THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.16 - PUB WALK WITH GARTH JENNINGS

Episode Date: April 13, 2016

Adam walks to the pub and back with old friend Garth who talks about how his family responded to last appearance on the podcast, updates Adam on the progress of his animated film, listens politely as Adam tells him the story of when Ken Korda invaded Warner Bros TV studios in LA, and reminisces about the dinner of a lifetime. Thanks to Seamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support! Podcast music/jingles by Adam Buxton except outro music bed from 'Wario’s Woods' game (Dr Buckles remix. Music composed by Shinobu, Soyo Oka, 1994) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast contains both effing and jeffing, be warned. All the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buxton. I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this. That's the plan. Hello, Adam Buxton here. How are you doing, listeners? Hope you're OK. I'm not talking at full volume today.

I'm using my public voice because I am in public yes I'm out in the countryside and yes I am in the East Angula area but I'm not in one of the fields near our place we're actually on an Easter break me and the family and we're out in Centre parks not far from where we live and we come here quite a lot in fact at some point i was thinking of maybe even doing like a whole podcast celebration

of center parks so there's that to look forward to eh i do like it here and is uh really a lovely day today. Oh my goodness. I'm looking out over a little lake. It's quite an idyllic scene. Ducks pottering about. People cycling around on their way to archery and laser quest and geocaching. It's all very edifying. Anyway, listen, welcome to podcast episode number 16. Thanks very much for all your messages about last week's episode with Kathy Burke. Really glad that so many of you seem to have enjoyed that one. Something quite different this week, though. Yes, it's a rambly conversation, but it's another rambly convo with my friend Garth Jennings. And we enjoyed this chat as we walked to and from my local pub via woods and fields and a quaint country village. For those of you who don't know,

Garth is a director of music videos, commercials and nowadays feature films. He's been living in Paris for the last couple of years with his family, where he's been working on a big animated feature coming out later this year, a big family film. It's actually for an American studio, but they're based in Paris. It's actually for an American studio, but they're based in Paris. And Garth came to visit me at the end of last year when we recorded this conversation. In fact, it was a few days after my dad's funeral in mid-December 2015. And Garth had correctly surmised that a trip to the pub with an old pal, accompanied by some stupid, rambly chatting, was what the doctor ordered. Dr. Buckles, that is.

Last time Garth was on the podcast, in episode number six, regular listeners may remember, he told me about losing his temper with one of his in-laws on a family holiday. And on today's episode, you will hear how making that story public went down with some of his nearest and dearest. Garth also told me about how his film is progressing. I told him a story from Adam and Joe show days about when me and Joe were out in Los Angeles and we made a guerrilla raid on a Hollywood TV studio. I'm making it sound more exciting than it was, but you'll hear the story. And on the way back from the pub, after a delicious lunchtime repast, very much recommend the butternut squash soup with homemade bread,

Garth and I reminisced about another once in a lifetime dining experience with full financial disclosure as is the fashion currently bit of topical political chat there got some more of it coming up later on that's what this podcast is known for it isn't anyway I'll stop crapping on

and say here we go. On your conversation coat and find your talking hat. Yes, yes, yes. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, I'm here with Garth. We're on our way to the pub again. Yeah. It's a beautiful day. This is ridiculously beautiful. I mean, we could go for not a cloud in the sky here. It's cold, though. Yeah, but it's reassuringly cold, don't you think?

It's nice. Because we were in T-shirts a few days ago. I know. We were recording this just before Christmas 2015. And it's been unseasonably mild, although the phrase unseasonably mild is becoming more and more irrelevant as the climate continues to shift.

You didn't see Obama on Bear Grylls' thing the other day, did you? No, I didn't. What happened? You know Bear Grylls' thing the other day, did you? No, I didn't. What happened? You know Bear Grylls, right? Yeah, sure. He does a show where he goes and yomps around with famous people. The only other one that I've seen was him and Jonathan Ross. And that was pretty amusing. Yeah.

And I was approached. I was on the long list for yomping with Bear Grylls. Did you have to turn it down? No, I turned it up. But it's one of those things, I think what happens when you make a show like that, they start off with a very long list of, like, any old Wally and then narrow it down depending on who says they're interested.

Right. It's like I'm a celebrity, get me out of here. Do you think they go for the people that aren't interested? Because if you're too keen, do they think, oh, he's going to be, there's no conflict. He's going to be too boring. It's like that phrase of, was it Gore Vidal's thing, of anyone that wants to be president shouldn't be.

Right. It's a spin on the Woody Allen thing of, I wouldn't be a member of any club that would have me as a member or it's groucho marx groucho marx yes um so you were just too keen they were like no like he'd enjoy it too much we need someone who's going to suffer he replied to the email almost immediately so strike him off the list with caps yes are you kidding i've been waiting for this all my life. I've told my wife I'm celebrating with the children tonight.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is the greatest day of my life. Tell Bear Grylls. He's made the right choice. Buying camping kit now. See you soon, love bucks. I'm just off to talk to the east anglia daily press um anyway so no that didn't happen no and too eager too eager too eager i'm a celebrity get me out of here i was put on the long list for one year oh or at least yeah i put on the long list

no they they made an inquiry so as i say they they get in touch with thousands of people, I think. But actually, that was a mistake. They should have had you on because you would have done all that stuff. Oh, mate. I know you. You'd have eaten whatever grub they'd have pulled out of that pot. I don't know. This year, you didn't see it this year, did you?

I haven't seen it for a while, actually. Well, I talked to Joe about this this actually um on the christmas podcast and there was a lady from taui who was one of the final three i forget her name no disrespect but um she had to chomp a very large living spider oh no that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. Did she swallow a bird after that? She swallowed the bird. And, I mean, it was out of control, though. It was one of the most compellingly...

