That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Mischief Theatre (The Play That Goes Wrong....etc)

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Henry Lewis and Dave Hearn from Mischeif Theatre (The Play That Goes Wrong) join Gaby for chat - and a bit of cheeky mischief of course! Their new show - The Comedy About Spies - is in full flow in London's West End and is HILARIOUS! Gaby chats to them about how they met, how The Play That Goes Wrong came about, and the early years of the company. One of the things they have learned from doing these silly shows is how much they have resonated with people going through tough times. Often the cast are told by audience members that they have helped them get through a tough time. There's something quite powerful about laughter - and about the joyful release of laughter. They now have shows on in London, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney - as well as TV specials and new shows in the works. The mischief never stops!!!

I love it when people bring mischief in every possible way. Mischief is one of my favorite words. That's the sort of TV I've been involved with for years. And you're the mischief company. I mean, it's just... That's how much I love you guys. Really, really, really. This week, I was lucky enough to come and see...

I'm going to start laughing now. I had an... I went into hysteria at your show, comedy about spies. I do you know why I love it? I'm not, I will let you speak, I promise, but I love what you do so much, Henry and Dave, I really love what you guys do. But what was so lovely was that we were in a huge West End theatre

and every single member of the, I'm feeling a bit emotional, every single member of the audience was laughing. And at the moment, with everything being so dark and so bleak, you filled our hearts, our lungs, our heads, our brains, our minds, our minds with joy, so thank you. Oh, you're most welcome. Yeah, thank you. And they pay us to do it if you can believe that.

Well, thank you for coming. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Yeah, I mean, I think we've, yeah, I think it's a really fun thing to kind of spread laughter, particularly in kind of big theatre like the Adelphia. It's a really kind of special place, I think, to do the show, isn't it? And we're having a blast. It's a show that we've been, and we first started writing it back in 2021. And we were, we sort of, you know, we did a first draft.

And then we got the guys into do a reading and we did several readings. And our producers, I'm sure they won't mind me saying, where I think not very sure about it to begin with. And they were a little bit worried. And it was quite a big show, quite a big kind of, you know, a big set to build and a big kind of risk to take.

And we did a big workshop of the show in 2024. And we were sort of like, oh, you know, let's see what we've got. And I think we were sort of like, we came out of that being like, oh, I think it could be quite good. And then we... Quite good. It's excellent.

Well, thank you. I'm glad you thought so. You sort of never really know when you're in it. Like you sort of, when you're making it, you sort of go, oh, this is making me laugh. I think this is good. And then you sort of hope for the best. But now you must know because you can you, you can hear us, can't you? Yeah, I think there's a, there's certainly a confidence in the cast, I would say, particularly

on a second run of just, yeah, feeling really confident that it's a good show and encouraging and taking a bit more of a what I'd call kind of an American attitude. to it when people will just sort of go, oh, hey, I really love your show. And my response now is just like, yeah, it's great, isn't it? Oh, yes. Not being British and going to go, yeah, yeah. Really? Been like, oh, thank you. Oh, yeah, it's all right. And you just go, yeah, it's great. You should bring your friends and come back and see it again. Because it's brilliant. Do you enjoy doing it? I mean, you're so physical. Yeah, I do a lot of jumping about. How do you do it? Springy, springy legs. Yeah, I love it. I sort of, I love it. And it's hard.

It takes its toll on me and I pick up a few knocks and injuries and have a bit of fatigue and stuff but I sort of really look off to myself outside of the show and try not to drink too much but yeah I just sort of the idea of doing it feels sometimes like oh God this is a lot

and you get like five minutes in and then you hear the first few laughs and it just five minutes sorry the first couple of minutes or the opening 10 what is it 10 minutes just I was with a very well-known comedian who's been in the business for a very long time. We're with him a couple of days ago.

And he said that it's his words were genius. And it's simple and beautiful. And I wish I just can you can't do it because it's just two of you. But it makes me lose. We've been missing quite a lot of the dialogue. Yeah. We could try. No.

No, because then I will, I think I might wet myself. in the nicest possible way. I was uncontrollably giggling. I'm so pleased. I mean, really uncontrollably. So, Henry, for obviously the play that goes wrong, that's been running for... 13 years. Well, booking into its 13th year now, yeah.

