The Peacock and Gamble Podcast - The Peacock and Gamble Podcast: Edinburgh Fringe 2013 Episode 6 (Ardal O'Hanlon)

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

"Edinburgh Fringe 2013 Episode 6 (Ardal O'Hanlon)" from archive.org was assembled into the "The Peacock and Gamble Podcast" podcast by Fourble. Episode 118 of 128.

That's right, it's the Peacock and Gamble Edinburgh podcast. I'm Ray Peacock. That's Ed Gamble. This is the show. About to start now. That's it, is it? That's the intro today. Is that not alright? No, it's not. And we've got a theme tune, so I don't know why you insist on making one up. I did it last year as well. Yeah, I know. I reckon, I just think that Thomas, much as I like him, Thomas from The Ray who does our music, I think he's done a good job. Yeah.

I think he could have done a better job. I think he's been half-arsed with that theme tune. Right. Because, I don't know if you've noticed it's pretty much the same as last year what he's done, he's gone oh yeah lads, I'll do you a new theme tune he's just come out of the blue and said that, we've not asked him yeah, and then he's just turned up

about July the 27th and said, I'll do you a new theme tune and then he's hardly changed it at all yeah, it's almost as if that's what we asked for isn't it mate? Right, well either way, I've got better theme tunes in my head. Right, go on. I can't, I've got a bit of a sore throat. It's very, very early, isn't it, for me to be losing my voice?

It is, mate. In the fringe. In the fringe. I don't know why, also, why we're bothering doing a podcast today. Why? Because I just don't think it's ever going to be better than yesterday. Well, yesterday was good. I've listened to that one so many times,

and I don't listen back to these. Yeah. Because I edit them and that. Yeah. Regularly just got it on in my room. Well, no, this one is, it's a nice change of pace, I think. It is a change of pace. Are you alright? Are you just checking your phone? I apologise for that.

Sorry, sorry everyone. I thought... Oh, sorry everyone. Pause the podcast a second. Ray's just checking his phone. I've put it on airport already, but I'm looking, I think, I thought I had some notes. Yeah. But I thought it was on silent. Yeah. I do apologise for that. Sorry. That's lovely. I'm glad you're a nice gentle boy after yesterday's arguments. Yeah. I do apologise for that. Sorry, that's lovely. I'm glad you're a nice gentle boy after yesterday's arguments.

Yeah, I do apologise. Go on, carry on. Because this is a change of pace today, isn't it? It is a slight change of pace. Because yesterday... Sorry, you're still on your phone. What? What are you doing?

Well, now we've established that it's on. No, you're not going to do your emails. How was the... I've just got to email Jason Dawson. Just hang on. No, you're not emailing Jason Dawson. Why? Give me that.

Ow, get off it. Get me back now. Right, I'm not... I don't have it. You've got it. Don't try that trick. I'm doing acting. You weren't doing acting.

You were trying to... You need to read Keith Johnson's book, mate. I don't need to read Keith Johnson's book, mate. Because Keith Johnson is a convicted felon. No, he's not. He's an improvisation expert. I don't know who he is. Exactly.

There we go. Even saying I don't need to read it is exactly what he warned you about. Oh. Oh. Keith Johnson, improvisational expert. Let's do some improvising now with one of my characters.

No, we're not doing characters. With one of my characters that I promised every three podcasts. Oh, so boring. And I haven't kept to it. Go on then. Oh, hi guys. Who's this?

Timmy. Hello, Timmy. How are you? I'm fine. I'm here to teach kids how to use. Go on then. Oh, hey guys. Who's this? Timmy. Hello Timmy, how are you? I'm fine. I'm here to teach kids how to use the toilet. Okay, we haven't really got time for that.

Timmy toilet. Okay, and what? You gotta lift the lid all the way up. Pull your trousers down all the way down. Right, so your new character, basically one of his catchphrases

already is to children, pull your trousers all the way down. Yeah, for Go Toilet. Well, is it for Go Toilet? This is for boys. This is from the boys' album. Please, let's not do the girls' one. Pull your trousers down, get your little man and go.

Right, you tell me off for pulling my trousers down when I go to the toilet. You're 40 years old. Anyway, welcome to the show. How are we today? It all seems very warm, isn't it, today as well? Pitch up your skirt and get your knickers down. I'm going to do that, you know, because we're recording this just before we interview Adam Buxton. Yeah. Then we're interviewing Arthur Smith straight after that. We've got a really busy day.

We've got two A's on the bounce. And I've got to get in the shower. Yeah. Before that. Yeah. Because I've noticed there's a little bit in our show. Regular listeners to our podcast will know. As a man, I look after myself in a grooming sense.

Yeah, very much so. As you can see by my appearance. One of those things, and there's nothing wrong with it, is I will shave around the ball bag area and the... You paused there as if you were going to give us a nice way of saying it. What I call the hilt of the cock. Oh, God. Now, I have noticed since I've been at the Fringe,

because I didn't bring any razors with me, I have noticed since I've been at the Fringe, there's a bit in our show where I am, as a joke, I am scratching my downstairs. And I've noticed... It's a clever show. It's very clever. I've noticed increasingly, as we're doing the show,

that when I'm doing that bit, I'm actually finding it quite a relief. Yeah. So I thought, do you know what? I need to have a little bit of a... A little bit of a go-round. A groom down there. A little mo. So I've been to the Sainsbury's nearby.

I bought a razor. Now, I've got a newfound respect for the ladies who... Have you? ...get all their muffled bald, because I didn't realise the expense that goes into that. You've definitely got a newfound respect for ladies by saying who get all their muffle balled, because I didn't realise the expense that goes into that. You've definitely got a newfound respect for ladies by saying who get all their muffle balled. Yeah, do you know what I mean?

Oh, you're a right modern feminist, are you? Yeah, I know. And I think it's great that they do that, so that, you know, let's be honest, lads, we can pretend that they're like 12 or something. What? So, I didn't realise quite how expensive a razor is. Yeah, I've got razors, mate.

You should have yourself. I'm not having stuff on my downstairs tackle that you've had on your is. Yeah, I've got razors, mate. You should have asked. I'm not having stuff on my downstairs tackle that you've had on your face. No, they've got disposables. I don't want a disposable one, mate. I want to keep it forever. You want to keep it and smell it at night. It's a souvenir.

Yeah. Everything's disposable, mate. Isn't it, though? And isn't that a lovely metaphor for the Edinburgh Fringe? Yeah, that's true. It means nothing, mate. It means nothing. I don't even care if anyone comes to our show,

Heartthrobs, 9.45pm at the Pleasance Courtyard. Very clever. I don't care if you come to the Heartthrobs, 9.45pm Pleasance Below. Don't care. All the extra shows every Friday and Saturday night, and quarter past midnight. I don't care if you come to the quarter past midnight ones every weekend, Fridays and Saturdays.

I don't care about it. I'm not bothered. It's disposable, isn't it? Yeah. Don't bother buying a ticket to Heart Frobs 9.45pm at the courtyard yeah or 9.45pm

and midnight point 15 every Friday Saturday don't buy tickets thank you although money is also disposable so if you want to buy tickets

you may as well if you want to get rid of your money somewhere then you might as well buy them tickets but you're under no obligation to come yeah as er we're selling alright we're sold out tonight

we're fine yeah we're good we're happy sold out tonight. We're fine, yeah. We're good. We're happy. Sold out yesterday and the other day and the other day and the other day. Yeah.

