Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Jack Whitehall

Episode Date: December 16, 2021

In this Christmas special Emily and Ray went for a walk round Regent’s Park with Jack Whitehall and his Cavapoo, Coco. They chatted about the Whitehall family dogs, his childhood where he was an extroverted kid, his rebellious phase at school, and his new film, Clifford the Big Red Dog.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should we go to David Walliams' house, isn't that down here? And leave a little present on his doorstep. One from Coco. If Coco can't perform and demand, then I'll rustle something up. Welcome to a very special seasonal edition of Walking the Dog. And I'm thrilled to tell you that my guest is only the wonderful Jack Whitehall and his beautiful Kavapoo, Coco. Jack met up with me and Raymond in London's Regents Park.

fresh from the premiere of his Christmas family movie Cliff of the Big Red Dog, which by the way is such a feel-good, joyful film. And Jack's brilliant in it, so I insist you go immediately. It was really rainy and drizzly when we met, but Jack valiantly insisted we go ahead with our walk, and we just had the loveliest time. We talked about Coco, who Jack and his girlfriend got very recently, the Whitehall family dogs past and present,

including his mum's current dog, Philomena, such a great name, who was apparently fabulous. fabulously spoiled. Jack also told me all about his childhood, how he was quite an extroverted kid who loved performing from an early age. Or as he put it, I was a bit of an annoying get. I won't hear a word of it, Jack. We chatted about his rebellious phase at school and the comedians who really inspired him to be a stand-up like Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carrey, and his hero, John Cleese, who he ended up starring opposite and Clipp of the Big Red Dog. It was really interesting meeting up with Jack. I was kind of expecting him to be very loud and outgoing. And he was actually very

thoughtful and self-effacing and quite gentle. He had this very quiet calm energy. And Coco, I can exclusively reveal, has the most immaculate manners. Jack's dad would be bursting with pride. I wish I could have said the same for my dog, Raymond. I really hope you enjoy my chat with Jack and do go and see Clip of the Big Red Dog as you'll love it. Please remember to rate review and subscribe. I'll shut up now and have you. hand over to the man himself. Here's Jack and Coco. And yes, you too, Raymond.

Come on, Jack. Roman's going to follow Coco, Jack. Okay. Do you know, Coco seems quite chilled out. Oh God, that's come out of me. Yeah, I think she's just had all of her excitement this morning meeting other dogs from Bairddy Dogs Home and being in a cinema.

She's exhausted now. You've just come from your premiere. Yeah. Which way should we go? So we're in at Regent's Park. You look very smart for our dog walk, Jack. I know. Very smart. Um, it was a morning screening though, so I didn't want to go too overdressed, turn up in black tie to a screening that's full of children. So this is my casual attire. Come on, Coco. I love Coco's bottom.

You need. Yeah, she's got a real swagger. She's a twerker. She's a twerker. She is a twerker. And she seems to get on. What do you think of Raymond, Jack? Raymond's very sweet. What is Raymond? A sunning shitsu?

A shitsu and a... He thought, I don't want to insult her, but what the hell is that? What is that? What is that? What would your dad say about this dog? A cava shit? Cavalier in a shitsu? No?

He's a shitsu. Just a straight shih Tzu. Straight forward. Straight up shitsu. Straight up shitsu. What do you think? Yeah, very sweet. It's like an e-walk.

But he really likes your dog, Coco. Yeah. Coco is very hormonal at the moment. Oh, I know the feeling. She's very humpy. Oh, I'm not like that. She just humps her bed all the time. Do you find yourself doing that?

I'm sorry, I went there. Buy me a drink first. So I'm really excited today. I'm so thrilled to have him here with me today. I'm with the very fabulous... He's a writer, he's an actor, he's a comedian, he's a Hollywood movie star now. Well, and a dog walker now.

He's going to do better than that, Jack? Well, you know, I'd just like to keep my options open if it tanks. So I'm with the very wonderful Jack Whitehall and he's brought along his dog, Coco. We keep getting our leads twisted. I'm going this side of you. And you've just come, Jack, from the premiere. Is it the premiere?

