan of tony left over which i've got like a hole in the head

all right don't eat it oh i can't not so it's panettone bread and butter pudding which i think everyone loves with a drop of cream gorgeous can't wait george George and Larry Lamb coming up on Table Manners. George and Larry Lamb are in our kitchen. George has just come in with so much bread. Yeah. There's a lot of it. We're eating focaccia. Would you like a bit of focaccia, Larry?

I like, yes. Well, yours. It's your focaccia. Well, your flour. Foc Well your flower Can I just say something These are two of the best looking men we've ever had in my kitchen And I just thought I'd put it out there Thank you for being here Thank you for having us

We were just asking whether you two fight because we fight quite a lot A lot, but women do fight a lot Really? Oh. Great opening statement, Dad. Let's go. Carry on, let's go.

Look. It's quite interesting the reason he's saying this. You get over it. No, I think that's what men do. They get over it and we fester. Yeah, but in the end you get over it. Anyway, give some context

for why this is... I need to know why you don't fight now. No, no, but I want to give you the context for why. So dad has lived a very unconventional life. What do you mean? He's currently living with his ex-partner and her sister. And his youngest sister. And my youngest sister.

Jesus. And so he's basically in a place where there's loads of women. But not your mother? Not my mum. Okay. He's shaking his head. And they're all having, there's like a bit of a war going on at the moment in the house, basically, which is why he's like women fire. Larry, how many have you had partners?

Got it. Partners? A lot. Mum, are we doing this? We're not, Larry! That's not a question. I'm trying to work out where everyone fits in. How many life partners have you had?

Yeah, life partners, seven. Wow, honestly. Like a cat. You just need two more. No, no, no. Seven? Nine lives. Yes.

Anyway, carry on. No, I don't need to know nine knives yes anyway carry on no seven seven seven is enough and actually too many backwards now with ones you've been out with before no no the thing is fortunately you know there's two of them three of them i've retained a really nice relationship with it's best if you do, because the problem is, whether you like it or not, once you have children with someone else, you're connected for life. I say that to a lot of people. Until the moment you die, you are connected.

So the best thing to do is get yourself a great big white flag, put it up, and live in a state of truce. A state of truce. Otherwise, you'd drag your kids into war for the rest of their lives so you're so different from your persona it's not fair really yeah he's pretty mild he's mild yeah but he's mild but you wouldn't imagine on gavin's that he'd have lots of different partners oh no not him dear not him no dear. Absolutely not. Not him. No, he's standard Marks & Spencer's man.

You know what I mean? Marks & Spencer's is great, by the way. We love Marks & Spencer's. Yeah, it's great. They're opening a load of new stores. You know that. I love it. Yeah, is your flower in Marks & Spencer's?

We love it. They're our main partner. No, I understand what you're saying. Is Mick your character? Was he called Mick? That's him. He would have worn a nice cashmere jumper from M&S. I don't know whether he'd have got into cashmere yet.

No, definitely not into cashmere. Or for Christmas, maybe. A little merino wool. A little merino wool. So you're here. This is what we find. And obviously we know of you both from different worlds of entertainment. But now you're in farming and you're working together.

And I think you're going to explain it better than I did on the intro. So please can you tell us about Wild Farmed? Yeah. For context, I used to be a game show host. And I'd fallen into television. How? Well, how did you start? I was managing bands, actually.

I was managing DJs, yeah, and did that, and that was really good fun. Who were you managing? I managed these guys called the Audio Bullies. Oh, yeah. So we did that for a few years, and then... Did you manage Lily Allen for a bit? I managed Lily Allen briefly,

just before she was... Right up until she was successful, actually. And then I had a few years uh then I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with myself and I got a job I had I was renting a desk from a mate who had a tv company and he got the tender to do e4 music which is like mtv type stuff and they needed lots of vjs and I knew about music and I always had plenty to say for myself so they said do you want to come and I give it a? And I tried it and I liked it. And so for a couple of years,

I was doing a bit of TV presenting whilst I was figuring out what I was going to do. I knew I didn't want to be a band manager because it's a thankless task. Actually, people say it's a pleasure managing. Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure, yeah. I did that for a bit and then I got a bit of a break. I kind of followed in the vacuum of Russell Brand

and I ended up getting a really good manager who was the main guy at that moment in Britain. And within kind of followed in the vacuum of Russell Brand. And I ended up getting a really good manager who was the main guy at that moment in Britain. And within kind of two years, I'd gone from doing nothing to basically being quite successful. Did you enjoy it? And I enjoyed the kind of fame and the bright lights and all the money and all the rest of it.

But it definitely wasn't making my heart sing. I'd set this kind of phantom goal as primetime television. And when I get to it i'll be happy finally got onto prime time turns out it's no different you're sharing a bit more money you work at a different time of day rang dad uh was lying in bed one morning sitting in my nice house with my nice car with all my nice stuff rang dad said dad i know this feels this sounds really bad but like i feel totally empty and i've got everything and everybody's telling me how much i'm smashing it and like i just it's not making my heart sing.

And he said, well, you know, game show host, not a very serious guy in the big scheme of things, is he? And so I was like, wicked, you could have told me that, you know, five years ago. And where were you at in your career at this point? You were just like, you were always working, you were doing... Yeah, you know, I was just very lucky and just basically worked you didn't know but for you worked you worked all through the 80s and then

in the mid 90s when he hit 50 like naturally when you hit 50 you have to take a step down the ladder basically anyway especially if you're not that far in the first place no but it's like no but like that's how it works and then and at the same time reality tv came in yeah and a lot of actors had a big problem when reality television started coming in because it was much cheaper to produce reality television saturated the market yeah it did and so lots of stuff that would have been drama wasn't drama in the end so i like a lot of actors of my age felt it was like it was getting a bit tough. So that was the first time I ever really had any kind of slowdown. And then it all just picked up again and it all just rolled on.

