Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S17 Ep 1: Gillian Anderson

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

Season 17! We’re back! We couldn’t kick off the brand new series without an icon joining us, and who better than the excellent Gillian Anderson. Gillian joined us to talk about her new book ‘Want’, all about sexual fantasies… not a conversation I thought mum & I would ever have. We also heard about the tuna fish casserole with crisps her mum made her while growing up, playing Blanche Dubois, her favourite green jello thanksgiving side dish (it’s giving Ghostbusters!), the future of The Fall and she teaches us all about her G Spot! Gillian, thank you being our dream guest to kick off an epic series and for navigating us through our sexual fantasies! Gillian’s new book ‘Want’ is available now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As women, our life stages come with unique risk factors, like high blood pressure developed during pregnancy, which can put us two times more at risk of heart disease or stroke. Know your risks. Visit heartandstroke.ca. Hello and welcome to Season 17 of Table Mammals How can we be on season 17 when we're going what, seven years? How is that darling? I don't know. That makes me feel quite old. Because I started off... What 72 doesn't make you feel old. I started off at 65. Season 17 makes me sound 82. Thank God you're still alive, lamb. Yeah, thank God. We are kicking off

with a goddess. Well she's someone when I mentioned it that I think there was going to be a queue of my male friends outside the front door. And female, come on. And female friends. Everyone has an opinion and thinks this woman is extremely amazing and beautiful and wonderful actress. We've got Gillian Anderson coming on. Started watching her in X-Files as Agent Scully. The Fall. Stella Gibson, mum, I'm wearing silk in honor of Stella Gibson.

She's played some big... Scoop. Scoop, she's played Emily Maitlis, past guest of Table Manners, Margaret Thatcher. She's just amazing. We've seen her in two different productions of Streetcar. I think so. Do you think? That's really wild. Well I saw her at the Young Vic. So she is coming on to not talk about acting. She's talking about her new book which is Want. It's just your cup of tea Jess.

Not your cup of tea mum. Well it's about women's sexual fantasies. She's curated letters from women about their sexual fantasies. This was very much inspired by a book in the 70s called Secret Garden, I think by Nancy Friday, My Secret Garden, which was anonymous letters about desires and fantasies. I think by playing the role of Jean Milburn in Sex Education where she is a sex therapist, I wonder whether that's kind of spurred this on. So Want, submitted by Anonymous, collected by Julian Anderson. So what she's done is she's collected I think thousands of letters anonymously sent in and there's different chapters. So there's like Off Limits, To Be Worshipped, Power and Submission.

I thought that you'd probably write one in that chapter. What about how I make people submit and exercise my power? The watchers in the watched. Rough and ready, Lenny? Me! Anyway, so Gillian's coming on to talk about this book. It's already out and it's kind of divided us, hasn't it Mum? Yeah. You've got an opinion on it and I've got an opinion. And I'm interested to see what Gillian thinks about it. Well I think fantasy is something personal and it shouldn't be published in a way. But it's anonymous. I know it's anonymous but once you've said it out loud to someone else and shared it,

is it still your own personal fantasy? Well yeah because it's faceless and nameless. Yeah but it doesn't matter once you said it, surely for me fantasy is in my head. We'll pick this up with Gillian. What's on the menu today mum? She's coming into a bit of an odd time so we've got some rare roast beef on a bed of rocket and cheese. Parmesan. A classic. Parmesan.

Classic ware staple. Did you get your little meat slicer out? Got my meat slicer out this morning. Is that still the same one from the 90s? Yes, yeah. Not from the 90s. Was it the 90s? I'd say.

I've got a new one though that Auntie Liz gave me. You can have it if you want. And there's a food mixer for you. Okay, thank you. So I've made that. I've got a fennel, apple and green chilli salad. Whose recipe is that? Savannah's Kitchen that I follow on the internet.

Oh, I love Savannah's Kitchen. Yeah, with her black rubber gloves. Okay. Yeah, that would fit into the sexual fantasy of things. Ooh. You've just done some potatoes. Well, you kind of told me what to do, so. Yeah, not that I'm bossy.