Oh, straight away. We haven't even had the first question. Is this going to be a number one or a number two? Do you want a poo bag? I don't think it was a poo. That's just a leaf. And that's not come out of Coco's body, I don't think. So Jack's with his love.

with his lovely dog, Coco, the... Is she a cavapoo? She's a cavapoo. And she's absolutely beautiful. Very pretty. She's been quaffed and manicured and groomed for her appearance. Not on this podcast, obviously,

because it's not a visual medium. But she attended the screening of The Big Red Dog this morning. She was photographed on the red carpet. Fortunately, she didn't soil it, which we were very worried about. Is she going to mull this skater? Oh.

Oh, he's doing a poo jack. Oh, here we are. Time to bring out the boogie poo bags. Wow. That's like half his body mass. Very impressive. I didn't know the way you looked at his poo jack. I'm not going to lie.

No, I was just surprised to see so much come out of something so small. I was expecting them to be like little pellets. But that's a proper yule-tile. tied log. Oh, was that his? I don't know. I think that was in other dogs. You don't have to do that. That's being an extra responsible dog owner. That was definitely not from the same beast. Picked up someone else's poo. Yeah. It is dog poo, isn't it? Can you imagine? Yeah. I'd hope so, yeah. So tell me, when did Coco come into your life? Coco came into my life eight months ago. We had just, me and my girlfriend decided that it was time for us to get a little doggy.

And yes, we'd had quite a hard time. My girlfriend had lost her grandmother. And she'd had some health problems as well. And we were both very down in the dumps. We decided that it was time for us to bring a dog into our lives. And then we met little Coco over FaceTime and fell head over heels. And then we went to pick her up a couple of weeks later. Yeah.

And we've never looked back. She's been amazing. She's been the perfect gift. Never in a bad mood. and just unconditional love. So talk me through the Whitehall family dog history. We had a dog called Mabel from Battersea Dogs Home. That was my first ever dog.

I loved Mabel. And that was our sort of childhood pet. And we had Mabel for a while when we grew up in Putney. Me and my brother and sister all loved her. That's Molly and Barnaby. Barney. Barney or Barney? Barney.

What's happening here? And in Michael and Hillary, your parents, they're real dog people. Yeah, they're real dog people. My mum especially. We had Charlie after. Mabel who was also from Battersea and then currently they have a dog called Philomena who my mother is obsessed with I heard you talking about Philomena on I think it was your Christmas special with your dad yes and she's ridiculous

your mother with the dog isn't she ridiculous yes when we left home her children And Filomena was the new apple of her eye and became her sort of surrogate child. My room was cleaned out and turned into a sort of shrine to Filomena with all these images and cushions with Filomena's face embroidered onto them. Oh, you're not going to win that fight, Coco. Yeah, so she's obsessed with Filomena. lots of Instagram content with Filomena, dressed up in little outfits and whatnot.

And your dad, I remember he once said, you never took him for a walk. I remember your dad saying you weren't, he thought, and I thought, well, you're probably a boarding school to be fair. Yeah, exactly. Complaining that I wasn't affectionate enough towards the dog as well. It's very rich coming from a man that sent all of his kids away to boarding school, aged 11.

But yeah, so maybe I didn't see as much of Philomena because I was away at boarding school. Yeah. But I hadn't, yeah, I'd never had my own dog. It all sort of happened very, yeah, organically. It just felt like the right time to have my first first dog of my own. Look, Jack.

You're getting along famously, aren't you? I think they're quite like each other. They really like each other. So you grew up in quite a similar family to me, which is sort of theatrical, Thespian family. And there's a very definite energy in that sort of family

that you sort of know when you're in it. Yeah. And I used to spend my childhood, whenever I watch your stuff, I think, oh God, I'm so relate to that. I'd be slightly, I loved them, but I were a bit embarrassed. Bit embarrassed, yeah.

