Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S6 Ep 7: Hayley Squires

Episode Date: June 5, 2019

This week's guest is a national treasure. Since watching her in 'I, Daniel Blake' I've been obsessed with BAFTA nominated actress, Hayley Squires, so was delighted to finally have her join us for dinner! A blow torch disaster ensued resulting in soggy brûlées and mum literally on fire. Good job Hayley came to the rescue by bringing us a delicious home baked banana bread. We talk all about Hayley's love of cereal, how she eats a chocolate bar a day & her new love of baking. We know everyone will adore her as much as we do. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. I'm Jessie Ware and I'm sat here with my mum. Say hi mum. Sitting. I'm sat, I'm sat. You're sat. Am I allowed to say that? I don't think you're sat sitting. I'm sitting. Yes. With my mother. Yes. Who's a pain in my arse. I'm really happy to finally have this guest coming to my house. The first time I met Hayley Squires was when I was pregnant and I was going to see Daniel Kaluuya and David Hague in the Young Vic production

of Blue Orange. Oh, right. And she was there with Joe Dempsey who we love and we've had on the podcast with Daniel and we were all going

to support Daniel in this play. Was she in Skins then? She wasn't in Skins. I don't think. And she was there with Joe and he was like, this is my mate Hayley and I said, pleasure to meet you. He said, she's in this new Ken Loach film

and it's going to be so important and exciting. She was about to do the kind of rounds of all the festivals and she was just like the most kind of humble person. Next thing you know, she's up for a BAFTA. I think she was up for Best Supporting Actress at the BAFTAs for her role in I, Daniel Blake. Have you seen I, Daniel Blake? No.

It is one of the most important and powerful films I think I've ever seen and it's so relevant for now. It's about food banks, it's about poverty, it's about austerity. I mean it was heartbreaking. There's this scene in the food bank and I can't give anything away because you've got to watch it but quite relevant that we've got Hayley coming to ours when Brexit round the corner well I met her at Hammersmith Apollo oh yeah and she

was sat sitting sat sitting she was sitting in the middle where I thought I ought to be sitting and she clearly didn't want to move up and I gave her a long hard stare and she gave me a long hard stare like why are you here and we became best friends of course did she move no but she wasn't we all shuffled up a bit and it was she was so sweet and lovely she's brilliant and she's such a talented actress i've now seen her on screen but also more recently at the pinter theatre in the west end and it was the pinter um she did two pinter yeah it was a pinter season with russell tovey it was the same season as russell tovey was doing and actually no they were in the same season as Russell Tovey was doing. And actually, no, they were in the same production. And The Lover, The Lovers, I think they're called, or The Lover.

But she was so good in it. So I just feel like she's a gem of ours. Exciting to know what she's doing next. Yeah, and I don't know if you saw her in Collateral, the David Hare TV show that had Carey Mulligan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she was in it. Yeah, I remember she worked in the chip shop.

She worked in the pizza shop, yeah. Pizza shop. On the menu tonight, I gave Hayley the option of lamb or chicken. She said roast chicken was her favourite. So although we have done a roast chicken quite a few times, this is a fantastic and very easy and delicious roast chicken which producer Alice has kindly offered me which is borsan roast chicken now I don't eat a lot of borsan I have to say but putting it under the skin of a whole chicken and roasting it and putting it

in the carcass has transformed it into the most divine kind of chicken Kiev it's fantastic so I've done that on a bed of massive leeks that I've cut just sliced in half so they're sitting on there with celery as well because I love to roast celery so that's happening we've got two chickens in there all the fat and the creamy boursin juice is coming through and it's tasting delicious and then I'm going to do it with some just keep it kind of French doing bobby beans with some tarragon and like a mustard kind of buttery mustard um sauce and then I'm going to do sautéed potatoes which I've just diced up really small I actually don't know what I'm doing but I think it would just be nice and I've put a

bit of um herbs de performance on there and then we'll put some garlic on there a little bit later so it doesn't burn too much so we'll put it in halfway is that it is that it and then you've got 18 sides it's quite a creamy meal because maybe we didn't think I've made creme brulee which I didn't realize was so simple but I think I've made it I think it might have sat slightly too hard do we have to put it in the oven for a bit? No, it's been. All we need to do is blowtorch the top. Did you put cardamom in, like I said?

Yes. Oh, did you? Yeah, I put cardamom and vanilla in. And I strained it, so I broke the cardamom up. Cinnamon? No, you can't have cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla. Yeah, you can't. No, you couldn't, not.

Cinnamon would have overpowered the cardamom. Hayley did mention in a text, she said, I'm making banana bread. But don't tell your mum because I still want a pudding from her. OK, well, we'll see how it goes. She might prefer her just banana bread. Hayley Squires coming up on Table Manners. Can't wait.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, darling. Thanks so much for coming. Hayley Squires is in my kitchen and she has brought banana bread. She's the only person that's made something. Apart from a chef. But he didn't even make it. He got his people to make it.