You did them, I just obeyed. And then we've done some roasted tomatoes with cold yogurt. Yeah, I have some Lengi. I have some Lengi. We've done it roasted tomatoes with cold yogurt. Yeah, and also Lengi. We've done it many times on this podcast. I mean, she might not eat anything at this early hour, six o'clock. Five o'clock's my favorite time to eat. I know, but it's probably, it's early for most people,

late for you. I hope she brings her drink, G-Sport. Well, she's got a new website called Geode. Oh, so we can ask her about that. Right, I'm gonna put some lipstick on. Gillian Anderson coming up on Table Moms. Gillian, thank you. You've had like a very busy day. It's been a very busy day.

We're going to feed you. We're going to nourish you. And I feel like we should start with the old G-spot spot. Yeah go on. Is that something that you would reach for in time of need? Okay which one are you gonna go for Bec? So I don't need soothe, I need to actually wake up definitely a lift. Lift or arouse? I don't really need to be aroused at the minute. You guys can have some arouse, I will have some lift. Okay, so lift is- Red berries and peppercorn. Sarawak. Yeah, that's right, sarawak.

It's got adaptogens and new chocolate. Yeah, you need to ice mushrooms. Am I going to be up all night? No, definitely won't be up all night. You might want a little bit of ice. Here? Yeah, it's nice cold. Here darling.

Which one's your favorite? You just happen to have ice right at your fingertips. Yeah, I do. We had a party yesterday. Erm, what's your favourite? Er, Lyft actually. OK, I'm going with Lyft. But I feel like when in Rome we're talking about want, we should get aroused on the pod too. I agree. So I'm reaching through all of your ice, that's terrible. It's fine. Gillian Anderson is fingering Lenny's ice.

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, look out. Right, cheers. So this is a food podcast. I know. But I'm excited. But we're gonna talk, we're gonna eat a little bit.

Yeah. But also. Are you actually gonna make it in front of me? Like, like. No, it's kind of pre-made. We learn, we learn that we don't do that because it just becomes very noisy and chaotic. Yeah, anytime I try and cook and I invite people over, if somebody walks in the door while I'm taking the potatoes out of the oven and they ask me a question like, how are you?

I'm like, I'm taking the fucking potatoes out of the oven! Because it's even busy! That's exactly how I am. So want was my holiday read. Oh, was it? Yeah, and everyone was interested to hear about it. Yeah. I found it really, really interesting.

And congratulations, I think that the way you curated it is really beautiful and generous and protective and respectful. There's all these different chapters which acknowledge different fantasies, but I felt like you were celebrating these people. There was, and I, and actually I never really thought about what my fantasy would be. And so I think it's quite provocative and, and, and I still don't know what my fantasy would be.

What do you mean you don't know? I don't know. I don't know if I've got like an essay in me. Yeah. Maybe it would be, this is quite an odd subject to be talking about with my mother, by the way. Yeah, no, no, no. I'm sure. I would probably struggle. But just because they've been turned into essays for the nature of the book doesn't necessarily mean that they would come out as an essay, I guess, in your mind.

It would be more... It could just be purely, you know, visual. Yeah. I mean, but I did love the dentist one, which was very short and very short and sweet she was like you know I just really want to fuck my dentist but not my real life it was really good and it had it was funny. It was very funny. I wanted to ask because there was underneath each essay or letter there was some information there was the amount that they earned or yeah there was their religion, sexuality, whether they were in a relationship and children. Why did you choose not to put age in there? Good question that was an internal decision within Bloomsbury and as I understand it it was because they felt that fantasy is ageless and that somehow maybe it would be more identifiable

to women if they were reading and not necessarily know. And sometimes it's evident. And sometimes what's really interesting is you read a fantasy and somebody talks about never having kissed anybody and then they reveal they're 70 years old. what's really interesting is you read a fantasy and somebody talks about never having kissed anybody and then they reveal they're 70 years old you know and so it's very it's a very very moving moving book there's a lot of tenderness and compassion and sadness and a lot of joy and obviously a lot of provocation

there's a lot of cock yeah yeah a lot of orgasms. Tentacles. Tentacles. There's a few tentacles. A big foot. Milk feeding. Yeah. But you know what, I kind of, I didn't, because mum and I were discussing this. You think you're a bit of a prude, don't you? I don't think I'm a prude at all. Oh, right. I think I'm more private about my sexual fantasies because I feel my fantasy is my own within me yeah and I think if I shared it it would no longer be mine yeah in a way. Fair enough. But it's anonymous. No but it doesn't matter if it's like publishing something if it would it would not be mine anymore. That's why I was so impressed by the writers because