That was it. After about eight years. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Right. No, but it's not like all, you know, just smooth. Because it's interesting. You've had two kind of acts in your life. But he was definitely like, it was rolling again by the time

he was giving me the you're not a very serious guy in the big scheme of things chat anyway i'm glad he did it and i'm glad he gave me that because i i knew anyway you know you know everything basically you know all the answers you know but it's just whether or not you want to listen to them and accept them and face up to them and so i knew i had to make a change kind of decided to do it quite dramatically and renounce all worldly goods and get rid of my house and tell my agent I'm not coming back to do the next series and off I went and just like did you eat pray love yeah pretty much did you yeah yeah what's that well he went and found himself yeah so I went off I had a whole kind

of man search for meaning and everything went off twitter i wasn't i was barely on twitter twitter was twitter was just coming out actually uh and at this moment this is like 2011 2012 first big thing that's been was going on with the london riots were happening at that point and i was just like this isn't okay there's two worlds going on and most people have got nothing and i've managed to wang on my bit into the you know the small set of people who've got everything and basically what became apparent is if i went into a room full of wealthy people, no one had ever seen me before because they don't watch television. And if I went into a room full of poor people, everybody knew everything about me. How you doing, Georgie?

How's the old man? How's it going? He's on EastEnders. He's on Gavin and Stacey. I'm on Big Brother's Little Brother every day. Everybody knows us. And you start to realize that actually game shows is distraction for poor people. And I don't want to be complicit in that, you know?

So off I go, start trying to figure out who I'm going to be, what I'm going to do, om shanty om, you know, off in the jungle, drinking the medicine, doing whatever it is. It wasn't really finding what I was looking for, didn't find my guru, thought, fuck it, I'll go to Ibiza. So I went to Ibiza, walked into a nightclub, met this great big guy who's 6'10 who was one half of groove armada and and uh and i asked him what he was up to and he said he just sold his publishing rights and he bought 100 hectare farm down in

gascony and he's trying to figure out how you do wheat production properly and so began this kind of 10 year spiral into what is now regenerative food business and we're in about 300 stores around the country we just partnered up with M&S we're trialing with Nando's at the moment we've we've we've got about 60 farmers up and down the UK who farm with us now and we're probably the biggest collective of regenerative farmers in in the country maybe Europe yeah I'm a George yeah and do does your heart sing a bit more now? Definitely I'm slightly more involved in the day to day business Than I'd like to be He wants to be a farmer

He's got to be a business executive Why do you live in bloody Dalston then? I'm on my way Where are you going to choose to go? I don't know Don't tell Jessie because she'll be saying Oh can we move there now? Yeah I've seen

that gloucestershire that looks gorgeous no too far so do you get your wellies on and you go to the yeah i love it i love it i did i did about two or three years of doing kind of busman's holidays every holiday i'd get i'd be off to andy's farm his first farm he's back farming in the uk now but his first farm was in france so i just go down to gascony and and just and spend the time you know you do the kind of like the easy job so I do all the electric fences and moving the cattle around and but yeah there's just something I really what I've realized actually I don't hope I'm not that complicated like I need to see the horizon like not just metaphorically like I really need I need to see it literally and it just changes my whole state if I can see it. So you don't miss telly?

Not at all. At all? I miss doing radio. You run Six Music? I think I came in as a backing singer for Jack Pignate when you were doing your Six Music show. So I used to do it with my best mate and he's the funniest bloke I know,

so we'd just sit and... Who was your best mate? He's called Mark Hughes, a little fella, and we'd just sit and do the same shtick we'd been doing for the previous 20 years on there, and and it was really good and people liked it but again same thing you know I hadn't really at that point I was kind of busy orbiting my own ego most of the time so so how did your dad get involved just by being his son yeah I get that muddled all the time yeah um but yeah just like being a supportive dad.

And, you know, I'm basically a displaced country boy. Really? Yeah. You don't sound like it. No, no, no, I know. I know I don't. That's the secret. But no, given my choice.

Where were you born now? I was born in North London, Edmonton. But, you know, where I revert to, I revert to country boy in the sticks. You know, I have an old place in Normandy. And as soon as I've got any time free, I'm gone. That's it. I'm just gone. So let's talk about growing up together.

Were lots of holidays in Normandy? Did you go there? All the fucking holidays in Normandy. No other holidays to drive you potty. Why did it drive you potty it was a house we were all sort of spending time in because it had become this big this target to do up this property which was a bit of a wreck in fact it was a wreck but a resurrectable wreck in a lovely place and so that became my passion that became the thing I was set on doing and you know my I wasn't always an actor I had a big old life before I was an actor I worked in the oil business and I was working in America and Canada out doing work on pipelines and oil

lines out in the middle of nowhere so I kind of became a country boy out in America and then when I came back here found this old place in Normandy and that was it I saw the potential for having like a camp in the country you know that would be you know that gradually you know that would become my my place and that's what it did it just over the course of the first 20 years or so became my spiritual home and still is now, 35 years down the line. What is a childhood memory, a food memory, from those trips to Normandy for you, George? We were allowed to go down into the creperie, basically.

I mean, it's a one-horse town where Dad was. It's like a famous old cheese town. It's a half-horse town. It's a famous old cheese town. And we used to go down, we used to walk down and go to this creperie and just eat, you know, like ham it's what him and his mates could do so when i took you know i'd go over there with like half a dozen really rowdy teenagers and you know and spend my time just like cooking fixing carrying doing everything for them and the one thing they could

do was walk down into the village and go to the creperie down there. Was that the one thing? Yeah. There were no discotheques? By the time I was discothequing, I was out of there. So you were born in London? Yeah, I was born in Hammersmith. And brought up where?

Hammersmith. On North End Road when I was a kid. Great market there. Yeah, it used to be. Still not bad, you know, fruit and veg. Yeah, I know, but not like it was then. I mean, I can remember living in a flat above it, and you'd look out, and that place was thronged all week long.