I didn't make it. It his people to make it it's got chocolate chips it's banana and chocolate chip so whose recipe is it it's nigella's but it's altered so i can't cook right this is a thing it's been a thing for a really long time like a running joke with my family and my friends the fact that i didn't know i couldn't turn on an oven like i can't i didn't if i was in a kitchen it would be completely alien to me okay um and then not in november of last year when i finished the pinter place yeah and i was like i can't i need to do something i go mad when i'm not working made a cake for my nephew's birthday but you're like out of the box like cupcakes that you them terrible things that you shouldn't give to kids.

I was like, I'm going to make a cake. So I walked to the shop. I'd looked something up online, a red velvet cake. That's quite ambitious though. That's the best. Too ambitious.

Like why I started with that. I didn't even start with cookies or anything like that. Went and got the ingredients, come back, did it, then got obsessed. And now my kitchen's like full of cookbooks like baking books so you're baking and i tried to start cooking yeah you're gonna be in

the bake-off well i don't know but all my no one in my family or my friends can believe it because i'm like it's a running joke that i'm useless what's a lot besides banana bread what was the thing you cooked before uh apple crumble i mean it, it's basic, but for me, it's really good. So you've bigged this up. Yeah, well, it might be terrible. I'm a bit worried now. No, it looks perfect. Maybe if it's dry, I'll put some butter on it.

Babe, we've got creme brulee to go. So I'm thinking creme brulee and banana bread could be a winning combination. So we're having creme brulee. What else are we having? We're having roast chicken. Okay. But we're doing boursin roast chicken. What's that?orsan is that like that herby soft garlicky cheese great that you would never usually i mean i feel mean on poor borsan i'm giving them a bad thing it's good

it's fine but you it's one that you it's delicious darling anyway have you put it with chicken before yeah it's alice our producer she's a french thing okay hon that's the beef Delicious, darling. Anyway. Have you put it with chicken before? Yeah. Is this like a thing? It's Alice, our producer. It's a French thing. Okay. That's the beef. Please. Oh my God, that looks amazing. Right, so I think that's going to be done.

That's great. Jessie, this is really impressive. This is not much more impressive than I thought it was going to be. What do you think? I thought I was going to get a chicken breast in some nice sauce thought I was going to get like a chicken breast in like some nice sauce. You were so sweet. You were like, I love roast chicken. So I was like, right, come on.

I do love roast chicken. Chicken anything. So it's roast chicken. You and Mel B. Well, you know. I can't believe you've done this with a Spice Girl. I was really stressing when I was late because wasn't she really late? She was really late.

Oh my God, you have listened to the podcast. And I feel like we now are like these horrendous people that people are scared of. No, I hate being late. I hate late people. And my mum is like, my mum cancelled her wedding. This is the kind of woman my mum is. My mum is getting married.

She's quite stressed out with a lot of different things. She's taking care of my nan who's got very bad dementia. But she got so pissed off on her birthday that like the text messages arrived late and the birthday cards arrived late that she was like no they aren't invited to the wedding i'm not i'm not having a wedding where i'm gonna pay like hundreds of pounds for people to sit down and have a meal if they can't send me a birthday card or a text message on time i kind of love her she's by dilla yeah i'm gonna take she just was like i doing it. She said, if people can't deliver a birthday message

to me on time, then I'm not feeding them. On what time? What time? Because I had definitely been that person. Is this a new boyfriend, not your dad?

No, yeah. So they've been together, how long have they been together? Going on nine years, I think. Do you like him? Yeah, I love him. I love him.

His name's Martin. He's a very good man. And my mum's a very good woman, but she... Doesn't tolerate... She doesn't tolerate a lot. Bad behaviour. Doesn't tolerate bad behaviour. And so she decided that they were going to...

That was not the main reason. There's different reasons. Do you still live at home? No, I don't. I live about 10 minutes from my mum, though. I'm really close. That's how you need to be. It's really good. So you're... Sorry, I'm kind of... Sorry, I was like 10 minutes from my mum, though. I'm really close. That's how you need to be. It's really good.

So you're... Sorry, I'm kind of... Sorry, I was like... So you're a Kent girl, through and through? No, I was born in... I grew up in Forest Hill. Oh! Yeah, I was born in Greenwich Hospital.

So when did you move out to Kent? It was really random. So we got to... I was going on 14. My brother was going on 6. So we're a bit younger than that 13 15 which school did you go to in venice i did i went to sedge hill where's sedge hill sedge hill is lewisham yeah but before they made it really fancy it's

really brilliant school it's become an art school but it wasn't when i was there it was crumbling um basically my mum and dad are both south london and they got to the point where they just decided they couldn't be in London anymore it was too claustrophobic they just my brother was you know becoming about to turn sort of 16 and could have got himself into all sorts of trouble and so we got in the car one day went for a drive now like what are we going to do drove down towards the coast because we used to go for holidays in Rye quite a lot. Like Rye Hastings. Love Rye.

