That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Mathew Horne

Episode Date: May 30, 2021

In this episode Gaby talks to the very funny and very talented Mathew Horne. They chat all about Gavin and Stacey and the brilliant Christmas special which he said was the most enjoyable experience of his entire career. Also, his friendship with Catherine Tate and the excitement for The Nan Movie starring those amazing characters - Nan and Jamie from the hilarious Catherine Tate Show. Also, lots about laughter being the best medicine, his admiration of Steve Coogan, his love of Scotland, and stay tuned to hear a very special message from Gavin himself!   For more information on the sponsor of this episode Symprove visit www.symprove.com or follow-on Instagram on @symproveyourlife. To claim 15% off the 12-week programme use discount code GABY15 at checkout. For new customers only in the UK. Symprove customer care team are available 8-8 to answer any questions or queries, call 01252 413600. 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.

Gabby Roslin here. Thank you so much for listening. I always love chatting to my guest this week. It's the very funny and very talented Matthew Horn. We of course chat all about one of my favourite ever comedies Gavin and Stacey and the brilliant Christmas special which he said was one of the most enjoyable experiences of his entire career. Also his friendship with Catherine Tate and the excitement for the Nan movie starring those amazing characters, Nan and Jamie, from the hilarious Catherine. Anthony Tate Show. Also, lots about laughter being the best medicine, his love of Scotland, and stay tuned to hear a very special message from Gavin himself. Truthfully, yes. I am hugely thankful that this episode is sponsored by one of my favourite companies, Simprove. It's a food supplement containing live and active bacteria, which has done wonders for both mine and my family's health. More information at Simprove.com with discount code GABY15 for 15% of the 12-week program. I'll tell you more about them later. Please can I ask you a favor? Would you mind, please, following and subscribing by pressing the follow or subscribe button on the show. Now, I have to

tell you, this really honestly does not cost any money. It's completely free. And then if you wouldn't mind, rate and review on Apple Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. You simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes and you'll see you'll see the stars where you can tap to rate and press write a review. It would mean the world to us. Thank you so much. Gorgeous. How are you? Pretty good, actually. I'm pretty good. It's so nice to hear your voice. Well, it's lovely to hear yours. Unfortunately, not being able to see you means I can't stare into those incredible eyes because last time I went on about your eyes and you got all embarrassed. Well, people don't go on about my eyes anymore, Gabby, because I'm just too old. They used to. When I was a

younger man they used to talk about my eyes. Of course they still will. What do you mean you're too old? You're not too old. Oh, I've really tipped over now. 42 now. What do you mean tipped over? What's happened to you?

The passage of time has happened to me. Where am I speaking to you then, old man? Am I speaking to you in London or are you in Bonnie Scotland, old man? I'm in London. Yes, I'm at home. But don't you have a place in Scotland as well now? I don't know. That was, I mean, I did actually look to buy a place in Scotland, and I would still very much like to have a place in Scotland.

I go on holiday there whenever I can. Whenever I holiday, I go to Scotland. I have a bit of Scottish blood going quite far back. I'm about an eighth Scottish. So that's probably like my shin or something like that, you know, shin and karts. You have a Scottish cough. I have a Scottish club. So it's sort of like my spiritual home.

And a few years ago, I did look into buying a place there, but this story of me moving there and becoming a hermit, I don't quite know where that came from. It's unfortunately not true. But I would very much like to live there. I am all things scottophile. So how's this strange year been for you? because you were lauded and applauded and you were everywhere.

And then suddenly, like all of us, it has to go, and everything comes down. And it's a, let's go to sleep, yeah. I was about to start filming a show that I do called Agatha Raisin. And two days before filming, we were shut down. And I think initially, because we were all told collectively, that we had to stay at home and not go to work or if we could work from home, work from home. But effectively, everybody was in the same boat.

I kind of made peace with that quite quickly. I was disappointed not to be working, but nobody else was working. So it didn't really create too much anxiety in me. And I enjoyed the piece on a personal level. obviously it's incredibly scary and incredibly difficult and has been incredibly difficult for lots and lots of people and I totally sympathise with the way that the pandemic has affected people in much, much worse ways than myself.

And for the first, I would say, eight months, I was pretty good. I dealt with it pretty well. I was quite productive. I was, you know, tidying up projects, writing projects of my own, as I've had on the shelf for a few years. And there was a little stand-up character that I wanted to, I've always wanted to do.