Friends would come around and we were watching more, and my parents would say, lovely, lovely Johnny Thor. Oh, yes. Oh, just be normal, just be accountant. Yeah. Did you get the sense with the horrific name dropping? Like incapable of having a conversation without dropping a load of names. Growing up in that, in the background you had with that sort of energy, that theatrical energy,

how did that affect you, do you think? What sort of a kid did that make you? Well, I mean, I think it's quite annoying. Because when you are around it, you do sort of gravitate towards it. So as much as it sort of wound me up when I got a little bit older, it did definitely introduce me to that world and make me think, oh, I'd probably like a piece of that at some point. I think from a very early age I wanted to be a performer

or to be involved in that world in some way. Yeah. It's quite hard not to. although my dad always claims he'd love from me to have become a like banker at Goldman and Sax or to have had a proper job I don't think it was ever really on the cards. Was there that sense in your family then because of always being on really like you know tell your anecdote yeah Michael was definitely always on when we were growing up he was

always doing anecdotes and always entertaining and trying to make people laugh. And I certainly developed that personality as well. Although I always think like when I then started performing and doing stand-up, I had an outlet for it. So I sort of calmed down a bit as a person. Yes. But when I was, you know, 16, 17, 18, oh, desperate for attention, desperate for an audience. And my audience would be the people that I was hanging out with in real life.

and socialising with. And then the minute I had an actual paying audience of strangers, I sort of had that hit and then was probably a lot less funny in real life. Were you definitely an extrovert from a young age, would you say? Yeah. I'd say I was, yes, I was definitely an extrovert, which is quite, I don't know, precocious. Yes, the class clown cliche, definitely.

No, I was an annoying git. Definitely. Sorry. And you, you went to... Should we go to David Walliams' house? Isn't that done here? What's that? We could go to David Walliams' house

and leave a little present on his doorstep. One from Coco. I'd happily do that. If Coco can't perform and demand then I'll rustle something up. So you went to prep school, didn't you, in London? Yes.

Because the West London you grew up in. Yes. As you all say, it's sort of mean streets of Putney. Indeed. And... But my dad always used to like to say Barnes, but it was actually Putney. We live right on the border of Barnes and Putney,

but he thought that Barnes sounded a little classier, so he always used to say Barnes, but it was actually Putney. And now he's moved out to the country, and he lives basically just outside of Bambri, but he doesn't like saying Bambri because he thinks Bambri sounds a bit common. So he insists on the North Cotswolds. He's such a snob. So you went to a prep school, and we know that Robert Pattinson went there, because you've talked about this. which is that he got all the parts, didn't he?

Yes, I did quite a lot of jokes. I mean, that all really came from my mum just comparing the two of us when our careers were at slightly different stages when he was in the Twilight films and I was doing stand-up comedy competitions and pubs and clubs. Sorry, go on, you were saying?

So, yeah, I did a lot of routines about him because she'd sort of wound me up. But, you know, I think he's definitely going to have the last laugh. Because all the jokes are about how he wasn't a very good actor, and now he is a really good actor, and he's definitely going to win an Oscar. And he's the Batman. And I'm in Clifford the Big Red Dog.

But you must have been talented, Jack, when you were doing the plays. Did you stand up? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I was talented, it was quite prolific. I put on lots of school plays, comedy plays and sketches, wrote my own sketches, and sort of started quite early. When did you realise comedy was a currency for you, though? Do you think that was when, in those family situations, when you'd make your parents friends

laugh? Yeah, definitely. just yeah making anyone laugh I think what was definitely something that I got a buzz from and then yeah at school I think did we do I can't remember the first time like I did a performance as thing I think I did we did a school play of the government inspector and I played an Italian waiter and went completely over the top and was only in one scene and was just trying to upstage everyone else and like you know just really commit to every joke and had a whale of a time and I think that was probably the first time I'd ever done a performance

on stage in front of an audience and got laughs and thought oh This is good. I'd like to do this again. And then you went to boarding school when you were eight. Did you like boarding school, Jack? Yeah, I was sort of fine. I had a really good group of mates who I loved hanging out with there and didn't really want to be at home. By that point, I mean, when I first went, I didn't really like it

and was quite worried about going away and missing my mum and dad. Mum and Dad but then once I got there I was sort of okay but I think it's sort of each to their own Jack do you want a coffee? Have a coffee or warm a yeah I'll go I might get a tea Tea what do you want English breakfast? Just just to the milk yeah yeah I'm just I'll run to the Lou Oh come on award-winning coffee but no such accolades for the breakfast Come come right we've just got tea and I've got a coffee Jack sir I knew Jack would be an English breakfast man yes I bet does Michael Whitehall like that the minute you asked me about boarding school I had to go and get a drink so traumatized was I by the memories

but did to run into the cafe and hide in the toilet and cry for five minutes and I've come back out and I can put on a brave face and tell you it was a wonderful experience did you like it yeah I was fine but I mean you know I can I also know and have friends that hated it and had traumatic experiences and I think I was just lucky had good teachers and nice friends I think maybe as well

that it seems like you grew up in quite a warm environment where you felt safe yes and with quite eccentric parents that every now and again it maybe was nice to have a little bit of space from

