Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - George Fouracres (Part Two)

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

In part two of Emily and Ray’s walk with the wonderful George Fouracres, the conversation becomes a little more personal as George talks openly about his bipolar diagnosis and the impact it's had on his life and career.He also shares the brilliant story of finding out he'd landed a role on Saturday Night Live UK, a moment that should have been one of the biggest of his career. Instead, his attention was largely focused elsewhere, on a cordless vacuum cleaner he'd recently bought and was extremely excited about collecting!It's a funny, honest and surprisingly moving second half that offers a glimpse into the person behind one of comedy's breakout stars.If you haven’t already, do go back and listen to part one. And do give us a like and a follow so you can catch us every week.Follow Emily:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyrebeccadeanX: https://twitter.com/divine_miss_emWalking 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 actor, comedian and star of Saturday Night Live UK, George Four Acres. 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 George and Ray Ray. After you graduated, George, were you thinking at that point? It was presumably clear you'd been working with, you'd formed this sketch troupe, hadn't you, with your contemporaries, Phil, That came a bit later. That came a bit later. Yeah. At the time, I had kind of, I graduated and immediately went, I immediately went on tour with the footlights to the Edinburgh Fringe and to these American universities. And I was like, never, never thought, like the idea of going to America, just never ever, I was like, I'm going to America for free to go and do comedy. I was like, this is it, we've made it. And that was with the footlights you did that was with the footlights.

That's good to get in with these footlights people. Well, I mean, it was so, like, look at the privilege of it. It was all paid for. Like, well, like the flights and the hotels were paid for. No, I'm not attacking you. I'm not being like reform UK. And we paid with it. Did we as taxpayers?

You'd all order around America. The government paid for the footlights. Doing your bloody North studies or whatever. And, yeah, I was like, and I, and I, I got an agent off the back of that, you know, 21. Are you still with the same agent? No, not anymore. Just for a variety of reasons, just over time.

But I was like, I then finished that. And then I moved to London with my friends, live with my friends Lowell and Ryan, who I was also writing sketches with at the time, with Jason from Daphne. And I was like, this is it. Well, this is it then. Any day now, I assume.

something will come along in the meantime I guess I'll just keep writing these sketches and it's at that point as I'm sure my parents would probably wait him for they're like he's going to realise any second that he doesn't come from money and he's going to have to start working his ass off and he's never done an honest day's work in his life and I got to the point I was like I can't um I've got like 40 quid left in the world and I'm not I'm not in a play yet isn't it is it play coming along for me to be in at some point. Did you start doing a normal job?

I started doing a normal job. I was signing on. But at the time, there was a sort of, I'm not sure what the correct term for that exact point in time was of 2012, into the end of 2012 into 2013, there was a colossal economic slump where getting a job was impossible. And even just like bar work, I did all sorts of fun, like I cleaned out,

big fridges in cafes. I did a lot of like my uncle worked for a catering company. He's a chef and does like catering events and stuff like that. So I did stuff like Silver Service and it's funny, I was at a press night last night for Beetlejuice with David Finn, a friend of mine,

and an amazing actor who's playing Beetlejuice and Beetle Juice went to go and see him. And I saw, you know, these kids are then, you know, 1918. I mean, I was 22. I was doing this until I was like 24, but 23, 24 doing these kind of jobs. And then just always writing and making stuff as far as we could and putting our own stuff on. And I saw this kid standing there and I was like, my God, those traw there's like anyone who's done this job will know them. The shiny trousers, but also the, there's a tray that you have.

that is like, it's like a tray that's just so disproportionately heavy that's like got little slots in it that you put the glasses of shampas in, that you stand there like a statue and let people come and take the champagne off you. But like your art, there's such a feeling in your arms of holding those trays. And I saw this kid, I was like, oh God, yeah, I remember, yeah, I was like, it's so odd. And I was like, well, I hope that guy, I hope that kid also gets to then do all the amazing things I've got to. do since then. But then you know George that's interesting because what you

describe is empathy and I do you, but it is essentially not pushing you towards a diagnosis here. What is this strange emotion I feel? Star Trek. What is that brother falling from your eyes? That is very much like how people have had to explain that to me like in my like mid-20s. I was like I feel horribly, horribly sad when my friends have bad things happen to them and I feel like it's happening to me. Yes it's called hyper empathy and it's part it's part of it's part of But no, my point is that actually I do also think that's why it's really helpful. I personally think that should be compulsory.

I think everybody should do jobs like that. Because I do notice like, because I've done, you know, and they're not shitty jobs. There's a lot of dignity to some of those jobs. But what I mean is jobs where I'm underpaid and I'm on my feet all day. And because of that, I suppose it, how can I have empathy for that if I've not experienced it? Yeah. You know? Yeah.

I think I personally just think, yeah, I think everyone should have to do at least six months either in some sort of service job. Yeah. It's quite Nigel Farage of me, though. National service. I know, national service should be working in the service industry. So you don't scream at people in call centres. But I was always like, I knew that, because obviously also my dad also grew up with that thing of like,

it's also worth saying that my dad was quite, I mean, now it's probably quite normal about them, but like just very young when he had me. And his dad was, like when I was born, my grandparents were in their fore. which is quite again quite a normal thing yeah where I grew up um so we're very like generationally close and I would say I used to say to my dad when I was like 20 I'd say you know soon I'll be like over half your age and then they'll come a certain like you're already over half like half your dad's age and my uncle is in between me and my dad in age and I was like they'll come a point where you and me

and Mike and Gramps will sit in a pub together and we'll all just be like four old dudes who were just like sat together in a pub and we're at that point now like Yeah, you're the old men in the pub. Yeah, we're just like we're all just like four like old dudes. Yeah exactly there's the old men sitting in the pub like that is just does now that that happened like after like you know you get to like 24 25 or something and then you're over half your dad's age and then you're like I'm now like I'm 13 years away now from like the age my granddad was was when I was born. Yeah, that's like mental. So we were all generationally very close.

