That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Ryan Sampson

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Actor and writer Ryan Sampson joins Gaby for a natter about Brasic, Mr Big Stuff, Plebs - and all things joy! Ryan talks about how he managed to get Danny Dyer in his show, working with Celia Imrie and how much swearing is too much swearing on TV! They chat about iconic TV series, characters, writing new shows and why we need more comedy on our screens, now more than ever! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ryan Sampson, is it okay that I'm your stalker now and obsessed? That's quite all right, Ms Roslyn, lean in. But it is, I, Mr. Bigstaff, is something. So I watch Brassick and I think it's great, and I know series seven is literally about to drop. Yes, 25th of September. Congratulations on that. Seven, I mean, that's wild, nearly a decade, yeah, that's crazy.

When did that happen? I think that was about a week. ago that you started doing Brassick. Yeah, yeah. And the mad thing is, so sometimes when you see clips, they'll throw in a clip of series one and if you run them all together you can see us all like melting. Like our face is just aging and... You don't look any different?

Well, I mean, have a look at the flashbacks and all you can really see. The old hairlines gone back. Did you just do E? E? A, oh. You can look back. Yeah, you can look back. But we'll come back to Brassick and we'll plebs and all sorts of things. things, but if we may, Mr. Big Stuff is, as you know, I am obsessed with that show. Oh, thanks.

But absolutely obsessed with it. And the reason I love it is it's the most escapist show that we need right now. And I remember, I put it up on my socials after we'd met. And I put it up on my socials because I couldn't stop. I've now watched both seasons twice. Oh, no, no, no, no, seriously. It's the show that my husband and I both love. Oh, nice.

Both properly love and laugh out loud. And I can't remember the last time that we properly laughed out loud as something on telly. No, but really, really laughing. Yeah, I know you mean, yeah. I mean, I think there's been a lot of kind of comedy dramas that haven't quite been either, you know. Which we love, and they're great. I like a lot of those. But I always wanted to, I always sort of thought and believed that you could make a show

which felt sometimes really dramatic and sometimes properly funny. And, I mean, writing it has been a bit of bugger to do that. But I'd like to think that's where we've gotten to. I'm so happy that you like it. But you think, but you and Harriet and Danny, right, so let's break this down. So this literally was your idea. You just went, oh, hello, Danny. Yes, so I had worked with him in Plybbs,

had this idea about us being brothers, which is sort of the most stupid thing. imagine it's a bit like twins you know and then like retrofit and the rest of the series around that so you you pitched i took her script to sky and pitched that literally and you'd never written stuff well i'd written bits and bobs but mainly i'd written stuff but no one wanted it so i'd just been writing away for years like on the side of being an actor um and i was i worked out the other day i've i'd written for 15 years without getting a series made before i got made so i think looking back would i have carried on pitching things had I known it was going to be that long.

I don't know. But it definitely... I hope that gives hope to a lot of people. I hope so. I really hope so because... And also goes like, if you do genuinely want it, it might be a bit of a slog, but you just keep on plowing away

because it's going to happen at some point. Yeah, and I think that process like sharpened me up. I don't think I was ready to write a full series 15, whatever it was, 18 years ago. Anyway, so I pictures into Sky and they went for it and so then we went straight into making a series without making pilots

which is like mad. This is great. No, but I'd still, so break this down a bit more. So you've been writing for these 18 years. Yeah. You and Danny had worked on plebs. You said, wouldn't it be funny

if we were brothers? Yeah. And so you had the idea for Mr. Big Stuff in the 15 years. Yes. Or literally was it you were on plebs and I thought, oh, brothers, I know, we could be...

Kind of a bit of both. Yeah, like when we're on pubs, I thought, I thought that would be really funners together and we're sort of an obvious odd couple you know and so yeah kind of formulated over the next few years

but I didn't get round to it for a bit and then I I was it that made spurred me on oh that was it so I went for a meeting at Sky and we were talking about like what would they like and a commission just happened to say he was like I mean can imagine you and Danny Dyer for example and I was like oh my god I had this idea years ago

I sort of had half this idea. I was like, oh my God, I can do this, I can do this. So I sort of got back to thinking about when we were working together and just sort of rattled through this script. And I was writing, writing away. And it became a sort of frenzied, like a month of writing spec script. And I didn't do anything else at all. And then I finished it and I gave it to a producer.

