THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.5 - ROB BRYDON

Episode Date: October 14, 2015

Adam Buxton talks with Rob Brydon (host of BBC1's 'Would I Lie To You?' and star of 'Human Remains', 'Marion and Geoff' and 'The Trip') about voice overs, Paul McCartney and 'The Trip' amongst other things. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello parents, or those who are offended or upset by swearing. Just to let you know that this podcast only contains one swear this week, and it's the S word. That's hardly swearing. They say that on the news, I think, nowadays. So come on, Grandad, get with it. Here we go. 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.

My name is Adam Buxton. I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan. Hey, Adam Buxton here, how you doing? Thank you so much for downloading this podcast. Wonderful to be back inside your mind. I love what you've done with it. This week's chat ramble features Rob Brydon. Last year I was on Would I Lie to You, the BBC's fun panel quiz. And afterwards, in the green room, Rob was regaling us all with entertaining stories.

And I said to him, hey, would you ever be up for coming on a podcast if I got one together? And he said, yes, I would. I would love that. And so I took him up on it. And this week we hooked up in London. I don't know if you've ever been to London it's huge we went to Soho and to his agent's offices and sat there in in in a room and it was nice and Rob was eating a biscuit I had some water and we chatted for a little while about this and then about that now I suppose what you would really, really like is for me to give you some more Rob Brydon facts,

mainly gleaned from Wikipedia, that I am going to intone over a piece of weird music that I've recorded before going into our chat. Well, that's doable. Here we go. Rob Brydon Jones, MBE, is a Welsh actor, comedian, radio and television presenter, singer and impressionist. Some of the shows you may have seen him on include Would I Lie to You, the BBC One comedy panel show. I went on it.

He was also in Gavin and Stacey and Marion and Jed and its spin-off, The Keith Barrett Show. And of course, he starred alongside Julia Davis in Human Remains and alongside Steve Coogan in The Trip and The Trip to Italy. He also does a lot of voiceovers, talking about Rob Ryder. That's right, Rob Brydon. Rob Brydon. Just making it absolutely clear that I'm talking about Rob Brydon. Rob Brydon. What have you been doing today?

I did voices for an animation called... of Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes. I've done these voices for the people that do The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child, Room on the Broom, and to some acclaim, you know, they were Oscar-nominated. And then I've done this year's, which is Stickman, which is going out, you know, Julia Donaldcar nominated and and then i've done this year's which is stick man which is going out you know julia donaldson stuff sure and then next this is for the following christmas

this is revolting rhymes so i was in doing it they're quite exacting i like the guys but they're quite you know they they obviously they they pay to get you in they want it in every you know what if and they're he's the guy's german what if this time but he's surprised at seeing the stick but he wonders about it okay what about now he was expecting the stick you know it's no surprise okay i've got used to it now but you when they first did it for them which was for the gruffalo and i was the uh snake i'm thinking oh gee come on you know but they do it turns out really well, so you don't mind, you know. Yeah, exactly. It's really good.

Do you ever do voiceovers on documentaries? Yeah, but I'm not as good at that as I think I am because I think I sound a bit arch. I'll tell you a funny thing. I did one about beavers in Colorado and problems of them locally in Dundee. I didn't realise when I was doing it, there were lines like, it's Saturday morning and Warder Dave, he's hungry for beaver or he really wants beaver.

And I didn't get it when I was reading it. I had bad reviews for it, you know. Like, oh, Rob Brydon's scraping the barrel with this humour. And it did honestly not occurred to me i don't suppose there was a line like warder dave is hungry for beaver well it wasn't but it was something like that because he wasn't killing and eating no but no but he was he was you know he's been wanting beaver now all week and stuff like that he absolutely loves beaver seriously it was it was stuff like that and i didn't i didn't realize it i thought to me

any wildlife documentary is by virtue of what it is a positive thing so i went yeah i'll do that so i've done a few of those um they take a long time though don't they no not as long as animation not as long as characters for animations they they um because they're far they're very exacting i find with narrating a documentary, it tends to be quicker. Whereas if you're doing an animated character, because there's emotion or intent, they want you to cover every angle. I like them. I mean, the best thing is just to go in and say, see in store for details. Or Philadelphia with chives.

Yeah. That's the best. That's as good as life gets. Well, yeah, because it's zero effort, you know, and they're quite well paid. Do you agonize over which products you endorse? Yeah, there's things people may find this hard to believe. I'm often accused of whoring. Fair enough.