And, but like for my dad, for my gramps and my uncle, they're like, they're brick they're bricklayers. So they're working really fucking hard, sorry to swear, all the time. So yeah, so my dad was doing a job that I would consider very hard because he was just always working like he, when I was little, was obviously working full time. time he worked he was working trying to get like practical work in like mobile library service then also he did think like he worked in a hardware shop and stuff like that and I can like that's all that's too hard for me like I was like

like he but he would catch shit from my grandson my uncle because like my grandda was civil servants which we make like civil servants I'm who civil Sheavich, never done a nice day How'd work in your wife? And then it's like, I'm like, well then what am I doing? Because I'm literally like occasionally like Helping people offering people a shampas

And then like writing silly sets with my friends There's an element of you You're pursuing a kind of creative dream Aren't you? And at that point You know When with the acting thing Was that something

Doing Shakespeare and working with the globe? Was that something you kind of... Did they spot you in something and think, oh, he'd be great? It was sort of that. So I went through the pit. You didn't go to drama school? No, I didn't go to drama school.

I always say, I wish I had. But then every time I say that, all my friends who are actors who went to drama school are always like, you shouldn't have gone. You wouldn't have liked it. And I take their word for it. Because it sounds like a lot of it is like my idea of hell. Like, even now when we do, like, on stage,

we do like warm-ups and exercises and workshops and things. I hate them. I hate them. And they don't help me. And Sean Holmes, the director I've worked at, with a lot of the globe, thankfully knows that about me. So he knows it when it's like, okay guys, we're going to express ourselves through dance. He knows to send me away to do something else, which is merciful. Well, if it makes you a better, my mom, bless her heart, she went to Roder and it was the peak of her life. She was one of those actors.

Like this stage manager friend of hers is to say, your mother basically walks in as a newsagent and says 20 silk cut and I went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, please. She could never stop going on about Rada. It's a bit like some people who've been to Oxford never stopped going on about it. It's the Rada thing. But when she told me, she said,

I had a wonderful teacher called Peter Barkworth, who is this real old school actor. She said, I'll always remember our first day. And he looked at us and he said, acting is acting, is acting. And my sister was like, how much did you fucking pay for that? Like literally, there is a lot of that at Raja, I think. I mean, they was.

I don't know if there still is, but. I think there might still be. From what I hear, I think there might, I think there's a good chance they might still be. And so the Shakespeare thing, because I mean, I've seen you, I've seen your false. Now, I've seen your full staff. I've seen you in Comedy of Eras. Comedy of Eras, yeah, Dromio. Dromio.

I haven't seen your Hamlet, but I've heard good things about your Hamler. Oh, that's very kind. And that Shakespeare thing, it's something that, you know, obviously as a kind of scholar of the language, I can see why you would be so good at interpreting Shakespeare. Because it is a language, essentially. Essentially, yeah, it is. And I wonder if that, but I think,

was that something that surprised you that you had this natural talent for Shakespeare? It was like a vocation. To be frank, it was like a vocation to me very early on in the same way with priests Where it's like something I don't know what it was I don't know what it was But when I was 15 I discovered a Midsummer Night's dream like a lot of people of that age Like at school I did that was the that was the breakthrough moment in my brain Where I was where something happened I don't know what it was but something

happened where I was like this feels like something I need to be doing and I know that's very pretentious I know that's a bit wank but it's just unfortunately true I remember reading it

in year eight when we were doing it at school and I was like and it's funny because Ralph Richardson who's one of my big heroes who's one of Lawrence Olivia like the three sort of of sirs of like Geelgood Olivier and Richardson.

Richardson's clearly the most mental of the three of them and therefore my favourite. You see George, that's our equivalent of Will and Gareth, pop-eyedles. Who's it going to be honey? Who's it going to be honey, John or Ralph? These are our pop-idels. That was my girls allowed.

It was like which one is... No, these are my idols as well. Yeah. Ralph Richardson said a similar thing had happened. I then subsequently saw an interview when I sort of discovered Ralph Richardson at uni and was watching a mad interview that he'd done with Russell Hardy. Oh, he's done a lot of mad interview.

Russell Hardy, I big a pardon. And it was this thing where we'd go around the class and read a bit. And it's like, I don't know if this still happens at school. But like everyone has like their reading out loud voice where you have to like tow the line and sound like you don't care about it and you don't understand what you're reading.

so you deliberately make yourself sound a bit thicker so everyone would be like you know it'd go around it'd be like right do like you'd be like right okay uh John Brown you do a bit and it would be like I mean I immediately can't think of any um midsum rights dream but say it would be like um when my cue comes call me and I will answer it is mouse fair pyramus but oh what is this you know and then it sort of got to me and I was getting really annoyed remember I'm like 12 and I was like I was getting annoyed by everyone around me being like what are you not seeing what I'm seeing are you not are you not seeing this like reading it and it like got it like got to me and I like

can't remember which bit it was I feel like it was a bit with fairies it could be not been a bit with fairies I've no idea and it would be like it would get to me it got to me and it was like okay and then George did a bit and I was like like through the house give glimmering light oh like declaiming and it was like the teachers I can't remember his name now it was a scouse I couldn't feel self-conscious no I was just like I couldn't wait to do it I was like I was like are you not seeing what I'm seeing this this about the flowers and the flowers and the fairies and the the moonlight and the stars and I was like what you know and I read it and it was sort of

of electrifying it not for probably not for other people probably why is that 12 year old shouting but I was like I just felt it was like what is this what is this and then when we did at school it was always year 10s I probably quite a light bloomer for a school plays guy and a theatre kid and I auditioned I was like do you know what I'm not audition for the school play I'm going to audition for the school play and it's It was like all the six formers and everything, you're like, all the coal paper are all the six, the celebrities are here. And I was like, oh my God, Oliver Zarandi's doing it. And I went and did the audition and I was like, oh, they want you to, can you read one of the mechanicals, the funny toys?

