The Blindboy Podcast - Paddy Considine

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

I speak with the actor Paddy Considine about creativity, dogs and being autistic  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Darn your socks you sweaty Brenda's. Welcome to the Blind By Podcast. The weather has been glorious. It's been glorious here in Limerick. I've been getting an arse full of summer. I've been drinking vistas with my eyes. Taking every available opportunity to just go out and walk. To just go out and walk or go for a run and to be as present as possible in nature. This is when mindfulness is easy. Early summer when everything is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. That's when mindfulness is easy. Not like fucking November when I'm trying to be emotionally present with a rusted sycamore leaf, resting on a piece of dog shit, or when blades of grass are a shade of grey. No, it's early

summer. Everything is beautiful and wonderful and bursting with life. So I'm being a greedy bastard going on big long walks and enjoying nature with every single one of my senses as a meditative activity, as a calming activity. And I've got a wonderful podcast for you this week. If you're going off on a little walk yourself, because that's what I adore about podcasts, as opposed to something you have to watch, you can stick this into your ears and go for a nice mindful walk. So this week I'm chatting with Hollywood actor Paddy Considine.

Paddy's from Burton on Trent which is near Nottingham. We had this conversation in Nottingham. Paddy's one of those actors where you watch something because he's in it. He's also a director, he's a screenwriter, a musician. His most iconic role is probably in Dead Man's Shoes, but he's been in House of the Dragon, Peaky Blinders, loads of stuff. He's won a lot of awards. I don't need to tell you who Paddy Considine is.

Paddy also doesn't do a huge amount of interviews, but he is an actual fan of this podcast. He's a regular listener, he's a proper perpetual Brendan. So that's why Paddy is on this podcast. And Paddy is also autistic, which is wonderful. We got to chat about being autistic in the entertainment industry. It was a great night. In fucking Nottingham. Again it's that weird thing about my job. I don't wear a

bag on my head for 99% of my life. This podcast is, it's just me and this microphone talking each week. I'm aware. I know there's, I know there's a million people listening right now. Accast tell me the statistics, but I don't experience it as that. It's just me and my fucking microphone. And I have a very quiet, normal everyday life. I'm sure I walk past people who are listening to my podcast all the time.

I don't experience any of that. So going over to Nottingham, the whole fucking UK tour that I did two weeks ago, it's quite surreal. It's strange to me. It's strange to arrive in Nottingham. And there's like 2,000 people showing up for my gig. And then me, the person without the bag, is reminded. Oh fuck, you're this person called Blind By, and you're now in Nottingham, a place you've never been before,

and you've got lots of podcast listeners here. So it's wonderful, it's amazing to be in rooms full of people who enjoy what it is I'm doing. Like-minded people, like-minded people, who laugh at the same things I laugh at, and who are interested in the same things I'm doing. Like-minded people, like-minded people, who laugh at the same things I laugh at and who are interested in the same things I'm interested in. But it's also really strange, it's very surreal, because it's not my lived experience of reality. Any notoriety that I have from my work, I get to wear it as a garment that I put on my head

and that I take off. And 99% of of my life that garment isn't on my head. It's just when I'm doing gigs or if I'm doing a photo shoot or some shit like that. So Nottingham was wonderful. It was a wonderful surprise to see how many fucking listeners I had in Nottingham and Brighton and Bristol. It took my breath away completely. So thank you to the people of Nottingham for showing up to this live podcast I'm about to play. And thank you to my magnificent guest, Paddy Considine. And thank you to the artist Andy Brown. Andy Brown is a painter who showed up to this gig and he painted the gig. Andy's been at one or two of my gigs. He's been at one of my London gigs. He's a painter and he listens to the podcast and sometimes he asks me

can I come to the gig and paint the podcast. So I say fuck it, go on. Thank you to Andy Brown as well. I was supposed to have a sheet of questions but fuck it we'll just go for it. Unless we win you, yeah. It's the best way I think. First of all Paddy, thank you so much for coming along. You're welcome. I couldn't believe I got the message from you

to come and do it. So I'm a big fan. I listen to the podcast. I've read your book. So yeah, I just sort of was elated. And then I thought, oh shit, I'm actually gonna go and do it. That's very flattering.

But I have a plastic bag in my head. It's impossible to look silly. Don't worry. First thing I wanna ask you about is like you you have a ridiculously Irish name. Yeah. How did you get a name like that? Well I was nearly well my dad's from Limerick for a start. He taught me about that backstage and I wish he didn't tell it to me backstage I wanted to find that out right now I can't fucking believe that. Yeah he was from Limerick my dad and my mum's dad was from Dublin.

So she was half Irish as well. So mostly Irish blood. And your dad was full of Limerick. Whereabouts in Limerick? He was from a place called Munchin Street. I can't remember the area, but he was from Munchin Street. So like I know Munchin Street. Most of that isn't there anymore.

But I'm assuming your dad grew up in like the 30s or 40s, was it? Yeah, he did, yeah, he was a little kid. So full on Angela's ashes. Yeah, yeah. But like for real, like that's Angela's fucking ashes. Yeah, it was interesting what information we've had filtered about his life, you know, it wasn't the easiest of lives.

And you were born in, Bertie on Trent, what's it called? Burton. Burton on Trent. what's it called? Burton. Burton on Trent. I can't, these English names for places, I've great respect, especially this part of the country and the proud Anglo-Saxon tradition, but we don't have places in Ireland that are called, well we probably do, Place on a River.

It's just, initially it would have been in Gaelic and then English soldiers changed the name to something silly. So, Barty on Trent, Barton, Barton. So the town is called Barton and it's on the river Trent. It is, yeah. It doesn't sound like the type of place where there'd be a lot of Irish people. I don't even know how my dad ended up there. There was a few Irish families, but I think he came over here initially just to get sort of labour work. He left his life in Ireland in his late teens, I think,

and came over here and his brother followed him and then his sister followed and they just went to Birmingham to get labour work. And then somehow he found his way in Burton on Trenton and met my mom and you know, then we were born six kids. Fucking that's that's fairly Irish now. That's very Irish. Jesus. Did you have a sense or connection of your Irishness when you were a kid or was it just something you didn't think about? No, I think I did. Yeah, it's kind of strange.

I do. Yeah, I do. And I think it was from, you know, they used to call my dad the mad Irishman. Which was... Was he mad? He was fucking nuts, yeah. What type of mad though? Well, he was mad. He was always out fighting. He was always getting arrested. All the fucking classic cliches, for fuck's sake.

Jesus Christ, I was hoping for something different. Was he fond of the drink? He loved the drink, yeah. So he liked a drink? Yeah, I know. Fucking hell. And then Limerick as well on top of it. He loved a drink and he loved a fight.

Man, Dad, is that how your dad spoke? Because that was perfect Terry Wogan. He did speak. Because Terry was from Limerick too. Yeah, I know. We have a fucking Terry Wogan statue, man. My dad, his accent was so thick that my friends were all scared of him and so when he'd sit there so and in there is it's not like this and then he'd sort

of laugh at the end of his head and he'd go here we go and they'd sit there go fucking father Jack and just sort of laugh, whenever he laughed, while waiting for the cues to sort of react how they thought they should react to him. But, you know. Was it difficult being called Paddy because that's also a racial slur? No, not at all.

I embraced it. It made me feel like individual. Fair fucking play. You didn't go for Patrick or anything like that. No, well, when I was born, my name for about two days was John Wayne. And probably one of the best things. What do you mean?

It was John Wayne. They went straight, let's give the crowd the second name as well. Yeah, my mum was- John Wayne Cansidine. And she sort of- That's a great name, John Wayne Cansidine's a great name. She obviously loved John Wayne and my dad wouldn't let her have it. And then she says, well, I'll call him Wayne John.

And he goes, you're not calling him that. And then it was Dwayne John. Yeah, none of them work. You can't be Wayne John. And my dad sort of eventually, they're probably one of the best things he ever did in his life. He went, no, he said, he said he's Patrick. He's Patrick. Wayne John sounds like a dance hall artist. It's not good, is it? Yeah. Wayne John. Yeah. Patrick. He's got Wayne John, sounds like a dance hall artist.

It's not good, is it? Yeah. Wayne John, yeah. You can't go for Wayne John. That's interesting, John Wayne. Although John Wayne was a bit of a prick, but you've got the J and the W, but Wayne John. Yeah, Wayne John and then Dwane,

not sorry, any Dwanes or Waynes or. Not in, I doubt there's any Wayne Johns in the audience. Is there any John Waynes in here tonight? That's a big move going for John Wayne. Yeah it really is. That's like calling your child Brad Pitt. I know, yeah it's stupid. So thank God he jumped in there. How are you getting on with being artistic? I had to ask it. It has its moments, you know, it's an ongoing thing. Well, you know, I wasn't diagnosed

until I was in my mid thirties, I think it was. So it was like 2011, wasn't it? Yeah, something around. I'm not very good with, you know, for an autistic person, I'm not very good with dates and things. I'm more of those, one of those introspective type people. But I don't know, my wife would know the specifics of it. But what made you go for it? Because the thing is now a lot of people are getting diagnosed. Now it's something that's been spoken about. In fucking 2011 it wasn't really been spoken about and as well, I'm guessing it was called Asperger's then too, wasn't it?

