Test Match Special - View from the Boundary - Tim Key

Episode Date: June 11, 2022

Tim Key joins Dan Norcross in the TMS commentary box. The comedian, actor, screenwriter and poet talks about trying to be creative during the pandemic, his work with Steve Coogan and, of course, his love for the game of cricket - inculding his memories of the 2005 Ashes series.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Dakar Rally is the ultimate off-road challenge. Perfect for the ultimate defender. The high-performance Defender Octa, 626 horsepower twin turbo V8 engine and intelligent 6D dynamics air suspension. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. from BBC Radio 5 Live.

It's Saturday, so it's View from the Boundary Time, and we're joined by an award-winning comedian, poet, actor and screenwriter. He starred recently on screen in the BBC comedy The Witchfinder, but he's a performer probably best known as a co-starred of one of the biggest characters in comedy British comedy history. As sidekick Simon, alongside Steve Gugan's creation, Alan Partridge, he's been part of hugely successful series, like Mid-Mourning Matters and the one show Pastiche this time.

and the film Alpha Puppa. He's an Edinburgh Festival comedy award winner, popular poet, and of course a huge cricket fan who once wrote that his summer is defined by the test match itinerary, much like us. And we're delighted he can fit us into that itinerary. It's a very good afternoon to Tim Gee. Thanks for having me.

It's an absolute delight to have you. So, firstly... Just tweaked my mic. I have just tweaked to your mic. Just quickly, because you were out in the crowd. I was, yeah. And we've established at every... single commentator in this box got the dropped catch wrong.

Oh, God, it was a wicket. Where were you sitting? How close were you doing? I was sitting sort of about 20 metres below you. Below you. Yeah. I had it out. I mean, one of the problems was that on the screen it said out. That's not helpful, is it? No. And also, everything about it was out. I mean, the ball went sailing through the air. He cupped his hands as if he wanted to get him out. And then he crouched. And then a person actually tapped him on the shoulder as if to say, So well done, you've got him out. And then someone from a different part of the crowd

threw the ball back and you realized he probably wasn't out. He was still in. There was a bit of pathos to it all, was that? I mean, it was an essentially amusing moment that was born of tragedy, which, I mean, we're going to be talking a bit about that, because that is comedy after all. It is. Now, I want to talk first about Steve Coogan.

Yeah, let's get him out the way. Do you mind? Genuine, take us back to it. How did you get on the show in the first place? Well, so I got a phone call from my agent, and I was in Edinburgh, sat with another comedian, David Adoherty, and she said, look, it might not happen, but this is completely, keep this under your hat,

you can't really tell anyone. And she told me that I was potentially going to be sidekick Simon, be Alan Partridge's new sidekick when they brought it back. And I'm, because I'm not allowed to tell you, no, I'm just going, okay. Are you absolutely thrilled at this point? I mean, I'm sort of having to sort of hold it in a little bit because it is a really crazy thing to be asked to do, you know. I mean, I'm like an enormous Alan Partridge fan.

And so I kind of, I feel like I was sort of, like any 35-year-old in the country would have been hearing this news, just kind of thinking, this can't quite be happening. Anyway, I said, well, that's fantastic. Put the phone down. then David goes what was that about and I go

doesn't matter nothing and then that was it I was now going to be his his sidekick did you know him well before

no I didn't know I didn't know him hardly at all he'd come and watch the show about 10 years before and I'd been kind of obviously enormously starstruck and just being in the presence

of I mean pretty much I don't think you can overstate it really in my mind I think anyone who likes you know British comedy probably has him held in the same, you know, reverence in cricket in terms. He's your, I don't know what he is, you're both of them.

You're both of them, probably. I mean, it doesn't really get much better than him. There's other big units out there. You know, you're sort of your Atkinsons and your Victoria Woods. There's some big players. But for me, he fitted into my life and me watching comedy in such a specific way where I was probably 16, 17. It was the first stuff that I was watching.