I thank them for that for having personalities that you really only want to spend maybe a couple of months at a time with. But were you rebellious, Jack? Were you sort of naughty as a kid? I was, yeah, like a little rebellious. I got in trouble a few times for quite weird things.

I mean, there was a couple of times when I got drunk at school and had smuggled booze back to school and got in trouble for that. Some weird, like, art project things. I think there was a streaking incident once. Sorry, hang on Jack, there's a man a bit like one of our family friends. He's talking about Annabals.

Probably one of Jonathan Ross's friends. Are you? Thank you. I love him. He looks like he might be dating Louis Spence at the moment. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Some real big dick energy.

He really had. It really has, isn't you? The other thing that I got, the most trouble I ever got in at school was there was this incident right towards the end when me and a load of my friends attacked the CCF who were like all the kids playing soldiers at school. And we all put on balaclavas and attacked them with water bombs and bags of flour and stuff like that. but I was the reason we all got caught because I invited one of my friends Alex to do it

who unfortunately was quite a large chap like enormous the biggest boy in the school and so when they look back all over the CCTV footage it was very clear that even though he was wearing a balaclava that could only be Alex

because he was about three times the size of any other pupil at the school and we all got called into the headmaster's office well actually no Alex got called into the headmaster's office and the headmaster went, right, I know that that was you, who else did it? And poor Alex. Did he sing like a canary?

Unfortunately, he did sing like a canary. Never rat on your friends, has he not seen good friends? Snitch is doing ditches. Yeah. I probably should have made up a name there rather than using Alex's actual name. Well, bleep it out. Bleep it out. Oh, is it raining, Jack?

Let's find a little shelter. Spitting a bit. I quite missed this. I've been in America for a bit. I quite like coming back and hearing squawking geese and having this sort of gentle covering of not even rain. That tells me that you're very polite and well brought up because I think you said that to make me feel less uncomfortable about the rain.

No. This is good. I like this rain. No, no, no, no, I'm fine. You're going to go to university. but you did go to university I did yeah for a bit five minutes went to Manchester and you did history of art

and then pesky comedy got in the way yeah and I was like that art history degree that'll never I'll never be able to integrate any of that into my stand-up so I might as well just focus on doing comedy and I was so annoyed when I saw Hannah Gadsby's show Nanette which is like amazing and like the perfect integration of art

history and comedy I was like maybe you should have gone to a few more lectures. I think they still think I'm there. I never officially left. I'll just sort of stop turning up. And why did you start doing comedy, Jack? It's quite a bold thing to do. I don't know.

I was doing a sketch show and then in the middle of this sketch. It was a sketch show that I took up to Edinburgh with two mates. We did it at the Edinburgh Festival in like some tiny little room, which was so small. that when I went back up there to find the room at the venue, it's now a disabled toilet. That's how small it was. And it was like, I was playing to like 20 people a night and doing these sketches that I'd written with my mates that will basically rip-offs of not the 9 o'clock news sketches.

And then in the middle of it, I was like, I think I'm going to do some stand-up. So I did this five-minute stand-up set, which was pretty terrible. But I loved it. And then I was like, well, I might try and do some gigs on my own now. And then when I got back down to London, I applied for a load of open mic nights. And yeah, that was my sort of start. Our friend's back.

Do you think he's even on the phone? Or do you think he's pretending to be doing some really high-powered business school? Imagine if his phone wrong. Oh, mortar faccardo. Let's listen. Do they like that? Hey. Be careful guys because sometimes they don't like the dogs in here so be careful.

Oh, don't they? Oh, thank you for letting us know. Thank you. He's amazing. The confidence. The confidence. Be careful. Guys.

