THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.52 - STEVE PEMBERTON & REECE SHEARSMITH

Episode Date: October 12, 2017

Adam talks to British writers/actors/comedians Steve Pemberton & Reece Shearmsith about The League Of Gentlemen, Inside No.9, Psychoville, writing, reuniting and more in this conversation recorded in front of an audience at the London Podcast Festival in September 2017.Thanks to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support and Matt Lamont for additional editing.Music & jingles by Adam Buxton Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, how you doing listeners? Adam Buxton here. Thanks so much for joining me for another podcast.

I am out in the East Anglian countryside on a beautiful, quite warm, breezy afternoon in early October. Is it early? No, it's sort of getting towards mid-October. And I'm just sitting on a fence. You can say I got no sense. Trying to make up my mind really is so hard a thing. I'm just sitting on a fence. There's a bit of rolling stones for you there. Rosie is off gambling in some nearby field, so I thought I'd just take a little rest here and enjoy the warmth of the sun and the breeze. So listen, before I tell you about this week's podcast, here's a very quick message for podcasts based in Los Angeles, America. I will be bringing the Bug David Bowie special to the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz on Thursday, the 16th of November, 2017.

some of my favourite Bowie music videos and related comedy nonsense in the form of specially made animations, choice YouTube comments, and wonderful music. There's one bit of singing. So check the events section on my blog, adam-buxton.co.uk, or my Twitter feed at Adam Buxton

for details and tickets. So I hope to see some of you out there in November in La La Land, or Get Your Creepy Hands Off Me Land, as I believe they now call it. Anyway, let me tell you about podcast number 52, which features a conversation between myself, Steve Pemberton, and Rhys Shearsmith,

two brilliant actors, comedians, and writers best known as half of the League of Gentlemen, along with Jeremy Dyson and Mark Gatiss. The League first entered the public imagination 20 years ago now, when their radio show and then three BBC TV series breathed new life into the world of sketch comedy. And they did that, I suppose, by being one of the first people I was aware of to create a whole universe, a little microcosm in the form of Royston Vasey, a village populated by characters that were often quite grotesque and dark, but so well performed and funny and surprising that the show, of course, quickly acquired a huge army of pretty obsessive fans.

The third and last series of The League of Gentlemen aired in 2002. And since then, Mark and Rhys and Steve have been in constant demand as actors in TV and film productions as diverse as The World's End, Edgar Wright's films Sherlock, Hunderby, Happy Valley, A Field in England, Benidorm, Taboo, Wolf Hall, Doctor Who. I mean, that's just the tip of the iceberg. And then, of course, Jeremy Dyson's been off writing all sorts of bits and pieces as well. And all the while, Rhys and Steve continued to write and perform together in their shows Psychoville and the anthology series Inside No. 9. Earlier this year, it was announced that Rhys, Steve, Jeremy and Mark would reunite to make three brand new episodes of

The League of Gentlemen for the Big British Castle. I spoke to Rhys and Steve in front of an audience of live human beings at the second London podcast festival that took place in September of this year, 2017, at King's Place near King's Cross. And we had a good time. We talked about the League and Inside No. 9, Psychoville, writing, reuniting, and much, much more. But before all that, we dealt with an important question that I, and probably Rhys and Steve,

though for different reasons, get asked quite a lot. Here we go. Ramble Chat All right. So I asked people on Twitter yesterday if they had any questions for you guys, and I have never seen my Twitter feed quite so busy, literally. I was overwhelmed, and I've just picked out a few. Here's one that caught my eye from Dwayne Smith. He said, pretty sure the words, my wife, will make an appearance.

The phrase, me describing my wife as my wife, as a kind of robot man, has become a staple of the podcast. And people, I think, are confused, though. Some people think it's a reference to Borat. Other people think it's a reference to League of Gentlemen. So, anyway, there you go. What is it a reference to League of Gentlemen. So anyway, there you go. What is it a reference to? It's a reference to myself and Joe were talking about looking for keys.

And I was characterizing myself as a kind of robotic, stupid husband lecturing my wife about, you should leave your keys in the same place, otherwise they will always be lost. I have a place for my keys and I always leave them there. You should do your keys in the same place, otherwise they will always be lost. I have a place for my keys and I always leave them there. You should do the same. My wife. And that's where that came from. Where did your... My wife.

What was the first thing that came with Papa Lazarus? What was the first bits of wordage? We'd written this sketch about a guy turning up at somebody's house and trying to sell pegs and going to use the toilet. It was a home invasion sort of scenario. Yeah, and then Rhys went to the toilet and was sitting there

waiting for him. It must have been quite a long time. And suddenly, when he came back, I went, I know what this is. The woman who's been left is going to go, please, you've got to help me. He thinks I'm his wife. And he collects wives. He collects these women and just takes them off.

And we went, yeah, that is just so bizarre and unexpected. And we're always looking for, you know, we very often start off writing a very conventional sketch, and we're always looking for that left turn. And you can't force those things. You've got to wait for them to come to you. So, you know, Rhys needs to go to the toilet more often. Yeah, apparently. I don't remember that at all.

