Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Dom Joly (Part Two)

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

In part two of Emily and Ray’s walk with the wonderful Dom Joly, joined by his Labradors Fitzgerald and Truman, the conversation continues with more stories from Dom’s remarkable life and career.If you haven’t already, do catch up on part one. And if you’d like to see Dom live, he’s currently celebrating 25 years of Trigger Happy TV with the Trigger Happy TV Live - 25th Anniversary Tour. Tickets and dates are available at https://domjoly.tv.Follow Emily:Instagram X Walking The Dog is produced by Will NicholsMusic: Rich JarmanArtwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to part two of Walking the Dog with the wonderful Dom Jolly and his two dogs Fitzgerald and Truman. If you want to see Dom live in the Trigger Happy TV live anniversary tour, do book your tickets now at Domjolly.tv. Really hope you enjoy part two of our walk and do give us a like and a follow so you can catch us every week. Here's Dom and Truman and Fitzgerald and Rayway. So it's pretty amazing when they found this thing, so I think they thought this was the highest point in the Cots but it's not but that's fine they weren't that smart but they found I think something like 70 bodies in it and so these just bury all their bodies in high bits and it's pretty amazing and it's just in the middle of nowhere really I took

Claire Balding I don't want to like compare you no go on I've had her on this pod she took me on ramblings on on yes I went on there and I thought oh I'll take it to an abandoned well obviously it's abandoned Roman Villa and how was it well I thought she'd be really appreciative because there's a bit where you go into a little hut and you pull back this tarpaulin and there's like still Roman mosaic on the floor and it's in the middle of woods. She was so sniffy about it. She was like, is this it? I go, it's fucking two and a half thousand years old. What are you expecting? Like electricity? She's been around. So I'm expecting a bit of excitement about this. Now that you've warned me, I'm a bit of a people pleaser anyway. Yeah, that's fine. So to be honest. But she was really sniffy. Was it? Yeah.

I'm always, I was trained. I like Clareboarding a lot, but she has no filter. She's like a sort of harsh school mistress that will just snap the sort of the truth. Whatever goes through her head just comes out. And I think because she probably has to control herself a bit on, on, on, on telly. I think she kind of releases in other places. I think the very old, yeah. No, I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah. I can see that there's some, some truth. in that because also her job particularly when you're doing that kind of front-facing work you're the queen of the BBC I just can't put a foot wrong she did once say something about a jockey's teeth did she did she get in trouble said she was bullying him and stuff like that and I thought yeah that's actually her I've seen her do that I mean how said that I like her a lot I've no issue well when you think about the background that she had which again you know we talked about this it's that sort of stiff upper lip thing where I mean some say stiff up a lip

I'm saying entitled, like with me and with her and stuff like that. It is that. Which one is it, Dom? Me? I think I am entitled, I now realised. I just assumed, I don't know, I haven't asked for money, and I've always made my own way. I didn't have any connections in TV, and I've done it on my own.

But I think it's only, I don't know, I just didn't realize how lucky I was to have that kind of upbringing, which allowed me to have that kind of brain, you know. But I mean, so what can I do about it? I blame my parents. What the fuck is that? What has happened there? What is it?

This looks like the hunting grounds of the Serengeti. What is that? There's a full carcass there that looks like a deer, but it's literally just the bones. This is like some David Attenborough thing. No, this is like wicker man, as we approach to the Neolithic burial man. This is where I killed... There's a carcass. I've killed 40 podcasters so far.

This is really spooky. I'm really... This is one of my pranks. Boys, that's not bones, not... Oy! Fits! Fits! No! Sorry, can you hold Raymond. They can't eat that. Fiddy! No! Fitt!

Not a chance! Fitts! Oh my God! Come on! No! Come on! Wasn't my dogs. We all saw that. Oh, you haven't got bone coming out of your mouth, have he? No, but he would. He eats anything, Fitzgerald. Truman just retrieves. Oh, I'm so sorry, sheep.

Fitz raids every... You're not really made for the country, are you, if you can't take that? No. Every day in Cheltenham. I know. I know. I see. still haven't got used to the circle of life. Fitz is really embarrassing. One of the reasons we didn't go to a park, although it wouldn't happen today, is because any picnic Fitzgerald sees

as people having come and laid offerings for him. And he just roars in. He's stolen pizzas, like everything. It's so embarrassing. And my wife's Canadian, so she just spends her whole life apologising. Does she? She just goes on an apology tour.

I'm just howling of laughter. But Lab's notoriously greedy, aren't they? Yeah, so Lab, supposedly. I mean, until I discovered Munjarro, I think I had the same thing. Do you say it how you on Runtra? Yeah, of course, yeah. Like, of course. Well, because why wouldn't you be like?

I have no off switch. Really? I'm at a permanent buffet. I come for eat, so yeah, definitely. Have you always done that throughout your life? No, I don't think so. I think only after a shattering nervous breakdown. Yeah.

See, I'm joking, but you didn't know. No, I think you're not joking. No, I'm sort of not. Because you did have a difficult... I definitely had terrible anxiety panic attacks and anxiety attacks and I wonder whether that's, oh, did your foot just go there, Pete? Fidsey. His back foot so bad. You're right, Fiddy. You haven't had a long walk like this for a long time, but it's great.

So they used to come here as puppies on top of this. It's quite exciting. Do you want to have a little bit of a walk? Come on, Raymond. Just in case you can't see, Raymond has decided to walk for 100 metres. So darn, no, he's not going to walk. He's just staring at me like, what, I'm going to fucking walk in this mud am i? Raymond. Come on Raymond. Oh, he really likes you.

He's drawn to you. Okay, up you come. Do you think he went to you because he thought this nice strong man will kick me up? I'm surprised you've got a little pouch for him. You have actually. You could put him in the old wood. I could put him in my own.

So after you decided you'd got involved in that sort of stump, that, you know, it was effectively a political sort of prank that you were playing on David Bella. And then I feel. Did you get the sense of okay? That wasn't quite the moment, because when I got fired from ITN, I sent my CVs off. I really wanted to work for a guy called Michael Cockrell,

made these amazing political documentaries. And I sent my CV off to various people to make documentaries. And one of them, my whole life has been a series of sliding door moments. Like if I hadn't walked in somewhere or taken, like it's having those moments of luck and going with it. And my CV went to a company called Lawless Productions, who were making the first Mark Thomas comedy product. That was like an early Michael Moore political satire shows. And they wanted someone with the political background to help with that.

And I went in thinking it was like a serious show. And when I sort of heard about it, I thought, oh my God, this sounds great. And then just I was leaving, they said one thing, you've got to meet Mark. Is there any way you could not wear, because I was wearing my suit, I was looking all smart. So there's any way you can not wear your suit? I thought, oh my God, this is heaven. Yeah. So I got that job.