And they were like, right, great, but you do realize that he's in EastEnders, like, for the foreseeable. He's completely not available. You've wasted this time, like weeks of time. So I was really despondent and stuff. And then, this is a particularly mad bit. So a few days later, I go out with some friends. I tell them about this, having happened, I'm really disappointed.

And I think for some drinks. And they made for some more drinks. And then we went on a big night out, it ended up as. And on the way home in the morning from the big night out, on the front of a newspaper in the newsagents, it said, Daya quits, Enders. And I was, yeah, I was like, God wants this to happen. My silly is it.

That's fantastic. Yeah, amazing, isn't it? So it was really great because I had the first, like, in, because I was like, I've literally just finished writing this script. I've talked to Sky about it. They're all kind of ready and excited about it, and you've just left a show. So it was just, honestly, the most amazing time.

Things are supposed to happen. I really do believe that things happen for a reason, and they happen when they're supposed to. Yeah. I kind of think, I'm a quite believer in manifestation, and I sort of think maybe I accidentally tapped into. to the cosmic force, baby. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And it made it, yeah. And then you, because last time we made you said that Harriet's your best friend. Mm-hmm. So you and Harriet and then, but Adrian Scarborough, I mean. Oh, he's so lovely. He's like a warm bath and a lovely digestive biscuit. He's so funny. He's so funny and he's so sweet.

He's just, he's also a real gentleman. Danny calls him Lord Adrian Scarborough. Because he's got that sort of. of he's just a genteel, lovely man and you don't meet people that very often, who sort of doesn't want to push himself forward into the spotlight, but he's incredibly talented, so

funny, he can turn a scene in a way that is just like masterful. When he appears in a scene, honestly, it's sort of like, oh, it's so fun. And the writing is genius. I know you can't take a compliment

because I tried to say this to you last time, and he was like, yeah, well, but it is genius and the castes, but all of them. The casting is incredible. How did you go about that? Obviously, we know about Danny and Harriet. I mean, Harriet, I had my 40th birth, a sort of party for my 40th recently. We went away and she was doing this like a comedy roast of me for my birthday where they pretended it was like, the premise was like, it's the death of my youth.

So her and another of my best friend kind of came dressed in black and did this like roast. And part of it was her going. and thank you so much for generously writing a part for me in your show which only took me six auditions, two directors and for something else to get it. It took her absolutely ages because I wrote this part for her and then... Oh, that was real? She did. Yeah, I wrote this part for her and then there was so much uming and eyeing over it for ages. And then the director quit because of unknown reasons.

And then we've got a new director and we had to sort of start the whole process again. So it's not that easy getting your best friend into... You'd think it would be. And then when you have cast them, you've then got to contend with the fact that I didn't really think it through, but I'd written quite a lot. Obviously, we're a couple in it,

and I'd written a lot of scenes where there's like slight sex scenes or where we're snogging or something. And that's weird. Just kissing your mates, very odd. Yeah, she's got lovely soft lips, but it is a strange thing that you don't, no one tells you about this when you're going to be an actor. By the way, you're going to have to get quite good at kissing people

when you have no intimate connection with them, you know. Did you train as an actor? No, I didn't know. No, you didn't. Maybe they'd have done kissing classes. If I did. Say when you're a drama student, you go through all of that. Oh, I've got to do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably. Did you go to dance school? Yeah. Because I want to be a presenter. Yeah, yeah. That's all I ever wanted to do. Is it? Yeah, yeah.

New Street. Yeah, yeah. It's not about me, this, about you. Deflection tactics. So the rest of the cast as well, so you're involved, were you involved in the casting of the whole thing? Yeah, yeah. They, Sky were very amenable to me getting involved.

And I get involved, I get really involved. I'm like a bit of a bit of a control. I didn't realize this because I've never had a project to kind of, you know, really grab hold of. But I really want to be part of every bit of it. And so there are some bits that I've discovered that I never knew I was going to want to have places to roll with. Like, I'm obsessed with finding the music for the scenes. Like, it is so much fun.