That's incredible. 2014, we started that at the Duchess. We first brought it into the West End. Yeah. And we really thought, I mean, it was, you know, we were like, oh, it's going to do 12 weeks, you know, because that was kind of what's what most sort of plays do. We're like, oh, you know, maybe we'll get to Christmas. Will we get to beyond Christmas?

That was kind of what we were talking about when we came in after the tour. 2014. First time we done a West End show really. I remember I was there at the opening night. My goodness, were you? Wow. Yes. And I was weeping by the end laughing so much. Well, good. No. My sense of humour. I love it. Thank you. It's super fun that. And that's obviously, yeah, just to the test of time. It's a great sort of theatre for it. And yeah, the 13th cast have just begun their run there, the Duchess. And they're absolutely brilliant. Such a good team. And yeah, you know, it continues to be just a joy. But all right. Let's go back to the.

beginning, though, because you were drum students together. Yeah? Correct, yeah. So we met at Lambda. Dave and I did the foundation course at Lambda. And that was kind of where we, yeah, where we all met, really. But we sort of, we did a lot of improv when we were there. Yeah. And we really loved doing that.

And so the first thing we ever did was an improv show that we took to the Edinburgh Festival. Yeah. And Crestor and Questus. And Crestes, that was the Crestes at Ealing, which of course is where I met Michael Green, who wrote the Articles Acting, which is a big part of where it goes wrong stuff came from. Yeah, it's amazing amateur theatre actually in West London and a really cool place. And I went to the youth theatre there.

And so I knew them a bit. So I was like, oh, can we have your studio theatre for a week or whatever to do our pre-Edembera previews, which we did. And Dave, you did it. I remember you came in on the first day and you'd broken your arm. Do you remember that? Yes, yeah, I did it in a sling. Yeah. Dave did the one in the sling.

Yeah, I've had a couple of operations throughout the years. But I think no. You do throw yourself around a lot. Oh, is it? Yeah, I might dislocate. It was just a little bit older. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She's just become a classic for me.

But it's physical humour. I mean, what you do is clowning, but in the acting sense, not as in the red nose sense. Yes, yeah, yeah. It's so physical and so fast. Yeah, and I think, brain-wise and body-wise. It sort of always was like that, even in the early days. I think when we were training at Lambda, there was a guy called Adam McGito who was running the course, who's a brilliant, brilliant improviser.

And he was so passionate about it. and we kind of got caught in the gravity of that, I think. And then I remember you saying, I think we should start an improv company. And I think that when we first started, we were very young, we were teenage, we were still like 19, 20 or whatever. And it was just a lot of energy, a lot. And we just sort of learned to calibrate it over the years.

And then these guys doing a lot of the writing, just kind of learned to kind of put us all in places that we could excel at within the script. So it also kind of came together, I think. I love the way. it started with you were students because I think it's where so many ideas and people get the fear and don't want to do

things and they think, oh no, well, I'll never make it, I'll never do this, I'll never do that. But you seem to have, I mean, it comes across in all of your work as well, this wonderful gung-ho attitude. Come on, we can do this. Have you always been like that? Yeah.

I think so, yeah. I mean, I think at the beginning, it was, I think we had to be like that in order to kind of get the shows on, really. We were just like, well, you know, let's just do it. And we did so much, I mean, all the improv shows we did, but also even play that goes wrong,

the first outing of that. Yeah, it was just, that was the attitude. It was like, we've got to get this on. So we're going to do all the stuff. And so we built the set and we hung the lights ourselves. We did the marketing ourselves. And we did, you know, all of the kind of, you know, negotiated the theatre contract.

All of the, you know. At such a young age, though, as well. Yeah, we were 22 or something, 23 when we were doing that. And so a lot of it, we didn't quite know what we were doing. You know, we'd never done a theatre. a deal before. We'd never hung a lighting rig before. I'd never built a set before really. So it was just like, well

we'll just give it a go. We'll do. And there was a lot of trial and error, I think, a lot of error. Yeah. But you show your errors, which I love. Yeah. And I think like, it was just one person kind of doing the next thing and that thing then just got done.