But like the best whores, there are some things I won't do. Of course. Some clients you just say, no, come on, mate. So, no, there are things I don't do. I try to think of examples. I wouldn't do those loan companies. I mean, where do you draw the line? You say, well, those companies are taking advantage of people.

But where do you draw the line? For me, I try and avoid ads for booze. Oh, yeah, I wouldn't do that. Even though I love booze, personally, and would never deny anyone booze, unless they were obviously in terrible trouble because of booze. But I don't like the idea of sort of promoting it, you know what I mean? But when you get into this thing of looking at different companies and what have they done, I mean, you go around in circles there, couldn't you? Right, because so and so...

I mean, I've advertised everything, Adam. I mean, my list of voiceovers is as long as three or four arms. You haven't done the army. I might have done the army. Have you done income tax? No, I've done pretty much every newspaper. I've done many foods, washing powders, breakfast cereals. Cars?

Oh yeah, loads of cars. I've done Fords, Peugeots, all sorts of things. Have you done intravenous drugs? intros or all sorts of things have you done intravenous drugs no but i have voiced uh an information film if you were going into hospital to have i did one if you're going into this is years ago now if you're going to hospital to have a colonoscopy my my voice was on a dvd the night before telling you what to expect okay well that's good that's that's helpful i've done in the last year or two years i did a charity one for some kind of illness, which involved intravenous drugs being administered.

Yeah, but I guess I was thinking. Oh, what do you mean? I was thinking. Well, heroin. Yeah. No, I've turned those down. Have you? Yeah.

Yeah. That's paid, man. I think Simon Pegg got that campaign, didn't he? Did he? Yeah. Because you just do a silly voice and then no one knows it's you. Well, that's the other thing. When I started doing voiceovers, nobody knew me.

And you could do anything. I mean, now I turn stuff down because I don't think it's very good. I don't think it's very well written. I think the standard of writing, and I don't necessarily mean creative writing, but just grammar. You go in and out of studio and you read stuff and you go, who wrote that? And I find myself saying, which is maybe this is why I don't do as many now, is, who wrote this?

This is dreadful, you know. Do you say that? I have, if I'm in a bad mood. I have been, generally, no. I smile and I'm everyone's friend. But sometimes, yeah, if I'm having a bad day, I'll go, for God's sake, you know, what is this? And do you suggest ways they could punch it

up or change it yes i do yeah yeah yeah it's fine i mean it's that there's an art to the whole thing and i speak to other people who do voiceovers and stuff and we agree that it's uh it's fun getting it exactly right trying to get trying to do the timing um you know and they say oh you shave uh half a second off that one and uh put a put a bit more of a smile for years it was it was what i did it was how i paid the bills and and you know paid them quite handsomely you know and i used to we're in soho now doing this and this area me and pete serafinovich were kind of doing a lot of them at the same time this is like the late 90s early early 1000s.

Pete was doing more than me. I mean, he was the real kind of king. But I would sometimes do four or five in a day. Whoa. Yeah, I mean, you know, not now and again. But two or three a day was pretty common. Pete, you know, would be six or seven a day, maybe more, you know. That's like Olivia Colman standard.

But you could, in those days, there was more money more money around and you could you would see other voice artists because they get a few of you in for one job you know and you need to play a scene together right one of the first I ever did was with Donald Sinden and Pauline quirk Wow I was playing naughty he was big ears Paulineine quirk was martha monkey classic directed by steve bendelac who did the league of gentlemen many other things and the the story was that noddy and big ears were around at martha's house and she was giving them some food and it was mushroom soup and in the course of eating the mushroom soup big Big Ears, Donald Sinden, began to think, well, hang on, where they got this mushroom from? They can feed this many people because Big Ears lived in a mushroom.

And he said, where did you get this mushroom? I mean, was it in the forest behind a picket fence? And she says, yes. And he goes, no, because it was for house insurance, you see, the ad. And I remember Steve Bendelac talking to Donald Sindon and saying, I mean, you know, it's dawning realisation. And Donald's going, dawning realisation, yes. And Steve actually said, I mean, it's Titus fucking Andronicus. And Donald went, Titus Andronicus, yes.

So we did a take. I was noddy and I had to say things like, lovely suit, Martha. So we did a take. I was noddy and I had to say things like, lovely suit, Martha. So we did a take. And at the end, you know, you stand there, just like in Matt Berry's thing in Toast of London, you know, where he's giving him the talk back. And you stand there and the note came in for Donald.