Your music is... Oh, thank. Brilliant. It means so much from that, because, like, it's a really specific tone that we've found, this big, brassy,

kind of mid-century, slightly kooky, slightly novelty, kind of. There's a lot of, like, Latin American... Yeah, that sort of thing in there. To give up this sort of, like, rhythm that keeps it all playful.

And the way thing is, as a writer, obviously there's generally no overlap between writing and putting the music on, right? You can do a suggestion, in the script notes sort of thing. But then when you find the right bit of music that's like the score that is in your head anyway

that goes with a scene, and it's sort of undeniable. Sometimes you would try things out in the edit room and you'll go, can we just try this particular song? And it's like everyone just knows what it's meant to be, you know, who knows what the scene's meant to be. So that is just, that's joyful. I love that bit.

I imagine, even though you say you're a control freak, I imagine you're a really lovely control freak to be a work with. I don't imagine you throwing things around and going, there's no throwing. No, there's no throwing. No, I can be a bit of a tyrant. Can you? Yeah, yeah, I can just be a bit. So I've got...

Is it passion? It's ADHD. I've got quite a strong whiff of the old ADHD going on. And mine seems to... That's a superpower, though. Well, I feel very lucky because I got dynos with it, but mine seems to mainly manifest. I'm not great at focusing on a lot of things,

but if I'm excited by something, I can do it exclusively without doing anything else. And so I can really pour myself into the search for the right music track sort of thing. The spoon dance. Let's talk about the spoon dance. So Mr Big Stuff is about you and Danny as brothers. And I don't want to give too much away because I think people who haven't seen it, I actually am jealous of people that haven't seen it

because they're going to experience it for the first time. there are the amount of times that you say a certain word which obviously I mean we can say it but we'll have to put explicit on this but it's a amount of times it's rude but it's not you're not using the words so you get a laugh which is it's brilliant

you're using the words because there's conversation that's how people speak in real life and I find it slightly weird that that's not how people speak on most TV shows I do find that bit odd there's this thing we were talking about in the writers room there for day where on EastEnders. EastEnders.

That was it called Frank. A guy used to be in it. We sort of pulled up this list of insults that he had to use to work around the, you can't swear on the BBC. And one of them is like, you flip it in ice cream. I mean, it's just ridiculous. That's ludicrous.

But yeah, I feel like everyone talks like it in real life. Let's just put it on TV. But you don't do it to get a laugh. You know, when a comedian stands up, and there are some, and there are many comedians who you and I know and love, I'm sure. But there are some who go up there

and they go, heard, and then say a rude word and then everyone laugh. It's not funny enough itself. Come on, we're going to work a bit harder than that. But I think also, come on, you've got Danny Dyer in a show. We need a few F-bombs here and there, you know.

Makes sense. But there's a strange thing where they don't like you to swear within the first, it's like four minutes or something of the show because they want people to not be, it's a strange old rule where it's like, don't,

put people off before they've gotten into show. But I think you don't want to get halfway through a show and then realise it's like, you know, some nun's watching it and she gets 10 minutes in and goes, Oh, what did I do? I remember years ago on a TV show I did, on a channel, it was a live show, not the breakfast show and evening show.

And I remember the lawyers coming through and giving us a list. We were allowed three that, two of that, one of that and none of that one of all of the below yeah yeah and it was his talk it was a breakfast show no it wasn't no no it was an evening live evening show but we because it was on after nine o'clock how I mean you've got to try and top them up in your head as people as you're going through

but I had guess and some of them did and some of them didn't but we never got the one which we can't say which I can't say because you're not allowed and you don't use it there's one you can't yeah I mean yeah that's it's got two initials two initials It's two parts. I'm not going to... I actually don't know what you mean.

Four syllables. I'm not going to say it. I thought we were talking to the C-bomb. No, no, no, that. You use a lot. Oh, yeah. That's in there a few times. That's a lot.