So that means we have made so far minus £12,000. So we're doing quite well there. We're not there yet. We're probably, I reckon we're minus eight grand. Eight grand. Yeah.

Eight grand, yeah. We're about, we're in the region of eight grand out of pocket at the moment so thank you that's a sold out show so thank you for

selling out the show and getting us in the region of eight grand out of pocket but we're having fun we are having fun the show's very nice aren't they

yeah and this it's quite nice to see you today because it was like a couple months ago yeah and it's with

Uncle I'm just going to let you try it alright wait so the man coming up is called And it's with... I'm just going to let you try it. All right, wait. So, the man coming up is called... I mean, yeah, it's Ardlo Hanlon. Right.

Ardlo Hanlon. Do it again. Ardl. Garl. No, Ardl. Garl. Yeah, fine. O. O. You must know O. But some people say it differently. No, ardle. Glarl. Yeah, fine. O.

O. You must know O. Some people say it differently. No, they don't. No one says O differently. A potato, a potatoe, which I've always debated in that song. I've never heard anyone call it a potatoe. O, yeah, that was hot off the presses, topical stand-up material.

That was a hot potato. Brilliant. O. O. O. O. O. O. Uh-huh.

O. O. Right, so so far we've got Gla-gla-oo Yeah Hanlon Hanlon So here's an interview coming up now With Gla-gla-oo Hanlon I hope you enjoy it

P-Cooking Gamble P-Cooking Gamble Adlo Hanlon Hello Hi How are you? Sorry I got by surprise there

I was in two minds I was thinking Will I run away now? Yeah Or will I stay? We get that a lot Yeah We're deceptively fast runners

And weirdly There's two of you You'd think that Ed would be the faster one But he's not, mate Really? I've got low sensory gravity So I can lurch at the same time as you're running He almost rolls

It's amazing You've got momentum You know that bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark Where the big boulder Is following him down as he runs out Yeah The boulder catches him but he manages to dive the boulder would catch you yeah in this scenario basically if ray's chasing you for over an hour eventually he's going to catch you because it's just it's just increasing relentless and i'd just i'd pin you in a corner i'd do loads of father said catchphrases at you yeah yeah really you know what i might give up yeah

Father Ted catchphrases aren't you? Yeah. You know what? I might give up before then. I might just go. I'd do all the most annoying,

what is the most annoying thing that happens to you with regards to Father Ted? Do you get annoyed With regards to Father Ted?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, stuff would, yeah. Yeah. I think the most annoying thing probably is that people just

won't let me forget it. You know, it was very popular. I don't know if you've ever seen it, but people liked it, and they still like it years and years later, when I've kind of forgotten it. I mean, at the time, I loved it. Of course I did, and I've been very grateful to it ever since. But the day we finished was the day I kind of had to move on,

because you have to, yourself. You have to get on. What do I have to do today? Yeah. So there was no Father Ted to go to. I had to go somewhere else. Of course, yeah. I had to dress up as somebody else.

You did stand-up before it, didn't you? Yeah, I did. I started out very much as a stand-up. And you did Happy Empire, is that right? Yeah, yeah. Which you won. Yeah. Won that, Ed?

Yeah. I've never won a competition. I've never won a competition. I've never won a competition. Really? What's it like to win a competition? I don't think I will. Do you know what? Do you know what I often think?

Because both me and Ed now make a living from stand-up. Yeah. But I often think, I am a good stand-up. I am a professional stand-up and I make money from it. And I sometimes think, if I entered a competition now with loads of new acts, would I just walk it or would I still not win? Well, you don't want to know, do you? No, that's it. But you know, that's quite a competition now with loads of new apps, would I just walk it, or would I still not win? Well, you don't want to know, do you? No, that's it. But you know, that's quite a... It does keep me awake.

You know, you shouldn't have brought that up. Because... Are you really? Yeah, you're going to get really upset now. I don't know. Maybe I cheated. I sometimes think I probably cheated. You cheated? Yeah. In the competition? Yeah, I've just been funnier than the others. I just... So I say it's cheating. Just being too brilliant. It wasn't a level of playing pitch. Right, okay. Yeah, but I'd just been funnier than the others. So I'm sorry, it's cheating.

It wasn't a level playing pitch. Right, okay. No, I don't mean that. I mean, I'd been doing stand-up for three or four years in Dublin, but I didn't know where I fitted in when I came to London. Right. Do you know what I mean? Because the tiny scene in Dublin, you knew everyone.

There was only seven or eight guys doing it. And we were just plugging away. And it was kind of very enjoyable. You know when you start doing stand-up, how enjoyable it is those first few years. It's not going anywhere. There's no light at the end of the tunnel. You just don't expect anything from it. But you enjoy it because it's really exciting and it's creative.

And, you know, you're kind of like, I don't know. Is that your text? It must be. There you go. A text. There we go. An exclusive text. I have friends. I have friends.

I have friends. Basically, the point I'm trying to make, if I have a point at all, is that in Dublin, we were developing apart from what was going on in London. So when I went to London, and then the first thing you do is you enter all these competitions because you're told we won't give you a gig unless you do the competitions and all this sort of stuff. So I think the reason why I might have won was because

I was doing something marginally different than what other people were doing. That's all. But what were the rules of the competition, Arlo? Had you been paid for a gig at that point in Dublin and it's still money? Oh, you would have been, yeah. I would have been, yeah. But I mean, I only did

like four gigs in 30 years. I'm going to check this. I'm going to check the rules of the Hackney Empire. But, I mean, I only did, like, four gigs in five years. No, don't try and backtrack now. I'm going to check this. I'm going to check the rules of the Hackney Empire. Well, even at Hackney Empire, even now, there doesn't seem to be any rules. No rules at all. No, there was never any rules. You're always like, you have to do it.

Yeah. And, do you know, the other thing is that, like, it's manipulated as well. You know, they want, I think, was I a joint winner? I was a joint winner that year with somebody else called wara who was a bit of a favorite of the people who ran the hackney empire and things so i always you know it's kind of like it's kind of i wouldn't say rigged but you know they it's like the cut of your jib at the time yeah they go for you yeah and did it did it

work wonders for you career-wise or was it something that just happened and then you plugged on my mum always says whenever i do anything at all like at all, any little thing on TV or anything like that, she always goes, I watched that thing the other night and you're going to get picked up off that. It's very encouraging. Yeah, but it's never happened. But I don't really know what picked up off that means. Was there a moment in your career

where you thought, I've been picked up off that? No, no. I can honestly say this, you know, I left Dublin at 28. I'd already got a girlfriend. That's all. You know, I left Dublin at 28. I'd already got a girlfriend. That's all? You know, that's... Is that all you're saying? That was my biggest achievement.