And then you're like, okay, so we've done that thing. What's next? And I think I remember me and a guy called Rob Faulkner, who's original member, he was in the me and him turned up to the Old Bread line to hang the lights and we're literally looking at the lights all on the floor and then this rig and I was just like right okay I did a B-tech in acting and they taught us a bit I see if I can remember that and then we just hung all the lights and we learned how to patch the desk and they had no

text oh my word so we just plugged it all in and like figured it out we're like okay if you move this this happens and then these guys arrived a couple of hours late and we were like guys we've got six lights here's what we can do with them and then we were really proud of it and I think that attitude is kind of carried forward and particularly when we started doing the TV stuff. I remember speaking to the SFX guys who are like a father and son

team and they work on all kinds of big shows but they loved working on our show and one of the guys I was talking to he said you all have this amazing slightly irritating ability to make everyone feel like A, anything is possible and B that we want to make it possible.

Love this! And it's like it's so fun And I think so many times that actors get caught in the thing that they're making and they forget that there's lots of other moving parts. So how amazing is it if you can get the carpenter or the SFX guy or the sound guy to go, hey, we've got this crazy idea. Can you help us make it real? And as soon as you kind of pitch it with that level of enthusiasm, they're like, yeah, I think I can.

And you go, great. So it is possible. So we can do it. And then they go, yeah, it's just going to be a lot of effort. And you go, great. But you can do it, right? Yes, I love this. And I think then people go, yeah, I guess I can do it.

And you kind of end up having these sort of weird and wonderful stunts that the guys put in their script suddenly become real. That's exactly what I said, though, that that attitude shows for us as an audience, that's what we get. I mean, we get that enthusiasm on stage because you're enthusiastic about it. We then want it to go wrong. We want it to work, obviously not work, but go wrong, because that's what we're all waiting for. I mean, my favorite thing in the world is somebody walking into a tree. I'm really sorry. It makes me sound like a really cruel person.

It's very, very funny thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's, you know, I wanted to remind myself, I've gone, ever since I saw your show, sort of watching all your TV shows, and there's... We've lost her. We've lost her, everyone. You know how much I love you. In the pilot of the pilot, but it's not the pilot, that show.

And you're opening the door. and then you're walking into that, that, you're going up the stairs, but there's no stairs, and you bang, it just, see things like that. It's just a picture of some stairs. That makes me laugh. But I'm going to go back to what I was saying before about. Henry, you and I have spoken about this before.

The world is so, so, so bleak and so dark, and the news is so frightening for everybody. Do you feel now that comedy is coming to the fore again? Because it seemed it was a bit, you know, Everyone wanted another detective thing and lots of people being killed. But without the laughs, it feels timely for, I mean, the show, for the play that goes, you know, all of the, and the tour and all the Christmas shows, which we'll talk about. But it feels now even more so than ever we need you. Well, I mean, our experience, I think, is, yeah, audiences are really, really keen to laugh and kind of have something that is kind of fun and silly.

And, yeah, I completely agree. I think, yeah, the world is in a very, very sort of feels like a very precarious place. And so, I mean, you know, yeah, it's also important to think about that and, you know, but I think it's also important to be able to have an escape and be able to kind of, you know, there's like, I mean, so often people at stage door, you know, will come and sort of, you know, photo, ask for an autograph or whatever, but also sort of say, or, you know, I've been through a difficult time or there's been, and actually this show, you know, these kind of shows and this kind of comedy really helped me through because I think,

I think, yeah, if you can, I think, if you can, I think, find the funny side in something. It's a huge way of getting through it, isn't it? And sort of overcoming difficult things and feel very lucky that we're able to kind of, you give people that and work in comedy every day. It's really, you know, really special. I think I'm a bit of a convert actually. I think truthfully, I was always quite cynical about our work in terms of the impact that it had on people. I loved it. I loved doing the shows. As the people Henry's talking about at Stage Door, I used to kind of talk to them and be like, really? It's just a kind of silly show, but okay, fine. And then I went through a lot of.

grief myself and I kind of got really attached to this podcast and it would really make me laugh and I got really excited to listen to it every day because it offered me a place that I was dealing with my own shit. Oh, can I swear? Yeah, you can. Yeah. I was dealing with my own fucking shit the whole time and actually that becomes exhausting and so to give yourself like an hour to listen to this funny thing. And then once I'd gone through that myself, I then kind of came out the other side and was seeing those audience members through a different lens and they were, some people were getting quite emotional. And where I used to fill the space of cynicism being like, why are you crying over our silly show? But then I was just like, oh yeah, you've gone through a lot. And actually it's,

it's not necessarily what the show is. It's the fact that you just have some relief just for a few hours that your only job as an audience member is to come into this building for two hours. And all we need you to do is laugh. That's it. You have to think about anything else. We'll take care of everything else. and I started to realize how powerful that was and the shows are silly. They aren't exactly that. But there is a real power. They're not just flippantly silly.