Oh, I'll tell you afterwards. Everyone can try and imagine when they listen. Turns out, there's a new worse swear that I don't know about. I'll tell you after, I'm not using it here. Will is Will giving me that look? No, yeah, he's thinking, what on earth is you talking? Sorry, back to your show. Yes, people who are experiencing it for the first time

It's the most It's the most special thing I think on television Because not only is it funny Not only is it so I mean there's heartbreaking moments in it I mean really just ripping your heart up But it's a It's a

I think you might be surprised It's really caring and kind. Yeah, yeah. I really wanted that. I want to make some, I want to make TV where it can be bleak and it can even be a sort of black comedy,

but you feel like these people really love each other and that's what I'm coming back for. Like, I grew up watching all the British sitcoms going in. And like when Spaced came out, when I was like, I guess that 12, maybe, 12, 13, did you've watched Space? Yes. Yeah, and it has this sort of chaotic and sometimes quite dark.

but the feeling of like going back to this group of people who you just love to be around was like that's exactly what I want to do so I'm really glad to hear that that's kind of come through. Oh it's wonderful, it's wonderful. So with you, where was the first thing that you started acting? How did you, I mean, because you've done so much and we know you so much on British TV now

and you've done, you know, as we said, PLEBs and Brassick, we'll talk about those, but how did it all start? I started when I was sort of like a teenager. My mum, I think, realised that that I would be do better if I went to a sort of youth theatre kind of thing so she like pushed me in that direction not pushing it or she just kind of like

but she spotted it realised you know got a bit of a fruity lad here I think he might do well in that direction and so I was like going to do to you there and I got a few little jobs then my first big one was I got a my first series I did was called After You've gone and it was with Celia Imrey

who played my nan, who she's just so lovely. You should get her on this. I have. I've known Celia a long time. I did anything with her a couple of weeks ago for Thursday, Murder Club.

Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. But Celia is a precious soul. I love you and Celia to do more together. I'd love to as well. She's just got this energy, hasn't she? Of like, you're a special, magical person. Like, she's very open, but in a way that's like she's slightly naughty.

She's very naughty I think I've ever really met many people like her She could be in Mr Big Stuff as so shocking somebody Yeah she could absolutely Yeah I mean she's always like On a list of like Try and you know

Get her in Yeah but she's so good And so I did this and she played my nan And it was my first like It was a studio audience sitcom Which is like obviously They don't do them very much anymore But it was a throw in at the deep end

Kind of vibe because that is a lot It's a lot doing one of them But what a person to work with for your first one. I mean, to be, she'll look after you, which is lovely. And I imagine you do that with people as well. I mean, you've got, so you've got people in Mr Big Stuff who are known and the comedy circuit. You've got Fatia in your show.

She is so, she's just, she's funny bones. Fatia Ligori. Funny bones. Yeah, I wrote his character that I was like, this is very difficult to cast, okay. So hijabie girl, very kind of front foot and getting people who are sort of newish or come from my comedy background

to be very, to sort of grab hold of a scene, it's a really difficult thing. You need someone who can just like bulldoze through it and that's a lot. So I was like, I've written this character that I don't know who that could possibly be. And then someone sent me this link of this stand-up's kind of interesting, isn't she?

And I was just like, oh my God, that is her. That's exactly right. Right. So she came in and she'd never done any acting before. So it was quite a like a journey of, yeah, never done any acting. Like came in to the audition and was like, hi guys, right, it's really nice to meet you. And she was very funny and weird. And I'm like, okay, should you have a look at the script? And she was like, should we have a read of it?

And I was like, but you've read it, haven't you? She's not really. I just thought we'd do that now. But she's like, it was completely like a new idea to her altogether. And the rate at which she's turned into this life. like phenomenal performer is unreal. I am so, I'm so proud of her. And because like she's even gone from, like, series to series.

Sorry, I'm so shocked. Yeah, it's amazing. We've worked on things like, you know, like, I don't know, like camera technique and stuff, that you're like, you don't pick this stuff up until you've been doing it for like seven years. It's like, it's tough. We shoot really, a lot of pages a day. It's really quick and she just needs to nail it.

But she is like storming it. And now suddenly the BBC want to give her her own show and she's on Taskmaster, you know, it's all kind of... Oh, she's so funny on Taskmaster. Yeah, she's really good. Oh, my goodness. She has funny bones. And that's...