Oh, that's horrendous. ...compellingly awful things I've ever seen. And on the one hand... Oh, I can't... I don't feel comfortable just now, just even imagining she had to shake it around a glass in order that it would ball itself up and she could then pop it in her mouth and there were quite a few complaints from people yes i can imagine saying well that's just cruel they ignored the witchetty grubs that she had consumed beforehand they were alive too and they ignored

the fact that many other living creatures die yeah on that show for the sake of a bit of uh cheap entertainment but still um they could imagine the meetings where they're all going no look we've eaten that no we've seen someone eat that what else have you got yeah the woodsman's like scratching his head he takes off his cork hat, because that's what all Australians wear. Takes it off and he goes, well, I suppose she could eat this spider. Brilliant! We've got a very, very big spider that looks as if it could probably

stand up and say some words. Great! Let's kill that. Yes, let's kill that. We'll give it to the Towie woman. Anything else? Well, there's quite a sweet dog that hangs around the set. Yeah. The cat's been annoying us for a while now.

I have pubic lice. And we could get some of those. Yes, yes. Whatever you've got, just put it in the jar. I feel like I would do a good job on that show. You never know. Also, there is the added dimension that it for many people signifies the end of a career

yes exactly it's like certain awards when you get them it's like see ya bye bye thanks bye and goodbye

it would be great not to hear from you ever again it's the worst way to go out as well and the last we heard of her eating a live spider that's right. And the gaps between what you do become longer and longer. Every time you come back with one last gasp, they say, and here he is, the king of the jungle,

or at least someone who was in the jungle for one week before he was booted out first. Focktown and Buc-ee-lease Buxton. Here he is. Now, you ate some pubic lice. What was that like? Anyway, so... You can dream of that scenario.

But Bear Grylls and Obama. Yeah, what was that about, then? What the hell was that about? Obama, it seems to me, now, will go on just about anything. Right, he's having a good time. I mean, I'm basing that on just having gone on Mark Maron's WTF podcast.

Well, that seemed like a smart move, though, to reconnect with people in a way that... Because his whole point was, we're just not reaching people. Yeah. There's this huge gap between politics and everyday life and what people want. And I've got to try and make an effort to bridge that gap by connecting in non-traditional routes. To me, that seems like an unwinnable game, though, because the thing is that every time Obama appears on one of these things, you are aware of the incredible amount of action going on behind the scenes to ensure that, you know, the right things are spoken about and the president doesn't accidentally say something

and obviously they're going to get final cut with anything that he's on. Right. I would say. Yeah, you're right. I'd be very surprised. I mean, that's the way it works with the royal family. Yeah, and so did he have to go on some kind of test or something?

No. I didn't see it. I didn't watch the whole thing, I have to be honest. But they went off yomping. they talked a little bit about climate change and bear grills was like you're you're the most incredible man in the world because you've you've saved the planet with what you've done with climate change you've just totally you've you've totally saved it. I'm not sure he has. Well, no, this was before the Paris summit. OK. Which ended up in, I mean, it wasn't a total washout,

but it was very far from being like, we've saved the planet. Yeah. However, what you can say is that Obama does not seem, to my mind, like one of the baddies. No. He did a decent job there on the Bear Grylls show. He's a nice man, isn't he? He seems like a really nice man.

He's such a nice man. Hard-hitting political discussion with Adam Buster and Garth Jennings. That seemed like a nice guy. He seems nice. He seems like a nice man. I just think he's a nice guy. I just think he's nice. hey look it's not so bad as it was a few months ago it's gotten all that was mental a few months ago because i didn't know i sort of i knew we were recording a podcast but sorry i've just walked straight to a bad this is no good we're going i knew we were recording for

a podcast yeah but i didn't know you'd assembled it all or anything until it was only a couple of days later and a friend of mine goes hey heard that thing about you and the lemon tart and i was like really is that out and sure enough it was well i said to you it was no no you it wasn't because you hadn't been open with me sure i just you know because i we walk to this pub all the time yeah and uh talk about all sorts of stuff and i just it didn't occur to me even though you were making a podcast i just didn't think about people actually listening to it no well i said to you that weekend like so you're cool with this going out and you're cool with the dad story sure i said to you do you want me to uh edit out the bits where you mention his name because you did did i mention his name i can't remember oh i do don't know yeah

yeah um yeah see i just didn't think about. Because obviously the last thing I want is for there to be any kind of negative pushback. Yeah. And then you... I was really grateful for the fact that you were just totally candid, and I think that's what people responded to. And you did so in a way that I don't think threw anyone under the bus,

but apparently your wife did. Well, she was great about it. She was really sweet, and she sort of said, I did listen to it, and she wasn't angry at all, but she was great about it. She was really sweet and she sort of said, I did listen to it and she wasn't angry at all, but she was just a bit disappointed. She said... We should just do a very quick recap of it. Basically, you were telling a story about a time

towards the beginning of your relationship with your wife was... It was a family holiday that had already started badly when I took the entire family to the wrong airport. And then there'd been a whole sort of bust up at the table because i'd overreacted to my father-in-law upsetting my wife right and my wife heard the podcast and she said you know the trouble with this is that this is the only story about me and my family now and that she said i come across as this great wuss and she's far from a wuss she's a wuss not a wuss i can vouch for that and um and my dad just sounds like a sort of great big bully yeah and i said well on that the trouble was on that occasion

he was a bit of a bully and i was overreacting to that but i could tell she was just a bit disappointed because she's like, oh, that story's just like other people's stories now. Like, you've just told that to everyone. Uh-huh. And I just wish you hadn't sort of said it. And what was your response to that? Oh, I was like, really? Do you really? I said I didn't.

