That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - David and Georgia Tennant

Episode Date: October 18, 2020

In this episode Gaby secures an interview first with David and Georgia Tennant together! Oh, and David takes his top off! The pair discuss what life is like in the Tennant household with five children and talk honestly about how their relationship began. They chat about everything from what they watch on telly to David’s childhood aspiration to be ‘Doctor Who’ who Georgia’s father Peter Davison also played. Their hilarious BBC TV series ‘Staged’ which they star in together with Michael Sheen produced by Georgia, about actors whose play has been paused due to Covid-19 but continue rehearsing via video calls. Also, the ITV drama ‘Des’ in which David plays serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Plus, the pair speak powerfully about the importance of theatre to the UK economy.Produced by Cameo Productions, music by Beth Macari.  Join the conversation on Instagram and Twitter @gabyroslin #thatgabyroslinpodcast  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to That Gabby Roslyn podcast with me, that Gabby Roslyn. I was so thrilled and delighted to chat to both David Tennant and his brilliant actor-producer wife, Georgia. We chatted about Wilf, their son, cutting his hair off for charity, and also their son, Tai, who is an actor. We discuss all sorts of things. Doctor Who, the hilarious TV series called Stage, which I am obsessed with, which they starred in together with Michael Sheen and Georgia produced it.

It's all about actors whose play has been put on hold due to COVID and they continue rehearsing via video calls. Watch it, it's brilliant. Also, the extraordinary DES, which David played the serial killer, Dennis Nielsen. Plus, listen to hear whether they believe in fate. Oh, and before you ask, off mic, David had just told me that he's taken his clothes off. So that's where this chat starts. Are you naked in a cupboard?

Not entirely naked. In a cupboard. It's a sort of dovy nest that we've created. Quite a lot of blankets and pillows. Yeah, yeah. Lack of clothing. Yes, exactly. Yeah.

It's been quite, home recording has been something that has ended up being quite useful over lockdown, having a bit of a home set up. So it's the one thing we don't have is any air conditioning in it. It's very hot. So that's why you have your clothes off. Mm-hmm. Yes. And that's what he says anyway.

Yeah. And will you be using time? Talk because I heard that you need to talk. Yeah, because, well, it has because you've shared that before that apparently you needed talc to get your leather trousers on in good owners. Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I suppose I could use talc in this situation too. Well, just to sort of soak up some of the sweat.

That's nice, isn't it? I'm not quite sure. Do people still use talc though? Did you really use talc? I have used talc to get in and out of some tight trousers on set. Yes. Georgia, have you ever? Maybe when my hair's looking particularly greasy,

I might have reached for the talc. Wack a better towel, can it? Yeah, because it's like, yeah, it sort of makes it, it dries it out. So these are, your beauty secrets that I was unaware of until we sat down today. You see, that's what this is all about, learning and you things. Peeling back the layers. I can't, we have to start with the incredible picture on your Instagram, Georgia, of Wilfred's hair for the Little Princess Charity.

Yeah. Oh, I know. it's all gone. Was it your idea? Was it Wilfred's... No, no, no. His hair has always... It's always been his own thing.

He decided to grow it. I'm pleased to hear that. Well, yeah, quite. It'd be weird if it wasn't. But he decided to grow it. He's been taking it for about three years, something like that. Oh, at least him. It was very long.

It was a lot of it. Very, very long. He'd have been great in deaf leopard or something. Yeah. I'm going to pretend I know what that is. Okay. Okay. And then he just decided he'd like to cut it off and give it away.

And that was completely his decision. I think it's quite rare to get lots, you know, sort of long lengths of very blonde hair, isn't it? Well, yes, I suppose it's slightly rarer for a boy to grow their hair that long. Because obviously he then was able to cut it very short. Yeah. Yeah, it's quite. So he really got to send off quite a lot of length. Oh, that's so lovely.

And the Little Princess Charity just do this, do amazing work for kids who have lost their hair and they make these amazing wigs. Oh, it's such a lovely thing that he did. I know, it's really lovely. You've got, what is it, 2,368 children now. That's, yes, that's exactly. Are we is it that? No, I think it works for that. Yeah.

Because you've got, is it how old is Thai, 18? 18, yeah. Right, he's just a bloke that lives in the basement now. So he just gets on with it. We sort of throw food at him three times a day and then don't really see him. Does he make any sounds? Well, he's very into drumming and guitaring. So yes.

