Hello, everyone. I'm Hugh Bonneville.
And I'm Lashana Lynch.And Lashana,
you're such a great action star.
I've always wondered, how do you do that thing where,
you know, you punch someone really hard?
Oh, it's easy. I just do this.[Grunts]
[Audience cheers]
Oh, I think he meant how do you pretend to do it?
Oh. Let's start the show!
[Cheers and applause]
♪♪
[Laughs]
I ran. I ran from over here.
Hello, everybody!
Good evening. You're all so welcome to the show.
Oh, what a week it's been.
Oh, it was the Tory conference, ladies and gentlemen,
and that was as exciting as it sounds.
Here's the reaction to Health Secretary Theresa Coffey
giving her speech.
Riveting. [Laughs]
I thought coffee supposed to keep you awake.
Here's Prime Minister Liz Truss
leaving number ten to go to Birmingham.
Nope. My mistake. She's doing a U-turn.
That's her going back in again.
Here's Liz with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng
at the conference.
[Gasps] Get a room, you two.
She's just gazing lovingly into his ears.
"Oh, look, I can see daylight."
Er, Liz -- Liz gave her speech to the conference on Wednesday.
That's this year's slogan, of course --
"Getting Britain moving."
Sounds more like a slogan for a laxative, doesn't it?
Liz really had to deliver in that speech.
And to be fair to her, she gave it 110%,
which coincidentally is the new mortgage rate.
Yeah, it is.
Hey, let's get some guests on!
Later we'll have musical jams when U.K. Eurovision Star
Sam Ryder is here!
But first he's the double BAFTA-winning grime artist
turned TV chef, it's Big Zuu.
[Laughs] Yes, it is!
Hello, sir, lovely to see you. Have a seat, do.
That's Big Zuu.
She's gone from "Captain Marvel" to "James Bond"
to the acclaimed new action epic, "The Woman King,"
it's Lashana Lynch!
[Cheers and applause]
Hello. Oh. Oh, my God. Lovely to see you.
Lashana Lynch, everybody!
[Cheers and applause]
She's the Olivier Award-winning actor, Oscar-nominated,
saw her on "Phantom Thread" and the sitcom "Mom."
It's her first time. Welcome to the great Lesley Manville.
[Cheers and applause]
Hello.
Have a seat down there.
And what could I say about this man that he hasn't written
about himself in his new book?
He's the star of "Downton Abbey,"
"Notting Hill," and "Paddington,"
the one, the only Hugh Bonneville, everybody!
You look remarkable.
[Indistinct conversation]
Have a seat, have a seat, do.
Oh!
[Cheers and applause]
Whoo! Welcome, all.
More stars than there are in heaven.
You alright, Big Zuu?How you doing? You okay?
Yeah, I'm really good. Really good.
I mean, it's an anorak, but it's nice.
It's a nice one. It's high quality.
Oh, you know what I'm saying? Look who's talking for that.
And I said, look at the shoe. The shoe's a little bigger now.
What?I don't really wear big shoes,
but today, I went for the platforms.
Oh, okay.
Buzz Lightyear thing.
[Laughter]
Beautiful. And it's the first time welcome
to Lesley Manville, and thank you so much for doing this
because you've literally come straight from set.
Yes. An hour and a half ago,
I was Princess Margaret in Wiltshire.
Oh. Right. [Laughs] I know. Yes.
And that's not an act that I do.
I mean, I don't go around being Princess Margaret.
Yeah. Children's parties.Yes. No.
I was bona fide being her.
And this is "The Crown."
This is "The Crown." Yeah. Yup.
So, do you see her out, if you know what I mean?
Yes, I do. Oh, okay.
Yeah, the older Margaret.Okay.
So I will bid her farewell.
We all will. Yes.Yes.
When's that happening, by the way?
When will "The Crown" be on the telly?
Well, the season five, which we shot last year,
starts on November the 9th.Oh, okay.
[Cheers and applause]
Welcome back to Lashana.
And now you were here last time for "Bond,"
and this week is a big week for "Bond."
It's the 60th anniversary of the first movie.
So have you been involved in any of that?
Oh, yeah. We had a Sound of Bond concert
on Tuesday, which was amazing. Oh, there I am.
There you are. Ooh, yeah.
-Wow. -Whoo.
And it was fab. There was --
I mean, they told me Shirley Bassey was performing.
I was like, "Oh, she'll close the show."
As soon as the show started, it was Shirley Bassey
out, straight like this.
And I was like -- She's in gold, she's having happening --
There she is, yeah. Fabulous.
It was amazing. It was amazing.
Of course, I have to say,
Lashana not the only "Bond" star on the sofa.
Do you know this?No, I don't. I'm ready.