Could you make it a bit bigger, Donald? And Donald, sin to know I didn't know, looked round at me and Pauline and he went, I'm bigger. They don't know what they're asking. And that was one of the first I ever did. And I thought, oh, wow, I love this world. Yeah. I don't suppose Brian Blessed gets the could you make it bigger note that often.

No, no, no, no, no, not Brian. Maybe he does because that's what people want from him. And yeah, I suppose so. He comes in one day and thinks, I'm going to go nuanced today. I mean, at one point he's going to have to, you know, get quieter, you know, as he gets older. Unless he just keels over.

My dad's voice has gone very high. I mean, he's old now. He's like nearly 92. But it's gone quite high every now and again. Voices change. People's voices do change. I do impressions and things. And some of the people that I do,

some voices I've noticed, I don't really do a very good McCartney, but his voice has changed. It's become so, you know. Well, I think it's like there's a less mobility around the mouth. Alan Bennett. If you think people think of Alan Bennett and if you think, people think of Alan Bennett

and the kind of classic period to do Alan Bennett is talking heads. And it's, oh, man, it's quite high and that sort of thing. And he did, and, well, Malcolm and that sort of thing. But now it's much more at the front of the mouth and it's quite slow and there's not as much you know movement in the mouth like that and uh mccartney yeah he sounds like a tape that's been slowed yeah you know there's that kind of thing going on you know it's just the thoughts are just as fast but you know the mouse and i'll catch you know god is quickly you know which is fine yeah I'll tell you a funny Paul McCartney story. I went to see,

he was doing a show for his last album at Radio Maida Vale. So I managed to get tickets to go and see it. And I was stood in the front. It was a tiny studio, you know, him and his band. I took a friend who was a massive Beatles and McCartney nut. So this meant,

I mean, I like him a lot, but you know, this my friend is, wow, you know. My friend is in I mean, I like him a lot, but this, my friend, is wow. My friend is in Cardiff. Whenever he comes to London, he walks around Soho Square by NPL, by the offices, just in case.

Just in case. And this is a grown man. He's like my age. He's older than me, actually. He's in his mid-50s, maybe. I can understand that. I've done similar things with Chloe. Yeah, but not now, surely.

Not as a grown adult. If I was in New York, I would hang around where I grew up. You wouldn't. Not now, at this age. Yes. Why? Because... What do you think is going to happen if you meet him?

He's not going to say, come on tour with me. No, what really would happen is that I would start crying. But anyway... But don't you get to that age where you go, well, even if I met these people, so what? What's going to happen? You know? It's true. That's a good point. No, the older you get to that age where you go, well, even if I met these people, so what? What's going to happen? You know. It's true.

That's a good point. No. The older you get, the more you realize this. Well, they're just people. They're very talented people. Fantastic. You're best off with that. In a way, it's better to keep them on that pedestal.

Of course, you're right. Yeah. Anyway, so we did this. So we went to this show. And I'd met him maybe once or twice before. But you never think someone like that is going to remember you because of who he is. But anyway, he came out and he saw me because I was right in front of him. And he was kind of making faces and, you know, giving, hey, how you doing kind of signs.

And my friend, this blew him away, you know, my God. But we were so close that you had to keep responding. I felt I had to keep responding all the way through like great because he was literally 10 feet away. I felt I had to keep responding all the way through like great because he was literally 10 feet away. And then at the end, Joe Wiley was lovely. Joe Wiley was hosting it and she came out to interview him. And she said, and there was such potential for embarrassment here. She said, Paul, great show.

Deladan, such a small venue. Yeah, you know, it's really small. And then she went and Rob. And as she said that, he said something and talked over her. And I thought, oh, she's about to mention, what on earth was she going to say, you know? And he answered another question, you know, and then he got to the end of that. And then she said, and is it strange? I mean, she said, is it a bit nerve wracking looking out there and seeing Rob Brydon there, right?

Which is the most ludicrous, you know, it's Paul McCartney. Of course it's not nerve-wracking seeing me there, right? And I thought, oh God, oh, this is the potential embarrassment. And he was so sweet because my heart just stopped. I thought, well,

as you can go, what are you talking about? I'm Paul McCartney, you know? I've played in front of whoever. And he said something like, well, you know, yeah, it's really strange when you see people. You Paul McCartney, you know, I've played in forever. And he said something like, well, you know, yeah, it's really strange when you see people, you see the familiar faces, you know.

