This programme contains some strong language
Hi, everyone, I'm Jamie Lee Curtis and my new movie, Halloween Ends,
is super scary and where all a bit jumpy tonight, you know...
Oh!
It's only me!
Calm down!
Oh, can we get started?
BOTH: ARGH!
Don't do that.
Let's start the show!
Hello!
Oh!
Oh, hello, good evening, everybody.
You're all so welcome to the show.
I am back, you're back, it's so special!
The thing is, I haven't been reading the papers.
Did anything exciting happen while I was away?
Anything at all?
I mean, I know we do have a new Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
There she is, Liz.
That's of course her in casual attire.
Here she is in her work clothes.
LAUGHTER.
Working overtime!
Critics have accused Liz Truss of gambling
with the country's finances.
Mind you, if she likes a bet, she should stick a tenner
on Keir Starmer becoming Prime Minister.
There's Keir at the party conference this week,
unveiling his plan to get into Downing Street.
Yeah, and it went down very well, especially with his wife, Victoria.
Hmm, hello!
Wonder what he's saying to her?
"I'm going to do to you what Liz Truss did to the economy!"
Let's get some guests on!
Later we'll have music and chat from pop superstar Robbie Williams.
CHEERING.
And we'll be meeting one of this country's true comedy greats,
Monty Python star Eric Idle will be joining us.
CHEERING.
But first, he's one of our finest stage and screen actors,
star of Good Omens, Broadchurch and a little show called Doctor Who,
it's David Tennant!
CHEERING.
Whoo!
Hello.
Oh, my God.
You touched me.
There he goes.
She was BAFTA nominated for her performance in the powerful
Aids drama It's A Sin.
Now starring in the BBC thriller Inside Man, it's Lydia West.
Go, go.
No, go!
And she's a Hollywood icon, the star of films like Trading Places,
A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies and Knives Out.
Now returning for the last time to her most famous
role in Halloween Ends, it is Jamie Lee Curtis.
Oh!
Have a seat, do.
Wowzer.
Oh, welcome, all.
Welcome back.
You've never been on the sofa, Jamie, have you?
Oh, no, you have!
You've only been on the sofa.
Dude, so many times!
I can't even stop counting how many times I've been on this sofa.
The trousers are quite noisy!
On the sofa.
Can we just discuss the couch.
This is clearly designed by a man.
Because it's designed to make you...
To do the interview basically...
Because if it had been designed by a woman,
we would be able to sit up...
Yeah, nice.
And you can't, can you?
You can't, no.
It was designed by a man.
Sorry, you had a question?
Yes, well, I thought people might be pleased to see the sofa back again.
Apparently not!
We can brace ourselves with the table.
Oh, I like that.
Oh, OK.
It's a first time welcome to Lydia.
APPLAUSE.
We've got to go on the extraordinary success of It's A Sin.
APPLAUSE.
The stats, was it nearly 20 million streams?
Oh, I don't even know what that means.
That's a lot.
It's a lot.
It's crazy.
We hoped people would watch it but kind of didn't
believe that they would.
A mass audience.
And then they did.
And then it's, how do we deal with this?
Obviously lots of fan reaction and people in the street but then
you've got some very special fan reaction?
Yes, I did.
So, my friend asked me if he could give Elton my number.
Russell.
Elton.
I was like Elton who?
He was like Elton John.
I was like, agh, OK!
And then within two minutes of sending that text,
Elton was calling me.
It was like a 01 number.
I won't give his number.
I think you should give it to all of us, please.
Let's call him.
I have a couple of things I'd love to tell him.
Let's call him now.
He called all of us, he called the whole cast, he called Russell.
It was so sweet.
I guess, once he called one of you, he had to call everyone.
I was like, oh my God, Elton John just called me, on the group chat.
Isn't that a lovely thing to do?
And then everyone else was, oh, we got the call too.
Makes me very happy.
He flew some of them to LA for a...
For the Oscars party, didn't he?
He did, yes, he flew some of them for the Oscars party and he invited
us all round for a curry.
I don't know if that's confidential information!
It doesn't sound confidential.
I didn't go because I was away.
It was all the boys, but they had a curry, and maybe an orgy!
LAUGHTER.
That isn't where I thought that story was going!
My question is, having a curry, is that a euphemism?
If it is, I need to know what the euphemism is,
because I'm American and we just don't know what having
a curry means.
