THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.33 - MATT BERRY

Episode Date: November 13, 2016

Adam talks to Toast Of London (and all the other stuff) star Matt Berry about music, art school, Dark Place, Vic & Bob, The I.T. Crowd, Clem Fandango, the art of voice overs and more. Plus some podcast recommendations and details of how to contribute to the Adam & Joe live event on 15th December 2016 at the BFI Southbank. If you'd like to contribute visit: adam-buxton.co.uk ADDENDUM! FACT CHECKING SANTA SAYS: Bill Paxton doesn't blow up with Vasquez in the vent. That's Gorman. Bill gets dragged through the floor. (Thanks @thomaslbenfield) Thanks to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support. Thanks to Dan Hawkins (danhawkinsbass.com) for playing on the jingle at 11.15 ish. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, this week's podcast contains strong swearing from the start and is not suitable for people who dislike strong swearing from the start. I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening. I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. Then I recorded 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. Hey, how are you doing listeners? Oh gosh, how are you doing, listeners? Oh, gosh.

How are you doing, Rosie? Why do you think I'm doing? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Not doing very well. Why, what's your problem? What do you think my problem is? I don't know, have you got like a burr on your fur? Fur burr? Little Bill Burr on your fur?

No. Well, what's the problem then? Have you been listening to the news recently? Yes, I have. There's a lot of disheartening stuff out there, but, I mean, that is often the way with the news. Why, how do you feel about it? We're fucked. We're bloody fucked. Whole planet's bloody fucked.

Hey, hey, Rosie, come on. We're fucked. Moderate that language a little bit. It's the start of the podcast. Let's try and keep it positive. We're come on. We're fucked. Moderate that language a little bit. It's the start of the podcast. Let's try and keep it positive. We're bloody fucked. We're fucked. Keep it positive.

We're fucked. Come on, Rosie. You're sounding a little bit like the Bill Paxton character in Aliens. That's it, man. Game over, man. It's game over. The fuck are we going to do now? What are we going to do?

That guy. You know what ended up happening to him? Yeah, him and Vasquez blew themselves up in a duct. Yeah, exactly. You might find this mnemonic rhyme useful. What the what the? Just because the world looks fucked, don't kill yourself inside a duct.

Have some faith in your fellow creatures, even if they got scary features. Okay? Hello, fact-checking Santa here. Bill Paxton's character Hudson meets his end being dragged through the floor by aliens shooting and shouting all the while. It was Gorman who blows himself up in a duct with Vasquez. I'm just gonna go and run away from you for a while because you're disgusting me. All right, you do what you have to do. I'll tell the listeners about this week's podcast.

And this week's fun chat is with Matt Berry. Yay, Matt Berry. He doesn't even go on very many of these podcasts. So I'm very pleased that he agreed to have a brief convo with me for this one. Do I really need to formally introduce Matt Berry and remind you of his many comedic accomplishments? Probably not, but just for the sake of covering all the bases. Matt Berry, you probably know as Sanchez from Garth Marenghi's Dark Place,

as Renham from the IT Crowd, as Beef from House of Fools, Vic and Bob's sitcom, as Toast and many, many other things besides. He's a musician as well, of course. Matt puts out records that he makes himself in his home studio and actually he's quite serious about the music he makes and is generally one of those people who would prefer to just get on with it and keep himself to himself and not really talk about what he does too much but we had a nice conversation touching on a few of the things that he's done so far.

And the conversation took place in his club, which is in Soho in London. And it's one of these places that you go through a posh door, a nice dimly lit bar. Then out the back, there's a little garden area where you can sit outside and have a drink which we did this was again another of the conversations that i recorded earlier this year in the summer so that's coming up and in other news not quite international news myself and joe cornish are doing a live podcast ramble that also is something of a celebration of 20 years of us doing stupid bits and pieces together. We're doing it on the 15th of December at the BFI South Bank in London. Tickets are now sold out. They went much quicker than we expected them to,

which is good in some ways but bad in others because there was a lot of people who were disappointed not to be able to get hold of tickets and were frustrated by the BFI booking membership system online, etc. I'll say more about some of that and talk about ways that you can still get involved in the show if you wish. I'll talk about that at the end of the podcast. But right now, Matt Berry Convo time. Here we go. Tune the VAT and have a ramble chat Put on your conversation coat and find your talking hat Yeah, yeah, yeah 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, We're right in the middle of Soho.

Yeah. I mean, you wouldn't know it. No, I've never been here before. I mean, it's a bit like New York, London in that respect, isn't it? All these hidden areas behind all these doors. You have to be invited here i think yeah and i invited you so it's it's all above board it's all cool have you had some pretty debauched evenings here not that really getting out of control no because it's funny there's very dark wooden floorboards and this will sound odd but i can't really cut loose if the decor is really nice do you know

what i mean why because you're too well brought up I don't know no it's just it's I don't know I just don't feel you know that I should yeah so I'll kind of behave myself in here and then I'll go off and misbehave yeah where's your favorite place for misbehavior it could be a bunch of places I mean it started just to be my own place now really because, because, you know, no one's looking at you. Yeah. You've got a little studio at home, right? I have. Yeah. I heard Jason Schwartzman, I think, talking about spending enjoyable evenings in his home studio. Right. Because he's a music guy as well. Yeah. He was saying that he had quite a good routine of

waiting till everyone's in bed, wife and child. And then I think I'm right in saying rolling himself a nice doobie and disappearing off to the studio and making some doobie music in the middle of the night. But I was thinking, does that work? I mean, are you good at working under the influence? It's not really about, you know, getting wasted and then kind of getting on with it. It's more about, you know, an idea that kind of forces you in there. And that could be any time.

You know, for me, it could be in the middle of the night, you know, or when I'm supposed to be doing something else. Right. Or when I've just touched someone else's guitar. That's a time when, you know, I'll kind of pretty much always have an idea. Seriously? Yeah.

It seems to be that way. It's odd odd if someone leaves a guitar around mine or i'm around someone else's and pick up their guitar i'll instantly be able to write a song whereas i got 16 at home that i'll play and get absolutely nothing from it is odd that is odd now i'm not a proper musician in that respect i i was talking to johnny greenwood about the fact that i can't really play any proper instruments my musical realm yeah is garage band and logic and he taught me the other day i did know one from the other but i messed up and called his xylophone a glockenspiel i completely know the difference yeah and then what is the difference well he informed me xylo is latin for wood uh-huh xylophone glock being german for metal yeah glockenspiel

right you were at the same radio head show that i was yeah friday night at the roundhouse amazing yeah it was so good wasn't it yeah and i was talking to johnny about how choked up i got during karma police at the end it was amazing yeah because i didn't think they'd do i didn't think they'd go back there. Yeah, yeah. But as I was saying to Johnny, it's good to keep an eye on entertaining the audience as well. Yeah, it is, yeah.