A lot of sounds. Yes, is the answer to that. when he finally wakes up. I bet he knows who Def Leppard is then. Yeah, he'll be really embarrassed that I didn't. He's more into Pink Floyd and Led Zepp and things like that. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, quite old school.

So does he want to be a musician then or an actor? Because he's been, he's acted, hasn't he? He's acting at the moment. But he does seem to be wanting to add music to his future as well. Yes, I guess if you could find some way of combining the two, he'd probably be very happy. He's very good. I mean, he only picked up a guitar a handful of years ago,

and now he seems to be, he's terribly good at it. But you play the guitar, don't you, David, as well? No. No, where to get that from? You played with Franz. You played with Franz Ferdinand. Oh, I did. I, well, I mean, I mined alongside Franz Ferdinand for current relief.

I don't think I actually made a noise. I don't think I was plugged in, Gabby. Oh, no. Sorry. Sorry. Am I ruining your dreams? Yes. Sorry, sorry.

You're shattering all the illusions. You can't do that. How amazing is it that at age three, you knew you knew you. you wanted to be Doctor Who? The statistical improbability of me saying that at age 3 and ending up in Doctor Who, I wouldn't like to challenge a statistician with working that out.

But when I was growing up, of course, Dr. Hu got cancelled, so it wasn't even around. I was at drama school when the last season of the original lot of Doctor Who went out. So it was gone. It wasn't something that

it was a genuine aspiration. Who knew this show was going to come back? It's a kind of mad old story, really, that it happened in the way that it did. Isn't life wonderful that that can actually happen? Oh, yeah. Do you believe in fate, you two? Do you believe in sliding doors?

I think it's a nice thing to ponder, isn't it? I don't know if I believe in it as a kind of external force. I'm glad that we have it for like TV shows and films. Yes, quite. Yeah. Yeah. Really? You don't think it happens in real life that you two met because you were faiths that you were supposed to meet or any of these things.

Yeah. Really? No. No. But what? If you hadn't met, you probably still would have met. That's what I think. Do you?

You think, I don't, I'm not sure about that. I mean, I'm delighted that we did. Yeah. I feel very relieved that we did. I feel like we've ended up somewhere very fortuitous. But there's that very good Tim Minchin song where he says, That's exactly what I was thinking of it. Yeah, if I didn't have you, someone else would probably do.

Yeah. You know, that idea that you reach a point in your life where you're looking for someone and it's just sort of chance, which version of that perfect partner ambles along. But I, you know, I certainly feel like I lucked out in the, again, in this, to sort of statistical improbability stakes. Yeah, and I very much just sort of forced it into happening, didn't I? Did you? Yeah, you forced it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, you'll tell us the driving force of that. No, I mean, I just think that I, had I not worked quite so hard, might have not happened. You think? Yeah. Because I'm sort of inherently lazy and wouldn't have chased that. That's not. No, not inherently lazy. No, no, no, like disbelieving of.

your, you know. Where's this city's going? Oh, yes. No, I just mean, you couldn't quite sort of believe that that's why I was messaging for you 400 times a day. Right. Like that you thought maybe I just was, I don't know, like lonely and wanted to chat. It was stalker. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah, maybe. It's a fine line between stalker and life partners. I very much, I very much fell into stalker. Yeah. I mean, thank goodness I did though. So what did you do? Tell me, tell me.

Oh, just, you know, I just sort of made a decision. I thought, no, this is going to be good. Let's do this. And thought, well, I'll just persevere until he sort of gives in. That makes it sound like I was resistant, though, which is absolutely not what happened. I just sort of... That's what I mean by disbelieving. Yes.

You just sort of thought, oh, she's friendly. Yes. Yes, I think I probably did think that. Yes. And lots of people had to go, I think that's more than friendly. I thought we were an unlikely life partnership. I said, why? Why were you?

Well, it was a bit of an age gap, isn't there? It doesn't feel like there is, but there is one. But, you know, when you look at it objectively, when we first got together. Yeah, now we both feel 900. Now we're both so. It's because you've got 2,300. I can't remember now. Oh, so many.

So many. Exactly. Sort of dormitories full. Yeah. I suppose the whole thing that because Doctor Who had run through my life like a stick of rock, to end up marrying the daughter of one of the doctors, it all felt a bit stupid. Silly.