But I kind of like the end.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so blunt.
They had a curry.
David Tennant, you brought us photographic evidence of a very
special thing that's happening in your life.
Is it this week or was it last week?
We are a couple of weeks into it now.
OK, what are we looking at here?
Uh-oh.
Ooh.
David.
The one on the left is the one you go, ooh, a lovely puppy,
and then Myrtle on the right, look how pleased she is
to have a new puppy.
Myrtle looks like she's just killed that.
She's apologising.
We have ruined her life.
Two weeks in, not loving it.
She is furious!
And of course Bernard doesn't read the room.
This is Bernard.
This is Bernard, that little kind of fluffy hand towel, yes.
He doesn't read the room so he just keeps bouncing up and she gets
angrier and angrier, and batters him away.
Are they in your back yard?
Yeah.
I thought it was a park with the bench.
You know what, I saw this and I thought Jamie Lee Curtis,
she lives in America, she's used to gardens like this.
I thought the audience would be, oh, my God, where does he live?
It's like Buckingham Palace.
It's a false perspective.
Using the estate agent lens.
Exactly, yeah.
It's very nice, though, isn't it?
Let's get on and talk about our big film tonight.
This is Jamie Lee Curtis in...
What film?
In Halloween Ends.
You're showing the movie?
Yes, we are, we got permission to.
Oh, shut up. You did not.
Well, I didn't know, you said our big film.
There is a screen going down in front of you.
We're handing out popcorn.
Honestly, sorry.
British television is very different.
I am from America.
Let me reassure you, it opens on the 14th
of October in cinemas.
Laurie Strode is taking on Michael Myers for the final time.
Let's take a look.
LAURIE BREATHES SHAKILY.
Argh!
Oh!
Oh, shut up!
You were able to watch that scene.
I thought you looked away.
Oh, no, no, no.
I know what you're talking about.
By the way, I hope you heard, I was cracking wise over
here watching it because I don't even like watching it on a clip.
I'm very uncomfortable with it, I don't like horror
movies, they scare me.
I don't know why you guys do.
I really appreciate that you do!
But I don't like them.
But I had to see the movie.
I'm about to go round the world and promote it, I've
got to see the movie, so they screened it for me,
by myself in the theatre.
But I watched it in an empty theatre but I had the volume
control, so I was groovy.
All the talking, great.
The minute the music comes up, I'm turning it down
to zero, and I turn away.
But, swear to God, they insisted on having a guard in the room
so that I wouldn't pirate my own movie.
And I'm telling you, I looked, I was like, wait, what?
The guy is sitting in the back.
So, my entire movie, I turned my volume down,
turned my head like this but I got to listen to him and
he'd be like this.
"Oh!
"Oh.
"..Oh no!
"Oh NO!
"N-oh!"
You know what I mean?
It was like, really, I'm going to pilot my own movie?
It was like, really, I'm going to pirate my own movie?
Sell it to China.
I'm not great, I did look away.
I looked away.
Lydia and David, can you watch?
You can, can't you, Lydia?
I can.
I prefer horror to murder or true crime, which is what I'm promoting!
Because you were in the Dracula TV series.
That was horror, wasn't it?
Yeah.
Were you a vampire?
Yeah.
I say, was it horror?
Check this out.
Is that you?
Look at the nipple.
Exactly!
Weird that the nipple is fire retardant.
I mean, that must have taken for ever.
Oh, my goodness.
It was four hours in the morning and to take it off was two hours.
How thick is it?
Were you in a suit?
No, the head is prosthetic and then they add the hair
and the ears and then the hands.
It was like a leotard suit thing and then a leggings thing
and then they make the feet.
Wow.
Yeah.
And you were filming this in the summer.
Yeah, I was filming in the summer and the old Hartswood Studios had
no air conditioning, so we were all boiling.
It was the heatwave in July.
You do look like you've just stayed on the beach a little too long!
I'm also eating a caramel bar.
Oh, yes.
Because I know that horror isn't real, I can kind of stomach it.
In my head, it's not too scary.
David, what do you like?
I don't mind a horror film.
It can be frustrating sometimes.
Not your ones, your ones are perfect.
It can be a bit, like, you know, don't go into the scary
mansion on your own.
The tropes.
I remember the Blair Witch Project.