And I was like, yeah, and then did it and read the thing. And then I, and then it was like, oh, they put the thing up in the English block of who's in the school play. and I was walking and my subsequent best friend, Ben, walked past and whether out of just not think, just not

wanting to tell me or out of spite, I don't know why. He went, George got bottom and then walked off. And I went, you what? And I was like, bottom? Because it was like, it was like I'd ordered

you know, I'd ordered a USB stick from Amazon and been delivered a Mac book or something I was like, what? And then we did the mid-sum-rooom-stream and I played bottom at school and I was just like so felt like all of a sudden and at that point as well 15 nothing made sense to me

absolutely nothing made sense to me about who I was what was going on, what I was doing, nothing made sense. And it made so much sense to be pretending to be this man with a donkey head, with some fairies, in like a dinner hall in Wolverhampton. And the moment I always think of in those moments, that really was like something happened in like, it felt so sort of inside me that it was like it was in like my spinal fluid or something. was when my mum was driving me home, like driving along through, you know,

I guess down like the Compton Road or whatever into like Chapalachian, Wolverhampton. And I looked out the window because it was like it was the winter, so it was dark really early after school, after rehearsals at school. And I saw the moon out the window and the moon was in the crescent. And there's a bit where they're joking. in the play within the play, the Duke thesis is like, oh, the horned, they're talking about the horned moon, and he's like, oh, he should have worn the horns upon his head.

And I saw the moon in the crescent, and I was like, oh yeah, it looks like a pair of horns. And all of a sudden, like the Matrix or something, my brain just went, William Shakespeare, the bloke, like the bloke, William Shakespeare, looked at the moon with his eyes in his head, in his body with his skeleton

stood on the ground and looked up at the moon and saw a pair of what looked like cow's horns presumably of some cows he had seen when he was walking around and he was just alive and there was just cows and he was there and the cows were there

and the field was there and the grass was there and the world was there and he saw those horns in the sky and I'm looking at them and I'm seeing those horns and I'm seeing those horns on a cow's head all in the space of like a micro second all just hit me and it was like I've never done acid or anything like that but like I was like that moment of realization was as strong as I hear people describe that experience it was really that was your ayahuasca yeah it was really spooky it was like everyone who was ever dead was alive again and I was standing next to him it was bizarre utterly bizarre and then it just when I read it now it all All of it that I read just makes a lot of sense to me.

Some of it's better than other bits, let's be honest. A lot of it is really bad. What I would say is what you've said is it makes sense. So Pierre and I talk about this quite a bit in that I know a lot of my friends will say, find it weird that I like Shakespeare so much because it's become sort of more the cultural norm to slightly dismiss Shakespeare. And say it's crap or it's pretension, so it's rubbish. And I get it. But I remember having a conversation with a friend.

recently and I just said, look, he said, but I just don't like it. I just think it's rubbish. And I said, I think what you're saying there is that you're not literate in it. And that's okay to say that because it's not taught in the right way. I said, but it's kind of a bit like me saying, oh, I hate quantum physics. Quantum physics is shit. Yeah. You can't, it's just that I don't understand it. And that's not by any way to denigrate people who don't.

It's because it's a language. If you're not taught it, it's only because I studied at a degree level that I was taught it. Well, how I try and get people to like Shakespeare, I agree with you because I say, look, do you like succession? Because that's King Leah. Yeah. Do you like the Lion King because that's Hamlet? And I think it's almost like, it's just that language, like you said, it's how it's taught and how it's perceived. And how, and also how we think of him.

Yeah. Because what Dr Farah Karim Cooper points out is that you get into the 19th century. And if you go to Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, there's a statue of him there. And all of a sudden, he's this very like Anglo-Saxon. looking dude with like he's kind of and the portraits of him become that he's very fair haired and sort of misty-eyed Aryan figure yeah who becomes more acceptable as a sort of export of the empire where he becomes this sort of quintessential British thing which he never was that in a nutshell is how Shakespeare became this thing that was like it is for the

educated classes of the British Empire who rule the world. And it's like even they had to even change his appearance to make him more British. But he wouldn't have understood what even the word British to him would have been a completely anachronistic word. He was he was a he was a subject of the kingdom of England. And until before, long before the political union even with Scotland. And he like when people went to the globe, there's an amazing, there's an amazing thing called O.P. which is original pronunciation, which is how Shakespeare and people around Shakespeare would have sounded. So that's different to like RP. That's what my dad spoke because he was taught that at the BBC.

And that's how they taught people to speak Shakespeare, which is also why Shakespeare then becomes incredibly long. Yeah. Because the words, the language isn't built for it to be on like, now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer. It's like not met. It's like my mother's come back to life. That was my bathroom everyone. It was like, but you hear. But you hear it in O.P. And it would sound something more like nose or winter of ore, discontent, mad,

glorious summer by the sun of yark. And now the clothes had lowered upon our house in the day, bosom of the ocean, buried. And you're like, well, that's 50 times quicker. So it's like, they talk about the place being two hours long. They talk about Hamlet being two hours long. We now run it at four or five hours, if you run it uncut.

Which is, our version was cut down a lot and we were ran at three and a quarter hours. Very, very long. And that because all of this stuff then it becomes this heightened thing that's not for everyone. When people go in to see it at the globe, everyone would have understood what they were talking about. But because it's a 400 year old language. This is the thing. So the biggest compliment you can be paid, I think, and the thing that I try and do whenever we do it is just make people understand what the fuck is going on.

Yeah. It's like the biggest thing. Because there's no merit in it to me if people aren't with you in the story. It's also why I think the worst Shakespeare plays is the ones where the story just isn't very good. Like, all of his stuff isn't brilliant. It's like, Pericles is all like... It's not brilliant, but what I also would say,

what happens is that because he created, you know, it was the first thing post all those medieval allegory plays where you had people with kind of complex inner psychology and people. So what happens now is it's funny. Because he was the first, and we've done much more sophisticated things with his stories now and his conceits, you think, oh, well, that's

a bit of an old trope, that's a cliche. And you're like, well, no, that's because you've seen it taken on in a much more sophisticated modern way now. Do you know what I mean? I think it's, well, listen, we can do a separate thing. I can talk about this. I'm obsessed with it. And I do, yeah, I do think, I just feel, because I feel

people are missing out. And I feel absolutely there's this barrier that it's seen as people with daunt books bags. Yes. You know, sitting at the globe. It's very sort of Lib Dem sticker in the window. I just want to say to people, no, it's really fucking brilliant. And when you look at some of the stuff, I don't know, if I look at that, one of my favorite false off quotes is Who hath on a he that died a Wednesday.

