That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Diane Morgan

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

After Life and Motherland star, Diane Morgan, joins Gaby to chat all things joy and Cunk. They're also joined by Diane's dog, Bob! In this episode, Diane talks about working with Ricky Gervais and Sharon Horgan, her shyness, and what Philomena Cunk might do next. She also tells Gaby how her comedy career came about thanks to a telesales job... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Diane, we're now all we're going to do is talk about dogs. You didn't know you were on the dog podcast. You brought your baby dog in. A little bob in. If only you could see him. He's the most human dog I've ever seen. Yeah, everyone says he looks like he's going to speak. He is.

He's between a toy and a miniature. I don't know what that. There's a name for him. Foodle. Yeah, well, he's a poodle, but between size-wise. So he's not a teacup. I'm painting a picture for people at home. Yeah.

No, he's not a teacup. He's much bigger than a teacup. I don't know what you call it, but they're very rare that size. It's the ideal size of dog, I think. And he's sitting by your side. So we're going to tell everybody more about him in the little nugget extra, in the what brings you joy, extra. But we're going to talk about you in this bit,

and he's sitting there keeping an eye on me, which I love, rip properly. I'd have a promise. I'll be able to have. Do you talk? Does he talk? I give him the voice of sort of Bob Hoskins. Me and my partner, man, we always think if he spug, he'd be like, yeah, sort of like a geyser.

He's doing. He's having a look around. Yeah. That's his voice in his head. I saw something yesterday, which I loved. It was you being interviewed on an American show a couple of years ago. Seth Myers. Yeah.

About talking about... That was this year. Was it this year? That was the beginning of this year, yeah. And you said when you were 15, you knew you wanted to be a comedy actress. Yeah, yeah. So was it just that most... did you wake up and go, that's what I want to do?

I think I'd always love comedy and it was always very prized in our house to be funny, you know, over everything else, intelligence. Good. Everything. I'm all for that. Yeah. And so at 15, when I went to secondary school, we started doing drama, drama classes. And of course, it sort of opens you up if you're a shy person. I was very shy, very quiet.

And then I realised that if you pretend to be someone else, it gives you confidence because you're no longer this shy person. You're being somebody else. And I couldn't believe it. I loved it. And I could make people laugh. I suddenly became visible after years of being completely invisible. It's very interesting.

The amount of people on this podcast who open up about shyness. I think it's really important to talk about it because people don't. No, it's not weird. I mean, I was insanely shy and I still have... I would never have thought that you were shy. But nobody would think that you would be shy either because of the shows that they see you do

and the stand-up that you've done. And people think that if you're an entertainer that you must be an extrovert. But all the ones I know, do you want to go down, Bob? Yeah. All the people I know, they're all... Dogs on the ground. There we go.

They're all really, really shy. Especially actors, because it's the thing, isn't it? You realise that you can be somebody else. Yeah, but I'd say 95% of people who come on this podcast talk about being shy. Really? All creatives. And I now keep saying it. I think shyness is a superpower because look what it brought to you.

Yeah. At 15 there you were saying, that's what you want to do. Oh, there we are. The dog's getting some water. Go ahead. Do you hear that? That's the dog. Yeah, happy dog.

Yeah, there is an element of sort of, I'll show you. I'll show you. You think, I'm nothing. You just wait. So the shyness, how did it affect you then before that moment of drama? I don't know. I don't know whether it was sort of in my genes, because all my family have been quite shy people, quiet, you know,

no extroverts as far as I know. I come from a long line of shy people. And I think you sort of inherit it a bit. Did people say to you, you're shy people? All the time. And that makes you think, oh, then I'm shy. Yeah, and then you become more shy. It becomes a big deal to speak up.

That's part of scratching. Yeah. Really, all my reports, school reports, said, Diane's very shy. Diane's very quiet. She's a very quiet girl. It's just, the minute you get told that, then you have that label.

Oh, that, I'm shy. Okay. Right, I'm shy, am I? So how would they, the school about you then doing drama? I think the drama teacher was pleased to see that I'd come out of my shell. But people were just, they were confused that I would be shy and yet I would do all this other stuff. Like it doesn't equate, you know, they couldn't work it out.