And literally, from then on, I just. just thought this is what I was born to do, just be a public nuisance. And then you ended up after that. Was that when you went to Paramount? Yeah, so after that, I saw a job in The Guardian saying, you know, comedy channel wants people with sense of humour. This is like something out of a Richard Curtis film. I didn't know people actually got jobs that way.

It's the only time and the only person I've ever known. Yeah. But I only got the job because they'd been told there's a woman called Mifanui Moore who went on to... Did you work with Little Britain or something? Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. and she was run she'd been put in charge of paramount comedy and she'd heard there was a really talented guy called dom as a runner as a researcher on mark thomas

but there was another dom called dom english who now runs telly so i got the job because of that so but anyway at the moment i got there was crazy paramount comedy channel because it was showing american shows but they everyone there at the time sasha baron cohen was in and out doing early bruno before ali gie Lee Francis was in the art department. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg were around and Mighty Boosh were there.

God, isn't that incredible it was that breeding down? The Peachther guys were there. Little Britain guys were there as a thing called mash and peas. I mean, it was crazy. And it was just sort of, it was for all the people that didn't really do stand-up. So we weren't going to do, you know, we hadn't done footlights. We weren't going to Edinburgh. And it was the new way of sort of trying to be funny on telly.

And before that, the only way you'd be able to do that would be like send a joke into weekending on Radio 4. That would have been it. And do you think also, I suppose, that idea of, yeah, that was in it. That's so fascinating that all those names came out of that. Well, it was just a moment in telly. I describe it a bit like punk in the sense that up to that stage you needed a proper crew with a proper big camera and an editor and a sound man to do anything. and just around that time these cameras appeared that now look so low quality but like the sony vx 1000 and you literally could just get one and just point and shoot and do stuff and that's how i started

doing stuff and it was kind of i see us as the fulcrum between old school telly and youtube basically it was that i was going to say it was that flip moment when i look back and interestingly your videos have become you know a lot of stuff from trigger happy tv you'll see on ticot and instagram being re-shared and if you look at them this is how terrible I am. I haven't even got the originals so I've on my iPhone I've put them on the internet filmed them and then put them out. If you watch any of them on TikTok, I've got like five million hits for one. I've just filmed my I'm filming my own stuff. Well it's interesting because I was and we'll get on to Trigger Happy TV because I was someone talk to you about that but

I think you were sort of discovered online before online existed in a way. I think you were the first example everything you did felt like a viral moment yeah it's just that we didn't have a viral moment i would disagree i think there were three people at the time there was Dennis pennis who was a massive influence on me yeah there was Chris Morris and me and i think we were all doing slightly different stuff Dennis Penis was doing celebrity stuff and sort of taking on the whole world of PR and nonsense red carpet celebrity Chris Morris was much more dark art surrealism and mine was just nonsense surrealism and because originally i was going to do proper satire and you know But I think what was fascinating about what you did.

Oh, Fiddy, oh, he's so old, he can't get over. Fiddy, I'm sorry, wait, wait, wait. I'll take Raymond. Can you not get over there, my love? No, God, it's terrible to see. Oh, my sweet. Fiddy, come on love, I'll help you over. It's all right.

Come on, Fids, let's go. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Come here, come here, come here, come on. Wait, oh, good boy. Oh, well, done. Oh, God, his legs so gone. You're good boys. I know, but.

Oh darling, are you okay? You okay? Yeah? Good boy. Yeah. You're such a good boy. Do you remember this? He used to come as puppies.

I've got pictures of them here when they're like two months old. Oh, look, they're so happy here. Oh, this is amazing, Dawn. Come on, boys. I'm so glad we came here. I just think this is pretty amazing. It's in the middle of nowhere. Yeah.

And it's, I think it's 8,000 years old. Is it really? There's a sign over there, I'll tell you. But no one knows about it, really. Come on, let's go and have a look, Truman. Can you get up, Fitz? Do you want a hand? I don't know if it's can get up. I'll paint a picture for you again.

We're standing at pretty much the... I can see the highest point in the Cotswolds, which is in a golf course over there. And we're standing on a 10,000-year-old neolithic burial mound talking someone about my life while taking two and a half dogs for a walk. It's pretty incredible, isn't it? It's cool, right?

Wow. Those hills over there, Malvern hills over there. You've got whales over there, and that's where we started. We've done quite a big, Raymond's probably biggest walk he's done. Raymond, what do you think of this? Can you come here? Do you want to be a... Do you want to be...

Well, can you take a picture of us? We haven't got Fits in this, but then... Fiddy, come here, love. Fits is... Oh, well done, my darling. That was such a big walk for you, my sweet. Just sit a bit, love. You're such a good...

Sit, Siddy. Truey, come here. Come on, let's all pose. Yeah. Sit down. Oh, come here. You used to do this, but they're not very good now. It's hard with labs.

Truman, come on, no one's got a stick for you right now. Do you want some? Good boys. I should have brought my treats. I never do treats. That's exactly true. Come here, true, true, true. True.

Come here. Here, come on. Let's go there. This is good. There we go. Whoops. Good boys. Thank you.

Oh, I really love it up here. Cool, right? So how many people do you think are buried in here? How many people are there? Again, when we see the sign, I've been here so many times. I think it was about they found 70 bodies in here. Not like bodies, not like podcasters I've killed here, like Neolithic people that were buried. Fiddy! No!

FIT! Jesus! Where are you going? FITT! Place it come! Hang on. One of hand, you're right. Stay here, Truman.

Let me give you the stick. Fitsy, come on here, Fitz. Fitts. I know, but it's going to hurt. Fits, come on. Come on, Truman, this way. Good boy. Stay over here.

OK, it's 5,500 years old. So I was 5,000 years out. They found 14 skeletons, not 70. Remains of 38 people. Oh, gosh. OK. So basically that's about how much of what I'm telling you is true. 50%.

Long barrow. I'll take a picture of that. Look at it up. It's even bullshit about it. Yes, I can tell people I know all about it. It's really cool though. A portal setting. Oh, the skeletons are five children and a young man.

Yeah, but then... Why was he with five children, weirdo? This is fascinating though. Pretty cool, right? You see, I'm really impressed by this. Well, I like this sort of stuff. So do I? Because I grew up in the Middle East, like, everywhere.

Lebanon's littered with like Roman ruins and I've always been like into ruins. You all right, my sweet. Have you hurt your leg a bit? your leg a bit. Fiddy, you're going to pay for that love. I know you're trying to show off, but it's going to really hurt your back leg. So we should head back really. Come on, let's head back. You've got to go this way, I think. Okay. So... I just want to get him over this fence, so. Come on then. I think he's hurt his leg a bit. Do you think so? Well, yeah, because he's just, anyway, he's quite excited to... I'm glad he's having a lovely time, though. Oh, he loves it.