they give everything to you and more and it's kind of... Well they wanted to because they've clearly cooperated. Yeah. So they wanted to do that. Yeah. I mean how many submissions did you have? I can't... so what I find fascinating is that 1800 women started Letters started letters and I think we ended up in the end just under a thousand and maybe I think we had 800,000 words and so I'm very interested in the ones that

decided against it or you know cold feet. So what did you have to ask for their permission to be published or was it people when you say they started? So we created or Bloomsbury created a portal and you would sign up to the portal and then you could start your letter and you could see in the portal apparently that people had started and sometimes people would start but not finish and press end. So there were more people who started than finished, but we still ended up with, you know, the equivalent of about eight volumes. Do you think you will do another book on it

because you feel like there will be an appetite? Possibly. I'd be interested whether at the end of all this, whether there would be a different question that we would ask, or maybe it wouldn't be about fantasies or maybe it would be about something else, you know, it might steer us in another direction based on how people respond to it or you know. I wondered whether it would turn men on more than women reading about women's sexual fantasies. Would you do a male

sexual fantasy? I might not, it doesn't feel like that's for me to do, but I- It's mostly about you, I imagine. Yeah. Playing Stella Gibson, yeah. By the way, I'm wearing silk in honor of Stella. Yeah. I don't know. I am interested to see, you know,

because as, you know, historically, sex in the public sphere, and particularly porn, the billion dollar porn industry, has been very much for the male gaze, and geared towards men and men's pleasure, yeah? And so obviously on the one hand, this feels like a bit of an antidote to that. But even though, you know, we've got used to that over the centuries in terms of what do men want,

what, how do they reach climax, not necessarily how to help women be pleasured in the midst of it. And it's sometimes not even considered, not even part of the equation. I would be interested whether it's just become such a habit, almost by rote, that actually men do indeed have needs outside of that, you know, that whether if we did ask men to submit letters anonymously, whether there too would be letters about, I just want to

be held. I just want to be seen for who I am, not for my biceps or not for my brain or not for more, whatever, I don't know, it's interesting. But there's been so much that is for the sake of men historically that maybe we shouldn't spend too much time talking about that because. Yeah, I agree. But like, what about Geode? Is that going to be... because I had a quick look on it.

Yeah, yeah. You kind of launched it today, was it today or...? Yesterday. Yesterday and it's your website and can you explain to the listeners what it is? Because I'm wondering whether you're about to create your own kind of like billion dollar porn thing through... Oh goodness. Why not? I mean, you have the... You have the forum... wondering whether you're about to create your own kind of incident, like, billion dollar porn thing through Bing Albert. Oh, goodness.

Why not? I mean, you have the, you have the forum. Is there women's porn? Yes, there is. Apparently there's this website that my friend uses that's, is it... Your friend uses? Yes. Oh, right.

Okay. And it's supposed to be more for the female gaze, I guess you would say. I don't know if that's the thing, but like, but I don't know why you don't just keep on going and become like, why don't you potentially? A global sex therapist. I don't know, they can buy G-spot on there, they can buy the book. Well, on the one hand, I'm not a therapist,

and I have to keep reminding myself of that because I forget sometimes, because I'm so interested in anthropology and people and psychology and what motivates people to do things. But I'm not, I am an actor. I want to continue to be an actor. And that really wants to be,

I want that to be, continue to be my focus. But I mean, this is a moment in time where it feels I've been enjoying this process and enjoying the conversations that I'm having and it feels important, you know, as an empowering thing for women to not just engage with and feel like they are, because the call out that we made to women,

so it was anyone who identified as a woman, including trans community and out to the LGBTQ community and those identifying as non-binary. And so we were hoping to reach as many people around the world in as many countries as possible. And we got a pretty good cross section. I think there's a very good range of women and submissions. And so in asking them to to be anonymous, it means that no matter what their cultural background or societal constraints and illegalities potentially within their countries, that they hopefully would have felt safe enough to be able to enter something into the portal. And we certainly, you know, saw that in some of the details of the letters that we received. But there's so much shame still around not just fantasy, but so many women talk about,

you know, never wanting to talk to their partner, whoever their partner is, about not just about the fantasy per se, because as you said, that's mine and I want to keep it for myself, but about what we might actually want. You know, what we might actually want in the bedroom, what we think might bring us pleasure. And the women who talk about, you know,

we did a survey actually for G-spot and what we found was that women are more likely to reach orgasm outside of the relationship, like through masturbation, than waste the time of their partner or ask for it or, you know, afraid he doesn't quite, he or she doesn't quite do it right and I don't really want to make that, I don't want to make it uncomfortable, I don't want want to make that, I don't want to make it uncomfortable. I don't want to ruin the moment. I don't want to, you know, and more likely to actually reach orgasm

outside of the relationship. So, which is interesting. It's just, I find that an interesting fact. And- You want a job done, do it yourself. I don't know. It's a cool idea. I don't know.