Because did you agree with her? I sort of did and didn't. On the one hand, I don't want to do anything that upsets her. She's very fair. She didn't get cross or anything. She was just like, ah, I wish I hadn't done that. Disappointed. That's the worst, though, mate.

Disappointed, yeah. That is the worst of all the... Yeah, it was. It was a bit like, oh, you've let me down a bit there. I thought, you know, it just doesn't make everybody... It's not that fair because they don't know the other stories, the good ones, you know. Yes. And I um i said well that wasn't the point but so i half agreed she was like fine it's just one of those things but you know be great if you didn't be great if you didn't go and do a recap don't do

don't bring it up again let's just just just leave it at that well what's funny that comes out of that is the fact that I... I'm laughing. I'm not laughing, obviously, out of disrespect to Woz in any way. No, she's brilliant. But none of... I don't think any of them have heard the... I think my brother-in-law heard it.

Right. But that's the thing, Ad. We had no idea so many people would hear it. Right. Do you know what I mean? When you're walking down across a field with you, you're not thinking about people would hear it right to me when you're walking down a you know across a field with you you're not thinking about people listening to it no but the thing is that um that's why i think people responded to it because it's real it's a real conversation and as i say

you weren't i didn't think that you were being horrible to any i certainly don't think that it reflected badly on was no or particularly her dad because it's like any family is like that yes any father is can be like that or any mother for that matter sister families can be can just get the wrong side of each other and say something and it was more i think that we'd started talking about it because it came out of me recounting something where i'd lost my mind yeah it was like listen if he was a serial bully and a kind of uh scary guy who intimidates his family on a regular basis you would not be telling that story because you would know that it was totally inappropriate to share this painful fact about your wife's family with the podcats no i mean but it's not that was not the

situation i love the idea of the podcats these really cool folk who sort of with their with their berets with their berets or their or their jauntily but positioned straw hats and cane just checking out my parts oh, the lemon tart Denied Jingle break, it's a break from the podcast In between the next bit and the bit that was last Every now and then you have to take a little rest Otherwise you're going to get tired and depressed Take a look around, think that you exist

Think about the person you last kissed Right, that's enough now, think about keys Think about sausages, think about trees Think of alien vehicles moving out in space think about the wonder on the little baby's face now think of stevie wonder's face on the baby's face now stop thinking completely because you're ready for the next part of the podcast it is hey man since we last spoke, we were being cagey about the details of your film

because it hadn't been announced yet. That's right, that's right, yeah. Now it is... It's officially announced. It's officially announced. I'm out there. Tell us all about it. What's it called? It's called Sing.

Pretty much a year from now, it will be out in the cinemas. 21st of December, 2016. Yeah, yeah. And I've been working on this thing for flipping years. It's set in the regular world. It looks like Los Angeles or San Francisco, one of those. There's nothing extraordinary about the city. And all the characters in it are regular folk

with regular lives and friends and relationships and jobs and everything, but they're all animals. They're every kind of animal there is. This is animated, you know, and jobs and everything, but they're all animals. They're every kind of animal there is. This is animated, you said? It's a full CG animated extravaganza. Yeah. And at the centre of this story is a character called Buster Moon,

who is a small koala who owns a theatre. And it's not doing so great. It's not doing great at all. And, uh... A small, incompetent koala. Yeah, but he's a real optimistic dude yeah and uh he thinks and you can say who he's voiced yeah he's voiced by Matthew McConaughey nice who's fabulous he's been absolutely incredible and um so this little uh koala

decides what he's going to do is he's going to stage a singing competition because that's what people like and his best friend Eddie who's played by John C. Reilly, says, you don't want to do that. People do not want to see another singing competition, I'm telling you. But Matthew's character is convinced and there's a huge mistake that his incompetent secretary makes.

Yes. And the entire flipping city turns out to audition for this thing. And he is thrilled and it's not until he's cast his show that he realises he got this this big problem to deal with yeah and what we do in this in the film is follow the lives of the five contestants the five not real contest the five sort of main cast members as their lives get sort of turned upside down as they're drawn into this show and you sort of follow them like you would a documentary

and with Buster Moon at the centre of it all. And the other people in the film are Seth MacFarlane, who plays a really, really nasty little mouse, but who can sing like Frank Sinatra. So it's exactly like him in real life. He can really sing like Frank Sinatra. He's not a nasty little mouse, though. I'm joking. I've never met Seth MacFarlane.

This is the weird thing. They're all so flipping nice. Scarlett Johansson plays a porcupine called ash who's sort of a goth and she's in a relationship with a really useless boyfriend and she can sing too i mean she's got a great amazing singer yeah she's got a very deep sort of husky right yeah she's a great singer she's been doing lots of songs for us recently and it's been going great and same for reese witherspoon who plays a pig who's based on was um was again wasn't too delighted with the choice of animal but the the pig has 25 piglets and she is called rosita and she yearns to reconnect with that part of herself that used to be able to sing and perform and all that stuff and she had to let go of all of that when she started having children. Right.

Because your wife is that way with the world of fashion. Yeah, exactly. For ten years, she gave up her job and raised the kids and then tried to get back into work. And she's doing brilliantly now, but, God, it was really tough for her to get back in, for all kinds of reasons. It's just tough to get work anyway.