That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and now it's all under the artistic spectrum, which is, I mean, you can't, you know why it's not called Asperger's anymore, don't you? No, I didn't really care. No, I just fucking don't. There's that fly again, Paddy. I'm not gonna kill it.

We leave him off, he wants to be part of the fucking podcast. He's after landing on me and he's landing on you. Let's leave him do his thing. A nice little Nottingham fly. A ghost of the lace industry. But yeah, your man Hans Asperger, right, was a he was a Nazi doctor. Yeah, your man Hans Asperger, right, was a, he was a Nazi doctor. And when he was in the concentration camps

in Germany and in Poland, they weren't too fond of people who were disabled. Like the Nazis would eliminate people who were disabled. So Hans Asperger, his job was to decide who is exterminated and who isn't. And when Asperger was doing this, he was like not them ones. Those ones over there, I know they're a bit mad, but

those ones over there are gonna make great scientists and artists. So he had his Asperger's kids and that's where the diagnosis Asperger's comes from. So they changed it because it's like that's a bit shit, you can't call it after that can you? So it just became our autism spectrum level one. Yeah, under the umbrella, I suppose. Under the umbrella of autism. Yeah. So like, my, see the thing is it's so different,

that's the strange thing about it, like we're probably both level one autism, but are completely different in the things. I'm a big fan of facts, and I don't like talking to strangers. LAUGHTER What are you into? What am I into?

LAUGHTER Well, I'm... I'm not a... I'm not a... I'm not a fact guy, you know? I'm not a sort of stato in that same way really. But yeah, do you have a thing where you're like, I fucking love that. Oh, if I get into something I obsess about it and that's it, you know, I'll go on these sort of, you know, some of them, the longest, like I'm obsessed with a band called Guided by Voices.

And when I got, thank you, even though I'm not a member of Guided by Voices, they're the greatest fucking band on the planet. That's very artistic behaviour. Jesus Christ. So I will obsess to the point that... Have you got to meet them? Oh yeah, I've met them a few times, yeah. And yeah, I've gone out and played at like a festival that they did last year.

Fuck off, please. Yeah, yeah, me and my out and played like a festival that they did last year. Fuck off, please. Yeah, yeah, me and my son went out. Fantastic. I don't know if he'd like, I came about it because my wife was looking into it and because one of our children was showing sort of, and she started reading through these sort of, I don't know what you'd call them symptoms or whatever,

but she just went through a list of things as she just looked over at me and went okay yeah yeah yeah yeah my thing that's like very common that's very common yeah I can see on a stage in talk and things like well my thing is small talk like I've got a dog you know we've got this beautiful little dog and our old dog he's blessing me passed away at Christmas but we'd walk through the village. I adored having a dog. But the worst thing about having a dog was fucking meeting people in the street who wanted to talk to you about whatever it was, dogs, small talk.

Did you have rehearsed a bit of conversation about the dog? I just pull him away, you know, come on, mate, come on. That's what his name. Bow. That was Bowdog. What type of name? Bo, that was Bo Dogg. What type of breed was he? A Cavalier King Charles. See, I'd no fucking, what I would do in that situation. A rat-byler.

No, I'd have every single fact about a Cavalier King Charles possible. And then when the situation presents itself, that's all I talk about. Yeah, see, I can't. I find that I find the small talk stuff quite, quite tough. So I'd avoid dog walks or give my wife the lead and go, yeah, you take him. So you can do the talking. And that's it really.

So these are things that aren't pleasant for you, but to say that this isn't pleasant is labeled as eccentric and then you end up avoiding things. Yeah, yeah. I'd say you are a, we are fond of a few cans at social events. Yes, very much. I mean, I would, at one point, I mean, I don't mind saying it. I mean, I'm having a, I've got a beer here, but my relationship with that isn't what it used to be.

But you used to get Langer's, you used to get very drunk. Oh yeah, I had to just to go to, if there was a party coming up on a calendar or anything like that, I'd just get nervous about it internally and then you know before we'd left our house I'd have a couple of pints and then you know just so I could walk through the door it got it got like that bad at times um and I you know I'd always like I do this with my wife I'll send her through first and go you go in you go in first you do all the hellos and the introductions yeah and she's amazing at that. So she's actually put up with me and my bullshit for way too long.

But the thing is, Paddy, like, you're in loads of films and shit like that, right? I know. The hardest thing, blind boy, is that I look like a walking contradiction because I'm a man who didn't really want to do... I make myself do these things because I won't succumb to it. Of course. So I'll do stuff.

And it's not like it's not a pleasure. I don't sit there, I'm in absolute hell. I find my way to navigate it. But my alternative was just to sit at home and not do anything. And I can't do that. And I can't do that. I'm a father and I'm a husband and I can't do that. And I can't do that. I'm a father and I'm a husband

and I can't be that man for those kids. They can understand dad and know how his mind works. Well, I'm very open with them, but I can't be that guy. But also I get the sense that you love the art that you make. You love doing what you do professionally. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I don't. Oh really? Yeah, yeah, I have quite a love hate.

What are the bits you love and the bits you don't love? I suppose in my mind, I'm always looking for a slight escape or something. I'm always looking to sort of access that flow if you like. Some jobs as an actor, I think as an actor, I've done really, I'm not going to kick myself in the balls too much. I've even done stuff that's really good, sometimes really great and solid. I think I've also done shit and I think

that you can see when I'm invested and when I'm not. I find it very hard to fake things and that's a weird thing for an actor because that's what we do but you can tell when I'm fully invested in something and when I'm not and that's all based around trust and the people I'm working with. So sometimes I've taken work on and I know even taking the work on that there's some kind of disconnect and it's almost robotic sometimes to me when I act. I struggled with because I never came to acting through a conventional way. I didn't I never went to acting school or anything. My friend literally put me in his second film. Shane Meadows put me in his second film, A Room for Romeo Brass.

But when you're talking about trust there as well, the fact that Shane Meadows is like a proper mate. Yeah, that part of that trust that give you the comfort. Well, yeah, because we'd been friends since I was 16 and he was 17 when we met. And because we'd been friends for that period, we developed a friendship at that time. And then we split off.

It got a bit combustible, which it can with personality sometimes. And then we had a few years away from each other, then came back and I went and did a photography degree in Brighton and Shane was here making films and I happened to come back and I was cutting some short films in Nottingham and he said will you be in my next film I had no real designs on becoming an actor then I wanted to at some point but I really didn't at that point it didn't it didn't matter to me

What did Shane see in you that made him ask that question? I used to make him laugh. That was simply it you know, we were bit of a Bit of a fucking handful when we were younger, you know together people either loved us or they hated our guts Because we go in a party and take over it and you'd perform for Shane to make him laugh. That was it Yeah, that was the thing that I was doing. And did you, because I'm not far off that too, as in I hated being at parties, but also I went to them. I would drink a little bit too much because I was nervous, but also I'd be making everybody laugh. And when I was performing and making everyone laugh, it felt safe and okay. Even though that strangely extroverted behavior,

it worked for me. Did you find something similar going on with that? Definitely, that's really it. You kind of nailed it there. I would make him laugh and perform in such a way and that was the thing that gave me confidence. And that's how I sort of drifted into it. And that's how I, so I could be characters.

I actually went through periods in my life where I didn't even speak in my own voice. That's highly artistic. Yeah, like when I was a little kid, I was Rick from the Young Ones for about two years, which was fucking mental, you know. I'm guessing it really worked for you. Yeah.

It's eccentric, but this is working for you and now you're navigating the social fabric, I'm guessing. Yeah, that's how I did it. And then when I remember being at university and I was Alan Partridge for years, which would be really annoying. And were you doing this in a fun performative way as well? Like, I mean, yes, you're Alan Partridge, but also you're the dude who has that impression nailed and you're making people laugh and that this is working. Yeah, I liked it. I liked that.

I had a friend who actually turned to me, one of my closest friends, and he was from Canviale, and he went, do you ever talk in your own fucking voice? And it didn't strike me. I didn't even know what I was doing. Someone said the exact same shit to me in college. Really? Well, when I started off with rubberber Bandits, even before music,

when I was like 16, it was prank phone calls. And I used to do like 10 different characters, different accents. But that's kind of how I was all the time as well, just consistently doing impressions of teachers, whatever, making people laugh. And that's what worked for me. That's what brought me joy. I was step toee. I was Harold Steptoe. And I had this like, yeah, the home economics teacher. And I knew she loved it. So I would memorize the script from the night before. It'd be out on a Thursday night on the BBC.

Then I'd go in and I'd have memorized scenes from Steptoe and so on. And I'd sort of perform them in the class. And I could catch her sort of with her head down, smiling. Brilliant. And that was like an extra laugh because it's the teacher. Yeah.

When the kids are laughing, that's great, but if you can make the fucking teacher laugh when they should be giving out to you, that's amazing. You've cracked the code there. That's a very pre-internet thing as well. Like I often think about this with, like I used to love comedy growing up, fucking Reeves and Martim or the Fast Show,

whatever the fuck was on. And when like, you could see a sketch on TV and it was the funniest thing you've ever seen and you'll never see that again. Yeah. Like it's like, when are they gonna replay it? I don't know. But you'd remember it.