Because like Neil Young, what was the thing that always makes me laugh about him? He came to London at a certain point. They had just recorded Tonight's the Night, but it wasn't released in the UK. Okay. And he played some shows and played the whole of Tonight's the Night yeah but it wasn't released in the uk okay and he played some shows and played the whole of tonight's the night nothing else so no one in the audience had heard any of those

songs before by the end of the gig people were booing yeah because he was it was obviously he was not going to play any of the hits goes off comes back for an encore everyone's like ah here we go finally we're going to get something good. And he goes, OK, here's something you've heard before. Here's something you've heard before. And he plays it like, yeah, I know. Exactly, and he plays the whole thing again. Yeah, I hope that's true, because that takes some balls. I mean, I think Paul McCartney has got it right.

I mean, like, the last time I saw him, he was fantastic. He was doing Beatles album tracks that he hadn't done before. So, you know, you need to see that. How do you record your albums nowadays, then? Well... Because you're a multi-instrumentalist you do you will you lay down the stuff on your own yeah so what i for the new album because i've thought about this i mean i've been with the same band quite a while including mark morris yeah the lead singer of the blue tones so what i did was i took the guitarist who played acoustic rhythm during every single track bass and drums and i played defender road so did all the songs that way in the studio

and then i took them back to my studio and then i added everything on top right okay so we got that live feel and that was really important because I hadn't done it that way before. I'd done everything myself and then got them to sort of lay the rhythm section on afterwards. Which is all right. But it's not as good as doing it this way, I don't think. How often do you play live? Well, I've just done two festivals. I did the Lunar Festival a couple of weeks ago where we set fire to the crow.

Which was amazing. And I'll never get to do that again. You say that as if I'm supposed to understand what that means. So what it is, it's the Lunar Festival and they have this procession before the headline sort of last act. Is this in the UK? Yeah.

Right. So you go around the whole field with your face covered with this hood and then behind you are a sort of marching band and then you get around to where this crow, and this crow would have been about 30 foot high. It's all sounding very Wicker Man at the moment. It is. I mean, that's exactly what it is.

And then I was given this thing to kind of read out. And then I set fire to it, and it was extraordinary. Holy moly. In your ceremonial robes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was just the best thing ever, because you just don't get to do that. Have you got any druid in your family? Well, I don't know, but it did feel natural.

You've got the voice. You've got the look. are you okay if i fire little bits of your career at you and of course you can talk about them as much or as little as you feel able yeah sometimes i listen back to these podcasts and i realize that i've just bollocked on about whatever I want to talk about and the other persons remain more or less silent. So I'm going to try and encourage you to talk about your stuff a little bit more. I was intrigued to see that you did some time

as an employee of London's, the London Dungeon. Yeah. How was that? I loved every minute. How old were you? Well, it was just before Darkplace, so I would have been about 27. 2003-ish.

Yeah. Early noughties. Yeah. It's a great place to be. I mean, it was then, because you could just sort of practice your jokes on them, you know?

Right. You know, and your timing and your shtick, as it were. You do it every 15 minutes. After, like, you know, a month or so, you've got yourself a style, if you want, you know, every 15 minutes after like you know a month or so you've got yourself a style if you want you know or some kind of you know something that you know that might work and so you're leading small groups through the whole yeah and you're armed with like a bunch of

facts back then they didn't really care you know as long as you conveyed those that was absolutely fine and um everything else you know was up to you so you know as long as within certain limits sure yeah keep the racism light but it was great yeah and um yeah and i did that for a year or so and i loved every minute good bonding with the rest of the cast i would imagine it is because you're all in the same boat you haven't got a pot to piss in and i loved it because the sets were really good as well and if you kind of concentrated it was pretty eerie in there because it was all sort of candlelit and there was times when i really thought i was in 1888 and i felt someone tapped me on the shoulder a couple of times when i was down there and yeah

it really did you know you sort of freak yourself out. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, it was brilliant. Yeah, it was good. Did you go to drama school then? No, I was at art school.

You were at art school? Yeah, that's what I... I'm an art school guy. Yeah, I know. What sort of stuff were you doing there then? I was doing fine art. So I was doing painting. Were you?

And contemporary art as well. And do you still paint? Yeah. Were you? And contemporary art as well. And do you still paint? Yeah. Are you like a figurative painter or abstract? Well, I used to be a figurative painter, but now it's all about colour, I think. I got obsessed with burnt orange a while ago. We've all been obsessed with burnt orange. I know, but it sounds whack when you say it.

But it's true. I mean, everything. So I'd have like a grey background, but as long as there was burnt orange there, it seemed like I'd done the job. Sure. And I still haven't got out of that. That's where all the profits go from all your various ventures, to the burnt orange shop.

Yeah, they do, yeah. Another load of burnt orange. Art school's fun though, isn't it? I loved it, yeah. It's just... I mean, I was lucky like you, though, isn't it? I loved it, yeah. It's just... I mean, I was lucky, like you, where I didn't have to pay for anything. Yeah. All of the paints were free.

There was a guy that made you stretches. I didn't have to do anything. I mean, now it's a massive ball ache, I think. You know, you've got to pay for the whole lot. It was really good, and there was a thing that a bloke said, like one of the main lecturers said on day one, which I'll never forget, and he showed five paintings on this sort of slide projection

and said, and there's a red herring in there. Which one is it? And of course there's no way of knowing, so I don't know, that one, whatever. Was it a painting of a red herring? No, I mean, that would have been good. And he kind of, he said, it's actually that one. Yeah.

And I said, why? And one yeah and i said why and that was done by me and that was the last time i made any art enjoy the course and i thought fuck that's what i won't be doing you know what i mean what did you take from that i took i took from that continue to be an artist is what i took with whatever kind of platform you choose in whatever medium yeah remain within the arts because it's that's the reason why you're there at that course that's what's exciting you and don't stop for the lure of money or whatever so that's what i got from that and that was really important and he said that on day one and that stuck i can't remember what that bloke's name was you know but i should actually thank him because

it was things like that you know that meant that I did the sort of temp jobs until something good kind of came along, which was Darkplace. So how did you hook up with those guys? Because I mistakenly assumed that you were all like university pals or something. No, no, no. No, I had nothing to do with any of that.