I just feel I don't take him on as long walks as anymore. Oh, this is nice. Because he does this sort of thing, but Philly, just wait. I know you're such a alpha dog. Truman. Wait, Fitz. Okay. That's it. Oh, Truman.

What? Good boy. I don't know if that was the best way to do it, but. Good boy. That's it. Come on. So tell me about Trigger Happy TV started. Really, you were working with a friend who.

Well, no. Again, that was one of those crazy moments. I was at Paramount Comedy Channel. Yeah. And I was trying to. do funny stuff against politicians still. And the guy who took over the marketing of Paramount thought, I'm paying this massive budget just to put classic ads in.

Whereas really, I could just pay this guy to go and do funny stunts, which would get you on the front page of newspapers. And it'll be funny. And the very first thing we did is we sent an underworld fan club after Peter Mandelson. I was on to him very early. I was going to say, you were early doors in Mandy. So I was dressed at the day. devil, we had like Frankenstein, a skull. And basically we just waited till he turned up.

We knew where he was coming. And then just all stood around. It was signed saying, we love you, O Prince of Darkness. And we had our own paparazzi with us. And that went on the front page of the Guardian. And that was that. But I had the chance to do that. And I didn't know who to do it with because I didn't, I couldn't really afford, like, camera crews and stuff. Right, because there was no way of filming it yourself really in those days. No. And so I went to the engineer in Primrose Hill with my then girl, friend and we were sitting at the bar. Is she the one who was friendly with Dido? Yeah, yeah. She's Dido's best friend. She's the one in she's actually, she's the girl called

Isabel in Dido's first album. Yeah. And so I was sitting at the bar with her and I was saying this is crazy. I've got this amazing opportunity to do this show. But I don't know how to do it because I can't afford a cameraman or anything. And there was a guy behind the bar. He was listening in. He just lent over and goes, I can do that. And that was Sam and he was bullshitting. He'd never used a camera before in his life. But he turned up the next Monday and we kind of that was it really. Isn't that incredible?

But I just always think if I hadn't walked into that door. What do you believe in? Do you believe in sort of serendipity or do you think? I think I believe in, I believe you have moments of luck in your life. He took that opportunity, didn't it? And you have to pounce on them. Yes, because most people, that's what that shows. Most people would think, well, I'm Obama and I can't interrupt.

It's inappropriate. You know, I can't. I don't and also let's be honest he wasn't working in that role at the time no not at all so it was just no one knew anything at the time that's what I loved about it there were no rules for it there was no one I could go and ask and say you know if I was a stand-up I could have gone to some old stand-up and said tell me what to do but we were pretty much making up all these jobs were suddenly appearing for TV jobs and shows that didn't exist like five years before did you realise on when you started filming those

the trigger happy stuff. Did you realise that in a way it was something of a sort of superpower you had? I would see it as a superpower. No, it was very odd. Which is that you don't feel shame in the way that the rest of us do. I do feel shame, big time, but I don't when I'm doing that. Right. And I didn't, for ages, I felt like a bit of an imposter because I thought, well, I'm not doing, I'm not writing anything here. I'm just making it up on the spot. I didn't feel like I was working for it.

I was just bullshitting, basically. And I just assumed everyone could do it. And it's only after a long while, I've kind of realized I do definitely have a skill of just making funny stuff up on the spot in awkward moments and just rolling with it. but it's a very unmarketable skill and it's quite an odd skill because if you're at the height of success everyone they go well let's see the script or let's see what you go now just trust me and they go fine but if you're not at the height of the wave yeah then who the fuck's gonna it's like i'm just going to go and be funny like you know fuck that so you watch when you see things like

nathan for you which presumably nathan for you i think is my do you know this or is that a guess because that's i think my favorite tv show well yeah it's my favorite tv show at the I just think it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. He's unfortunately then gone on to make things that are, I think he slightly suffered from what I did of sort of trying to over-complicate shit. Yes. And do you know what I think? I know this sounds weird, but I think too much money was put behind it.

Always. I always think the money has ruined it. And I felt in the early days when it was him with some weird sort of psychic estate agent, there was a rawness to it. Yes, but also I think he tried to go too high concept, to meta. Well, it's... Interestingly, in things like

the rehearsal, and I don't know if anyone's seen this, but it's well worth watching. It's so interesting as a concept, but it's just unwatchable, really. But when you look at that, which is sort of what he's doing, there are massive similarities

with what you were doing when you first started out. 100%. I mean, it was just... And I think what's interesting about him is... It's something he touches on, so I don't think it's inappropriate

me saying this and diagnosing him, but he touches on in one of his shows whether he might be on the spectrum. Oh, God, that's interesting. Yeah, yeah. And he says at one point, he says, oh, do you think I'm maybe autistic? Because he doesn't feel what a lot of people would feel in those moments. And I wonder... See, that's very interesting, because I do feel all that. And this is why, I mean, of course I feel it. That's why I sort of had a massive nervous breakdown at the end of first trigger happy, because I just was like, the amount of adrenaline ups and downs and like, I just completely,

And I, you know, the nightmare for me would be to go up and say, hello, I'm Don Jolly. But I've now conquered that because I've done sort of 10,000 hours of live shows. Right. I finally got to the stage. But no, I definitely, if you're, oh, Fitts, no. He's trying to go for that dead sheep again for a late lunch. Not a chance. Can't see us, Fiddy, over here.

I will. Can you make a note? That's the trailer. He's trying to go for that dead sheep again. Yeah, I think. But no, to answer your question, I'm not on the spectrum. I'm not autistic, but I do wonder, I mean, I seem to be the last person in Britain not diagnosed of ADHD, but I still don't really know what it is.

I've definitely got something wrong with me, but I don't know what it is. I mean, I think it's fair to say a lot of performers may be present as a bit more neurodivergent because... Oh, that's what we say now, sorry. Neurodivergent. Oh, that's what we say now. Mental is the word is. But you know what I would say? I think it's also... I have a theory that... And this sounds really ponzi, so I hate saying it, but I do believe it.

And it's not like I made a conscious choice to, but I think to access absurdist, surreal, weird parts of my brain that make things like trigger happy, you have to sort of open a portal. And I think that portal is great, but I think it also means you have to open a negative portal, which allows things like depression and stuff like that in. Or you can just stay in the middle and just be very stable. And my life's always been that. That's so fascinating, Dawn.

I think that's so interesting, isn't it? So part of me always thinks I'd love to be more... It's the sort of tax you pay, the creativity tax. Yeah, no, it's definitely the absurdist tax. Yeah. Because in order to view the world in that way... You have to... Yeah.