I quite liked it but it was a bit, they traipse around going,
"ooh, God, we've gone round in a circle again!"
And you go, just get in the river, get in the river, follow the river.
It is glaringly obvious.
Logic.
Yeah.
Here's the truth.
Most people in this audience aren't 44 years old.
I've been playing Laurie Strode since I was 19, for 44 years.
Two thirds of my life I've been playing this character.
APPLAUSE.
So, it's weird to say goodbye.
It is, it's weird.
I feel like I've sat here and you've told me it was over before, though.
Is it really over?
I think it's pretty over.
This is the final inevitable conclusion, the final inevitable
meeting between good and evil.
There's a collision and something happens and as somebody already
named a movie which I think we should steal,
"there will be blood."
You know, there will be blood.
There is, there is.
So, that's the end of Halloween but I must mention, I don't know
if you've seen this film.
If you haven't, you should.
Everything Everywhere All at Once.
So good!
Have you guys seen it?
APPLAUSE.
It's so incredibly good.
And it is so unexpectedly good.
But it's also so unexpected.
Everything is unexpected, yes.
If anyone asks you about it, how do you describe this film?
I don't!
It's a multi-verse movie about an Asian family,
led by Michelle Yeoh, who goes to the IRS, who's
in internal revenue tax trouble.
I am the tax auditor, Deirdre Beaubeirdre...
Her nemesis, you know, the villain of the peace.
And it's just a weird multi-verse movie but at the centre
of it is love, kindness, family, unity, in the middle
of the craziest movie you've ever seen in your lives.
If you haven't seen it, this is Jamie as Deirdre.
There she is.
In her cubicle.
Her name is Deirdre Beaubeirdre.
And it was such a delight for me.
I love the detail, the cat is perfect.
Also, I don't know if you can see the auditor of the month
trophy is that she's won.
APPLAUSE.
Also, she's wearing a wrist brace and a watch,
which I thought was very clever.
And she goes from being a villain and a sort of nemesis to an actual
world where Michelle Yeoh and I lived together
in a hotdog universe where we both have hotdog hands,
and we do a mating dance and then we break up
and it's at the same time, you're looking at me, like them OK,
this woman is twisted...
I'm telling you, one of the most moving parts of the movie is this
love story between me and Michelle Yeoh.
To whet your appetite, it is available to stream now.
They are talking Oscars with this film, there is Oscar buzz about it.
There is and let me just say this, it's that weird race,
they call it the Oscar race.
It's just a bizarre world and yet you can imagine, for me,
a 64-year-old woman who has been in horror movies, TBM that movie
a 64-year-old woman who has been in horror movies, to be in that
movie and have that being the movie that people are talking
about at that level, it is so beautiful and moving
that that's the movie,
Deirdre Beaubeirdre, best supporting fucking actress?
Are you kidding me?
If you don't take the shot, you're not in the game.
For me, it's just, let's go, I'm all in.
I'm like, let's go.
APPLAUSE.
Good luck with that and once again, Halloween Ends opening...
Do you want me to leave?
On the 14th of October.
Jamie Lee Curtis, everybody.
Leaving?
Stay!
You stay, you're so comfortable.
No, I'm not.
This couch, I'm telling you.
I swear to you people.
I'm going to take off my shoes.
Yeah, take them off.
You know why?
Because now watch.
So much better.
Now you go.
I want to get you a pillow.
Now, Lydia West, your latest work is the new BBC drama thriller,
called Inside Man, continuing Mondays at 9pm on BBC One.
You can catch the first two episodes on iPlayer.
This comes from the fertile mind of Stephen Moffat, a great cast.
There's Dolly Wells, Stanley Tucci and yourself.
And actually David Tennant is in it.
Hi, hi!
Yes!
So, Lydia, you play an investigative journalist.
How do you fit into this twisty-turny story?
So, I'm kind of...
Come on, Lydia.
OK, well at the moment I'm being used by Grieff,
who is played by Stanley, and he did study criminology
and now he is on death row for killing his wife.
Firstly I wanted to write a piece on him and then
I came to him with a case, because he solves murder
cases from prison.
And my friend, Janice, played by Dolly Wells, has gone missing
and David Tenant's character...
Hi.
What's your name again?
LAUGHTER.
Are you priest?
I'm David, nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you.
Harry? Harry!
Well remembered.
And Harry maybe responsible for Janice's disappearance.