It was, I knew Noel Fielding and he's another art school. And I was just doing some songs. I didn't know what to do, actually. It was that kind of time when I didn't know what I was doing. some songs i i didn't know what to do actually it was that kind of time when i didn't know what i was doing you know i didn't know what i wanted to do particularly were you at school in london art school yeah no i was in nottingham okay but i sort of came to london because like you do it's exciting yeah and was playing some songs and some rude songs and some acoustic stuff.

Noel said, well, come and do a couple of the rude ones before the Boosh gig. And this was in the Hen and Chickens. Hen and Chickens is a pub up in Islington. Yeah, sorry, yeah. Yeah, and it just kind of went from there. And Matt and Richard were doing something before their show as well. And I met them.

I didn't know their show. But were you already doing little bits of comedy then? Not really. I was just sort of singing songs before their thing. I hadn't know their show. But were you already doing little bits of comedy then? Not really. I was just sort of singing songs before their thing. I hadn't even thought about comedy. Was it in your mind to be an actor by that point though? Yes. Because you were at the London Dungeon. Anything, you know. If the painting

had kind of taken off. It was actually more music. I could have seen myself doing painting or music. As long as it was within the arts, you know, then I would have been happy. That was the thing. And had fun singing your dirty songs. Yeah. At the Hen and Chickens.

Yeah. What sort of songs were they? Do you remember at all? They would have been shit. I mean, it wouldn't have been great. But in what kind of style? I think it was just like you thought it was going to be earnest, you know, and kind of sing a song right away.

And then it would just completely kind of scorpion you right at the last minute. And that was what I thought was funny at the time. It's very difficult to kind of take the person when someone is sort of earnest and about to play their song. So if they fuck that at the end with something,

it completely kind of jars you. That was what I was interested in. That was what I was doing. Unsettling people. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, there wasn't anything more sophisticated, you know, about it than that. And Matt, I think, said, you know, we've got this thing. We want to expand this stage show to sort of TV. And there's this Spanish doctor that we want you to do. And I was so kind of him, you know, because I hadn't done anything.

But, you know, they took a risk and they went to, I think it was Channel 4, wasn't it? And they went to Channel 4 and said, you know, well, we want this guy Matt.

And quite rightly, I suppose, they were going, well, who the fuck is he? What's he done? And they're going, well, I know, but, you know,

this is the one that we want. And they go, well, we'd rather you went with this guy. And there was a few kind of names that they mentioned. Probably you

would have been one of them. I don't believe that. But, you know, good on those two, because they stuck to their guns. And they said, no, no, we want this guy, Matt Berry. Who? I mean, they must have seen in you what people enjoy about a lot of your work, I would think, which is that you never let on that you're being silly. And the thing that can sometimes, I think,

undo a bit of improvised character comedy is when you see too much of the person underneath. You know, someone is trying to talk about something serious or they're pretending something tragic has happened to them or doing a fake interview or whatever. They're kind of things that you've done a lot in your career. But you can see the faintest trace of a smirk or a twinkle in the eye, and it just unpicks the whole thing.

Right. But you don't... There's never a trace of that when i look at you doing that garth merengue stuff and things right there's no smirking at all no no no no it's completely real yeah yeah well that's the thing i mean that's interesting that you say not because of me but because of the things that i i mean if you watch someone whether it's stand-up or someone doing a character and you know that they're doing a funny yeah i would rather go and watch paint dry yeah i have no interest in that at all if someone is enjoying their you know comic performance then i'm off because i'm embarrassed yeah even if it's going

down well you know with everyone else it doesn't matter i have to get out it's just what you as a performer would want to watch yourself isn't it yes that's right i mean i've i'm always um aware of the fact that sometimes when i'm doing bits and pieces on stage just as myself though not as a character yeah yeah i will laugh a little bit but it's usually out of nerves yeah i mean there i think there are times when you do laugh because something's funny and it's okay but certainly if you're doing a character and you're chuckling then you're taking everyone out of it totally yeah no you've got to kind of commit to all of these things you've got to commit right i was watching another thing of yours the other day the lone wolf comedy show that yeah yeah with bob with bob mortimer yeah oh right

how did he write that well we we kind... He writes a sort of skeleton of it. I mean, he kind of writes the main bit, and then all I'll do is just put in the odd word, you know, the odd stupidity. Yeah. The wolves split up and assess the herd. Where are the weak ones? Where are the shit-brained ones? Where are the yellow-bellied bellends?

A lot of it's done on the day. OK. It's whatever kind of makes us both laugh. But he's brilliant. You know, I was so lucky to have kind of fallen in with him because I really loved them as a kid. I didn't really like comedy double acts. I thought they were cheesy shit, really.

But there was something about those two that were from a different planet that I really enjoyed watching. Do Americans know about Vic Reeves and Bob Waterman? That is the kind of crazy thing. Tim and Eric are a little bit similar, or at least operating from some similar place. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tonally. Yeah, no, absolutely. I think Vic and Bob are sort of sillier, perhaps. I don't know. But, yeah, how cool to be doing House of Fools. And how did that come about then? Had you known Vic and Bob for a while? Yeah, they'd just been really kind of encouraging of everything I did.

I mean, even from the very first thing, Monkey Trousers, which was years ago. Monkey Trousers was an ITV sketch show, wasn't it? Yeah, so it would have been the year after Darkplace, so 2004, something like that.

Yeah, and it had quite an amazing line-up of comedians. Yeah. Steve Coogan, Vic and Bob. Yeah, everyone. Yourself.

I mean, I was no one. I mean, I hadn't done anything. Right. I just sung who's that guy again. Yeah, you know, and they were always very, very kind, you know,

and, like, really sweet about it. And then, because we'd always talked about doing something, and then when the BBC finally gave them their own show again, I mean, because I did Shooting Stars with them. Oh, yeah. They'd always ask me to do it, and I was like, Vangelis. Which version of that did you do? The later one.

Which incarnation? Okay, yeah. And I did it as Vangelis. You did it as Vangelis, that's right. Because I said I don't want to be myself on it. I've got absolutely no interest in panel shows, kind of per se. Especially doing a panel show as you said, I can think of nothing worse. So, Darkplace. Let's go back to thinking about Darkplace for a second.

Yeah. And I remember when that went out just being impressed apart from anything else and there were many things to be impressed by but the the amount of work must have gone into every single detail the dubbing every single line yeah was it fun or was it torture no it's great you know it's like anything you know this might be your one and only chance so you've got to give this everything you've got and i know it's like know, it's like anything, you know, this might be your one and only chance. So you've got to give this everything you've got. And I know it's like, you know, it's like when we did the first episode of Toast. It's the same thing. It's like, I might never, you know, get to do this again.