It's what women do, isn't it? Yeah. Get do isn't it? Get it done. Yeah get it done. Yeah yeah if you want something done do it yourself. Leni how much are you enjoying talking about sexual fantasy and G-spots? I'm a social worker. Okay well stop raising your eyebrows. I've talked about these things before. Lots of your acting involves sexual tension in a way. I mean, Jamie Dornan featuring. Yeah, yeah. I always thought you might end up with him in one of these. Yeah, instead he almost killed me.

Instead he almost killed you. Is that never coming back? It can't really now. No, it's a shame. We tried for a little while that there was a fourth season. I mean, it could, I mean, you know, Stella could show up, you know, at any time, but, you know, we tried a fourth season and I mean it could, I mean you know Stella could show up you know at any time but you know we tried a fourth season and it didn't quite follow through but yeah.

It could. I, we need to talk about food and we need to eat but I saw you play Blanche. No, did you? In Brooklyn. So did I. Did you? Yeah but, mum told you in London. Oh wow.

So I'm like it was it a different production? No it was the same production. Oh okay yeah yeah. Do you guys see a lot of theatre? Yeah. I love theatre. It was much more muscular the one in New York we went in and we did another another bit of rehearsal before we started to to work on it and it felt even more dangerous than... It was fantastic, you were fantastic. I wondered whether you saw Patsy, is it Faran? I think her second name is. Patsy played Blanche recently in the... Oh yeah, I wonder if I didn't see that one. Have you ever had that where you've gone to see an actor play the same role that you've played?

I mean obviously Blanche is such a... Yeah I've seen Doll's House, I did Doll's House, I've seen Dolls House a couple of times since then. I don't think it's a weird thing, it's a weird thing because I slightly feel like, not like I own her but she still feels like she's inside of me somewhere. So, so and I think it would be very hard for me unless it was a brilliant, I would love for it to be a brilliant performance, but if it wasn't and I felt like it was like, the scenes were like slipping through the fingers or something, I'd really struggle.

And I wouldn't want to like, you know, make sounds and badly or start mouthing the lines. Or leave. Getting up, pushing it off the stage and being like, let we'll bloody do it. Have you ever directed? I directed a short film that I did after I did the London production of Streetcar.

That was a prequel to Streetcar. So it was me, it was something that the young Vic had asked me to do and because I did this series of short films and I thought okay if I, because I was just at the end of I think doing the play and I thought what if I am to do this the thing I'd be interested in doing is doing a prequel to streetcar. So I did that and then actually way back when when I was younger doing X-Files in the seventh season I wrote and directed one of the episodes

Anymore on the horizon? Directing I would very much like to I feel like I won't until my boys are out of the house because it takes up so much properly, it takes up more time than than just showing up and being an actor does between pre-production and... How old are your boys? My boys are 15 and 17 and my daughter's 30. Just about to be 30, yeah.

Have they watched Sex Education? I hope not. At the time that it came out, they promised me that they hadn't seen it. But I mean, I have to imagine they've watched it by now. Let's talk about food. Okay. So you grew up in Chicago? You're born in Chicago, grew up in Michigan?

Born in Chicago, grew up here. And then moved? And then moved to Michigan. And then moved back to Chicago for uni. I love Chicago. Is your American accent a Chicago accent? I don't know. If you were... I don't think it's... I don't... I actually don't know what... If you were in America now you'd speak with an American accent. Yeah. Yeah. Is that just because it comes naturally? Yeah. Yeah. So who was around the dinner table?

And what were you eating? What's a really memorable dish from your childhood? So in Crouch End, it would have been me and my mom and dad, and that would have been it. And what would it have been like a, mom would kill me, but like a tuna fish casserole with crisp stuck in it? Oh. You're not the first person to say about the crisps. Is your mum American? Both my parents are American. Okay, so like it's an American thing. Did you like it?