And when you were sitting there writing that sketch, were you already doing that voice? Well, the voice was our landlord, and he was called Peter Papalazzo. That was his name. And he was a Greek man. He used to ring, I've told this story a million times, but he would, he spoke like that. And he was very insistent one Ac roedd yn ddyn Gwreig. Roedd yn dod i'r llyfr, a byddaf yn dweud y stori hwn miliwn o gilydd, ond roedd yn ysbrydoli fel hyn. Roedd yn bwysig iawn un diwrnod,

roedd yn gadael llawer o negeseuon ar ein ffanser cyflawni am y hoover a oedd ganddo ar y fflat. Mae gen i'r hoover hwn yn ei gilydd. Ac wedyn, roedd yn dweud, dyma ni'n saga nawr. Gadewch i mi ddod i. Give me a ring, Steve, about this hoover. And so, and he kept, and it was just this endless stream of beep. Oh, this is just a, wait a minute, I got a hoover. And the other thing was, Steve had done the contract for the flat. He didn't really know I existed in the flat. It was like flat sharing, but he just thought,

Steve is the one on the lease. Let me deal with him. So he'd always ring, I can't step down. No, no, it's Rhys. I want to speak to Steve. Well, you can speak to me. I can't speak to Steve. So that was, that sort of found its way.

But it's the combination of sort of gruff menace and slight sexiness as well. I want to speak to Steve. Ah, it's Peter Steve. And sort of saying, Belanging. Did he sort of say Belanging? He did. Yeah, Belanging to you. Yeah, he did actually about the Hoover, yeah. And when we did the original sketch, it was, Hello Steve.

It was all the way through Hello Steve, and we thought, we'll just change that to Dave. Right. I've heard quite a few people saying, oh, that's why the Dave channel is called the Dave channel. They thought it was a sort of name. It sort of came out, Dave did happen after the League of Gentlers, so maybe it is, but I'm sure, you know, we didn't invent Dave. As an idea.

So I've got a few more questions here. Junior Boogie says, my grandparents were once on BBC local news with the caption, proud royalists under their name. What's been the most embarrassed you've been? I try not to put myself in any situation where I can be embarrassed.

Have you been embarrassed? I've definitely been embarrassed. But I think that maybe the time that sticks in my mind, my brother's going to kill me for this, is when we were little boys and he was caught short at a bus stop, but not for a number one, for a number two. Oh, mate.

We were only about, literally, about two minutes from our house. And he did a poo in the bus stop. It's my brother Lee, Lee Pemberton, and my mum sent us back with some newspaper to bring it home. And there was somebody else at the bus stop, but I was pretty embarrassed then. Wow, that's amazing. And whereabouts in the bus stop did he go?

Corner. Corner, yeah. He's not an animal. It was one of those 70s bus stops, not one of these modern see-through ones with adverts on. It was a proper, really scary, bunker kind of bus stop. Yeah. Which had all kinds of things in the corners, dead foxes and moths and everything.

So it kind of suited the ambience, having that. And so you went back and said, who was it that told your mum that it had happened? Me. Yeah. Me. And I paid the price because I had to go back with him to make sure he did it. I didn't

do the picking up or the carrying. But the consistency was such that it was possible. Yeah. It was. You both have children now yourselves, right? We do. Yeah. Not with each other, but you know, independently. Yeah. Are they old enough now other, but, you know, independently.

Are they old enough now that they ever embarrass you in any way when you're in public? Mine are just now embarrassed generally of me, yeah. Okay. They're embarrassed of you, but you're not embarrassed of them. Anything I say, oh, it's just,

you're pathetic. I try not to talk to them anymore if I can help it. I heard a story about a friend of mine who was in a park with his children and they were up somewhere like Queen's Park, you know, lots of yummy mummies and posh dads and stuff.

And their child at one point screamed loudly, oh, we're not going to bloody Antigua again, are we? All right, here's another question for you. Darren Brown, the famous mentalist, says, can you ask, out of the four of them, which one is best?

Most talented, etc. Etc? What is etc? Most talented, best looking, et cetera. All the other things. This is presumably about the League of Gentlemen, the four of us. Yes. So where is Mark and Jeremy?

Where are they right now? Mark flew to LA today to the Emmys for something called Sherlock. And Jeremy is... I don't know where Jeremy is. He's probably in... No, he lives in Ilkley. He lives in Ilkley, so he's not here a lot. Although we've been seeing a lot of one another

because we've been writing these new shows. Yes, which we're going to talk about. Yeah, so that's where they are. But they're both happy, and that's good. Quite a few people have asked. I think with any double act, or if it's a team of people i think people must assume that there's a lot of political maneuvering and anxiety about

who is pulling their weight who's not who's most celebrated who gets all the attention it's a thing that happens in music as well of course has that ever been a problem for you guys or is it fairly democratic it's always been really democratic to be fair i mean we you know myself uh reese and mark all uh met each other at college bretton hall bretton hall so we already had pre-existing relationships and uh and then met jeremy through a mutual friend of ours and we only ever wanted to do it uh for fun really just just to enjoy it and and to spend time together and honestly and and still with reese now how many years later like nearly 30 years later because we obviously after league of gentlemen went on to do psychoville and um inside number nine and um you know you can't fake that you can't keep that going

for 30 years and the fact that we've the four of us have come back together and we've been dying to do it for ages we thought this was a really good year because it's 20 years since we did our BBC Radio 4 series but I can honestly say that there's been no rancour whatsoever. It's a boring answer but I think it would have been harder Everyone's a critic

No, no, I don't mean boring what I mean is fucking hell I'm just going to the toilet. You know, there's not juicy argument. We don't argue. We would have argued more had it not worked out, probably. And I think your roles were all quite clearly defined. You were all bringing something fantastic to the table.