You'd have to remember it. And people, like catchphrases don't really exist anymore. But catchphrases were huge really exist anymore but catchphrases were huge because when you saw that thing that was amazing you don't have YouTube you can't send that scene on to your friend you have to memorize that funny like remember all suit you sir from fucking fast show oh god yeah yeah everyone was doing that but it's it's what I compare it to is um have you ever heard of a cargo cult?

No. Oh, this is fascinating. So there's these islands in Micronesia, right? Micronesia and Polynesia. And there's tiny populations of people living on these islands. I'm talking maybe four or five hundred people. And these people were uncontacted by the outside world for fucking years. So when World War II broke out, there's this civilization living on an island for a couple of thousand years and all of a sudden they're seeing an airplane

for the first time and it was US soldiers who were in the Pacific theater of conflict in World War II. So what would happen with some of these tiny islands is a US airplane might land on this island and then the people who've been living there they've never seen another human that they don't know what a fucking airplane is but the US soldiers maybe they were different back then they weren't being pricks they were they were nice to the end they were nice to the indigenous people so the US soldiers would just go how are you getting on that's an an airplane. And then they'd be

there with their airplane. The indigenous people are like, I don't know what, they're assuming that the Yanks are God. They're making this assumption. And then the Yanks would have chocolate, they might have Coca-Cola, and then they'd give this to the indigenous people. And then the war ended and the planes left and the Yanks left and the indigenous people who didn't speak English were like what the fuck was that? The fuck was that there for three or four years? So what the indigenous people started doing was That was pretty class there when the men came down from the sky and gave us chocolate because there's no fucking chocolate here So what they began to do was was to develop religious rituals based around what they'd seen.

So they would create runways out of bamboo strips and they would create air traffic control. And they'd create these seriously all throughout like 1950s, 1960s, and they'd do this as a religious ritual. And then every so often, once every 10 years, some ship would like break down and the cargo would wash up on shore and they'd find bars of chocolate and they'd find bits of coke. So they believed that this was from the gods. So that's a cargo cult. And that reminds me a little bit sometimes of how we used to repeat the catchphrases of, I know it's a stretch, but it's the same psychology. What you're dealing with there is cultural scarcity. These people had a mono culture and they'd never seen anything

outside of it. And the scarcity of something like different people or airplanes or chocolate bars, when we were watching comedy sketches on TV and you didn't have the internet, the scarcity of that meant you had to do the fucking League of Gentlemen sketch like a religious ritual so that you don't forget it. Yeah. You know, and that's what the water cooler moment was. And people like myself and yourself, we had real value because we'd go into school and we're the person who can do the impression of the fast show from the night before or Reeves and Mortimer or whatever.

And people really valued that. Now we're just denying cunts because people have got YouTube. You don't have catchphrases anymore. There's no need for it. No, it doesn't exist. I mean, I used to, I know he's cunt. So that's my autism there.

Yeah. What I just did there. I'd be doing that at parties, you know, so that that's how it reflects in me. I'll start talking. And that has that worked for me because that was interesting, wasn't it? It was very interesting. There you go. So in social situations, I'd find myself just with a fucking barrel of knowledge of all these things.

And when I'm doing something like that at a party, I'm anything but nervous. And then when it goes back to, what are you thinking about doing next year? What do you think of the weather? I'm fucked. I'm done, yeah. It's like that middle age, you know, you have kids

and then suddenly the name's gone, hey, do you wanna come around for a barbecue? And you're standing there with some cunt who's... I know! You know, I don't have the tools to navigate that. But the thing is too, you're getting older, so it's less appropriate for you to talk like step-toe and so on. I know, yeah. You just look like a lunatic.

When you're 20 and college is actually fine, but as you get older, it is, eccentricity becomes more obvious. And it's why I jumped on it. When you said that your dad was a mad bastard, it tends to follow patrilineal lines. You know what I mean? Yeah. Your dad could have been neurodivergent in some way.

Oh, I think he was, yeah. He became an alcoholic as a way to cope with this. Or fighting was a way to cope with this. Yeah, I definitely think he was. Was he eccentric? Yeah, very. And he was a performer. When I this. Yeah, I definitely think he was. Was he eccentric? Yeah, very. And he was a performer. You know, I could when I started making films of my own,

I'd put a camera on him and film him doing monologues into a mirror, you know, into the bathroom mirror. What would he talk about? He'd talk about his arrest. You know, we talk about, you know, the incidents and but it was like it was like, was he OK with that camera? Did he like that? There you go. He it there you go yeah he absolutely loved it that's amazing yeah I'd photograph him and you know when I started doing my photography I'd

photograph him and yeah he kind of loved it yeah. Did you keep that footage? Yeah I've got it yeah. That's amazing you're able to how is it to go and look at you look back at that? I haven't looked at it for a very, very long time, so I don't know what it would be like, but I feel like I want to sort of get it out and show it to the kids that this is your mad fucking grandad. How long ago did your dad die, if you don't mind me asking? He died in, was it 2000, Shale? 2001? 2001. Shale is his imaginary she's out there somewhere Mike my crutches out there yes but the interesting thing oh yeah I've got time now have you see

that the clock was there but it went it's gone on fortunately there's a problem I need to get a better watch so I wear these fucking fit bits right and the problem with this is there's no subtle way to look at the time because it requires kinetic movement. So there's no, don't get one of these. The only way for me to look at the time is to go like this. Which is very, that's rude as fuck. I should be like this.

No, no, no, I have to go hurry the fuck up Paddy. It's half-aid so these people need a piss and a pint. And have a good argument about what the local Nottingham drink is. Because I love that you can't decide. We'll be back out in about 15 minutes to continue the discussion. It is time now. in about 15 minutes to continue the discussion. It is time now. We'll have a little, an ocarina pose, ocarina pause. We'll have an ocarina, an ocarina pause. Before we get back into that wonderful chat with Paddy Considine.

I don't have an ocarina this week because I'm in my office. What I do have is a nail clippers and my metal mug, my Stanley terminal mug. So I'm gonna use these nail clippers to navigate the rim of this mug and see if it makes an interesting sound and then you're gonna hear an advert for something. Oh that's not nice at all.'s not placed I think I just tap it instead Support From fleet management to flexible truck rentals to technology solutions at enterprise mobility

We help businesses find the right mobility solutions so they can find new opportunities for this podcast comes from you the listener via the Patreon page patreon.com forward slash the Blind By Podcast. If you enjoy this podcast, if it brings you distraction, mirth, merriment, entertainment, whatever has you listening to this podcast, please consider paying me for the work that I put in because this is my full time job. It's how I earn a living, it's how I rent out this office, it's how I bought this. I've a wonderful new computer this week. I've got a new computer for the podcast that has a quiet fan. The fan in the last computer was really really loud

because it was full up of podcasts, the hard drive was completely full so I needed a new computer. But thank you to everyone who's a patron of this podcast. Thank you to everyone who directly funds and supports the podcast. Who allows me to have the time and space to fail. Because that's what it is really, to do anything creative you need to have time and space to fail. So all I'm looking for is the price of a pint or a cup of coffee once a month. That's it. And if you can't afford that, for whatever

reason, don't worry about it. You can listen for free. Listen for free. No problem at all. Because the person who is paying is paying for you to listen for free. So everybody gets a podcast and I get to earn a living. It's a wonderful model based on kindness and soundness, patreon.com forward slash deploying by podcast. But I will say if you're going to my Patreon page, please make sure you sign up as a paid member and don't sign up as a free member. That's not the same as listening for free. When you sign up on Patreon as a free member, you're just giving Patreon your data and it doesn't directly support this podcast at all. So if you are going to the Patreon page, please consider actually paying for it, not the free member thing. If you want to listen for free, just listen for free. That's fine. I want everybody to get the exact same podcast,

whether they pay or not. Upcoming gigs. As you know I'm having a very very quiet summer. I need time off, I need time to drink nature with my eyes. Vicar Street in June on the 18th. That's down to the last tickets. Vicar Street in June on the 18th in Dublin. And then July, set theatre Kilkenny for two nights, small little gigs. There's literally like 10 tickets left. I want to go down to Kilkenny. That's why I'm doing that gig. I'm going down to Kilkenny for two nights to play in the set theatre. I want to spend a couple of days in Kilkenny. It's a beautiful place. Specifically

what I want to see is there's a stone sculpture from the 17th century in Kilkenny, it's a beautiful place. Specifically what I want to see is there's a stone sculpture from the 17th century in Kilkenny Castle that looks exactly like Keith Duffy from Byzone. And I want to see that in person. So that's why I've booked those two gigs. Like and share the podcast, tell a friend about it. Follow me on Instagram Blind by Ball Club. Leave her a view, all that type of crack. Back to the chat with Paddy Constantine. Actually one thing to clarify, in the second part of this podcast, I mistakenly say that the dog breed,

the Cavalier King Charles was a French breed. It's not, it was the Brits who bred that dog. That's the second beer you're after spilling tonight now Paddy. Did you get your Castle Rock? I was trying to learn about the history of it backstage. Yeah no because when I was saying like what's the drink of Nottingham what I meant was like what did your granddad drink and what did your dad and your ma drink you know what I mean that type of drink so he's a Castle Rock you need to sort this shit out and I think I'm like fucking hell that's amazing you'll get a good pint in Burton on Trent now he was saying in Burton on

Trent they have several breweries yeah a brewery town yeah yeah a nice pint of bass a pint of Worthy, yeah, you'll be all right there. What's, is that Worthington's Bitter, is that what that is? Yep, yep. I've only seen adverts for that. It's a, well, that's what Burton is, it's a brewing town. Did you have a monastery at one point?