I mean that as a compliment. She's just funny. She's just, even when she doesn't mean to be. And so on... What was it? She said on Taskmaster. They ask everyone to bring in a prop, right? To a sort of...

A comedy prop. something about your life, but she's got this thing where she just does what she wants. And so she's brought in this prayer mat. And she gives, she does, she goes, yeah, so when I was having a really hard time, I'd broken up with someone, I'd been kicked out of my house, something like this. And then my friend gave me this, which is like a really sentimental object. And everyone's just like, waiting for the joke, like, where's the funny bit? And she's like, I mean, you know, just try laughing at that.

I don't know, I mean, I have a go. But she is the fact that she doesn't care, that she's not from, She's not trying to be funny. She's just funny. Really endearing. You just love her for it. Please will you centre my love? Because I think she's absolutely fantastic.

You should have her on this. Oh, okay. Yes, can you ask her? She was so welcome. Please ask her for us. And Harriet is. In fact, we're just all of them. Take the gang in.

Yeah. So let's talk about Plex and Brassic. Obviously Brassick, as we said, it's coming out. It's out now. If you can watch all of them again. I remember listening to Chris Evan. talking about... Did you hear him?

When it first came out? Yeah, yeah. He was obsessed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He loves it. So I thought to myself, and I think at the time, I'd seen him or something, I'd seen him in real life as well,

and I said, God, I've never heard you like this about a show. He said, if you're not watching, he was really sort of annoyed in a good way. You know, well, you've got to, you've got to watch it. And I sat down and watched it, and I just thought, this is mad. It's mad. It's really fun.

Yeah. It's different than any other show. It's really weird talking to people about it. I went to the television awards last night and people talk about it in a way that's like, it means a lot, a real lot to me. Yes. And you don't know as like,

I can't put my finger on it because obviously you go from one job to do an ex as an actor and a writer and stuff, but you don't know what it is about that people are, that's made people feel so fanatical about it. It's really unusual. People are obsessed. They're obsessed with it.

But they are obsessed with Mr. Big Stuff as well. Yeah. I mean, really weirdly obsessed. I really love it. They're obsessed for Brassic. I think. I think what it might be is that it is all a little bit improvised and so you get glimmers of the real relationships between everyone.

And the weird thing is, because we're improvising it and we've been together for so long, it's like our characters have like off-screen relationships with each other. So we can improvise in character in a way that's like, you feel like you absolutely know these people's history, do you know what I mean? Yes. Do you know what I love it? It's a word you used before.

I love the rhythm of it. Oh, yeah, yeah. I really love the rhythm of it. Yeah, it's odd, isn't it? Yeah. Everyone talking over the top of each other like in real life, yeah. I think there should be more of that on TV. I agree. More of that sort of frenetic, a bit of loose, free form sort of thing.

I do worry that everything's a little safe. And you're bringing the naughty, and I think naughty with a small end is really important. And PLEBs, of course, is what? I loved PLEBs. Oh, thanks, yeah. Plex is, I don't know. New Resurgence, so it's gone on Netflix, and suddenly people are like, what is this new show that's happening?

Really strange, yeah. When did that come out, though, Plybs? First series was like 12 years ago, I think, yeah. And so that's just gone on Netflix, people are like, oh, have you seen this new show? Yeah, I think so. Oh, yes. I'm sorry, really freaked out by time at the moment,

because I have no concept that Brassick is seven seasons, doesn't make sense. None of it. Anyway, that's just me. Weird, isn't it? I've got no concept. of time anymore. Really weird.

And you're going back to, so you were saying about with Celia Rimmer-in-Rimri, you did that, and you've done some stage work as well, haven't you? Yeah, but some bobs, yeah, yeah. Do you, what do you do more?

Yeah, TV's your thing. I like, I really, and movies. I haven't, I haven't done a move? No, but you can. But you can't do them, well, are you going to write a movie? Oh, God, it seems like a lot of work,

isn't it? I'll have to go, I have to think, I want, if I come with an idea that's like, oh my God, that is, that's the one, then, you know, We've got more Mr Big Stuff. Because I'm in it now as well.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. More Miss Big Stuff. More Mr Big Stuff. I'm starting writing series three now. And when are we going to be able to see it? That'll be like next, mid next year, I'd say. Do we can see it? Yeah.