But I mean, bless Joe for that. And then here's an example of how things happen in newspapers. They reviewed the gig in, I think, The Independent. And it said, complete misinterpretation, even a master showman like paul mccartney admitted to being nervous in the presence of funny man you know me and you think

yes well no i didn't think no i didn't think yes i kept it but i didn't think yes i thought i thought yeah wow is that what you took away from that exchange yeah really i mean i'm like it was great thank you very much but you know i mean it beggars belief that he hasn't just gone completely insane yeah being who he is having the life that he's had being so famous having so many people be obsessed with everything he does i mean more or less every day of his life has been documented in some way and scrutinized and poured over for meaning. But I think he's managed, he seems to have managed to stay.

I mean, who knows? I don't know him, but he seems to have managed to stay grounded. And I think he's still an enthusiast. I think that's important. I know from other stories of people who have met him and stuff, he's a fan of people. So he understands that. And he's a fan of people so he understands that and he's still

really interested in things I liked it recently when he talked more honestly about how he feels with people comparing him to Lennon and sort of the way that people just assume Lennon was the genius McCartney he's the soppy one

but I was surprised that he cares like he does. Because to me, I want to go, yeah, Paul McCartney. I mean, that's the end of the story, isn't it? But isn't that, that's the ultimate proof that everybody cares. Yeah. Everyone. Yeah, which is nice. Like, even if they don't, even if they act like they genuinely couldn't give a shit,

they probably didn't. But I mean, my God, if he hasn't done enough to go, you know, judge me on what I've done, I mean, you know, nobody can. And he's done so, I mean, that guy's just astonishing, you know. I mean, John Lennon, of course, was wonderful, but one of the advantages, there are no advantages to being gunned down in cold blood. There's so few.

But if you die young, you don't have to grow old and you don't have to see your work, you know. Unfortunately, he didn't know that that was going to be the case. so throughout his life

he did worry about all those things and he probably did like have all those worries that we all have like oh i probably shouldn't smoke oh i should probably eat better oh i should exercise more all those things um now you have met speaking of heroes you've met anthony hopkins is that right have you met him on more than one occasion even um yes he's he's someone that i think it would be exciting to meet even though i i've read enough interviews with him to know that he is uh not a big outlandish personality at all he seems very low-key he's uh either feigning or genuinely feels mystification for people's adoration of him and and people who are in awe of his talent he's

like come on mate i'm just i just pretend to be these people there's not that much well he comes from the interesting thing with him is that he comes from the same street that my father grew up in at the same time in Margham in South Wales. Yes, I have met him a few times. I think he's quite private, so I'm always wary. Well, yeah, because I think he's a private kind of bloke, so I'd hate, I would hate to, you know. But he didn't disappoint, let's put it like that. Did you meet him on a work-related basis or did you just have to bump into each other?

No, just we arranged and we met. And it was fine? Oh, it was fantastic. Wonderful. And did he know who you were? Did he see your stuff? Yes, yes, he did. Had he seen you doing an impression of you? Yes, yes, he had seen that and he was aware of all that. And he thought it was funny?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because usually when people hear impressions of themselves, they say, okay, that's funny, but it doesn't really sound like me. We had, I do, see, the funny thing with impressions is I don't necessarily think that my impressions are that good. I think some of them are, you know. But I do a sort of very exaggerated Al Pacino. Yeah.

And I did a... Like Al Pacino. Yeah. And I did a film earlier this year with Jessica Chastain and she knows him pretty well he kind of discovered her he gave her her big break in Salome

and they're friends so I did this in front of her one day and I mean Jessica's quite a formidable kind of woman you don't want to mess with Jess and she was entirely dismissive And, I mean, Jessica's quite a formidable kind of woman. You know, you don't want to mess with Jess. And she was entirely dismissive of it. She thought it sounded nothing like him.

No, I don't think I did it again. It was a long shoot. I don't think I did it again. I was like, oh, okay. Because fair enough, you know, if you know the guy, okay. What was the film you were working on? The Huntsman. Oh, The Huntsman. O, The Huntsman.

Ie, ie, gyda fi a Nick Frost yn chwarae Dwarf. O, mae hynny'n sequel, yn iawn? Ie, mae'n sequel i Snow White. Ie, ie, ie. Ie, Chris Hemsworth a Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain a Sheridan Smith, Nick Frost, fi a Alexander Roach. Mawr. Dwi ddim wedi gwneud ffilm fel hynny o'r blaen. Alexander Roach. Huge. I mean, I've never done a film like that before. Massive. The unit base was like a festival. You know, just huge. Good catering?