Each one of you as individual performers and all the characters, there were so many memorable ones that you all did. It's not as if one of you regularly did all the boring characters or something. And then Jeremy was always behind the scenes writing with you. He writes with Mark, is that right? Yeah, we tend to write in two pairs. Jeremy did, in the very, very early days before we were the League of Gentlemen, did some performing with us. Oh, did he? And it was suggested that perhaps the ones that had trained and done

three years of BA or honours drama should be the ones who carried the acting. And Jeremy took it in good stead. He thought, actually now you're right, I'd rather sit at the back and play tapes, do all the lighting cues, and write. It fell on his own sword. Okay. Yeah, he said,

I think I'll not do the acting anymore. Yeah. We were like, yes, correct. He does crop up. He's never tried to wangle his way back in? No. No, no, no, definitely not. God, we wouldn't have him.

All right, here's another question. Do you want to go to the world of political correctness? Oh, yes. Papa Lazarus, in the current political climate, this is from Darren Locke, would you consider this character to be a modern example of blackface thoughts? I mean, in general, though,

it is quite a radically different world, isn't it? It is, yeah. People's sensitivities about all sorts of issues are quite different and more, you know, finely tuned than they were when you did your last series. Well, they were and they weren't, because I remember very clearly when we did that character, BBC wrote, like, an explanation of it on a piece of paper

and it was given out to reviewers and things like that, heading them off at the pass. Yes, you were thinking about it then. Yeah, or they were. I genuinely think when we wrote it that the blackface was an extension of the carnival thing. It was like clown makeup to us. So it wasn't ever sort of...

I never ever got a complaint. Chinnery and the Animals got more complaints. Chinnery and the Animals. Killing the Animals, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. That makes sense. I mean, it never crossed my mind that Papa Lazarus was supposed to be about race.

No. It was just a weird guy from somewhere in Australia. Yeah, it was sort of as much as we could do to create sort of fairy tale, sort of child catcher-ish character that would sort of haunt your... I mean, they'd copied it on the Babadook, by the way. Completely.

But anyway, that's another matter, honestly. But the thing that didn't exist back then is all this, all this Twitter, all this sort of people instantly being able to talk about it and I think that it does enable people to get together and maybe we will look forward to having more complaints this time round because we were a bit disappointed we didn't get that many

complaints. We thought, what have we got to do? We buried a kid in the front garden, breathing through a tube. We killed all kinds of animals and we barely got a complaint. So come on, great British public. Well, don't speak too soon. I mean, would you engage with them? You're on Twitter, right?

I am, yeah. Are you the only member of? No, no, Mark is as well. No, Mark is and Jeremy is, yeah. I mean, I've seen Mark getting in scrapes for comments that he made about the casting of a black actor as Bond I don't want to open the whole can of worms up again but that sort of area

that people get very upset about the whole issue of whitewashing or not casting people of colour when you could or I don't know what Mark got embroiled in that for a short space of time Well I do respond to people I just find them

and tell them off about what i was i will very happily explain why they're wrong you know so people i think people don't expect that i will reply but i often do and go oh my god i didn't mean it it's like well think about what you're fucking saying have there ever been times when you felt actually that's fair enough that's a that's a reasonable criticism yeah absolutely but you know you can't very rarely you can't sit and write comedy thinking of everyone's different opinions it's not it's not designed to upset. So you can't know what everyone's individual circumstances are. You would be trapped not doing anything if you began to go down that route, I think.

Anorakzone says on Twitter, how do they feel about the trans character, Barbara, the taxi driver, looking back in hindsight? Is Barbara someone we're going to see again? It's like news night. I thought this was going to be like do your catchphrases. Andrew Neill?

Exhausted. Trial at Nuremberg. This is all part and parcel of the previous question really. Yes it is. It's something we have talked about and talked a lot about and we're not going to give any details of which characters are. But you,

I'm interested to know that you have these conversations. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're not monsters. You know, probably we have taken on board a lot of those societal changes and it's really weird now for us going back to something we created 20 years ago and

recreating it but at the same time making it right for a modern audience so it's been hard right let's go again what don't you understand kick your ass let's go again what the 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. So anyway, we've done these three shows, and it's been really enjoyable. The good thing about it was it really flowed out of us.

It wasn't like carving out stone. It came back very quickly and was enjoyable. Like you say, we don't have to do it. We didn't really need to do it. And it's been real. We film it in two weeks. We start filming. And I'm really looking forward to doing it.

It's going to be good fun. I think, you know, for someone like Mark as well, who's done an awful lot on the drama side, you know, the Doctor Who's, the Sherlock's and that sort of thing, I think he's really particularly enjoyed it because suddenly he's just laughing all the time, every day. And that's one thing that, you know, that we do a lot when we're working together.

We just have a real laugh. Yeah, it might be at the Emmys, but he's not happy. I'm just saying, he's not laughed. We laugh every day. He's got Sherlock, difficult, cumberbatch. I'm not saying any more. It does cross my mind sometimes when I see him in Wolf Hall or whatever it happens to be,

and he more than once has played a similar sort of scheming, rather serious... Very limited actor. That's what you're trying to say. But quite serious, so he doesn't get to goof around, you know. He really particularly, because we have carried on doing our sort of comic shows, he really particularly has enjoyed this process.