So I did that for an online comedy show. And, you know, there was certain creative things where I could, where I had an outlet, if you like. And mentally I kind of made peace with it and did my bit, you know. Interestingly, though, you know, you've done a lot of theatre. I remember talking to you, you were just the last time I chatted to you, you were going to be doing the live Catherine Tate. How long have you and Catherine been working together?

Is it over 20 years or something, isn't it? Gosh, I think I first worked with Catherine when I was 22, and so that's 20. 20 years? Yeah. That was on stage doing, playing the grandson to the nan character. on stage in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Festival. I just love that. I love it.

How do you two, okay, because this is all about laughter and fun and entertainment and everything in this podcast. How do you two not pee yourselves laughing, just looking at each other? It's so funny. I think I was always slightly intimidated by Catherine from a young age. Really? Yeah, just because of her talent, really. So it was more about just doing my job and being as professional as I can.

And the sort of straight-faced deadpanness of the character came probably purely out of here. And obviously we've now become very, very close and we've worked professionally together for 20 years. In fact, the last time we worked together was finishing off the movie, which we'll get onto. But yeah, I think that sort of private personal relationship, friendship, has always been very, very separate to the professional relationship that we have. So I've always just tried to do my job and courting and ruining a take, for example, is not doing my job necessarily. Oh, you see, I could never, I just couldn't do it because I am, I giggle over any. anything at all. You must laugh though, because you've got you've got a giggle there. Oh, gosh. What makes you laugh? What makes you properly laugh? I mean, I think I attribute my

early aging and crow speed to laughter more than anything else because I have so many funny friends and I've also done so much work with funny people. Catherine obviously makes me laugh. it's just I have a job to do when I'm working with her and there's something in me that wouldn't want to let her down but my whole sort of raise on better is laughter and comedy and that's what I kind of grew up with and that's what I've sort of vaguely made a career out of. No, don't say vaguely that's what you have really on the whole.

People think of you as, and I mean this in a really lovely way that you make us all smile, the roles that you've done. I know you've done some very serious roles. We'll talk about, you know, you've done Rain Man on stage and you've done other stuff. But it's about laughter. So I want to know what makes you laugh. What makes you properly laugh? What makes me laugh?

Well, the reason I'm an actor is Steve Coogan, really. I did my dissertation on Steve Coogan. Wow. Yeah, I grew up with Laurel and Hardy, but it was Steve Coogan that made me want to. be an actor. And so most recently, I think his, uh, his, uh, his Alan Partridge from the Oest House podcast made me how with laughter. So, uh, most, actually that and the, um, boorat sequel, uh, really made me laugh. Oh, have you seen it? Oh, it really? Is it very good. I thought it was excellent. I thought it was so funny. And it was, it was a much needed, much needed

In fact, when the weather turned, there was a lot of rain. I sort of found myself, you know, feeling a little bit down. And the changing of the seasons, it just started to get me down. And then I had this day where I met a friend who I'd not seen for a while. We had a giggle. And then I watched the ball at that movie and I really laughed. And I woke up in the morning and I suddenly felt better. I realized that I'd had this huge sort of dopamine or something.

serotonin injection just from laughing. And it just made me feel so much better. And so that was really my medicine. So yeah, the last time I... The last time I hawed with laughter was the Borat sequel. Yeah, well, laughter is the best medicine. My late mum always used to say that to me. And I'm a great believer in it

because I think it helps us through so much. Now, as promised, I'd like to tell you more about our fantastic sponsor of this episode, Simprove. I've been telling everyone about this company for years before we started working together. I love them so much. It's a food supplement containing live and active bacteria to support gut health and a well-balanced microbiome. The reason it's different to others that you may have tried is its unique water-based formula means that it quickly travels straight to your gut to thrive and multiply.

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In those 10 minutes, I do some squats while singing. I then do some press-ups while listening to the radio. And then I call my daughter down and tell her her breakfast is ready and then I eat my breakfast. Now, that does sound like a lot to do in 10 minutes. But sometimes at 10 minutes, you have so much time. Oh, by the way, just in case you were wondering, I always order the mango and passion fruit flavor. For more information, visit the Simprove website. That's Simprove.com.

and that's S-Y-M-P-R-O-V-E. We have an exclusive discount just for listeners to this podcast. Get 15% off the 12-week program by entering this promo code when you're at the checkout. It's G-A-B-Y-15. That's Gabby 15 for new customers in the UK. They have a helpful customer care team and we will put their phone number in this episode's description. So obviously we have to come to Gavin. That Christmas special, so we watched it again last night

because as a family, we all watched it go out. Yes. And then we've watched it again in lockdown. And then last night, because I knew that I was going to be chatting to you, the family all said, oh, please let's watch some Gavin and Stacey. So we watched some very old ones. And then we watched the, I say, oh, come on, please let's watch the Christmas special again. And I really, really mean this, hand on heart.