I think I liked anything that I was given. I can't literally remember anything else. How old were you eating the tuna fin pesto with Chris? I remember her also making it when we had moved to Michigan so I'm sure it was until I left home. Why did you live here and then why did you move back? So I was born in Chicago but when I my dad wanted to go to the London Film School and or he wanted to go to a film school, and asked my mom whether she wanted us to move to either London or California, and she said London.

So we didn't have any money, so we went to Puerto Rico for a period of time, because my grandparents, my dad's parents, were living there with his siblings. And so we went there and saved money for apparently 15 months and then we moved to London. Crouch End. Crouch End.

And well first we were staying on people's couches and sharing houses and stuff and then when they could afford a flat. Were they very young parents then? Yeah. Yeah. And then my dad went to London Film School and Yeah, we moved from Crouch eventually we were in Crouch and then we were in Harrogate and Then we went back to the States and we moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan

Were you interested by food when you were growing up? Was it kind of just a no I don't know. I mean I was interested in sweets. I was about the extent of my... What was your favourite sweet that you'd go to the shop for? Anything. Oh God, you know those things you used to dunk the licorice in? Oh, the licorice sherbet. They were slightly fizzy. Yes.

Oh, I don't know that. It's called licorice fountains. Oh, so good. The licorice comes out and it's sherbet and you dip it in... You just basically dip it in sugar. It's licorice dunked in sugar. Yeah. I wonder if you can still get it. It's making me salivate. You can. I saw it actually within the last year I've seen them.

Did you buy one? I did not, no. No. Should we get some food? Yeah. Let's get some food. I texted Elizabeth Day today, who's a friend of mine. Oh, is she?

Who I said, oh, I've got Gillian Anderson on, you know, and she said, please send my love. She's the best. We had such a fun chat. She loves you, but she also said, can you let David de Covey know that he's completely ripped off her podcast and she's fuming?

Oh, is she? I mean, wink, but yeah. Yeah. Fail better. I know, but it's actually nothing like it. Isn't it? Yeah, it's not. What's he like? It's nothing fail better. I know, but it's actually nothing like it. Isn't it? Yeah, it's not. What's he like?

It's nothing like it. He's your friend, isn't he? Yeah, yeah. We've always had quite a complex relationship. You know, when you work that intensely with somebody for such a long time, I mean, we were basically married to each other. Yeah, right.

I've actually listened to his podcast a fair number of times,, I think it's good. It's interesting. It's interesting hearing a man talk so openly about emotional things because he really does talk about loss and guilt and feelings and you know, and I feel like I've learnt more about him listening to his podcast. And actually when you worked with him. What's a memorable dish from that time when you were recording in X-Files?

Was there something that you... I went through so many stages. I went through a Macrobatics stage for a while. That sounds fun. Which is impossible to make yourself. You really need somebody else to do it for you. I don't actually know what macros are. So it's, so Macrobatics is, it's a mixture of grains, so it's usually like brown rice or quinoa or millet or something. And there's seaweed and

mushrooms and fermented, fermented foods. So kind of healthy food. Yeah, you know, it's very, very healthy. And some people swear by it's very cleansing. It's meant to be very good for your biome and your whole system. But also sometimes people who have cancer go on macrobiotic diets and feel that it heals them somehow, the process. Sometimes they believe that they reverse their cancer by eating the diet. So here we have some cold beef with rocket and parmesan.

Very nice. Otolengi's dish. Have you ever had this Otolengi tomatoes with it? So warm tomatoes with yogurt and they've got kind of cumin in them and lemon. Amazing, amazing. That's a fennel, apple, jalapeno. And cabbage salad. It's delicious.

And some potatoes. Yeah. And some asparagus. Mustard. Asparagus. Asparagus. Asparagus. Asparagus.

Help yourself. Okay, thank you very much. Yeah. Excellent. Do you live in London? Mm-hmm. Where do you love to eat? Do you go and eat out a lot?

Or do you cook? When I'm with my kids, I cook. Pretty basic stuff. Do you need a cass out a lot? What do you cook? When I'm with my kids, I cook. Pretty basic stuff. Tuna casserole. No. Maybe you need to recreate it. You know, salmon and cabalonero, and they love chicken wraps, you know, stuff like that.