Day to day. Because my parents were watching. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm watching this stuff that your parents don't get. And then I'm quoting it at school and I'm kind of starting to speak

in the way that they speak. And I remember going to university and living with people who were like three years younger than me in my final year. And clearly their person wasn't him. It was Ali G. And then probably the generation after that

a few years after that, it's kind of the office. But for me, the kind of 16-year-old old stuff going in is all of that lot the day to day to day Chris Morris Steve Coogan Armando Ianucci

you know Rebecca from Dumackegan all of those people but really if you have to choose one it's probably in well it yeah I'm with you on that as well actually because I'm watching an odd of it myself so I'm trying to imagine

your feelings when you first meet him horror properly yeah horror horror I remember going up in a lift and for the first meeting and him being in another room talking to someone and the lift door is opening and me then

I could just hear him slightly and it's Steve Coogan it's quite mad and then the door opens and yeah it's a really strange thing where I think you can

you must meet a lot of your heroes doing this job and it's quite interesting how quickly that just completely dissipates and they're just a person again with him it hasn't that hasn't it hasn't totally happened yet

I mean I don't tend to get too starstruck and obviously there's some people you meet and you go this is pretty mad but quite soon you're sort of chassing away quite freely and you sort of forget that they're Jack D and then you sort of press on but with him it was a little bit different because also I had

you know I had an enormous sort of responsibility in that I was now being employed as his person on a much loved sort of franchise of programs in a way so that yeah that's constantly in my mind that I've got an enormous opportunity here to ruin a franchise. Do you know, this sounds, this is so, so familiar. Oh yes, because you ruined TMS. Yes, I ruined TMS.

I mean, I was told by a listener, on the very first day I did it in 2015, I got a tweet from somebody saying, you're the very worst thing ever to have happened on this program. No, I think I said absolutely worse. You're a disgrace. The disgrace. No, but I know you probably did have the same thing because you probably listened to it for 30 years. before you did it. Absolutely.

And you're sitting, you're on the shoulders of giants. Well, the first time you meet most of these people actually is when they sit down next to you. The first time I met Glenn McGraw was, you know, when someone had left the competition box,

said, Jill Tuft was taking a break, and for the first time in the series, we'll welcome Glenn McGrath. Yeah. Cricely, I'm meeting Glenn McGrath. Well, I know, because you always say that under your breath. I remember hearing you. You're like, oh, God, no, Glenn.

He's terrifying for anybody. You'll appreciate this for the 2005 ashes. Yeah. They thought, well, and many ashes series before that. But, you know, for us, Jeffrey was probably the one that's nearest to Coogan that I can think of, you know, because in terms of... Geoffrey's your partridge. Jeffrey's your partridge, because he's been around for the longest, probably the longest serving summariser when I started.

And so there was that sense of really not wanting to let him down. So when you're first on with Coogan, I can imagine those nerves. It was brutal. Well, also the nature of the show is we did a show called This Time, which was kind of a 15-minute... It was actually for the internet, weirdly. And it's set in a radio studio because he's sort of fallen on...

As always, with Partridge, his career is ebbing and flowing. And he's at a low point when we rejoin him after this hiatus, working for North Norfolk Digital. So the whole thing is set in a room like this, but smaller. And it's soundproofed radio studio with two mics, no cameras, There's just a mic there and a mic there picking up everything.

So as soon as the door closes, it's just too much. It's me with, not only with Steve Coogan, who I've always loved all of his stuff, not just Partridge, but I'm also with Partridge, which added another layer to it. And he's obviously dressed as Partridge. And Steve encapsulates Partridge and becomes Partridge. So I'm looking at basically a monster And it's really petrifying

How does he do that? I mean is there a switch that's flicked When he's Steve Coogan And then he's Alan Partridge It's not a gradual process No you do see it in his eyes There's I mean Steve is to be fair to the guy

I'd never say it to his face obviously But he is a genius And so what that's How that switch is flicked You know I don't exactly know I mean, I'm sure there's some other less subtle character comedians or characters that are invented where, you know, they go into, like, a stupid walk and, you know, sort of stick the moustache on and take it from there. But with him, he's normal Steve, albeit dressed as Partridge, something in the eyes maybe where something vacates, the sort of the human side of Steve just leaves and there's this mad guy. is inside Steve Coogan.