So it's a bit like bad trip, good trip, you know, like... Right, right. And I've always thought, God, I'd love to be just mentally stable. I'd love to not have a pathological fear of bureaucracy and forms and money and stuff like that. But I also think that that's somehow my secret source. And if that went... I just everything would go because I constantly think that just riffing everything is the only way I can do stuff I've never written anything I've written my books which I really love but they're very different from I've never written a script or right I've never acted like most people seem to want to get comedy to them become actors and I'm like why would I do that because I'm spouting someone else's words like what I like is doing as you can tell talking myself did you find when Trigger Happy TV became so he hugely successful and obviously there's this story which I love about you know people still

associate you with that bloody phone yeah yeah that oversized phone which you and a friend you saw it as a it was a display outside a shop on the edgeware road or something yeah we'd had a long lunch in the edge of road which is where most of our ideas came from this is before trigger happy and we were walking down the edge of road and there was a display outside a mobile phone store and it's not a Nokia phone it was actually a Sony Mars bar if you remember the Sony Mars bar I had It was quite a cool little phone. And this was like a three-foot plastic model for it. And it was sitting outside this shop, and I was pissed.

So I picked it up and sort of started pretending to talk into it. And then we ran off with it. We nicked it, basically. They say crime doesn't pay. But in this case, it very much did. And we ran off with it, hopped on a bus. And we got to Oxa Street, and we were going to our office. And we get off.

And there is Jeremy Clarkson, still back then, being interviewed live on Oxford Street. And so I just got up behind him and I go, yeah, no, I'm behind that ass Clarkson. And he turns around looking confused. Sam's pissing himself, not filming. And then we run away. And then we get back to the office. And we just thought that was funny. And we didn't use it.

We just put it up as a war trophy for two years. And then when Trigabby happened, we remembered that. And we thought, let's use it not to, like, evaluate, like, our relationship with, like, mobile phones. But really to interrupt things I hated, Ponzi things like opera and theatre. Look at that. That's the sound of the country. Pull! It was all going so well.

I don't shoot anything. I hate shooting people. Oh God, I couldn't bear it. I'm really wimpy. It really upsets me. I couldn't bear it. Someone invited me on a shoot once and I left after 10 minutes. I was like, what the fuck are you doing?

It's like throwing live cushions in the air and blowing them out. There's no sport in it. I just find it really upsetting. No, I'm massively. Are you? Oh, I've been huntsabbing and I'm, yeah, I'm definitely not that. I'm all animal. Philly, come on, love.

What are you doing? So, so the phone? after Clarkson Gate. Yeah. You decided. So then we thought, well, that's a thing. We needed something to kick off the show with. And I thought, let's use it to interrupt things.

Like the very first one we did was in the library of Imperial College. And for some reason, even though no one knew who I was, I wore a fake beard in that one. I think I thought he was going to be a character. And then at the time, there was a ringtone called Grand Vals. I hated it so much. I remember. I hated it.

I thought, if I used it. this ringtone and anyone watches this they'll they'll see that it's used by twats and they'll get rid of it but between us filming and it going out on telly totally by chance nothing to do with us and again it's one of these weird moments Nokia appear and take over the mobile phone scene and they choose grand vals as their Nokia tune so when you everyone had a Nokia then and if you didn't change your ring tone that ringtone went out and so it became this kind of universal subliminal ad for trigger happy every time it went off people just thought about Trigapy. It was incredible. I'd love to say I did it on purpose, but I didn't.

So that phone became mental and I think even if you hadn't seen Trigapy, which was a lot of people, you were aware of the phone, you know. This is what I mean about it crossing over. It became, it was viral. It was very viral. It was the first kind of TV that was viral and I get what you're saying about, you know, when I put that to you, you know, Dennis Pennis. Yeah, no, it's definitely viral in that sort of way. But I think with you it felt different. Yeah. I, you know, I'm not saying, you know, I'm not saying, you know, you're it was more important but I think certainly it felt like it's so crossed over in there. People were saying every day you'd go into work and it just became it was so quick that

catchphrase. Well hello so clever. The way it entered I swear to you I swear to okay very weird. People still say it very weirdly I never ever everyone comes up to me is hello I'm on the phone do they still say it I never said I'm on the phone I've never said that in my life it's it's so funny it's actually hello I'm at the library or hello I never said I'm on the phone but I swear to you this is true. I haven't had a single day in my life. This is absolutely true. Even in North Korea, someone did it to me, yeah? I was in fucking Pyongyang. Some bloke, the only other tourist there comes out and goes, hello, I'm in North Korea. What are we doing here? And I'm like, what? I've not had a day where people haven't done it. And it happens the same way every time. Someone

will spot me in the supermarket. It's always a bloke. The bloke will nudge his girlfriend. She'll look and go, who? And then he'll try and explain by miming it. And then I can see him trying to find that ring turn on his phone. And I'm just, I don't mind it, but it's like they all think when they finally do it, that they're the first person ever to do it to me. Yeah. And I'm like, it's like Peter Crouch getting, how's the weather up there? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, I'm called Jolly. I mean, how many fucking people do you think say Jolly? You know, like, you're not very jolly. I mean, people say like, Dom Jolly, did you make that name up? I go, yeah, because Mr. Tickle was taken. So I thought I'd go for Jolly. I mean, it's fucking ridiculous. So how did you find, obviously, was something.

like that which took off to the extent that it did it just blew my mind how did you find that i'd what's interesting is i wasn't aware it happened so fast i remember when it so the first trigger happy went out on the 14th of jane 2000 and i know that because i'm doing the 25th anniversary well i did the 25th anniversary tour and your tour and this is this year isn't yeah this isn't for plugging but yeah but i want to i want to mention it because i really want to when i did four massive shows and i just thought it'd be fun to do them and we really were big massive sold-out shows but then i thought that would be it it but now I'm doing a hundred more. So because Sam kept all the rushes and like we've sort of worked out a way of doing it. So that's quite fun. But I remember when the first show went out in the 14th