So do mine. Do they? How old are yours? Eight, five, and three. Jeez. I know. I'm so sorry. It's quite intense at the moment. Something's gone down my throat. It's like either the jalapenos. It's quite, it's very spicy. It's a spicy

thing in there. That happened to me a minute ago and I managed to... No it's all right, it's quite a voicy. Well she put them in there but I think they were different. If I didn't have a voice I now certainly won't have a voice myself. She said to put serrano peppers in but I didn't know. Then I looked it up and someone said oh they're just like green chillies. Yeah. But they're often pretty powerful. I'm so sorry. It's such an innocent piece of apple and then all of a sudden it just like kicks you in the nuts. I'm sorry not to talk too much about food. I don't have a big food history. There was a certain point where apparently my mum decided she was no longer gonna cook after it because I had a brother and sister who were 13 and 16 years younger than me.

And there was a certain point, I don't know where they were in their schooling, but my mum just put her foot down and said I'm not cooking anymore. Did you have to cook them? No I was no longer. But were you living in America then? Yeah I was but I was probably already I may have already been doing X-Files by the time she declared that but yeah. Chili. Chili. Yeah. Oh chili con carne. Chili con carne, rice and beans. I like cooking, I like cooking for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Oh yeah. I enjoy that. Oh, you celebrate Thanksgiving. What's your dish that, will you make it all or what's your dish that's

like the Jillian's special? Yeah, I'll make it, well, I think we pretty much, of his family, which it usually would be, It's the usual turkey. Sometimes a ham as well. And sweet potatoes. With the marshmallows on the top? Don't usually do marshmallows, but sweet potatoes. And... Do you put cinnamon on?

I like cinnamon with my sweet potatoes. I do put a little bit, sometimes, depending on sweet potatoes, might put a little bit of maple syrup in it, just to speed it up a little bit and salt and butter and Onions gratin so like pearl onion gratin. Oh really yummy. Oh, yeah They're whole but tiny but tiny and you can only really get them except You can buy them frozen and they're just as good. Oh, that's good

Yeah, because otherwise all you can get here is just like shallots. The shallots are too big so proper pearl onions you get frozen so you can get frozen pearl onions and it's got you know cream and Bread crumbs. Oh great. Yeah, it's really really yummy. delicious. I think we're going to do that darling. And Brussels sprouts with um I can't remember. Panchetta? Maybe uh yeah with pancetta yeah and chestnuts. But then there's also this thing that we make which is called a green jello green glass jello. Rita Wilson. Rita Wilson talked about doing this too. Really? Yes. Tom Hanks' wife. Yeah. She did a green jello. Go on, you tell us about your green jello. So there's a green jello that my, but we call it green glass jello. Why? Because famously there was a dish where my mother was

growing up in Wisconsin that was made in a beautiful antique green glass bowl that was put up on the fridge and somebody opened the door and the green jello fell onto the floor and destroyed everything. But within the green jello is lime jello and pineapples. And I think lemon jello and also cream cheese. But it's like a sweet, you look disgusted. It's a sweet dish that you actually have on the same plate

as you have your turkey and cranberries and stuffings. This is fantastic. This is pioneering stuff for me. I guess you have kind of cranberry. Yeah. But not kind of, not. Yeah. Cranberry. Not kind of. It's jelly.

Not jelly and blamonge on the same place as your turkey. Cranberry but scratch with orange peel in it. Yeah, love that. I would try it. I was invited around for a bite, I'd try it. Yeah, good. But it's the image of it kind of looking like it should be in Ghostbusters

that's kind of killing it for me. Yeah, it's fair enough. And then also a stuffing, a really nice like cornmeal stuffing with lots of herbs and onions and absolutely delicious. What would be your last supper? Oh. Starter, main, pud, drink of choice. You're going off to a desert island. Stata would probably be really eggy courgette flowers. Oh yum. Stuffed with ricotta. Yeah. Ricotta. Or mascarpone. What is it? You have them initially. You know we've only had them in Greece and they stuff them with rice. Rice and dill and stuff. Rice and dill. The same as dolmades, yeah.

But ricotta sounds pretty good. I know. So good. Main? Probably a ribeye. Perfectly cooked ribeye with brunettes maybe or, mm-hmm. What are the sides you're having? I love salads, like really good salads with

seeds and I must do better than a salad. What else could it be? Fries? Cream spinach? Yeah not a huge fry. I like sweet potato fries maybe sweet potato fries and courgette fries. Let's do coget fries. And maybe some spinach, but sauteed spinach. Yeah. With garlic. And what else? Do you eat fish? I do, yeah. Which fish do you like?