Yeah. And Jeremy as well, you know. So you've done three shows. You're going to do three episodes. Yeah. Half hours or? Three half hours, yeah. Three half hours.

Half a series. When do you hope they'll go out? Christmas. Christmas time, yeah. And why not a full series? Just because you wanted to not kill yourselves? Yeah, I think we felt it might not fit. No, it wasn't that.

I mean, in the end, we had a lot of material and we suddenly thought it could easily be a series, but we thought it made it more special if it was just these three sort of... We wanted to do a one-hour special, essentially, and then as we started writing, the material was just coming out of us and we thought, let's just do three half-h mean we almost like want it to be like it's never been

away like you're going to sit down and it'll feel very familiar will there actually be familiar characters in there that we've seen before telling you doing like twin peaks doing like david lynch will not answer any questions about it all All right. It's happening again. Did anyone watch it? I loved that new series. Twin Peaks, how was it? Yeah, yeah. It was brilliant.

I loved it, yeah. What else are you watching at the moment? Do you like, do you watch a lot of sort of episodic drama on TV? I don't. I have no time, but you do, don't you? You manage to watch everything. I, yeah. Just got Netflix,

but I haven't really, it's just a bit overwhelming and and you do that that that thing of this is all new to me but just clicking and clicking and clicking and clicking and my mum was visiting recently and we started watching the movie she went it's a bit slow this and then i would put another one on oh god i'm not sure i'm right into this and we couldn't finish a film and i kind of think we of think that's part and parcel of where we're going with watching things. The idea that you would sit down and you had no choice

because you couldn't even bother to reach over and grab the remote control. You watched a show for half an hour and I do miss that. But I personally love, I can't bear anyone speaking. I can't really, ideally, I'd be in the room on my own in the dark and I would give the program my full attention.

That's why it's nice traveling sometimes, you know? If you're traveling on your own, take your laptop with you and then you can watch any old shit you want. You don't have to negotiate beforehand. True. Because now, as you say, it is torture sometimes when you've got more than two people together in a room and you sit down and decide to watch a movie

you can be there for two or three hours trying to decide what you're going to watch and then as you say it's the nerves for the first half hour of sort of looking around the room surreptitiously at the others waiting for the first person to lean forward and go, is anyone else enjoying this? It's not too late to

try something else Have you been watching Dr. Foster no oh mate don't watch that it's so great she's

she's amazing Saran Jones unbelievably good did you ever see the Sally Wainwright thing she was in Unforgiven no

oh god it's so good you were you were in a Sally Wainwright thing Happy Valley hey you were in Happy Valley. Yeah. I loved it.

And, Rhys, you did a stage production with Sally, is that right? With Sarah Lancashire, I did. Oh, with Sarah Lancashire, that's right. A musical with her, yeah. Yeah. What was it like working with Sarah Lancashire? She's another extraordinary performer.

Yeah, it was great. I mean, completely amazing scene voice. That was what's incredible about doing that with her. was great and um we did it for eight months that was a long stint doing that play do you like doing those theater things no no because i would think you get once you get locked into it and you it's just stretching ahead of you the thing that always gets me is like what if you get like a load of bad reviews in the first week and then you're locked in for eight months so yes it's hard I mean I've done two musical I did the producers for a year a year a year and what was the what was the weekly schedule like that it was eight shows a week and it's a massive

and I was playing Leo Bloom so it was I was the fittest I'd be never but i was totally fucked it was like dance injuries you know and you've got to drive there's no recoup you can't i would not advise it what was your average daily routine like then when you're doing a big long production well it sort of hangs over you you feel like it's just two hours in the evening but you do you got this, about three o'clock, you start to think, I've got to go in and do that play. I've got to do that play. And I'm fully aware that this sounds pathetic,

because my brother is a trawler fisherman. I never have any illusions that what I'm doing is very easy, actually. It's not what he does. It's a different source of stress. You've got that element of wanting to let it land every night. That's how you keep it alive. You've got to try and deliver it fresh to an audience that haven't seen it

and want to enjoy it. But it's a curious thing doing theatre. You get that strange collective thing where you can just tell the audience has turned against you. But they've decided within the first minute it sometimes feels. You go out and think like that. And you look out,

yeah, they're going to hate it. And you somehow can tell, and then it's difficult to sort of turn it around. You can turn it around, but... Have you ever done a play, Adam? Not since school, no. OK. I got an email over the summer from someone

asking about whether I was interested in doing a part in an Alan Akebourne play. I think you did an Akebourne thing, didn't you? I did a few years ago. I did an Akebourne, yeah. Did Absent Friends. There you go. I think it was even the same part that you played that he was asking about.

All right. So you turned it down and they offered it to Rhys. This was recently. And I emailed back immediately and said, yeah, I'd be well into that. Haven't heard back. I think I failed the Toucan test. Okay okay and he's just like oh no or maybe he was drunk or maybe he was listening to a podcast and so i think he'd be good as i'm gonna

email him he'd be good and then he woke up the next morning or he spoke to his colleagues about it and they're like fucking what are you thinking have Have you seen The Persuasionists? Thank you. stop it i remember when i was filming with you on the League of Gentlemen behind the scenes stuff, there was a theme, particularly with you, Rhys, that you found the writing process quite unrewarding or just hard, just difficult. Yeah, yeah. Like spinning plates, I remember you saying. Yes, yeah. Like pulling teeth, I think I even said. Yeah.