A bit silly. That wasn't really likely going to happen, was it? No. So there were a lot of things against it, I think. But you met on Doctor Who you two as well. But you didn't. I mean, you both, who was old when they started? Were you 16, Georgia?

No, were you 15 when you first acted and you were 16, David? I was actually 12. Yes. You were 12? I was 12. Well, George is part of an acting dynasty after all. I mean, it's in her family blood. The most beautiful mummy and the most gorgeous daddy.

I wanted to marry your dad when I was little. That's an embarrassing thing to admit, but there we go. Oh, you could have been my step-mom. That would have been nice. No. This would be a different chat, isn't it? That would be just no. That would have been too much of an age gap.

That's just too weird. But I loved his tops that he wore on all creatures great and small. Yes. Weren't they knitting patterns? Yes. Yeah, they did. They got turned into knitting patterns. He's got some of them framed around the house.

Has he ever knitted any himself? I don't think he has, no. But he used to model them. Can he knit? Peter. No, his mum. My grandma used to knit very well. She taught me how to knit.

Yeah. Can you knit? I mean, I can knit in a straight line. So I can knit scarves very well. But if you wanted to, you know, wear a top, you'd just have to wrap the scarf around yourself. Okay, that works. That works for me. That works. That works. That completely works for me. But you were obviously destined, really, Georgia to axe because of your mum and your dad. Was it just a fait accompli? That was it. Okay, that's what I'm going to do. I've really resisted it for years. I would come up with,

quite extraordinary jobs that I wanted to do just to sort of shut people up because people always used to go, oh, I mean, obviously you're going to go into the family business, used to annoy me because obviously I knew I wanted to, but I didn't like that they knew I wanted to. So I would pretend I wanted to be an archaeologist, was one of them. And an undercover forensic scientist was another one until my dad pointed out that you couldn't be an undercover forensic scientist because they wouldn't let you on the crime scene. so that he put a stop to that pretty quickly but I would go through phases where I would decide I was going to be something and convince everyone I was going to do it really just as a sort of I was just annoyed that everyone assumed I would become an actor and then it got to the point where I was like well this I'm just I'm just a who is this serving no one so I had to kind of admit I did want to do well let's be honest though all of those things that you wanted to do you can do when you're acting you could be all of those things it was always based on TV shows so I would watch something and I'd go oh I want to be that which is why they were things that didn't quite make sense because in TV shows they don't have to. I do want to see the undercover forensic scientist TV show. That's going to be my next gig.

I think that's a good idea. Do it? I mean, it's not a bad idea, is it? What would they do? They'd have to steal onto crime scenes in the dead of night, take some fingerprints and sneak off again. Yeah, well, the whole episode would just be them trying to convince the police to let them into the crime scene. And then there'd be another forensic scientist chasing the other forensic scientist if you left any forensic evidence. Do you want to play that? I do. It works. They'll say yes. They'll say yes. I can see it. now and it should be called the undercover forensic.

The other car. That's it, just it. Yeah. The undercover forensic. Yeah, nice. I like that. Okay, got it. But you two, obviously, I mean, you've performed together before. You've performed with your kids and, but staged, as you know, Georgia, obsessed. I mean, sort of stalking.

Yes. There we go. See, look, it's perfectly normal, isn't it? Thank goodness for lockdown. Yeah. Ah, it was just that. And this country. So staged in this country, I think, were the two greatest things on the,

television and I watch them every night like some madwoman. Oh, thank you. Are there going to be more? Please say yes. It depends on what happens with the world, isn't it? It is kind of lockdown dependent, isn't it? It kind of has to comment on where we're at. We also have to turn it around quite quickly. That was one of the issues with that, the first law, that we started making it. And then even then, the rules about when and where you were locked in your house started changing. Yeah, we had to get it turned around very fast. I mean, luckily, because it's all film on people's laptops and mobile phones.

It's pretty low tech, so there's not a lot of post-production, but it has to be quite fleet of foot. Was it scripted? Or was it mostly ad-lived? Oh, no, it was mostly scripted. And then we sort of got to play around the framework of that. Yeah, Simon wrote it. Simon, who plays the director and is also Simon,

and is also the director, also wrote it. With Finn, Glenn. With Finn Glenn, the producer, yeah, who's... Finn Glenn. I don't like her name. Finglin. Who's an old schoolmates of Georgia, you see. That's how it all.