I've got to shove everything at this. There's more to it than just, you know, a couple of laughs or whatever. You know, there's a lot of things kind of going on, you know, and I think that was the kind of thinking. It was just that we may never get the chance to do this show again, which they didn't. And it did seem to be made in that almost art school way, even though you were the only art school boy on it, right? I suppose so, yeah.

Yeah, but the attention to detail and the crafting of it. Well, because we're all fans of the ridiculous, you know, and the pomposity of these people. We all had that in common straight away, like, especially, you know, and the pomposity of these people. We all had that in common straight away, especially, you know, with Matt Holness. Both of us really found all those DVD extras of those actors, you know, kind of talking about, you know, their craft. We would howl after that, and we still do.

That was in the golden age of DVD extras. Yeah, it was, yeah. That's not important anymore, is it? No, people just, I think they realise that people don't watch them or they stick them online, I guess. Yeah, yeah. You can watch those kinds of DVD extras. Yeah, it was, yeah. Because they had suddenly... That's not important anymore, is it? No, people just... I think they realised that people don't watch them or they stick them online, I guess. Yeah, yeah. You can watch those kinds of things there. And they're always so antiseptic.

It's just people trotting out the same bullshit. Yeah. But there was a time in the early noughties when you got some great DVD extras and some incredibly... I guess because maybe a lot of actors assumed that no one would watch them. Maybe. Well, no, I think it's more of um it's just a great excuse you know for them to sort of talk about themselves and i just love doing that of course and and talking about there can

you come at nine in the morning and sort of talk about yourself for an hour yep were there any favorites that you had yeah there was something i nicked pretty much wholesale. It was Malcolm McDowell. And I think it was an extra from Gangster No. 1. And he was in that film. And what drew you to the character of blah, blah, blah? I can't remember what his character was called. Well, he's a psychopath. And I thought, do I like this character?

No. Would I want to be this character? No. Do I want to be this character? No. Do I want to play this character? Hell yes. And I just thought that was brilliant. So I think I nicked that pretty much, you know, word for word for Sanchez. Where did that actory voice come from? Was it just the process of watching those?

I'd seen Rep because my mum and dad were very good in showing me as many different things, you know, as they could. Like they took me to the local theatre. I mean, it wasn't great, you know, but I was nine, so I thought it was fantastic. And, you know, we'd see these plays and there was a lot of actors then. They'd been doing Rep for quite a long time. So their style was very sort of, very big. Yeah.

And what interested me was when those kind of actors then were brought into a TV situation, they wouldn't tone it down. They would give the same performance that they've been giving on stage for the last 30 years. And that's where you get the funny stuff. That is what I find the most funny. So if you watch those old episodes of Poldark,

not the new one, you know, but the old one, for instance, see how they talk to each other in that compared to how they talk to each other in the new one. Who was the star of Poldark in those? I can't remember his name. Dark-haired fella. Paul. It was probably Poldark. Donald Sinden, he was one that was very thespian on TV shows and stuff, wasn't he?

And he had that great voice. And you must enjoy... You must have realised at a certain point, like, oh, I can do this voice. But you don't, do you? I mean, like, you don't think you can do it. You just do what you think it is. I mean, I was doing it when I was at school, you know, and at college. You know, annoying people with it there.

And you never think it's any good. You know, you do it. What were you saying at school? Well, it would be, you know, it'd be, I tell you when I used to do it. I used you do it what were you saying at school it would be a you know it'd be i tell when i used to do i used to do it when we were in restaurants and things or i do it when i when we were ordering pizza and um and we'd make up the names of pieces we used to find that hilarious it's such a stupid thing to do so we go um i'd like a dan sack discovery and you know you just make up these names but and then you do you know then you do the voice and it'd be the same

when you'd order food I'll have the and you just do the voice then and just to see what they would do and they wouldn't ever do anything yeah they'd just think

hey some prick you know whatever come on and then I just did that you know on the TV it's as simple as that really yeah exactly

you just need to identify the things that make people chuckle I suppose yeah in normal life yeah yeah do it on telly yeah and you never expect you know anyone to actually want you to do that you know or give you any money Exactly. You just need to identify the things that make people chuckle. I suppose, yeah. In normal life. Yeah, yeah. Do it on telly. Yeah, and you never expect anyone to actually want you to do that, or give you any money for it.

With things like Garth Berengi and the Boosh that are mainly driven by those two performers at the centre of them, like Richard and Matt, they wrote those episodes, is that right? Or did you all write together? No, no, they wrote those. They wrote those, yeah. And Noel and Julian presumably wrote the Bruce stuff. Yeah, I didn't have much to do with it.

I mean, I was only in a couple of episodes of that. Yeah. Oh, really? So I don't have anywhere near the same amount of knowledge of that as I do of Darkplace when I was in all of those episodes. But would they come to you, Noel and Julian, for example, what would they say to you as far as creating the character was concerned? Do you know, I can't remember it, so I don't remember anything about how that came about.

I think they had the idea for a zookeeper and someone couldn't do it, so I was kind of drafted in. I think it's that. I think it was that kind of thing. I think I was drafted in quite late in the day, so I don't think there was any time to discuss what this bloke was like. Only that he's very officious

and very unpleasant. I think that was all there was time for because whoever they wanted for some reason couldn't do it. I mean, a lot of your characters, and I hope you won't feel that this is too much of a generalisation, seem to have that kind of overbearing unpleasantness about them on some level. Yeah, well, I guess that's what, you know,

we all find different things funny. You know, I find those kind of people the funniest. Was there someone like that in your life? There's always been people like that in my life, yeah. Always. And you just take, you know, bits of the embarrassing things that they do and just kind of use them. So you never pushed back against people like that in the moment?

You just stored it up? Oh, no, no, no, I would, yeah. I mean, like, you know, if someone... Have you got a temper on you? Not really, but, like, you know, I won't stand for nonsense. 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. 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. Would you call yourself a control freak, Matt? Well, when it comes to your own art, yeah. Yeah. Because it's got your name on it, yeah. And it's fun. I don't mind that term either, really. No. Exactly. It's fun to think about the details and to... Because that's got your name on it, yeah. And it's fun. I don't mind that term either, really. No.

Exactly. It's fun to think about the details and to... Because that's what makes it. It's all of those things, you know, and I'll spend hours on something, you know, that isn't important to anyone else. But then when you're working with other people, you're open-minded?