The reason it's my favorite quote is it's such a modern comic conceit. People will say, oh, having a breakdown, that's just a Tuesday. So I think they don't realize actually we're borrowing from him all the time. Yeah. So, SNL. We need to get on. Saturday Night Live.

I was so thrilled when I, well, I was thrilled twice. I was thrilled, I'm going to make this about me, when I found out you were going to be in it. And then I was thrilled when it was so successful that it shut up a lot of people.

And let's be honest, George, there were people in certain courses almost willing it to fail, I felt. There were, there were. But I want to know, I mean, I know you did a self-tape for that,

didn't you? I did, yeah. And that must have been such a huge moment in your life when you got the call saying you'd got the gig. Do you remember where you were? I know exactly where I was. It was the strangest moment. Also worth adding in that both with bipolar disorder and with this potential autism diagnosis

is that processing information and emotional regulation, two things I massively struggle with. And I found out about two days after I finished doing the Merry Wives of Windsor to the point where I was still, it was lunchtime and I was eating leftover Chinese takeaway from the previous day, which I'd got after the after party of the end of Mary Wives, Windsor, I'd got a Chinese takeaway that night. So I was still eating that same takeaway. and I was gearing up to go to curries because the biggest I was so genuinely this just sounding like an Alan Bennett twop for heads the level of detail so I was going to curries I was getting ready to go to curry cream cracker under the song of course mother called I was one of those sleazy types it was a funny old morning I was waiting to go to curries because I had pre-ordered a cordless

Hoover and that I was so excited about that cordless Hoover. I wanted you to be in LA by Paul. I was like, me and my partner have been like, look, we're all right at the moment. We're doing all right. It's like, it was like 300 quid. We're all right. We can afford a cordless. Yeah, we were.

I was so straightforwardly excited about this cordless hoover and I was eating me left to have a Chinese and I was like, any minute now, any minute now, we're going to be getting in the car and we're going to drive to Corrieuhr. and we're going to get that cordless hoover. And I cannot, I could not wait for it. And my agent called me, and I've got the picture. I'll have to try and find the picture and send it here that my partner took of my face.

Because I was wearing, at the time I was wearing, a vest and crox and a card, like, a quite heavily patterned. Yeah, and I still had my full staff beard and long hair, I'm all like all just like scragged in a mess like look like with just a bowl for because I was like well I can't fit all my Chinese on the plate so I'll just get one of them big pasta bowls full of um rough port fried rice um sweet and sour chicken balls and hot and sour soup um and you sound if i've seen that picture i'd say is everything okay at home like if you saw the picture you'd be like what in what what what like um tragic event is it is this in relation to um And my agent called and was like, and told me.

And I was like, I sort of don't quite remember the phone call because it was like a bit like being hit with a spade. Yes, I bet. And apparently my reaction was to say, oh, is that all sorted now then? That was what I said. And then I sort of had the conversation and I was like, look, I know I'm going to be excited about this. But I've got to get a call. But unfortunately, it's buffering because any minute now, I'm going to curry.

to pick up me cordless hoover and it's going to change my life because I'm sick of lugging around that big heavy dicer that was secondhand with a pet attachment for the cat fur and I've heard such great things

about this sharp Hoover and it's cordless and it doesn't weigh a thing and it's got guess what we've already established it's cordless guess what we don't need to hear again the fact that it's cordless

so when it goes under like the sofa even raise walking away even raise board So I was like, I've got to process this hoover before I can get to SNL. Oh, right. He's coming closer to you. He likes your energy. Yeah, you snuggling up, are you?

And then about four days later, which is the usual processing amount of time it takes, about four days later, I woke up at one o'clock in the morning and went, ah! I realised that I was going to be doing something that was, like, one of my very innocent but completely acceptable pipe dreams to me because I knew it could never happen when I was like 22 was I was like I want to be a cast member on Saturday Night Live. Did you really think that? I gent because I was like that's what because I knew it couldn't happen. What you think in America? In America because there was not we didn't have it here and I was like yeah that's my dream job

because you get to really like be a proper like comic actor which was like to be honest the industry sort of strangled that potential to death over 15 years. exactly when I was doing it. So like for us sketch comedians, there's like a whole generation of sketch comedians who were just sort of lost into the mix of popping up here and there in sitcoms that stand-ups have. And if you think I was the generation before you were

was like, you know, the Falsh Show and Smack the Pony and Sketch Comedy was huge. And like Harry and Paul I would watch and I was like, their performances were so detailed and so weird and their impressions were so spot on. But they even them were like the weird ones. They were the ones I really was like those guys. Like they'd like Mr.

I'd say it like, like watching sketches from the 90s on like my overheating Dell laptop in my little bedroom in like 2007. Watching them do like Mr. Chumley Warner and stuff. And I was like how would like, how have they so accurately observed these like accents from the 90s? Hello on Mr. Chambly Warner and all that sort of stuff. They're incredible acting performances. They're proper, proper acting performances. And the reason I thought. like all the sort of footlightsy, sketchy stuff

was like, it just wasn't my jam. Like I loved Fryen Lorry, for instance, in Jeeves and Worcester because I loved that because I was just obsessed with like the suits and the, you know, all the, the, how beautiful everyone looked. No, but you're not witty songs by the piano. No, it wasn't like, I was very much like, oh, Mrs. Worthington, all that stuff

was just not my purview at all. And so, so the American one was like Martin Shaw and Will Ferrell and, Chris Farley and then you know later on like Kristen Whig and Tina Faye and like Kate McKinnon in the 2010s and I was and like this is later on I was you know and I would be like oh it's you know they wore it so lightly and like a lot of it was all over the gaff but I loved how all over the gaff it was the point of the show is yeah you think in a way well I mean I'm

I'm not going to tell you what the point this shows, but it seems to me as someone watching it, that's what you get, because you're saying actually out of this, you need this to create brilliance. You get those moments of absolute brilliance, but you've got to come with us. We'll take risks.