Monks used to love making beer. The Abbey. Yeah, the Abbey was thebey. Yeah, there was an Abbey there. Yeah, they used to roll the barrels under the river apparently. Yeah, there's old tunnels in there. I've never been down there. Actually, when I was researching the tunnels of Nottingham, that came up quite a bit. It was used to store beer. Yeah. Are you proud of your history? It seems like a pretty cool place to me. You can play Nottingham in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, were you aware of that? It's called Snottingham. See, I don't know, I know a bit about this part of England, I just haven't been around

it. Today I started getting obsessed with an area on the east, it's on the east, I don't know, the middle of the west. Are we in the mid-west? No, are we in the middle of the east? Yes, yes, yes, we're virgin on that. Maybe, maybe, the fens, we're not near the Fens are we? No. Are we a good bit away from there? Yeah.

I'd love to have a crack at the Fens. It just seemed, have you been to the Fens? I've been to the Fens. Yeah, I went to see Reggie Crane prison. Around there. Yes, I did. What? Come on. With a bare-knuckle gypsy fighter.

Why did you do that? Well, at the time I was doing my photography degree and there was a bare-knuckle fighter from Utoxic called Bartley Gorman. Oh, I've seen, I've heard of him. He's a legend. Shade made a couple of great short films about him. And I went and did some photographs of him when I was doing my degree. And one of them ended up on the,

I took a photograph of his hands holding a rosary and he caught his hand on a thorn bush pulling out some wood. And so it looked like, you know, the stigmata sort of thing. You know, I took this picture and it ended up on the front cover of a paper called the Staffordshire Bugle. Yeah. And then somehow the Staffordshire Bugle made its way to the prison in Lincoln, I think it was, or somewhere around there. And Reggie Cray was in prison there. I can't remember the name of it. Waylands or something like that. And he apparently saw this newspaper and he wanted to meet Bartley Gorman and he said,

I want to meet the man who took that photograph. So I ended up going with my friend Bartley on a road trip to go and see Reggie Crane in prison. And it's interesting. What was that like? Yeah. And on that, it was, I mean, it was strange. It was really strange, you know, because it was like he was still holding court in his living room. Wow. You know, he was well even for him in prison to go.

I want to meet these people and then we turn up. Yeah. But when I left, you know, he gave me a hug. He goes, anything I can do for you, you let me know. And I thought, fucking hell, he still thinks it's like... Was that intimidating in any way? He was a lot older then, you know. He had these young guys around him and that. But he used to ring my old digs in Brighton.

Reggie Craig is just ringing from prison there. He'd ring up. And I'd pick up the phone and he'd go, is that you? Searching, searching. I'd go, Reggie? And he'd go, yeah, what time are you in court tomorrow? And I'd go like, oh Reggie, I think you've got the wrong number. Reggie, Reggie, yeah, well, I'm 30, alright, I'll see you there. And then I'd have to ring his wife and go, Reggie, Ronnie's just rang me.

Sorry, I'd ring his wife and say, Reggie's just rang me. And I think he's kind of got me mixed up with somebody else, just so you know. And then there was a guy who I shared the digs with who would never, he was an ignorant fucker. He was rude in that. He'd answer the phone, he was really rude. And I went to his room and knocked on the door. I said, I'll just warn you now, I said, if that phone goes and someone on that phone says they're Reggie

Cray, I said, it's Reggie fucking Cray. So don't be an asshole to him. Can you tell me a bit about your process? I know that the film Tyrannosaur is very, very dear to your heart. Yeah, thank you. Tell us about that. Tell us about the process of making it and why you love it so much. Well I'd like to... That was Olivia Colman before. Yeah, that was kind of the thing that sort of I don't really, you know, but it definitely brought her to a different,

a different kind of attention upon her, you know, after that film. Because she was Sophie from Peep Show before that. She was on the Peep Show. Yeah. I didn't even know who she was, to be honest with you, when I cast her in it. I just I remember we went through to the read through for Hot Force and I'd written the short film that Dog All Together that became Tyrannosaur. And we literally walked through the door at the same time. And I held the door and she went, after you? And I went, no, after you? And we had this little exchange. And I just looked at her and I went, and I rang my wife and I said, I found her. And

she goes, who is she? I said, I think her name's Olivia. She goes, what's she doing? I goes, I think she's in Peep Show. I watched Peep Show after, you know, it was a great show. But that's kind of how it sort of happened. It was that simple. It was just passing through a door at the same time. And we made the short film and then I went and wrote the feature film.

But the reason I started writing, while I wrote my own feature film was because I was making contributions so much to other people's work. Like I'd worked with a director called Pavel Pavlikovsky and I was basically sitting with him at night and writing the next day scenes and I'd had a similar relationship with Shane where it was very improvisational and particularly on Dead Man's Shoes, you know, we'd kind of, you know, created a plot. I didn't want to bring that up in the way that I didn't want to bring up.

I was talking to Johnny Marum, like I'm not going to bring up Marisey, so I didn't want to bring up Dead Man's Shoes. I didn't want the obvious question. I fucking love it. It's brilliant. It's fantastic. You can't avoid it. Yeah.

But I didn't want to do that podcast you know what I mean? That's alright. But like what you're saying there is that you were effectively writing but you weren't recognizing it as writing. You were like the relationship you were having with Shane Meadows and stuff and putting scenes together. Had you not gone, hold on a second I'm actually writing here maybe I can have a crack at this myself. Yeah, that's what eventually happened. I just went, you know, I've got a film in me. And so, you know, because I contributed to these other films, I just thought I'm ready to now go away and write my own film.

And what did that, like the very first spark of getting something from your head and turning it into a film. Did you sit down and write a script? Did it begin with a script? Yeah, yeah, it was just a script. I mean, it started as a short film that I wrote and it only took me a couple of hours to write it. And at the time I was working with Gary Oldman on something

and I showed it to him and I said, what do you think of this? And he went, I love it. Because who do you want for the lead? And I says, well, I don't think it's you. And he went, no, of course it's not fucking me. Who do you want? And I went, I think I want Peter Mullen for it.

He went, perfect. And then it just sort of came together. We were in Toronto, I was with the producer, Mark Herbert, and we walked into Peter Mullen on the street and I said, Peter, have you read my short film? He went, yeah, it's fucking great, bro, it's, I'm like, you ain't fucking read it. I want you to be in it, you know, we, you know, we've got to make it. And that's how that relationship started with Peter. And then Olivia came later and but Tyrannosaur was one of those things it was just pure expression I wrote it in a week and it just flowed out yeah and you know and I sent it to Gary because I was massively inspired by Nill by

Mouth that just you know when I sat in a theatre and watched that it just turned my head and I just sort of went I sent it to him straight away and then he, it just turned my head. And I just sort of went, I sent it to him straight away and then he read it and I rang him up and he went, don't change a fucking thing. And I went, right, okay, I won't. And I tried to, I tried to sort of change some bits but it didn't want it. It knew what it wanted to be, Tyrannosaur.

It was like a dog shaking off fleas. If I tried to do anything, try and bellish anything or be clever, it went fuck off. You know, it sort of, so I listened to that and I just let it breathe and be what it wanted to be. But making it, I kind of walked it in my head and I longed for that relationship again, you know. The relationship with your own creativity.

Yeah. Like, is that difficult since? Yeah, because my second film, I didn't achieve the same things with it. And I think in my second film, I got a little bit trapped. It was kind of more ego than anything else. I wanted so desperately to be seen in a way. You know, this is the real me, this is who I am. So I wrote, directed and acted in it.

And I don't know, something got lost in there somewhere and it didn't meet the expectations I had for it. And I don't think it's a great film, but it's got great, it's got good moments in it and good things about it. But even when you see it being received well, your heart isn't in it the way with Tyrannosaur. No, no.

Because we were talking about this backstage and I was saying like, something that I find that works for me is if you're having trouble writing something or you're trying to go, fuck it, I had so much flow back then, that thing that I made before was so great, deliberately try and make a piece of shit.

No, but seriously, because what will keep you from your inner voice is the fear of failing and also how do I be good? But I bet you when you made Tyrannosaur you weren't trying to be good. I don't know what this is. This is authentic. This just feels right, I bet you. Yeah, it did. It was just bet you. Yeah, it did. It was just pure expression. Yeah, it came out that way. Whereas with the second film, I was making about a subject matter

and I was actually falling into that trap that I feel quite ashamed of. I was trying to second guess what I thought people wanted from me. And that's something I never thought I'd fall for. I'd listen to David Bowie. And you can't create like that. No, you absolutely cannot.

Oh, sure, Bowie's great for that. Yeah. Yeah. He was just about create like that. No, you absolutely cannot. Oh, sure, Bowie's great for that. Yeah. Yeah. He was just about the authenticity and never make what you think. Don't play to the gallery. Yeah. You know. And I think I was trying to say, hey, I'm here.