It's so beautifully crafted. But you are allowing us that release. Yeah, just to like laugh and have fun. And we've had so many stories of couples that have either got together or have broken up and booked play that goes wrong and gone, oh, fuck it, we'll just go and see it and then got back together. Oh, my word.

I love that. Yeah, they'll come and see us at State's Draw and be like, we saw the plate that goes wrong and we'd broken up. And then we got back together and we're still together. And it's six years later. And it's like, because they go and remember fun again. And it just,

it resets everything to a very, very simple level where you go, I find that funny, so I laugh. And this person is laughing with me and it connects us. And it's just like a really lovely thing. And like you saying, there's 1,500 people in that audience.

Like the magic of, that's my favorite thing about it is that you know, you've got a. punchline coming up and you know you're going to hit that punchline and at exactly the same time 1,500 people are all going to laugh. And it's so it you can desensitized to that, I think. We can as we do it every day. But when you remind yourself of it, it's quite powerful. Uncontrollable, but I'm going to share with you a really lovely story. In front of us, there was a father and four sons, ranging in age, I would say from 16 to about eight.

And they were there. And I'm very nosy. I was listening into the conversation. They were saying it very loudly. And the youngest boy, and I'd say the next one along, next age-wise, probably about 10, were just saying how much they loved the show. And this was in the interval. And the youngest one, this was his first time in theatre. And his dad were going, what do you think of this then?

He said, never be. Dad, I can't believe it. We're at theatre. This is live. This is the funniest thing. This is the best thing. I've never been. And I turned to my family because we were all there in hysterics,

mascara down my face from laughing. And I just said to them, that's what you do. That's what you guys do. So thank you. You're bringing people to theatre back to theatre, but also people who've never experienced live theatre. And I'm passionate about it. Live theatre is something very special.

It really is, I think. I think it's going to get kind of more important as well, I think, as more AI stuff and what. You know, we have less personal connection with things sometimes online a bit. And I think actually it's really cool to go to a place and have a kind of communal experience with lots of other people and kind of, I don't know, yeah, you really feel like you're part of something. I think it's really special. And yeah, and I think comedy especially is like, you know, benefits so much from being live because you have that atmosphere and that sort of laughter and all that kind of thing. It's just so kind of great to share with people.

So yeah, I think it's a really kind of, yeah. We've definitely done stuff in the past, like some of the TV stuff and some of the, the improv stuff through COVID without an audience. And it's tough. It's really tough because you can't generate music. You can't generate a rhythm. And you find that like, yeah, without that live element, you can write jokes and make jokes and you can edit them to be funny and stuff.

But there's something so joyous about. And this is why we get test audiences for stuff as well. You know, we have 50, 50 gags. We don't know if they're going to work. As soon as you bring 10 people in, to the room who have never seen it and have no context, you suddenly, the whole room shifts and you feel it and you go, and you know as you're approaching it, if it's going to work or not, you're like, oh no, we've been just to be a test audience for anything.

100% always. The idea of spending every day what you guys is my idea of heaven. But for all, so the team that put all of the shows together, you must be, all of you must be delighted about what's happening because you've got you've got a couple of shows in the West End. You're touring. You're also, you've got Christmas shows. So take me through because when I saw you straight afterwards, you listed what's happening and I was sort of my jaw was on the floor. Yes, well, it's a bit busy old year. We've got, um, um, politically goes wrong. Obviously, are still running at the Duchess Theatre. We've got comedy about spies at the Adelphi now until

the end of September. Please make it last longer. We hope, I'm sure it will return. Um, the news on that, to come soon, but I can't quite reveal that yet. But, and then the next thing is Christmas Carol goes wrong, which is the show we first did last year. That's coming back. So there's three productions of that. There's a UK production, which is on tour around the UK, and it stops off in the West End over Christmas.

But it's all over the UK, which is fantastic. Yes. Love it. It goes, yeah, there's about 12 cities, 12, 13 cities. And so that goes from October through until March. And then there's a second production in Los Angeles, the Arminson Theatre. And then there's also a...

another production at the Sydney Opera House as well over Christmas. So the Gold Coast and then goes to the City Opera House. So yeah, so there's lots of... And are you in any of those? I am in... There's two sort of teams and one team is doing two weeks of the UK tour and then LA and I'm doing that team. And there will be news soon about which team Dave's...