Are you still shy now? Very occasionally, I'll be shy in it or sort of think, I think, oh my God, you know, that's weird. What situations are my shy? Not many. Because I think also after doing 10 years of stand-up, you sort of don't give a shit about anything anymore. How the hell do you do stand-up?

Because I was doing tele-sales for like 8 hours a day. And, you know, 20 minutes of stand-up a night is better than 10 hours of tele-sales a day. Really? Yeah, that's all it was. I thought, this is all. Yes, I feel physically sick, but it'll be over in 20 minutes. Did you enjoy it?

No. Not at all. No, I did. I'm telling the lie. I loved writing something. I'm thinking, I wonder if this will make people laugh and then trying it out. And then if they did, you were like, oh my God, that's amazing. I wrote this.

And now people are laughing. But that was where it ended. I never wanted to sort of tour. I never wanted to do big arenas. I had no real ambition except to get out of telesales. Okay, so telesales over and done with. But there you were, actually, no, before that, so we're going back again. Before that you wanted to be comedy actress.

And I love that you saw comedy as your thing. And that's quite, you can't go and learn. You can't go to comedy school, can you? No, nobody tells you how to do it. So my options were the Edinburgh Festival or drama school. and I just had no idea about no one tells you anything, no one knew anything. But I didn't think it wasn't that alien because there had been a couple of actors in the family. Yes.

We've been quite successful. So it wasn't really sort of like, you know, my dad sort of thought it was sort of normal really, you know. So it wasn't completely alien. So those members of the family that everybody seems to always write about, oh, did you know she was related to? Oh, did they? Yeah. Yeah, when you're doing a research.

Yeah, yeah, I suppose. Hopefully you don't sit there and Google yourself too much. But there's a lot of stuff about members of your family. And they always then link and go, oh, isn't it interesting that she did this and Jack did this? Anyway, but all those people. But I love that your parents didn't think it was something strange about. all right then.

Yeah. Go and be an active. That's so nice. I think my mum was more sort of like worried about it because she didn't have actors in her side of the family and I think she thought

it would be I should have like a stable job and then then do some amateur theatre on the side you know but that wasn't enough I just felt like if I don't do this there was a certain point where I thought if I don't do that try to do this I'll always regret it.

I think that's a good way of deciding big decisions. Picture yourself as an 85 year old woman and imagine that you didn't do the thing. Yeah, you're absolutely special. Don't you think? Oh, completely. There's so much more than I thought, well, I didn't just try

it. I would always regret it. Even if I failed, I would be like, well, at least I tried it and I know that it didn't work. So you did stand up for a long time. 10 years, yeah. Of doing 20 minutes to get away from telecells because you just but you didn't enjoy

doing the stand-up, but you enjoyed making people laugh. Yeah. So that's very, people think that's the same thing, but it's not. They're very different, aren't they? No, totally.

Yeah, it's weird. And I suppose it's a bit like acting, you know, I sort of, I hate all the goff around it, but I enjoy the process. I'm not saying so wonky, of acting, you know.

I love that, but it's, I'm just not that kind of, like, I'm not extrovert at all. You know, you're not. I don't like to go to the party. or, you know. Red carpets. I just want to have a nice time and then go home.

No, I get that. Completely get that. So what makes you laugh? Because you make people laugh. I mean, we're going to, we'll talk about all the different shows. And honestly, I remember interviewing you. And after interviewing you, I laughed out of that relief of, you are so funny.

You're naturally so funny. You've funny bones. And I think people have funny bones. You're one of those people that have. funny bones. But what makes you laugh? When do you know that something's funny to then pass on to somebody else?

I think if it makes me laugh, I think you should never think what will people laugh at? Because I think you always... If you try and second-guess a kind of like imaginary general public, it never works. But if you try to make yourself laugh

or a close friend laugh, I think that's when you come up with the best stuff. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, that's really an interesting. interesting way of thinking of it. So you don't think this is going to make a room. Will people laugh at this? I always think. I try and make my best friend laugh

or myself laugh. What would make me laugh? So what makes you laugh? I think it's changed over the years. When I was younger, I used to like watching Peter Sellers. You know, it was the Pink Panther. Yeah. I couldn't believe how funny he was.