It's all that's a tangled web. But didn't you? You produced it, Georgia, didn't you? Yeah, I did. So who was the person that went, ah, I know, that finger-click moment, that light-bar moment that said, let's do this? Well, I'd say it was Simon and Finn, wasn't it?

It came from a conversation that they had, I think the moment that we started to lock down. But Simon was due to start a play. Direct a play. Yeah. And him and Finn had a game. conversation and they said, I wonder whether there's something in two actors who suddenly find themselves not able to do the play and we try and sort of rehearse online.

That was the initial conversation. And then Finn got in touch with me and said, what do you think about this idea? And then it sort of snowballed pretty quickly from there, didn't it? It did, yeah. And did you think it was going to be this huge success that it was? Oh, no. We didn't even know if it was possible to know. Yeah, we didn't think we were going to be able to get through a scene.

No. Because we did the first episode just to see whether it worked and we liked doing it. Yes, yes, yes. And also none of us, Simon Evans is not a man I've met in the flesh. No. I've only ever seen him on a Zoom screen. So I didn't know. Could he write a script?

I mean, who knew? So, yes, a script came through and we all sort of, it was all very experimental, the whole thing, as we all tried to make it work over, you know, remotely from our own houses. And then a very clever editor put it together. And it's sort of we all, I think we were all quite surprised with how well we thought it worked. Yeah, it wasn't until we sort of sat down and watched it at the first episode. We went, oh, it might be all right.

I mean, with zero expectations, I think that's the truth. And I love that you intercut with the real-life footage of London and the country all completely quiet. It's sort of, it was beautifully edited, actually. Yeah, it really was. Well, it's a bit of a time capsule in a way, isn't it? to have lived through that moment at all, any one of us will remember for the rest of our lives, I think, won't we? And in a way it memorialises that, I suppose.

David, obviously we have to talk about, Des, congratulations, extraordinary. You were chilling and you became, how did you, that must have been a hard one to shake off at the end of the day. I never feel like it is. But the person to ask about that is Georgia really. She's the person that has to, it's hard to be objective about whether you're kind of caught up in something or not. You know, you just sort of come home and you imagine

you're just yourself again. It was quite an intense period of filming, certainly. Did I bring it home, Georgia? Well, it wasn't a very good time when you were filming that. So our baby was very ill at that point. So he would be bringing it home back to the hospital where I'd been sort of sat staring at our baby for hours on end.

so I wasn't really even aware you were doing that job. I suppose the whole thing was a bit of a funny old tunnel, wasn't it? Yeah. It was a bit of a vortex, the shooting of that. Maybe that made it easier for you, I don't know, because it wasn't really a, you didn't come back to a sort of kids throwing themselves around your neck and it turned to be normal. Yeah, it was all quite heightened from dawn till dusk, yeah.

It was all at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. I got a phone call during the first night. The first day's shooting was a night shoot. And I suddenly saw I had lots of miss messages. from Georgia and she said I find myself in hospital and it kind of went from there really. How long was she in hospital for?

About a week. A week, yeah, in total. But there were so many different stages of the hospital stay. At the beginning we were a bit like, she's fine. It's just like a bit of a cold. It's not a problem. And then within sort of 24 hours of that, it was like, oh wait, no, no, we're not fine. Okay, this is a bit more serious. And then within sort of three days we'd got into intensive care and it was like, oh man, This is really not what I thought I was signing up for here.

But, you know, because our NHS is amazing, they, you know, saved her and we got to go home again. But then even when you go home, I remember the doctor saying, you think this is the hard bit, but actually the hard bit is when you'll go home. Because people then go, oh, the baby's fine. And they sort of move on and you're still left in that, you know, there was a sort of period of time where we didn't think we were going to have her anymore. So then there's that And that lasts for a really long time And the other kids were a bit traumatised by it as well weren't they? I think we only realised that almost months later

I think at times Yeah, goodness me So yeah so that was the entire of death We were very lucky This was an illness that passed And she completely recovered from it And thank God yeah You know there's a lot of parents who have to deal with things

that go on for a lot longer than we did But you can't underestimate how challenging that is sort of emotionally I think Yeah Yeah I think any parent that's gone through that, they'd say the hardest thing is letting go of those memories. Yes, exactly. Yes, and I definitely still haven't. It's definitely still, our baby still shares our bed because I'm sure I make that happen. In my head, I'm sort of like, no, no, it's not

me. It's because she really needs to, it's definitely me. It's definitely me wanting to make sure that she's, her breathing's fine. Everything's going to be okay. Of course you do. But I sort of think, and then once I've, once I came to terms with that's how I'm going to be until I'm not like that. And that's okay. And she's very happy. We don't get any sleep. But that'll change, wouldn't it?