I was 28, right? I'd got a girlfriend. I don't want a competition. I meant to say that I had a very mature relationship. I see, right. Very wonderful lady. And so I was really reluctant to leave home, but I had to because there was nothing happening. So I was just so desperate. I was really desperate. So I was just doing every gig you could get your hands on. So with that competition there,

grand, yeah. Cinema in Basildon, no problem. Get on a train, go anywhere, anytime, prisons, sure. Anything that was going on, you just went and did it. Money, I don't care if there's money, great, but you just wanted to get experience and get gigs and, you know, just do it. So you just went wherever you went. So when, like, the Hackney Empire, it was totally unexpected,

because I'd never won anything growing up at all. So it was a big shock, a big surprise. It didn't make an awful lot of difference, except that, you know, there was a tiny little buzz going around and that helps it go, oh, that guy who won

the Hackney Empire. So it's just, they're able to put a, when you ring up saying, give me a gig, you know, I won the Hackney Empire, oh, you're that guy,

oh, okay. So in that sense it worked. But for me, I honestly can say playing the Comedy Store the first time was a bigger thrill because I'd heard

of the Comedy Store, I'd never heard of the Hackney Empire competition, new act of the year competition before, but I'd heard of the Comedy Store and, you know heard of the Hackney Empire competition, New Act of the Year competition before, but I'd heard of the Comedy Store and that was like the Holy Grail. So to play there and to be paid and I remember walking home,

I was living in Battersea at the time, and just being so elated. Really, that was the height of my ambition, honestly. I met you once before at the Comedy Store. It was many, many years ago and I met you there. I can't remember if you were performing or not. It was a charity night. I remember Kev eldon was there and i remember that stuart lee was there and you were there but i can't remember if you performed but i think you did um i was just thinking no you weren't there you haven't been born at that point right and you

and i remember just because you said that about walking home from the comedy store that night you nearly walked home from the comedy store because they were in the process of towing your car away as we left they were about they were about to take your car onto the thing and you came out and they saw you and they were very very nice and said oh sorry mate it's fine it's fine and i thought i want to i want to be in a sitcom so you don't get a car park anywhere mate yeah i don't remember that at all it did happen promise you but you know if you cover up your license plate they can't remove it they can't move the cover that you put on it so they can. But you know that it's illegal to cover up your licence pipe. Yeah.

But they aren't allowed to remove the cover. Yeah. Is that true? I think so. That's one of those things. You know if you put a lemon on your bonnet, you can't touch it. You can't touch it, mate.

It's the property of the Queen. Where did you hear that? Where did you hear that about the licence pipe? From somebody who had a running battle, an actor who I knew, who had a running battle with Westminster Council because he felt actors should be given special dispensation to park at the West End of London. This was his big gripe.

He used to write to the papers about this. And he told me that that's what he does. He just covers up his number plate. He covers up his number plate. I think he's put a little bag over it. A sock or something. But could they not... Could they not...

They can't take that off. They're not allowed to do that, yeah. But they can still tow you, though, with the bag on it. It doesn't matter what your number plate is. There's a number plate in the system. No, if they're towing you, that's ridiculous. If they're towing you, they just take the old thing, don't they? But if there's a sock on it, then...

I think this debate is going to rumble on. I think we should abandon the entire rest of this. We should thrash this out and find out whether or not that's true. I don't remember that, so your memory's extraordinary. Yeah, but you see, the thing is, my memory's not extraordinary. I will, in my head, go, that was that night I met Ardalo Hanlon, and it was Ardalo Hanlon's car.

So I've got something to hang that on. Whereas you're not going to go, that was the night I met,dlow Hanlon and it was Ardlow Hanlon's car yeah so I've got something to hang that on yeah whereas you're not gonna go that was the night I met um what season like I started driving quite late as well um how old were you then I was about 28 so I got my first car that year and I remember I was driving back from a gig in Birmingham it was kind of a corporatey gig and I'd been doing five minutes at it

and Roger de Courcy and Nookie Bear was the headline and I remember he kind of annoyed me because his bear started insulting me from the stage

you know kind of just making like crude jokes and then later on during his act the bear's head fell off so I that had nothing to do with me. I didn't sabotage the bear, but I was very happy to see the bear's head falling off

and ruining his act because he had just insulted me, which is fine. And then later on, I was driving home from Birmingham that night, and I was in London somewhere near Hyde Park Corner, somewhere there, and I was speeding, and the police stopped me. And when they came over to the car, I was telling them where I was coming from, I was telling them about Noogie Bear, and the head's falling off, and they went,

OK, ha ha ha ha, on you go, that's grand, that'll do us. That got you away with it? Yeah, that got me away, yeah. So you've worked out an anecdote payment system with the police force? Mate, this is brilliant, this releases as a special. Yeah. Ardell tells you how to get out of all your friends you don't want a ticket

should we stop over your registration one thing I learned in my career police pull you over just mention lucky bear someone was telling me the other night that they met him and he handed they didn't they didn't realize who he was and he handed them a business card really and it was an agent and it was Roger de Corsi he had him on one side agent and then a picture of Nicky the Bear on the other side I don't know how he got away with that

it was crude as anything it was proper bad though if it was now that would be like when Keith Harris does his blue show because he does like a rude show

he'll go and do the evening show and be clean and family friendly and then he'll do a late night show do you know what it's called the duck off tour

duck off tour yeah wow it's got Orville saying all manner of things and the monkey doing, oh, it doesn't even bear thinking about. Yeah. Peacock and Gamble, Peacock and Gamble. So how soon after doing the Hackney Empire

was your involvement with Graham Linen? Well, that year was an incredibly exciting year. Like, things took off fairly quickly. I moved from Dublin in February of 94. I think I won the Hackney Empire competition the next month. And then I moved from Dublin in February of 94. I think I won the Hageny Empire competition the next month. And then I started getting loads and loads of shows. And I remember they started coming to my show, Arthur and Graham. Graham and Arthur.

Graham, there was two of them. So they used to start coming to my shows. And I kind of, I didn't really know them, but they'd come to see me in Dublin before that. Not to see me, but they'd come to the Comedy Cellar, which was our little venue in Dublin. Yeah. Was that with Kev?

Didn't Kev Gilday? Kevin Gilday, yeah. And Barry Murphy, the three of us sort of, you know, we sort of started that up. I remember them saying to me one Christmas, which was our little venue in Dublin. Was that with Kev? Didn't Kev Gilday? Kevin Gilday, yeah. And Barry Murphy, the three of us sort of, you know, we sort of started that up. I remember them saying to me one Christmas, in fact the Christmas before, that they'd been writing a sitcom and they were telling me about this sitcom

they were writing and they were saying that, you know, kind of jokingly, you might suit one of the parts. Yeah. But, you know, I just completely forgot about that conversation. And then I remember,

not too long before Edinburgh, so it was in the middle of the summer, it was around June or July that year, same year same year 94 so it all happened very quickly i got a call from arthur saying oh you haven't come into the auditions i mean i didn't hear about the audition and he said well you can you come in now and i said i went all right but i hadn't seen anything yeah which is probably a good thing you know and i just i hopped on the tube and i and i went in to someplace in soho and there was a guy from channel four there there was the producer from hat trick that was um the director deccan from Channel 4 there, there was the producer from Hattrick,

there was the director, Declan Lowney, and then there were the two writers and a couple of other people. So a very intimidating environment. Just went in there, and Arthur was sort of my friend of all of them, and I sort of looked in his face, and I was given a piece of paper to read,

and I just read it, and I hadn't seen it before, so I hadn't any preconceived notion of it, you know, which was a help as well. And then Arthur was the only one laughing. The others were all just looking at me. You know, to be honest with you, it wasn't a big deal. I wasn't nervous or anything,

because I wasn't in the habit of going for auditions in those days. I was just thinking, where do I have to be tonight? I have to be in Manchester or somewhere. So all this other stuff is a distraction. And in fact, it's not the same now, but about 20 years ago when I was doing this, it was really considered

to be very uncool to be scrabbling, looking for TV work and stuff like that. Stand-up was really purist back then and no one could do ads or anything.