I thought that was the best thing in the world. And Laurel and Hardy. Falling over. Slapsie. Falling over. There's nothing funny. than somebody falling over. Thank you. Yeah. Walking into a tree. Yes.

Yes. Absolutely. Falling down the manhole. Yeah, but it has to look really real. Yeah. Tripping down the hill. You trip. Well, Philomena, come.

I love a trip. She does love a trip. Yeah. Did you put the trips in? Hey? Did you put the trips in? Yeah. Yeah, just because I'm frightened of people being bored, so I just trip up.

Nothing really happens, say, yes, I'll just trip up. There's nothing funny that someone tripped. trying to be sort of po-faced and serious and then tripping up. It's great. It's my favourite thing. I'd love it if Lucy Worsley fell over. You know, that'd really chew me up. That's why I love a blooper.

Everyone loves a blooper reel. You do anything and people go, but when are we going to see the bloopers? Yeah. Because they want to just see people fall over. It's not just... Hello. Sorry, you're done. Yes, sorry.

You want to come up here. Come on then. No, oh no. No, I thought he wanted to get up. It just recognises you. So let's go to Filomena because it's so funny. I mean, it's just funny. It's funny.

And is it true that they wanted you to be put on this posh accent? Yeah, yeah. I was at Filomena. Charlie wanted a sort of someone who was going to be the polar opposite of Barry Shippeas, who was another character on his show, who was very working-class London. And he didn't want to have another working-class character on because he didn't want it to look like,

oh, look at thick working-class people, aren't they funny? So he thought, well, we'll have a posh character. And so I went in doing my best posh, but at home when I was practicing, you know, I tried it in my own accent. And for some reason, it just worked much. It was much funnier in my own accent. I don't know why.

I've always loved his writing. Charlie Brook has always been like, I was always a huge fan. You know, when you just had like a column every Saturday. And my dad, who rarely laughed at anything, would be like in bits laughing at Charlie's column. So it's weird now that he's sort of writing for me, you know. That's so lovely.

Yeah, it's great. Yeah. So you did it in your own accident and you've made it. And they went, oh, yeah. Your own. Yeah, you're right. That's much. Just, I mean, so my kids who aren't so little now, but 21 and 16, they quote you, they quote her all the time.

It's very quotable, isn't it? Oh, my God, it's so funny. Apparently it's big on TikTok. It's massive. And all the, so my 16-year-old at school, they all quote Filomena Kunk to one another. That's funny, isn't it? And I love, but that's great. You wouldn't, if you looked at that on.

If you didn't see it, but if you read it on paper, not looked at it in paper, if you read that on paper, you go, all right, a bunch of 14, 15, 16-year-olds were obsessed with that. It's just great that it's broken through. Yeah. I think there's nothing else like it. You know, on TV at the moment. Yeah, and please say there's going to be more.

Oh, yeah. I think there'll be more, yeah. And the people, do you think people now know, the experts, they now know, surely? Yeah, now they're all rocking up saying, oh, my daughter told me to do this. I don't know what it is. Oh, really? But apparently it's quite funny. And they look good on it.

They look like they've got a great sense of humour if they do it. But when they didn't know, that must have just been the best joy for you to do. Yeah, well, even now when they know, they don't know what I'm going to ask them. Really? Yeah, they don't get like a list of, we're going to ask you this.

Oh, I see, okay. And we were, We interview them for about an hour each, you know. So we'll start off really, you know, lull them into a false sense of security and then make them admit to really stupid stuff. Oh, it's just, but... It's my favourite thing, because you can say anything in the interviews. Who would Philomena most like to interview then? Oh, Trump.

I mean, imagine that, come, come Trump. He'd never do it, would he? But, I mean, imagine. Or Reese Mogg. I'd love to interview him. I'd go to town. What would you say to Trump? It'd be really offensive.

What would you say to Trump? Oh, I don't know. Roughly of what I think. I mean, there's so much, isn't there? There's so much. There's a wealth of material. Oh my God, I want to listen to that podcast. Everyone was.

It's the dream booking. Can't get him though famously. He's very busy. Okay, so Riesmog and Trump, and you need a third. always best of three, so who's the third one? God, it would be the third one. Who do you think? I'm thinking quite a lot of people.