Of course. But, you know, thinking, is she doing the right thing? And is she too old now? And all that stuff that we went through together. And that sort of reflected a little bit in Reese Witherspoon's character, who is having to invent all kinds of crazy systems to look after her family while she's in the show yeah then you have um you've got jennifer saunders in there yeah she plays miss nana noodleman who's kind of a norma desmond character yes and then john c reilly plays eddie the sheep who is

his best friend and also nana noodleman's grandson yeah Yeah. Then Taron Egerton. Flipping Taron Egerton's amazing. He plays a Cockney gorilla, and his father is a gangster, and he's his father's getaway driver. Uh-huh. So he has to lead a double life between being the getaway driver for his father, who desperately wants him to be just like him,

and being in this show with Buster. And then finally, Tori. There's this new singer called tori kelly uh who is just phenomenal and she plays a teenage elephant called mina who is suffering from crippling stage fright and uh rather overbearing family but that's worked out pretty well so where did you find her then how did you become aware of i became aware of her bit through the music team at universal we were trying to find a young singer to you know to play a young part but also somebody who could take the roof off vocally we auditioned lots and lots of people and i remember just remember auditioning tori and she was just great i knew she could sing because I'd heard

her sing already but then as the character she was fabulous. The production is based in Paris. It is yeah. So how do you go about recording these Hollywood artists? Oh well most of it's done with me in the room with them so I have to fly to America a lot. Whenever they're free I get these little windows of opportunity where I have to dash out and grab them for a couple of hours or three or four hours if we're doing a full song yeah which means I've been traveling a lot this year which getting your air miles yeah but it's exhausting I it's yeah the last thing you want to do is use them and go anyway you just want to stay at home are they transferable at all you know what i think i have enough now i could probably charter my own plane it's ridiculous there was something like 17 trips this year yeah to america and in one year that's far too many and it doesn't does make you

um a bit doolally you do go a bit bonkers but it's great the sessions have been amazing it is absolutely lovely to be at the phase where we're recording with the actors and you're in the room with them and they're doing their thing which they do so well it's more immediate with animation it's magical in different ways but it's a very slow process you'll have an idea and you may see the you know the fruits of that idea months after you come up with it but the great thing about being on a set or in a recording studio is you can say, let's try this, and there it is. You can see if it's good or not, if it's wonderful. So it's been really great to see them doing their stuff.

Scarlett Johansson, you sent me through a picture on a text saying... Look at that, yeah, I'm with Scarlett. Look at me. Flipping, I looked like her dad, didn't I? Seriously, I did. I was like you were standing it was one of those shots you were standing directly beneath a uh a down light you know what i mean you're you're making it sound like there's it was the lighting that did it

it was though because sometimes you get unlucky with the lighting and it shines directly through your head makes your hair look very thin yeah and. And it makes you... It makes you... I'm not saying you. I'm saying one. Yeah. It makes you look much older. Yeah. And so you did look quite fatherly next to her.

Yes. And she just looks... Well, she looked as if she'd just come from the set of The Avengers or something. I think she probably had. Oh, not The Avengers. I think she was doing one of the Captain America films at the time. Uh-huh. But just brilliant and so willing to jump in there and do it all.

And no, just no problem. You know when it's just easy and I just assumed there'd be more work I'd have to do in order to convince people. Right. But the minute they start, they seem to get where I'm going with it and they've just jumped in. Well, but basically we're going to chart in podcast form the whole progress of this movie. Yeah. So this is the it's all going well part.

You are about four months away from pretty much doing the bulk of all the work that has to be done on it. Yeah, we have to have delivered it by the summer, the end of the summer. So most of it will be crunched through in the next five months uh-huh yeah then we will check in with you when it uh comes out yeah and then still standing yeah we'll we'll come and do another podcast from rehab yeah when you're in therapy yeah or i probably i was thinking by that

time i probably won't need to hang out with the likes of you that's true i'll have moved on oh yeah totally that's the whole part of my business plan you're gonna be hanging out with mcconaughey but this is probably our last chat face to face i'll i'll just have one of my people do it for me yeah yeah well i don't mind because i'm going to be uh hanging out with well ainsley Harriot. Ainsley? That would be well impressive. I only say Ainsley because I always remember that time you wanted me to film you doing some BBC documentary stuff. I was dressed as Ken Corder.

Yeah, and you kept saying, look, there's Ainsley Harriot. Yes, over there you can see the set for the new programme. It's going to be a spaceship that will take Ainsley Harriet to the moon. We're halfway through the podcast. I think it's going really great. The conversation's flowing like it would between a geezer and his mate.

All right, mate. Hello, geezer. I'm pleased to see you. Ooh, there's so much chemistry. It's like a science lab of talking. I'm interested in what you said. Thank you. There's fun chat and there's deep chat.

It's like Chris Evans is meeting Stephen Hawking. Oh, yeah, I told you the story about Ken when we were in... This is a character I used to do, listeners, on the Adam and Jo show. It's called Ken Corder, who is a kind of a multi-purpose media twat. Yes. And it was a very broad caricature of absolutely no one in particular. But at one point, we used to go to Los Angeles, me and Joe, at least once a year while we were doing the Adam and Joe show and film little bits and pieces

like one time we well we did some filming with Coolio and my dad we did a couple of vinyl justice things which was me and Joe wandering around in silly policemen's uniforms and going through people's record collections and we ended up doing Dave Navarro did you yeah yes that's right he was pretty weird i remember he was very suspicious and all you know none of these people knew who me and joe were yeah they obviously had uh agents or publicists that they needed to fire yeah who had arranged for them to be on this weird english tv show and when we turned up and started going hello sir, sir, what have we got here? A copy of Frampton Comes Alive. What are you doing with that?

And they'd be sort of looking at us like, well, what's the problem with that? What's going on here? How long is this going to take? Dave Navarro's very pretty girlfriend sort of stood without speaking to anyone in the corner. Policing it like a proper rock girlfriend. I don't think this is right, Dave.

He was very pleased. And then we did these... Not how I pictured you being interviewed. Exactly. You humiliated yourself today, Dave. You know who wouldn't have done that? Sucker. Flea.