And I know there's sort of 20 million people as well. But thank you for that gift, that gem that we all, I don't think we realized how much we all needed it. I mean, the reaction must have blown you away. It did completely. I mean, any kind of comeback for the show like that was always going to be surrounded with some degree of excitement or anticipation and expectation as well. And I think it's really testament to James and Ruth's script, actually, that made it as successful as it was. Because it wasn't just a sort of greatest hits compilation of catchphrases or little skits. It was a really, really strong, heartwarming and funny, joyous story.

And we knew that. We all knew that from reading the script and from when we did the read-through earlier in the year. I think it was March time. We filmed it in July, August, in the blazing sunshine in our Christmas junkers. But yeah, I think we knew that the script was good and that they'd written something very strong. But we didn't know we were going to break records in terms of viewing figures and it was going to be lauded as much as it was. was and anticipated in such a positive way as well. I remember in the run up to Christmas, people just stopping me in the street and saying,

oh, we're so looking forward to it. You know, it's like the highlight of our Christmas day, which is very preemptive, considering it hadn't happened yet. But that, you know, it was, it was, it was something, it was a real event for, for people. And, yeah, we were always. completely blown away with the response, absolutely blown away. And it was absolutely wonderful. And I think we could sort of feel that we were doing something quite special when we were filming it.

It was one of the most enjoyable shoots, if not the most enjoyable shoot I've done in my entire career, coming back together with those people. Wow. Wow. I wasn't the only person. I mean, Rob Bryden said that as well. He said that it was his favorite job he's ever done. There was something incredibly joyous about it.

And the scene when Brin and Nessa was singing on Christmas Eve, and we're all up dancing, I remember shooting that, and we had a break, and everybody could feel, everybody was saying, you know, that was really, that was something special. We knew we'd filmed something that was very, special and it just felt incredibly authentically full of joy and love

and yeah I will look back on that shoot very very fondly how wonderful and what was so lovely about it as well not only watching it and as a huge Gavin and Stacey fan from the beginning I know people always say that now

you know people say there weren't that many people that watched it in the beginning but I really was one of those and I loved it but there was something about everybody coming together at the same time and watching something at the same time, and that doesn't happen these days. Everybody watches whatever they're watching online at different times, but there are certain times that you get the feeling that there's a togetherness. And that was one of those. I just knew everybody I knew was watching it. And afterwards, we all sat as a family and my elderly dad was here and he loved, we just,

Everybody was coming together and you're right, it's what we need. It was very unifying. But the notion of event television like that is kind of archaic now. You know, as you say, it doesn't happen. You know, you can watch entire series in one go. And so it was an incredibly unifying thing. Yeah, let's hope they played again. But congratulations and thanks to all of you.

I'm actually speaking to Rob Brydon. Oh, fantastic. Yes, great. I mean, that moment of him clearing up everything on the floor, I don't know why that stuck in my mind. And then also the relationship between you and Joe. And Joe just seemed, I've been watching all the interviews that you did beforehand and then on the set and saying about you saying how emotional it was and how, because you and I have spoken before about nerves and being self-conscious and shy because you and I have said that we both get like that. But there was this sort of, it seemed that the fear. and the nerves and the self-consciousness

all disappeared because you all felt the same. And that's how lovely. It was, it was very lovely. And the thing, I was talking to, I talked to Joe a lot about us being Gavin and Stacey whilst you were shooting actually. And, you know, regardless of what either of us do in our career, we will always be Gavin and Stacey, you know, to many, many people.

Forever, that'll be on our gravestones, you know. And it is, you know, there is something, it's a very easy working relationship that Joe and I have because we do feel like husband and wife when we're filming. We just do feel like that. We don't really see each other when we're not filming out of the States. She lives out of town and we just don't see each other. But when we come together, there's something about that relationship, which is very, very natural to us.