You know, accept me somehow. Because that was my relationship with acting. I mean, I've moved on from it since. But that was my relationship with acting. I was talking to Blind Boy backstage and just sort of saying, you know, all this mimicry I did. And then I eventually did a play at school and I was on report and, you know, my third year and I was pretty much pissing my life away at school.

Yeah, I was a proper little ballocks. And, but I did this version, I did this school play of Grease and I went on stage. Who'd you play in Grease? I was Kinnicky. Fucking typecasted. I said I want to be Danny and the art teacher went hmm. Like you know, they'd already cast it.

I think the earmarked me for Kinnicky. But I remember my music teacher giving me the sheet music on the first rehearsal. And it was Grease Lightning and I went, what's that? And he went, I said, I don't sing that, mate. And kind of went to hand it back because you do in the play. You know, shoved it back at me and I went, all right. And that became the relationship I had with acting then was interesting because because of my father, really,

Oz's kids were kind of labeled. You know, we'd play with kids in the street and when he went to go around the house, I'd have doors shut in my face and things like that. You know, I wasn't accepted or allowed in people's houses and things like that. And I hadn't done anything. So I was rebelling against that from a young age.

And I wanted people to see me really. When I did this version of Grease and I was singing Grease Lightning in this Elvis Jumpsuit and everything, it's like everybody's opinion and view of me changed like that. The faculty, the students, everybody. And I thought, oh, I get it now.

This is what you have to do to get people to like you. You're not that cancer-dunk kid anymore. Yeah, that's all it was really, yeah. And so that was a pivotal moment for you to, that's the buzz, that was the little, holy fuck, I can do something with this. Yeah, I can change people's perception of me if I perform. Yeah.

Just back to the topic of, how are you at writing at the moment. I haven't written a film since my last one, which is a film called Journeyman. And I just haven't been able to do it. I haven't been able to sit down and do it. I can write. Do you want to? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah. But I'm just I'm terrified. And it surprises me because I know what I have to do. But yeah, I don't know what's going to come out.

I don't know if it's going to be any good. I put myself in a real trap. But also you have the music side of yourself. So when you go making music, is that like, does it give you any sense of freedom or relief from the pain of trying to write a film? Yeah, I don't I don't have any problem writing songs. It's like the best, the best thing. Do you ever feel that because you don't put expectations

on yourself when you're writing music? Yeah, because there's no expectations from us. We were like an independent band, we're not signed, we're not managed, it's all, we do it all ourselves, you know. And you paint your face. Yeah. What's that about?

It's a little bit of... Well when I... Says the man with the fucking bag on his head. I forgot! I forgot! The fucking hell! It's a little bit of... There's a little bit of tribal stuff in there.

Like my... older kids than me, their thing was like, and when I first saw Bowie on top of the pops, but for me it was when I saw Adam and the Ants on top of the pops. Like that was that moment for me. I remember them playing dog eat dog and being, I don't know, if I was eight, nine years old or something and just having that moment of like, what was that?

Whatever that is, I want to belong to that. So there's sort of some tribal elements to our music and things like that. And the face paint is just steeped in these things of like, you know, the Lone Ranger and things like that, stuff that was on television when I was a kid, and also having a bit of a mask to hide behind a little bit. Do you feel like Patti Kansalheim

when you're up there singing on stage with the paint in your face? No, I feel like there's a kind of persona called Gobshite Rambo. Ha ha ha, brilliant. And he's not mouthy, he's not like, you know, in all politics, but it's just Gobshite Rambo, yeah, and he's a different creature.

And it's a certain part of the show where he departs because, you know, loves he loves people you know Gobshite Rambo loves people he loves people he does he does love people yeah he likes the interaction and he feels pride when they sing his songs back to him and things like that you know have you ever felt that your East Midlands accent holds you back from getting jobs? I don't think it has, but you know, I know I don't think it has. I think I'm I'm I'm OK at accents. How is England with that particular accent? Yeah, it's tricky. Is it? It's tricky.

There is trying to learn what my ear. Well, it's tricky. Is it? It's tricky. Like I'm trying to learn with my ear. It's not Birmingham. No, that's it. I think, like, listen, Nottingham claimed me. You know what I mean? I had this with someone once. They said, you know, you're more Birmingham. I went, no, I think Nottingham claimed me. Yeah, I wouldn't.

Really, is there a bit of a scrap going on there? There's a bit of that. There was. I wouldn't, like, je Jesus, I wouldn't hear Birmingham. And no, no, it's definitely not in the voice. So it's very, very different. Yeah. And I've always had this sort of affiliation with Nottingham through, I think probably through Shane, really, more than anything else.

You know, so, yeah, I probably probably lean towards this side of the middle. As more are the people of Burton and Trent proud of you? So yeah, we probably lean towards this side of the Midlands more. Are the people of Burton and Trent proud of you? I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't get recognised anywhere I go. Has the mayor ever given you a shout? No, but some guy rocked up to my house, a councillor, and he wanted to make me free man of the borough. And I went, what the fuck is that, man? What the fuck is that?

Jesus Christ, what's that? And I'm like, I... That sounds like it comes with a hat. Yeah, I know. Does it come with a hat? And I just like, does it mean that you can park anywhere you want, because I'll fucking take it. Take it.

I don't know, that shit aches me. I'm not good with that, you know, like the local college wanted to give me some sort of degree in performing arts and I went, I can't accept that. I didn't complete my fucking BTEC, I'm not going to accept a BA. It's bullshit and it sends the wrong signals to kids. You know, you've got to tough it out. But you should go for the fucking, what was it? The free man of the Borough. Well, like, they gave a...

Bono got given the key to Dublin City, you know? And when he got given the key to Dublin City, Bono went looking into, like, what does it mean? And he found that one of the rules was that he was legally allowed to graze his sheep in Phoenix Park in Dublin. No! So he bought a couple of sheep and just fucked them off into the, you know what I mean? A rare Bono win. I don't know what it would get me but I just you know it's you know titles and

that I'm not I'm not so. I don't think Freeman of the Borough is like, it's not like Sir and MBE. No, no. I mean, you know, I'm not getting above myself here. That's much more Freeman of the Borough is like, I don't know, you serve Robin Hood a pint. It doesn't, it doesn't have that feeling. It doesn't have the... It feels like I walk around doing that to everybody. It's all, it's jestery. There's something jestery about it. Yeah, yeah. It's strange. Freeman man of the borough what does that mean?

I'd have great difficulty not accepting that if I was given that. I'm just ungrateful. I forgot my fucking sheet of questions again, Paddy. They were handed to me at the side of the stage. What's your favorite type of dog? Oh, Cavalier King Charles. Thank you, Darren. This is Darren. He's from Nottingham. He's taught me everything about Nottingham.

He's actually the reason I did a gig here because the last time I was doing a tour, he goes, you know, there's a lot of caves in Nottingham and I'm like go on. Actually the questions are fucking shit man. Are they? Jesus that's not even a question. That's how did you start out? What the fuck was I thinking when I wrote these man? The first one how did you start out? This one isn't even a question. It just says you've been friends with Shane Meadows Then the other one is what was Burton on Trent like what the fuck was I doing man? When? Then there's this one which isn't even I said tell us about your love of Northern soul I asked you backstage. You don't you don't love Northern Soul. I asked you backstage, you don't love Northern Soul at all.

I like Northern Soul music but I don't turn up with my talcum powder and my flares on. What do you mean talcum powder? Why is talcum powder involved in Northern Soul? Because they put it on the floor so they can dance and move and slide on it. Is that the crack? Yeah, yeah. This isn't a very Northern Soul-y area. You're not in the North, you're in the Midlands, in the East. Yeah, we're the Midlands.

You have to go up to Wigan and that was the prime place for Northern Soul, I think. You directed a video for Roisin Murphy. No, I was in it. Okay, you danced Northern Soul in the video. Yeah, and I had to learn how to dance Northern Soul, which I didn't do. But I fucking tried, you know, I really did. I did my best. It's a fascinating type of dancing. Cause I have a theory that,

I don't know if you remember rave dancing from the early nineties, but like there were certain moves in rave dancing, foot moves in particular. You'd see the Lee Ray from the Prodigy doing them. And I'm convinced that rave dancing came from Northern Soul. That's a podcast, innit? Oh, it's done, it was one of my first podcasts, man.

That was one of my first podcasts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just see a similarity of moves and like I love Northern Soul. I wouldn't find myself listening to the music loads. I just I'm like, how the fuck did that happen? Yeah, that happened. I ended up finding out. So certain cities around the north of England, right? it was in the cities that had a lot of coal. So the cities that had a lot of coal, they were sending this coal on ships to Detroit in America.

And when they sent the ship off full of this fucking coal, when it got to Detroit, it let all its weight off because coal is heavy. So then when it gets back to the north of England, they needed a ballast. So in Detroit, their rubbish were Motown records that didn't sell. So they'd fill the fucking boat with this Motown B-size that no one wanted. They'd make it back to the north, get thrown onto the docks as rubbish, and then cafe owners who were cheap would pick up these records of like Grace Jones and stuff and then just start putting in the cafes instead of paying for Elvis and that's how Northern Soul happened. But isn't that lovely isn't that? I love that, I think that's

fascinating and then you have all these kids fetishizing and then you've got singers over in Detroit getting phone calls going, they love you, where's that? It's amazing. I love watching Northern Soul dancing on it, I think it's the best. And it's still going too, I've seen on YouTube, there's still people doing Northern Soul Championships.