Yeah. He would so not have done that, and that's why I'm leaving you, Dave. Rosie, come over here. We're getting onto the road now, just before the pub, so I to put rosie's leash on rosie rose dog come come here i'm gonna put the lead on rose bowl good deal well done clever dog yeah we did uh who else did we do we did frank black that was great he was lovely and we did uh Zapper children. Moon Unit.

We did Moon Unit. We never used the Moon Unit one in the end because it was just pretty good music that she was into and it's more fun when you find so-called embarrassing records. Well, that's a thing that my father-in-law, I can genuinely say without causing any offence, my father-in-law, I can genuinely say, without causing any offence, has the best record collection if you're after the worst record collection.

It was only five records he's ever seemed to have owned. One of them was Nana Muscuri's Greatest Hits, which is not too bad. That's a good 70s one. I think everyone in the 70s had that. Burt Camford's Swinging Safari. Oh, mate. He's like a kind of 70s caricature.

Yeah, Burt Camford's Swinging Safari. Has he got. He's like a kind of 70s caricature. Yeah, Burt Camford Swinging Safari. Has he got any Dunican in there? There's no Dunican. I swear to you, there's only five albums anyway. There was one, I think, that came free with the Daily Mail back in the 80s. And a couple of choral things. And I remember coming up and being very rude about it to Waterline. So they got.

Yeah. Really? Burt Camford Swinging Safari. Hasn't he the waterline. So they got. Yeah. Really, see? Burt Canford swinging safari. Hasn't he got any Bentley Rhythm Ace? Yeah, yeah. There's no motorhead here. No, but it was... And that was an alien to me,

that you could have so little music. Yes, exactly. I'd grown up in a house of rock. I know, it's always very strange, isn't it, when you meet people who clearly don't care that much about music you know it's like yeah it's fine

but why would you want to get loads of it yeah why would you need loads of it it's on the radio all the time but what I know and you think holy Christ music is the only thing that stands between me and the abyss yeah well my whole film

is a complete distillation of all the music I like. Yeah. We have something like over 80 songs in there now. You've got some Shuby Taylor in there. Shuby's in there. Shuby Taylor, the human horn. Look him up if you don't know about Shuby Taylor.

Go and look him up. And if you have children, play it very loud to your children. Shoo, shoo, soo, wah, shwee, dah. He was an American postman who, in his spare time, and he called himself the Human Horn. Yeah. He would sort of do a crazy, weird approximation of what he considered to be scat singing.

Boppy, boppy, boppy, boppy, boppy. He had all these brilliant phrases that he'd invented. So he'd invented a whole new scat lexicon. Whoa, Rosie, come on. It's just a cat. Look, the cat knows. The cat knows. The cat knows she's fine.

Rosie, don't be mean. Come on. I've got her on the leash. I have to say, the cat is making this whole thing worse. The cat is fronting. Whatever the cat is saying. That is totally... Rosie, calm down.

The cat is well nonchalant. Yeah. As you said, it was completely like, yeah, whatever. Yeah, it's a dog on a lead. I'm pretty sure you're on a lead, mate. What are you going to do,

like chase me up this tree with your paws? I don't think so, dog. I don't think you're going to do any damage. No, I don't think you will, will you? You're a tiny little dog. You do not have my agility. What are you, half poodle?

Or you're some kind of woo-doo, innit? You're making me laugh. Yeah, with your dog face. You've got nothing on this cat. Yeah, so you've got loads of good music in your movie. Yeah, it's great. And it's great to be able to just have it all. I'm so used to music being a very very

it's the most expensive part of most movies it can be and it's also one of the trickiest just to because you've got to get clearance from all kinds of people and sometimes they're they're hard to pin down and and then they want approval of the scene and all that sort of stuff yeah so it can be a real pain in the backside. And so it's amazing. I've got this extraordinary team, seriously, Universal Music, who just deal with it in the most brilliantly elegant way.

So it all gets done. There was one track, though, that was really hard to get permission for. You're allowed to say what it was? We needed an Elton John song. I won't tell you which one. And I really, really wanted this track for this part of the film.

And they were saying, no, no, no, they can't use it because there's a chance we may be using that in our own Elton John animated film. They're doing a sequel to some... Oh yeah, The Gnomes. Yes, I think it's Sherlock Gnomes. I think they're doing it.

And so for months, it was a no-go, and we were finding alternatives, and there were some perfectly brilliant alternatives. But then again, Chris Miller-Dandry makes one final push. He's your big boss. He's my big boss. And as a result, David Furnish agrees to meet with me. So I went for this meeting with david

furnish yeah in his offices at rocket productions it was like a sensory overload because first of all he was so charming and nice it was dazzling but the other thing the thing that struck me first actually was the smell his office farts no. I think it's maybe the nicest smelling environment I've ever been in my life. So much so that the first thing I said was, wow, what is this smell? Yeah. He looked at me like, I may have said something rude. I think at first, like, what do you mean? I said, it just smells incredible in here.

Is this a candle or something? Yeah. So he just very casually said, I don't know. I think it's maybe some, I don't know. it's a candle in the wind good job thanks that was very well picked up i sort of left it dangling but um like a rotten piece of fruit oh i love that thank you very much so so there was this really charming man in the most immaculate suit I've ever seen, in the most perfectly smelling office,

or environment I've ever been in, and I got to meet with him. And halfway through the meeting, which went really well, in the end it meant everything went through, halfway through, there's this dong-dong-dong sort of sound, like a knocking sound. There's a glass door to David's office. And there's Elton John no just banged on me and just waved at david david sort

of waved back it was like oh yeah you're a couple yeah i forgot that you know i think of you as these two famous people but actually you're a couple yeah they work together yeah yeah and it was so clear in those three seconds and um i had to sort of stop myself from hyperventilating like wow that was how john uh why did i even start telling that story oh because of the music thing the music thing you've pretty much had everything we need wanted um and that was the only tricky one that turned out to be sort of a fun journey to go on that's cool and it's good that they as you say i think they they are aware of the fact that they kind of have to keep that back catalogue alive. That's funny you should say that. He was aware of that.