I've really not got any sleep for about 18 years now. So I'm quite used to it. Yeah, well, once you're a parent, you don't. That's that weird thing about the slightest noise. Just, are you the same? The slightest noise, that's that you're awake. Yeah. On it completely.

That's far more important than talk about Des. No, no, let's go back to that. But the thing about Des is because it was real life and it affected so many people and still does. those families. It must be one of those, you know, it's very different than Broderch or Dr. Who, you know, being with the R.S. or any of those things or the, all the shows that you've been in Georgia, when it's, you're actually talking about a real thing that happened in life, the responsibility on your shoulders is huge. Oh, yeah. Yes. The thing that unlocked

telling the story of Des was when Luke Neal wrote that first script and it's starts with Dennis Nielsen being arrested. So you're not sort of witnessing him doing all these horrendous acts. There's no sort of, you know, there's no titillation of the violence there. That's all discovered retrospectively, which of course is how the world discovered Nelson's crimes. That's part of the, what's extraordinary about that story is that he did this for so long and to so many men and nobody knew it was happening. And the people in the flats next door to him didn't know what was happening as there were bodies under the floorboards. It was the very mundanity of him and the fact that this was, he was the sort of person who moved

in society without raising an eyebrow. I mean, the worst thing that people seemed to describe him as was rather dull. But yes, you're right. It's a true story. So it's not a murder mystery. It's not a thriller in that sense. It's a different kind of story you're telling and you have to be. And that was something that from the first script discussion to the last day of shooting, we were always very aware that we were telling a story that had real world consequences for people who were still around, you know, victims, families, even people who survived Nelson's attacks are still around. And you had to be cognizant of that and tell the story in those terms that did not glorify anything that Nelson did. Well, you did it like, I mean, congratulations, it was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary.

Now, I know, because I've talked to you about this before, but that you used to keep a book, with who was in the pop charts? Pop charts. I can't believe I said pop charts. Showing my age. You're so hip. Oh, the pop charts. Who is number one in the hit parade? Did you do things like that, Georgia? No. No.

There's no geek about you at all. Oh, no. I don't say, is there a geek about me? I really like housing shows. That's about as geeky as I get. I've always been really into watching people buy houses or not buy houses. You had little Barbies and kept in. nicely in boxes. I mean, I did like Barbies, but I mean, I was, you know, eight. I know that wasn't that long ago. You're trying to give me an equivalent of the pop charts. I'm trying to not be as sad as

sound. So I'm throwing Barbies at me. In context, yeah. I mean, I did like Barbies, but I didn't keep a book, but you kept a few of them neatly in their boxes. No, no, no, no, no. There was some that my mum wouldn't let me unwrap because she thought that they would be worth something one day. I still have those Barbies and let me tell you, they are worth nothing. Right. Okay. Which Barbies have you got? Oh, like, you know, limited edition Christmas, 1994, Princess Barbie. I mean, you know, but I never got to play with them. So of what use were they to me?

And now they're worth sort of 1499, which is not nothing, but for the amount of time that they've been living in a lot. That's not going to pay for our extension, is it? It's really not, no. No, I met a man who collects them. He collects Barbies and I'm not kidding you. And he takes, used to take them once a month to the, the Savoy for afternoon tea.

Wow. Okay. So no, you see I'm not on that scale. What did you sort of sit them around a table? Yeah. They weren't life-sized ones. They were like regular-sized. Yeah. I think he had something like a hundred and something.

And then he used to choose a few. And every month he'd take the different ones for tea at the Savoy. And he was very nice Italian chap. And we talked a lot about them. And he knew them. He knew everything about them. He was a proper, he loved. He'll have your Barbies.

He can have them. Hey, listen, they should be shown a good time because they have been in a loft for many a year. He might pay more than $14.99 for them by the side of it. Just give him a good afternoon tea. That's all I ask. That sounded euphemistic suddenly. I feel like we were already in that territory.

We just ran with it. We so were. But geeking about music in the charts and keeping a book of it, See, I love that. And I never, I was never a geek, but there's something about that. Do you go back? Have you still got them? Please say you've still got those books.