It can be hard, but it's where you enjoy it the most, isn't it? Because it is where you're creating it. Do you feel differently about it now? Is it easier these days? I think it's got you enjoy it the most, isn't it? Because it is where you're creating it. Do you feel differently about it now? Is it easier these days? I think it's got easier, yeah. I think we get into our stride with writing the nines. They're a puzzle because the bar is high with the twist endings and all that and the rest of it.

And just coming up with different stories each week is a job. But what a great job to have. I mean, that genuinely is a lovely thing to do because anthologies, I mean, weirdly, I think it's coming back into vogue, the idea of the one-off story. There's more and more of them, it seems. I'm not saying we created that,

like we created the word Dave. But we did. The Dave channel. But yeah, so it has got a bit easier. Psychoval was hard to write. That was hard work. Because that felt like we were really, not struggling, but we just wanted that thing of a overarching story and lots of strands and

cliffhanger endings and how do you feel about psychoville now are you did you feel that it wrapped up before it should have done or were you happy to leave it there i think we were ready to do a bit more with it uh we had killed off 90% of the characters. But probably it was the right decision. And, you know, had it not been for us having this meeting where we said,

you know, we either want to do a third series of Psychoville or something else. And they went, something else! We wouldn't have done Inside Number Nine.

And to me, that's the thing that I'm really, really proud of. And I think you're always proudest of the thing that you're doing most recent. Otherwise,

you'd be quite depressed, wouldn't you? You're going to do more of those, right? Well, there's a new series that we've already filmed that's going to be on within the next few months. Can't say when exactly. And it's possible there'll be more after that

because it can't get old by its very nature. You can't get sick of the story. You can't get sick of the characters. You get sick of the two same faces popping up every week. Do they show those in America? There's a thing called Brit Box. Have you you heard of this? No, no, nobody else He's like I said, have we got Amazon have we got Netflix now we got Brit box. It's just Danny Dyer

It's it's for Pete. It literally is because it's for people who miss EastEnders Yeah, and I think you get EastEnders and to fill the gap up on the hard drive They just put inside number nine on right, but some people are watching it What would a fucking Brit box coming up next more inside number fucking nine? That's it for Brit box tonight fuck off Here is someone asking John Rogers this is I'd like to know their retrospective thoughts on the League of Gentlemen film John Rogers this is, I'd like to know their retrospective thoughts on the League of Gentlemen film. What was

that experience for you guys like? Did that work out the way you wanted it to? Do you sort of look back on it now and think, I wouldn't have done that? We were fully aware of it being a film spin-off of a TV series and the unhappy nature of that very thing that's difficult to do when you've got a TV

series. You can see a real progression from the first two series or regression some people would say but we got more and more interested in narrative and we got less interested in it suddenly became quite easy to just come on and go are you local this is local we really didn't want to go down the route of being catchphrase mongers and so when you see the third series which many people really divided the audience a lot of people hated that series because we took a different take on things we got more interested in story and narrative and character arcs and then the film again we just

thought we could either dish up more of the same from the tv show or we can try and do something different and it it's sort of tangentially connected to the series but in a way it's about us as the writers really struggling to know which direction to go in next Well it was very meta before too many other people were doing that kind of thing, you were playing yourselves being terrorised by your

characters. I think we just didn't do the easy option ever and I think that's probably, you can't ever regret that, you can't ever regret that, it didn't do the easy option ever. And I think that's probably... You can't ever regret that. You can't ever regret that. It didn't do phenomenally well. It didn't launch us into sort of Simon Pegg-style action hero.

I wonder when he would come into it. Are there any shows that you see, other comedy shows that are around that you've seen in the last 10 years that you've enjoyed? Nope. comedy shows that are around in the that you've seen in the last 10 years that you've enjoyed and nope no i mean i i like jim bob i've always liked vick and bob yes and i've got to work with them as well that was an amazing you know i never even now pinch myself when i'm in their presence cataract was extraordinary yeah that was. That had some really strange moments in. I mean, really kind of lynchy and... Very Twin Peaks.

Oddness. They should repeat that. I mean, that was brilliant. Yeah, that came and went, didn't it, with BBC Three? Yes, I think so. I think it's anyone who comes along who's got their own vision, and you can see this is...

No one's tampered with this. No executives have tried to, like I said before, take the edges off it. You know, I really liked Toast of London, for example, for that reason as well. Because it's just, it's just one person,

well, two people's vision of a crazy world and a crazy universe that they've completely realized and inhabited. And that makes for the best comedy. Okay,

here's another question from the Twittersphere. From Patrick Ensor, do you laugh a lot when you're writing? I bet you do. Well, that's another question from the Twittersphere. From Patrick Ensor. Do you laugh a lot when you're writing? I bet you do. Well, that's sort of connected in a way to the question about whether writing is quite easier or not. We do, yeah. I mean, we have a little office in Muswell Hill.