Yeah, they have all nighters and things like that. They used to do one near us in Burton. They used to do Speed, but it wasn't Speed, it was like a Dexie. Dexie's Midnight Runners. Hey, yeah. Dexie's Midnight Runners was a phrase that was taken from Northern Soul

where it's Dexie Drenner, some type of drug, which was like speed, and that's what they used to take. Because there was no drink at the Northern Soul Discus. Right. There you go. That's amazing, nose. Right, let's see what other questions I have here Paddy. Come on. Come on blind boy.

Jesus man, these are bad questions. So that one is about your band, right? We got that one out of the way. This is like, do you know anything about the caves underneath nothing? No. And then the last one is have you found your East Midlands accent limiting? What the f... I think my man was ringing me or something on the phone when I was trying to write these down. I was thinking I won't need any questions for this cunt, we'll just start talking about stuff. Your favourite dog is a King Charles Cavalier. Yeah.

Is it because you owned one? We've had two, yeah. We had one who died at Christmas, we'd had for like 12 years. Mr. Bodog. And now we've got Manny. I fucking love him, mate. Why is he called Manny? I don't know. My wife named him, actually. It's not after your man in the stone roses? No, he'd be after Manny Pacquiao, the boxer.

LAUGHTER What's their temperament like? Oh, man, they're better... Listen, they come and have a cuddle with you and you know they want to play and that and I love them to bits and they're handsome, beautiful doggies. I wouldn't call a King Charles Cavalier handsome. Don't you? No, handsome is fucking, what's handsome? I don't like big dogs that lie in your fucking...

Labradors are handsome. You know when they're in your living room and their bollocks are out and they're fucking all like that. That's what I don't like. No, or the slobbering ones. Like, I mean, fair play to people who adore the slobbering dogs. Yeah, I don't like that. I don't need dog fluid in my life.

Some fucking Labrador's... Does King Charles Cavalier get any unique health issues because of its breeding. Yeah, it's hot Yeah, yeah, yeah a little fella died of a heart attack at Christmas and was he before this time? No, he was good. He had a good life. He's about 12 and off. That's pretty good going. Yeah, it is for them. Yeah What else folks pugs man? No, no no. Pugs can die if they fall over. Yeah. No, but like, Pugs, there's a lot of dog breeds, lad. They kind of shouldn't exist, you know? The French were the real culprits for this. Like, the King Charles Cavalier, I believe, has French ancestry and it was literally bred to be like in a handbag a small little dog

Like dogs at one point were wolves You know what I mean? How the fuck do you go from a wolf to a King Charles Cavalier? But then you've got a pug, pugs The shape of their face if a pug falls over in the wrong way They can't get back up and they drown in their own face Seriously and they get tremendous hip problems. And then we've got, in Ireland we've got the Irish Wolfhound. They're fucking huge, like they're about five foot tall. But like they're based on rumours of what an Irish

Wolfhound was like a thousand years ago. So Irish Wolfhounds, their lungs just fill up with fluid and they die when they're five. Yeah, very, very sad life for an Irish wolfhound. You're better off with a mongrel because if you get a King Charles Cavalier and go out into the estate and find something, at least that dog is choosing its mate. So you start getting a fucking... Jack Russell could have a crack at a King Charles Cavalier. You ever get really bored and you go onto Google and just go I wonder what dogs have fucked. They have all fucked. Trust me, trust me. A Doberman King Charles Cavalier exists. Someone has done it. If they couldn't make it happen naturally, they used the turkey baster. I'm fucking telling you.

Sorry, Paddy. That's how they do it. I don't know that information. That was me using my imagination going, how would you possibly breed? They're not doing it artificially anyway it is it's it's some something gonna know the back garden you found the cats no no I'm not a cat man why no I don't fucking like him they're sneaky no listen that's sneaky thing no no've got to get a Noah cat.

Cats, cats are sneaky because it's like you've got to put in effort. I don't like them. They're aloof and weird. They are aloof. I like dogs because they're fucking stupid. Cats, they're very clean though. Are they? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

A cat has a well-groomed anus. A well-rimmed cat. What do you think about people who have fish tanks? Oh man, that's right, the amount of dead fish. Did you ever go at that? Oh fuck you down man. I'd come down that many times that the fish would be like that, like a stick. We had this one fish and it was my youngest daughter's fish, and I came to the tank, and for months it was on its side, and we put medicine in to try and help it, and it wasn't doing anything.

I came down one morning, it was floating on the top, and I knocked the tank, and I went, come on, because usually you'd knock it in the gill like that and swim off, and this time it just stayed, and I went, I think it's dead. So I give it another knock, fucking dead, didn't move. And I got the, what's it, the net and I hooked this fish up, didn't move, dead. And I get to the toilet, I think I'm gonna have to flush this poor thing down the toilet. I lift up the toilet lid, one of the kids has left a

massive fucking turd in there and not flushed it. So I go like that with the net and I go, oh God, I've made my choice. I flip the fish, it lands on the turd and comes to life. And starts doing that and I just went, oh fuck it, and flushed it. What if, what if Paddy, you had just discovered a major medical breakthrough that no one has tried before. What if that's it? What if we don't have to die? What if when you die, you just fucking get someone who's dying and just put them on top of a giant child's

turd. The shit of children, Paddy. What was it like working on House of the Dragon? Fucking hell. It was alright, man. Yeah, it was all right. A year in a wig. It was nice. No, it was a good, I enjoyed House of the Dragon. I thought it was a great, you know, character. You know, it was one of those rare times as an actor that I could access that same stuff that I did when I was doing Tyrannosaur, you know.

So it was easy to look at it and go, it's just some fucking fantasy spin-off thing. But when I read it, I could see a real great character in there, and I thought he was a gift, so it doesn't matter to me what the framework is and what it comes like, if there's a character in there worth playing, I wanna do it, so.

What was it like working on something that huge, though? Is that not terrifying? Is that, like, that's massive. There's a lot of crew. There is, yeah, we shot that for about a year, but... Where did you shoot it? I was mainly in a studio. I was mainly at Leavesden Studio.

Was it all this LED screen shit? No, I did very little of that. A lot of my stuff. Was it sets, actual sets? Yeah, I was in sets a lot of the time. So it was just like doing a play or something. So it never felt big in that way. Okay, so they compartmentalized it so that's you're over here doing your scenes

and then someone else doing something else in the other part of the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's about three different like film units working on different episodes all at once. And have you ever done any of that stuff where it's just green screen all around you or an LED screen, like you're not there at all? I've done a little bit of it. But you're talking to a tennis ball. Yeah that's sort of.

When I did Romeo Brass I was talking to a tennis ball in some of them scenes. Like what's that like? Is that difficult? I am... Depends who you fucking act in opposite. Probably sometimes a tennis ball is fucking better. Wow! Probably sometimes the tennis ball is fucking better. How? But I had to do a scene in Romeo and Brass where they couldn't fit the actors onto the

couch where the camera was and I'm telling a ghost story in it and I'm telling it to a tennis ball. So you get used to that kind of stuff quite quickly. But the worst thing about the green screen stuff, which I haven't done a lot of, is that it's not very interactive. No. So this table would be green screen, you know, everything around, all the elements around you are green screen, so it's not that realistic.

But when I did House of the Dragon, they were all built sets, so it never really made any difference. You just like being on the stage, you know. Have you ever been on one of those sets? There's a new thing now I don't know what it's called, but instead of a green screen the volume It's a huge like this would be one gigantic fucking LED screen. Yeah, the world is around you there Yeah, I did that. I did one day of that on on ass of the dragon. What's that? That would drive me mad It's it's what's really mad about it is that we were approaching...

I can't remember whose fucking castle it was. It's all going to out of my mind now. But we were walking up to it, and as you walk up to it, as you get closer to it, the actual thing moves like you're walking towards it and gets closer in perspective to you. How was that for you as an actor to, like, the spectacle of that? That sounds like being at Disneyland.

Yeah, it is like that. Did you get a sense of when you're acting going fucking hell or the castle is going to kill me? Do you remember that first? Remember when they first It's going to fall on me. Remember when they showed that film to the people in the 1910s and it was a train? Some famous film where they put a camera on a train track and it was like 1910 and everyone ran out of the cinema because the train was coming towards them. They used to do that at Alton Towers.

Go away they did. Does anyone remember in the 80s or 90s? I've only heard of Alton Towers. This is an English thing that you hear about in Ireland. They used to have this big dome called Cinema 3000 or whatever. Remember that? There'd be a car driving through Paris and you just stand like that watching it and then at some point it breaks

and everyone had sort of and fall forward. It's a similar thing really. Was it enjoyable? Yeah I thought it was wank when I went I was just sort of like what's the big deal? I'm going to ask questions from the audience now. Yeah, hi, I'm a massive fan. How are you? What's the craic? Yeah, I've always wanted to know what's your favourite sandwich? From like bread to your main filling to your sub genre filling and everything. The first thing that came into my head there is a pastrami sandwich.