And you just see it through these eyes. I mean, it's like, he's actually a brilliant live performer as well, but TV is very good for Partridge, I think, because it's so unforgiving and so kind of, you can get really close. And I think you can't really go too close on Steve's eyes. And actually, in the most recent one, which is called This Time,

the other one's Mid-Mourning Matters, in this time, because it's set, a kind of one show type thing because it's all a bit scruffy and a bit sort of off-camera stuff you sometimes get the camera right in on his face where it wouldn't normally be and it's a real treat

like I think sometimes you could go that close and you might, the magic might disappear but with Steve it's like you can go right in as much as you like and you just get, I think it's because he's done it for 25 years, this character there's no, there's no gaps in it it's just like this sludge of partridge

that runs through Steve Coogan's body. And we all know him, don't we? We all know Partridge. Do we feel like we know Partridge? You know how he'd react in every single situation. You know what happens if, you know, someone dressed inappropriately comes into his gaze and stuff. And you know, I mean, even when they sort of described this time to me,

and it's like someone's been taken ill and he's now going to be hosting the one show, effectively. Yes. And you're going to get loads of stuff about, you know, where we are in the world today and what about things like woke and all of that sort of stuff and you know he's going to be

really struggling with it but also really styling it out and you know that that's going to be a real treat to watch. And you were talking about the radio and the TV aspect of it because you he gets all the lines, does he? He gets the sort of lines to do

you. The camera we come straight in on you and there's a little glance, there's a sort of glance of befuddlement and occasional bemusement and you're sort of communicating on our behalf in a sense the revulsion, horror, bafflement I mean that's quite a thing to do

Well it's interesting, I do remember that first time I did it with Mid-Warning Matters and it was so petrifying but I do remember thinking and then people were nice about my performance they're like, oh my God it's excruciating and I do remember thinking I know why it's because

I'm not really a great actor I'm quite good at playing myself but I'm not like a method actor or anything but some people like draw on their things that have happened to them but I know what I'm drawing on there I as in Tim am absolutely petrified of ruining everything

and my character side kick Simon is exactly the same and I'm faced with Steve Coogan who I really don't want to let down and somewhere professionally I'm almost like there's a fear that I'd get it wrong and psychic Simon is exactly the same and so there's that those two things are happening

and so it's all quite natural it's just pretty natural I once got something wrong and he sort of he sometimes like you know says stuff off camera as Partridge and I remember him

he was he told me I'd done it wrong and I said I said to me is that Steve or Alan telling me off and he said that's both. Oh God, you poor thing. I know, there's some stuff that I've,

there's definitely some flashbacks I've had to some. There's one time where... We'll get you a couch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's one time where he's yelling at me in that show because I've done a practical joke that's gone wrong. And I remember him yelling at me on Canada. This is not Steve.

This is Alan. He's going, you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. work for North North Norfolk Digital Radio again or something like that yeah I sometimes you know I have flashbacks to that it's brutal he's like right in on me and he's like his finger is like pointing at me and his veins are up and it's this yeah this that's the sort of ultimate kind of embodiment of this monster that I had to deal with and again you're saying is that Steve or yeah I didn't even want to check with that one

I'm assuming it was a bit of it's usually a bit of both let's take you back to the the dawn of your comedic journey, is it? And is you an interesting way that you got into it? Because you didn't go to Cambridge, did you? No, did you? No. But I also wasn't on the Cambridge Foot Lads. Oh, no.

I was on the Cambridge Footlights. Yes. How did you wangle that? That was through lying. I went to Sheffield. Lying, yes. Yeah, I went to Sheffield University and then came back and was a bit clueless as to what I would do next.

And I'm from Cambridge. So I thought I'd be in a play or something Get it out of my system And then I don't know Do something But I went and did an audition for a play And then I went and did an audition for the Cambridge Footlights And I think you obviously have to be at Cambridge to do that

I thought that was a case Yeah, you do actually So I went in and I had to like There was a big list of emails Where you had to write down your email before you did the audition All of them had a definite whiff of Cambridge University they all ended with cam dot ac

okay mine was the only one that ended at hotmail.com I think someone said is that you have a college one and I said I'm waiting for that to come through which I don't know what that means but I see I was waiting for it to come through

and then I got the part and there was six of us in it and I remember the after like a lot of auditions we had two weeks of writing together and 12 of us and eventually after the last one the director's

said okay we'll put a letter in your pigeonhole to let you know whether you're in so i said could you put it in the um could you put mine in the theater pigeon hole because obviously no pigeonhole and then um i was living this kind of double life because i was from cambridge so i was like with my my pals just you know in the pub went and got this thing and it said i was in in the in the footlights and um yeah kind of in in my life an enormous moment because it's a weird a weird thing to imagine that you could possibly be doing, well, what you're doing or what I'm doing. You know, as a kid, you just assume that's what other people do. These are people on the telly. These are people who are doing the interesting jobs. And that's not really open to me because

that's kind of a dream world or a make-believe world. But it's weird. That was my first step on it. And yeah, after about a year, you kind of think, well, you're broke and it's not going very well. But you are also thinking, God, that, why not? Maybe this can happen. Who are the people you were working with? My guys. Yeah, your guys. My guys were Mark Watson, who I'm still best friends with and he still is a fantastic comedian.