That was sacrilege. So it was very po-faced a lot of the comedy. It was just after that kind of alternative comedy. It was almost a hangover from that as well. From the catcher era. Yeah, it was a bit. So comedy was very kind of alternative comedy, you know... It was almost a hangover from that as well, wasn't it?

From the Thatcher era, you know. Yeah, it was a bit. So comedy was very kind of left-wing in ethos and all that. You know, I would have shared an awful lot of that, you know, those points of views, but, I mean, you know, it was a bit sort of po-faced, a bit restrictive. Because it was all about extremes, wasn't it?

That's the whole point with it. It was all about... It's when you follow it down the line. I mean, it's fine to say, I wouldn't do an advert, that's fine. And I think Hicks has got a lot to answer for with that. I think a lot of comedians link to that. A lot of comedians borrow that ideology. Yeah, yeah.

Definitely, yeah. But then it gets taken to... I mean, I can't even find a link with that and doing a sitcom or doing a drama or doing acting. It's like, why does that make any difference whatsoever? Surely that's just another expression of what, artistically there's integrity to it as well. A lot of stand-ups get quite...

Another text there. Very popular young man here. A lot of stand-ups get quite affronted when they think someone's using it as a stepping stone to something else, I think. Yes. But there's plenty of people who just want to do all the things. But why? Why would they be affronted?

Surely that's one less person in competition with you. Yeah. Surely that's a good thing. The other thing is, like, you know, Bill Hicks, you know, I'm a huge fan of Bill Hicks, if not a devotee. Yeah. But I did see him live as well before he died, which was great. But, you know,

I've read his biographies and stuff, and he did sitcoms. He tried to get sitcoms off the ground. Of course he did, because he's American, and you're always wanting to get on and whatever. It's not to say that he compromised in any way. That's all part of the same thing. It's about communicating.

It's about using whatever medium that you have available to get your shit across. But the Hicks thing is so interesting, though, because the Hicks, it's that far off a religion, and it has exactly the same failings as religion as well, where people have the source material, what's considered the source material, which is what's left of Bill's work,

and then go, right, I'm following that to the letter of the law. That is what the religion is. So we do not do adverts of anyone that does you're off the artistic road or whatever it was. And all those things get just so attached to it. And Higgs changed his mind on things. Of course he did. All the time, flip-flopped.

And he also did some incredibly dodgy material at different times in his career. Because it's very, very hard to maintain, particularly when you set yourself very high standards like he did. Yeah. It's impressionably impossible to live up to it all the time. A lot of that routine that you're off the artistic roll call forever,

people remember that first bit, but it's mainly about Willie Nelson. Yeah. Anyway, so the joke is the contrast between that and then saying that it's all right for Willie Nelson to do it. But he also says as well, and there's a throwaway line in there somewhere where he says, if you're a struggling actor, then fine, I'll turn the other way. Yeah. You know, there are...

No, I think where it's relevant, and, like, I don't do apps. Yeah. And I have never done them. But my reason is not political, really. It's more to do with, like, if you are a comic who fancies yourself in any way as having something to say, or if you feel like you want to pontificate on some issue, it's very hard to turn around and start going on about the financial crisis and stuff like that

if you've just done an ad for a bank. You know, it really is, like, ridiculous. You know, I think you have to leave yourself a little bit of wiggle room. With that in mind, then, because I've had this conversation about you before, without you weren't present. With that in mind, was there any...

Did you nail Dougal straight off the bat in the casting? Did you nail it as a character? Did you know what it was going to be? I don't know. I just remember Arthur rang me later on. He said, yeah, that was great. That was fine. Wonderful.

And then I didn't hear anything about it for another few weeks. And then I remember I was in Edinburgh doing a show with Kevin Gildee and Dermot Carmody called Young, Gifted and Green. Nice. Nice. I see what you did there. I know what I'm talking about. It wasn't us that came up with the title. It was a package. It was a producer packaged it and said, we call it this.

And we were like, okay. And you all wear this. We all wore a little green hat. And a little black boots. So, and I remember getting a call saying, you need to come to Dublin tomorrow. By this stage, they had Dermot Morgan cast as Father Ted, and they wanted the two of us to read together.

Right. So, again, I didn't see anything. I was told to get in a plane and go over to Dublin, go to this, someone's living room, actually, and sit with Dermot Morgan and do exactly the same thing, give him a few pieces of paper and just read together. And then I went back to Edinburgh

and did my show young gifted and green nominated that here I believe no certainly not and then

a few weeks later I got a call saying oh you got the part and even then I was still thinking I don't even know what this means

you know because I still haven't seen any scripts and I just knew that instinctively I suppose to answer your question about nailing the character,

I typically just do it instinctively. Yeah, OK. Basically don't try too hard. That was always my motto in life, if not in acting terms, is just don't try too hard. Just do it, and do it for real as well. That's the other thing. It doesn't matter how ridiculous the situation is,

it's real. It has to be totally real. If you totally buy into that yourself then that's absolutely so it doesn't matter how ridiculous the situation how far fetched or farcical if you believe it well then it'll work so so with the conversation we had about like doing adverts and that saying how it would compromise you as a standard performer and this is the conversation i i used to be in a sketch group years and years ago with Rob Roust, you know Rob? Oh, yeah.

And in that group, and there's another guy, John Williams, and in that group, Rob played a very sort of vacant character, a very silly, childlike character. And we had a long chat about how that would impede his stand-up, how that would then... I mean, at the time, that's what he was doing at stand-up as well anyway. But how that would... You know, you get to a certain age

and you think, I can't be doing that, even though I'm doing that in what we do now. But I am very... Genuinely, we don't have to just say it is a disability. Otherwise, it's just... Were there any concerns about that, about playing that character and then that... Because you weren't a stand-up star at that point.

You were known on the circuit as a stand-up. But in terms of that leading on to things like, you know, nowadays the Apollo and all that sort of stuff, was there any concern at all, or did you not give it any thought about how that would... Yeah, I never really thought... I never really thought long-term about stand-up or about any of this. You know, I was always ambitious, I always wanted to work and get on.

Yeah. But I never had a clear idea of where it was I wanted to be, necessarily. Like, the stand-up was always something, like, I always wanted to work and get on. Yeah. But I never had a clear idea of where it was I wanted to be. Right. Necessarily. Like, the stand-up was always something, like, I always, you know, it was always a big effort to get up on stage. Yeah. I wasn't, like, a natural, bouncy, you know, can't wait to get up there sort of a guy.

You know, it was always, like, I have to really, you know, get into the mindset to get up there. I loved the writing part of it, and I loved the, you know, when you were up there, and it was all going well. But that hour beforehand, like, yeah, God, that was really tough. It was always something that I didn't know I was going to do it forever because it was, you know, it was it was always daunting. Yeah. But yeah, I first of all, OK, there's two there's two ways of answering the question. First of all, like, I suppose I wouldn't have been cast in Father Ted if I wasn't doing something a little bit similar in the stand up at that time. Anyway, it was a bit wide eyed. I was a bit of an agent in stand-up.