I do enjoy pastrami sandwiches. Nice. Yeah, yeah. I remember when Pret a Bonde opened, I thought coronation chicken was the absolute business. Really? Yeah, yeah, I loved it. I find that a particularly colonial lunch and I don't like it for that reason. But it is. First off, it's named after your once fucking coronation, Elizabeth,

her coronation, and then it's like, oh what are you doing you cheeky cunt, you're putting curry in there is it? Why are you doing that? Oh because you took over India. Okay. So I don't like coronation chicken because of the, there's colonial, it's a colonial sandwich so I'm not into that. Yeah, I just ate the fucker. You want to have another question? This gentleman up front, bang of MI5 off this cunt now. I'm waiting for the plans. It's a question for Paddy. How did it feel watching somebody else play a character that you played yourself? Think about Rob Gretton.

I didn't feel anything. No, I don't often do. No, I thought it was... You mean Toby, don't you? Yeah. Who played my brother in Deadline Shows. Your little brother. No, I thought it was great. Yeah, it didn't bother me. I really liked Control. I thought it was a great film.

There's just two different things and two different interpretations, so I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a really good film. Two great films? Yeah, yeah. I think they both were in their own way. I really like playing Rob. It made me a legend in Manchester. How do you feel about all the Dead Man's Shoes memes now? Like there's a generation of kids who are familiar with that through memes of your performances. That's true, yeah, yeah. That's interesting.

Is that weird? Like it's decontextualised completely. Yeah. They think it's a documentary. They do. Yeah. What life was like. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a strange legacy Dead Man's Shoes has. There's a certain audience that love that film, you know. Is it frightening and toxic? Kind of, there's that element to it a little bit sometimes. I remember being at a music festival and a guy stopped me, like practically grabbed me and he went, don't fucking move.

And I went, all right, mate. And he went, yeah. And he whipped his top off. And he had this tattoo on his back. And his whole back was a picture of me about that fucking big. And myself there and Toby. And he had this big dead man shoes back tattoo.

I was like, fucking hell. And then like, there was times like, there was an incident when the kids were younger. We were sat in a pizza express and someone banged on the window. and I turned around and they went, You're fucking there mate! Cheers! Do you not get a bit of anxiety when you see it going viral on TikTok?

Well I don't have TikTok, you know. You don't have to, the children do. Yeah, I don't know, I haven't really, I'm not, I kind of don't know what's going on in that respect, but it's 20 years this year. Yes. And I think they're going to re-release it and we'll do a few bits and pieces around it. Fuck off, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our people would love that.

Yeah, I think they will. Out of politeness, I didn't bring the film up. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? I just think it's a respectful thing to do. Yeah, I don't mind it. It's a long time ago now. It's just incredible to me that it keeps circling around again and another generation. Because it's fucking brilliant. Yeah, I guess.

It's fucking brilliant. It's going to be brilliant in 50 years. It's just fucking brilliant. Yeah, thanks. Any other questions? Yeah, I enjoy that. Sounded like a distant macaw. Hi, oh my god, that's weird. I just want to start off by saying thank you for coming tonight. Tonight's been great. Thank you, you wonderful people.

So this is for both of you really. I'm just wondering, have either of you or both of you experienced prejudice in your industry, like the creative industries, because of your autism, and if you have, how have you tackled that? Yeah, all the time, but people don't know it's because of autism. Do you know what I mean? That's a hard one to answer.

No one's gonna go like, fuck off, Mr. Autism. hard one to answer. No one's going to go like, fuck off, Mr. Autism. But like, my whole career, like, I mean, like, okay, if you want to write books, right, if you want to write books, you want to become a book writer, there's a path. And that path is do well in school, then get into university where you study literature. Then once you study literature, you become very social and you go to loads of these social events with other writers where you're consistently social, making friends, networking and that's the path of how you eventually get published. I do not have access to that. I never had access to that because I'm autistic. First off I failed fucking school

because of autism, being a little shit and And then secondly, there's no way in hell that I can go to literary meetings and network and meet people. I'm a fucking loner. So it's so, like that's an excellent question, but it's so difficult to pinpoint. I'm an awkward, odd, strange man because I'm autistic. I mean, like, blind boy blind boy we've got a would you

like to do this documentary here this documentary could change your career yes I'd love to you're gonna have to take that bag off though. Like in a way that's that's I wear this bag because I'm autistic and I I'd love to make a documentary and for it to be on TV and for everyone to know it but I'm not fucking getting accosted in Pret a Mger the next day or whatever you call it. With your coronation chicken sandwich. My fucking coronation chicken sandwich and having a stranger coming up to me and saying, how about that coronation?

And then I go on a colonialism rant and it's in the Daily Mail. So like, it's such a big question. It's like being autistic is fucking difficult no matter where the fuck you are, because you're from you're an eccentric, strange person. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, are eccentric. So I think it's one of the few places that you can sort of go. How do you feel about a red carpet? How do you feel about sitting on a red carpet when a bunch of people say, Patty, stand there and smile

when we take a photograph. That's probably the worst thing, you know. And I don't do them regularly. The last one I did, you know, I had a couple of them before it. You know, I hate to say that, but I did. But that's most likely some of your noradivergence. The fact that you're uncomfortable with it,

the fact that you can look at other actors who are like, I don't care, Paddy, just stand in front and do it. And you're like, I can't fucking do this. I need to get smashed. Yeah, I find that. Yeah, it's those sort of things, those social things that I struggle with the most and things like photo shoots even. You know, when you turn up and someone's got a fucking rail full of clothes and it's

like I can't, I can't compute that, you know, try this even costume fittings for characters, try this and I'll try that with that. And I'm just sort of going, I can't fucking do this, you know, I can't. What is that specific, is it a fabric texture thing or just the confusion or? Yeah, I just think it's that. I don't know. It sounds really odd to say, but there's a sort of vulnerability to it. So even going in the room and having to fucking change your clothes in a room, you know, try clothes on that don't feel like they suit you.

But then you've got to play a character. You know, I actually don't. I like when I finished a job, it's done and I don't look at it again. I'm fucking done with it, you know, mostly. It's that lack of, you have to act and to do that stuff. You have to surrender some sort of self-control to it. You just have to, and there's other people

making decisions about you and your kind of physical being, if you like. The neurotypical actor isn't gonna give a a fuck, they're just going to get on with it. No, they just do it. For you, it's a huge source of stress. Yeah, yeah. And then that gets you labelled as strange or difficult. That's right, yeah.

It might get in the way of opportunities. Yeah, definitely. So, I mean, that's the invisible thing. Like, I suffered that thing of like, you know, you don't do press and that's affecting you getting work. it's like I don't really like talking about you know I'm here now talking. That's different but you knew we were gonna have the crack I'm not gonna fucking ask you. Do you like Netflix? I don't even know what a real question is whatever Graham Norton's gonna ask you

he wouldn't ask that. I can't imagine Graham Norton going Patty Considine do you like Netflix? But if I am gonna do a chat shows or anything like that, I have to prepare beforehand. Yeah. And what's helped me massively with what I kind of have or what I deal with is just like looking after myself. A bit more like exercising. Stan's really silly, exercising, stretching, meditating, just doing to just to prepare myself for certain things it's almost like if i go to a music festival i'm going people are going to come up to you and they're going to want to meet you and they're going to have a photo with you and you've

got to prepare yourself for it because you can't i can't be that guy either that just goes i'll fuck off mate yeah you know or i'm not going to that music festival that I want to go to. I'm scared because of that. Yeah. So, yeah, you're always in a state of hypervigilance. I'm always in a state that I think something bad is going to happen. So if I'm at Rock City watching a gig with my family, I'm hypervigilant most of the time because I think if someone knocks them or knocks me or does and I'm at a fucking gig, people jumping around, but it puts me in this other sort of stress zone

in a way, you know, that something bad's gonna happen at some point. So like the thing is, and I can relate to so much of that, we've been that way our entire fucking lives. So we tend not to think of what it would be like to not be that way. But people who aren't noradivergent, they're not dealing with this.

They're just going to the gig. Yeah. And I can observe that and see that in people. And I can talk to myself and go, look, they're just having a good time, you know? And sometimes it robs you of a good time. 100%, yeah. Yeah.

Because that's all you're thinking about. But I'm looking at people going, these guys are just having a really good time and, you know, they're letting go. Why can't you just do that? And sometimes I can to a degree and I enjoy myself, but there's always that thing in my mind. Like I always think something bad's gonna happen. Even if I go to the petrol station to fill my car, I might get into a fight. I might have to, you know, something's gonna go wrong or whatever. It's just something I like to live with and deal with. And that's just what like,

that's the stress and pressure of having the brain that you have your entire life. And the amount of times that the brains that we have get us into trouble. Yeah. Like how much stupid shit have we done when we were kids for not understanding the rules? You're supposed to look people into the eye.