So we were driving towards there, saw this town called Sittingbourne, which is near Faversham, pulled off, saw this high street, went into an estate agent, found a house that we could rent for like a lot less money

than we were living in London for and we were moved within About six weeks. Oh my god, and you were 14. I was going on 14. Did you mind? Yeah My mates were here and also which bit of London you were living in Forest Hill. I'm from first We were living Elton then like you were kind of edging out rough for you Edging out. Yeah, my mum's from around there you didn't go to thomas talus no all the bad boys went there went to all the bad boys did though that's a shame no went went to sedge you and then we moved and it was yeah it was hard like i was i was shy at school my brother fitted him my brother was fine he became friends with all the top boys in the school. Did he look after you?

He did, yeah, but I struggled. I was shy. I can't imagine you being shy. I feel like you could completely look after yourself. When I got to about 16, I found my voice. But before that, I was very, very shy. When did you start acting? When I moved to Kent, funnily enough. When I moved to Kent drama drama lessons were like the

thing for me i just found a a home in it and sort of just thrived doing it and nobody does acting in your family no what kind of jobs do they do then what's your mum does your mum work my mum works my mum was actually a school cook for years and years and years oh wow she and when we moved to kent the school that me and my brother went to she ran the canteen she was the cook how was that for you it was it was fine because she was there thank god because i was having like daily breakdowns again i can't be here i don't want to talk to anybody i don't like it so i was going to my mom so she'd give you a little extra custard and cake yeah she was like gave me a bowl of chips sat me in her office and i was all right but um all the kids in the school really gravitated towards her so kids get got kicked out of class kids had home problems this must have been about

how old am i now going on 31 it's about 15 years ago the head teacher at the time came to her and was like we do you want to do this pastoral kind of job so now her role is something like the student support manager so it's all the kids that get kicked out of class uh social services meetings um looked after children traveler children she takes care of all that such and she still give them cake and custard she gives them chocolate and biscuits that's amazing and my dad when we were living in london used to run video shops so he's like a huge film buff so that's how it came about me and my brother were always surrounded by film and music he was was very into his film music. It's such a shame there's no video shots in the world. I know, it's really sad.

Because they'd tell you what was good. Yeah. Now we have to decide ourselves. It would be my favourite thing to do on a Saturday, go down with my mate, and choose like a Drew Barrymore and what's his face that was Robin with Batman. Chris, there was this film called Mad Love that we used to download.

We used to buy every week, rent every week. What Batman and Robin? He was with... Who was the Batman? Michael Keaton. No. No, way before that. George Clooney?

No, after. Oh, I don't know who the Robin was. Chris O'Connell. Chris O'Connell? Yeah. Don't know where he's gone. O'Donnell or O'Connell? Chris O'Donnell's the singer. Chris O'Donnell's a singer.

Chris O'Donnell's a singer. It wasn't him. Not the Irish film. Anyway, not the Irish film. It was a great film. Mad love. 90s film. Must watch it.

But so was your dad kind of feeding you, kind of saying you must watch Cinema Paradiso? No, he was just like, I was obsessed with Disney films when I was a kid and so he made sure that we had, we didn't have a lot of money, but me and my brother never wanted for books music or films he made sure that we had him and me and my so he would just show us whatever he liked or you know depending on what age we were whatever was at the cinema and yeah he just he just fed us films

which was amazing that's why I became obsessed, when I was about 14, particularly when we moved to Kent, my mum couldn't get me out of the house because I would stay in and watch, on a Sunday I'd watch seven films back to back. What's your favourite film? Of all time?

It's so hard. I'm obsessed with Godfather 2. Yeah. Goodfellas. Oh my God, god you like gangster films yeah pure gangster films and then one isn't a gangster film no disney i mean yeah but not that i'd like she's not gonna put it in the top three okay i don't know i mean something like sure sure shank redemption probably okay solid you know I've never seen that? I've seen it once. It's incredible, yeah.

Shall I watch it? Yes. I mean, it's a life-affirming, incredible film. See, mine would definitely be Saturday Night Fever. I don't think I've ever seen it all the way through. Oh, babe, if you like music... Not all the way through. I mean, I love you.

I mean, John Travolta's so brilliant. Yeah. I've seen bits and pieces, but I've never seen the whole thing. I love that film. Do you think I, Daniel Blake, was a kind of defining role for you? And did it change things for you? Where now, I don't know whether, you know, actors will be offered parts rather than having to read for them.