Yes. Has been announced yet. But I think probably by the time this goes out, that will be announced. Oh, fantastic. The city on the other side of me, I got... talking to some investors who were your investors. Oh, cool. Yeah, who invest in all your shows.

And they were from America, from Las Vegas. They were lovely. I get talking to everybody anyway. They were really lovely. And they were so thrilled and delighted with it. They were, and that must be nice for you as well. Because you know, the audience like it, the people who were helping us put it on like it. You're doing so much right.

I'm sorry, I am a super, I'm really embarrassing. I'm really embarrassed. I am a super... You shouldn't be embarrassed at all. It's great. It's really lovely. Be more American about it. Hey, I'm a super bad.

But you've done quite a lot in the States, though, haven't you? We've done three shows in the States now. So we did Play That It Goes Wrong. That was on Broadway for 2017 for about three or four years. And it's now still running off Broadway at New World Stages in New York. Great production there. Awesome team. Lots of them have been doing it for years and years.

I think it's sort of done more. Chris Lansley, who just finished as Chris. I think had done nearly 2,000 performances or something, I think more than anybody has done. Wow. Yeah. We hit a thousand, didn't we? Yeah.

I think he'd been with the show, I think, since it moved off Broadway. Different breed of actors they have there as well, very disciplined. They're nothing like us. They're very well behaved, very good. And they're, yeah, they're completely brilliant. Like so many of the actors that we saw to take over those parts, we were just like, every one of these is brilliant. Oh, my.

They're so good and they love doing it. There's zero cynicism about it. They're like so pumped, so excited. And it's such a wonderful environment to be in because you're just like, yeah, it is great. And they're like, I know, I can't wait. And you're like, okay, great. So I totally buy it. It's not just British humor.

It's world humor, isn't it? Because somebody falling downstairs or, I mean. Walking into a tree. It's all good. We get a lot of tourists now in the London production, don't we? Yeah. Because there's a few, like, there's lots of jokes in there that are kind of word-based gags. The language does help, but there's so much that you can just look at and be like, that's just silly.

Oh, we'll congratulate. Seriously, congratulations. I absolutely love it. Is there, are there going to be some new ones? You're not going to tell me, are you? You're smiling. There's nothing announced yet, but yeah, we're always developing new stuff. So, yeah, there absolutely will be new things, yes, in the pipeline, but nothing that's like, you know, officially. But you're writing stuff. We're always writing, yeah. Oh, see, isn't that fantastic?

So, like I said, if you need anybody to test a gag out on, I might not be good, though, because I'd just laugh. I'd laugh at everything. Yeah, we need a harsher, judge. I can pretend. Yeah, yeah. But then also, it's good the other way, because if you don't laugh, we know it's properly shit.

Oh, that's really true. There you go. Because I think I'd love for anything you do. Yeah, so we'll be like, guys, cabs didn't laugh. We got to cut it. I mean, it can be quite, it's quite kind of like, I mean, it can be, like when you're doing big laugh out loud comedy, it's quite kind of binary, isn't it?

People sort of laugh or they don't. It can be quite brutal. But it's always good to get test audiences and try to. Which is your favourite gag? So I, like I said, I like people of Pian to Trees. What's your, no, no, but what's the thing that makes you, do you think, oh, so please, we've got that in there? Because that's that.

In this show or in general? Yeah. Oh, in this show or in, but either, both. I don't know. It's a hard question. One of my favourites is that there's a door knockout in play that goes wrong. And it's not just because of the door knockout itself. It's like an incredible piece of skill and choreography.

But it's the rhythm that builds up to it. The rhythm in the room becomes quite frantic. It then gets buttoned by this knockout, which just absolutely levels the whole audience. And then there's about 30 seconds where you can just sit in that moment. and the rhythm of it shifts so much and it's just accessed around this like this knockout and it's just such a good bit of comedy business

and it's so satisfying weirdly to watch like it just builds builds builds builds slam and then you get about another four solid jokes after that and then the scene begins again and it just always felt being in it because I was on stage when the knockout happened and I felt like you and I used to just have so much fun Yeah, in that moment.

It was just a moment I always felt so confident in. And if we ever had a quiet audience, I was like, we got the knockout coming. That's going to, that's what we're waking up. Oh, fantastic. And it always did. I loved it. How wonderful. How about you?