Alex Horn was kicking him out then. Of Taskmaster and many other fames. Mainly Taskmaster. Many. A bit of other fames, actually, yeah. You've done that, haven't you, Tasmaster. Taskmaster, yep, I did the first series. Yeah, yeah.

And we'll come back to Taskmaster because I don't need to. Well, I want to know how it works. Don't give him the oxygen of publicity. Well, let's take him out of the equation. Yeah, let's make it about you. Yeah, yeah. Why, do you want to be on it? No, I'm terrified.

There's never any chance I would be on it, but I watch it religiously, and I put myself into the position to the people doing the tasks, and some of them are just so impossibly difficult, anything to do with drawing things and making sculptures and getting out of rooms.

It's really, really stressful. It looks it. I remember there was one where I just, I finished doing it, and it was throwing it, maybe you had to get an, or maybe you had to get an, a tea bag into a teacup from the longest distance.

I remember that one. I remember doing it and just thinking, I put mine, I cut up a tennis ball and put it in a, one of those things that you throw so your dog can get it. And I got some tarpaul in around the cups to use as a funnel and threw it from miles and it went in. And I remember walking away thinking,

I've absolutely nailed that. And I think that's the only one where I had that. I think all of the other ones I left thinking, oh god that's going to be on telly had you nailed it I had known that one someone come up with a gigantic long tube that was about

Oh no what you have to remember on that show is that the other four people are as thick as you they were doing some mad things I think I think one person was you know

throwing a tea bag and it was just sort of getting blown in the wind and not even a wet I think quite late in their VT package which usually means about 45 minutes

into doing the task they said I should wet it as if they have been the genius there So is it strictly When he says you've got 20 minutes or 40 minutes That's for real It's for real

Oh no That's why it can be Really stressful I think there was something Where you had to get an egg As high in the air as possible With this stuff that he'd given you Which is like a bit of paper

And just, you know Some chalk It's just impossible And you're just there And you know your time's almost run out And you've just got eggs splattered On the floor all around you And you're sort of thinking

well, you're wishing you hadn't auditioned for footlights, I suppose. Well, are you competitive, though? Because, you see, you love sport. We're going to talk about a sport in a second. You love sport, you love playing it. You love all sorts of sports. I thought Taskmaster would be fantastic for you. Yeah, no, it was actually.

Yeah, you kind of, I think, I was quite competitive. But I think you also sort of adopt a kind of, not by any plan. You adopt a kind of persona. and you find that you're the person who's going to joyously lose every task or you decide that you're going to really try and win everything or you're somewhere in the middle. I think my, I think me doing it, I was kind of, I tried to be quite, I don't know, I tried to be quite creative, tried to do stuff that maybe no one else had done.

So the sort of the detriment of the task? It was sort of what? It was style, was it more like... I was quite finessed, yeah. It was like Zach Crawley as opposed to Daryl Mitchell. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I was trying to set up a declaration. So, yeah, there were bits where I was kind of, yeah, a little bit looser with it.

But also, I didn't know that there'd be something called the Champion of Champions. I think that would have changed things. Because then that would have given the incentive. That would have given the incentive to win. To go through more stress. Yeah, because then there's another payday. You're right. Now, sport and comics, a lawful lot of comedians and comic writers and comic actors that have come on, done for you front of boundary.

Mark Steele is one that we both know very well. deal. And how competitive is... I know how competitive he is a cricket. What's he like? What's he like at football? He won't be listening. I'll tell you what. The one thing I know about Mark's deal is he will 100% be listening right now. He's... He is quite competitive, actually.