It's not all of it is going to stick. It is like, come on in and here we go. And it's live. And there's musical guests. And, you know, for some people, maybe, it doesn't, I'm so happy that people have received it. I'm so happy that people have accepted it. it because all I wanted was for people for us to have that and it's not you know

nothing's ever going to be for everyone and I kind of get that people were were like apprehensive about what it what they thought it could be or was going to be like because it's not necessarily the most British thing ever but I was like but I knew in my heart of hearts it can be I knew it can be my biggest dream when I was five six seven years old until I was like nine like my big huge dream of my tiny childhood was that I wanted more than anything to have to be in a TV show where it was me, Sutty and Sweep and also the Spice Girls and that latterly became S Club 7 that was a sort of where I was like what are we doing this week what are we doing today

and in my in my head I was dressed in the suits that Richard E. Grant wears in Spice World the movie which was my favourite film So kind of like glittery three-piece suits. And it would be me hanging out with the Spice Girls and Matthew and this gang from Sutty. And we just get into comedy scrapes and there'd be some songs and music. And none of it really made any sense. But it just felt very real to me that dream. And that then turned into S Club 7 after the Spice Girls broke up.

Don't want to talk about it. Too sad. That was a weird, a really weird moment for my working class. dad having to like hold me in his lap while I wept when Jerry left the Spice Girls. I mean it's certainly the campus story I've ever. Yeah the campus moment of my childhood definitely. So you um so this felt like when you were doing us and L then yeah it felt like kind of oh this is my this is what I've always wanted to do and it's like with everything that comes to you it always turns out to be a bit different from what you're expected because

you build up a thing in your head and yeah but I still have those moments when we're doing the show and it's particularly it's really silly but it's like the end where we all say buy and wave into the camera which i mean like feels so stupid i find it very emotional but it's really lovely it's like genuine and you're suddenly like and the band are there and you're there and everyone's there and we're all just waving like a bunch of dopes and i love that and there's a bit there's a bit in week four and i've tried to get emotional about this but there's a bit in week four where my friend passed away one of my best friends died and and i helped you it together for the whole show and then we got to the good boys where we all just wave like

dope under the camera and I suddenly felt really oddly like obviously devastated with grief but like I was like this silly stupid like funny thing where we all like just wave and say boy but it's like still there and it's so stupid it even feels stupid talking about it and and getting emotional about it but it's that still that weird same thing from being like five yeah I've just like, here we all are. And obviously, it's more complicated than that. And obviously, it's really fucking hard work. And God, there's highs and lows.

And it's like, you know, I love doing it, but it's really hard. Can I just say something to you about your friend? And I'm really privileged that you shared that with me. But I also want to say, you know, I always think whenever I, it's so, I always like really honour those moments. And I find it very moving when people well up. And I know it wasn't that long ago. Yes, it's very recent.

Yeah. It's just a month and a bit ago, yeah. And do you know what I think? It's really, do you know what? It's been a long time since my sister died, but I still have moments when I just feel, oh, what's this? You know, I just, and what I think?

I used to think, oh, why am I feeling like this? And now I think, God, isn't it amazing that I still think about her? And I always think it's like a, it's like, I know this sounds weird, but I think that's a sort of lovely, it's a lovely thing in a way. I always treasure those tears.

Yeah, absolutely. he meant so much to you. Yeah, well they're the most sort of honest moments of your life for those things because they do catch you off guard and I think the ones where they catch you off guard you're like oh yeah it's because they're just still there and they're just always going to be there.

I remember my mum's saying when she lost her dad that it's like strange how you go through a period where they're just so gone and then they suddenly just keep coming back to you all the time and then they sort of permanently come back but it's very odd. They come back. Very human process. And do you know what?

George you know I always used to use I found that glitter analogy very helpful when someone said grief's like glitter because you clear it up but you still keep coming across bits of it do you know what I mean you'll just see it again you think oh I thought I'd hoovered that with my cordless vacuum yeah it's got a light on it so you can if it's under the sofa you can still see it's my blouse is still there's so many attachments we can't get rid of them but it's that interesting thing that so the reason I like the glitter analogy is it's it's lovely and shiny in a weird way but it just

creeps into, but there's something rather lovely about it as well, but it's big things that happen. And I wonder if the Saturday Night Live thing, that's a big moment in your life. Yes. And it's a significant moment. And I think it's those significant moments. It's complicated because you feel, oh, look at the size of that bumblebee. What a big lad. That's like a blimp.

Has he gone the bee now? We're careful of the bee. Don't go, swallowing that bee, it's bigger than you. Those significant moments, it becomes complicated because you feel it's time passing. Yes. Even when the bloody queen died, I thought, what's wrong with me? Why am I crying?

And it wasn't about the queen. It was about my sister. She's not here. It's all that kind of stuff, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. I think when I watched S&L, I mean, I need to let you go soon, but I could talk about that for two hours

because I think what I felt when, obviously I had a couple of dogs in the race, you and Anya, who I both know, and I'm thinking, God, I remember watching watching the first few minutes and I felt quite sick. I thought, God, I really hope this is going to work. Yes, I think we all did. Did you feel like that backstage? I cannot describe how frightened I was. Now I've got, like, I've, which is so silly.

Like, it's a comedy sketch show where, like, if this is the sketch show of Ed Grimley, of like, Oh, I go, I must say, like, you know, people pulling their trousers up and, like, falling over and hitting tables. But like, I think it was, it was the pressure, but also just like, I know more than anyone that, however much you believe in something, however much you think something is fantastic. The alchemy of putting something out there is very delicate.

And there's just so many things. It's like, you know, alchemy is the right word. It's like, is this going to work? And I've got family, like my eldest cousin is a Royal Marine who passed out in 1998. So I was in like Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan. Have you got his number? I love a service man.