No, I don't think I do. Oh, no. And I never look, the truth is, I never look back on them. It was the act of noting it down, clearly, that meant something to me. It was the act of recording it. But then I don't know that I did anything with the statistics. I just, but I would note what was up and what was down and what was a new entry and all. God, I sound like a tragedy.

Did you do little arrows? Yes. Arrows up and down. Oh dear. Oh, I'm embarrassed for my younger self. No, don't be embarrassed. See, in the Tim Minchin song where you have an alternative wife, it would be someone who would be able to go, should we do that together?

Because I don't actually like music. I know that this is a... What? I know, right? It's when you say, like, you don't like dogs. I know people have such a violent reaction to me saying that. For years, I've always pretended I liked music. Mainly, depending on who I was going out with,

I would pretend I liked the type of music they liked. you know, because I wasn't the feminist that I am now. And then I suddenly, getting together, David made me sort of realise, but what do I like? And I realised I don't like, I don't like noise. What do you mean? I just find it. I know, I know.

I'm not helping you out on this, George. I defend yourself. Okay, talk to me about this. How can you not like music, not like any music at all? Okay, so I like musicals. Oh, thank goodness for that. But I don't, you know, if I'm in the kitchen, David likes to put on the radio or some music.

And I just find it really annoying. I find like I can't hear what he's saying, what the children are saying upstairs. It sort of affects my mood having an extra thing. That is not a natural thing. What is the music that David puts on that you call noise? Because I just this moment. What do you put on?

I don't know. I don't know. I'm not even interested enough to ask. I just don't know what it is. I think the stuff that most offends you is anything a little bit electronic. If I've got sort of like a pitch-up boy's album, she's not happy with that. That really gives her a headache. Yeah. Yeah.

But musical theatre you're okay with? Love it. Love musical. Favorite. Okay. Favorite musical? Either Chicago or legally blonde. But that might be because I saw them the most.

So I knew all of the words. Because your dad was in them. Yeah, I grew up like backstage in musicals. So I would sit listening to the tannoy and I'd learn all of the songs and dances. So that's very much ingrained in who I am. The only thing I can tolerate is Lionel Richie. That I will listen to, I mean, I know, right?

Talk about geek. You're so cool. I am so cool. I've come to terms of it. I'm fine with it. Lionel Richie, I do, he, yeah, I'll take him any, anytime. You'll take him? I'll take him, yeah, I'll have any,

Lionel will always add to the situation for me. Other music does not. You see, we got there. Yeah, I have always ridiculed Georgia for her singular love of Lano Ritchie until she made me take her to see him live. And he was really good. Really good. And I'm not a fan, but that man knows how to throw a show.

Yeah. What's your favourite though? Part of you just mentioned the Pet Shop Boys. What do you listen to when you're on your own? So you don't grate on Twitter? Yes, quite. I have to choose my mum. moments they're quite rare.

I'm a big, I'm a, I'm a, the proclaimers are a band that have followed me through my life. I'm, uh, I like the Beatles. I like, I quite like trying to keep up with what's, you know, new. I do that less successfully as the years go by and the children, number of children increase. I used to be quite sort of, well, as you know, I used to write down what was up and down in the charts. So I used to have a better take on, you know, new releases and stuff. I, I, with sort of withering inevitability as I get older, I tend to fall back.

on the things I know I already like or have liked historically. But I'll give anything a go. I'm quite, you know, I'm still interested in and inspired and excited by music. But also you couldn't do a geek book now because there are so many different ways of doing charts. Well, yes. There still is like a chart show every Sunday night, though, isn't there? Is there? Maybe there isn't. Oh.

I don't know if there is. Maybe there isn't. It's hard to know who is more tragic in this conversation. A little bit when we just died. David, when you won your television recognition award, it was such a moving moment when your dad said that you make the world a better place. Isn't that one of the greatest gifts to hear a parent say about a child? Oh, yeah, no, it was lovely.

It was lovely to have my dad involved in that because he was already a bit sick by then. So the fact that he was part of that extraordinary thing, you know, that was a very overwhelming moment all round and to have him sort of crowning it was, yeah, it was lovely. It meant an awful lot. The thing is, though, I genuinely don't know anyone that wouldn't say that about him. I'm not taking that away from Sandy.