I really like salmon. Do you like salmon? I love salmon. How? Do you not? No, I made it yesterday and Alex says, "'Oh mum, whatever you do, don't make salmon. Your son doesn't like fish though. That's true.

But honestly, I did a side of salmon and it went straight away. I love seeing a poached salmon on the table. Yeah, me too. And it was really delicious. Was it poached? Yeah, I poached it and I did it in the oven with lemon and it was delicious. Some of your stock 90s. Yeah.

Oh shut up. I have a lot of stock 90s. That's when you say it that, it makes me feel embarrassed. No, I like it. I love a cockle vow. I sometimes do. But you do. Yeah.

Jessica. It's so perfect. So perfect, yeah, I do. I have this, I have all these cookbooks, you know, Audleaning it cookbooks and Moira cookbooks and I use grandmother's favorite recipes, it's basically, you know, Odell Leninga cookbooks and Moira cookbooks, and I use grandmother's favorite recipes, is basically, you know. I do love mine.

I hate that. She hasn't opened it. She's too busy making a cocker van and, don't know, volivons. So pudding? Mm. Are you a big pudding person? No.

I was. But I recently gave up sugar and gluten. But if it's my last supper, I would absolutely eat sugar and gluten, so I'd probably do a, gosh, what would I do? A banoffee pie. Oh yeah. Right? Yeah. Banoffee pie.

It gives everything. It is delicious. It's got a lot. A lot, yeah. Yeah. How long haveannaffi pie. It gives everything. I mean, it is delicious. Right? It's got a lot. A lot, yeah. Yeah. How long have you been off the sugar and gluten? Since September. And do you feel better for it?

Not necessarily, but I was, um, I know I should say, yeah, it's a bit better. Is it rude to ask why you gave it up? I was drinking five cokes a day. Of full fat? Full fat, yeah. Ah, okay. Yeah. For the sugar, you think?

And the caffeine for everything. Yeah. They're heaven. But so then I also did a drink to kind of help me to get off. But so I stopped, yeah, stopped sugar. Can I ask what your drink of choice would be? Would it be, would it be?

Do you want fizzy or? G-spot? Yeah, well I usually drink, I drink apple juice with a bit of fizzy water in it. Or a G-spot. I apple-tised. That was my theatre drink. Oh, was it? I used to always have an apple-tiser. Can I ask, out of all the characters that you've played, who would you like to have dinner with?

It would be pretty fun to sit at a table with Thatcher serving you. What would she serve? Well, she served in the seat, like she would make, what was it, it was kejri. She served it to her ministers. Yeah, have some Margaret Thatcher kejri. That'd be interesting. Yeah, interesting.

Did you like playing Emily Maitlis? I did, yeah. Powerful. Yeah, she's pretty cool. Does it feel hard to play somebody that is alive? Harder than somebody who is no longer, yeah. Because you want to honor them and don't want to, I don't know.

Honor them and also, you know, she's in the community. She's out and about. You see her every once in a while or in like Hyde Park or something. And that's, and also, you know, mutual friends. God, that's spicy. How can I just see that? It's so scary.

It's not your fault. I'm just, I'm such a wimp. Hang on, let me just put some potato in. I hate chilli, so I don't even have it. What's the kitchen staple that you can't live without, that's always there, it's a permanent fixture? Mine would be Marmite. Really?

Yeah. You couldn't live without that in your kitchen? No. I mean, fine, yeah, I'll live all yada yada yada, but Marmite is something that I need in my shop. Interesting. I might, go on. What do you think that says about you? I love that you don't know that I need in my shop. Interesting. Go on. What do you think that says about me?

I love that you don't know that. That's so interesting. I know she loves Marmite, but it wouldn't be my staple in my kitchen for food. What would yours be? Chicken stock. Interesting. I mean, that's quite niche.

No, because I use it in so many- Which one though? Telma. Yeah, she's talking about like chicken soup. Because I make chicken soup a lot and I couldn't live without that. And I use it in so many- Which one though? Telma. Yeah, she's talking about like chicken soup, but the chicken soup. Because I make chicken soup a lot and I couldn't live without that. And I use it in everything, even when I make other soups. Okay, Gillian.

Yeah. Avocados probably. I always have avocados. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, I put, my boys like to have literally the same thing for breakfast every single morning. And so I use poached eggs on toast with avocado and seeds.