I've got a real thing for them. I tell you now you wouldn't be a good one. match. Why? I'll introduce you one day. But he was in like all the major conflicts of the late 90s and the early 2000s. He was in like his descriptions of how you feel going into a firefight for instance. I was like I'm feeling the things he's describing. Yeah. Where it was like my bones were made of marble. I felt heavy and it was like I'm so happy the show was received in the way it was. And I think if it wasn't, it probably would have been different, but the lead up to doing it, that was not a fun day. That hour before, I bet you were feeling.

I went, I have never felt like, and I was like, I went out onto the studio floor for the show. And it was an instant toss, a flip of the coin where I opened the door to go onto the studio floor and a loud voice in my head said, you can't kill me if I'm already dead and then I went out and I was fine and I was dancing to the warm up song S Club 7 very spooky again Ayawada and Annabelle

singing S Club 7 and just dancing away, getting ready to do the show and then on we went and we did the show and and then afterwards obviously I was like a jelly because I was the fear of it but I'd exercise and the rest of it was in God's hands

and did you know George when you got, because I remember watching it, and obviously it's live, isn't it? So I remember feeling as soon as I saw the sketch about Andoraj, the creed. I think it was a few minutes in it. It's Tina Fey doing this. You know, it's the cream that makes you look so youthful. Everyone will think your husband is a paed upon. But I remember thinking it was that feeling that you get of, oh, okay, this is really going to work.

They've got, they've nailed this. It's absolutely landing. Did you get that sense in the show one? Did you get, do you get the energy of people liking this? I suppose you don't know. We had no idea. Like, I remember the dress rehearsal audience were, like, laughing along and stuff, and they seemed to be enjoying it.

And I was like, okay, okay. But, like, it gave nothing away about how it was going to be received. When did you first know that it had gone down well? Was it seeing social media afterwards? Well, I stayed away from social media completely. But the following day, I think even over, like, that I came off stage and went into my dress. room and I had about like a hundred odd messages on my phone and I was like okay and then the following day I they're all in touch now aren't yeah and the following day I went to bed obviously

quite late and then woke up quite late and I looked at my phone and was like I'd like I'd like instantly gained about like over like 10,000 followers or something on Instagram which is my only social media and I was like nope and then I put my phone down for the rest of the day and then it was in the ensuing weeks I stayed away from a lot of like all I just it's just I recommend it to any performer who does any comedian actor just don't read reviews don't read the comments it there's no point it doesn't serve you so I stayed away from all that stuff but I would get messages like from Ireland in particular that were so lovely that I was like oh well that's I think people

I think people got it like that was the thing I was most scared of was like are people going to get it well when we say get it we should say what we're referring to or I would say specifically what I'm going to oh that particular sketch there's a particular sketch that George did and I think it was at the end of the first episode Yes. And it was called 45 seconds with four acres. Forty thousand four acres. And you came on. I mean, I thought, what the fuck is he doing initially?

In this gentleman's smoking jacket with a sort of 1970s green shirt that you just don't see anymore, you know? And I thought, George, what have you lost your mind? It was just brilliant. And then you start singing, what kind of Irish is your granddad? Everyone knows that now,

because it went viral. And I think what was so brilliant about that sketch is that it was the danger of it. It was the boldness of it that actually, if that had gone wrong, it would have been an absolute disaster. Yes, I was particularly frightened about that, yeah. But it was the sort of no guts, no glory of comedy in a way because you really, it was like it was either going to be the best thing ever,

which thankfully it was. But that's because you sold it, I think. Well, that was very much like Mick, my friend, died who our last messages and communication were about the show obviously because he was watching it even up until he passed away with his family and his wife Naomi and he was like that's the most you thing that you've ever done because it was like it was I was like it was it was at that point like we were like what what are we going to do and it was the most nakedly me thing that I think I could have possibly done and I was like no good

So glorious. I was like, look, people are either going to take this or they're not, but here it, here it's fucking comes. When you pitch that in the, do you pitch things in the room? I didn't. That would never have happened without Tina Faye. It would never have occurred without Tina Faye. It was something I did in my audition tape because it was like, you know, you've got to show

all, you know, you've got fit in as many voices as you can do and as many, you know, and so that became a useful way of, like I grew up, like my family's from Ireland originally, like people had, they were just like, it's quite common in Birmingham and the black country, they're particularly the, and particularly in my granddad's world of pigeon flighters, there's just these old Irish fellas who are from all over, like, Ireland and they go to their sort of like, working men's club. Yeah, exactly. And like, and they're like, there's like, like, one of them is like a direct quote of one of my cousins, like, I know you're down, I know you're down, I know you're down, like telling off a bunch of us.

or messing around that a family do. Pack it, I know you're a dad, and all this sort of stuff. And I was like, I just did those. And so I was like, well, how do I knit them all together? I'm doing all these voices. And I kind of did like the old like orange man. They're like, man, the king, William Lodge and all this sort of stuff.

And all that sort of. So I stitched them together by, I invented this stupid. What kind of virus is your granddad? And then did all the different old men. And then like, The American execs came in to my office one day. And we're like, Tina's very interested in this, What kind of Irish is your granddad thing?

You did in your screen test. And there was this old thing that they had in the old one in the 70s that was like called Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy, where for 45 seconds he would just talk this weird monologue about just, and they were like, it will be useful, advice in the show to cover scene changes and stuff like that if you can do it and I was like well I was like what am I gonna so you want me to sing they're like yeah do that bit and I was like okay but it needs like an ending and I was like well can I just call it like

if I just call like 45 seconds with four acres or something and they were like yeah yeah fine do that then and then just do it the table reads and see I was and I did at the table read and people like what yeah people liked it a lot and also were like WTF and I was like yeah okay and I was like well that is just me screaming my own personality and like family out and and then I'm so happy that when it when it went in the show that like I because like I like all people of Irish descent or particularly Irish people in Britain um watching like impressions of Irish people in British or American sketch shows I'm sure there's a lot lot to say there that I won't say but it's like well I don't want to see that done

badly and I was like I hope people can detect that this is an in-joke and not me having a pop and so we put in I was like the way I'm gonna do is I've got to put something in here that is so Irish for Irish people that they will understand and so I added and so we added the bit in where the grandads the grandads just kind of inexplicably start singing at Orosha de Bahawalya, which is a song that any Irish people listening or people with certain kinds of Irish families will know that song. And I was like, at least that will show that. And then they were like, yeah, Nicola Cochlin's going to be there for the monologue.