I think one of my favorite jokes, certainly in the, in spies, is the dummy moment. So Dave's can't have to give too much away. Don't give too much way. Well, I don't know. There's a sequence in four different rooms. And Dave's character is going between the rooms, trying to achieve his objective. Yeah.

And he's got this rope and then in the end he kind of ends up getting put. But there's a big trick sequence that we do that kind of, after you've been watching this room and then that room and then this room and then this room and that room, there's a big piece of comedy that ties all the rooms together in one big moment. This is just a big physical moment. I won't say any more than that, but that's probably my... It's so good. It's the easiest gag in the show and we love it.

Oh, I tell you what, in the pilot, not the pilot, my favorite guy, because I wanted to put it in because we have a phrase. Is it universal phrase a hat on a hat? It's like you're just adding too much to one joke. My character comes in and I was like, guys, can I take off my hat and reveal another hat? And then can I take off a pair of glasses and reveal another pair of glasses and then take off those glasses and have a monocle? And I watched it back a couple of weeks ago and I was like, I can't believe they let me do this. It's the silliest thing. It's silly, is wonderful.

And I was so happy that it was in. And also, actually, I watched Summer once again the other day. I don't know why, randomly, which is the first episode of season two that goes wrong show. Well, the Nativity was before that. I still did the Christmas one. Yeah, summer once again is Robert Grove's time to shine. And there's just the simplest joke where a car gets pushed in. It's clearly like a wooden car and wheels that's getting pushed in by people.

And Henn's character is trying to reset the whole thing. And he goes, all right, reset the car. And I jump in the car. and a pan on the steering will look over my shoulders if I'm going to reverse it. And he goes, all right, move the car, not a real car. And it's just the tiny little moment of the clowns just realizing it's not a real car. And someone showed it to me, they had it printed on a T-shirt. Did they?

Because they were like, I was like, that's my favorite gag too. Oh, I love that. It's just one of those that flies under the radar. It's there if you notice it, but you might miss it. And I just love that it's in there. Well, thank you for what, really, we need more from you guys. I want you to be in every theatre. I'd like you to be on every television channel as well, if that could be.

And if I could come and see you every week, I'd be very happy. Because I think it's, you know, laughter is the bed's medicine. And it takes us back to humour as it's supposed to be. So thank you very much. So I want to know what brings you both, huge joy. We'll have a moment while you get whatever those things are out of your bags. Do you want to pass me much? I'm not going to look.

You just put it down and then you can surprise me with it. I'm going to bring both out. Okay, you can do both. That's so good. I'm so excited to see what these are. Okay. Right. Okay.

So Henry, should we start with you? Come on them. Henry, what brings you huge joy? Because you bring us joy. Well, this is Mary. Mary is a tortoise. A cuddly tortoise. Yeah.

Well, turtle technically. Turtle. But yeah, so my grandmother bought Mary for me when I was about six years old. And I was, we were on a holiday in a hotel and somewhere, I don't know, sort of Cornwall or somewhere, maybe Devon or somewhere like that. And thank you. And I saw Mary in the shop in the hotel. I was like, oh, this is the best toy I've ever seen. And she's a great sort of shape, you know.

Yeah, yeah. and quite a good expression. You're right, she's a turtle because she's swimming. Yeah, she's got the flippers. And so I was like, and so I asked my mom if I could have her and my mom was like, oh no, we don't need more cuddly animals, you know. And I was like, no, this is a different thing. This is a special.

Your wrong, mother. And so my grandmother secretly bought for me. And I know it's just been like treasured possession ever since. And so, yeah, no. Oh, that's lovely. My grandmother, but yeah, it was very special thing. What was her name? My grandmother, Yvonne.

Oh, that's really lovely. Thank you for bringing Mary in. Someone who's called Mary Mayor? Full name. Mary Mayor, well, yes. Well, so the tag that she had when I got a, had a name, that was Shelley. And so it was Shelley for a while. But then that tag got lost, and this tag says Mary, but it's Mary Mayer, I guess, as in the company that makes them.

But that's right. But then people, lots of several people in my life have been like, no, no, no, the name is Mary and Mary is kind of stuff. Mary. Yeah. Maybe she could be Shelley, Mary Shelley. Oh, no. Mary Shelley, exactly. Yes. Okay. Right. And you have something else with you as well, though. You have a book. Well, this is, I love this. I love this. This is a bit too sort of, you know, work-centric, perhaps. But this is a book of photographs that I think John put us together after 2019, which was kind of a, we had a year of doing lots of different stuff together. We did the first series of The Goes Wrong show that year. We did the beginning of grown-ups that year.