January 2000, it was a Saturday night. Then it was repeated on Saturday night and on the Monday I was on a train going to Oxford and that ringtone went off and no one knew I was on the phone on the train. This is three days after it went out. Three people stood up and went, hello, I'm on the train. I was like, holy fuck. Like what has happened and it, I didn't realize how big it was, the whole thing was like a for about four years it was like a maelstrom of just suddenly you were famous and suddenly I was doing all these weird stuff and then suddenly I was like fired out of the BBC by the back door and that was it and it was just the whole it's it's taking me about 20 years to kind of in fact the book I wrote here comes a clown that you read which I love that book yeah that's kind that was me sort of trying to come to terms with it

you know like because I didn't I was trying to remember what it was all about and my way of checking who's good and who's bad in showbiz is tapping them on the shoulder and saying, right, you've had a good run, but come on, you've been blagging it. And the ones that go, fair enough, are the good ones. And the ones that go, what do you mean? I'm a genius are the cunts. Now, I'm not saying who are the cunts and who aren't, but we all know. So, yeah. This is my kind of man. He's talking my language. But we all talk like this, but we just don't say on, on recordings. I don't say, on, on, on, I'm very honest. I've heard you talk about me. Yeah, I'm brutally honest. Why do you think that is? Don't give a shit, really. I've kind of, I've tried to pretend to be lots of things to sort of maybe that's what I should be doing. And it's just pointless because you can only be yourself really. And that's, you know, I was, when I was my happiest and when I am my happiest, it's when I'm just being myself. And I'm old enough now. Why the fuck should I bother doing anything else, really? It's not like, you know, it's not like I have massive contracts that I can fuck up. You know, my Pepsi commercial isn't going to go away, is it? Like, you talked about, as I say, you wrote about, and I did a, and I did a

It was interesting when you wrote about how you were struggling a bit. It was proper depression you had. Oh, I had clinical depression. Yeah. I didn't realize that. I used to get really bad panic attacks from probably the age of about 25. Yeah. And they'd happen when actually everything was going really well. That's what made it really freaky.

Like if something terrible would happen to you, you could kind of, or the best way I can describe it, it's like someone spikes your drink and you suddenly, you don't know why you're feeling that. If you know that you've taken acid, which I haven't, then you think, okay, I know why this is happening and he used to really freak me out and then yes during Trigger Happy just as everything was going brilliantly this was like season two or something no this is season one and I remember the very moment you can see it on in Trigger Happy I'm dressed as the Dutch tourist with a big Union Jack hat and I've got into a taxi by Sloan Square and the guy goes where you going and I go my egg must be boiled bleche my egg must be boiled and

he goes where are you going yes I will have two pints of crisps and then I just get out the cab and Sam goes that was great and the cabbie's going, what the fuck was that about? And I just said to Sam, I've got to go. And I just went home. And then I got hospitalized because I just, I went into, just totally couldn't get out of bed. And I was diagnosed with clinical depression.

And they said, you've got to go to hospital. And I didn't want to go to hospital. So I stayed at home. And that was about five weeks. And I remember thinking, I've got this show. I know it's really good. And suddenly everyone had been put on hold. And it was embarrassing for a start, you know,

because mental illness was a stigma and stuff. People didn't understand it then. And people didn't talk about it. But also, I was just thinking I'm letting everyone down. But also, this is like the one time I've got my shit together. And they rang me up and said, if you don't come back in a week, the insurers are closing it down. So I came back and I wasn't ready, but I did come back and finished it. It was fine.

But that was a, yeah, that was just a nightmare. Did you, and you went on antidepressants, presumably, which must have helped. I tried all sorts of things. I tried beta blockers. I did all sorts of stuff. And then antidepressants finally, syroxat, I tried. Yeah. And it takes a long time for syroxia.

to take effect and you want an instant thing but actually it did stabilise me but part of me and i'm still now on a tiny tiny like half a pill a day micro dose because i found if you went off and then if you suddenly had another attack it would take three weeks to get back so i wanted to be ready but i do think part of it since i've taken those really my life's not been brilliant well you know creatively and i wonder whether somehow you're not letting the darkness in yeah yeah yeah i think i'm not i've closed the portal not just not just the portal not just Totally, but I think I've put a blocker in the portal. Well, Ross Noble always says to me, you know.

Well, I think I like Ross Noble. I think he's one of us. Yeah, I think he's one of us. Ross Noble, he said, when we talked about therapy and he was going, oh yeah, I know him. I know you think I got that ADHD. And I was like, yeah, but you have. Yeah. And he was sort of saying, yeah, but I don't want to get inside my head.

No, because he said, this is what makes me good at comedy. Totally. And he doesn't want to mess with it. Yes, but that's the problem. makes you good at comedy doesn't necessarily make you good at life. And when you get older, life becomes quite important. Well, that's true. But actually, I've managed to blag my way through and I've given my kids.

And my best thing of why I'm not a cunt, even though most people think I'm a cunt, is my kids are absolutely not cunts. I don't know how many times would say cunt on this. I think that's because you married a bit of a real one, didn't you? Yeah, but also I'm not a cunt. I mean, they are just nice people. But also, I think, because I haven't gone to stratospheric success, I've had massive success, then it's gone down, then it's gone up again.

But basically, they've seen how fickle life is. So they're not a Beckham child, where their biggest worry is that, you know, can they cook a fucking egg or something? So I'm obsessed to Brooklyn Beckham. I could do the rest of this show about Brooklyn Beckham. What are we going to do about Brooklyn Beckham? What are we going to do about Brooklyn Beckham? Well, I think Cruz is now coming in as the sort of new, new nightmare,

although I sort of quite like Cruz. He seems nice, although he's wearing, he's clearly been styled in. wearing these granny cardies and stuff. I think the problem... But I quite like the song, but it's like... Do you know what I think can be complicated? Is when you get people who've made money, you know, like David Beckham through football or through music...

And then they start putting their kids through these quite establishment institutions. Yeah, 100%. Do you what I mean? I remember seeing this guy who owned Champneys once. And he turned up in this range over and he went, all right, am I doing any time you want to bed here, you know, you're good for it. You went, yeah, I've got my son back in. Yeah, he's back from Illhouse, yeah.

And then it goes. And he went Ill House. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if anyone doesn't know, this is a very sort of royal preps. It's where Rory Stewart went. And basically they get, they get paraded around Knightsbridge like crocodiles. And he's there. And the child, Vines the Wendered down, he's got this blonde sort of, you know,

patrician hair. And he goes, hello there. Is that a father? Yeah. And I thought, this is interesting this. Yeah. And he's presumably going to be the next reform foreign secretary, I'd imagine. And how's that relationship going to work with the dad?

Because then you're not good enough. And he's seeing his father is not good enough. Well, interestingly, that's when I said Haderbury were a bit thick. I was being rude and like I think. But Halebury was full of Thatcherite, London, sort of new money. Right. And I don't care. Like, who gives a fuck?

I'm new money whenever my parents made money or whatever. Who cares? But they were basically there. They were first generation private school. And so they were trying to do all the things they thought you should do at a private school. Because I think I was doing the opposite. I didn't want to be there, which is probably my entitlement. I don't know.