You're a rude little cunt, why aren't you looking me in the eye? It all gathers up and then you're an adult with like, I have to second guess my environment. So it's a consistent stress that you live with it so much as normality. But if you, I'd like, like Jesus Christ sometimes my nightmare scenario would be if I could live in a neurotypical person's brain for a day what would that be like I would I think I'd hate it yeah because then I'd be aware of how stressful it is to be me do you know what I mean yeah yeah I'd go oh my god this is it I'm just worried about, do you know what I mean? Yeah. I don't have to memorize facts about dog's anuses. You mean I can just go and buy orange juice

and say how are you getting on? How's the weather? Great. How is your son? Fantastic. I'll talk to you later Mara. I'd love to be able to do that. I can't fucking do that. Any other questions? There's a very flattered microphone here in Nottingham. Keeps running away from me. Oh, there's another one. Oh, fuck it. All right, go on. Oh, sure. If you wouldn't mind. That sounds like a cuckoo barra. Very common barra. There's a Hives fan on the front row.

A Hives fan? They're such a fucking great band. Are they Swedish, is it? Where are the Hives from? Yeah, did you go to Rock City the other week? Oh did you? We were there. We were there too man. It was great wasn't it? Their last music video was fucking class where they're like they're in an office they're like in a board meeting or something. I love that. Sorry, it's a question for you both. Paddy, I saw you, I think it was at the red carpet moment. Did I tell you to fuck off?

No, but you were, you just finished, I think it was after Journeyman and you'd managed to get it out there. And she was like, so how do you feel when you're like, oh fuck, it was such a fucking hard work. Like getting the money was hard, so how do you feel when you're like, oh fuck, it was such a fucking hard work. Like getting the money was hard, getting people out to see it is hard, getting a film produced man is just such fucking hard work. And you probably had a few. Yeah, probably.

No, I hadn't then actually. I wasn't having a beer then. So yeah, I was just fucking fed up. Yeah. But I was wondering, you know, what makes it worth it for you both? Because it's obviously a struggle to create. What makes it worth it for me? Sometimes that window opens where you can escape, and I'm not trying to sound like an asshole here, where you connect to something that's otherworldly. And don't get me wrong, acting in that film Journeyman,

I've touched that, but as a project, I don't feel like it came together. But for me, it's those little pockets of escaped when I'm connected to something that I feel that isn't, I'm not, it's not mine, it's not in my control. It's that creative thing inside. And that's the thing that I'm always searching for in everything. When something just flows through you, whether it's a lyric,

whether it's a moment in a scene, whether it's a screenplay, and you kind of sit back and go, did I even write that? Did I even do that? You know, and I've had it in theatre. Theatre was a really great place for it. But sometimes everything had disappeared, everything just went black, and there was just myself and the actress stood in front of me. And I think sometimes the dangerous thing, and also the kind of exotic thing about what I pursue

is that escape from reality, because sometimes reality is really hard. But when you tap into that divine sort of flow thing it's such an incredible thing that I want it all the time. I give the exact same 100% answer. That's insane. Honest to fucking God. The dragon that I chase is that feeling of flow, that feeling of... you've described it perfectly. it's like, I don't know where this came from but when I'm there this is amazing and I feel like this is what life is and that's why I do it too and all the other shit around it, it's worth it.

If I can just get that bit of fucking flow, oh my god, peace on earth, it's incredible. It feels great, it really elevates you and I'm just sort of like where did that come from? It's like a mystery almost but it feels like a gift and when it comes it's such a brilliant thing. And the agony of when you can't access it. It's horrible, yeah. It really is. And a lot of times when you go to work in acting you're not given the opportunity to access it You just not it's not there for you Any other questions there's a lot of people up there as well Do we have a quantum superposition of ushers where there's another usher up there? We do. Does anybody have a question?

I keep I'm sorry about you poor guns up there It's just a lighter in my eyes and I forgot that there was a lot of people up there. Do you have any questions up there? You can hank like an interesting animal. Hello. Hello. Go on. Yeah, so thank you for tonight. You're welcome. I just really wanted you to talk about submarine. Talk about submarines. Submarine. Blind boy, what do you know about submarines? You taking the piss? I'm actually not taking the piss.

OK, Jesus Christ. The film, the film. Oh, alright. OK, alright. Grant, because I was like ready to like, I fucking know. You were ready to go. Jesus, do I know about fucking submarines? Fuck me. I was like, is like I know fuck me I was like is this a plant you go on you continue talk about submarine well I don't know what about it where am I

looking sorry you know what I think I might have thought that you were in it so I think I thought I might have been in it as well. Well, can you pretend that you're in it please and tell me what it was like to be in it? It was great to be in it. I had a fantastic wig, a fantastic mullet, it was wonderful. I had fantastic clothes, fantastic style and a fantastic wife. It was absolute bliss. Can I answer the question that I thought you were asking about submarines? So wait, here it is. The submarine was actually invented in Ireland. I'm serious. No, no, no, no, I'm dead serious in a boat 1880 in I can't remember the man's name John Francis something right So there's an area off the west coast of Ireland called Kilkeith of Clare and this fellow was just like he made boats

And then he was like why can't I have one that goes underneath the is that fly on your hands? Fucking Saint John the Baptist here. So while the fly is on his knuckle, I'll explain the history of submarines while a man paints it. So listen, this fella in like 1890, an Irish fella, was like, why can't boats go underwater? So he built one, he built the submarine but the thing was the world didn't need submarines, yes, warfare hadn't gotten to that point so this Irish fella who'd made the world's first submarine he goes to America and brings his submarine with him hoping that the

Americans will buy his submarine and the Americans are like I don't know what this is for why do we need to go under the water? Stop it, you're being mad. But while he's in New York trying to sell his submarine to the fucking Yanks, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, they're like the IRA but they're in America, the IRB, the IRB see the Irish fella with this submarine invention and they go, we want that. And he's like, no, you can't have it. No, we're taking it. So the IRA in America take the submarine and they change its name from a submarine

into a Feeney and a Ram. So it was this underwater ship in 1890 that they, there's the fly again on my microphone. It's getting bold. The IRA in America wanted to sink British ships with this underwater ship but then after they'd stolen the fucking ship they're like we don't know how to use it and we're after pissing off the one dude who invented it because we were mean to him so the IRA are like shit okay we've got this this

strange submarine ship and we can't use it, what are we going to do with it? So they start touring the submarine around America in museums, right, as here's this submarine that can go underwater, here it's in a museum, give us some money to look at it. But while they're doing this, this Italian man shows up and he's a baker. This is like 1895, this is all true. An Italian man shows up who's a baker and while he sees this submarine he goes, I bet you I can make some bread like that. So he invents the sub-roll. And subway, when you go into subway you're eating a piece of bread that's designed after an

IRA submarine from the 1890s. And that dude who invented the first submarine, he then went on to work for the US Navy and invented the first ever American submarine. That's all fact. That's fact. That's what I have pre-prepared if I meet anyone in Subway. What's up with that fly? That's very interesting,'t it? Has the fly been to anyone else no? There's a lot of people here. That's an MI5 fly. That's some type of MI5 drawn now. It's on my knuckle and scanning my eyes. Tell him Prince Charles or King Charles, whatever he is. They're just celebrities to us, lads. I'm going to take one last question. What a mad podcast, Paddy. This has been a bit strange, isn't it?

Yeah, but it's been good, yeah? I think it's been good. I've fucking enjoyed myself. How are you getting on, Andy, with the Bainton? Are you happy with that, yeah? Very good. A whole ring. Is the fly involved? Not yet. Okay. Make it fly involved okay any other questions I'll take one last question because it's 10 o'clock yeah blind boy what's your favorite

biscuit so you get the tough ones blind boy um you know I've never tasted a garibaldi and I fetishize it so I'm gonna say I'm gonna go with garibaldi and I fetishise it. So I'm gonna say... I'm gonna go with Garibaldi because I've never had one. I don't think I ever will. I'd like to keep it as the mystery biscuit. And I just, I like the way it looks like a digestive that you killed a lot of flies with. And it's named after an Italian general for some reason. So I'll go with Caribaldi and I'm never going to eat one, ever. It is 22 o'clock, 10 o'clock. And you probably have to get trains and buses. This has been a wonderful night.

I'm going to cut it there. I'm going to cut it just there. Usually what I do at the end of a live podcast is I leave in the bit where I say, Thank you to my guest. Thank you to my audience. But you see, when I do that at the gig,

I raise my voice. I shouldn't raise my voice because I've got a microphone, but I raise my voice to say, Thank you to my guest. Thank you to my audience. And when I raise my voice, it's just a little bit too loud to be playing for ye on the podcast. So I cut that bit out so that ye didn't have to tell ye this at all. I didn't have to tell ye this at all. That's why I didn't include the bit where I said thank you to Nottingham,

thank you to my guest. I can do it here. Thank you Nottingham for the wonderful podcast. Thank you to my wonderful guest Paddy Kahnstein for being a great sport. It was a wonderful night. I leave you gone now and I'll be back next week with a hot take. I have some ideas floating around my head. Rub a dog, wink at a swan, step over a worm. Dog bless. From fleet management to flexible truck rentals to technology solutions, at Enterprise Mobility, we help businesses find the right mobility solutions so they can find new opportunities. Because if your business is on the road, we want to make sure it's on the road to success.

Enterprise Mobility. Moving you moves the world. You So You So you Thank you.