All right.
That conceit of having a man on death row who is a criminal
mastermind solving crimes, it's a great idea.
Yeah, such a great idea and it's weird because it
tells the perspective, the victims's perspective on how
they can entice someone to murder and that's what Janice
does with Harry.
It's like a thriller but twisted on its head and the whole idea
is that everyone is a murderer, you just need to meet
the right person.
I think that such a great line, I love that line.
Everyone is a murderer, you just haven't met
the right person yet.
It's good, isn't it?
Fabulous.
We've got an exclusive clip from episode three,
coming this Monday.
This is you discussing the case with Stanley Tucci's character.
She clearly has minimal social contact.
She is currently resisting the approaches of a personable young
woman who is taking flattering interest in her.
Basically Janice doesn't make friends.
She has a problem?
Well, no.
How can there be anyone who hates her enough to harm her
if she doesn't have friends?
You have a very strange view of friendship.
So does Janice.
It could have been someone random, she could have had an accident.
Yeah but most of the time what happens to people is other
people, and almost always people they know.
APPLAUSE.
Great cast.
Stanley Tucci.
David, you're in this.
Have I seen you playing a vicar before?
I think I played a vicar in an Anthony Trollope sort
of old-fashioned vicar.
You looked so right in it.
It is good.
It's a good fit.
My dad was a minister in the Church of Scotland.
He wasn't just a minister.
He wasn't "just" a minister.
He *was* the Church of Scotland.
He was the moderator of the Church of Scotland
for a time as well, yeah.
He was pretty high up.
Is it true that you and your father into adulthood never swore
in front of each other.
No!
Not never.
I never swore in front of him and I never, never heard him...
He was a man of the cloth, he was a clergyman,
for goodness' sake.
Except...
I never heard him swear.
I suppose he heard me swearing in things,
but that was always the script, so that was fine.
I would never swear in front of my dad, never.
I don't think a swear would ever pass his lips.
He came down to stay with me in London once
to see Billy Connolly.
We grew up living Billy Connolly.
We'd have the cassettes of Billy Connolly in the car
and my dad was a big fan, so he came down to London
to see Billy Connolly.
And then he came back and started doing bits of the act.
This was all very...
But then, I guess because it was the script, suddenly he's
standing in my living room at midnight going BLEEP.
LAUGHTER.
Wow.
This is the moderator of the Church of Scotland!
He could be excommunicated.
Because it was Billy, it's allowed.
Billy is a special case.
Of course.
Oh, my God.
First of all, on American...
I love that you've got one shoe on.
Well, it is purchase.
I'm on a couch, you know how you have to get purchase sometimes?
Anyway, on American television you can't say that word.
On British television you can't say that word!
Ooh.
But he just did.
But we are not live.
I really hope I haven't given you ideas, now.
Oh, no, I've already blown it earlier.
Talking of swearing, you were in that film My Girl
with a very young Macauley Culkin.
And Anna Chlumsky.
Look how sweet.
Could you swear?
No, you couldn't swear.
No, no, no, you're not allowed to swear in front
of children on the movie set.
So, I had swear jars.
You know, swear jars, if you say the S word
you had to put in a dollar, if you said the F word,
you had to put in $2.
The whole crew participated, because we had kids on the set,
here you are, young kids...
Sure.
Of course, once in a blue moon we'd all be like, bank,
put money in the swear jar and it all went fine and we got very
tired of it but they were cute and nice kids.
The last shot of the movie was the scene where they run down
the dock and then jump into the lake.
We had safety people in the lake and stunt people
and the whole thing and cranes.
I'm telling you, they jump off the dock into water
that's two feet deep.
It's a big thing, towels.
They ran and then they jump into the thing, they're fine.
Everyone's like, oh, yeah and everything and now they're
going to be finished with the movie.
There they are, wrapped in their towels, standing
at the edge of the dark and they go, "ladies and gentlemen,
"that is a wrap for Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky"
and everybody goes
like this and I took the two cans and I walked up to each of them
and each of the cans had like 500 bucks in it.
I walked up to each of the kids and I went, "fuck you!"
LAUGHTER.
Yeah...
Not proud of it, but there you go.
Don't invite me over.
Right, we move on to David Tennant who is returning to the West End
stage, in the play Good.
The reviews are in!
I hope so.
I hope the reviews are writing themselves.