You know, people between the line of stalls and the buildings that I live in, you looked, and you could just see a people down there all the time. It's not like that anymore. You know, the supermarkets have bashed them that's the trouble do you still live around there no no moved moved north years ago so creperies so yeah so creperies what else would we used to go to like i remember loving going to the markets i remember going there used to be this big market san pietro de um every monday and they had they had in this like old style like proper old kind of you know what would that be yeah like a proper market market hall so you know a covered market but the roof of the market was 40 50 feet in the air so you're almost outdoors

indoors and like traditional you know with you know with all sorts of livestock in there which is something you don't you didn't really i certainly didn't see when i was growing up it's all stopped now it was that it was a traditional market and then the european regulations all changed they couldn't you know they couldn't sell live animals there at all so that was it the character of it changed but that was a we would go there on a monday morning and as a bit of you know a bit of local life and you know thousands of people would be there. And it was a really vibrant thing. We'd stop.

You would always go and get sausages, they sold sausages, grilled sausages in baguettes. Has doing regenerative farming, it's really hard to say. It is, I know that's right. It's a bugger, isn't it? Take off. Just leave that gin alone

for half an hour you'll be fine has it made you think about what you're eating I think you still eat meat yeah yeah yeah yeah

for sure you promised that you did 100% no no no has it changed the way that you definitely eat

without question how because you once like anything once you've kind of you know looked behind the curtain it's very difficult like anything, once you've kind of, you know, looked behind the curtain, it's very difficult to unsee what you've seen and what you understand.

And, you know, interestingly, Andy, who's the... Groove Armada guy. Groove Armada, who's my business partner. There's three of us who set it up, Wild Farmed. And Andy, who was the kind of lead on it, he was a 20-year vegetarian. And when he started farming, he realised that you can't do this whole notion of, like, you know, doing, you're a dairy farmer, you're a beef farmer, I'm an arable farmer, and separating it all is a nonsense, basically.

And so, you know, animals and plants have developed over millennia in symbiosis, and if you have them together, you've got a whole load of solutions. And if you separate them, you create infinite problems. That's exactly what Thomasina Myers says. She says you can't not have cows because cows do things to the land that you need them to do. Because that fertilises and that's how you embellish the land. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm much more careful

about where i get my food from and certainly with me i would only eat if i'm coming somewhere where i trust them and and i don't know they're going to buy good stuff you know it's a madness that we're in a situation where you have to have you have to kind of stipulate having like non-chemical laced food you know so like to even have a standardization as or qualification of organic super peculiar you know because everything else is laced with herbicides and fungicides and pesticides and all the rest of it it's a nonsense can i ask about what we've got the normandy creperies but who was doing the cooking when you were growing up and living my mum thankfully were your parents together no no once

once he was about three we realized we were going to have to live around the corner to each other and have him back and forth between us have you got any brothers or sisters i've got two little sisters from from a different from yeah yeah yeah so so you'd spend some of your time with your dad and some time with your mum and it was pretty you know a lot of time you know if i was away sometimes he'd come with me and then you know i'd come back and i'd be around maybe two or three weeks and he would come and stay with me and so it was good between i was there what's the you know when you go unaccompanied minor oh yeah he flew right across america when he was it was 87 so you were eight so he flew right across across America and they finished up sitting.

I think it was in Salt Lake city in the airport for about six or seven hours waiting for a flight onto Los Angeles. And so, but he was like, he was always very, very independent. I can remember in his early teens and I was spending a lot of time in and out of Paris and there were friends mine there that had boys about the same age and i fixed it up for them to meet and i remember saying look you know i'm gonna have to take you down we get on the metro and he said dad dad dad you know i can do the metro all right i can do the metro i don't need you to take me anywhere see you later that was it so where do you think that came from

i think only children are pretty independent, aren't they? Going away to school. And I got sent away to school. Oh, you went to boarding school? When I was six. No, no, no, I'm joking, I'm joking. No, no, when I was 11, when I was 11. Did you like it? I mean, so, in the end, yes.

It was the best boarding school you could imagine. It's a B-dolls. No, even more, like, more hippie kind of thing. School St Christopher's, so it's teachers by their first name, no school uniform, vegetarian. Girls and boys girls and boys yeah just have a nice time basically it's in letchworth which is just an hour north of london yeah and you loved it yeah the first year you hate it and i rang home every night and sobbing and all the rest of it you know like there was a cue there used to be me i think i went after mark every night and then rory went after me and you literally would hand this like wet hand a handset you know on the pay phone and you'd be like oh and you're just bawling but then all basically you hit puberty

and you realize that you're in a holiday camp and and there's girls everywhere and like and you've got all your mates around you and you can you know like you can get a game you can just walk into the sitting room you know who wants to play football and within five minutes there's 25 guys outside playing football like how cool is that what made you go to boarding school why did you decide his mum his mum and i were not for the idea at all but we you know we we wanted to get him somewhere where there was a bit of sort of i suppose a bit of character to it you know and the only way you could do that was to get into the private thing i mean it wasn't massively expensive it was expensive enough because i wasn't earning a lot of money at the time um but it was the ethos of this place which was kind of like outward bound it was that was

vegetarian and they all seemed to be a wonderful place for him to be and we like the idea of there being girls and boys in the same place as a residential school and that they and that they kind of had a different sort of life there and he was a single boy which is another thing you know because back and forth but back and forth between a mum and a dad doting mum doting dad you become like the prince yes that's it so in the end he began to get a little bit unbearable so he had to ship him off did you um did you like the vegetarian food that was terrible was it it was terrible i used to sell hamburgers actually down at the smoker's corner i bought him a hibachi and he had a hamburger stand out the back of the school that's amazing

did you get in trouble no i never got caught yeah never got caught but it but it was like there was like a tiny little pitch and putt golf course that backed onto the the smokers bit and then my mate's house backed onto that it was a day pupil so you could i just run like 100 meters across the corner you know through the woods and i could go and stash everything in his you've always been quite enterprising yeah absolutely yeah for sure so did you go to university no so you left school and what did you do as soon as you left school so I was at college and we were we were just nuts about dance music and back then dance music worked out of it was all it was like a network of of record shops up and down the country and uh and so I was one of the kids you're about the same age