I am. But they're all political. Yeah. Do you know what I'm thinking of? And I can't remember her name. Who? The woman who was Prime Minister for three minutes. Oh, yes.

Oh my God, now you've done Darren Brown. I mean, I can't remember it. You can't remember. Liz Truss. Thank you. That's so weird. Thank you to the team behind that. How weird?

I couldn't remember her name. That's so weird. No, Liz Truss. Trust would be great. Oh. kunk with truss. The thing is, I think they'd be scared of looking stupid so they wouldn't do it.

Can you tell us what the next series is going to be for her? Well, they've started talking about it and I don't know if I'm allowed to say what it is yet. But I think they're going to start writing it and then see if it's got legs. But the thing is, I feel like we've done everything now. We've sort of mentioned philosophers and history, art, everything, we've sort of covered everything

apart from astronomy maybe we haven't gone up into the stars But couldn't it be kunk on like she did kunk on Britain couldn't it not be kunk on America? Yeah I think we were going to do that and then and then lockdown kicked in so I'm pleased there's going to be more of that

Can we talk about Mandy as well? Yes Because does the person know who they are yet because is this true that you wrote Mandy and you've got somebody in mind. Yeah, yeah. Do they know it's them yet? No, no.

How can they not know it's them? And a lot of people think because there was a documentary on Netflix of some woman and she admittedly she does look a lot like at Mandy. But it's not based on her. But everyone thinks it is. Who's the her on this? There's a woman on Netflix. He talks about alien abduction.

And people are like, oh, is it her? Because she's got the same hair and look. But at the 90s, Manchester, there was loads of women dressed like that. So, but does the... No, the person... The thing is, it's not just based on this one person. Oh, we see. It's like, it's like probably three or four elements of three different people.

Because I had this picture of that person sitting at home. The mouth is a girl at school. And does that girl at school know? No. Have you ever said you the name? No, I could never do it. No, don't do that. No.

But you know, some people go, oh, I don't think it's funny that she's got Bell's palsy. Well, like, obviously she's not got Bell's palsy. She's just biting the inner gum of her mouth. She's chewing her face. She's chewing her face. Have you not seen people do that? That...

It's not Bell's palsy, mate. I didn't think that was funny. I get people on Twitter going, oh, you think it's funny, do you? Having a character with Bell's Pulse. It's not... It's not... It's not...

It's not... Bell's palsy. Oh my God. Okay, so this person, so they're going to be more Mandy? Yes. Oh, you see, fantastic. But we have to go to the other show, which I think, you know, I'm obsessed with because I think I message you every single time there's any Motherland on.

Oh, Motherland, yes. And Afterlife as well, we'll go to Afterlife. But Motherland, and Sharon, Sharon Hogan just is... Yeah. You and Sharon... Everything she touches to Gold. Oh, but the idea of you and Sharon, will you do more stuff together? because I, that is my...

She's so busy, isn't she? She never stops. I don't know if she fits it all in. I've not said it's my fantasy and it was going to sound really weird. That was something a bit kinky, yeah. Let's not say that. I won't say that.

But no, so Motherland, that is just, it was genius. Do you know what? Well, it sort of looks like it. No, please. I know, but you never know, do you never know? Please don't say that. But the thing is that the kids have sort of grown up now, haven't they? They're at that stage where you don't have to be doing everything for them,

morning, noon and night. So they get their lives back a little bit. So it'd have to change, I think, wouldn't it? That's all right. That's how much we want it back. Do you know what? I get like moms running up to me in the street going, please don't stop doing Motherland.

It was a real need for it, I think. Really, honestly, when everybody found out that there was going to be the Christmas special and I would set this embargo thing, do embargo? good, not to be allowed to announce until after midnight on the, you know, with the BBC do, because it was BBC of course.

And I was, I honestly, at home, I was saying, oh my God, you never guess what's happening. They all thought, oh God, Motherland, it's a special. Obviously, my husband's like, what hell's happened to you? Oh, God, yeah.

But was it as wonderful to do? God, that's a really corner question, but it looked like you had the best fun as well. I mean, oh my God, working with the other actors in it because they're all brilliant. The casting is amazing. I can't imagine.