Has there been a shift? That hasn't changed for me. Okay. That hasn't changed for me. I mean, it was a weird one because had that film been american yeah i feel like it would have i mean it blew up for all the right reasons yeah in terms of if i was being selfish and talking about my career i feel like it would have blown up in a different way and probably things would have sort of catapulted

for me a little bit yeah um been like erin brockovich or something like yeah it would have sort of catapulted for me a little bit more. So you've been like Erin Brockovich or something like that? Yeah, it would have gone off. But it has furthered things, yeah, I think. I think it's given me more just confidence. Yeah. I mean, Mum hasn't seen I, Daniel Blake, but I found it one of the most important films. It's terrible, isn't it? Do you know why I haven't watched it?

Because I'm a social worker. Oh, God. And I think it's just kind of it's just kind of, I thought, gosh, this is what I see. I need to watch it. Especially with what's going on at the moment. It's just, it's when people tell me they haven't seen it,

it's hard for me to say. Sorry. No, no, no. No, what I mean is, I will see it. I kind of want to say to you, watch it when you're not in too bad a place. Yeah. Or you can have like really good food around you or you've got somebody with you that you love because even aside from being in it it's quite it's on just recently on TV yeah I couldn't watch it when it was on Christmas Eve or something they put it on they put it on

in January beginning of January yeah because you turn on BBC to BBC one they bought it a little bit in my opinion but they should have put it on BBC One. But it had a... I didn't realise the amount of people that hadn't seen it. And then there was this huge social media thing went off. Who's the main guy in it? A guy called Dave Johns. Who plays Daniel Blair.

Yeah, who's a stand-up comedian, who's absolutely brilliant. Amazing. Did it make you more politicised? Did it make you more political after doing that film yeah i mean i think i already knew what side of things i was on growing up it wasn't like a political household that i lived in at all but we had the news on and we came very much from a point of view of you treat people decently and you have morals and you treat people well and you look after people if you can um so i already knew what side i landed on and then doing that and the fact that everything

that happens in that film is based on a true story that was told to either the writer or the director either paul or ken it's sort of impossible not to be and not to be fucking furious all the time it's just it's just the cycle of poverty that's so terrible period poverty yeah food back i mean it's all of it and and the system combined with the system that's in place to keep people in those situations that's the worst part of it yeah is that the whole bureaucracy of it is designed to keep people down it's so sad what's it like working with Ken Loach? What is he like? How old is he for a start?

He is, what year are we in? 2019. In June or July, he's going to be 83, I think. 83? I thought he was about 50. No. I went to his 80th surprise birthday party that they threw for him, which was amazing. Jesse, Ken Loach is going to be 83. I think 83. When did I go to his 80th surprise birthday party that they threw for him. Which was amazing. Jesse Kenloach is going to be 83.

I think 83. When did I go to... Yeah, I think he was 80. And he's still angry. And he's still angry and he's made another... They've actually made another film. For somebody that's so fierce in their views,

he's very gentle. Don't be polite. Help yourself. Oh, no, I'm not. Okay. Come on then, help yourself. Oh, no, I'm not. Okay, come on then. Help yourself. Thank you. Take them. Everything, anything, whatever you want.

Look at this. It's very easy, babe. Very easy. I was convinced you were going to do me like a chicken breast. Oh, my God, I'm so offended. Have you not heard our fucking podcast? I've heard it, and it's been amazing. Oh, cuisine, babe.

I was listening to it while I did my banana loaf today. Oh you're so sweet. I need to not eat really quickly I'm known for doing that as well. Oh me too. That's why you eat really fast. Yeah so I can make sure I can get second. That chicken is lovely. Thank you. What are you doing next? Well, there's no acting project that's happening immediately, but I am writing. Are you allowed to talk about it?

Mm-hm. I am writing a film that has been in development for about four years. I started writing when I left drama school. I've always written. When I was a kid, I used to write poems to my mum or i used to write silly little stories that i'd draw do drawings with to give to my dad and stuff like that but um when i was leaving drama school i wrote a play that ended up going on at the royal court you're kidding as one of those kind of emerging writers it's a really amazing um respected scheme yeah what's it called it was wide there's a young

writers program and then they used to do the young writers festival and it was part i sent it in as part of the young writers festival and then they put it on for three and a half weeks that's amazing were you in it no i wasn't i wasn't in it but i was a big part of the rehearsals and all of that kind of stuff which was great and then from that I got a literary agent and people were like I think you're a bit of a writer it's a weird thing because I find it quite painful to do in the same way that you must do when you're sometimes when you're creating it can be like difficult in a way that's very difficult to describe to people well I think for me i don't feel it doesn't feel the most comfortable easiest thing for me so therefore i always kind of second

guess myself me too constantly you feel like you're kind of getting away with it did you have that feeling when you got the literary well yeah and kind of i think some people that are in involved in the arts in whatever way don't have that. Some people are born with a natural confidence or a natural sense of self that can carry them through. But we've talked about this before. I'm sure that can't make you creative if you're so confident you're doing it right.