i'm 43 i'm 79 and and uh so you used to just like you i was one of the kids who used to hang around the record store basically and so our one with that at that point was living out in southwest like in uh in near kingston so i used to hang out this place slamming vinyl and if you stood there long enough because it was a kind of cottage industry you could meet everybody so the promoters would come in to sell their tickets they you know they give their tickets and pick up their money is that like rough trade they put in a bit more even more kind of niche to be honest with you and then and then they'd come in and other guys would come and drop the flyers the guys who would drive the vans they'd bring the the vinyls round

so if you knew them you could get you knew where you could get pressings. So you knew how to get access to the pressing plant. So you knew the promoters. The DJs would come in to pick up their records. You could meet the DJs. You knew the promoters. You could get to the pressing plant. So you could pretty much get a handle on everything that you needed to get a handle on.

And one of my mates at school, at college, was like, I'm going to be a DJ. I was like, sweet, I'll be your manager. Who was that? The audio bullies. Yeah, and then and of course like it doesn't it wasn't did you put on club nights then we put on club nights we did all that stuff and you know i had little studios and and and did you know and ran around chasing djs around for three or four years begging them to play our music and it was you know it was pretty brutal you know all of our i was at that point i just worked on them then my stepmom she um she worked in films and so i was i was like a runner basically you know and and uh and then i've realized actually the security guys were earning way more money than i was and they were doing much less so i was just i just do the you know putting the cones out and all the

rest of it for the wagons because i was just like i had this up my eyes on the prize of becoming this manager and then and then gradually all the all our mates had gone off to uni they started coming back and that's when it starts to get a bit you know hot under the collar because you're everyone's like is it not happening boys you know and you're like no no it's coming it's coming it's coming it's coming well it did it did yeah well and then i got a job driving i was in ibiza i got a job driving all the djs for a club in ibiza and um and and so i used to put i used to put these cds i used to make a cd of all the big hits of the day and then slip our ones in every third or fourth tune basically and they'd send and then so when i was driving along i'd like turn it up and then by the end of the summer a few of the djs were like what's that

and i'd give them a copy and one of the tunes blew up and we came back and his dad's face just smiling proudly when's gavin and stacy being another one oh please we've had enough of it what of gavin and stacy oh no no no no that's a major sick of being asked that question i Oh, sorry. I think the chances of that happening again are so... James is coming back. Well, yeah, I know, you know, but, like, that's... I'm sure they'll make a film of it. That'll be the next thing they do. Yeah, of course they will. It's like my Downton Abbey kind of thing.

That's the logical thing to do. Yeah, it's true. You know, because it's to put the whole thing together, to get everybody together, to write it. You know, you're talking at least like to write it, get it approved, get it signed off, to start casting the people, figuring out where you're going to. That's two years, right? So what are you working on now then?

I'm just working. Should I get the food? I'm just working over. I wrote a novel during the during the covid and um and uh so i finally after a lot of messing around and time like me me wasting time and not getting on with it quickly enough but anyway you know because the next thing you've got to do once you've written a novel is you've got to get somebody who wants to publish it and then you've got to get it all honed down to where it is a publishable commercial piece and so i'm now working with an editor on on an edit of the book to get it

down to the kind of the next level what's it about it's basically it's based on my life it's it's it's about a little film a little film company that go off on a project in the Caribbean and they just run into a lot of problems. It all goes wrong. But they manage to get themselves out of it. And is this what happened to you? Sort of. Sort of, yeah. I mean, years ago I went on this job in the Caribbean

with a great big international mini-series, as they used to call them. And, you know, we were drifting around the world for eight months and we finished up in the Caribbean. And indeed, there was a big political hoo-ha going on at the time. And they had to load us on a plane and get us out of there. But so it's sort of loosely based on that, just the fact that something like that can happen and that it's out of your control it so is writing quite a new thing for you then no i've always written i've written lots you know written lots of ideas and i never i'd never got anything published until in 2010 i wrote an autobiography because george said you know everybody knows who you are now from gavin and

stacy and east nc better start churning out some of those old stories you bored me to death with for the last 20 years and turn them into a book. So I did, and the book was a success. So that was the first time I'd written, and then I tried my hand at sort of trying to get a novel written, but I had no idea. So I just spent the next 10 years reading.

George, have you read your dad's first draft no no yeah I will do definitely to be honest with you it was more distracting so my dad my mum when when Covid kicked off my mum was living in the middle of nowhere and the fun and you remember at the beginning when everybody thought it was the black death and all the rest of it and it was really heavy anyway my I've been out for a run and i came back and i had about five missed calls and uh and it was my mum and she'd had a load of health scares and i was like oh fuck is there something gone wrong so i'm slightly panicked i ring her and uh and i'm like mum what's going on and she's just like oh god it's so bad i was like what's happened did you get you here from the

hospital no no it's worse than that i just i'm like my mum mum what's going what's going there finally she's just like your dad's called me he's asked if he can come and isolate with me now bearing in mind these two haven't lived in a house together for 35 years or whatever at this point basically right so i said what did you say she's like i've had to say yes haven't i anyway so dad went to dad went down how many How many months or years did you last? I'd gone to France straight away. And then I thought, hang on a minute, I'm going to be stuck out here. And it was really tight there, the way they were controlling it.

It was nothing like here. It was all easy peasy here. You know, you had to go out with a piece of paper all signed, dated, timed and everything else. And if they caught you with it, it's 135 euros fine on the spot and you better have it with you now. So they took it very seriously. And I thought, I'm going to run back to the UK and go out in the country at Linda's. Where was she living then? In Herefordshire, like rural, rural, middle of nowhere.