So, yeah, there were no nerves. Everybody, obviously, we felt a certain degree of expectation from our audience. But I think we kind of channeled our love and joy into the show. And I think that came across on screen. It really did. Well, thank you for that. I'll keep thanking you for that, good of joy. But let's go to Catherine Tate now.

So you just said you finished doing the. movie. So this is something else we all need. We shot it in Dublin. And it's been in on-off post-production because of lockdown. So maybe people will get to see it in 10 to 15 years. I don't know. Well, I hope it's before that for goodness sake. So do I. It was, it was, I mean, it was an extraordinary thing to be, to sort of reminisce as, we were earlier about being on stage in this tiny little venue in Edinburgh when I was 22, playing this character with Catherine, and then doing a movie of the same character for Warner Brothers 20 years later.

It's quite an extraordinary thing. It's really odd. That really is. Yeah, it's really strange. And practically, it would probably make Nan about 125. But you have to suspend your disbelief with that one. No, no, no. That's good.

That's fine. But, yeah, I'm very excited for people to see it. It's been worked on, yes, for a long time now. And the script is certainly, was certainly very, very good and very, very funny. Oh, good. Well, I can't wait for that because I mean, I just think, like, it's just so funny. So there's all the things that we wish we could all. say. In fact, she should be doing the news roundup, I think. There should be a weekly news roundup

with Nan giving us the roundup of the situation here and in America, because I'd love to know what she had to say about all of that. I think Nan's election night commentary would be something to behold, wouldn't it? Speak to Catherine. Get her to do it. Get her to do it online. When you think back over the past 20 years and what you've packed in, and Kylie Minogue, working with James as a double act and working with your other comedy partners. And I mean, I could list everything that you've done and the straight plays. And as I said, Rayman on stage, which was, you know, everyone was talking about you in that as well. All those different things that you've done.

Can you imagine what the next 20 years or so holds? Because, I mean, it's been so varied for you. It's comedy, it's straight acting, it's theatre, it's television, it's movies, presenting. Rock and roll. I mean, you've had some serious sort of rock and roll times as well. wow and that's just a short space of time i know and um i feel very very fortunate and i am constantly blown away by it to be honest with you um it's not something i ever expected to happen in my life and i'm very very grateful i've never been a particularly ambitious person i've pursued things

that i want to do but not uh fervently I've just sort of let things unfold and I have done some really fantastic things. And yes, who knows what the next 20 years will hold. I hope I will be able to continue to work and I hope I will be able to do films and do television and do theatre and continue to have a varied career as I have had for the last 20 years. I feel in a very fortunate position. And I'm thrilled with my CV. I mean, I look back and I can't quite believe it sometimes.

But yeah, it's a wonderful thing. And I look and I very much look forward to the next 20 years once all this horribleness is over. Well, thank you for bringing us the joy. And would you mind doing me a favour? And we didn't plan this, okay. but can I just have a word with Gavin about lockdown? Would that be all right?

Yeah, go on then. Gavin, how have you and Stacey been in lockdown? Yeah, it's been all right. I mean, mainly she's been looking after the kids and I've been on the PlayStation. But, you know, I do my bit. I cook once or twice every month or so. But yeah, no, it's been all right.

It's been fine. We get to spend a lot of time together in close proximity. And there's not a lot to do in Barry during lockdown. But there's always a walk on the beach. Oh, do you know, this is really embarrassing. And I'm going to tell you, you just brought a tear to my eye, and I have no idea why. Oh, come on.

That was so adorable. I think you're busy. Now you've been over-emotional, Gabby. No, I think because I was watching you last night for hours and hours and then just actually thinking that that's exactly what, God, you know Gavin and Stacey well, because that's exactly how they would have been in lockdown. And that's what made me smile.

Good. There was a real comfort there and I think that was lovely. Wow, Matthew, thank you, my sweet. What a pleasure to speak to you. Lovely to speak to you too, Gabby. Thank you. Thank you so much to our exceptional. exclusive sponsor of this episode.

Go to Simprove.com and use code Gabby 15 at the checkout for 15% off their 12-week program. Next week, my guest is the phenomenal actor Danny Mays from Line of Duty, Des, Temple, swimming with men, fishermen's friends. He's just truthfully one of my favorite actors and one of my favorite people. That Gabby Rawlsin podcast is proudly produced by Cameo Productions. Music by Beth Macari. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button? And thank you so much for your reviews.

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