See add a little marmite in that. And it's going to give it a little... And sriracha, they like a little bit of sriracha. I love sriracha. It's hot and spicy. A little bit, yeah. Tajin, do you have tajin on it? Do you know what that is?

I do. Will you put it... I've got one here. Do you want it? Yeah, I'd love it. Will you put it... I've got one here. Do you want it? Yeah, I'd love it. Thanks.

There's, Oselengi's got this red paste that he makes. I don't know what it's actually called, but one of my sons really, really liked it. And you can mix it. You can serve it with chicken or mix it into a pasta or whatever. It's a tomato based something, or maybe it's red pepper or both.

I see that's how... I don't know. I don't know. But it's's really yummy and so I probably always have that in the fridge as well because they oh I must get it yeah it's really good. Have you discussed where you like going out for dinner? There's a new restaurant in or maybe it's about a year year and a half old that's actually in, is it Holland Park? Called Akhub. T-N-A-K-U-B. What kind of food? It's Middle Eastern food. It's really, really yummy. Oh, I'll try it. It's really nice. It's in a house that they've redone as a restaurant, but it's really beautifully done. That sounds great. It's very, very

yummy. Can I ask you what is a nostalgic taste that can transport you back to somewhere? The other day, where was I? I had a potato that tasted like a school dinner potato from when I was going to nursery in Crouch End. It was a boiled potato. Why did it come? I can't remember what I

was eating or with whom or where. I was in Copenhagen and this potato took me right back to being four years old. Wow. Was it a happy memory? It was so yummy. Oh was it? Yeah, it was so yummy. I don't know if I was particularly happy there in that nursery, but it was yummy. Gillian, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to meet you. It's a pleasure for me too. Thanks for bringing all these goodies

and sharing your books so early for our holiday. Can I just ask you one more question? Did any of the episodes terrify you or did it make you not scared of scary movies? Like when you did with X-Files? Terrifying. Because I used to watch it and I was terrified. Reading the scripts was terrifying. I had to read them in daylight.

Because reading them at night time was too much. But so I never used to be able to, I used to have panic attacks when I used to see scary things and horror things. Until, because I mean after X-Files I did some scary things. I did, you know, The Fall and blah blah blah. Yeah. But it was only when I started shooting Sex Education that I started being able to watch crime stuff. And so it started with like Ted Bundy tapes or something like that.

Like the darkest of the darkest. I started watching it until like three o'clock in the morning because maybe because I was doing comedy. Is that weird? That's really interesting. Isn't it? But I'm just wondering when you were filming The Fall, yeah. I just it was so sexy. Was it not was it terrifying doing it though? It was terrifying.

Don't get like when you when you were in the shower, you were in the room and he was in your room and you were in the shower room or you were going for a wee. Yeah, yeah. And you were getting undressed like that. And there was a scene like that. He came in your room in the hotel. He did, but that was for the diary.

I think somebody else was showering. Wasn't it? I thought it was you showering. I mean, it was. You were in your hotel. You did a lot of swimming. I did do a lot of swimming yeah but did that feel like a different double did it was at the

beginning but I had a frozen shoulder so I couldn't actually do the crawl so I can you swim are you a good swimmer? okay but did that feel like a different kind of fear? Mmm. Um... Was it kind of hot? Was it hot? I mean, he was a murderer. I know, but he was so sexy. It was like... We didn't want you to be a murderer. It was a problem. Him and James Norton have really fucked up my issue with psychopaths. Do you know what I mean?

I know. Jamie Dornan, you've got a lot to answer for. Well, Ted Bundy was pretty hot if you're going there. What's it? Should I go? Shall I go? I'm gonna fuck it. My trio of pots like Addie's. On that note, goodnight. Goodnight.

Sleep well. Thank you. Mum, you won't mind if I take these G-spots home? No darling. They are delicious. Have you found your G-spot now? Oh, I've found a few G-spots. Yeah, yeah. Thank you to Gillian Anderson for coming on and talking about Want, submitted by Anonymous,

collected by Gillian Anderson. It's out now with Bloomsbury. It's a really interesting read. Yeah, it was such a treat having her on. I mean she's a living legend. She is a legend. Stella Blanche, all those people she's played. And then she was sitting at my table. Eating your rare roast beef. Eating my rare roast beef. I felt a bit starstruck by her you know. Yeah I did as well. She's got such

power. Yeah. She's very serene. Yeah. Thank you everyone for listening and we'll see you next week.