Obviously, he meant it. But actually, I think that is, I think that's like a universal truth. I don't think there's anyone that wouldn't say that David doesn't make the world the best place. Oh, I'm sure. I can give you a long list. No, no, I don't believe that's true. I've never met anyone that doesn't think that.

Very nice to meet. George, thanks. It's all right. It's because you got your top off. Oh my God, we're going back to the naked in the cupboard. Just leave the naked in the cupboard. But it's just such a remarkable thing. And when I told people that I was going to be chatting to you both, they all said the same thing, but about the two of you because of staged, that you do, you just, you're good people.

And being called a good person is such a positive, lovely thing these days. It used to be that everybody fought against being a good person. and now good and kindness and all of that is so important in the world Oh, I mean, I don't know if, I don't know, I'm no George it is, I don't know if I'm deserving of that But it's certainly what one has got to strive for, isn't it? I mean, there's a lack of it, there's a lack of empathy

There's a real descent into tribalism and not in quite an ugly sense at times around the world And I think, yes, we go, we need more kindness, don't we? All the time, we all need, and we all need, to breathe a bit. It's so easy to get, as things get more and more polarised, it's so easy to not attempt to understand the other side of the argument, as the argument seems more and more remote from your own experience

or remote from your own values. And yet, surely that's the only hope we've got, isn't it, to try and empathise? The middle ground seems to be disappearing, and that's quite scary. Just the one thing we say to the kids is that the most important thing is to be kind. anything else is secondary to that what makes you you two properly belly laugh

I mean our children make us laugh sometimes they don't mean to sometimes they get really annoyed it was last night it was last night when there was a sort of cacophony of everyone screaming at us at the same time baby was crying dog was barking

and we just looked at each other and we laughed a lot at the state of our sort of State of our existence. What's happened? And then I believe I said, shall we go away for the weekend? David said, what on a Tuesday? And I went, yes.

We're very good at laughing at ourselves, I think. But I think we do that quite a lot. In pity. In pity. Very much in pity. I love that. And so next up is around the world in 80 days. Well, yeah.

In principle it is. Yeah, we started it. I started it back in March. February and then it all shut down in March and now we're looking at a date when it can all get going again. Yes, I mean, filming in this new world that we're all in is not without its challenges,

especially if you're filming something which didn't exist, you know, a story which didn't take place during a global pandemic where everyone had to stand two metres apart from each other. There are challenges, which is why staged was so good because we were all remote. But yes, we're working that out

And I think, I hope that we'll start filming again on that quite soon. But how will they do it? I mean, I know that shows are being... Shows are. Well, like our son Tai is filming at the moment. And that all seems to the... He's done quite a few weeks now. And they've been without incident.

There's a lot of... There's testing going on on sets. There's people wearing PPE and there's protocols in place. And I think, if we're all honest, there's also a little bit of a roll of the dice and a deep breath and crossing of fingers. And some productions, I mean, not ties one, but some productions have had cast members who've gone down

or little incidents where they've had to reschedule. I think it's tricky. Of course, it makes already stretched production budgets, stretched all the further. But we're going to run out of Italian films soon. We've got to get home with it. Yeah. Got to have something to watch if we're locked in our houses again.

But theatre as well, theatre, because I know you'd love... I mean, I miss going to the theatre. so much. Yeah. And all the people that are involved, you know, behind the scenes, it's not just the performers, of course, it's the tech people and the front of house and all of that. I mean, my heart bleeds for those people. Well, theatre, so, yes, it's such as, it only works if there's a room full of people.

There's no other way that theatre can really exist. I mean, theatres are trying. We, on just on Saturday night, Michael Sheen was on, was at the Old Vic doing a live streamed from the stage of the Old Vic. there was no audience, there was just him and a camera, really. But we sat in our living room and put that on our telly. And there was something quite exciting about it. It was a little bit like going back to theatre.

It was, yeah. This is not the same experience, but the theatres have got to try and find ways of not going under, really. Because, you know, the theatre makes so much money for this country. It's a real part of the kind of economic engine, whereas at the moment the theatres cannot make any. money at all. When they're up and running, they contribute so much to the coffers that they have to be kept alive. But of course, with every month it goes on, that gets tougher, tougher

for the theatres to do and a bigger ask for the government to keep pumping money into it. But it would be, you know, assuming that the world does go back to something like normal, it would be a terrific loss if we lost all these, you know, extraordinary venues that we have in this country. Yes, all the small theatres when they're, because they, isn't it, Panto, They say Panto pays for Pinta. Panto pays for Pinta, quite, yeah. And that so many of them have lost their funding and a closing is just, I know.