Like when I did the read-through and I saw that Paul Reddy was playing Kevin and I'd only ever seen him in Utopia where he plays a murderer. And I thought, how is he going to play Kevin? He's a murderer. And now I look at Paul playing Kevin and thinking, how did he ever play a murderer?

He's so good. and Anna's brilliant and I sort of feel that hopefully, you know, their brilliance rubs off on me a little bit. Hello, hello, you are. No, but you know what I mean? They're so good.

And they really raise the bar so you've got to, you know, it's just really funny and probably funnier off screen as well than it is hard. So there's one of those ones that the bloopers probably are quite fun as well. There's a lot of moaning.

A lot of moaning? A lot of moaning? about coffee and no cold it is. Yeah. But I'm quite pleased and you're all normal. Yeah. Oh, hallelujah.

Yeah. But also you get, so you do get to work, you know, you're saying about Charlie and that your dad laughed at Charlie's Con, which I love that.

It sort of brings it back around in such a lovely circle. And that Sharon, who's just winning every award under the sun for her writing. And then, of course, Ricky as well with Afterlife. Oh, clever people.

Do you know what? When you work with Ricky, you can never work for anyone else, every. Really? Really, why? Because it's so great. Because he knows what he wants.

You finish early. And you don't do like a thousand takes for every take because he's like three takes. And he goes, yeah, that's it. We've got it. Moving on. And it's just so easy. And it's fun.

It doesn't feel like work at all when you work with Vicky. And I know the jobs, it's like there's hundreds of people and it's quite, you know, I can take ages. And you think, oh. That's why everyone wants to work with Ricky. You know, he's brilliant. But he, that was, it was very special that show. Isn't it funny?

It's a similar thing to Motherland. I think it was needed. Like, I think moms needed to see other moms being incompetent and funny. And so they could go, oh, that's me. It's fine. I can laugh at myself. We are funny, aren't we? It's a relief.

And I think no one's ever done a comedy about grief before. I think it was impossible. But I think no one talks about grief. And especially with COVID, it was really needed, I think, wasn't it? And then again, it was a relief that people were sort of talking about it. But it was extraordinary. It did that. You never felt guilty for laughing when you felt sad.

No. You never felt bad that you were crying with a smile. There was no guilt ever. And actually I think the same with Motherland. And actually none of it, you don't, you're not conscious of how you're feeling. And I think that's a lot of what you do. You feed us, this is strange analogy, but you feed us the meal that we didn't know that we wanted. You do.

I love that. Diane Morgan, feed you the meal you didn't know you wanted. But it is. And we just go, oh, I didn't realize that I needed that or wanted that. I'm like a comedy doctor. You are. That's exactly what you are. Doctor.

You're Dr. Diane Morgan. Oh, a doctor of comedy. So that 15-year-old you, is that what you hoped for that you'd be a doctor? Oh my God, yeah. That was what I dreamed of. I just wanted to do comedy. It was all I wanted to do.

So what was it for people to laugh or for you to? I think I always found comedy really comforting. You know, they were like, I don't know, there's something really, like I loved Laurel and Hardy. I actually loved them and Morecambe and Wise. You feel a real love for these people because they make you feel better. You make you feel like you can cope with life better. You know, you take things less seriously because you go, oh, it's fine, nothing's that bad. And I suppose maybe deep down I wanted to generate.

that feeling. I wanted to be able to make people feel like that as well. I knew the value of it, I think. It is. It's really important. You were talking about COVID and afterlife and how everybody wanted that. And everybody went to comedy and went onto I player and streamed all of that. Everybody wanted entertaining. Yeah, they're all trapped indoors. Yeah. And entertain. See, I know a lot of people don't like the word. but I think that there is nothing greater than being called an entertainer.

You were talking about great entertainers there. Malcolm and Wise and Laurel and Hardy, they were entertainers. And that's now what you do. Yeah, it's sort of gone out of fashion, isn't it, the word entertainer? No one calls each other as entertainers anymore. But that's what you do. Entertain. You are, Doctor Entertainment.

Can you hear the dog snoring? Snoring, I can. I will say the other thing. I really like is that you keep your private life to yourself. You really do. I suppose so. I mean, there's nothing sort of sensational about my private life, though. No, but you do.