I mean, it's important that they're selective, but he's very keen that, they're both very keen that the music is, you know, carries on. Because you can be, I mean, I get the feeling with the Beatles sometimes that Apple are so cautious and so controlling about how that music gets used that there's a whole generation of young people particularly that don't really have much of a relationship with the Beatles music and aren't really aware of it and just think well it's it's like these people from ancient history did these things yes yes it's it's it's it's difficult because I suppose it must be very hard to know what to do, you know, because it's so confusing. Nobody really knows how to work streaming.

Well, I guess you just have to be selective, don't you? Yeah, yeah. And, yeah, so it was nice to meet such a positive attitude. That's great. Yeah, it really was. it was lovely We started off on this section of this ramble by talking about Ken Corder and I was I think the reason, the story i wanted to

tell you because sometimes i do go off on these tangents and then people get back in touch after the podcast and say what was what was the story come on grandpa what were you gonna say well i dressed up as ken corder this stupid character and we went off to warn Brothers, to the studio. And I rigged myself with a little camera, a sort of tie cam, and a tape recorder. I cut a little hole in my shirt and stuck it underneath there with some gaffer tape. And I had a backpack with a Hi8 camera that we connected it to, or a Digi8 or whatever, and a recorder for the sound. And then we went to Warner Brothers Studios. Joe stayed outside, and I went up to the big gates

at Warner Brothers Studios in, where is it? I don't know. Burbank, I don't know. Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm guessing. Yeah. And I went up to the security guy. Yeah.

And just said, hello, I'm here to see Michael Crichton. He said, all right. Were you in a car? No, I was walking. Okay, in Los Angeles. I was walking in Los Angeles with a baseball cap, with an insane looking wig on and a backpack. And I went up and said, hello, I'm here to see Michael Crichton.

And I think maybe because it was a British, albeit weird, British accent he was like wow this must be real because he's oh he's not crazy he's british he's either a scientist or a bad guy i'm gonna let this guy in either way he's probably smart so and cultured i don't know downton abbey wasn't on in those days but americans still i think some of them still have this image of brits as being somehow um and cultured. I don't know. Downton Abbey wasn't on in those days. No. Americans still, I think, some of them still have this image of Brits as being somehow intellectual or important. Yeah. Or snooty at the very least.

And they don't want to get snooted on. So he let me write in. And I just wandered around, sort of talking to myself for a while, thinking, well, you know, I've got to, because the camera was rolling and the sound was recording and everything. So you're just walking around the lot? I'm walking around the lot.

That would never happen. Poking my head into various studios until I see the studio where they record ER. And sure enough, they were shooting. And the door to the main studio was open. I guess they were between takes. And there were people, crew coming and going. And also members of the cast. I didn't see George Clooney, but I saw the actor that played Dr. Benton.

Eric LaSalle, that's his name. Right. Brilliant character. Dr. Benton, very taciturn and uh emotionless but brilliant at his job and i loved that show holy christmas and so i was like oh my god i mean i'm on the set of er and i was in you go in through the big main doors of the sound stage and there you are in county general or whatever it was called wait are you staying in character at this point yes so you're still so and no one is no one is bothering me i'm just wandering around wherever i go In County General or whatever it was called. Wait, are you staying in character at this point? Yes. So you're still getting caught.

And no one is bothering me. I'm just wandering around wherever I want to go. You look totally normal. And I go up to Eric LaSalle and he's talking to a director or a script editor or whatever. They're like, hello. I'm here to see Michael Crichton. Is he here? Michael Crichton is one of the creators of the show, I think.

Yeah. And also a pretty famous Hollywood screenwriter. No longer with us. That was the one name I thought, this is a kind of insider industry name. And by banding it around, I will show that I have insider credentials. I'm here to see Michael Crichton.

Yes, I'm due to be talking to him about the Bodger and Badger movie. It's very exciting. And Michael and I are going to see Michael Crichton. Yes, I'm due to be talking to him about the Bodger and Badger movie. It's very exciting, and Michael and I are going to be working on it, and then I think we're meeting PJ and Duncan later on for lunch. And Eric LaSalle's like, I don't know if Michael's here today. But you could try on set, he says. So thank you very much. Were you not at any point a little bit worried?

Yes. Okay, good. Massively. Good, good. Crapping my pants. Wait, have you got any comlink back to Joe? No. So Joe's not going, keep going.

No, no, no. Going to phase four. This is two utter rank amateurs. Just thinking, let's give this a go. We hadn't thought it through at all. We just thought, well, let's see what happens. So I'm like wandering down the main corridor on the set of ER. Is Michael here today?

At that point, this is why I could never be a true kind of provocateur or stitch-up guy. Because at a certain point, I became ashamed at how nice everyone was being right and I just thought I'm a stupid little creep and I'm taking advantage of their complete openness yes and generosity and the fact that no one is coming over and being mean to me I love this show and the last thing I would ever want to do is taint my enjoyment of this program by being an irritation to them. So I'm going to cash in my chips, and I'm going to bugger off back to Joe. So I wave goodbye to the set of ER, walk back out completely unbothered, see Joe at the front. I'm like, mate, check this out this out get out the camera it hasn't been

recorded fuck off really yeah it stopped recording about two minutes after i went in through the gates unbelievable that's heartbreaking uh it was it was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life do you wake up in the night sometimes just screaming? For a while I did. Yeah. Then I had some very expensive therapy. And now I'm okay. This is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success.