Jack, I like guys. Guys. We're his guys. They don't like the dogs here. Who's they? They? They? There's a lot.

There's so many questions I need to unpack from that encounter. Who's they? When did we become his guys? Yeah. Who is he on the phone to? That phone has definitely switched off. I'm obsessed by him. Yeah, he's amazing.

Go down here, Ray. He just sort of describe what he looks like. He looks very strong tan, good head of hair. And he's been everywhere we go in this park, he is there. Have you seen what we've just come to here? What's this? Jack's Wish. It's a flower bed with dead flowers and it says a sign saying Jack's wish and it's full of dead flowers. Oh no there's one very sad looking wilted rose in

the middle of it. This is an analogy. I was going to see you should bring your lovely partner here but I don't think this is very nice. I think it's a bit bleak yeah. All of my wishes have wilted and died. Withered. And then next to it, there's a bed covered in tarpaulins. But what I'm interested in, the fact that you did comedy, is interesting to me because a lot of comedians I speak to, Jack, they will say, they'll talk about going into comedy because, I don't know, I suppose they felt other or different, or kind of not good enough in a way.

But I don't get the sense that that happened with you, because you were, you must have felt good enough, because you had a happy family life. I had a happy family life, yeah, I didn't have any, like, trauma to inspire my material. Are you okay? What's happening here? What's happened? What's happened? Oh, this is like Coco's about to solve a crime, Jack.

She's about to solve a crime. She's going to find where that man on the phone has buried the bodies. Yeah. Yeah, where's your damage, Jack? Where is my damage? No, my, yes, my comedy probably doesn't come from a place of damage. I know. But I felt like a...

Oh, you're chasing this squirrel. So yeah, you don't seem to be... You don't seem to have that. You seem very well adjusted. But you still wanted to go on stage, which is interesting. Yeah, but I just wanted to be like a clown, really. And just to... It's not particularly introspective stand-up that I do.

It's just all the people that I loved were like, you know, performers like Rowan Atkinson and Jim Carrey and John Cleese and I just love the idea of going on and fooling around and making people laugh. I never really had much of a desire to go on and put the world to rights or bear my soul yeah that's that's interesting that isn't it you just felt

you were just drawn to it yeah I'm very bad at talking about comedy with any depth I always just think I don't know am I interested in it's pretty straightforward what I just it's the most fun you could possibly have

of any job it's like oh god see I'm doing physical comedy right now I can't help it keep popping this umbrella. I might do a trip in a moment. I've gone full Norman wisdom. Okay, there. You're okay? Yeah. I think I need to ditch the tea because I think the problem is dog umbrella tea. I'm not going to hold the tea. There's too many elements. Which goes in the bin? The tea, the dog or the umbrella? The tea. Right. Okay. Good. Because if I was sipping from the tea and then cocoa bolts off,

Then I get tea all over me. There's just so much opportunity for comedy there. See, I was working a whole routine. I'd love to do that. I'd love to just do more of a vaudeville act. Well, having seen your new film, which we will talk about now, Clifford, the Big Red Dog, which I absolutely loved. Oh, thank you.

I think what really struck me is you are a very physical comedian, I think. Yeah. Don't you think that comes out a lot in this film? Yeah, I love doing it. doing physical comedy and pratfalls and working comedy set pieces. I love silent comedy and I mean I just mentioned Norman Wisdom. Grow up watching Norman Wisdom. My mom was obsessed with Norman.

And I love those types of movies and that type of comedy. So yeah, there was a lot of opportunity to do that in Clifford. And when I first read the script, that was the thing that. initially really appealed to me was that I'd get the chance to do some of that. And it's a very... I really loved the film.

I think I was saying to you, earlier I was sitting in the screening with all these quite posh guardian proper journalists. Oh God, were they sharpening their knives? No, but they're all very... They've got like lights. You know, the pens of the lights and things. Really?

Yeah, they know what they're doing. I don't. And I was crying. And I was going, Clifford. I really got, I felt invested in it. But I think one of the reasons I loved the film was that I felt often with kind of these big family blockbusters. It's very tempting for the writers to sort of be a bit knowing. Yeah. You know, and there's this sort of wry, winking central character who's all who, and I loved that their dog was actually quite pure. It is a very pure film. It's very, it knows exactly what it is and it doesn't try to be anything more than that.