But do you think it's also being a woman? I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know that it's being a woman. I think it's... I mean, in some circumstances, it definitely is where you feel like your voice is second-guessed in a way that a man's wouldn't be. That's a fact.

But I think there's also just something that's sometimes about your personality. And I think that me and you share that in some ways where we go, that when I remember watching, coming to your gig and afterwards you were like, was it all right? And I was going, it was incredible. You've got like no idea how good you are. that's a that's a beautiful thing to have about yourself but also sometimes it can be to your detriment well I think

what happens is you don't convey that confidence to other people so if you feel doubtful about doing something I think you make you create doubt in other people's minds. Yeah, because it's just an air that you give off. Do you think Cate Blanchett thinks she's not very good? Maybe, sometimes. She might do, sometimes. But I mean, I also think it's about taking ownership of your work. And that's a big thing.

So last year I wrote the official first draft of this film that I'm doing. BBC Films have commissioned me to write it. I'm working with a brilliant production company called DMC and their two producers, Dan and Theo, who I've been working with for four years to develop it. But I wrote the first draft in the summer and then I was like, lost my shit. Why?

I was like, I read it back and went, it's no good, I can't do it, I'm not doing this anymore. And I went to my mate Lindsay's, my best female friend, I went to her house and she's married to my best friend from drama school and they've got two kids together, all my god sons,

and I went and sat on their sofa and was like, I'm not doing any of this anymore. You know when you just get to that point? Why are you being, like you're self-sabotaging? Self-sabotage, completely. But you know when you just go... Has anybody being sabotaged like you're self-sabotage self-sabotage completely but you know when you just had anybody said anything nobody had said anything but i'd been on my own for the summer writing this draft i hadn't done any acting for

a couple of months and sometimes it's just hard it's hard to sustain your mind going round and round and over and over again and sort of justify spending the time doing that and juggling other things that are happening in life. But you've been commissioned to do it. I know, I know. It's not like a hobby. It's the way you think though, isn't it? And that's a really good point, Lenny,

because for ages I'd gone right into just something that sort of happened. Yeah, a sideline. Exactly. And then I went and spoke to my lindsey and rob and they were like you need to calm down one thing at a time no they hadn't but they had the confidence to go to me it's gonna be fine it's gonna be fine you're lumping too many things in together you're thinking about your life you're thinking about all the different areas of it and then

you're stressing on this draft over all of those things and so then I calmed down a little bit I went and did the Pinter plays which you were fantastic thank you which was amazing because I was in the room with Jamie Lloyd who's an amazing director brilliant actors who runs the Pinter who's running the Pinter season yeah and just had a really good time. Went back to the draft. Had worked for my producers. And then by the end of the year, he'd produced something that I was like, okay. We went and had a meeting with BBC.

The notes were really good. You can do it. And it fell into place. Yeah, but it's just sometimes I think that you have to, people just have different ways of things. And I'm somebody that, like I say, when I moved from Kent to London, I was a bit scared London I was a bit

scared and I was a bit nervous and that feeds into everything and so I've been trying to that's what I've been trying to do end of last year into this year going no it's all fine you're making a career and when will it come out when will it start I did I would love to shoot it next year, next summer. It needs to be shot in the summer. Are you going to be in it? Yes. Wow. I am playing the lead in it. Have you found who's going to direct it? No, we haven't yet. We haven't found who's going to direct it. Would you want to direct it? Well, there was a, there's a, there was a back and forth about this. Would I direct it? But it's a, it's about my character does bare-knuckle fighting in it. Oh, Jesus Christ. And it's quite a lot, as I've never directed before.

So again, in the summer, I was like, I need to do it, nobody else can do it, it's got to be mine. And now I'm like, no, I don't think so. Actually, I think I would need somebody to come in and collaborate with me and help me through it and help make it what it needs to be. Mum's got the soap. I've just bought a blowtorch from a shop down the road. I thought you were going to say something else there. A blowjob?

Mum, please. Fucking hell. Have you used one of these before, Jessie? Well, I turned it on just to test it. Right. And now I can't get it back I turned it on just to test it. Right. And now I can't get it back on so it's just not panning out so well. Oh my god. I'm going to do this away from you.

For fuck's sake. Oh my god Jessie. Is it coming out? Oh! Okay. Okay. Got it? No. Oh my god. Jessie gently.

No Jessie you're not doing it right. It's too strong darling. It's creme brulee it's burnt fucking creme brulee. You need to turn it down. Turn it down. Jessica turn it down. Alright I'll turn it down. It smells nice.

No you're not doing it right. I don't like it a bit brulee. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it down! Jessica, turn it down!

It smells nice. I don't mind it a bit brulee. No, it's supposed to be... Oh, it's on fire. Blow it out. Oh my God! Shit! Should we just shed the two? No, it's supposed to be grueling, it doesn't taste shit.