It's confusing being English, really. It is. But it's... I know what you mean. I think sometimes there's a lot of focus on things with these people as well. And I never think that's good. If we're going to do the... Who are the first people you put up against the wall when the revolution comes,

which I think about a lot. And it's anyone with a personalised number plate. I check yours, you're okay. But personalised number plate, that's gone. Can you imagine? Yeah. There's an interesting thing that... this thing when sometimes yeah it's that but but but i don't see because i grew up quite well off i

wasn't well off but you know i had a nice life i've not needed to prove that if anything i'm trying to disprove so i'm an equal anti-s-sha whereas if you do make money you do all of england is about making you feel like not quite right or in the wrong class or you don't fit in and so there is a desperation of trying to display wealth it's status anxiety and i think what also happens is that then you make enough money to go to the right restaurant but you don't know how to use the knife and fork or whatever what I found is you can spend 25 years in one lifestyle you suddenly make a shift upwards either through career or money you you adapt to that new status in a month and you can it's like going left on a plane you can never go right again and I'm

going right again it's a fucking nightmare I get when I go right when I sit in the on the plane yeah on a plane I'll have people talking about me as I'm not there so I'll be sitting in economy which I always go economy yeah yeah and someone will be just because you think it's a waste of money to no because I'm got enough money to go anything else and so I'm sitting there and someone will go is that that that's that bloat that's the you know hello I'm on a plane that's the trig happy guy and I'm sitting there yeah and then someone else are going no he's not all he'd be doing a fucking economy go well he hasn't been on the telly for a bit as you you got I'm fucking here that's the only reason I go into business

but that is you know joking aside that is one of the things about fame that I I think is difficult, which is that if whether it's, you know, through choice or not choice or whatever, you're like, right, I'm going to focus on my writing for a bit or doing this or, you know, might be someone taking time off to have kids or if a woman raising a family. But that's really difficult because you just think there's still that sense when people meet you of slight outrage that you're not living a sort of five-star life start. Well, there's definitely that. But there's also this feeling that if you're on television, that means you're at your happiest and most famous. And I think it probably

does equate to you being your most famous. Yeah. But it certainly was least happy time for me. Was it? Yeah. But honestly, it made me lots of money and it's made me famous and, you know, that's why you're here. But my books, if I could just write books, I need to kill Bill Bryson and Michael Palin first. And I've thought about it quite long and hard. And I need to writing. Yeah, I love writing. Yeah, I love writing. If I could just make my living, writing my travel books. And when I'm saying travel books, it's not a rough guide. It's like me just going off to North Korea or Iran. That's all I do. And this came about really,

after, as you say, you'd had, you know, I call it the white heat of fame. You had that white heat moment. No, the moment was when Trigger Happy was, I was so famous, I didn't realize it. But I was still a kind of outsider, a bit punky. And then we went to the BBC, me and Sam, for a three series deal, because all Channel 4 wanted was more Trigger Happies. And I was like, I don't want to do more Trigger Happies because I was burnt out. And of course, now, in hindsight, I should have realized you're so lucky to lay the golden egg

that I should have said, the big thing I'd tell anyone, like if I've learned in show business, is never, ever make any sort of crucial decision straight after you finish doing something. Like, take a month off, go away. Because I just said, right, that's it. I've killed Trigger Happy, I'm going to the BBC. The moment I realised things had changed,

was it Trigger Happy? You know, we were in our own little office. We were like punks. I go to the BBC. Day three, I'm in my suite of offices. And a guy comes in and he says, you knew office, we paint them. Coloured you want it. I go, I don't fucking know. So I said red. And so guy painted my office red.

Next day in the Daily Mirror, Paige, Trigger Happy Star throws tantrum, refuses to start work at BBC until his suite of offices are painted red. And I was like, fucking hell, what? And I suddenly realized I'd gone from sort of plucky underdog to like, this is it. He's the new tall poppy. And I could not deal with that. Like, I just hated it. I hate expectation. When you had the chat show, was that this is Dom Jolly. Yeah. And I think what was tricky about that as well was that I think it was a really sophisticated premise and it was still Dom Jolly. You were called Dom Jolly and you were being the obnoxious, let's call him that phone character.

And I think people, it's almost like people needed it spelled out, no, this is Alan Partridge. Oh my God. So my wife, yeah, who is almost invariably, like she's not. in show business at all this is Stacy and she's just I now realise if I'd just listen to Stacy Moore in my life being great she said you can't call it this is Dom Jolly you've got to call it this is John Dolly or something the joke to me was everyone I knew Johnny Vaughn who went from like success somewhere and then they went somewhere they ended up in a sort of slightly

sycophantic chat show and it was all awful so I was taking the piss out of that which is why exactly one letter John Jolly or something but I thought like everyone had seen me in every frame of Trigger happy but they didn't they hadn't seen who I was. And so I thought, I'll wear glasses. Mel, no, it's not me. And of course, everyone, I wanted 20% of people to watch it thinking this is a car crash, not understanding it, and 80% to get that it was a piss take. What happened was 90% of people watched it, thought, oh my God, he's a cunt. And I had like the son wrote a page saying, are these the worst chat show questions ever asked? Because I had Eamon Holmes on. And I was asking him things like,

what time do you get up in the morning and what's your favourite colour? Now, it was not thought through as a show. Right. Because I was refusing producers and I was just trying to riff still. But there were elements in it that I loved but it was very confused, yeah. Do you think... I was trying to do a Larry Sanders type do that kind of thing.

It's difficult as well because I feel the more sort of money and status that was being thrown at your show, sometimes if like you, what you're brilliant at is built on unpredictability and disruption and rawness.

The more structure you get, the worse it is. Yeah. And so suddenly you have, it's a weird thing where these broadcasters are kind of wooing you, these big broadcasters, hey, well, let's throw money at this. Let's make it big. But then they're sort of killing the very thing they love. Well, I mean, ironically, you never want to tell anyone, please don't give me more money because it'll ruin it.

But it's true, the more money throw at a joke, almost always, the unfunnier it is. But the worst thing is, when we were making Trigger happy, we weren't known. So everyone just left, when I say we, it's not the royal we, it's me and Sam. We were just left alone and we just did our own thing. The moment you get successful, everyone chips in. And the one thing you can't do is comedy by committee. You have to make a choice. So no, that was very confusing times.

Well, you went on to do, although you did end up. Huh? You did end up, Dom, and I thank you for this, because you've had some great reality TV moments. I love reality TV. Do you? Yeah. I watch.

So I don't watch any drama or scripted stuff or film. I'm always loved documentaries. Yeah, I do. There is no reality TV show you can name me that I'm not into. Below Deck is to me the height of all television. Oh, I love Below Deck. It's the greatest show ever. And do you, out of all the things, because I'm a celeb, I felt like as well,

it's so interesting having someone like you on shows like that. I guess because you're kind of knowing and coming at it with more of a, I suppose, a producer's head in some ways? That's exactly what it was. Yeah. And everyone else is just talking. Yeah. Whereas your sort of show running at the same time?