And I was like, do you think she would, I mean, that would be really funny to sing Orosheed of Ahavalaia with one of the Derry Girls. And it was perfect. It was. And then it just became this, I have subsequent, I stayed away from all the online discourse and all that stuff. Do people come up to you, George, and ever say it to you? I will get, I'll be walking along and an Irish voice could be from Donnie Gore, could be from Cork, could be from Turone, could be from Dundalk. A voice will go, can I ask you one question?

I got to ask you one question. And I'll be like, and I'll be like, I know what it's going to be. And then they'll just sort of scoop around for a selfie and be like, what kind of are is this your grandad? I don't want to break their hearts and tell them it was my great-granddad. No. But I think what was interesting about that is obviously when I'm seeing also that sketch and I recognise and it really made me laugh, just the kind of even things down to the sort of fireplace accessories with the brass in which... I literally cried when I went, when I went.

Because at that point it was the first episode as well. And they were like, we didn't really realise. Yeah, they'll just build the set. And like the, because I'm very detail obsessed and very detail oriented. Yeah, I wonder what that might be. I wonder what's the person that suggests. Even like I went up and was like, I was, I cried because I couldn't believe what I was seeing because it was like seeing my childhood and my personality squelched into a set that they built overnight.

It was yeah, mad. And it was like, I was like, this is amazing. Oh my God, I can't believe it. Like the ceramic shire horse. And I was like, and I was like, Oh God, take away that picture of the queen, but leave the plate with Princess Diana on it. And I was like that level of detail. But you know what's interesting, George, my point is that, so let's say my niece who's 25, I think, well, she's had no experience of that.

I know that, even if that wasn't my own particular, I had a grandma who, you know, I get the Shire Horse. I get that. And I've seen TV to recognise that culturally. But I think that is a real thing about comedy being so universal. is that she doesn't need to know any of that IPO. She doesn't even need to know what you're doing. It's just funny. I'm a great believer in that.

A great believer in that. And I think it doesn't always work. I do take a lot of big swings. And that comes with a lot of big misses. And that's a lot of part of the process of making the show. I'm interested in how Saturday Night Live UK, we've come to the end of the first series now. And it's been a phenomenal success, George.

you know, there's... Oh, thank you. Well, it has, hasn't it? I hope so. In the sense that people are saying, God, I didn't know it was going to be this good and the reviews have been great. So how does it feel, how...

That's obviously changed your profile, hasn't it, in terms of you're going to get recognised more. How, just in terms of, you know, mental health and all that stuff, how are you navigating that? I don't... I don't... Well, I, like...

what's nice is like so far I haven't had anyone that come up to me and be like I hate you and I'm going to kill you that's quite nice yeah like it's always people want to say nice stuff and that's that's really lovely because I think I don't have the courage I wish I had to go up to people whose work I really admire and be like I think you're I really like your stuff and thank you and that's brilliant yeah like people doing that to me is overwhelmingly flattering and I'm very grateful really to people for doing that because it's it's really lovely thing and you know I'm really admiring of anyone who can actually say that to someone who's stuff they like I'm quite bad at but it does mean and lovely as that is it does mean more interactions it does mean more interactions which I'm more famously bad at yeah but I trying to learn to take compliments which is something I have always been absolutely horrible at

So I've got myself out of the habit of someone giving me a compliment and then saying, you're wrong, I'm rubbish actually, which is what I've been doing for about 20 years. And I'm now trying to be like, thank you, that's a nice thing to say. And I've trained myself to be better at that. When people criticise me generally, I'm always like, yes, you're absolutely right. I'm one of those people who, it's why I don't read reviews or anything like that, because I'm like, if someone writes, I could have a million lovely things, about me and then one bad thing and I would only believe the bad thing.

Really? That's just how I am because I just have very low self-esteem. And so like I'm, what I think has been good in a way for me is how fast it's happened. Because normally you work that hard on a project like that, filming that for TV for that amount of time. And then you don't, no one sees it for a year. Yeah. So you then have to like carry it. on sort of way but because it was happening in real time it like all happened

over the course of two months I think what's great about I imagine that show is that it does teach you resilience because the very nature of the show means that sometimes your stuff makes it yes sometimes it doesn't right yes and I think in a weird way like with what Jamie was saying that he was like because we would Jamie Dawn and Jamie Dornan was that he like we were doing this sketch at the time it was about pigeons and he was like he was like, oh you know I actually did a film about pigeons and I was like did you? And he was like, yeah, well I was doing this thing called The Fall and there weren't so much

I'm not going to keep doing the impression of him because he might hear it and then he'll, well he'll find it funny but he also has got very strong arms. He was like he was doing that but he didn't know, they didn't know how that was going to land. So he was like so he went and did this film about pigeons while he was doing it. Because he had no idea. So it was like the idea to me of like waiting to find out. but like the pressure of building it was like is it going to land is it not it's like we were absolutely finding in real time whether it was going to work with you

know whether it was working or not and so in a way the ludicrousness of that and just how like it was you know three months ago I was a theatre actor who I was vaguely like people if you went to the globe you might know who I was or if you like to get through. Darling of course I went to the globe. I've met my parents. This is exactly what, but I'm afraid, I'm exactly the kind of theatre girl

we don't really want to encourage these days. So it's weird that it was so fast and so much and so overblown that it was almost silly. So I was just like, well, it's just silly, isn't it? It's that given, I can see that's a lot for anyone, but it's also a lot for you. Because, you know, emotion, in excess of the fact. Yeah, yeah.

It's like that's a lot to process. Because if you feel more, deeply than the average person, that's a lot of feelings to process. And what I, what the, a lot of the work I have to do just generally in my life is trying to be mindful of how my subconscious is affecting me and affecting, you know, my behaviour and how I am feeling all the time. Sit here and take a picture. And so that I am like, I have to keep an eye on how I'm reacting to things and how I am, because

I'm like, there's a lot going on here. and it will be affecting me even though I might not be immediately appreciating it. And luckily you've got a great partner who has been with you long before you were famous. Yes. She's no Johnny come lately. And I think that's very important for someone like you as well. Do you know what I mean?