I think that's why it works. It's funny. It's very sweet, quite a simple message and storyline and, yeah. We're going to go and sit in the car to finish this because it's raining. Yeah. This is a car. Who's car? Who's car?

It's not my car. I can't drive. Well, this is how famous you are. now that you don't even know whose car we're sitting in. No, but, well, yes, although I just, if offered to go into someone's car and very readily, and willing to, without asking many questions, which is probably not how you should respond. We're going to sit in the car.

Come on, Jack. Let's sit in the car. Oh, this is nice, isn't it? This is nice. Do we like this go, go? This is lovely. I think, do you know, I think, You know, I feel like you want to fall his own in these people, how it is.

This is better, Jack. Yeah, this is better. We should have just done it all like this, drove around with the dogs. So, yeah, I was telling you how much I love the movie. You basically play Fetclous Millennium. Feclous, Manchild, Funkl. The classic, Funkel, who's babysitting his niece, Emily Elizabeth for the weekend. And he lets her get a dog, and the dog is Clifford, who grows to be ten feet tall.

And then they have an adventure in the city of New York. And it's a really, I loved again that the relationship was between you two, because again, with those comedies, with those sort of big family films, you're very much leading man material, and you would have expected you to sort of cop off with some hot, yummy mummy at the school gates. Do you what I mean? I quite like that they just kept the focus on your relationship with that girl. Yeah.

It was about your journey together. Yeah. Yes, there was no distractions. Hey, Lee. Yeah, it was, yeah, she's great. She's really good. She was in Big Little Lies and Christmas Chronicles. She's done about 100 films already and she's only 13.

And she was great to work with. She was really, very talented and so we had a lot of fun and John Cleese of course and like my hero. I was very excited to to work with him and the first day that I was I met him he came on to set and no one told me that he was coming on to set and I was doing one of those like physical set pieces and um uh walk around to the monitor and he was sat there and he gave me a thumbs up and I was like oh my god that was a moment I melted it was was great he was very nice and very supportive and yeah a joy and you've had really good reviews

for this yeah well i've got away with it i think that's what you hope for with a movie like this is you just hope not to get dinged and it's begrudging praise that's the that's what you hope for with a film like clipper the big red dog i think no they do they're that's what that's what i went into this thinking i was going to be tearing it apart, but actually, annoyingly, it is quite a nice film and kids will love it. So, yes, I have to say that. It feels like that's the sort of review that it's been getting. No, I specifically have read a number of things.

Star, all the American press. They love you, don't you in America? American press. And when I read that, like, it literally all I think is, well, the British ones will be queuing up to bring me back down to earth. Honestly, that's all I thought when I read this. My mum sent me one. And she was like, oh, no, isn't this amazing that they wrote this about your Hollywood report?

I was like, just brace yourself or whatever. Do you think the British press are tough on you? Sorry? Are the British press? Is it harder here than it is in America, for example? I don't have any baggage in America. Probably. Yeah.

So they'd just take me at face value or... And what's your British baggage? That I've probably been quite overexposed and been on a lot of shows as a spiky-haired, quite annoying comedian and hosted everything and probably, I don't know. Just been... But you started... Just been around for too long. I'm only 33, but already I'm outstay my welcome a bit.

Because, yeah, when you started out, Jack, I remember you were, it was years ago down at the Big Fat Quiz. And you must have been, God, you wouldn't have been 20 or something. Yeah. Or 21. And you just started, I think, it might have even been pre-you presenting working on Big Brother. And you'd come down. Just to watch it. Yeah.

and I remember everyone I remember meeting you just very briefly in the green room and everyone was kind of talking about you and everyone was saying that guy he was so charismatic wasn't he but it was interesting to me that you came down and you made an impression is what I'm saying because you sort of owned the room a bit

and you were charming there was just a sort of aura about you I felt well I was very conscious from a very early stage to always make sure that I'd you know I don't know just was polite and nice to people I was I think I've tried to always retain that you know partly because it's just a nicer way to live your life to be nice to people but also I was like just don't give them any opportunity to you know not like you because

with green rooms and stuff as well and comedy clubs and going in there as like a young sort of confident posh man I don't know like you just want to make sure that you

you sort of behave appropriately and don't rub people up the wrong way and so I was always always very sort of keen to do that when I was a stand-up comic and maybe that sort of carried over into when I started doing stuff on TV as well. Did you feel that though, Japan? You started doing stand-up that there was that sense of, well, you don't need to do this.