I always tried to be clever, but apparently not clever, in that kind of way. How do you say that? Apparently not clever. Apparently not clever is brilliant, without getting into offensive terminology. Apparently not clever is brilliant. No, but bewildered and sort of, you know, so the take on the world

was, you know, wide-eyed and sort of innocent, but saying some pretty good things, you know, so the take on the world was, you know, wide-eyed and sort of innocent. Yeah. But saying some pretty good things. Yeah. You know, that kind of way. Over time, that becomes very limiting. Absolutely. You know, I found that

even by the first time I was touring properly or second time I was touring properly, you know, people wanted me to be that all the time. And, you know, certainly the first tour, first proper tour was, it was very like that. It was Dougal-ish. But as time goes on, as you do get older, you think,

well, I want to be more animated. I want to be more exercised about things. Things that really genuinely bother you. I also found talking about things like sex or anything like that, you just couldn't do it in that kind of character. It just didn't work. I would have found it funny. I wouldn't knock it either. There know, it's still, you know,

there's so, what, there's about a million comedians out there at the moment. Don't say that, is there? Yeah, there's about a million. It's one million. Ten percent of the population. I think one million.

It was exactly one million. One million, yeah. It finally pushed into the... So you do have to find something. One hundred. Yeah, so do I. So you have to find something that's a bit different, you know,

and so it's no harm holding on to some of that. Like, you know, it is part of me and I can't escape from it either. I am a bit naive about lots of things, you know. Were you agreed to do this? I did. I think when you start out, like, you start kind of hiding behind the character maybe or something. So it's more of a persona, a very definite stage persona.

And then you can kind of, you know of relax a bit when you get off. Well, the other night when we gigged together, you were getting animated and angry about something, but it was about feeding the ducks, so it's like you found a nice sort of middle line. Exactly, there you go. And that's why I can't do ads, because there could be a duck relationship.

Fred, the big warptons, all the bits at the end are a bit stale take them down to down to the park are you trying to come up with an advert I'm trying to

I'm trying to make it flow yeah oh oh you've got you Warburton's have you no one eats a full loaf do they not why not take the

um stale bits from the end down to the park feed the ducks it is a funny thing about that that I'm angry about so that's the sort of thing you do in our show. I just don't see any reason why you can't do adverts.

No, there isn't, actually. And, I mean, you know, certainly my wife regrets that. Posture that I adopted 15 years ago. What do you like? Do you like food? Any food you really like? I like foie gras. Foie gras, yeah, that's... You can't do feeding the ducks. That's overfeeding. No, I love toastie gras. Foie gras, yeah, that's... You can't do feeding the ducks, that's overfeeding.

No, I love toast as well. Toast, honestly, I think Warburton's, Hovis, brown or white would you prefer? Well, white, I... Yeah, white, so probably... I had scrambled egg on white toast spore again, it was lovely, with chilli sauce. See, now, wouldn't that be...

Now, how about that, right? So you have loads of shots of whatever bread manufacturer, loads and loads of those, and then it just literally cuts to just you and you turn away from a window and go,

I had scrambled egg on toast this morning and it was lovely. Yeah. There's your advert. And then just as the advert's fading, you just hear, with chilli sauce.

With chilli sauce. It's £150 million. Yeah. You get that. Imagine your wife's face then. She'd It's £150 million. Yeah. You can get that. Imagine your wife's face then. She'd be so happy with me. Be cooking gamble, be cooking gamble. Was Young, Gifted and Green your first Edinburgh show?

No, not at all, actually. Do you know how many you've done? You know, I haven't done very many at all. I tell you exactly. I'm going to give you my Edinburgh history in a minute. It might take longer than a minute. My memory's really bad. The minute's started now.

You remember more about my life than I do. 1980, 1990, I was part of a sketch group called Mr Trellis with this guy, Kevin Goldee, and Barry Murphy. And the three of us went to Edinburgh and we entered the So You Think You're Funny competition. OK. And we came third, but everyone knew that we should have won it.

I mean, just... Who won it? We did impressions of movies as synchronised swimmers. Oh, you should have won that. It's just genius. But who did win it, then? A Scottish trio that Karen Corrin was managing at the time. Right, right.

Thank you, Karen. We should explain that Karen Corrin was managing at the time. Right. Thank you, Karen. We should explain that Karen Corrin is the sort of like... If you think of the Nazi party... LAUGHTER ..then Karen is like the Hitler of the Gilded Balloon. The head of the Gilded Balloon. Yeah, the head of the Gilded Balloon. She was the head of the Gilded Balloon

and she was the head of that competition. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she engineered it in such a way that those guys won it. Now, I'm sure they're all doing fantastic things in their lives, but it's not in comedy. Right. Does it still bother you? Of course it does.

Does it really? No, it doesn't. No, does it genuinely, though? In any way? No, no. No, not in the slightest. We were just thrilled to be there. It was the best time ever, that first time.

We went for ten days. We entered that competition. We crashed on people's floors. And we just had to be there. It was the best time ever, that first time. We went for ten days, we entered that competition, we crashed on people's floors, and we just had a great time. We met wonderful people, and it's what it was all about. And then the next year we went back and we had a terrible time because we had nothing planned at all, and we weren't getting on well together, and we didn't find any good floors to crash on. And we didn't meet any good people.

In fact, we met scary people that year. And then the year after that, we went back properly to the Gilded Balloon. That was our first Edinburgh show, but as the sketch trio. And we shared a bit with Phil Kay, so we did half an hour and Phil Kay did half an hour. And that was, that was great. Which room were you in? We were in,

well, it was an art gallery next door to the old Gilded Balloon on Cowgate. Okay. And I remember like the guy who ran the art gallery really liked us, and he used to feed us oysters at dawn. OK, well, did you have to do anything? Well, you know... Come down here and do your comedy at night.

Yeah, I was very naive, like I told you. So that was it, really, and then two years after that, I went back with my own show. So it was 94 by the time I did my first, no, 96 when I did my first ever Edinburgh show. Right. And then that was it, until 2010. But you've done stuff since, yeah, yeah. I've done, but I've only done

one off, so I've gone up for a day or two, or hosted the So You Think You're Funny final, or those kind of things, but I never actually did a full show up there. So it genuinely doesn't bother you, So You Think You're Funny, if you go back and if you still play ball with them. I always like it though. I like it when I hear about people who things have happened to them years ago that actually don't matter at all.

Yeah, no. If I was vengeful I'd be in a terrible way. I mean you can't see Ardell now but he just stared into the middle distance. There's so many people I want to kill. You have no idea.

Same, I bet some of ours cross over. Pico can gamble, Pico can gamble. My pal, sort of a pal, I know him, Drew Pearce, wrote Iron Man 3. Really? Right? Where's this going? He wrote Iron Man 3. There's Robin. But he wrote a sitcom called No Heroics, about... It didn't rip you off, right, but about superheroes, but in real life.

And he wrote that for ITV2, and he didn't get a second... I was in that first series in one episode, and he didn't get a second series of it. And I spoke to him recently, and he's in the middle of promoting Iron Man 3, and he's still angry about No Heroics 2. But he's really angry about it. He's still really upset. I remember reading an interview with Anthony Hopkins.

Right. And he said, now this is a man who's in his 60s, late 60s, and he still says his motivation is for being a brilliant actor and winning awards is revenge on all the people who didn't believe in him. I like that. I quite like it. Yeah. I mean, it can eat you up, can't it?