Mum! Don't! Turn the grill on. Don't put me on fire! Put the grill on. Yes! If you shout at me anymore, I'm going to blowtorch you. Oh, don't!

And you've only promised me you're not going to use that again. No, I'm not going to use that again. No, we're not going to use that again. 20 quid. Okay, so basically there was nearly a health and safety issue where I got the blowtorch and I will be sending it back tomorrow because it just set my mum's hand alight. Basically her hand was going to be like Freddy Krueger. So now we've put them in the grill. So who knows the old em, it was quite fun that blowtorch for a while. It's cracked, see so it is properly bruleed. Jesus I need a whiskey. Oh do you drink whiskey? No! Are you a pudding person then? Yes.

Love sweets, love dessert, love chocolate, massive sweet tooth. What's your chocolate bar that you'd have? Chocolate bar? Oh god, it depends on the day. How many chocolate bars are you having a week? Well I mean I have at least one chocolate bar a day. You're joking! No you don't! I a week? Well, I mean I have at least one chocolate bar a day. You're joking! No you don't!

I do! I do, yeah. I love you! Or at least one piece of chocolate. It depends. I love a picnic, I love a star bar, I love a galaxy. A star bar? You're the only person that eats that?

Star bars are the one. Is that your main? No, it's got like, it's nougat and it's peanuts. How's this? It's the like, it's nougat and it's peanuts. How's it this? It's the best. It's slow. So yeah, so I'm a sweet tooth. I love a sweet, I've got a sweet tooth.

Okay, so growing up, your mum was, you know, she was a school canteen chef, cook. Yes. So what were you eating at home um it was very much um i was the most nightmare child for my mum when it came to food i wouldn't eat anything i wouldn't eat fruit i wouldn't eat veg i wouldn't eat meat if it was like a certain way the only me i'm proud of you tonight yeah i'd only eat chicken funnily enough right um but it was very much like she's a really thinking of my hand poor mom she um we're cooks she and she can cook no she can cook but it was never like we never had fancy food it was never ever fancy food because she was too busy doing stuff

um but she's a really good cook and my nan was a really my nan's still here but she's can't cook anymore but she was a incredible cook like home not fancy food but just really good would you eat your grandma's cooking yeah so what was what was her your favorite dish of her so probably her roast you know was just the best thing in the world. Because I lived with my nan and grandad my first two years of drama school, I had it lovely because she'd do me a packed lunch, she'd drive me there, pick me up, come back, and I'd have like a shepherd's pie. Is she the nan who's not well now?

Yeah, she's the nan who's got dementia. Because I remember you were going to come before and then you couldn't because she wasn't well. Yeah, she's got very advanced dementia. It's so sad. How old is she? She's 81. 80, 81.

She's young. Yeah, but she's had it. I think it began when I was still living with her. I remember she came out of Tesco one day and she couldn't remember where her car was and not what car, not where she'd parked it. She couldn't remember she couldn't remember where her car was and not what car not where she'd parked it she couldn't remember what car she had um yeah she's living with my mum because my when i whilst i was doing cat on a hot tin roof my granddad passed away and um it was quite sad he'd been poorly but it was quite sudden and then but she had dementia

but it was still we could still cope with it and now she yeah she lives with my mum and my mum works but takes care of my name so she lives with your mum and your mum's boyfriend yeah so it was your grandma's roast and what would she have in there that she'd have amazing potatoes she'd have yorkshires that she'd done just just roast chicken that was good gravy that was brilliant just i only ate veg when i went to my nance when i was younger because her veg didn't taste like anyone else's veg it was like veg cooked just to the most perfect degree but she grew up with um she had two older brothers two older sisters and then her youngest brother who was she was about 15 when he came along so she lived in a very big household and she was basically the mom she took care of

the house um and my her mum was gypsy so they had very specific ways of you know cooking and cleaning and all of that so my nan my nan could cook incredibly well and my mum can cook incredibly well did she marry really young then if her mum was a gypsy um no my i don't know how old her mum was when she got married so were they roma or irish romany yeah but my granddad my granddad wasn't but they'd known each other since they were about six years old do you know anything more about how because you were saying that your grandma's mum had very particular ways of the food. Well, kind of with everything, really.