He's... I don't know. The other day, he let it slip. He kind of said, in spite of himself that I was kind of tormenting him. And it was... He came to watch... I think it was after my show. he just sort of was shaking his head because I think in his mind I kind of went round him a few times but in my mind I see him as kind of a very kind of

he's a very good left back I mean Andy plays in the game as well and he's sort of just stood there eating his Haribow Star Mix but I can't work out if he's patronising Mark I'm not patronising Mark he's a very good I'll tell you what Mark's like he's like James Ward Proust

he takes a wicked set piece is what I mean do you want to come on and Andy's do you want to know about Andy

well I've actually been tough because you play these football games often with the guys from Whistling

Cricket Monthly and that is this is where we're going to segue seamlessly into cricket okay perfect yeah back to cricket

cricket is one of the few sports just to say Andy's lost a yard of pace but carry yeah cricket is one of the few sports

that that you don't actually play. No. You play football. You play whiff, whiff, bing pong. Yeah. You play, uh, dart snooker you love. I love snooker.

Yeah. Used to play squash. You used to play squash. Yeah. You're going to tell me, yes, squash. Yeah. Okay. That's quite, that's quite a tricky sport.

Why do you keep saying squash and then looking at my body? Well, I just think. I said, I said it used to play squash. Yeah. Squash is one of those sports that I just doesn't feel funny to be. Cricket, I think is sort of intrinsically funny, isn't it? So why do you think that is? I don't know, I was going to ask you.

Yeah, you're the comedian. Well, I know, but I kind of feel like, I think part of it, why it's funny, is you can think that you're better than you are. You can be delusional at cricket in a way that, I suppose, the least funny sport out there is probably sprinting. Sprinting.

That's not that funny. There's nothing funny about it, there's because if you're a sprinter and you're coming in doing 100 meters, in 17 or 18 seconds you're sort of thinking maybe I'm not a very good sprinter but I think in cricket

the game is so long and languid and you can do a stop or something and then maybe you can when you're batting I mean you can literally time a cover drive and you can think that you're amazing and you can cook the books when you go home and tell your wife and you can turn yourself into something that you're not and I suppose that is quite a

I suppose that is sort of a staple of comedy sometimes that people think they're better at what they think they're more competent at something than they are. And they actually can't run the hotel that well. That is very interesting because actually I think Darts is a funny sport as well because you know everybody

has hit a treble 20. Yeah, Darts cracks me up. But it does. It's intrinsically hilarious because you can throw a treble 20 and you will hit your double. Now the issue is you don't do it over and over and over again like the really good ones and similarly what you're saying in cricket you know you can take

You can have a dreadful day in the game. You can lose the match ballingly. Yeah. But if you've hit one four or taken one splendid catch or just bowled someone with one that knit back. That football match we play on a Friday with those cricket guys, it's amazing. It's the most brilliant game because you play it

and you go to the pub and there's sort of an unwritten rule that you don't really talk about the game until after the second pint and then people sort of get a few things off their chest. And some of those things can be quite negative and hurtful. But more than that, than that, there are, you know, people talk about the good things they themselves have done. But you really can cling

onto that. I mean, I'm still thinking about two five days ago, this through ball I did. I mean, it's a delusional thing, because if you were to sort of show a highlights reel of my whole game, it would be pretty exposing and, but if you were to

show a short enough highlights reel, I'd look fantastic. Now, cricket itself, you've written about cricket, you've you've watched it since you were what about 9, 10, you were brought up with England being dreadful, weren't you? I think I said to you earlier.

I was in the dreadful era. I was brought up with the miracle of both of them. You were brought up with a crushing disappointment of regular loss. I was brought up, yeah, the miracle of Elam. Miracle of Elam. Yeah. Yes.

But the thing is, you're so optimistic that you think there will be. I remember, I think the first tour that I really remember is they're in the West Indies. And you are genuinely thinking, well, Larkins has got 16 here. So he might get 100. He might get 100. You never know.

Because there's a canvas of which to express your hope, you think. Yeah, I don't know what it is. You're just, and I'm just like asking my dad if they'll win. And he's like, could do. But then, you know, Marshall is sort of, you know, steaming in. And, you know, Capel sort of does his best, but it's sort of, only going to end in one way. But I really have really strong memories

of all of that and just I think I remember Carlisle Best played, I don't know how much he played for the West Indies, but it's sort of really hammered at home when this guy I'd never heard of and didn't really play much after that, but still made out guys look pretty ordinary. Did you know

he used to commentate his own innings while he was playing? Oh wow, did he? Yeah, it used to say here comes Willis, Flamehead, running in for the Pavilion End and the Bess has driven him through the covers before. That's fantastic, did he? It just genuinely did. Yeah, great. And cricket also appears in one of your other, well, passions, skills, poetry.