It means something. If you're doing well, I guess it doesn't eat you up. Yeah, but for me, Hopkins is someone else who hasn't made it and is still going, one day I will be a famous rock star. No, I don't have any truck with Buddhist nonsense, but I am very good at letting go of stuff. Right, OK. You have to be. God almighty, you couldn't...

See, I mentioned God there. Yeah. I have no truck with that Christian nonsense either. No, no, no. You have to let stuff go. And it's brilliant. The Buddhist thing, though, is about, you know, you're much happier when you eliminate your needs, your wants.

OK, yeah. That's what they did, I think. But that's all easy to say, isn't it? It is very easy to say. But then, like, say a new Blu-ray comes out. But I'm saying you have to practice. You have to practice every day. But if you're used to getting new Blu-rays every week,

and then suddenly go, oh, you're a Buddhist now, now you can't get that 3-day Texas Chainsaw Massacre because you're a Buddhist now, and you're like, I want to watch it. So that's Buddhism crossed off. That doesn't suit me at all. No, but just gradually reduce your wants. OK. That's my advice.

How would I do it? How would I go about doing that? You know that this might make me, like, sort of leech onto you a little bit. Yeah. I'd be like, give me his number because I want to ask him about something. We'll start off by not wanting my number.

Right, OK. LAUGHTER Can I ask you about My Hero? You can. wanting my number. Right, OK. Pick, hook and gamble. Pick, hook and gamble. Can I ask you about My Hero? You can. Right. My question about My Hero is this.

And that's the announcement. That's the announcement I always have whenever I want to ask an important question. With the six series in total... Yes. And you left in series what? Series five. Series five. So there's series in total... Yes...and you left in series what? Series five. Series five, so there's one after you. Yes.

Now, my question is this. How does that... Genuinely, how does that feel, to leave something and then watch somebody take that over? Did you want him to do well? Given that you're on no trip with anyone. I didn't really... I didn't really think about it too much no no to be honest with you um i was delighted to leave the series after five series i i really enjoyed doing it i can't stress that enough people don't believe me because they think like it wasn't

a great show it wasn't as good as father ted or it wasn't this or it wasn't that but it was an immensely enjoyable show to do we had a fantastic cast of people and we were great friends and we'd been together five years and it was always an absolute joy to go into work every day. I felt after five years that we had done as well as we could with it

and we'd made the most of it. And it was high time to move on. That's what I felt. And I felt that some of the other people were with me with that view, you know, that we, you know, it wasn't going to get any better. It wasn't going to help me develop my career as an actor or as a comedian.

You know, it was standing still as far as I was concerned. And I was in serious danger of stagnating. You know, if you have, you know, ambition, you have to, like, take the chance sometimes. And so it is stepping out of stagnating. If you have ambition, you have to take the chance sometimes. So it is stepping out of a comfort zone. I had a nice gig, a nice job for five years and then happened to leave it. So I was delighted to move on.

I didn't think they'd go on with somebody else. I was a little bit surprised. I was a bit taken aback. Are you serious you're going to do that? Were you offended? I wasn't offended. I certainly wasn't offended because some of the other actors in it, they obviously really needed the work as opposed to anything else. Are you serious you're going to do that? Were you offended? I wasn't offended. I certainly wasn't offended because, you know,

some of the other actors in it, like, they obviously really needed the work as a part of anything else, and they were my friends, you know. So, you know, I absolutely didn't mind, you know, and I didn't really, you know, see it or anything. Did you never see it? I never watched it, no. Does that sound better?

No, I believe you. No, I totally believe you. I wouldn't let him, like, put his foot through the telly or something. No! Absolutely it, no. Does that sound bitter? No, I believe you. I totally believe you. I wouldn't let him put his foot through the telly or something. No! Absolutely not, no. It was your decision. In that same year, I did the first play I ever did, or it was just the year before the last series or whatever,

I did a play and that was really thrilling and exciting and different than you. Very shortly after that, I ended up doing another series playing a fairly straight role, you know, that I don't think would have happened if I ended up doing another series playing a fairly straight role you know that I don't think would have happened if I was still doing

My Hero you know I want this game wound up no no no there's plenty of things I could wind up about

I mean get on to ducks and you know you better stand well back but I also started

seriously getting back into stand-up again which just wasn't happening during the My Hero years I might have toured once or twice and there weren't

particularly successful tours in terms of the quality because I simply wasn't putting the time into it and you know what it's like with stand-up

it has to be you have to be really focused how does that feel if you don't feel like you're in it properly but you're committed to a tour that must be quite a tough thing if you're committed to feel if you're not, if you don't feel like you're in it properly but you're committed to it at all?

That must be quite a tough thing, if you're committed to it at all. It's very hard, yeah, it's very hard. Even if you don't think you're going to win it by your own standards. Yeah, no, that's the worst feeling in the world. Do you try and fix it as you go along? Of course you do.

You're working really hard all the time and you're just trying to get into a happy place with it where it's all working and everything. But if you haven't put in the ground work and you haven't lived with it day in, day out for the previous year or two years, well then it's not going to be a brilliant show. So one of the reasons why I tried to,

why I bit the bullet and left my cushy job in My Hero and hung up my tights... Stop breaking it in. ..and pulled the thong out of my... LAUGHTER..was to totally focus on stand-up again and also leave yourself available for anything else that was out there. Because it wasn't happening as long as I was doing my era. People just thought, oh, okay, right, he does that and that's what he does and that's fine.

Right, but tell the truth, though. Did you take one costume or not? With that show, and more so with Father Ted, you've been like a figurehead of sitcom so a character that'll be remembered come what may forever right that's going to happen now and if you had the costume

at home though yeah like wouldn't you like if you're like 80 or something just pop it on just go

remember when I was that can you imagine like Andrew Sachs doing it or something what putting on his waiters yeah just go and I want to put that

well he still does sometimes like charity things and that doesn't. I don't think you'd put it on, though, would you? Can you imagine A.J. Emerson, like, get, I want to be a Vivian today. I think the least sentimental person in the world, though, like, I... Now, tell the absolute truth, have you got one of those costumes at home? Never mind looking our way. I don't. Okay, I've got, I've got the nurse's costume. Okay, I've got the nurses costume. We're in your dressing room at the Donbagh.

Yes. Where you're in a play called The Weir. That's right. And this dressing room I share with three other actors. Who are the other actors? The life of the theatre. Brian Cox is there. Brian Cox?

That's the Coxian throne right there. What, you mean the actual Brian Cox? Yeah, actual Brian Cox. What, not just another actor that's got the same name? No, the Brian Cox. The Brian Cox. That's the Coxian throne right there. You mean the actual Brian Cox? Yeah, actual Brian Cox. What, like not just another actor that's got the same name? No, the Brian Cox. The Brian Cox, not the dishy scientist. Hard-hitting, former serial killer.

Yeah, Brian Cox. A manhunter. Sits there. He's got a busier dressing room area, hasn't he? He's got... Brian has, yeah. Well, you see that's because he's a sentimental old actor. So he's all his cards from his well-wishers

and his wilted flowers. Yeah. Whereas I'm not sentimental. Because it's almost like a sort of... It's Spartan. Well, it's like a hitman's motel room.

Yeah. It's because you can be in and out as quickly as possible. You're like Al Pacino in Heat. I think stand-ups and hitmen have that in common. They're kind of remote. Soulless.

Druffing in and out of town. You could walk out with this play at any point. Any point. And there'd be no going, I've got to go back and get my thing. I've got to go get my lucky father. And you're sitting in Peter MacDonald's seat, who is the dad in Moonboy.