It's on at the Harold Pinter Theatre from the 5th of October.
So, tell us about the play.
It was written in the 80s?
It's set in Germany in the 30s.
It's interesting we're talking about my dad because it's about...
Obviously we know what happened in Germany in the 30s,
we know the terrible things that went on and we know that there
were a lot of extraordinarily evil people involved in that part
of course there was also a whole society that went on this very
odd journey and that's what the play is about.
The journey that a good, noble, ordinary man takes as the society
shifts around him and those incremental steps that we all
hope we wouldn't make.
But as history happens around you, you can turn around and go, "oh,
"hang on, where do we live now?
"What's happened?"
It's a really interesting play because it makes you think, would I?
Would I know to go, enough, no further?
If the confirmation bias around you was going, this is fine.
The person you are playing, is it an historical figure or fictional?
He's not.
There are historical figures in it that he comes
into brief contact with.
But it's that...
Talking about my dad, I've been thinking about him a lot lately,
because when I think of, who is the goodest man
I can think of?
It's him.
And you sort of try and think, well, how would any of us be,
as the world shifts around us, could we cope?
Could we stand up?
It's happening all around us, you know, we are in denial
about things in the world, you know.
There is a big climate emergency going on and we all kind of know
about, but we all still sort of plod along.
At what point do we all go, hang on, maybe this has gone too far?
And obviously, what happened in Germany in the '30s was a very
extreme example of that.
So it's really...
It's a brilliant, really interesting, quite challenging
but also fantastic bit of writing.
And it's funny, Jamie, because Halloween Ends asks some
of the interesting questions about where evil comes from and how
does it hook onto people?
Yeah, ultimately, it is a question that we pose, which is really,
is Michael Myers the monster, or are we the monster?
Because what we do to victims, what we do to people, is as bad.
Just go on internet today.
I mean, try Twitter.
You know, we think that it is somehow
benign, and it's not.
And really, David, to your point, it was so moving because you were
moved by talking about your dad, and I got moved just sitting
here thinking about it, because we are seeing it everywhere.
It happened in Italy this week, you know, as you said,
we think it's not happening and we are all just kind
of moving along here, but the climate crisis and what's
happening in Italy, it's happening again in our time!
And we have to pay attention to it.
And the play makes me want to stay...
I'm going to go on a world tour and finish my promotion,
but it makes me want to come and see the play.
Come back before you go!
But it's really important, what you're talking about.
It's very, very, very important.
It's very important that you are doing that play right now,
because it's happening around us all the time.
And how long is it on for?
It's on until Christmas Eve.
Ooh, OK!
You could come back, yeah.
And also we should say, because I think, you know,
often people think, oh, theatre, that's very expensive.
You are making a real effort to make this affordable?
There is a whole range of tickets available,
but there are tickets from £20 for everyone, and were also
releasing a bunch of tickets for key workers, because this show was meant
to go on twice in the pandemic, and it didn't happen,
obviously, you know, theatres had to close,
and that was the right thing to do at the time,
but for all the people that helped us through that, for all
the people that kept going...
Ah, lovely.
So there are a bunch of £10 seats, good seats as well,
available for key workers.
So if you qualify, please, we'd love for you to come.
APPLAUSE.
OK, it's time to meet my next guest.
As a member of the Monty Python team and a creator of the hit musical
Spamalot, this man is one of our great comedy legends.
Yes, he is!
Recently he went public about a devastating health
scare, which he is here to talk about tonight.
It is quite the story.
Please welcome Eric Idle!
Come in!
Thank you so much for coming.
Eric, Jamie, you know each other.
Eric, David.
Have a seat.
Watch the couch, it's tough.
It's fine for men.
I mean, you know everyone, Eric.
I don't know everybody.
We were on a talk show, David and I, vaguely,
I forget who it was.
No idea.
We've crossed paths, haven't we?
Jamie, I know.
Of course.
Yes.
Listen, you are here to tell us...
As I say, it is an extraordinary story, and it's a very
frightening story.
So before we get into it, I think we should just reassure
people, you are well.
Yes, I am very well, yes.
OK.
The show is dedicated to Eric Idle.
So, OK, in order to tell the story, do you go back to 2019,
or do you go back to later?
I go earlier.
It starts at about 2009, and I'm writing a play,
it's after Spamalot, and I'm writing a play,
I think it's a really great idea for a play.