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10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So put the smile of success on your face with Squarespace. Yes. That was good lunch, man. I had the best fish and chips I think I've ever had. Really? Yeah, seriously, that was perfect. Sometimes, though...

The mushy peas, they weren't even mushy, they were like minty peas. What? Oh, they stuck some mint in there. Just great. I'll tell you one of my most memorable meals was when we went to that place in Paris, the Crayon. Oh, for Christ's sakes.

That was insane, wasn't it? Wow, that was crazy. How did we end up there? I genuinely... Oh, I know what it was. We had just... This must have been 2005 because I'd just finished the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

And I'd been to France for the French premiere, and they'd sent me to this amazing restaurant that they'd paid for. And then I thought, oh, maybe if I asked, they could just send me there again. And they said, oh, we can't get you in there, but we can get you a table at the Creon. And I thought, maybe they'll pay for it, but they weren't going to pay for it. And I think you'd gone there

because it was your anniversary or Sel's birthday, and we were the surprise guests. That's right. I'd said to Sel, let's go out and do a weekend in Paris. And the night we got there, we sort of went down to the bar in this little hotel we were staying at to have a drink. It's like, who are those guys in the corner? Do you recognise them?

Hey! Oh, jokes. Jokes. Maximum jokes. It was really nice looking at Sel for about ten minutes, thinking, she doesn't know we're here. Yeah. This is actually working.

Because she's not silly. She normally susses something like that. Yeah, it was really fun. And then, I guess the next night, we went and had dinner at this place. And it was like, I mean, it looked like the Palace of Versailles or something. Yeah. And it was just...

Oh, it was ridiculous. It was like a giant marble ballroom type area with... It was. A huge, great... Like a Disney princess movie. Gold-framed portraits of important-looking people on the walls. Yeah. And a few large tables scattered around.

That's the thing, there was lots of space between the tables. Yeah, because usually they pack them in. If you've got a restaurant and it's going well, it's like, how many people can we stuff in? Get another table in there. They can share a table, it's fine. Because that's how you talk in fine restaurants. Get enough shut up, Get another table in there.

This is the classic fine restaurateur. Yeah. It's the Creole. Look, there's two metres over there that's gotten out, isn't it? Fucking put another table in. What are you doing? Things are going great. We've got five fucking Michelin stars.

You're fucking mad. That's the way restaurant people talk. Look, put an umbrella out the front. We can stick another couple of tables in. Fucking hell. It's never going to be this good again. How many people have got five Michelin stars? Fucking hell.

But it wasn't like that. At the Creon, it wasn't like that. No, it wasn't like that. We must have at least 50 feet in between every single table. So if somebody, for example, they want to arrive by car, they can drive to the table. They don't have to walk across the floor. We were the people that shouldn't be there.

We were about 30 years younger than everybody else there, right? I was really anxious, like, whoa, we are actually out of our depth here. Yeah. But the thing was that immediately struck me was how nice the staff were. Yeah. Because if it was a movie, the maitre d' would be looking at you like, I don't think you belong here, sir. No.

You'll want a Pepsi Cola, won't you, with your dinner? There is a McDonald's a little bit... I don't know where my maitre d' is from. Yeah, we've had all kinds of accents here. Skidding around between Germany. I like the other ones that were like... The northern ones. Fucking hell.

We've got five stars. Five fucking Michelin stars. Get some stools and put them up to the bar. I don't care. Hang them out the fucking window. We've gotin stars. Get some stools and put them up to the bar. I don't care. Hang them out the fucking window. We've got five stars. We'll do any kind of offensive accent. Don't worry about it.

No, no, no, it's fine. And so we sit down and there's me and Garth and Woz and Sal. And we're all kind of like, what the hell is this? Yeah. And we start looking at these menus. There's one server per person right yeah it's not a busy night yeah creole there's only about six other people in there a few russian oligarchs there's the main guy who's coming over and sort of taking the order yeah and then for every single

thing that comes out whether it's a drink or a bit of food or whatever, there's an individual server per person. Yeah. All of them are scrupulously polite and charming. So we're looking at the menu and sort of trying to figure out what we're going to have, and it all, like, you don't just get, like, mains and starters and then a pudding, right? No, it wasn't like a three-course thing.

No, it was like we have got a whole wide selection of individual little works of art. Yes. Is what it turned out to be. I think they call them, well, it's like a succession of amuse-bouche. Yeah. Now, what we have here is loads of fucking amuse-bouche. And you choose the fucking one you like and you can have that.

This is no good because people from this part of the world... No, it's just funny for me because it's so at odds with the reality of that place which is like a church to food. I know, but the implication from me with that accent is that someone with that accent could not possibly be sufficiently cultured to be in that situation.

Which isn't true, of course. No, of course not. But it's just funny because it sounds like a sitcom voice yeah it's like a grotesque caricature of a northern person from the 70s yeah that i've inserted and now i've removed all the humor from the situation by analyzing every little bit of humor out of it as a preemptive apology to anyone who might be offended by it. This is the future of comedy. This is the future of comedy. Anyway, so we're sat there,

and we're checking out what's on this menu, right? And I'm thinking to myself, wow, this is cool that Garth's got us into this place. This is wild. And i'm thinking to myself wow this is cool that garth's got us into this place this is wild and i'm gonna pay so we sit down and everybody gets a menu and i'm looking at all this amazing stuff on there but there's no prices and i'm like wait a second what's how come there's no prices and i'm asking sel like are there prices on your menu and she's like no and then i say to garth garth have you got prices like yeah yeah yeah and so i said oh can you pass that over here so garth passes over the menu i'm looking down at the prices yeah you know and um we already

ordered a bottle of wine and so that bottle bottle of wine, for example, that we just ordered, which was like the house wine, I don't know what it was, that bottle of wine was, I think, £60? Yeah. And then I start looking at some of the actual dishes, and clearly there's only one menu, and they'd given Garth the menu with the prices on because they thought he was the payman guy.