I don't know if you've seen that fabulous sitcom. I've not seen it. Yeah, it's Chris O'Dowd's sitcom. Peter MacDonald plays the dad. He's great. You't know if you've seen that fabulous sitcom. I've not seen it. Yeah, it's Chris. It's Chris O'Donnell. Peter McDonnell plays the dad. He's great. You are now Chris O'Donnell's dad. Sat there. Who's sitting in my own place, Adil?

You're in Richard Cooper's seat, who is a really fabulous Irish actor. Okay. And impressionist. Okay. So I might be able to do impressions now. Yeah. Might.

Is it a serious play? Yeah. Because you've got a beard at the moment. I forgot. Which made me think you might be a serious play. Yes, that's the sign, isn't it? It's also the sign in stand-up as well, of sort of you'd retreat back into your beard

and there's a more sort of thoughtful artistic. Yeah. Apart from with Rave, obviously. Fashion hair is really, really popular. I've had it since I was 16, so I'm not having people going, oh, you're just copying all the other ones. But it is popular in comedy now.

It is ridiculous. You're quite clean-shaven. Yeah, I can't grow... If I could grow a beard, I absolutely would. Cos it just automatically gives you a more sort of philosophical appearance. Ed can grow... No, don't do yourself down, cos you can grow some beard. Oh, I can grow some beard, but lots of little ones all over it. In many ways, I can grow some beard, but lots of little ones all over it. In many ways, I can grow more beards than you two. So when this is done, when you've been doing a play or a TV or whatever,

do you get a real thirst to return to stand-up? Yeah, I do, yeah, yeah. Well, you're just more in control with your own stuff. I love doing this because you don't have to think about your own stuff for a few months. So this is like two or three months where you're totally concentrated on other people's material, but also you're working as a team, which is probably completely alien to you guys. You wouldn't know what I'm talking about. We work as a team, but we very much just do our own thing with them now.

Yeah, undermine each other. It's a lot of cutting in, isn't it? Yeah. Let's now. Let's now. I see how you work. I'll thing with them now. Yeah, undermine each other. It's like cutting in, isn't it? Yeah. Like this now, like this now. I see how you work. I'll carry on talking now. Eventually he'll keep saying it. He'll just stop. No, he'll just stop.

He'll just stop. Eventually Ed will just stop talking and I can carry on with the very professional interview. But what I find is, like, so you do a play like this and once it's up and running and all the, you know, the tension, you know, like in the wrestling room, no one has a clue what's going on. You're just hoping for the best and and all the you know the tension you know like in the wrestling room

no one has a clue what's going on you're just hoping for the best and you just you know you try to stand in the right place

and speak at the right time and hope that it all comes together and luckily in our case here with The Weird it has done it's just it's a beautiful piece

of writing and the cast are fantastic and it's all great but you can't really do an awful lot with your stand up act during that time so what you do is though but you awful lot of Witcher stand-up act during that time. No. So what you do is, though,

but you kind of... First of all, you can bring so much from this environment into stand-up in terms of, like, animation and the way you deliver stuff, because you've picked up so many things from Brian Cox. Yeah, but it's not the actual Brian Cox, is it?

It's a different Brian Cox. No, it's the real Brian Cox. It's not the one from the film. Of course it is! In this theatre here? In that chair! That's his chair? That's his chair! Doesn't it just show you how dreams can be smashed like that?

That's the chair you end up being if you're Brian Cox. Not being, I mean sitting on. I don't mean Brian Cox has turned into that blue chair. But could you compartmentalise it, though? Could you go... Could you, on a given day, go, right, I will do the play, and then I switch that off,

I will do a stand-up gig, I can do that, or do you have to be wholehearted? No, I don't. I mean, like, as a stand-up, you have to be always thinking about it, always working on it. Like, I did a show with you last week in Up the Creek, you know. Yeah.

Because on my day off on a Sunday, you know, you just have to do it. During rehearsal, I was gigging two or three nights a week around London just, you know, just to keep it going and keep that side of the brain active. Yeah.

But I just think like, you know, having the time out from it as well is important. Yeah. And it really is all, it can only help you because you're looking forward to getting back into the ring. You know, you've

sort of, I don't know, you've picked up an awful lot from just working with people intensely. Like in a player in a TV thing, you, these are your family for three months, your best friends, you know, it's a really intense relationship. You know, I'd probably never see the cocks again. I suppose that happens when you're sharing a dressing room.

I suppose it would, wouldn't it? So are all the clocks. It's a great environment, you know, and it's really creative and everything. If you can't bring that to bear in your stand-up, well, then there's something wrong with you. Plus you've loads of time to read and do other things, you know, catching up on stuff, generally, that

you wouldn't be able to do if you're all the time just travelling to gigs. Do you get sick of stand-up? No, I never ever get sick of it. It's something that I thought many times that I would be like I'd done enough or that

I don't know how I can keep it interesting or you know, but like you just can't leave it. Once you... You know yourself. You just can't stop. But it's like having a disease. It is.

Yeah. I don't like it. Where are you at in Edinburgh, then? I'm at the Assembly Rooms in the Music Hall. Nice, posh venue. Yeah. Do you feel superior? Well, you know, it's not that I feel superior,

but I feel like, you know, I not that i feel superior but i feel like you know i am i have stature yeah yeah you know i've been grafting for 20 years exactly you know i deserve a certain amount of comfort but i've been grafting since 98 yeah but you're not as good no i know that but how do i get in the assembly room is what I want to know. You've got to be a better comedian. Right. You've got to have material. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Must get on your tits that. Keep coming up with stuff all the time. Although me and Ardell have had a very similar career. I found lots of links in our career. Oh.

Because- Is this going to be a sliding doors scenario? No, because- No, this is- Where Ardell went through the doors and you got stuck? No, we are both... We are both good comedians. Both do very well. Because both know Graham Lindenham. I've worked with Graham Lindenham.

Yeah. And Ardell's worked with Graham Lindenham as well. I did the warm-up on IT crowd. Did you? Yeah. I like Graham a lot. I think Graham's like Chaplin. Yeah.

I think he's the television Chaplin. Yeah. Like Charlie Chaplin. He just turns up and goes, right, what shall we do? Yeah. I like Graham a lot. I think Graham's like Chaplin. Yeah. I think he's the television Chaplin. Yeah. Like Charlie Chaplin. He just turns up and goes, right, what shall we do? Yeah. He's like, fucking write it before you get it. It might change the story halfway through. I'm trying to keep people laughing. Doctor Who. Oh, yeah. Both done Doctor Who. Have you done Doctor Who?

Yeah, same. You were series three, same as me. Yeah. I was in Blink, the statues one. Oh, that's brilliant. I was in that. That. Yeah. I was in Blink, the statues one. Oh, that's brilliant. I was in that. That's brilliant. I was sat at the DVD shop. And then the lady came in, Carrie Mulligan, the Oscar one, she came in. Did she?

Yeah, and she went, asked me a question and I told her something. And then she went out the back for a bit and I just stayed in my seat. Yeah. And then she came out again. And then as she was going, I went, go to the police, you stupid woman. And she'd sit around because she thought I was talking to her, but I wasn't. I was watching something on telly. And then I said, why doesn't anybody ever just go to the police?