It's going to go really well on Broadway.
It's called Death: The Musical.
Try and sell that one!
Me, I like it because I'm writing a play about a guy who is writing
a play called Death: The Musical, and he finds out he's dying.
I like irony, so I'm writing away, and I need some, you know,
I need some medical background, so I go and see my doctor,
and he says, come to the Dodgers game, so we're sitting
at the Dodgers game, and I say, what is the fastest way
to get rid of a character?
And he said, it's very simple, pancreatic cancer.
You've got about three weeks if you're lucky and it's
inevitable, you know.
So I said, great, that's perfect and started writing away.
And then ten years later, he's still my doctor and I'm
going for a routine checkup, and I'm having a blood test and MRI,
he said put a little bit of iodine in there, and so...
He said, come here, sit down.
He shows me on the screen and I said, what's that?
He said...
"It's pancreatic cancer."
And I laugh, because it's hilarious.
The writer of the play about a writer writing a play
about Death: The Musical now has bloody pancreatic cancer!
You know, so you've got to break it to the wife and the kids,
and so we agreed we'd call it Kenny, because it's such
a scary term, you know.
I'm suffering from Kenny.
We are going to go to the Kenny centre.
Have a Kenny operation.
And so, he said, the good news is, it's really early stage.
We've never seen it this early, so you've got a very good
chance of surviving.
So within about ten days, I'm whipped into Cedars,
a cancer specialist, who actually after five hours,
operates and takes it all out.
So I was extremely fortunate, I was very, very lucky,
and we didn't tell anybody , you know, I was very
and we didn't tell anybody , you know, I was very fortunate.
And then, you revealed this diagnosis very Eric Idle way.
How and when did you reveal that you had pancreatic cancer?
Well, I revealed it after I was on The Masked Singer.
In America, this isn't a spoiler!
I was on The Masked Singer, and it was the premiere
episode of the season, and I thought, well,
afterwards, they ask you to be interviewed,
and you go on shows and you plug your book or your film
or your film or whatever, and I thought, you know what,
I think what I ought to do is to come out to cancer,
and tell people that I actually survived pancreatic cancer,
because this is very good news for everybody.
So what I thought I'd do is start a fund called The Bright Side Fund,
looking on the bright side, you know, and then people can
contribute and we can put it to research, encourage early
testing, so that's what I'm doing.
We started it and people are contributing
and it's going very well.
And when you went into hospital, didn't you use the man
who starts the song, Always Look On The Bright Side
Of Life, was it his name you used?
Oh, yes, because in Cedars, they said, well, you'd better
go under a pseudonym, you know, because you don't
want to be bothered by the tabloids.
Actually, I thought, well, that's not really one of my worries!
But still...
He said, so what are you going to call yourself?
I thought, oh, I don't know...
I couldn't think of a name, so I said Mr Cheeky.
Because he is the character in The Life Of Brian.
So I'm sitting there ready for my operation
and they go, "Mr Cheeky?"
Oh, that's me!
So that's the name I'm known as at Cedars.
Quite nice.
I'm lucky I didn't call myself Biggus Dickus, actually.
So, you were on The Masked Singer, you are dressed as a hedgehog,
we got a picture of the hedgehog.
That's me, yes.
It doesn't seem like in a minute he's going to tell us
he survived cancer.
"I survived being run over by a car," maybe.
But you sang a Beatles song?
I did, I sang Love Me Do, I like that song, and it's not easy
to get a Beatles song, and somebody said, well,
why don't you ask Paul?
Because he wrote it when it was 16 and it's not a Beatles copyright,
it's Paul's copyright.
So I wrote him a letter, and I said, can I use your song?
And he said, all right, yes, of course you can,
you can use my song, but please tell me when the show
airs so I can be sure to miss it.
I wrote to him and told him when it was on, you know,
and I said, well, it may not be the best rendition you've ever
heard of Love Me Do, but it's the best ever
done by a hedgehog.
And listen, you clearly are feeling very well.
Tell me, because you were told this thing,
that you kind of thought, right, that's it, curtains,
but now it's not curtains, what is your life like?
Are you living differently?
Um, I think I am in a way that I'm more grateful, you know.
You think, well, I've got a bit more life than I expected, so I can...
What was nice about coming out to cancer was I could do a bit of good.