Absolutely, yeah. Well, because it's their sandwich, isn't it? Right. So, you know... I read that you felt that you were the sort of one-series guy. You would do things and they wouldn't get beyond one series. Yeah. Garth Marenghi and then Snuffbox.

Yeah. With Rich Fulcher. But that's no longer the case. You are a multi-series guy. And I guess your first taste of... This is like, this is your life now. I guess your first taste of this is like this is your life now I guess your first taste of the mainstream Matt was

when you stepped into the shoes of the dark lord of satire Chris Morris on the IT crowd did you already have a relationship with Graham Linehan by that point professional one that is kind of I mean he'd he'd spoke about doing this thing

and spoke about this character. And then I had to do Snuffbox because it was my own show and I never thought I'd get to do my own show ever again. So I thought, if I don't do this, then I'm going to regret this. So this was a show on BBC Three, as it was then, with Rich Vulture. Yeah. Kind of a sketch with various narrative elements running through them yeah a sketch show in 2006 yeah and the it crowd had started yeah it already started right you've been on it i had i was in the first series that's right yeah yeah and so had graham spoken to you about doing renham then well he kind of sort of mentioned this character.

And I don't remember whether it was the same thing. But, and then he sort of said, you know, do you want to do this? This is, you know, Chris Morris left. And I was like, Christ, this is, you know, this will go one way or the other. I wasn't thinking it would go, you know, sort of well, particularly.

You know, I was back in the same kind of situation as I was, you know, when they were getting everyone for Darkplace. And I'd come and go, who the hell is this guy? And what was wrong with Chris? You know, why can't we get him back? You know, why have we got this guy now?

So I thought, you know, do I want to do this? This could be just dreadful. But, you know, do I want to do this? This could be just dreadful. But, you know, you've just got to do it. I mean, I didn't look at much of what he'd done. You know, I just wanted to do my own thing, sort of, with it. So, you know, there was no kind of comparisons. You know, I mean, there would be comparisons,

but I just, you know, I just got on with it. To what degree are you throwing ideas in for that show then or is that all written no i mean it's it's he was he's brilliant uh you know if you do have ideas you know he listens to everything you know and if he likes it then it's in he's not at all close to that was that the first studio sitcom you've done i'd done bits for a sketch show that were in a studio but that was the first thing where it was going to be every week for six weeks or whatever and very briefly for people not familiar with that way of making tv how does a typical week go then you basically rehearse it

from monday and then you shoot it on friday and does the script change a lot within that time can do yeah yeah something doesn't work and it's not the fault in the writing it can just be you know a logistical thing or a sort of physical thing something you know might not read on camera so you have to pick something else or this might not work you know as well there's a whole bunch of things same as you know we we work the same kind of process somebody in house of fools so you just work stuff up see if it works see if it doesn't and then you know it's just like doing a stage play in the evening then once it's's done, it's done. I mean, I never watched them. Have you never watched them at all? No, I don't want to, you know, I'm not a fan of seeing myself anyway, really.

And, you know, they'd gone well on the night and that was enough for me. You know, it was, they'd felt good, you know, when we did them. What are the rewards then, Matt? If not sitting nude in the middle of the night with a glass of wine, watching yourself on TV? worse no i'd have no interest what when do you feel that you are getting a reward from the job you do like what's the best part of it then well i mean like toast is a completely different thing because that was a character that i had and that i thought could work and i mean you have to watch that because you're in the edit and stuff.

So that's a different thing. It was very rewarding doing the IT crowd, but not in the same way as doing Toast. Yeah. And was it fun, though, doing the IT crowd, like that process of the intensive work that you would do while you were shooting? It sounds weird, but I can't remember it.

This is a crazy thing. You were so whacked out on... Exactly. No, but it wasn't remember it. This is a crazy thing. You were so whacked out on... Exactly. No, but it wasn't even that long ago, but there's so much stuff, and I don't remember... It's like, I know that the Boosh was before the IT crowd and Snuffbox was before,

but if you told me that it wasn't, you know, I'd kind of believe you. They do kind of all become one thing. Yeah. And then, of course, Toast came along when the main bulk of the IT crowd was finished. You did one more special for the IT crowd, didn't you? I think I did, yeah.

Was Toast an idea that you generated or Arthur generated? No, it was something that I'd wanted to do and I wanted to do it with Arthur. Yeah. Had you worked with Arthur? This is Arthur Matthews, Graham Linehan's writing partner back in the day. Well, he was a script editor on Snuffbox, and I loved all his ideas.

And he doesn't talk very loud, and, you know, he's unassuming. But the things that, you know, that he's kind of written to me and sort of sent me are disgusting, you know. So, you know, I just thought, yeah, he's great, you know, I need him around. So I just thought, yeah, he's great, I need him around. So when I did Toast, there wasn't anyone else that I wanted to go down this road with him with because this really lent itself to disgusting moments and bad behaviour. What is it about disgusting things that delights you? I'll give you an example.

He came up with the idea of toast having sex with this indian girl while her grandmother was filming it with her mobile phone but she was completely blind so she didn't realize she didn't really yeah and i thought where the hell has he gone but you know we we've got to do it you know and there's other people going i don't know about this thing no no no no we're definitely doing that. Yeah, I want to do it. Because he takes you by surprise because he's very keen on sort of gentle things. You know, like a sketch that would take place, you know, a coffee morning or something. He'd be very keen to do that.

Yeah. But at the same time, he'll kind of knack you, you know, with something disgusting on the next page or something. And it's that that I really enjoy about him. He always takes you by surprise. Yes. Were you a fan of Big Train back in the day? Can't remember. Yeah, I think I saw a couple.

Yeah. That was a good show. You're not a big TV-watching guy, though, are you? Not really, no. What do you do? What do you do? Are you just, when you're at home, are you just doing music stuff?

Yeah. Or, you know, or working things yeah right you got some i got into i got into um i got into madman purely because someone said look this is really stylish i think you might like it you might like the sets is what they said so i was like yeah cool i'll give it a go and i got hooked on that right because then you managed to secure Don Draper for Toast. How did that come around? Well, because he'd mentioned that he liked Toast, so I thought, well, this is perfect.

Did you see that he'd mentioned it in an interview or something? Well, we met at Saturday Night Live in New York. When did you do that? No, I just went. I was a guest there. Yeah. He was hosting that night and, you know, wanted to chat afterwards and stuff, which was insane.