They had a great big old caravan right at the back of the property. And I thought, I'll go and live there. You can't live in the caravan. I can live in the caravan as well. Anyway, it was all sorted because across the road, a dear neighbour of hers had to go away to look after her dad. And so her house was there

and she needed somebody to look after it. So I went and... It's amazing the bits of it that you remember that actually is a story. So anyway, I'm ringing, I'm ringing. He didn't. He lived in the house with my mum.

At the end I did. Eventually you went across the road, right? But she was ringing me every day and she's just like, I need to get this guy out of here, basically. And he's ringing me going, this is amazing. It's such a good vibe. And I'm thinking, and I could hear in my mum's voice, it was serious, you know?

And I was like, what can I do to get him out of the house? I was like, dad, you know what? I think it'd be an amazing opportunity for you now. This is the time to write your novel and he was like yeah you know what actually i think you're right anyway he like off he went up to and then he did go up and he went in the went in the caravan every day and he wrote his book because when he's got incredible discipline dad so he went and just got there and gradually things got better but by the time and then although it was still quite fraught so i went down there

about around the time you know when what's his face went up to durham or whatever yeah and yeah yeah yeah so you like it's like should we travel not travel but i was like i need to do barnard castle i need to do a bit of a un you know nato kind of vibe basically so i went down to to make sure everything was all right i got there my mum was totally ashen she looked terrible down to to make sure everything was all right i got there my mum was totally ashen she looked terrible and uh and and then and then she was having like problems with her heart so we ended up she ended up we ended up getting an ambulance out and then dad who was like his leg was knackered at the time he hobbled down he hobbled down from the caravan and he was like what's going on i was like mum's had a heart attack and you're leaving that's what's's going on, basically. So then that was the end of that.

But by that point... You're the people getting married again the second time. We got divorced again the second time. Does anybody want to eat anything? Yes, please. We'd love to eat something. So I've done some lamb meatballs with sweet potato, harissa, and Jessie's done a herb salad.

It's just a green herb salad and then this is mum's little one that we my sister lives in los angeles and there's an amazing um restaurant called

middle eastern restaurant called safi's roasted onions with chicory and like a citrus dressing with walnuts this is delicious

thank you so much absolutely pleasure what a treat there's loads more meatballs This is delicious, isn't it? Thank you so much. Pleasure. What a treat. There's loads more meatballs. Wow, stop it. Do you like pudding?

We haven't really talked about food that much, actually. We need to talk about food a little bit. So, so starter larry what would be in your dream last supper half a dozen really really good really good fresh oysters do you get good ones where do you where do you get yours no normandy's good there's a big big are they fat ones because i can't deal with the two biggie ones it depends it depends it's the time of the year that's what it's all about the time yeah well they're sometimes they're full of eggs and they're full of sperm so like you know take you take your choice what you want but but so it's the time of the year you get you know that and that's why you know there's certain times here you don't you don't need it and it's all just like if you want a mouthful of grill cream goem. Go. Oh, wow, Larry, I love you. You're filthy.

Brilliant. Come on. But anyway, yeah, half a dozen really good, really fresh oysters. And what do you have? Just lemon or you're going to have? Nothing. Oh. Open them up and just eat them the way the French do.

Rip them off the rocks, bust them open and eat them. They don't need anything at all. It's all a lot of bollocks. I definitely would have some shallots with a little bit of vinegar and chili and all the rest of it that's not there that's it one spoon full

all you're doing is you're tasting it I've never thought about an oyster having sperm in it don't please don't and now I don't know if I'm gonna do you think you can ask for the girl ones you'll never hear that okay so okay that's your starter.

What's your starter, George? He's much more of a foodie, he is. Are you a foodie? Yeah, because of his mum. His mum's an amazing cook. Really? Yeah. What was the best meal that she used to give you

when you were younger, or she does now? Oh, do you know what, actually? It would only be... I'm going to go quite old school for my ones, because I think if you were uh like if you're having your last meal you want to think about your life and all the people who've been in it and the granny's soup yeah exactly basically so my granny no word of a lie every single day of her life she had soup and the first thing she said when you when you came in her house whatever whatever

you know obviously maybe not first thing in the morning but like after the day would you like a wee bit of soup a wee bit of soup what was this soup any soup all soups but just like that's a that's serious mixed vegetable soup that was just mental soups mixed vegetable soups but it's just more specifically my granny so it doesn't really matter which one it was the tomato one or the the watercress one whatever yeah just i love that yeah and i would have that as well if i couldn't have the oysters yeah yeah yeah okay so that is the starter what is your mum's favorite meal that she cooks for you well she used to and your your ex-wife you know what was your favorite meal that she used to cook it's just it's the way she does it rather than um what she's actually yeah right she's just whatever she makes it's just got a finesse about it well how was it in covid time because she obviously was cooking for you i guess

that's basically what was going on yeah yeah i was quicker for her as well i would say okay i'm gonna get some beef and cook it on the grill outside. And she would say, all right, all right, all right. So your mum is just a great cook, but you can't really pinpoint one meal that she used to make. Actually, the first thing I like that she makes is salads. Oh, really? Yeah. And she'll just make this salad. It just goes on and on and on.

And there'll be like, you know, everything. She was into like, you know, flaking and shaving and making up pangrattata. So there's just layers and layers going through this thing that takes hours to make the salad. But then when you look at it, you don't think it's much. But then when you eat it, you're like, oh, wow. And the eggs are just right. Would you agree with that?

Oh, she's just the most fabulous cook. Fabulous. And not all that care that she takes. Open the fridge see what's in there pull some of it out chuck it in a bowl and eat it he's mainly he's kind of fuel guy basically yeah fuel what's the best dish you cook if you're if you're doing a dinner party you just know where to eat no no i love cooking i like making vongole vongole is probably up there in my all-time you list. You can make it.

I've never tried. I've never tried because I'm quite intimidated by it. No, no, you've got to do it. It's not that complicated. Really? I've really mastered pasta in lockdown. Did you make your own pasta? No, but that is how to get the glisten.