John also got married that year. And so this is a book of photographs. And it's all these different photographs, different amazing mystery photographs of all the different shows backstage on the, backstage on the filming and all that kind of stuff, hit the wedding, John Stagg, all this sort of, just a really special memories. And I always, I look through it if I have a sort of feel down, I sort of look through it because it's just such a nice thing. I sort of wish I had one for every year. It's also nice to look at photos on paper as well. Yes, not on a phone. Yeah.

And so it's really just nice to flick through. I think he's put in like newspaper clippings from the release of the show. That was the last day of filming. Oh, that was 90 degrees, yeah. Yeah, that was the last studio audience record. There you are with Prince Charles. Yes, that was the... You did because you did the raw variety, but you did your magic show, didn't you?

We've done it like with pen and tell. Three royal varieties. That was actually Prince Charles's 70th birthday. It was a separate thing. So that was the, we did a mind mangler segment for that because he really likes it. The whole show was magic and comedy together

because he loves magic and, and comedy as well. You've done a musical as well, haven't you? Yes, yes. We've just had our mischiefs first musical this year, Thespians, which has been on tour. Ancient Greece kind of theme. Greece, but not that Greece.

It's about, yes, exactly. Very good. I saw. You see, I've done. That's John's wedding. But, yeah, Thespis is the first ever actor in ancient Greece, was the first of actor. So it's a musical about the creation of acting.

Oh. Which is really, really lovely. Is that going to come? I'm sure it will come back again. You know, we don't know exactly in what form and when, but I'm sure it will. I'm sure it will. There's no stopping you. Fantastic.

Thank you for bringing Mary in the photo book. My pleasure. And Dave, what have you? So I've got a book. It's not this specific book, right? But this is like a special edition of 1984. that the wonderful Charlie Russell got for me. And it's not specifically 1984 that brings me joy.

But I was going to bring my Kindle. And then I was like, do I want to bring a Kindle? No, I want to bring an actual book. And this is more representation of things that genuinely bring me joy is storytelling. And like hearing stories and listening to people's stories, writing stories, creating stories, building stories. And I'm often so moved by simple things like film and TV. And it was actually Charlie that got me into reading before I go to bed.

And my world was opened up to all these incredible books. And I never thought of myself as like an avid reader. But I just fall into these other worlds. I read a lot of fantasy books now. And I end up just falling into these other places. And I can't quite believe that hours have gone by. And I'm like, I need to go to sleep now. It's wonderful because books are so important.

I mean, you know, the sad loss of Dolly Park. who spread all of that, that joy with books and, you know, her imagination library. But it's about that. It's about what it does for our heads. It's same as what you do with the laughing. But books, you can paint those pictures in your life. Yeah, and there's so much, I've just read, like, there was a few things that she asked me to read 1984 and to kill a mockingbird. And these are books that I would have never really gone near because I would have just been like, oh, they'll probably get quite bored or I feel stupid or something.

And I remember getting halfway through to Kill a Mockingbird and was like, I can't believe how incredible this is. And I can't believe how much I am excited to go back and read it. And it was, I discovered it like as an adult, like coming to find a new form of media or entertainment or storytelling. That I was like, I'm really excited to see what happens to these characters. And they're just words on a page. And actually, it's completely brilliant. And you're right, because it's like I'm the other half of it. the construction of that story.

So whatever's going on in my head, the author has provided me the template to build the world in my head. And I think that's why people fall in love with them so much. And so, yeah, for me, storytelling is just so powerful across all forms of media. And I've got, like, and now I teach it and story structure and all those kind of things. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, I love it. It's so fun.

Please carry on doing what you both do and what you all do as a team, because I think the company is fantastic. But I love that both learnt so much about yourself through doing all of this as well. And that's why you give so much to all of us. So thank you. Oh, thank you. Thanks for coming.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the show. I've met come every night, I told you. I just need to laugh at that. I lost my voice. The next day, I was so hoarse that I was really relieved. I wasn't doing any television or radio because I was like that. I, I, it, oh, but thank you. Thank you for being on this.

I know you've got, obviously, podcast, you do everything with you guys. But, but may mischief keep flying. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us.