And then it just kind of went from there. Yeah. What was it like seeing Saturday Night Live? It was great. Yeah, I mean, I know Fred Armisen, so it was him that invited me. Right, because you've been on Portlandia. Yeah. That's Fred Armisen's show, isn't it? It is, yeah.

And he wanted me to see what it was like behind the scenes. And I was intrigued because their make-up thing is to the side of stage, you know, sort of literally to the side of stage. So they get done, they put their sort of wigs and hats on, and they're straight, they run straight on. And I wanted to see that, you know, I wanted to see how all that was done. Because, you know, you do live stuff or the IT crowd, you know, or House of Fools, which is done in that sort of way.

But this had a different kind of atmosphere, you know, that I wanted to see in action. And it was really fascinating, I thought. And did you get a sense of what it was like for the cast? Yeah, it was tough, yeah. Right. Quite a stressful environment. Yeah. And is there anything in the UK that compares to that, do you think? Well,

you must have been through this. Every sort of five years there's someone that says, we want to do our own satirical art. Everyone says that and it always happens. And I just think we just don't have the energy. We just kind of naturally don't have that sort of energy. Yeah, I think fundamentally most Brits think come on, life's too short. I mean, if you did it with

the panel show type, you know, then they might be able to... Yeah, well they don't have they don't do panel shows too often, do they? No, they don't. That's true, yeah. It's like their art form is the super stressy sketch show that'll propel every cast member

to megastardom, except for a few of the unlucky ones who sing without a trace. Yeah. And our one is the panel show. So, Jon Hamm, though,

and so did you become pals? Did you go out having some cocktails? I met him there and then I met him sort of later. He was at the Emmys, and he kind of said, you know, we should do something, and I was like, yeah, of course. And then I kind of wanted him for that character.

There wasn't anyone else, you know, that could sort of play that kind of character, you know, that Toast would sort of fall in love with. I mean, because, you know, everyone knew that man's face. Sure. He's like the most handsome guy ever. Yeah. So there wasn't anyone else to play that part. So I asked him and he said yes.

There is so much cross-pollination now. It was a shock, I remember, when Johnny Depp turned up on The Fast Show. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah. And that was like, whoa, that's kind of weird, those two worlds colliding. But now we're used to it a little bit. But even so, when I saw Jon Hamm on toast,

it was like, oh, my God, this is weird and cool. It was really exciting. And what's he like? Do you want to snog him when you're around him? No, he's just... What does he smell like? Well, no, it's just that thing, because you kind of... You're fudging the question.

No, but you know that he's an actor, and you know that he isn't Don Draper. What? Even though he looks exactly like Don Draper. And then you've got to do some Brian Blessed wrangling, of course, as well. Is that ongoing? Is he still in the show?

No, he's dead. He died at the end of that episode. Oh, that's right. Yeah. You can't kill Blessed. No. He's great. He's impervious to death, surely. He did his own thing.

Yeah, did he? Yeah, you couldn't tell him what to do. At all. In a good way? I liked it. I thought it was exactly what I wanted. i liked it i thought it was you know it was exactly what i wanted yeah and arthur thought it was brilliant you know he was kind of finding it fun i don't know whether michael wasn't joining himself as much as you know michael who is the director

but um yeah you know but you know if you get someone like that you know he's gonna do his own thing and you want his own thing yeah you know because that's why you've got him he's a force of nature. Yeah. And I loved every minute of it and he would swear like the stuff he said

and didn't care, you know, about anything, you know, which I found very funny. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean,

he was brilliant. Is it weird to be in a show that sort of enters the public imagination to that degree? Well, I suppose so,

but it didn't really kind of hit home until that racehorse. What was the racehorse? There's a racehorse called Clem Fandango. Right. It actually runs at Ascot tomorrow.

That's when you know that, you know, someone might have actually watched your show. It's a very enjoyable motif in the show is all the names of the actors. I think that one might have been Arthur's, but I'll say it's Arthur's. Like all the... I'll be kind. There's often, especially when Dune plays the agent and in the background there's like 8x10s on the walls. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All with fake names and they're all...

We have the most fun doing those. They're the one, yeah, that's the thing that makes us laugh the most. Have you got a formula? You'll just misread someone's name or you'll like a word that kind of, you know, it's usually the surname first. And with an actor it'll be, you know, an adjective, or some kind of like plight of some kind.

Then just put, you know, a one-syllable first name before it. That seems to work. Yeah. Can you remember any off the top of your head? Well, there's the ones in there. There's Cliff Promise. Ray Purchase is an amazing name. Ray Purchase was my... Yeah, that one I had for quite a while, Ray Purchase. It just seemed to work as an actor.

I can, you know, imagine what he would look like sometimes that's all you need is a funny name it's like sometimes you can start with a funny voice as well yeah well arthur's amazing at names my favorite still you know is one of his um noel early from father 10 oh yeah that's a genius name so you know it was great because i've always loved names, and he does too. It's a fun way to spend a day. We just text each other because we don't write in the same room. He writes in Ireland and I write here in London. Oh, really?

So, yeah, it's a sort of correspondence job. But all the names are kind of text messages, and he'll send them when he gets it, and I'll send one when I get one. Right. Making up fake band names is a fun thing as well. Did you ever do that? Yeah.

Igneous was a fake one I had. A rock man. Dog Mess is another. Right, let's go again. What don't you fucking understand? Kick your fucking ass! Let's go again! What the fuck is it with you?

I want you off the fucking set, you prick! No! You're a nice guy! What the fuck is it with you? I want you off the fucking set, you prick No You're a nice guy The fuck are you doing? No, don't shut me up No, no Like this No, no

Don't shut me up Like this Fuck's sake, man, you're amateur Seriously, man, you and me, we're fucking done professionally To return to the subject of Clem Fandango and the world of voiceovers, I remember bumping into Olivia Colman a long time ago. Yeah. And we were both on our way to a voiceover in Soho.

I said, how many of these do you do then? She's like, oh, you know, about five, six a week. I was like, a week? Holy crap. I mean, I do like a couple a year and I wish I did more. When you get called in to do them, are they asking for, it must be quite difficult for you because generally the ones I do, it's a fairly anonymous thing you know there's not it's not like hi i'm adam buxton and i'm suggesting that you should

chew wrigley's extra right it's just i do the end line and it's just a sort of generic voice and maybe yeah but people will recognize some people might yeah but that's why they've got you in i suppose but the vast majority of people are just going to think it's just a guy no i think they've got you in because because you have got a recognisable voice. Yeah, maybe. But does that mean for you then, I mean, for me, I suppose, it does mean that I am careful about which, I'm not going to do something that I totally wouldn't endorse in real life.