With the pasta water, isn't it? Yeah. And it's about 20, 30 seconds of the bash around at the beginning. So you get a load of the water in there, but then you move the pasta around with it. And I don't know whether it's the gluten releasing or whatever it is, but that's how you create that. It binds and it takes the glisten and the sauce onto the pasta rather than it just being around the pasta. Anyway, that or how we got into business with Dave and Jeremy from Jolene. Jolene's a restaurant um that lots of our listeners will

know it's in Stokey would you say it's Stokey? Stokey yeah and it's fabulous yeah they're near Anne yeah and they've got Premier and they've got Western yeah so they had this restaurant called Premier which was really really cool and I was going there a lot and sitting at the bar and the two guys who ran it, one was cooking, one was in the front. And he was telling me, it was the first time I'd come across natural wines and I was just trying them and all the rest of it. And he was explaining this whole story. And as the story was unfolding, I realised that if you swapped out the word grape for grain,

the story he was telling me there about these natural grapes was very like pretty much the same story as my mate andy was doing with this natural grain over in france and we're chatting and i was like wow you gotta you gotta come and meet my mate andy like you know it's basically the same thing you guys are doing with natural wine anyway they came over with a kind of loose idea of maybe we'd do a bakery together. And David, who's the chef, went out into one of the silos on the farm and got a load of spelt and brought the spelt back in and he made this spelt risotto. It was unbelievable.

It was the best spelt. It was the best thing. One of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. We pretty much, Andy reached across the dinner table and was like, right, we're in business, boys. Like, whatever you want to do, we're doing it. But I reckon you could make

any risotto out of any grain. Yes, you can. Because Jacqueline Rowe made it out of porridge, didn't she? Yeah. That was lovely. Yeah.

She's something, she is, isn't she? She's amazing. It was delicious and I make that subsequently. So if people come round, I'll make it. You do a spelt risotto.

What's your toppings? It's just got loads of, it's got a ridiculous amount of parmesan cheese in it, basically, but... That makes it. It does, really. Yeah, to be honest.

Yeah. You could say it's a load of other things. There's quite a bit of wine in there. There's quite a bit of wine, loads of onions. Can't really go wrong. And loads of Parmesan cheese and loads of butter, and it's, weirdly, it's delicious.

And we've got this amazing, I've got this really nice vinegar that I put in just to balance it, kind of thing. Which vinegar? I'll send you a picture. I can't remember what it's called. It's the secret ingredient for my mate and mine.

It's not a sherry vinegar. It kind of. Because that's when I went to Jolene and I had their salt and vinegar potatoes. Yes, there you go. It's that. It's that. It's the best. It's the ones that I make, yeah.

Oh, fabulous. Great. What's your party dish? Well, yeah. Oh, fabulous. Great. What's your party dish? I don't know. Well. He's got two dishes. Which one do you want? All right, both.

What's the first one? What's the first one? What did we eat exclusively for 20 years? 20 years. Well, my old mate, Brizio, we finished a long job together, and he came to England with me because our only means of communication was French. He's from Rome and I'm from London.

And do you speak good French? Yeah, not bad. Not bad. A lot better now than I did then. And so he taught me how to make about four or five standard sugo, as he calls them, you know, dressings for pasta. Because that was always his job. Sauce. Sugo,go yeah the sauce and um so the one that i started to make that the kids all liked and still like now is just just a plain tomato sauce that's it pasta red it's banging it's pasta red it's quite similar to the sauce so give us your recipe it's got no onions in it has it got onions

oh it has okay you just you take it depending on how much you're going to make but you take it say a decent sized onion and you cut it down across ways until you've got it as small as you can and then you basically you you dissolve that onion in hot olive oil or mix a bit of lighter oil in with it and just until it makes a saffron is it or something they call it when it's a frito so when it's like when it's all see-through and it doesn't it hasn't at all no celery no carrot nothing just nothing just onion then i just put salt and sugar to taste because if not it's just tomato so and you know no garlic no garlic no nothing salt and sugar but a long time long yeah cook it a long time yeah but it's got onion remember

yeah because that was made without onion that one really it was just garlic yeah it was banging and it's lovely and what's your other dish that you made well i suppose you know like cooking like cooking on a grill cooking like a spatchcock chicken or a rib of beef. Does it? Do you do a whole rib of beef on the grill? Yeah, yeah, yeah. The rib of beef is better. The spatchcock's a bit dry.

Yeah. Well, it depends. I've got people who think it's the best in the world, so please, all right? Yeah. But the rib of beef should hit every time. Yeah, I know, but I've learned how to do... Okay.

All right? All right. No, no, this is what Jessie does. Jessie will go, it's really lovely, Mum, but... Yeah. There's always...

I should have... What should I have done today? Yeah. She could have had a tiny bit more salt, but it was beautiful. Eloise and her boyfriend was round. He sat there and ate that chicken, right? And I've got it so I can get the breast

all lovely and moist. And he sat there and he said, he'd never, ever in his entire life eaten anything like it. There you go. Is that what he said? Who's Eloise? That's what he said. My daughter, my eldest.

And the boyfriend. And the boyfriend. He's trying to impress you, Harry. I'm sorry. I'm sure it is delicious, but he's probably going to ask for a hand in marriage very soon and needs to butter you up, mate. So, mains. Your own.

What would I like? Yes... What would I like? Yes. What would I like? Yeah. If you're going on a desert island. Well, it depends what you can get, but, you know... You can get anything you want. Yeah, yeah, anything you want.

Don't be too literal. I don't know. I don't know. I love all sorts of things. I tell you what I did have once, and I used to get it a lot, in Madrid when I was there in 85 and there was a really wonderful restaurant there and their special their speciality was a a young a beef between a calf a veal and on its way to being a you know a semi-grown animal so you get this the meat is just extraordinary and they would cook

a chop from that which is probably a pound and a half and they would serve it on a hot terracotta plate and it was just phenomenal if you're into meat that was like that the stage in its development that was the way to eat that so So yeah, I'd probably go for that. Okay. And George, what would yours be? Really good vongole probably. The vongole? Your own vongole?