It's just outside somebody's flat who I know. And they often say, I could hear you crying with laughter. But what they don't know is it's usually about what's going on in the flat which we can hear when you're in your own home and we wrote in each other's houses for quite a while when you've got kids you know it's really hard to concentrate and block all that out when it's somebody else's family and someone else's kids you're fascinated so there's a whole little soap opera going on that we tune into. And we play this sort of weird Harold and Maude game

where whoever arrives first has to stage a death in the office so that when the other one comes in, they find a corpse. You always find the one dead. And it's just something we do every single day. Every single day. And so one day I took off my belt and I put it around my neck

and I got the laptop and sort of opened it on my lap and my trousers open because I could hear these footsteps approaching. So I lay back with my eyes closed. The poor woman who owns the flat, who was nipping in to get some laundry, had the shock of her life. And had to say, we play this game where one of us has to... No, no, please don't think that...

Too late. I can never fully explain. We play this game. Everyone does it, don't they? So, yeah, we laugh a lot. Yeah. It was funny because the other day I came into the office with two coffees and Jeremy was in our...

He's never here because we don't see him a lot of it, but he was there strangling Steve's body. He's caught. He's playing the game. Here's a question from Graham Jenks would love to hear some of the script

slash sketch ideas for League of Gentlemen that didn't make it because they were too dark or they scared the big British castle people always ask us that

but there's very little that we have thought of that we thought oh that's too horrible I remember you thinking about having

characters that were like mega fans super fans but then you were but then you were worried of that we thought oh that's too horrible i remember you thinking about having characters that were like mega fans super fans but then you were but then you were worried that some of your real mega fans might uh identify too much or think that you were being cruel to them we thought of an idea for les mcqueen he thought it'd be quite funny if he was sort of stalked by creme brulee super fans and i don't think we would have we wouldn't have done that for fear of offending our own fans i mean god you're always doing that i think i think it just didn't it just didn't end up it felt a bit too meta yeah before we went the full meta we didn't want to do half met and you don't want to antagonize someone to the extent that they end up

ruining your life by just sort of being around every corner and sending you threatening messages. Well, that did happen, in fact. We did start getting death threats to our agent. We have the same agent. It wasn't you, was it? And I'm pretty convinced there was a comment made by one of the members who isn't here

tonight. He's in LA. He said something disparaging, but very specific about one particular person. So it wasn't a general thing about fans, it was about this one person. And I'm pretty sure that person is behind the death threats. Remember when we got those weird Wicker Man dolls sent to us?

Yes. We got dolls. I mean, I collect all these weird things. I didn't mind, I've still got mine. But it was a bit got mine but it was it was a bit creepy because it was sort of like an effigy

and there were like four different did they have our faces with our faces Chiggy's got one in her office who is our agent she's got the salmon

of knowledge from the Wicker Man there's any Wicker Man fans out there with my face on but also we had from a white witch we had an eye

a picture of an eye yeah to wish me good luck. But that show that I did that night, I was terrified. I felt very vulnerable walking out. And especially when we used to walk out after shows, we'd always sign autographs for people. Don't get any ideas, by the way.

We'd always sign autographs. And it could get a bit rough sometimes. You'd get a bit jostled. We didn't have security. We didn't have anyone looking after us. You felt like, you know, some... Exposed and you were worried. You could be like the bodyguard basically. Yeah. I could be

Whitney Houston. You'd be Kevin Costner. And I would always love you. Oh, yeah. No, I can't imagine. That would be weird. I mean, you do only have yourselves to blame, obviously, for writing all, like like weird stuff I guess it's a certain mind

isn't it when you create a world it's like sci-fi what we do you get that thing I'm the same I'm about it you know I think

we're fans of our own thing I understand completely that getting completely in like me with Twin Peaks obsessed with a show and wanting to know every in and out of what is meant by it

yes when you're on the receiving end of it you just think well I sort of let it go at night. You don't. And you must. All right, here's another question for you.

John Sutton. I worry my wife slash myself by regularly coming up with even darker endings. Do you ever rein yourselves in? Yeah, the bleakness, I suppose. Sometimes, well, can you ever be too bleak with comedy well i'll give you an example of i think what he's talking about we did an episode in the last series of inside number nine called diddle diddle dumpling which is about a guy who gets

obsessed with a single shoe he finds in the street and the reveal at the end is that you know he's obsessed with pairing these shoes together because he had twins and one of those twins died, presumably as a baby. And then... Farrah laughs. And Rhys had a line saying, you know, wanting to put the shoes and saying that they should be together. And people interpreted that as being

they should be together, i.e. I'm going to go and kill the other one. And people thought that the ending that we'd come up with is that he had I'm going to go and kill the other one. And people thought that the ending that we'd come up with is that he had gone and killed his... Killed the other one and paired them by having... And that was never in our minds. We were like, who are these sick people?

John Sutton. But it's quite nice in a way to have open endings and things that can be interpreted. And we're big fans of that. Quite joyful endings, aren't we? And hopeful endings as well in number nine. We hope that they're not all too bleak. And that's its own surprise when they're quite happy.

The new series is actually quite upbeat, isn't it? And jolly. People are going to hate it. You've made me laugh before, Rhys, with kind of bitter diatribes about watching people win awards. This is like back in the old days. I remember you ranting about stuff like that. It's exactly the same now.