Yeah, I put on weight. Because on something like that, you get picked up early, early, early. Because we had prosthetics. We had two hours of prosthetics every day. Which, you know, the appeal of that fades after a while. So you get picked up and you're sitting in the car. You get there, you have a bit of breakfast sitting down.

Then you sit in makeup for two hours. Then you get dressed. It was a many-layered costume, you know. So you have a dresser because you've got different layers and different things you've got to get into. What time is it by this point? Well, it would depend on what the call time was. The call time would vary, but you could be picked up as early as four in the morning.

That's horrible. It is, yeah, yeah. You could have gone to bed sufficiently early to make that bearable? Mostly, nine times out of ten, yeah. You have to, because I'm terrible without enough sleep. I really am awful. I'll do almost anything to avoid insufficient sleep. It's the exact opposite of doing something like Would I Lie to You,

which is in the moment, in the instant. Now, the great thing about that is you go in about midday, ba-boom, ba-ding, ba-bang, you do it, ba-dum, you get the response from the audience, you're home by 11 o'clock if you want to be, you know. Lovely. I love that. But it is what it is. It's disposable stuff. It's funny. I'm that. But it is what it is. It's disposable stuff. It's funny.

It's great. I'm very proud of it. But, you know, whereas with a film, you really feel with what I like to the only added ingredient to what we do on the night is the editing. Other than that, there's nothing else. It is what it is. A good edit that fillets the best stuff is great. edit that fillets the best stuff is great but on a movie like this there are so many people bringing expertise to the table whether it's the costume designer the makeup people the effects people that the the different actors and you do it so slowly you do it i rather like that once i got used to it the painstaking way of working. There's a scene in it where we're in a forest. There are many scenes when we're in a forest. There's one and then a big bunch of characters come and join us.

And it'll be about, I don't know how long it'll be on screen, it'll be about four minutes, five minutes. It took, I think, four days, something like that, to shoot that. The weather was changing. I mean, how were they going to put it together? But you really felt that you were a component part, and as long as you held up your end, and you did your bit as well as you could,

you felt as though you were in really safe hands, and they were going to make this thing that was, that's the expression, bigger than the sum of its parts. That's what I was. Whereas something like What I Lie To it is the sum of its parts. So I loved it. I really enjoyed it. To return to Anthony Hopkins. Favourite Anthony Hopkins film?

Favourite Anthony Hopkins film? Well, I mean there's a lot of films really. Tony's done. I think The Remains of the Day is very hard to beat. I think it is. It's, you know, it's just a simple book. That's all it is. Simple book.

Howard Zinn. I'm sorry if you're a friend, Margaret. I really am. But The Poor are Poor. That's all there is to it. Good day. What else? Well, oh, Silence of the Lands.

Can I go to that saying? But turns out Shadowlands. You know, when he cries at the end of Shadowlands. He's just, he's one of the special ones, isn't he? You know, there's some people that are just special and he is that. I've seen him on stage as well and he's just a remarkable, he's just a remarkable talent. But when you meet actors, so he's in his 70s now. but when you meet actors so he's in his 70s now

when you meet these people and you get to know them a little bit I just did a show for Children in Need with Tom Jones he's 75 once you get past a certain age you're all kind of in the same boat the age thing becomes irrelevant you're just the same

it's just you're further down the road, you know. They have experience that they can tell you about. But in terms of how you feel as a person, that age thing becomes far less of an issue. You're just two people, two men, you know, talking about your experiences. Now, the older one may have lived a bit more, so he's had a chance to experience more.

But I'll bet they don't feel that age. You often hear that said, don't you? Oh, I don't feel da-da-da. It is weird. Like, I'm only a few years younger than you, but still I'm in the process of adjusting to being the age I am. And every now and then I'm walking down the street or whatever, or I'm in a bar or I don't know what, and I'll feel like an 18-year-old.

Well, that's what I mean. I suppose that's what I'm saying in a way, yes. And then it's like sometimes a younger person will look at you. You mentioned something similar before. And you're suddenly aware of how they see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They think I'm like an old guy. Yeah.

Because that's what I am. Yeah. Well, I'd just done a play at the Old Vic where I played a teacher. And the rest of the cast, it was a sort of conscious thing on Matthew Walsh's part. Future conditional. Future conditional, yeah.