Yeah, yeah. So you feel the same way, though, presumably. Yeah. I don't want to do stuff that makes people unhappy or can cause the breakup of families, if that makes sense. But the thing is, it's like... Have you been offered an advertisement for... No, but you know what I mean. Yeah, of course.

Some gambling or whatever. Sure, yeah. But if... Something like booze is a strange one. It's a tricky one, isn't it? Because I shouldn't do that. But the booze itself hasn't done anything and an old lady that has you know

a tiny tipple every single night well that's completely innocent yeah so it's what you do with the thing but you know then you could apply that to guns I suppose you know which of course neither of us would advertise unless their money

was right so booze is a bit of a of course, neither of us would advertise. Unless their money was right. So booze is a bit of a struggle because, on one hand, it can be the destruction of this, that and the other, but at the same time, someone told me, I think it might have even been Charlie Higson, when I mentioned it to him, and he goes, well, you did the IT crowd. who do you think paid your wages you know the adverts you know that was McDonald's and all this kind of stuff so you think oh shit oh Christ yeah and then your brain just you know kind of

somersaults and of course you can trace any large company back to some fairly unpalatable organisation. And yeah, you can indeed drive yourself nuts and you have to, I think, make individual decisions and weigh things up as they feel right. Would you do booze or not? Well, I haven't done booze, I don't think. Have they offered it?

Yeah, I've had a few sort of quite big offers for... In fact, I got offered the Magna's Cider campaign that Mark Watson ended up doing. Yeah. That then Stuart Lee did one of his very, very long Stuart Lee routines about. Yeah. And I must say, I thought, oh, I'm glad I didn't do that.

Yeah. Even though I never thought less of Mark Watson for doing that on camera yeah see that's a different thing because I don't think I would unless it was in character have you done an on camera? no I don't think so

I just feel like a dick unless it was a character then I couldn't do it no exactly and also what all the stuff that goes along with it because if you sign that contract then they ask for things like point of sale cutouts yeah yeah yeah you know and then you'll be on yeah and it was like when zander armstrong did the pims things you know the big cardboard cutouts of him in supermarket checkouts and things like that you don't need that i don't think no no no no uh you know each to his own and i'm i certainly don't think any less of actors or comedians no of course not you do them it's completely up to you you know if you think it's all right you know and also you don't know anything about their life and what

they're they might be in the shit yeah right of course i always think that about musicians as well like when people give bands a hard time for reforming yeah i just think just let them get their payday yeah of course there's there's some people who are just greedy and want to make lots of money and don't necessarily need it but i always think of bands like the pixies who never really made any money first time around and if they've got an opportunity to reform and get paid properly no i agree great plus the fact that they're still and you can go and see them again yeah the whole business of actually doing voiceovers though is quite fun don't you think like it's a it's the easiest way to make money yeah yeah it is it's like free money it's as close as you get to free money yeah

it's wonderful not to say and maybe it's because it's so easy in a way that a lot of voiceover artists like to think to themselves that it's really a very skilled art. Well, I mean, I suppose it can be. It can be. Because don't you get like a little kick of when they say things like, can you shave two seconds off that? And you are able to.

You still think, I'm brilliant. Look at me, I'm so skilled. sometimes you get in voice sessions though people who don't really know what they want yeah and they're looking around for a certain thing yeah and giving you absolutely clem fandango-esque mysterious yeah well that's where that's where all that has basically come from it's come from you know it's all the things that have happened in the three series of toast with those things have actually happened. They're all things I've just completely, you know, kind of taken and embellished ever so slightly. Yeah.

The one where the guy doesn't take his finger off the control button. The talk back. Yeah. And that happened and that was infuriating and that went on for ages. And what's happening in that situation? So he's going, okay, so now, Matt, what I'd like you to do is... It's like, you need to keep your finger on the whole time while you talk, otherwise I won't know what... And they go, yeah, okay, I'm really sorry.

I'll just say that again. So, Matt, what I'd like you to... And then it just happens again, and you're just... And then there's the mysterious commands like, can you do it with a bit more of a sarcastic smile in your voice a cliche but that but it is actually true of course it happens all the time and it's kind of highlighted more i think when you have to do one or two words and that's it yes so something like the times or whatever and you do it and then they go yeah we've got it because their thinking

is we've got you for an hour and you've already nailed it you know on like the second time that you've said it but we can't let you go because we've paid you for this hour yeah so could you do it as if you're um as if just you've just heard some bad news you go christ the times you know like how can you do that and then just play around with it have some fun give me five really quick ones. And then that person will run out of direction because there isn't any left to give. Yeah. And some other idiot then will kind of pipe up with...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I've just thought of something. Why don't you... When I say idiot, I don't mean idiot at all. Of course. These people are doing their jobs. Yeah, they're fun. This is the obvious question that I'm sure you've been asked.

Do you now go into voice sessions and have people act differently with you they and be wary of you incorporating them yeah there's the commands are very very short now and to the point and that kind of stuff has kind of gone away a bit all the tons of direction so there's an advert on at the moment i think it's tamsin ggg does it. And it might be for some kind of cosmetic product. But at the end, she has to go, ta-da. Have you ever heard that ad? No.

And it's a very specific ta-da. Because obviously, it was supposed to sound very natural and thrown away. And every time I hear it, I just imagine her in the voice session with someone going, very natural and thrown away. And every time I hear it, I just imagine her in the voice session with someone going, yep, that was great, Tamsin, but just, um,

you do one that's just with a bit more of a smile on your face. And, uh, okay. Because it would have been bolted on. Even if it sounds like it isn't, that definitely would have been. And like you say, she would have done seven of those.

At least. More like 700. Yeah, maybe. And then they would have picked the third. And they probably got her back in the following week. You just need to do a couple more. There's a bit of a problem with the... Everything else was fantastic, but the ta-da seemed to lack something.

I did one recently for Haribo, and in the Let's Play Around With It section at the end of the session, one of the many line readings that I did was just a very odd delivery of the line. And it was something like, available to buy now. Like in a really weird way. Like, yeah, you were taking the piss.

Yeah. And they used it. They said, that's the one we're going to go with. And it's a real, it's a thing you really have to be careful with in those sections when they ask you to play around. Because if you come up with something and you're trying to make them laugh... Well, you can kind of curb the kind of playing around.

You can sort of... You don't have to do that. No. Because the other thing sometimes is... They more or less be asking you to come up with bits of copy. Which you've got to watch. Yeah. So if you think that's happening, you, you know, you can kind of say Unless you want to give me a writing fee. Well, yeah, you know, unless we kind of talk again.