So I made an alliance with Stand Up To Cancer,
which is a charity and they've been helping me, and the Bright Side Fund
has helped me, and so, yeah, I mean, I'm grateful to alive.
Well, listen, I hope it helps other people,
and we are so grateful you are alive.
Thank you so much for being here and sharing the story.
Eric Idle, everybody!
It's an amazing story, I'm so happy for you.
OK, it is time for the music.
This British pop superstar has 18 Brit awards to his name and is now
celebrating 25 years as a solo artist.
Here performing Lost is Robbie Williams!
# I wake up, terrifying myself again
# Caked in make-up and a little lost
# These reactions are relentless
# Abandoning the permafrost
# Who am I fooling?
# Well, I got a list
# I disappoint them only to exist
# I lost my place in life
# I lost my point of view
# I lost what it is to love
# When I lost my faith in you
# A walk-up of my masterpiece
# To the nothingness greeting me
# Everything smells like sympathy
# Who am I fooling?
# Well, I got a list
# Much too exhausted only to resist
# I lost my place in life
# I lost my point of view
# I lost what it is to love
# When I lost my faith in you
# I lost all hope
# All my friends say
# "Don't give up yet"
# "Might still get there"
# But I don't think so
# Ooh, impress me
# I try
# I lost my place in life
# I lost my point of view
# I lost what it is to love
# When I lost my faith in you
# I lost all hope
# I lost my point of view
# I lost what it is to love
# When I lost my faith in you
# I lost all hope
# When I lost my point of view
# I lost what it is to love
# When I lost my faith in you. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.
Wowser!
Robbie Williams, everybody!
Great job, come on over, do.
Now, which way is he going?
That way, that way, that way, that way?
Oh, this way!
It is this way!
I am so sorry.
Hello, sir.
Nice to see you.
Have a seat.
David, Lydia, Jamie, Eric.
THEY ALL GREET EACH OTHER.
What a pleasure.
Lovely to see you.
Thank you so much for that!
Pleasure.
Yeah!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE.
Loving it.
Are you well?
Yeah, I just got back from Australia, and I haven't been
to sleep since five o'clock yesterday.
Wow!
Yeah, so this is really interesting.
Well, we won't keep you!
We should say that is the new track, but it's from the album,
Robbie Williams XXV, which is a greatest hits?
Greatest hits, yeah.
Greatest hit!
Oh, no!
Angels, 25 times.
Yeah.
And you've re-recorded them?
I've re-recorded them with an orchestra, yeah.
Gorgeous, gorgeous.
And why just...
I guess there wasn't room for any more new tracks of the album,
because you've got so many hits?
That's right, loads of them.
An abundance of hits.
And also, here's the thing.
By the way, can we just say...
Is that you in the nuddy?!
That's me, yeah.
Look at that!
I know!
How much Photoshopping did you do?
Not much.
I yo-yo with my weight and I just wanted there to be evidence
in the future at some point, I did look like that.
But you must get match fit, if you know a nude photo
shoot is coming up.
Well, I was kind of match fit at that point.
So you said quick, take a picture?
Yeah.
It's weird, though, because it wasn't my idea.
I'd like to say that was my idea, but then, I go, oh, yes,
that would be cool, doing Rodin, The Thinker, and then
what you actually don't take into consideration
is you're going to be in a room naked with 30
strangers in front of you, all just, like...
I do it all the time!
All the time.
Talking of looking back, I just want to mention this,
because Eric mentioned it just as you were starting to sing,
this studio is special to you?
Yes, in this very studio, we filmed Monty Python,
we shot Monty Python.
Because of what's happened to you, do you see those circles
and patterns in your life a lot now?
You look back a lot, you know, if you can remember anything,
you tend to look back, yeah.
But we had a lot of fun here, I mean, we made some
funny things happen, and we had a live audience,
and we had about an hour to record the entire show,
so we'd run in and out and be changing.
I have some very good memories.
In an hour you made classics, and it took us so long to make this.
Wow!
Here's the thing.
In Britain, OK, previously, the record for the highest amount
of number one albums by a solo artist was held by Elvis Presley.
So you can imagine how many years he's held that record for.
But no more, it is now Robbie Williams!
Thank you!
That's one of those things, you can't shrug that off,
that is an amazing statistic.
Yeah, but he won't stay dead.
He just keeps coming back for more...