The oldest was 29. And some of them, it was their first gig out of drama school. So, which is not a bad start, is it? Matthew Warchus at the Old Vic. So I did feel like the older person. I mean, I had the most extensive CV. I don't think any of them were parents, you know, but I became friendly with them

and we would go and have, you know, on matinee days, we'd go off and have tea together and stuff in between the shows and you'd be talking and that age thing on so many levels

becomes totally irrelevant because you have in common that you're actors. But where you would notice it is my first scene was the third scene and there's an actress in it called Natasha and she'd be stood in the wings and I would go through my first speech because I did monologues, you so i would go through the words of the first speech before i went on and we'd always say hey how are you doing you know what did you do last night and very often for her it was well we ended up in a cuban bar and i got back about seven this morning she said what did you

do and i would say i went home i had a bowl of cornflakes, and I went to bed. So the difference was felt there. Do you have children in your house at the moment? Yes, yes, yes. How old are they? My little ones are there. They're seven and four. Right. And then you have three other children, though.

Are they older? Yeah, yeah. They're 21. Obviously, they're older. They're 21, 19, and 16. Oh, okay. The 21-year- old is off in uni they're from my first marriage

so they live just a couple of miles up the road but they're with us a lot so they're on autopilot now well yeah it's a very different obviously you're not you're not playing as big a part in their lives as you are

in the 7 and the four-year-old. Yeah. That's the day-to-day side of things. Yeah. What's your most shiny golden nugget of wisdom? Oh, right. That you've imparted? Oh, God.

I mean, mine are all fairly trite. Go on, give me yours and then I'll tell you mine. They're mainly things that I got from my dad, I suppose. Like what? Well, not that he coined it, but do as you would be done by obviously oh yeah that's pretty fundamental one yeah one of the ones that he used to say was um the people that mind don't matter and the people that matter don't mind yes when i would be when i would get embarrassed about things you know, if I thought that our car was too crappy or something. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Things like that. I suppose I always say to be aware of how young you are and, wow, it doesn't last forever. Yeah. You know. And to try and live in the right order, you know, the things you can do at this age. Do you think anyone can really take that advice on board? Probably not. Yeah.

I think there are some people who naturally live that way. I think there are some people who, when they're young, say things to you like, well, I'm doing it now because I won't be able to do it, or I'm going to do this, you know. I was never like that. Do you regret it? To a degree, yes. What would you have done that you didn't do?

like hedonistic stuff or more kind of well hedonistic is putting it perhaps a bit too strongly but yeah maybe realise that it's easier to stay out late when you're younger it's not so much of an option now because it takes days

we went to a friend's place in France. We stayed up very late with them, drinking quite heavily. Just recently? Yeah, and it took a week before I felt normal again. Yeah. It took a proper week, you know. And that's not a week of lying in a darkened room. That's in a week of being dad and, you know, doing all the things you have to do, you know and that's and that's not a week of lying in a darkened room that's in a week

of being dad and you know doing all the things you have to do you know um so that's the thing i usually say is is try but that applies to whatever age you are you know it comes back to that whole living in the moment thing you know living the moment living the moment it is a break it's a break it's a break in the moment, live in the moment. I really don't like the trip. I really loathe the trip. Yeah, I know. You've never really settled with it, have you? I find it to be incredibly self-indulgent.

Self-indulgent, yeah. Smug. And I am someone who loathes all forms of self-indulgence. So I find it very self-indulgent and very smug. That's the word I would use. And also, it's like you're looking down your nose. At people generally, yes. At people generally.

Sort of saying, oh, look at me. I'm Rob Brydon. And I'm playing a version of myself. That's right. Well, that's what we were hoping. I'm having my cake and eating it. Yes, yes. Well, that's what we were hoping to achieve.

That's the exercise. Yeah, very much. Job done. I like that show because I was being ironical there. I don't know if you can tell. Halfway through, I began to doubt. Yeah, did you think, oh, he's committing to this. Yeah.

No, I did enjoy that show. I know what you mean, though. I mean, listen, when Michael Winterbottom came to us with this idea. He's a director who likes to play with those elements, though, isn't he? Yeah, Michael loves deconstructing things yeah but when he came to us we initially both said no for those reasons it'd be i wouldn't want to be self-indulgent to be smug self-regarding and also how on earth are we going to because a lot of it is improvised how could we possibly fill six half hours with good stuff. And even now, if I see a show described as playing a version of themselves,

unless it's Larry David, I think, oh God, get over yourself. So for the people that don't like the trip, I kind of want to say, hey, I understand. And it's one of those things. Some people absolutely love it. I kind of want to say, hey, I understand, you know. And it's one of those things, you know. Some people absolutely love it. They adore it.