Exactly. This is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success. Yes, success. The way that you look at the world makes the world want to say yes. It looks very professional. I love browsing your videos and pics, and I don't want to stop. And I'd like to access your members area and spend in your shop.

These are the kinds of comments people will say about your website if you build it with Squarespace. Just visit squarespace.com slash Buxton for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, because you will want to launch, use the offer code Buxton to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So put the smile of success on your face with Squarespace. Yes. There we go. Matt Berry. Thank you so much to Matt for giving up his time to talk to me for the podcast. Very much looking forward to whatever else he decides to fire out of his demented entertainment canon. Anyway, let's move on. A bit of business and a few recommendations for you. I like the idea that the end of the podcast will sometimes have a few recommendations

that may or may not be useful for you. and I've been getting a few back in return from you guys so thanks for that but before that the Adam and Joe live event which I said I would mention I mean there's not that much to say because the event is now sold out so it's not as if I'm promoting it in that respect but I am saying you can still get involved and you can still contribute if you wish to, because essentially the event is like a live podcast taping. Joe and I did a Christmas podcast last year and we really enjoyed doing that

and we'll be recording the two shows that we do at the BFI on the 15th of December. Basically, what it comes down to is, a lot like the radio show, we would love it if you could submit various bits and pieces for us to read out to each other. And those often open the door to various enjoyable ramble corridors. So what you can do is go onto my blog. I won't play the whole jingle. It's adam-buxton.co.uk. In the recent posts section, you will see one that says

contribute to the Adam and Jo live event. And so if you go on there and leave your contribution in the form of a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the post, we'll pick our favourites and read them out to each other on the night. And the idea is to compile some of the best moments from that live event and put them out as a podcast sometime thereafter.

So there we go, that's that. And if the whole thing goes well, then I hope we'll do some more in a larger venue. Yes, the O2 next time. And everyone can come along. Ba-boop-boop-boop, ba-boop-boop-boop. venue yes the o2 next time and everyone can come along right now here's a few recommendations for you for things that might cheer you up reinvigorate your sense of excitement about the world and other people and other places who knows people often ask me for podcast recommendations. And I see on Twitter all the time people asking for podcast recommendations. So I thought I'd share a couple with you.

Someone sent me a link to this thing called the Carousel Podcast. Now, there's a few Carousel Podcasts out there. Some of them are music related. This is a spoken word show, which is produced and presented by people with a learning disability. It says each month the show focuses on a different theme and includes stories, music features and interviews produced by the team and their listeners. Produced in Brighton, UK by Carousel. It's really nicely put together. Obviously, you've got quite a different perspective there from people with learning disabilities but it's really nicely done so um i would recommend that then there's the bbc

seriously podcast there are all these documentaries that i think most of which have been out on radio four and they're now all collected under the banner seriously, and there's all sorts of good stuff out there. I mean, I do fundamentally love the BBC, I suppose, and I know for some that marks me out as a kind of left-wing mug, a lapdog for the liberal elite, but while I understand why you might feel that I don't care I just think that the BBC for one reason or another put together an enormous amount of really interesting stuff open-minded stuff I mean they bend over backwards to try and see things from all different points

of view sometimes they get it wrong Sometimes they get it really right. So I've listened to a handful of these so far and they're very entertaining and there's a lot of other ones that look good too. Just scanning some of the titles in the archive. The Women Who Wrote Rock, Kate Mossman, who's always excellent, I think, whenever she pops up doing stuff

she's a journalist and she meets the women who spearheaded rock journalism in the 60s that sounds good there's one here about Viz the comic Viz an unfeasibly large success profane rubbish or bold rebellion how did Viz become an acclaimed best-selling magazine? I'm sure that would be good. Life inside Islamic State. Mike Thompson reports on an extraordinary series of diaries on life inside Islamic State. Download that one.

I'll tell you one that I did download and listen to the other day that I certainly recommend. Thelma and Michael, love in the cutting room. While working on Raging Bull in 1980, Scorsese, Martin Scorsese that is, introduced his American film editor Thelma Schoonmaker to his boyhood hero, the celebrated British director Michael Powell of Powell and Pressburger fame. Despite their 35-year age difference, Powell was 75, the two fell in love and were married until Powell's death in 1994. God, it's great. It's so brilliant, that one. It's just very simple. It's a few interviews with

Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker. Scorsese talking about why Michael Powell was such an influence on him and how strange it was that Michael Powell became totally marginalized at a certain point in his career and how Scorsese played a part in bringing him back into the cinematic fold. Also introducing him to his editor, to Thelma Schoonmaker herself, this incredibly talented person, three-time Oscar Award winner who's edited pretty much all Scorsese's films. And then it turns into this... I'm getting emotional thinking about it.

Oh, it's one of those weeks. It turns into this incredibly romantic love story. Oh, what's my problem? I won't say anything more about it. You've got to listen to it. Had a little pause there to get my shit together. Oh, man. I tell you, it's this time of life. I don't know, it's everything, isn't it? A few thank yous. Thanks to Dan Hawkins, my online bass playing buddy. He contributed a bass part for a jingle in this week's podcast at around the 11 minutes 30 mark thanks dan and you can get dan to

provide some bass for a musical project of yours by just googling dan hawkins bass playing i think i recommend his services thanks to seamus murphy m Murphy Mitchell for production support. Rosie! Rosie! Oh, there she is. I was calling into a certain direction, but she was behind me in the other direction. There was no way I could have known. How are you doing, Rosie? Yeah, not too bad.

Just to say, the Bill Paxton character in Aliens, when he says we're all fucked, he was actually right. They all got fucked. Well, okay, so maybe Aliens wasn't the best analogy, but I just think that in general, in the current climate, we just need to hope for the best in people rather than predicting the worst. You know what I mean? I think you're a ponce and we need violent revolution. Oh yeah. Well, I tell you what, if you piss on the wooden floor in the hallway again, that's what you're going to get. Okay, dog, dog. Yeah. Okay. Oh boy. Onward and upward till next time. Listeners take especially good care, not only of yourselves,

but of each other. Even if you think each other is an absolute twat. I love you. I say goodbye and put my thumbs up. Give me a big smile and I'll thumbs up. I say goodbye and put my thumbs up. If you like me, subscribe. Like and subscribe. If you like me, subscribe. Like and subscribe. Give me a big smile and I'll thumbs up. Give me a big smile and I'll thumbs up. Give me a big smile and I'll thumbs up.

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