Yeah, no, it's absolutely incredible.
It all feels like a glitch in the Matrix, it really does, you know.
It's like...
Yeah, it's one of those things where you go, well,
I'm really pleased that it's happened to me, but I'm
flabbergasted that it has, and these nice things keep happening
to me, and it's too much to take into consideration and go,
"Yeah, it's me, I did that!"
I beat the Elvis!
That's what I was thinking in Stoke when I was 15.
One day, I'll beat the Elvis!
No, that's not what I was thinking...
But you did beat the Elvis, and I love, you know,
that here you are, this huge star, but then you do spend time in LA,
and am I right in thinking you are less well-known in LA?
I'm not known at all in LA.
Yeah.
I went to Craig's the other night, you know Craig's?
Did they take your picture?
Well, no, that was the thing, I get out of the car and there are,
like, ten paparazzi, and I'm like, "Ugh!"
And I open the door and they all go, "Er..."
All of them, all of them, it's like, it's really sad,
because I'm in the car annoyed that there is bloody paparazzi
there, and now I am annoyed that they're not taking my picture.
But then, right towards the end of me going in the door,
one of them goes, "Ronnie?"
And they all start going, "Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie!"
Yeah, Ronnie.
Now, lots to look forward to, because Robbie is on tour.
It all kicks off on the 9th of October at London's O2.
You're touring around Britain, and then you head to the rest
of the world, I guess.
Yes, I do.
Playing North America, where I'm Ronnie.
Will you be in LA?
I can, I'll do a gig for you.
OK, excellent!
Done.
Hollywood Bowl, just for you.
She'll make you some curry.
Good luck with the tour...
Well pulled back, darling.
And good luck with the album.
And get some sleep!
Get some sleep.
Robbie Williams, everybody!
Right, that's nearly it.
Before we go, just time for the first visit of the new series
to the big red chair.
OK, who's there?
Hello!
Hello.
Hi, what's your name?
My name's Padraig.
Padraig?
I think I know where you're from!
I'm from Ireland!
What part of Ireland are you from?
Kilkenny.
Kilkenny!
I used to live in Kilkenny.
Nice one.
Not really...
Cut that out, I'm going to Ireland tomorrow.
How long have you been here, Padraig?
Oh, I'm here, like, 12 hours.
Oh, I see.
OK.
Fresh off the plane, or the boat.
Have you moved here 12 hours ago?
No, I just came for the show.
Oh, OK, are you here for the weekend?
No, I'm going back tomorrow.
Aww!
You know it's on telly, right?
All right, Padraig on you go with your story.
OK, so, about four years ago, we went on a hiking trip in school,
I was 16 at the time.
And we had to hike about 25 K, and we were all sharing rooms,
and we went back to the hostel after hiking about 15...
Just to stop you for a minute, Padraig, Jamie Lee Curtis is looking
at you like you're ringing a bell.
It's all good.
Oh, it's all good.
Keep going!
OK, so you're on your 25 K hike.
And we were told at 6pm after dinner that we were to meet at reception.
And the teachers and everyone would go on a hike.
And anyway, I was sharing a room with Kevin, and Kevin was having
these pains in his chest, and he kept, like, holding
his chest and breathing in and out really heavily.
And we all thought Kevin was faking it to get out of the hike.
And, like, I was kind of like, yeah, it's a good point,
I'd play that card, but whatever.
And anyway, we just left Kevin and I went down to reception,
and about 15 minutes later, an ambulance pulls up outside.
And a paramedic comes in and gets Kevin and loads him
into the back of the ambulance.
It turns out Kevin was having a minor heart attack,
and the eight of us in the room did not give a shit about him.
One minute before I flip you, is he OK?
Yeah, he's fine, just...
Oh, good, good.
OK!
That really is all we've got time for.
If you want to have a go in that red chair yourself
and tell your story, you can, just contact us via
the website at this very address.
Please say a huge thank you to guests tonight.
Robbie Williams!
David Tennant!
Lydia West!
Jamie Lee Curtis!
And Eric Idle!
Join me next week with Eurovision star Sam Ryder,
rapper and TV personality Big Zuu,
Hollywood actor Lashana Lynch,
Oscar-nominated Lesley Manville,
and Downton and Paddington star Hugh Bonneville.
I'll see you then.
Goodnight, everybody, bye-bye!