Yes, I'm very lucky in just the support network I have. And also can we say I met her at a wedding? Absolute Stone Cole Fox. I mean this woman walked in. I thought, who's this supermodel with? Oh, she's with my George. You're a lovely couple. Yes, and it sort of sticks out all the more because she is with me.

And I do look a bit like a sort of Rowan Atkinson combined the potato. I actually think you're a fabulous couple. Oh, that's very good. She's very good looking. Come on then. So yeah, that is, I can see that having to just keep an eye on that kind of stuff is important, isn't it? Yeah, it is, yeah. And do you, I know you have talked a lot in the past.

I've seen you talk about Mind, the charity. Yeah. And I know you've mentioned that they were incredibly helpful to you. They were, yeah. With sort of, you know, affordable therapy essentially. Yes, yeah. And I think, like, I mean, the NHS is obviously, like, has a multitude of problems. Yeah.

And the, you know, mental health in particular is drastically underfunded. squeezed and there's lots and lots to say about that hashtag West Street. But the mind have a great thing where they do like accessible like you know what's the word means tested accessible therapy for people on because therapy is expensive like taking like we are a friend of mine an advocate for mind and the poll very eloquently said that we are we're getting better at talking about mental health generally but we are not getting very much better about talking about mental illness we still we that still sits in quite an uncomfortable space

for us I think as a society I think you're right I think it's because people associate mental health with all that can be a temporary yes or it's like oh make sure you go outside and also and like yeah that is all yes exactly well you know where's you know where's it's not when people get it a bit and say, I've got mental health. I've got mental health, which is obviously my favourite, and I say it a lot. Yeah. Like, that kind of wrong phrase is my favourite thing in the world.

Like, I've got bloody mental health at the moment. Well, you know what he's like, he's got his mental health. And it's awful, because when someone says it, you think it's, you can never correct someone. Because what, and people do it so often now. I think it also is a strange way, it's sort of them being polite. Because if they said, he's got mental illness, it's like, that would be true, but it sounds really bad. It's entered the lexicon now. The fact that it sounds bad is a good indicator of where we sit as a society with the idea of mental illness. Yes, that's very true. And I think as soon as

you say words like bipolar, as soon as you say that, because there's confusion about what it actually is. There is. There's still, and there's still a stigma there, which I, I don't, at least I don't feel, I don't know if it particularly affect how people perceive me or how people treat me. I don't know. I don't feel that way, but I'm sure it is. But also at the end of the day, I am like a white bloke who has it pretty easy. Whereas there are people, you know, a white guy who works in the arts. So it's like I'm not on my own in like being a visible specimen, as it were. But it is, you know, the intersectionality of it is, it is harder for people who don't work in a cultural space.

It is harder for people of colour. It is harder for women. which is most things to be honest in every sphere obviously but particularly in the perception of mental illness and neurodivergence like there's a lot more stigma there do you have therapies I have had therapy yeah so you found it helpful yeah I don't think I would be alive without it absolutely and I think it should be a compulsory part of everyone's medical life yeah because we talk about mental health and we're like drink water go outside it's like you have any idea how deep and beautiful and complex your brain is you know how even a completely

neurotypical person goes through so the world is a terrifying place full is beautiful and incredible but it's it's frightening and we live in a frightening time and it's not always nice to talk about but this is a this is not this is an existential moment for our species at the moment. The climate crisis, the rise of fascism and violence. I was trying to be polite and I said populism. I think you've hit the nail on my head there with fascism. Yeah and I think it doesn't bear being polite about. There's no polite cure for what's happening at the moment and we're not doing enough. But for the individual person and for the collective people, I think, I think, therapy like just talking about things is such a minor starting point really and you know I have to do things

I've done cognitive behavioral therapy I've done psychotherapy I have to take you know different antipsychotics and things like that antidepressants and they have to be presumably what they have to do is make sure they all working together exactly that yeah the whole thing is a holistic experience where you have to make sure that everything because these what these diagnoses are for you could go through your whole life without having a diagnosis but the the point is to help you it's not to put a label on you or to tell you what you are or what so or that there's something wrong with you exactly it's to help you function and we talk about the the social model of disability and the medical model of disability and I

think we're trying to move towards the social model of disability which is not that the medical one is that there is something wrong with you but the social model of disability is that it is the world around you that is disabling you, which is the right way to go about it, I think. And it's true, look, the world isn't built for everyone. And we try and work towards a system where we build more of our world towards the biggest amount of people that we possibly can. Well, George Four Acres, we knew we loved you beforehand. Oh, that's very good.

But it's been such a joy and a pleasure chatting to you. It's been lovely. Have you enjoyed it? I've loved it. And like I say, I've... I feel very, having listened to the many billions of episodes, I feel very at home in here inside walking the dog. Anyone who's listened to this on their advice. So, no, I've had a great time.

And great, you know, meeting Ray. It's like me in Elvis. He has a much healthier die. He is on the James Middleton diet. Good boy. Well, I've absolutely loved it and I couldn't be happier for you. Thank you. You know, often I like to say it couldn't have happened to a nicer person but it's hard to say that.

And this I genuinely mean that in this case because you are such a thoroughly lovely man and I genuinely felt like so happy for you. If I a little annoyed that other people were discovering you. And I wish you continued success. I don't need to wish you that. But you're coming back with S&L. You get a few months off, do you? Yeah, we get three, about three months, yeah. And then you'll come back in... I've gone back in September. We've loved having you, George, four acres. I've loved being here. What do you say, and you like Ray, don't you? I like Ray a lot. Yeah. He's a really calm dog, isn't he? You're very calm. See, that's what I need.

He likes to cuddle you. George, we've loved seeing you, Ray. Will you say goodbye to George? Bye, bye, George. Hi, Ray. See you soon. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog. We'd love it if you subscribed

and do join us next time on Walking the Dog wherever you get your podcasts.