Like, just keeping house. Right. And making sure everything was proper and doing things like the way they would wash their nets and things like that. okay so so your mum was a good cook but you just wouldn't eat any of it i mean what would you eat cereal babe cereal and i mean she cooked i mean it wasn't even like she was cooking me fancy food that i didn't understand as a child i just was going i don't want this i want cereal i'd go through really funny phases of stuff

well you're just like nigella you've just done that banana bread yeah and she was a fussy eater when she was younger too so you know you could basically have you're probably going to be a world famous cook yeah i probably am i think um but they so my mom and my nan are both really good cooks and i just never i never needed to yeah because i lived with my mom and she did everything for me then i lived with my nan she did it all for me and then when i moved in with my friends in my third year of drama school my friend rob did everything for me because i tried to cook noodles and cried when they went wrong so he would cook for me how long can noodles go well they went soggy and i couldn't really eat them and they sort of disintegrated and stuff like that i mean i was really bad it

was really really bad terrible couldn't can't cook couldn't cook so what would you okay i know that you've like you're starting with baking which i think is slightly mad this is an amazing banana bread but the thing with baking is it doesn't matter if it goes wrong i think i can't do baking like baking's just a treat whereas if you're trying to cook somebody a meal or cook yourself a meal and it goes wrong that that's a fucking nightmare. It's all right for you. So what did you have for breakfast? Today?

Toast. Yeah, with what? Peanut butter. That's all right. And some watermelon. That's not bad. Lovely. That's a good day.

What's a bad day? Cereal. Sugary cereal. What's your cereal? I mean, I'm not as bad on cereal as I used to be. All right, what's your favourite? Cereal. Do you like cinnamon?

Those cinnamon ones? No, I'm not a big cinnamon fan, you know. I like chocolate, anything chocolate I like. Cocoa pops. Yeah, cocoa pops. I'd love cocoa pops. Anything covered in... Jesus Christ, Hayley, this is your, like, you're trapped in the 90s.

Yeah, palette of a child. Yeah. I can't be Sam's mate. God, it's a good job you don't live here because you won't be allowed cocoa pots. You'd be having buckwheat for breakfast. No, I'm joking. Let's go to your last supper.

Okay. What's it going to be? It would probably be... Your nan's roast. My nan's roast. Or there is a pub in a village near where I live called The Sun, and they do the chicken leek and ham pie that they do. Ooh, that sounds delicious.

It is just extraordinary. And they've got this leek sauce that comes with it that doesn't sound appetising, but is really good. What comes on the side? It's sort of in the pie, and then you cut into the pie and it leaks out. Oof. No pun intended. Yeah.

So either that or the roast dinner, I think. You could have both, babe. Yeah, I'd have both. Starter, so you just wouldn't even have a starter?

I'd have like a nice soup for a starter. Oh my God. Now, Dolly Alderton has an issue with people that want soup. Why?

Was it Dolly Alderton? She said, why would want soup. Why? Was it Dolly Alderton? She said, why would you ever want soup? No, I love soup. But you know when you go to... I remember when I knew that I'd gone to a really fancy place. I think it was for an event. And you know when you go to an event and they all come out at once and serve you at once.

I had this bowl in front of me and I think my mum was... It might have been in Cannes and I was like, now we're going to have soup for a start. They came out and they poured it out of like a separate saucepan, but it was fucking cold. Oh, no. I was like, it's soup. Why is it cold? Gazpacho can't do that.

No. So I'd have a warm soup of some kind. What kind? Something really just average, like carrot and coriander. Tomato. Oh, tomato. I love you. You want soup. Tomato. Oh, tomato. I love you. You want soup.

Soup is my style. Fine, fine. I mean, my palate is really basic. With a crusty bread? With a crusty bread. I mean, I love food. I really, really love food, but I'm not sophisticated when it comes to stuff.

Doesn't matter. And then pudding? Would be either something chocolatey, like a chocolate fudge cake. A bit of a letter down here. I fucking said we should have done chocolate but anyway go on you haven't let me down you nearly set fire to yourself

you haven't let me down anyway go on just hit a flilly Freddy flilly on silent witness something chocolatey or I have to say not blowing my own trumpet my own apple crumble come on why is it so good what do you do whose recipe has it come from oh god i'm trying to remember i think it's off of a site called baking mad or it might be the one you're really going deep into these

like he's the really posh man that does the everyday cottage country cottage him it might be his okay and what does he put in it this i don't know if it is his um well i do it with golden caster sugar but i roll my apple i slice my apples and i roll my apples in it which i think is an average thing to do i've never done that i roll my i put a lot of sugar in it i roll my apples in it and then I leave it when I do put it in I leave it ever so slightly longer so that it does look almost

edging towards slightly burnt on the outside because it cooks really nice and then I put demerit sugar on the top of it before I put it in the oven as well which is probably just an average apple crumble but it's delicious I've stopped using baking apples and started using just ordinary apples

what apples do you use granny smith's if i'm going to cook with them just because i like bramley but i use bramley's but sometimes they're so sharp you've got to put so much so sharp so if you use granny smith's they're just slightly less sharp okay but almost a similar texture fair enough i'll try granny smith next time just because you don't need to put quite as much sugar in. I put a lot of sugar in it. So, okay, so where are some of your favourite restaurants in London? Or Kent? That one I told you.