And they quote it to me and they love it. But there's a healthy constituency who also think it's self-indulgent. Tosh, nothing happens, dah, dah, dah. Well, if you enjoy the show, I think you buy into the relationship between you and Steve you already knew each other by that time right oh a long time

yeah and so that comes across because it it it works because you have this chemistry like

me and Joe like my comedy wife we always talked about doing a show like that not not as a drama,

but when people would ask us for ideas, if we went and had meetings or whatever, we never had any ideas. Our idea was, let's just carry on doing exactly what we've been doing for four series at Channel 4, which is doing little parodies of pop culture, bits and pieces. But then when we were pushed harder to try and think of something different, one of the ideas that we kept on mentioning, hoping, like as a joke,

but hoping that someone would take it seriously, was Adam and Joe's Very Good Time, where we just go around the world and visit really lovely places and they just film us doing it in cars and stuff. And this was before. Now it's almost like a genre. I think the trip was one of the first times

I'd seen it properly realised. But now you've got more reality-based shows like Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee online. That's probably my favourite. Yeah, and that's wonderful, isn't it? And the technology has made it possible to make these things look good so you can rig a car with gopros and and suddenly you have the best of all these different genres like

travel shows you get to see these beautiful places you get access if you his is great though the comedian car is getting coffee yeah for the editing alone it should win all the awards going it's beautifully edited it's the perfect expression of his thing you know that he does which is economy and

crystallizing of ideas have you seen the Brian Regan one I've seen it I've seen every single one of them yeah I've not missed one

some of them I've watched again and again I really do I adore it. I think it's as if he's making it for me, which is what people say when they love a show, isn't it? It's as if he's making it for me. And my favourites,

I like the Michael Richards one very much. I like the Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks one, the Alec Baldwin one I like very much. Yeah, he's very funny on that. He's terrific. The Louis C.K. one is good with the little animation. Yeah, when they go on the boat. See, the thing about someone like Jerry Seinfeld,

what appeals to me about him is that, unlike me, he seems to see the world very clearly. He seems to see it, he knows what he thinks about things. He's very black and white, and I'm not like that. So, therefore, I find that very appealing. And he says things like, he's a parent later in life. And he says, you know, now there's this, I'm not doing his routine or anything, but he talks about how you read your kids' bedtime stories and how long it lasts.

He said, when I was a kid, the bedtime story was go to sleep, you know. And he said he'd been there, I think their kids in this episode go to the same school and he says he went to some evening where they were talking to the teachers and the teacher said the progression it can be a difficult adjustment going into year whatever it was and he said he said really well you know what adjust and so is that more or less the way that you did the trip, though? The car was ringing? No, no, it's different. The trip is, Steve did a nice way of describing it,

it's kind of writing it as you go, as opposed to improv. There's some things, there's tons of improv, but one of the most famous things from it is Gentleman to Bed for We Rise at Dawn, and Would It Be a Continental Breakfast all that stuff now that was done again and again and again and again and again

in different locations so we're finessing it all the time and you're learning you're getting better at it because Michael needs to shoot it you know there's the ones where the camera is in front of us at the back of a Ford Galaxy or something.

Well, then there can't be any cameras in the car. So that's one take, but the mic's alive. And then there's another one where Michael and his cameraman will be in the seats behind us filming us. Then there's another take of the same thing when we're on a low loader. So in Italy, in the Italian one, when we're going along the amalfi coast on a blisteringly hot day you would do that scene where we're talking about i can't remember now i think was it something or other anyway and we would do it once on the back of a low loader once with michael and camera in the car with us once we're not once on the back of a low loader once with Michael and camera in the car with us once, well not once, I mean many times

and then with us driving and the Ford Galaxy in front of us with the top open and them filming us that way then again you do an up and past shot where they're waiting at the side of the road just to get us going by. So it's not as, you know, quite as in the moment as it looks. Because if you, you know, you've only got to stop and look at the different angles that we're achieving. But the thing is, though, that it's not necessarily happening in the moment like it is in Comedians in Cars

because my understanding of that, I could be wrong, is that they do have a nice composition. I don't think they go back over stuff and redo stuff, as far as I'm aware. Whereas with us, we're very much as you would in a drama or a comedy. We go back and we do it again. So things that look very spontaneous, like at the lunches and things you know we we have

each course three times and then within that course within that one serving of that course you will do it you know again and again and again and again and again you know so and when you are doing the trip yes do you get to actually enjoy the locations that you're in? Yes, yes, very much. Yeah. I mean, Italy in particular. It was different in the Italian one to the first one

because in the first one, there was very much, what are we making here? You know, this is Michael's idea. Steve and I are going on a leap of faith here. What's this going to be? You know. The second one,

there was the pressure of following a hit. But there was equally a feeling, well, people do like this, you know, so we just got to get it right again. But yes, it was. Yeah, I mean, the scenery there was was just beautiful. It's a stunning part of the world. And it's a really good way to see the world when you're filming something because you don't have to think. You get looked after. Can I get you this? Can I get you that?