No, no, I don't want to cook my last meal. Where's your favourite place to get vongole? Venice is the best place to get vongole. Do you reckon? Do you think? I don't know. I don't know where it is. You have to take a mortgage out to buy it there.

No, you know, you've got to know where you go. You've got to, you know, just go away, go away from where all the tourists are. And that is not difficult. What are we doing for pudding? Big pudding person? Something like that, very definitely. Bread pudding? Bread pudding was a thing my nan made.

Yeah, it's a different thing. Is it different to bread and butter? But it's brown, isn't it? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, totally different. It's more like a cake. So yeah, maybe that. It's a different thing. Is it different to bread and butter? But it's brown, isn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally different. It's more like a cake. So, yeah, maybe that. Yeah, maybe bread pudding.

Okay. With custard. A really good custard on it. A proper custard. What, like a bird's custard? No, no, like a proper... No, you've got to make it with... Yeah, right, right, right.

Okay, I get it. Proper made, you know, proper made custard. Okay, fine. Great, love it. What are you doing? Pistachio ice cream. Love pistachio. There's a good one.

I think they've got one down here. Adonis. Do you know them? No. It's really good. Is it a gelato? It's a gelato, gelato. Where have they got it?

They've got about half a dozen around London. And I go everywhere and try the pistachio and nowhere's beating it thus far. Have you tried olive oil on your pistachio ice cream's beating it thus far have you tried olive oil on your pistachio ice cream yeah it's a good vibe michael mcintyre told us about really right okay he made olive oil ice cream oh well olive oil ice cream is delicious but olive oil on his pistachio he said it was a game changer when he was on holiday they do and in brawn they do this amazing rhubarb frangipani tart actually that with creme fraiche oh you know what the best pudding is no bois gelise

the farmer lady that lives next to me in normandy yeah we're in that area farmers ladies there who fancy themselves as cooks they're judged on their tart oh really tart yeah it's just an open tart and his mum was so impressed when she first tasted it she got the recipe and she still makes her tarts now noelle used to make these pork chops i don't eat a lot of meat but she used to make these pork chops with apple that was just bananas that was that was going to be that was a close runner for my main fongole or noelle's pork chops. Imagine Noel's featuring heavily at the moment. Yeah, but her tarte au pomme, that would be my last dessert. Does she put Calvados on it?

No, she doesn't put Calvados in it. It's just the right, she's just the magic. No, she doesn't put any of that on it. Where's the apples from? They're their own apples. That whole area is all apples, basically. Yeah, Normandy's apples, isn't it? That's why there's Calvados.

That's it. Before we let you go, we just need to ask... I want them to stay forever. I know, this has been really interesting. I'd really happily stay forever. Just keep hanging out, you'll have no problem. But do you think you've got good table manners? Not particularly.

Yeah, I'm sort of... If George is around or his mum's around, I do try and keep my feet out of the trough. And, yeah, so... Well, can't you stand in somebody else when they're at the dinner table that they do wrong? I can't stand people going... I might have done that because I've got a cold.

No, you didn't. You didn't. Don't worry, I'd have pulled you up I've got a cold. No, you didn't. You didn't. Don't worry, I'd have pulled you up on it. All right. And Mum likes to finish the chat with a final request. Do you like karaoke? Do I like karaoke? It sounds a bit trite after all we've talked about, to be honest.

I know, but you've got to do it, Mum. If you had to sing karaoke, what would be your song, Larry? You know what? It probably sounds a little bit weird. I'm not really much of a performer. Bloody hell. Jesus Christ. That's like you telling me I'm an introvert.

Yeah. But he's not, actually. He's not. I actually made you write that. He was on Strictly. Yeah, but it's not actually he's not he was on Strictly but he's not he's not a real showman alright it doesn't matter

you're at the end of a wrap party if he would do anything he would do Albert and the Lion which is a Lancastrian poem oh I love that you don't even know what it is there's a famous seaside town called Blackpool that's noted for fresh air and fun. The Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom went there with young Albert, their son.

A grand little lad were young Albert, all dressed in his best, quite a swell, with a stick with an horse's head handle, the finest that Woolworths could sell. Now, they didn't think much of the sea there. The waves were all middling and small and there were no wrecks. Nobody drowned it. In fact, nothing to laugh at at all. So seeking for further amusement, they paid and went into the zoo

where they'd lions and tigers and camels and old ale and cheese sandwiches too. There was one great big lion there called Wallace. His nose was all covered with scars, and he lay in a somnolent posture with a side of his head on the bars. But this didn't seem right to young Albert. He'd heard lions was ferocious and wild, and to see Wallace lion so peaceful, it just didn't seem right to the child. So straightway, the brave little fella, without showing a morsel of fear,

took his stick with the horses at handle and shoved it in Wallace's ear. Well, you could see that the lion didn't like it. But given a kind of a roll, he pulled Albert inside the cage with him and he swallowed the little lad whole. Now, Pa, who'd seen the occurrence, just didn't know what to do next, said Mother. Yon lion said, Albert. And Mother said, E, I am vexed. So Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom, quite right when all's said and done, they went to the animal keeper to tell him the lion had eaten their son. Well, the keeper was quite nice about it. He

said, Oh, what a nasty mishap. Are you sure that it's your boy he's eaten? Pa said, am I sure? Here's his cap. Well, the manager had to be called for. He came and he said, what's to do? Pa said, your lion's eaten Albert and him and his son did best too. Said, mother, right's right, young fella. I think it's a shame and a sin for a lion to go and eat Albert. And after we've paid to come in, where the manager wanted no trouble, he took out his purse straight away. He said, how much does that matter? Pa said, how much do you usually pay?

At that, Mother got quite excited. Was right when all's dead and done. She said, somebody's got to be summonsed. So that we're deciding upon. So they went straight round to the police station in front of the magistrate chap. And they told him of the lion eating Albert and to prove it they showed him his cap. Well, the magistrate gave his opinion. He said, I see there's really no one to blame.

Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom can still add further sons to their name. And that mother got proper blazing. Oh, thank you, sir, kindly, said she. What, spend all my life raising children? To feed ruddy lions? Not me! Now, you've heard how young Albert Ramsbottom in the zoo up at Blackpool one year with a stick with the horse's head handle

gave a lion a poke in the ear and the name of the lion was Wallace and the poke in the ear made him wild and before you could say Bob's your uncle he'd upped and he'd swallowed the child. Well, he was sorry the moment he'd done it, for with children he'd always been chums, and besides, he'd no teeth in his nozzle,

and he couldn't chew Albert on gums. He could feel the lad kicking inside him as he lay on his bed of dried ferns, and it might have been little lad's birthday he wished him such happy returns. But Albert kept kicking and fighting till Wallace arose feeling bad and he thought it were time that he started to stage a comeback for the lad. So, putting his head down in a corner, on his front paws he started to walk

and he coughed and he sneezed and he gargled till Albert shot out like a cork. You know, Wallace felt better directly And his figure once more became lean. And the only difference with young Albert was his face and his hands was quite clean. Meanwhile, Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom had gone home for their tea, feeling blue. Mother said, hey, I feel right down in the mouth like. Father said, aye, I bet Albert does too. Said, Mother, it just goes to show you the future's never revealed. If I'd thought we were going to lose him, I'd not had his boots sold and healed. Albert does too. Said, Mother, it just goes to show you the future's never revealed.

If I'd thought we were going to lose him, I'd not had his boots sold and healed. Well, look, let's look on the bright side, said Father. What cannot be helped must be endured. Every cloud has a silvery lining. And we did have young Albert insured. Well, a knock at the door came that moment as father, these kind words did speak, was the young man from the prudential. He'd call for their per tuppence, per person, per week. Well, when pa saw who'd been knocking, he laughed and he kept laughing so that the young man said,

what's it to laugh at? And pa said, aye, you're laughing all when you know. Excuse him for laughing, said mother. But really, things happened so strange. Our Albert's been ate by a lion. You've got to pay us for a change, said the young man from the prudential. Come, come, let's understand this. You don't mean to say that you've lost him. Amar said, oh, no, no, we know where he is. Well, when the young man had heard all the details, a purse from his pocket he drew and he paid them with interest and bonus the sum of nine pounds four and two and pa had scarce got his hands on the money when a face of the window they see and mother said hey look it's albert and father said i it would be the young lad came in all excited and started his story to give and father said i'll never trust lines again as long as I live. Well, the young man from the Prudential

to pick up the money began. And father said, Here, just a moment. Don't be insatiable, young man. And giving young Albert a shilling, he said, Here, pop off back to the zoo. There's the sit with the horses at handle.

Go and see what the tigers can do. Brilliant. Love it. Thank you for that. Have you recorded that for you should thank you hey not at all pleasure it's lovely well it's all right it's a very good it's all right for a southerner it's all right especially because we've been jesse's favorite place She used to be Blackpool. Did it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that was great.

I want my kids to listen to that. You know, I'll tell you something. I did that, who do you think, or they did, who do you think you are? Yeah. And they went down the line from my adopted mother and they traced us all down to a family of menagerie owners and my great-great-uncles were lion tamers. Oh, my God.

And do you know who their number one lion was in their act? Wallace. Shut up. That's amazing. I know. Tell me about it. That poem has been a part of my life. That was what I did as an audition to become a professional actor.

Do you remember it used to be on? Stanley Holloway. Yeah, Stanley Holloway. And it was his number. Yeah. And they used to be a children's favourites, do you remember children's favourites? you had Pink Toothbrush I'm a Blue Toothbrush, Nellie the Elephant

and they often had Albert have you heard that? I used to make him do it all the time it's so amazing thank you so much for being on it's been inspiring Educational Such a pleasure

And you had second helpings We love people with good appetites Exactly You've got to have people with a good appetite So if people want to try your bread The flour Your flour Well no your bread

Whatever If they want to support a farming system, which is sorting out the environment and makes much healthier food for them, then they should go on our website, which is wildfarm.co.uk, and they'll be able to find a stockist near them. And they're in 500 Marks & Spencer stores

up and down the country, so there's definitely one of them that won't be too far from you. And there's a couple of places you can get it online. If you want to get the flower yourself and start working with it. And yeah. Various restaurants around London. Everywhere, mate.

Everywhere. All the stockists are online. So yeah. Thank you so much, Larry and George Lam for coming over and teaching us a thing or two. Thank you. About lions and flower and farming. a thing or two about lions and farming thank you very much ladies that was wicked thank you that was great What a fascinating episode. I absolutely loved that conversation.

It was such good fun and so interesting and so motivating. Yeah, I kind of feel like we've got our very own Tony Robbins in a George Lamb. He is also so charismatic. He's lovely. And they were just such... Albert and the Lion. I loved it. I never heard of it. such albert and the lion i loved it i never heard i grew up with that i loved it um it was a really wonderful couple of hours we could have kept on chatting i mean we barely kind of talked i feel like we barely talked about food because there

was so much more to talk about um it's all about food darling i know but i think you take george lamb if you knew of him in the noughties was this you know star on the telly but obviously so unfulfilled and has found this amazing calling and is doing so much important work and we think he should start his own bloody political party or whatever absolutely he was the cat's here again. Yeah, the cat lives with you, Mum. Darling, but he doesn't need attention all the time.

I want stroking all the time, Prince. Poor Prince. Thank you so much to George Lamb and Larry Lamb for coming over, eating seconds of both courses. Enjoyed the food.

They loved it. It worked all right, didn't it? Absolutely. Thank you for cooking. Is it me up for cooking next? Am I doing it next? I didn't it absolutely um thank you for cooking is it me up for cooking next am i doing it next i don't know which i've lost track if you want to learn about grow or wild farmed we've got the links in the notes go and check it out it was such such an interesting lunch uh we'll see you next week. Be well.