In what respect? Just in the sense of you being, you're not running away from anything. You're not like, it was being pushed sort of tricky in some. I mean, I'm not doing sort of my post. My posh hell. It was very, very hard. You know. We went skiing twice a year.

Yeah, I mean, I know I was just, when I first thought I was just very self-conscious of it and not wanting to try to sort of hide it. That was what I first did. Yeah, and I just tried to like just slightly take the edge off my voice. So yeah, I was like, didn't want anyone to know that I'd been a, posh school or that so yeah and my dad was like why oh you're speaking like that i heard you on the television last night and you were dropping your continents left right and center

that i paid for that education for um and so yeah that was the early days of my my stand-up comedy career there was a lot of um a lot of that did you do that even on shows like atop pen cats yeah yeah there's early shows yeah yeah you can you can hear it in my voice And Big Brother's Big mouth is almost unwatchable. I walk out and do this sort of, yeah, Russell Brand-Light performance with this ridiculous voice, these terrible jokes. But that's because I had to do a lot. I basically got accelerated far too quickly through the ranks and was on TV. Yeah, the Big Brother stuff is awful.

There's an interview, the worst one. I don't know why I'm drawing attention to it because people are all just going to look at it. I think there's an interview I did in the Big Brother house for the son. And also because it was the son, I was like, I really need to lean into the Danny Dyer accent. And it's just like, it's,

I can't. But as you say, you were young, and I think... I literally can't watch more than, like, 10 seconds of it without turning it off or dry heaving. And I'd let him, Coco. Coco, what do you think of Daddy? Dating to talk like, he's from the East End.

But I understand that. I think it's because, as you say, you were young and it takes a while to find your voice, doesn't it? Yeah. And you did, and you went on, he was so phenomenally, making it sound like you've got a picture. He was so successful.

But it was, as you say, it was rapid, wasn't it? It was very rapid, yeah. So then I was doing a lot of growing up on TV and doing a lot of stuff where I was, you know, the quality of the material was not, the highest caliber because I just hadn't been writing and performing for long enough, but was quite good at selling stuff and, you know, it was probably quite a good performer, but not a great comic, maybe.

So, yeah, I don't like regret it because I'm really happy to have been able to sort of have got to where I am now. You know, I'm very proud of quite a lot of the work that I've done, but I don't know, maybe in the early days, there was some stuff that probably wasn't quite as good. But when you started out, so with fresh meat and bad education, those are two projects which I imagine you are very proud of. Yeah. Because I feel as soon as you started acting as well, it was clear that you sort of had a talent for that. Yeah, those projects were amazing. And, you know, it was very lucky. Fresh me was my first acting gig that I ever got. And it was, you know, Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong writing the script.

So I had amazing material to work with and an incredible cast. And also, you know, a character that wasn't like necessarily a massive stretch. So it was quite a good learning ground. Yeah, who knew? So, and yeah, and about education as well was, was a lot of fun. and yeah I don't know I um yeah I love doing both of those those projects and um yeah you're very quite a calm I think it's the presence of the dog do you think it is yeah they've can't you're very chilled out and calm aren't you very chilled I think I thought you'd be a lot louder

really maybe there's something about like just sitting in a nice warm car with a dog on your lap that maybe just brings out the kind of aspect of your personality. When I'm at that screening with all the children, you know, then I might go more into my sort of kids TV presenter. Do you switch it on? Can you switch it on? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Zany Jack. Zany Jack. Do you know, my sister said when the most excited, she's been recently of anything really that I've achieved is that Kim Kardashian posted that she had been watching Cliff of the Big Red Dog in her

private cinema for her kids and she sent me the story and was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And it was on our family WhatsApp group. She was like, you should offer to do one of the children's parties. I was like, what do you mean? What do you think I do? Like, that's not a thing.

thing that I, there's not a string to my bow. She was like, well, yeah, you should definitely get in there. And then my mum started chiming in. She was like, yeah, you could go dressed as the dog. I was like, I'm not even the dog in the film. And like, surely I've, you know, gone past that, you know, part of my career that I'd be dressing up as a dog and going around entertaining children. You're smarty, are you?