Some people have got that on a T-shirt, I don't know. And you can see all of my face in it. Yeah, I was in Gridlock. Yeah, same, same. I was a cat. What's Gridlock? Oh, that was the episode, yeah. You were a cat in that. You made a good cat, eh? I was a great cat, yeah. I loved being a cat.

I think I'd have liked to have been a cat. But I might be in the DVD set. Yeah, yeah. What was your character called? Branigan, the cat. Banto, so both Bs. Yeah. Weird, innit? Another link.

Spooky. Skins? Both with skins? Skins, yeah. Yeah. What did you do in Skins? I was a teacher. Yeah? Yeah. Gang. Gang. Gang man. He was in a gang. Head of a gang. Oh. Said some swear words at Mackenzie Crook. You weren't head of a gang

actually, were you? I don't know what I was. You were a henchman. No, I wasn't. You were head of a gang. It absolutely was the head of that gang. I thought you'd have more lines of you ahead of the gang. It wasn't. I'd done proper swearing at Mackenzie Crook. Yeah. Said to C-Word on the telly. Yeah. Then Mackenzie jumped down off a balcony and, no, he threw someone else off it. Can I just check? Smash my face into some trifle.

Can I just check? I got, yeah. We're interviewing Ardell trying to just wrap up the podcast. Thank you very much for coming, Ardell. And now we're literally running through every minute of television. I just think it's interesting that we've got very, very similar careers. Right, OK, what's the next one? Have you ever been in a comedy lab?

No. No, no, you wouldn't. But I did. I did one of those. What else have I been in? No Heroics. No Heroics. We saw that before.

Yeah. The Street Pitch, right, by superheroes. Yeah. I, of course, was the pre-cast when James James... Yeah. John the Baptist. Yeah. You were in the prequel to James James.

And Edinburgh Fringe as well, both doing the Edinburgh Fringe. Yeah, that's a really good link. Pleasance Assembly Room. Both doing this podcast. Both on this podcast. Both got a beard. Well, my great-uncle did our family tree a few years ago, and then came back very excited and insisted

that our family's related to yours. Are you serious? Yeah, apparently so, yeah. Wow. Is that true? Yeah. So that's a better link, isn't it?

I'm going through similar things on our CVs and you're going, yeah, we're fucking related. Or was you so? It's me. Peacock and Gamble, Peacock and Gamble.

What a lovely interview with Adelaide Hanlon. Adelaide Hanlon there, what a lovely man. Yeah, he was a lovely man, actually, very hospitable, he invited us up to his dressing room. Yeah. I mean, we weren't even after an interview, we there. What a lovely man. Yeah, he was a lovely man actually. Very hospitable. He invited us up

to his dressing room. Yeah. I mean, we weren't even after an interview. We were just walking past the theatre. Yeah. And he went,

do you boys want to come up to my dressing room? And we went, oh, that's a good opportunity to do a podcast. Yeah.

Luckily we had all the stuff. Yeah, had to cut a lot out of that. Yeah. It was upsetting. But nice man. And he's up here.

Did you see his video about the wrestling? You know they're doing the wrestling? No, I didn't. I've not been watching stuff like that. Ardlo and Tim Vine, I watched it before the Fringe. video about the wrestling? You know they're doing the wrestling. No I didn't. I've not been watching stuff like that. Ardell and Tim Vine.

I watched it before the Fringe. Ardell and Tim Vine are in charge of the wrestling teams. They're the coaches. Yeah. Yeah.

And they've both done really really good videos on the YouTube or something. I'll watch them mate. As is Gareth Richards. Yeah. Oh he has isn't he?

That is a brilliant video. I would advise you very very strongly to go and see it. Gareth goes electric. Put in Gareth Richards goes electric or put in Gareth goes electric or something like that to go and see it. It's Gareth Goes Electric. Yeah. Put in Gareth Richards Goes Electric or put in Gareth Goes Electric or something like that and you'll find it. It's a really

nice little music video. Yeah, yeah. And it's wonderful Gareth. Gareth was one of the ones we considered having a repeat interview this year. He's one of the only people we considered having a repeat interview with. Yeah, yeah. And we, not out of disrespect to anyone else, just because we really enjoyed catching up with him. No, because we wanted to see how the story progressed. Yeah, unfortunately because we're doing less podcasts this year. Yeah, it's difficult.

It's kind of, we're booked up now, really. But I saw Gareth yesterday and I saw him do three minutes from his show. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

Like, genuinely amazing. Yeah. And I worked something out. Gareth's on at 8.15 at the Courtyard. Yeah. We're on 9.45. That's perfect.

It's perfect. So go and see Gareth's show. 8.15 at the Courtyard. Yeah. Gareth goes electric. Yeah. Gareth Richards. Have a quick drink.

Have a quick bevy. Actually, start necking them then. Straight on shots. Straight on shots. Yeah, basically have a bag full of cans for as soon as Gareth's show finishes

and just neck them. Nothing to do with Gareth's show. That's more to do with prep for our show. Yeah, yeah. Get them necked. They're 9.45 at the Courtyard. Yeah. Peacock and Gamble.

Heart Throbs. It's the Pleasance below, but it's in the Courtyard and that is a perfect double bill and by the way we're launching a new scheme today

if you're coming on a Friday or a Saturday if you come to the 9.45 show and then also come to the

quarter past midnight show you will be officially a director of the Peacock and Gamble Corporation. That's true actually. And also I think

if you do that, if you come to the 9.45pm show and the midnight 15 show on the Friday or the Saturday, every weekend, I would imagine then you probably won't even carry on listening to these podcasts. I think that would be what I like to

call affectionately utterly overkill. Yeah. However you will get to see us drunk. We'll be back again tomorrow

interview with Kerry Marks. Really interesting interview. Lots of interesting stuff going on and a little bit rude

with the language. I've cut as much as I can but there's still a shit load of cunts in it. Yeah. See you tomorrow.

Bye. as much as I can but there's still a shit load of cunts in it yeah see you tomorrow bye so I just say that now yeah yeah

really now action the Peacock and Gamble Edinburgh podcast is a ready production hosted by charcoal.co.uk today's guest was

me Ardlow Hanlon and my show is it doesn't really have a proper name I think it's just Ardlow Hanlon at the music hall

the assembly rooms all music by Thomas Fonderay see you tomorrow nailed it no one nails his name Hanlon, and my show is, it doesn't really have a proper name, I think it's just Ardo Hanlon at the Music Hall, the Assembly Rooms. All music by Thomas Fonderay. See you tomorrow. Nailed it. No one nails his name, right? It's written phonetically as well. That's why you're a good actor as well. Ah. So how are we related? Well, I never really sort of went into it because

they were all telling me very excitedly, but... You are! They are, aren't you? Yeah, so that's the half of the family. My dad's family is from Northern Ireland and then my mum's family are from Ireland and they're the Carroll family.

So it's way back when. Well, my father is big into his old family trees as well. You might have the information. Didn't you do Who Do You Think You Are? I did an Irish version of it, yeah. It didn't come up there. It's a good job I've kept recording there. If you did Who Do You Think You Are, did at any point it come up,

oh, Ed Gamble? It did, yeah. We didn't follow that strand. Why not? I wish you did. Yeah, I point it come up, oh, Ed Gamble? It did, yeah. But we didn't follow that strand. Why not? I wish you did. Yeah, I wish I did now, obviously. Give each other a little cuddle.