You run a lot of poetry. I do, yeah. And I heard you read out a poem on a different podcast, which just has this little flickering reference to Mark Ramprakash. Do you do that a lot? Do cricketers come into your mind to illuminate a wider idea? Like, you know, Mark Ramprakash, is it takes rampicats is only one word

and yet somehow it expresses within your poem a whole fully formed idea. Yeah. I don't know what it is. I feel like that is something with sportsmen. I do, yeah, I do turn to them sometimes. You know, you reference all sorts of things and, you know, in Partridge there's a lot of...

Those references are so well chosen and in his world it's sort of... He lives in a kind of world of Aymn Holmes and, you know, those types of people. And I feel like, yeah, it's really not unusual for a ramprakash to suddenly appear in. It's not deliberate that I kind of want to have some cricketers in there. But there is something about them, I suppose, that they're sort of, in my world, they're kind of, I watch so much sport. And they're just these ordinary people, but they happen to be really good at sport.

And I don't know why, but I do kind of find it quite funny to have them sort of experiencing normal life, you know, taken out of their sport and just plonked into normal life. and see how they're getting on. Because they feel other human, don't they? I suppose they feel different from the rest of us. Yeah, I think so. I don't think it's just cricketers, but I kind of feel like it's always interesting when you're sort of, you know, out of nowhere

you're referencing John Parrot. Because you don't really think of them unless you're literally sitting down to watch the snooker. And having them sort of, if John Parrot is in a Ryman's, I just think that's quite funny. He buys his own A4 ringbinders, who knew? Maybe that's what it is.

that you wouldn't have... Other stations are available, but... Yeah, because you wouldn't have... Diana Ross wouldn't be in a Ryman's. That would sort of, that concept would be impossible. But, I mean, someone like John Parrot, he doesn't have people. That's just John Parrot.

So if he wants a new printer that also scans, he's got to do his own dirty work. Now, during lockdown, I know lockdown was quite... It was difficult for everyone. But it must have been hugely difficult in a certain way for creative people. Talk to Mark Steele about this,

and sort of the lack of doing doing your job, doing your life performance, what have you. You wrote a book in lockdown. You wrote an anthology of poetry. Yeah. Give us the name. You're allowed to do a plug. Oh, right.

So the first one's called He Use Thought as a Wife, and that was written in the first lockdown. And then, surprisingly, there was a third lockdown happened, and I did another one then. I wasn't planning on doing that one, but that one's called, here we go, around the Marbury Bush. And how did you find that, I mean, what were the biggest challenges for you with that lockdown?

and so there was no sport to start with, for example. There were no audiences. There were not, all your entire routines of life were massively disrupted. And you've sort of gone in to, found creativity through writing these books. Yeah, I feel really, I feel so lucky that I was able to do that because as it, when it happened, it was kind of, it was mad when it, I mean, obviously for everyone, it was completely crazy. And then there was just that additional thing of, I, you want to, you want to do something useful and you want to write something. and I remember sitting down with like a blank piece of paper and thinking well I should write a sitcom or something like that

and I'm so glad I didn't because the idea of having all of that I spent lockdown on my own the idea of being six weeks into a lockdown and having a kind of writer's block in addition to everything else would have been horrible so I just wrote I'm lucky that I kind of I do just dash off these poems and I wrote a couple of poems in that first week that were about what was going on about you know lockdown and about social distancing and about, you know,

only being able to leave your house once and all of that. And, yeah, I kind of, I didn't know whether it was right to write about it because everyone was still finding their feet creatively and whether even if it was in bad taste. But I think after a few weeks you realise it's not really and it's writing about this shared experience rather than the actual virus. It's writing about this mad thing that's happening to every single person. And so, yeah, fortunately, after about a couple of weeks,