Children's entertaining. Jack, do you cry? You're a cryer, I really. Yeah, I'm a big cry. I can tell that about you. Big, big, big, what did I cry? What was I watching? There was something where I really went.

Oh, the King Richard, the of Serena Williams and Venus Williams, Bielsen, Royal Smith, I'm bloody every scene. Do you cry in, when you're sort of arguing with people? Yep. What are you like?

I can't really imagine you being an angry, person. Do you back down a lot? Yeah, definitely that. I did cry at something else the other day that was like, yeah, but I should not have been crying at. The worst one was deal or no deal. I watched a deal or no deal and really like was sobbing uncontrollably because this, she basically this lady was going to pay for a holiday and she was going to go away with her daughter and like Noel Edmond's really like whip the audience up. and then she like, like, opened the box and it was a blue and there was not a dry in the house, but I was like uncontrollably sobbing.

I was like, how has this affected me emotionally so much? I feel like I might be quite unstable. I want to ask you, I really love meeting you, Jack, and I've loved our walk today. It's a lovely walk. I need to, and we got to sit in the car for some of it. I need to ask you one thing before we go. I always ask people this, is that what do you most hope people would say about you,

like your friends and stuff and you'd go out the room? And what do you really fear they'd say? So if someone's leaving the room and they say, the thing about Jack, he's really... Not as much of a dick as I thought he would be. A bit like with those reviewers, Clifford, sort of begrudging praise. That's what they want.

That's what I want. And that's what you hope they'd say. Yeah, I want to be damned with faint praise. What do you worry people would say? Just as much of a dick as I'd thought. That would be the worst thing. We thought he was going to be awful and he was. So, yeah.

Well, Raymond and I are going to say, we really like Jack. He's really lovely. But what are you going to say when I leave the car? Oh. All will be revealed. Well, I will be reporting back. We have a number of mutual friends, as you know. I knew I was seeing you today.

The Rosses. The Rosses. Jonathan was going to come a gate crash. Oh, was he? Yeah, because he always does. He goes, I'll come along. I said, well, how's that going to work? Why would you suddenly be there?

It's a strange man. When he started offering me all of his old suits. You know, he bought Rob Beckett and Romish. You know, he called them, went, I've got to sort your style out. It's terrible. I'm getting you trousers made. He had pistachio trousers and pink ones made.

Oh, my God. Anyway, we could talk to Jack all day, but we have to leave him because Jack has to go off to a screening of Clifford and then he's going to Pizza Express. Pizza Express first to pick up mum and dad and then take them. He's got to pick up Hillary and just to go to say anyone wants Jack movements today. Yeah, yeah. He's picking up Hillary and Michael.

Well, Michael, I bet Michael likes all this, doesn't he? What, the... We're just getting to take his son out and see how successful you are. Yeah, I think he does. although he's now got his own thing going on he was on celebrity pointless the other day with nick hewer didn't even tell me found out

from someone else's Instagram I saw a video and Michael was in the background I was like he's been secretly sneaking off and doing pointless of course he was working with Nick Hewer he'll be in the jungle within the year imagine that Michael Whitehill in the jungle Jack we need to let you go And you've got to pick up Michael and Hillary Whitehall,

and then you've got to go and promote your fabulous movie, Clifford the Big Red Dog, which I absolutely love. Cocoa is asleep. Coco's asleep. Ray's going to sleep soon. Thank you so much, Jack. Lovely to hang out. You're a really nice, charming boy.

Thank you so much. It was lovely to spend the day with you. When you say goodbye to Raymond? Bye, Raymond. Bye-bye. Say bye to Coco. Coco's asleep. See, I have that effect on dogs.

I can put them to sleep with my stories. I really hope you enjoyed listening to that and do remember to rate, review and subscribe on iTunes.