The Sun. The Sun in Kent. Have you been to the Sportsman? No. Yes, along Sea Salter. I don't know, but it's like... Yeah, right by the sea wall. Yeah, a bit of that.

I love that everyone from London knows that pub as well um favorite spots in london i like i mean i say it's not very sophisticated for chicken pho i like what's the place on next door to groucho uh cater cartier i don't know how you pronounce it c-a-t-y-r-e but it's got like a accent over it i don't know it's for chicken pho they do really good chicken pho okay wicked i'm so unsophisticated there's a place opposite the pinter theater and i cannot remember the name where is the pinter theater it's like near leicester square it's an italian and i can't they do the most amazing meatballs in there and i can't remember the enzo's enzo's kitchen i don't know opposite the Pinta Theatre on Panton Street I hadn't heard of it at all it's on Panton yeah call it the Pinta Theatre I love

that just opposite there's about three these three spots yeah and it's and they used to be a tie at the end or that's it, yeah. And it's the Italian right opposite. They do really good meatballs in there and sauce. I'm trying to think where else. Would you be getting like meatballs before you'd be going on stage or you'd be having them after? No, before. Oh.

I mean, not too far before. If I was on at half past seven, I'd do it about five o'clock. Yeah, do you have any like a regime? I guess it's different for when you're in theatre yeah I mean obviously a kind of on stage I have to go on stage for a warm up before we do a show

just to have been in the theatre and sort of look is that what everyone does? a lot of people do it were you doing it on your own? no or you do it as a cast? we'd all do it as a cast but everyone would do their own individual ones

sometimes people didn't come sometimes people did. But I always do that when I do theatre. I look at the empty seats and just make sure that I can see where it begins and ends. And with every job that I do, I make a playlist. Do you? Yeah.

Yeah, I make a playlist. So what was on the Pinter playlist? The Lover. It's in my bag on my phone. It started I make a playlist. So what was on the Pinter playlist? The Lover. It's in my bag on my phone. It started with Sister Sledge. Oh. We're a family. No.

That would be appropriate. Thinking of You. Great. Thinking of You. There was a lot on there. Prince. There was some Eminem on there. But before every show, I listened to Diamond by Rihanna.

Such a good song. Now, lastly, do you think you've got good table manners? Yes. Although I eat very quickly and a lot. That's fine. I don't think you eat that quickly. I think you were fabulous. I was being polite. I think you were great. What's your worst table manner in somebody else? Do you know what? I've got a list.

It's to do with things that annoy me and people and people that eat really loudly okay like really loudly i don't like that i don't like when you go to a restaurant i get quite um i'm very aware of other people when i'm in a public space so when i'm in a restaurant and someone's talking really really loudly at the table next to me i don't like that mum's like does the thing where she talks loudly at them and says they're so loud and rude that's what my mum does right the other thing i can't stand more than anything i'm talking about being in a restaurant is when people don't say please and thank you to the people that are serving them if i'm having a conversation with somebody and someone comes and puts a plate down

in front of them i don't like it when people just carry on talking like they're not there. I'm with you on that obnoxious loud thing. Just the way that it's just loud. Like everything is just loud. It's the hooray set of the world. The hooray hemorrhages. Yeah.

Hayley Squires, I'm very happy to finally have you in my house. Me too. And eating your banana bread, which was fucking good. Thank you. It was great. She saved the day with the dessert.

No, I don't think I'll ever forget you nearly setting fire to yourself for crème brûlée, to be honest. I think I'll be telling that story for a while. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having me. I just love her. I love her. She is just a real gorgeous girl.

Gem. She is a gem. A little treasure. Banana bread was absolutely... Divine. Delicious, Hayley. And if you didn't know who she was Before this podcast Which I presume you all did Because she's fantastic

Please whatever you do If you see her name in the West End Go and watch her She is so brilliant And whatever you do next Please go and watch the iDanielBlake She's so proud of it Yeah she's so

She was amazing in it She was good in collateral She was great in collateral go and watch the i daniel blake but um she's so proud of it yeah she's so i mean she she was amazing in it but she was good in collateral she was great in collateral but yeah thank you so much hayley squires for being on for schlepping over here tolerating one of our major disasters don't it like the far end the greatest show see I always worried about those blow torches and now I know why it just didn't fit together darling no I'm gonna go back to that guy

and so actually lit from the whole chemist my new kitchen. Nearly up in flames. My mother, nearly up in flames. And to be fair, it was a shit blowtorch. It was awful. Well, you over blew it at the beginning. Oh, excuse the pun.

That was, I that that's up there with George Ezra to be fair as drama's in the kitchen it's really up there I don't think Ken Brule should go in the cookbook

yeah Ken Brule is fucking dead to me that's it or you have to get someone else to play a coach that you don't like it was nearly mum Brule you The music you've listened to on Table Manners is by Peter Duffy and Pete Fraser

and Table Manners is edited by the wonderful Alice Williams.