They're the community. That's what people are doing. But all the theatres, that's the thing. It's not the smallest arts, art centre and the biggest theatre organisation in the country. They all exist on pretty tight profit margins. There's none of those organisations that are making a lot of money. Even your national theatres and Royal Shakespeare companies, they can't close their doors for all these months without some help.

and there's hundreds of people who work for these organisations and the smaller venues feed into the bigger venues it's an infrastructure it's an ecosystem that has got to be looked after you can't really do much acting on your own it only really exists when there's

when there's an audience so it's whilst it's nobody's fault you think there's got to be a way through this we've got to it feels it's so frustrating you guys have to go back to working and filming things because we are devour, as an audience, we are devouring.

Everybody wants entertainment, don't they? They're desperate. Desperate for it. I know. And we're running out. You can have seen on the eye player now, these sort of weird reruns of things from 15 years ago. I suppose they're trying to just give us something to keep us all going, especially as we're going to be locked in our houses a bit more again, I think. That's why we need more stage. Do you see? That's where I'm going.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, talk to the producer. We'll see. We'll see. That means, yes, but I can't say anything about it because it's all... I can possibly say anything else other than we'll see. That's like the standard tagline. I love that. I love that. What do you two watch on telly when you're not watching yourselves? Anything that we can fit in between boats of the baby waking up at the moment. Yes, we're managing a sort of 30 minute episode of something a night but broken up into about an hour and a half, aren't we? Yes, exactly.

So what are we doing right now? right now. We're doing the boys. Boys. We're doing Silicon Valley. Yeah. Which is an oldie. We discovered.

Slowly back. We've been watching Middle Ditchin-Schwartz. And that's how we segueed into Silicon Valley. That's right. That's right. Property porn, because you did say you like property. Yeah, but David doesn't like property porn. So it being like...

When I listen to my Pet Shop Boys album, she watches property porn. Yeah. We watched, what was that? What's that one called? Selling Sunset. Yeah, we watched episode one. But here's the thing, I need property. I don't want the other bit.

I'm not interested in the reality TV show aspect of it. I just want to look at the houses. Yes, yes, yes. I agree. My husband, also named David, came downstairs and just looked me and went, what are you watching? I felt like I was watching the most filthy porn that had ever been on. You just looked at me.

What is this? Well, you were, Gabby. I think you were. Actually, I think I would have been better off watching some straightforward porn. I just wanted the property. I didn't want the women and their fake boots. That's exactly what I felt about it. It wasn't for me.

Didn't go on to episode two. Moved over to Grand Designs where I belong. That's the one where they build a house, right? Yeah, you don't mind that one, do you? There's a certain jeopardy to it, which I go. But it always sort of works out. They always seem to borrow more money from somewhere. And they end up and then he walks around and goes,

this house is like nothing I've ever experienced. You said that last week. Well, that. Or you could go to George's amazing spaces. Have you not watched that? I have watched that, yes. Yeah, it's the process I'm looking for, really. You want the actual build?

I want the, yeah, I want the build. And I want the search for the house. It's not really the end point that I want. It's the journey. You said the J word. You said the J word. I definitely. I want the journey.

Kirsty and Phil. I mean, that's your comfy place, isn't it? It is really. Yeah. It's where I sit. It's where I sit happiest in between. Watching location, location with them. Oh my word.

I now have that picture in my head. You're listening to Lionel Richie watching Kirstie and Phil, while your husband does a little chart of what's number one and plays the Pet Shop Boys. That's it. That's your life. That's basically a little snapshot into our lives, yeah. Perfect.

Bless you both. Thank you so much. And please do more stage because, as I said, I am a stalker and I am a test. At least I'm honest about it. Well, I think one should be honest when one is a stalker. It often works out well. and it means the police can find you, so thank you for that. Bless you. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. Yeah, you too. Cheers, Gabby. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for listening. Please join me next time, where I'll be joined by the one and only Mr Keith Lemon. That Gabby Roslin podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions,

music by Beth Macari. Please press the subscribe button, and it will come straight to your phone on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you choose to listen. Also, please rate and review. us on Apple Podcasts.