I was definitely show running and it was quite funny. So I only realised when I came out that they always try and find someone to be the narrator sort of explaining, you know, when you go into the diary room, explaining what it is. And I was actually asked on day seven in there, they took me off camera into the diary room and asked me if I had an insider who was feeding me knowledge because I knew what was going to happen. And it was like, if Ant and Dett walk in and say, tomorrow you'll face the tunnel of doom, yeah? It doesn't take fucking Einstein to work out what's going to happen. Also, on day 10, one of the APs left the filming schedule on a tree, and I nicked it, and I read everything in it.

So I also knew what was coming up, but they found out that and had to change everything. Can I say they must have absolutely hated you at that point? Yeah, of course, but don't have me on then. Do you care about being liked? Yeah, very much so. Do you? Yeah, yeah. But there's nothing can do about it, so.

No, of course I want to be liked. I think part of my going to school at seven and sort of growing up in a war where my dad would like try and show no fear, you know, stiff up a lip. So I think I'm taught to attack before you're attacked. I'm taught to be sort of defensive. So when I walk in a room, so one of the things I like about fame actually is before fame, I'd walk in a room and I just can't make small talk. And so then I'd start to look defensive and aggressive. Like I don't want to talk to anyone anyway. Whereas actually you're just going, please come and talk to me. The one nice thing about fame is it tends to cut through sort of small talk. People just come up and go, oh, I love that thing you did the other day and you're off. One of the things I love about having a dog is that when I walk in with Raymond, I mean, can you imagine? It's not about me. Look at him.

It's literally just about him. It's like, oh, look, I try and bring him to most things. It's amazing. It just cuts through all that sort of. So my daily walks through Cheltenham, I've been walking six years. I know the name of every dog. Like I'll pat them. I've no idea who the owners are.

So yeah. So dogs, I mean, I remember my dad. I don't think I saw my mum and dad hug or kiss once in their life. But one of our Rhodesian Ridgebacks got ill and my dad slept under the dining room table with the dog all night. So it's a way of expressing love, I think. I wonder if there was that old traditional thing with the, you know, you think of that the old colonel and his dogs

and the queen in her corgis or something. I think posh people find... It's an acceptable, socially acceptable way of releasing emotion, I think. Yes, I think that's true. Because I'm quite, I'm very huggy with my kids. Are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And my wife. So you were very conscious, I suppose, of Sins of the Father in terms of... Oh, 100%. You didn't want them to go to boarding school at 7. Yeah, all I wanted to do is not repeat the mistakes my dad made. And I thought, all I want to do is whatever my kids want, I want them always to feel they're able to tell me about it. And I think they can.

But of course, I've made my own mistakes. You know, so you don't repeat the sins of the father, and then you just make up new ones. But, you know, no one's perfect. I mean, I still find it odd when people call me dad. It's like, what? And I probably just about got used to it now. It's like being famous.

Famous is weird. Because, you know, in the sense that... Do you? Yeah, I really... The early stuff was weird. When I'm in the papers and stuff, that's really weird. But just day-to-day famous. I just like a lot.

It's like I feel my need to show off is less because people know that you've done something. So I'm sort of calmer and I don't know. I can see that. I can see sometimes that and you'll forgive me for saying this but if we accept that there's a baseline certain level of damage

at the heart of most performers. It's normally daddy issues. Do you this? I think so, I don't know. But I think what's interesting about you is that you acknowledge that. And I remember I had a therapist once who said, she said, the real problem she said I have

is when people won't acknowledge the damage. Of course, yeah. So, you know, people have this idea, and that's what used to happen, is never speak ill of your parents, sort of disnify your childhood. Yeah, move on. Yeah.

But I went, someone sent me to therapy once, and it was the type of therapy where you have to go back to being a child. And I remember saying, you're a frightened little seven-year-old. old and I thought right that's enough enough of this shit okay because because basically every question she asked me I think what are you trying to get from asking me this question so I was analyzing her what I do like is the therapy where they tell you

how to deal with stuff like proper stuff it's more cognitive CBT that's great you're getting panic attacks get a bag and blow into it I did 10 years of it because that's medical shit you know for instance taking antidepressants I thought oh I shouldn't take that as a stigma and then I remember someone said to me if you had a headache you'll take an aspirin to get rid of it and someone said your depression is basically your serotonin levels I know this isn't medically correct but basically they dip and then once they dip that's when you start to feel terrible and all that thing is doing I know it's not doing this but it's just adding it's just

giving you the bit back you need and the moment I thought yeah it's just doing some good why not I want to talk to you about trigger happy TV because it's 20 do you do you like it well I love talking about myself as you know so yeah not But no, it's good, it's easy walking with the dogs. It's 25 years, isn't it? Yes, it is, yeah. And you've decided to take it on tour? Yeah, I mean, originally, part of what we were talking about,

Sam, who I made it with, left me. Another tragic moment in my life at the BBC, and he wanted to go and do his own thing. He went off to L.A. and became an ad director. And I've just went off on my own. And then, so we didn't, we've always had... Are you cuddle Ray, Dom? He's cold. Yeah, 100%.

Here you go, fella. He must be knackered after the list. Oh, shut off. And so Sam came back from L.A. about three years ago. And we started talking about Trigap. We realised the 25th anniversary was coming up. And we hadn't really enjoyed it when we were doing it. We hadn't realized we'd never sort of ended it well.

It's a bit like a band splitting up. Yeah. So we thought, why not do something for the 25th anniversary? So we got everyone who worked on it in a pub one night. And that was amazing on the actual anniversary. And that was just so cool seeing all these people. who we'd forgotten about and everyone telling us these stories. And then we thought, how do we make it a live show?

Because basically it's me hassling people in the street dressed as a squirrel. So how do you turn that into a live show? Right. And so we worked out that showing clips is great in a communal setting because it works in a different way. Sam's very on the spectrum, so he's kept all the rushes. So we found outtakes and things that went wrong.

And so we told the story of Trigger Happy, and we did four big shows with costumes and dogs fighting in the audience. It was fucking great. But I made zero money from it because it cost so much to make. Did it? So now, and then I loved it so much, and I loved being on tour.