Are you really, though? Or do you find that you're happier with your place in the universe? Worse. Worse now. Because it's going on too long now. You've won loads of awards. Not enough, never enough. Leaky bucket never be filled.

Did you see Jim Carrey at the Golden Globes? He was introduced on stage as two-time Golden Globe Award nominee or winner. I don't know. And he comes on and he does a whole bit about yeah that's who i am i'm two-time golden globe winner jim carrey that's how i think of myself and when i go to bed i think two-time golden globe award winner jim carrey is going to bed and he's going to dream about being three-time golden globe and then he does a whole sort of weird rant about how insignificant everything that's happening on planet Earth

is compared with the size of the universe and does a whole sort of existential thing about how it's all meaningless. He's a nutcase. We just had our teeth cast for The League of Gentlemen, you know, because of course we can't do our characters without some funny teeth.

And the guy who did it was telling us that when he did Dumb and Dumber, he, instead of having a piece that you clip on, he wanted his own front tooth. He got it filed down, his actual tooth. He got it drilled down by the guys, and then afterwards they gave him a... A cap tip.

A cap tip. No way! I mean, that's not Daniel Day-Lewis doing My Left Foot, that's Dumb and Dumber. He chipped his own tooth. Drill had half of it ground down. If people had known that, he might have won three Golden Globes. I was talking to you before, there's this extraordinary film that's about to come out called Jim and Andy, The Great Beyond,

about the time when Jim Carrey was making the film about Andy Kaufman, Man on the Moon. And he remained in character as Andy Kaufman throughout the entire production, never breaking character, refusing to respond to anyone if they addressed him as Jim. They had to call him Andy. And he stayed on. He would kind of talk like this, like Latka from Taxi a lot of the time. And then other times he, because Kaufman had all these other out of control characters. So he would sometimes be them and he would drive a golf buggy into the side of the studio wall and just be drunk, like properly drunk sometimes. And it's incredible the footage they've got because there was someone filming this whole thing.

In fact, it was Andy Kaufman's ex-girlfriend was filming the whole thing and they the studio I think imagined that they would use it to publicize the movie when it came out but in the end they didn't because in Carrie's own words in this documentary they thought it made me look like an asshole but the whole film is a question of what your take on that sort of behavior is but when you're watching it you you see some of the shots of the people around him milosh foreman and danny devito who was a producer and he was in the movie as well rolling their eyes at some of his behavior and just sort of you know and people just cringing with embarrassment a lot of the time especially if you're a brit i think and just sort of you know and people just cringing with embarrassment a lot

of the time especially if you're a brit i think watching that sort of thing you just think don't do that what are you doing that would have been a nightmare i imagine i mean the thing is yes the thing is that you you're confronted with the reality that Man on the Moon itself as a finished piece of movie making is fine, but it's not the best film ever made. And actually, Carey himself in this documentary makes the point that

the behind-the-scenes footage is actually the Andy Kaufman story in a much more convincing and realistic way because it involves real responses from people who feel... Maybe that was the long game they were playing, Adam.

Maybe. Maybe the first one was a sacrificial... I'm prepared to believe Jim Carrey is a genius. My wife is not. No. David Suchet, famously,

when he played Poirot, and he'd be talking to you in makeup in his very sort of RSC plummy voice, very deep, you know, bass profundo voice. And as soon as the moustache went on,

he would... And then he would speak to you like that. But he wouldn't be in character as such, he's just talking to you as Steve, you know, but in that voice. And at lunchtime, I heard him talking to his wife. Sheila, you need to get the plummy in to look at the tap because it's very inconvenient.

So he just wanted to have that process of once the moustache was on... He told me a funny story. He gave him League of Gentlemen to watch. He hadn't seen it. The next day he gave... He wanted to tell him that he'd seen it. He said, I watched your CDs. He called them CDs rather than DVDs.

That's a really funny detail. I saw your CDs. They loved it. It tickled me that he calls them CDs. Right. I'll rattle through a few more of these Twitter questions, if that's okay. Let's do quick fire answers to some of these.

Here's, well, Catlin Moran, the writer. Did they base tubs on my mother? Because it really seems as if they did. Have you ever met Catlin Moran's mother? No, I've met her. I think she's a brilliant writer there's a small story we went to rotting dean this is the first show we ever did rotting dean little village just outside brighton because jeremy uh remembered there was a wishing stone in the wall and you had to rub its nose and turn around and make a wish and so we all made our wish and as we were heading back there was this

little shop in the high street wasn't there mark said oh i'm going to go in and look at some fossils it's a kind of kind of rock and roll uh stuff that we used to get up to and we walked into this shop and this woman couldn't take her eyes off us because there were four young men a couple of them had baseball caps on and she looked absolutely terrified um and and she was kind of clutching at her cardigan. And when we walked out, we thought, oh, there could be a sketch in that. So in a way,

going to the wishing stone led directly to the creation of Tubbs and the local shop. And that's where it came from. Did she have a similar voice as well? She was a bit haughty, wasn't she? Can I help you at all? It was just that absolute suspicion

over nothing. Why do people come in this shop and look at things? I don't like it. If only there weren't customers, we could run this establishment. Yes. And that's what we tapped into, and clearly it's something that resonated with people.