You and your partner. There's a couple of photos of you. Yeah. But you don't do the splash of whatever it is. And how do you manage that in this crazy... No one's interested in my private life. I probably would be. It's really dull.

No, but certain magazines would want to know all sorts of things. But there's nothing really. You know, I don't go out very much. So there's nothing, you know. But that's what I'm saying. I applaud you for you just having a completely stepping away from all of the craziness. Because like you said, you don't do red carpets. You don't do any of that stuff.

No. I mean, don't get me wrong. I've been to award shows and I'll walk up the red carpet. But I'm not like I won't stay for the afterpour. party. So I'll go a certain way and then I'll be like, oh, that's me, don't know. There's a lot of fakeness, isn't there?

And a lot of, you know, I don't know. I just like to do the work. You know, that should speak for itself, shouldn't it, I think. But also you don't do many interviews, so thank you for doing this. Because people always, I mean, I hate it. So I won't ask people about their private

life unless they talk about it. Yeah. But there's a, there's a people devour. There's a fly fly, fly, that people devour... Honestly, that snoring, it's the dog, it's not my breathing. It's your stomach, actually. It sounds like me wheezing. But people are, this day and age, they want to know everything about everybody

through social media, through magazines, through online, however it is. They always seem to want more. And you've managed just to sort of, it's as if you've put your hand up. But I think that's reality TV. people, they want to know about people that have got extraordinary private lives, I always think like, I don't know, I'm not comparing myself to Julie Walters. Oh, she's a genius. I mean, but I think someone like her who she's amazing and yet she would always kind of like

like famously has a nice private life, you know, sort of like you never hear about her, you know, because she just has a nice, like she does the work and then she goes home. She's not falling at a nightclubs. Have you ever fallen out of a nightclub? Yeah, probably back in Bolton. See? And no photos. Perfect.

Keep it out of the photos. Yeah. But the only thing that they do talk about are your famous relatives. Does that get, does that annoy you? No. No. I mean, no one cares really, you know. Do you think they don't?

Yeah, no, it's not that interesting. I don't think. I love your attitude to life. I'm trying to think of someone who's got like a really fantastic, like, oh, I want to find out what they're doing. Certain people are you like, I'm sure that's quite dull. I just want you work. Yes.

But what's interesting is though nowadays and there is obviously a story that has been quite prevalent when you look at all the stuff that's really going on in the world, but people are obsessed with celebrity. Yes, they're obsessed with celebrity. Yeah. Yeah, it's the kind of, oh my God, oh, what's going to happen here? Oh, it's the kind of like a morbid fascination and I thank God it's not me.

But all reality TV is about people being humiliated now, I think. And I think it's sort of dangerous. There's this fear of like stepping out and doing something a bit different and, oh my God, what's going to happen? like X factor and all that and people like, oh my God, they can't sing. It's so embarrassing. And oh my God, look what she's wearing. Oh, my God.

Oh, cringe. There's a cringe culture. Like, I can't bear. No, me neither. I can't stand it. I think it's... So judgmental. Yeah, it is.

Okay, so coming up then, we've got more kunk. We've got more Mandy. Please, please speak to Sharon about Motherland. But will you do some... Now, this is a question from my 16-year-old. Yeah. Who is obsessed with all that you do.

She said, even though you wanted to always do comedy acting, would you do the serious stuff as well? Yeah, I would. I would. I have been offered a couple of things. But I think one was like a policewoman. And I read the lines and I just thought, I can't do this. It was one of those kind of like, this end now parts. So you'd laugh too much.

I couldn't take myself seriously, you know, as a copper. I just feel silly. There's so much about police. I could see in policing things. People staring at lakes. You know, it all looks the same to me. I just want something different. Okay.

So something different. But I'd love to do a drama, but it would have to be something that I thought was really different and interesting. Okay, well, whatever you do, we'll be watching. We are with sort of a family of super fans, it's slightly scary saying that to your face, but that is true. I don't mind, come in clean.

Diane Morgan, thank you very much. I could actually live with you because I would laugh all day. You'd be so depressed. I'd be like, why did I want this? All the time. Thank you, lovely. Thank you. So lovely to have you on the podcast.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.