I kind of had a head of steam and I got in touch with my friend who designs books and we decided we'd write a book and after that it was kind of, yeah, it was a kind of beautiful and very fortuitous collaboration that we had for her as well where she's in Falmouth in Cornwall with this massive, like nice project

she can get her teeth into and I'm in London writing these poems and yeah, we made a book and we're like, you know, incredibly proud of it and yeah it's it's in i mean it is unforgivingly about like there's i definitely chose a certain direction i think you had to sort of decide whether you were going to you know create something that was in the scheme of things kind of escapism or whether you did just charge headlong into the i really went i went i went i went big

now what one of the features of lockdown initially was the sudden absence of sport and for somebody like you who you said you measured out your summer by the test match itinerary you'd have been missing the world snooker championship in April for example and then the French Open tennis didn't happen and you're just actually playing it yourself

as well how much of a blow was it and how much of a kind of a balm a soothing balm when it returned was it? Yeah well it was both of those it was a bit of a blow but you don't really notice it at first because there's so much other stuff like for example

not being able to sort of hug anyone so sport isn't like it's not totally high in the mix but you also have

this gradual feeling of oh it's gone and then when they started like showing old matches that was kind of quite good for a bit

where you're thinking I'd like to watch England against Germany from 96 again but that soon wears off so it is quite mad I'm sure that you've had a lot of people say it to you

but when when it came back behind closed door it was very surreal but it was really useful I mean and even like TMS when that came back you suddenly had that back on and you could listen to because it's not just about it isn't obviously just about the sport it's just about having this mad thing that you're weirdly caught up in and have been for for 40 years just in your ears all the time and so having having you know the commentary back on was kind of

didn't really matter that there was no people in there and it was just just the fact that someone was saying, well, this chap's, you know, throwing this ball, and someone's just whacked it again, and you think, good, we're back on. Normalities are turning? Yeah, it was a really nice thing to have back, yeah. Because, you know, radio is important to you,

is that you recognise a very different medium, but you've talked about radio and the sort of intimacy of the voices, and I guess... Yeah, I love it, yeah. Yeah. I think I've always loved radio when, you know, on long car journeys, there'd be a lot of, yeah, basically either cricket,

or sort of Tony Hancock and just a minute and things like that. Or, you know, if he thought the kids were asleep, my dad had bang on some Vivaldi and listen to his music and stuff. But, yeah, I think that's why I've got a lot of love for cricket, really, is listening to us lose in 1988 and 1989. We've had an email from jazz in Croydon, because we haven't barely touched on this except of your intro. He says, I'm a big fan of The Witch Finder,

but was interested to ask, What attracted Tim to a comedy about the subject is it's not the most obvious area for comedy. Yeah. Yes. If people are unaware of Witchfinder, it's self-explanatory.

It's self-explanatory, yeah. I play a Witchfinder in 17th century England who is transporting a witch for trial in Chelmsford. The way they described it to me is it's like midnight run, but in the 17th century on horseback. Really? That's a great...

Yeah, because I'm like... I'm the guy who's got... who's captured a witch, played by Daisy May Cooper, who's fantastic. And, you know, I've got to get her across England. And she's not a witch, obviously, because there's no such thing as witches. And she kind of knows that, and is absolutely furious. And it sort of becomes a kind of road movie. And your character is a very self-serving one.

It's very trampled in one direction, and it's yourself. Yes, exactly. And your own best interest. Yeah, it is. again what we were talking about before is just someone who wants to be who's not as competent as he thinks he is it wants to be

a really well-respected witch finder but he's absolutely terrible at it but you know what attracted me was the guys who wrote it are the partridge guys and working with Data Mae Cooper was obviously she's a genius the Ashes winning captain from 2005

was just walking into the box and you've written about that series oh yeah you have you have you have Have I? Yes, you have. Okay, great. I dug it out earlier. Oh, fantastic.

It's obviously a magnificent, iconic series. What are your recollections of it? My recollections are I watched the first day and the last day of that series. I think the first day was almost rained off completely. And I saw Peterson walking around the outfield and was impressed by his height. And then I was there for the final day when Peterson got his 150, probably eight, was it? That's absolutely great. I mean, you write about it.

as if it was way more important to you than the stand-up routine you were doing in Edinburgh at the same time. Yeah, yeah, no, it was a very important series. But yeah, I did write about that series and being in Edinburgh and trying to catch it, you know, on TVs around the city throughout the whole thing

and, yeah, it meant a lot that series. Michael Vaughn was the captain of the team. Tim Kee, thank you ever so much. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. So Caroline says, after hearing this program, I decided to take the plunge and start something new. Stacey Dooley, fresh starts.

We have got seven more beautiful, brilliant freshers to bring you, all of whom are starting different chapters in their lives. We're about to become foster parents. I'm like, I've never picked up a paintbrush in my life. Opportunities do come. They do come. Stacey Dooley, Fresh Stars. Listen only on BBC Sounds.