Which I have to say someone as shallow as myself responds very well to. I think especially when I'm a father of five, so there's a lot of responsibility in my life. So I quite like it when I'm then filming. And have you got this? Can I get you that, Rob? Let me sort this out for you give me a bag it will appear at the next hotel when you get there here's your tickets for this flight you i'll take you down to the gate you know it makes it very easy um so you very much get to appreciate it when we were in ravello which is where we talk about gorvydal and kumquats and things like that.

And what was he talking about? Stevie's quoting something. We both got very drunk. There are quite funny outtakes on the DVD of that. You got genuinely drunk? Oh, yeah, yeah. We often did. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Particularly if you look at our eyes, mine in particular. My eyes are red as hell. I'm just, you know, it's the afternoon. Didn't that cause problems, though? Didn't that make it difficult? If you're doing takes and you're doing reverses and all that stuff. You can still manage it. Really?

Yeah. And that's what I mean about it being writing on the hoof, as it were. Because we'd settle on a shape in the early takes. And then you just keep mining that kind of seam, as it were, and finessing it. And hopefully you know where the good moments are and you know what the timing is and you just try and laser in on it a bit more.

That was great fun. But then equally, there are other times when there's a scene in the last one where we're in the amphitheatre at Pompeii. And I remember very clearly, we talk about Anthony Hopkins, funnily enough, but I remember very clearly sitting there and thinking, I've got nothing. Because Michael will say, talk about this, this and this. And sometimes, boom, off we go. But this time, personally, I can't speak for Steve, but personally, I was thinking, well, I really haven't got anything, you know.

But also knowing that that's okay, just wait. You know, something you learn with experience is, oh, it's okay, we'll just wait. Don't panic, you know, just wait. It's heartening to hear someone like you saying that they can have moments where they think, oh, well, of course, good God. Bloody hell, yeah. That's very sweet of you to say that course come on all the time yes course and on have i got new have i got news on would i lie to you as well oh that's easy from my point of view i'm not being falsely modest i mean lee and david do the heavy lifting. I do think there's a talent to hosting it well and keeping it all flowing smoothly.

But they're the guys that have to produce stuff and I can just pop in now and again. I try to have a couple, two or three funny moments for myself each week. No, that's just, that show is, the three of us feel the same. We love it and it's just a delight to do. It's easy to do.

You know, we're very fond of it. Happy team, happy production team, happy people. We all get on, the three of us get on and then the immediate producers, production staff, who we've known now for some time. Yeah, we have a meal together every year a few weeks before we shoot, either at mine, David, or Lee's house. And some of those nights

have been some of the funniest nights. The one at our house was two years ago, I remember. I mean, I don't think I've laughed that much in age. I mean, because Lee in particular, I'm not saying either one is funnier than the other but Lee Lee will be funny at dinner all the time you know he's he's always he'll find and he's he makes me laugh so much and David was getting involved he was but Lee is naturally like that you know if you're in a situation with him because we live near each other so we often do things together and our families know each other. So he doesn't switch

off, though. He's like that on and off screen. Well, yeah, I mean, he can, you know, he does. I mean, he's not that there's whenever you say that about someone, there's a slight suggestion that they're insufferable, which, which, which is not the case. No, he's not that. But it's just that it's, it's, it's about living in the moment do you know what i mean it's about in he knows he can do that and it makes me laugh so much so much um he is insufferable though come on no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no Of course he's not. That's just a bit of silly humour. This is an advert for Squarespace. Every time I visit your website, I see success.

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That's it for the podcast this week. Thank you very much indeed for listening. Thanks to Rob Brydon for gifting me his time. Till next we're together, take care. I love you bye hey who says toilet paper can't be cool oh dear oh dear we're only five in and we're at says toilet paper can't be cool? Oh dear, oh dear.

We're only five in and we're at the toilet paper. That's not even a parody of a thing. Who says toilet paper can't be cool? Next time you're wiping, make sure you wipe with Batty Weft. toilet paper and didn't replace it, that's not acceptable.