So a little bit of maths, you know, it's like beautiful mind. Dr. Buckles is madly calculating. And it becomes obvious to me that this whole experience is going to cost not less than £1,000 for one meal. I've never in my life before or since had anything like it before. Oh, my God. Jesus. And I'd already made a big song and dance out of it.

Yeah, this is my treat. I'm going to pay for this. And I think, knowing me, I would have said, no, you should, let's go halves. Come on. Yeah. And you're like, no, man, this is... No, no, no, no, no.

This is on me. This is on me. And I had no idea. So I'm thinking, okay, a thousand pounds for one meal. Jesus Christ. Is that really the way this is going to go down? And at that point, we had children by that point, right? Yeah.

Look, even if you didn't have children and you were really, you know, maybe even if we were both really wealthy at the time. Yeah. We should need to rest really well, would we? No, no. A thousand pounds. No, that's once in a lifetime stuff. So I was thinking, can a meal ever, ever be worth a thousand pounds?

I was going through, running through this whole quandary in my mind. Like, well, here are the options. Either I pay for this meal. We have the meal and I pay for it and it's a thousand fucking pounds. And I just don't, I can't conceive of a way that it would ever be worth it. It just seems like a grotesque waste of money. So we could leave and we could go somewhere more suited to our pockets and our taste. Yeah.

McDonald's maybe yeah or i could just say to everyone look i know what i said about like i'm gonna pay for this but now i've seen the prices yeah and maybe that whole great it was isn't it and with every single course that came out and there were about 10 and i couldn't tell you what it was that we were actually eating because they really did look like little beautiful sculptures each plate would come out and there'd be a silver dome over it and the servers would come out yeah they would remove these domes from the plates in unison beautifully choreographed and present them to us each time with a wonderful flourish and then they would evaporate and off they would go to the kitchen and return at exactly the point you wanted them to return.

Like, for example, there would be things, I guess it was sort of Heston Blumenthal level of crazy creativity. Not necessarily with the ingredients so much as the presentation. and there would be like a little weird bit of sushi with a little geodome made of caramel or something that was just beautiful looking. But everything tasted incredible as well. And you couldn't quite put your finger on what it was that you were actually consuming. But you knew it was spectacular and you loved it. And it just carried on like that throughout the

whole meal course after course of these little brilliant explosions of um food fire culinary creativity yeah it was amazing and you're right that's an obscene amount of money to for for some food but we did enjoy the hell out of it and i'm sure the waiters picked up on that yeah because i think they're used to people the kind of people that can afford to go there don't get that excited about these things because it's kind of ordinary for them right they don't go oh when the waiter comes over go what was that that was amazing and they're sort of like oh great somebody actually digs this stuff i'll remember it for the rest of my life. It was so great. So there we go. That's it for this week.

Thanks very much indeed to Garth Jennings. Garth will no doubt be back on the podcast at some future juncture. And as I indicated earlier on, I'll probably be catching up with him once again to find out how the film turns out and see if he conquers the world with it or if he is instantly put into direct jail for having created one of the most offensive family films of all time. I'm sure that won't be the case. Thanks, Garth. I'm back in our lodge at Centre Parcs right now. My wife.

My wife. My wife and my children are on the climbing wall. My wife and my children are on the climbing wall. My wife and my children are on the climbing wall. I am sat inside the lodge. I'm small. That's a free song for you there. And I've got to go and meet them a bit later on to have some time in the tropical swimming paradise here at Centre Parcs. So pray for me.

Thanks very much indeed to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support and to ACAST who put out this podcast. Download their app on Android or iOS and check out their recommendations for other podcasts you might enjoy. They didn't ask me to say that. I just thought it would be polite to say it, seeing as they provide support for this podcast. So I may have got the wording wrong there. Speaking of getting the wording wrong, and if you love downloading apps, why not investigate the Adam Buxton app on iTunes? Just type in Adam Buxton on apps on iTunes and you should find it. It's my stupid beardy face against a pink background is the icon for it. And that will pop onto your phone.

At the moment, I believe it's just for iOS devices. It's free and it enables, well, it does. Here's what it does. It enables you to browse years of brilliant, brilliant, erratic online nonsense from my, that's erratic, not erotic currently, from my blog, my YouTube channel and my riveting Twitter feed. It was made for me by the fine fellows at Dunlod, D-W-N-L-D. And basically what they do is they make it easy for you to build your own app, if you so wish. And they sort of did one for me just to get themselves some publicity, I guess. And they didn't demand that I chat about it. but I, again, thought it would be polite.

It's an early version of the app, so that's why it's only available for iOS at the moment, I believe, though if there's sufficient uptake for it, I guess that'll change. So check it out if you're able to, and apologies if you're not able to. Please don't firebomb me or my family. would be great because we didn't do it deliberately to upset you and uh what else i'm not very good at doing the self-promotion thing every now and again i think right i'm really going to start being serious about all this self-promotion and then i i lose the will to follow it up and weeks go by without my blog being updated and things like that. But, you know, if you liked this podcast, good.

Give it a thumbs up somewhere. A nice review. Subscribe. Like. Stroke. Kiss. Hug. subscribe, like, stroke, kiss, hug. If you didn't like it,

please just try to move on with your life and not punish me or anyone else associated with it. That would be great. And we'll do our best to be more what you want us to be in the future. That's the best I can do at this point. Until next time we meet, do take care. I love you. Bye!