Oh good. More spoons? I think so. More spoons? Will you do the spoon dance? Please do the spoon dance. I think that's one of those things that I need to like keep in reserve and just bust out one more time at some point.

Please. But don't end Mr. Big Stuff. Don't make this the final one. No. I'll keep on going As long as I've got good ideas To be honest I think I've got an arc Of like how I want the characters

A journal that I want the characters to go on Because I don't know about you But I think that sometimes I feel like with TV shows Like I'm Like I really like I'll really like a TV show And then I feel like I'm being strung along a bit

Sometimes where it's like You don't have a story You're just keeping making up You're making up new story as we go Which is fine Yeah a lot of people say that They say, you know, leave when you're on a high. Yeah.

But actually... Well, leave when you've got a resolution of the narrative, I think. Like, I want to feel like there is an overall point to be made about these characters' journeys. And, yeah, I didn't... But please don't make the point at the end of the next season. No, no, it's too early for that. It's too...

Oh, thank goodness. I think that's what you were going to be saying. Yeah, no. So, more Mr. Big Stuff, I'm so pleased it's going to be that soon. And then more... And then... And then... Well, no, they're brassics.

That's it. That's what everyone says. Yeah, so series seven that's coming out now is the finale series. But, I mean, I do think, you know, seven years, a long time, it's weird now. It's like, on that set, it's like being with family. And so you can talk to each other in a way that's like, sometimes really loving it and sometimes just really scathing. Because, you know, we know each other so well. It was really weird seeing everyone last night at this party because...

I don't know why you didn't win. Well, Gavin and Stacey worked for it. That is like, that's a, you know, a megalith of a show, isn't it? So, yeah, people love it. I haven't really watched much Gavin Ossetia, to be honest. I sort of didn't catch on to the zeitgeist of it. So I think at some point I'll, you know, you just miss the bit where everyone starts watching a show. And then you don't kind of...

I'm not that the Game of Thrones, I've never seen one of them. Really, yeah, yeah. Although, don't tell all my guests who've been on Game of Thrones that I've spoken to. I would say, treat yourself, because I... Have you been in Game of Thrones? No. And I thought I am not going to be. enjoyed this at all.

Boobes and Dragons. It's not going to be it for me. And then you watch it and the story, the dramatic movement across it is just beautiful. Like, it's masterful, you know, TV writing. Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Yeah, I really would.

Apart from your stuff, we'll watch other things as well. Yeah, so, what was I going about? But you've won't know. But you've talked about you were at the awards last night and with everybody. Yeah, weird to see them all. I tell you watch what's really strangers like. I, so we've been doing Brasic for that long and I know that I'll see these people again

but to think that I won't ever see their characters is really strange. It's like I'll never meet. That is like a person that I will never meet again who I've got a massive history with. It's really strange. It's like you wouldn't think that about just a character but I will miss being in time as well.

The Downton people, quite a few of the Downton people have said that. Yeah, yeah. It's really sad that those characters they won't talk to. Yeah. These odd confections of characters, yeah. It's an extraordinary business that you're in. It's a weird old business, isn't it? But it's really important now.

I mean, we were saying beforehand, before we came in recording, I actually think we need people like you. And right now there's a lot of dark stuff going on and we don't need to go through that. But we need the joy. We need the fun, the laughter. And escapism. Yeah, and it seems to me like there's not that much comedy

being made at the moment, which I find quite strange. because... That's what a lot of people feel. A lot of people are very, very frustrated by television, not making comedy. Well, like I was saying about... So Plex has gone on Netflix and it was like in the top... And you're thinking, why is there not more new comedy since then

to put on your platform? It seems really strange to me. It's like, surely right now, of all times, people need a bit of reasons to be joyful. Yes, that's exactly why we hear. Because people so badly need it. If you haven't seen Mr Big Stuff watch it now If you haven't seen Brassick, new season Plex, Plex as you said, is on Netflix

And please carry on flying Because what you are doing is truly brilliant And I really mean that for my heart It's not just because I'm your obsessive stalker I really, really mean it I think you're an absolute genius Thank you so much Thank you, thanks for having me on