They were the parents of Brexit. Alright, I don't know what this refers to. Alison Hobbs says, resonated with people. Happens everywhere. They were the parents of Brexit. Yeah. All right. I don't know what this refers to. Alison Hobbs says, any other plans to do another fourth wall-breaking reference

as per the Guardian crossword and Riddle of the Sphinx? It was incredible. What is that? I don't get that reference, I'm afraid. Well, what it was, was on the, there's an episode of Inside No. 9

that was all about a crossword setter and filling in a crossword. And on the day that that episode went out the actual crossword that was in and used predominantly in the episode was the guardian's crossword that day steve had set it right so it was you could have done the crossword in the day idly and then if you'd been watching the evening you thought wait this i did today. So it was a nice, we didn't tell anyone until afterwards and then it was revealed that it was the same crossover. Wow, that's great. So it was all linked, yeah, it was a nice.

And how about Riddle of the Sphinx? That was the title of the episode. Oh, I see, I see. Yeah, big fan, obviously. Anyway. Done his research. I didn't like that one. I didn't like the title.

Please ask about the head of their college's three essentials for an actor, says Colin Dalgarno. Well, that was John Hodgson, who was the head dean or whatever he was of Bretton Hall College. And he used to be like this. And three things are going to be his legacy.

His addiction. Articulation. and usability and three things are going to be easy to like is addiction articulation and cloud of speech day one cloud of speech how do they know about that that's funny

Will Helms says, Should I have taken this new job? It's a lot more work. With not that much of a pay increase. And I've lost my London waiting. Hashtag help. Waiting spelt W-E-I-G-H-T-I-N-G. I'm not familiar with that phrase.

What's that? You know London waiting? No, what's that? So if you... I don't live in London anymore. What's that? You know London waiting? No, what's that? So if you... I don't live in London anymore. Okay, well, if you were to move back, would you find that your expenses will go up? Your travel expenses will go up?

The money you pay to live in London? Your council tax? All those expenses will go up. Oh. So you would need to have your wage weighted in the favour of living in London. So London waiting. This is useful stuff.

It's public information film. Thank you so much. I mean, this is mainly why I got you in. I think Will has made a mistake because he's, you know, he might want to get back in, but he won't be able to get back in now. Richard Herring says,

where'd you get your crazy ideas? That's a bit of a Norm Macdonald podcast nod there. Well sometimes we just lift up our armpit and squirt some sun cream out onto our ham hands When you finish sucking

your own cocks. And that's where we come up with the ideas. You know that richard wait 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. Continue. Yes. for coming along to the podcast festival when they were busy in pre-production for the new League of Gentlemen shows. Very exciting. I'll be watching when they come out this Christmas. Thank you very much indeed as well to everybody who sent in a question via Twitter for Rhys and Steve.

There were so many and they were all really good. Sorry, I'm treating you like children who've entered a painting competition. But they were really good and the standard was very high. And you should all be pleased. There wasn't time to read them all out, but they were excellent. And you'll all be getting gold stickers in your workbooks next week. Thank you so much. A few people have been asking about the status of the Adam Buxton app. A few is perhaps an exaggeration. I think maybe two people have asked. But it's coming along. It's nearly there. I would say a couple of weeks probably. And it should emerge. Everything takes a long time in Bucklesville.

So I've got a film recommendation for you, podcats. This is not sponsored or anything. It's just something I saw on the weekend with my wife, my wife, and we enjoyed it. I was really knocked out by it, in fact. And it's called A Ghost Story. It came out earlier this year. I'm sure a lot of you saw it and heard about it at least,

directed by David Lowery. I haven't seen any of his other films, but they're supposed to be quite good. And A Ghost Story stars Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck as a passionate young couple unexpectedly separated by a shocking loss who discover an eternal connection and a love that is infinite. I think the thing that you will have seen if you've seen anything about it is the image of Casey Affleck wearing a sheet over his head with a couple of eye holes cut out like a cartoonish ghost and he spends most of the film like that I you know it's not too much of a spoiler to say

he plays a ghost in the film but this device of having him just be almost like a pantomime figure of a ghost is incredibly effective and unsettling i thought so anyway i was just looking at some reviews for the film and they're they're i mean mainly positive but they're everyone's everyone sounds a note of caution or at least a lot of reviews do. This is a Variety quote. A ghost story could actually be better suited to a museum setting, where this intermittently effective conceptual experiment's patience-testing approach might be most appreciated. Well, patience-testing, maybe. It depends what you're in the mood for it's quite slow moving

sometimes and he uses a technique of holding locked off shots at certain points at the end of a scene the director for much longer than you would normally expect so that they then become, I suppose, a bit more arty and experimental. But you'll be all right. I don't know if that tested my patience, tested my amusement a little bit. But overall, I thought it was great. I really did. And it's very moving. And, as I say, quite unsettling in a very interesting way several times. Rooney Mara is very good. I mean, you know, Casey Affleck wears a sheet really well. I recommend it. Anyway, that's it for this week.

Thanks very much to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for production support. And Matt Lamont for audio editing skills. And I hope you'll join me again next time. Take care. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe. Give me a big smile and a thumbs up. Nice, take a pint with me, thumbs up. Give me a big smile and a thumbs up.

Nice, take a pint with me, thumbs up. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Like and subscribe. Please like and subscribe. Give me a big smile and a thumbs up. Bye. Thank you.