And there was demand. So I'm now doing a hundred, slightly stripped down, but still the same pretty much show. And yeah, it's just a stripped down show the story of Trigger Happy, but a lot of funny stuff, kind of weird stories. Basically, answering all the questions, people always asked me about Trigger Happy,

did you have to get consent, what went wrong, did you get arrested? Is that where you get, and the answer, I can tell you, is you did get arrested? There is what? You did get arrested. I did, yeah. If I didn't have to get consent, I'd have another 25 series of Trigapi,

and you'd be doing this by Zoom from my house in Malibu. But the main reason people didn't sign consent forms was because there were a vast amount of people wandering around with someone that wasn't either their husband or wife. Is that much? It's unbelievable how many people are adulterously hiking around London. So I want to know a bit about your other whole. because I get the sense that she's a real...

She's a proper person. Yeah. Yeah, she is. She's slightly damaged as well. Like her mum married her dad. There were childhoods sweethearts. Stacey was the fifth, well, she's the fifth and sick, because she's got a twin brother,

because they desperately wanted a son. And finally, they got a son and Stacey. So Stacey was always known as Scrappy McDougall, because she had to sort of fight from the moment she came out of the womb. She's got a very tall brother, and she's tiny and she's got this farry Scottish temper because she's McDougal and then the milkman ran over her one of her sisters when the sister was about five and then the her dad just fell ill went to hospital and then died in two days of leukemia oh my god this all happened when

she was around seven so I think she got very damaged as well and she's very like me we just block everything and move on right so we very I think I met her and asked her to marry me six months to the day after we met. And I always knew that we just had whatever else happened, we had almost identical values and sort of attitudes on life. So we totally, we never differ on stuff like that. I mean, she's always like, oh my God, damn, you're so rude and, you know, because she hates me. You think you are rude? No, but, you know, when I'm doing loud stuff, I sort of do it to almost taunt her and she's constantly saying, sorry, sorry, sorry, because she's Canadian. So I think I'm what she'd love to be.

And she's what I should be, you know, like, so it's that. I think I certainly, from spending time with you today, which I thoroughly love, by the way, Don. Thank you. I do admire your authenticity in that I can sense when people are being performative about honesty and bringing out as a party trick and when it feels like that. Now, I've almost got, I've almost got Bafter Tourette's honesty, I'm afraid. Not quite. Not that level. That word is not allowed.

What? Yeah, that word is not for that. Well, no, nor should be. I mean, I just can't understand how the BBC couldn't, didn't cut that out. It's like, what the fuck is that about? You got two hours. I know. Anyway, I mean, I used to get so much hassle people online, you know, that I was part of the BBC cabal because I worked there 20 years ago. And I loved the BBC. I grew up listening to the World Service. I loved everything it stood for. But I have to say, recently, I'm trying to think, maybe they're right. I mean, they've looked after a lot of wrongans, and it just seems so, you know, I'm pretty woke.

because nothing wrong of being woke. Woke just means being decent, but I think they have maybe overwoked a little bit. Yeah. Who do you think, who stands out? Because I know you'll give me an honest answer. Yeah. Who stands out as someone, an example of someone well-known you've met

where you thought, God, I'm so impressed by you. You're not what I assumed you'd be. Yes. So that's really interesting. So lots of times people I thought I'd really like were awful. Like who? Well, no, I'm not going to go there. again but I've done enough but oh yeah that's true we've already done because I

always just meet them the next day okay who's nice that I met that I didn't expect Alan Carr genuinely I thought he was going to be a bit of a twat I have to say yeah and I went to his house you know you're summoned to his house for his podcast and I just thought he was I like it when people just are what they are on tell you another one I mean I'm not sure if they faked me or not but and deck always struck me as pretty straight up you know like I mean I don't There's obviously some darkness there. Let's not go into that.

He can't resist himself. No. But I mean, why shouldn't we talk about this? It's just crazy. I don't know these people. I mean, it's just what people say. But I will definitely point out people if they're, I think they behave badly. But I'll also point out people if I just genuinely like them.

I mean, as I said, what's his name? The Stand Art. Lee Matt was surprisingly nice. So yeah, there are lots of nice people. Jenny Eclare. Love Jenny Eclare. She's lovely. So I met her in.

You met her in the jungle. In the jungle and I didn't know any comedians. And I just loved her. I love Ronnie Ancona as well. She's really, really nice. James Nesbit became a friend. We went golfing in California in the Glory Days, which was just so weird.

Who is that not me? He went on holiday with someone. There was a funny story you told about him. I've got the greatest story from that holiday. Go on. So we're in, I'm in L.A. We're at this weird. Someone's thrown a party for us at this big hotel.

and there's a long there's a long table and there's a there's Mickey Rourke is sort of melting at one end and then there's Jimmy Nesbit there's me there's a guy from the West Wing there's sort of various people been golfing with it's all like this is just not me I don't know what I'm doing here and suddenly someone gets a call saying Ross Kemp is in town and he's making Ross Kemp's gangs of wherever of course he is not and and so so so people I'm with no Ross and they say well look we're having this supper in LA, come along. He goes, well, I'm filming, but when I finish, I'll come along. So an hour later, we're all quite pissed. Ross Kemp turns up, and he sits down, and he sort of

sits opposite me, and he's just staring. He's giving this like thousand-yard stare, and he's just, you know when someone's just desperate for you to say, you're all right, and I'm just refusing, I'm not going to do it, but in the end, I fucking have to. And I go, Ross, are you all right? He goes, it's just weird. You know, like two hours ago, I was sitting there with a man holding a gun to his head who killed up to 50 men. And then suddenly here I am completely different sitting at this table in LA. And it just takes me, it's just, I find it very difficult to adapt. And without a fucking beat, Jimmy Nesbitt shouts down the table,

stick to fucking Panto then, you cunt. It was the best line in the history of the world. I love that. I've used to way too much on this. I know, but sometimes it's the only word that we'll do. Yeah. Thank you so much. I genuinely, I really, really love that. And I thought, I mean, I love that you've done some research. Like, no one's read any of my books, so they have, but no one's bothered to do it for that. It was a total pleasure, because I love your writing and I'm a huge fan of yours.

Oh, thank you. So I wish they were more like you in the world. Right. Thank you. Well, you say goodbye to Dom, Ray. Yeah, goodbye. I'm slightly changing my mind about very small dogs. Well, I'm not, I'm not sure you're a dog. You remind me a bit of punch, punch, punch, the monkey are you aware of punch the monkey he's so punched the monkey he's got a little face like that i think you'd be rejected by a lot of macao monkeys i'm not sure you're a dog actually i think it's

been a terrible mix-up in the pound but you are lovely um tom i'm really hoping that's his face just as my only worry from today it was lovely to meet you and we're going to say goodbye truman yeah by truette fissgerald's absolutely knackered i can see his legs gone a bit because he's been jumping of oars but he hasn't had that long a walk we love you since he was a puppy And Truman says thank you. That was really fun, guys. Thank you. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog.

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