[Audience laughs]
Hugh. [Laughs]
Hugh -- which one were you in?
Well, it was glamorously cool when I first read
the script or the scenes.
"Bond 18," and it turned out to be called
"Tomorrow Never Dies."Oh, wow.
No way!
I think we got a picture of you in "Tomorrow Never Dies."
There we go. Very good, yes.
[Laughter]
Pillsbury Doughman, really, isn't it?
[Laughter]
I mean, it does... "Tomorrow Never Stops Eating,"
[Laughter]
Uncalled for.
No, you look so lovely now.
We can laugh at this. We can laugh at this now.
[Laughs mockingly]Yes.
[Laughs louder]
What? Do you remember your lines?
I had one. I had one.
I had two. But one got cut.
Okay. You might have to help me.
Sir, AWACs report two waves of land based MiG 21s inbound.
They should be on our screens in 2 minutes.
Very good.[Cheers and applause]
Yeah. Yes!
Yeah.
Were you at the Sound of Bond concert?
No, strangely, I wasn't invited.
[Laughter]
And a first time welcome to Big Zuu.
First time welcome to a double BAFTA winner.
[Cheers and applause]Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. And it was that.
You took your mom, right?
Yeah, I took my mom to the BAFTAs.
She enjoyed it. She was on the stage
when I was winning.
But also, you did an appeal to the audience.
Yeah, I kind of basically said if any men in the room
want to date my mom, make sure --
you know, I'm saying my mom's a good looking lady,
she's single. Yeah.
Well, make sure the bag is correct.
Make sure you got money.
We ain't playing no games around here,
you know what I'm sayin'?Did it work?
She took a picture with some famous people.
Met some famous people.
Well, I've got a picture of her, I think,
is this Charles, Charles Venn?
Yeah, man.
They're looking good together. I'm going to lie.
He's a bit too smooth, though.
-She's gorgeous. -She's beautiful.
She's beautiful, but he's a beautiful man.
I feel like he might cheat, you know what I'm saying, so...
[Laughter]
Lynch: She's really lovely.
And also, I'm sorry, you know, he was nominated for
the same BAFTA.
I know. I'm sorry.
You've won a lot, you know, so it's my time to...
It's like having Ant and Dec on.
[Laughter]
I fought this booking, I want you to know about it.
[Laughter]
Right, Hugh Bonneville brings us his new memoir.
It's called "Playing Under the Piano:
From Downton to Darkest Peru."
It's out on the 13th of October.
I love this pose, Hugh.
Bonneville: Maybe I can recreate it.
Oh, look, I've got the same suit on.
How about that?It is the same suit.
Yes, it is.Oh.
Were you -- were they going to superimpose a piano
for you to lean on, or what is that pose?
Unfortunately, they forgot the piano
or couldn't afford the piano.
Now, you know, before I read this book,
I didn't know much about you.
But through the title "Playing Under the Piano",
I was getting quite a posh childhood.
[Laughs]
Actually, the reference is to actually under --
it's not a grand piano, may I add?
Wasn't it?
No, it's from the kindergarten.
And I can remember playing under a little upright piano
and not coming out to do the little bit of
performing in front of the class I was being asked to
because I was a bit scared.Oh.
And so that's a sort of -- I don't know
if Lesley and other performers feel this,
but, you know, sometimes you sort of have this tension
between wanting to go out and show off
and actually thinking, "This is all silly, I shouldn't do it."
And yet you fought that feeling.
I fought that feeling. Somehow I suppressed it.
So here we are. But you have been working,
you know, successfully making a living in the business.
So I think from the outside looking in,
people thought "Downton" was your big break.
But did that feel like a big break to you?
Well, a different gear, certainly.
I mean, the number of people who came out up and said,
"You must have been so relieved when 'Downton' came along."
I had been working for 25 plus years before that,
and very happily so.
But it was, it was obviously a completely strange gear shift
when we did series one.
No one was particularly interested or, you know,
that people thought that the costume drama was dead,
and suddenly, boof, it exploded
and became -- it rolled out around the world
and seemed to have an effect in every country it went to.
It was very, very peculiar and wonderful at the same time.
But it was, it was a significant difference.
I mean, without "Downton", and I wouldn't have
met that little Bear.Aw.
The Paddington Bear.The Paddington.
I mean...yeah.
[Applause]
And in the book, you talk about how
they had to change the rating for the movie.
Because it was supposed to be a kind of a "U" for Universal.
And it wasn't that in the end.
Well, yes, apparently there were two principal reasons.
One is that when Paddington is eating his sandwich
in the sentry box and another sentry
comes along, senior officer, comes along to sort of,
you know, change the guard and says, "Get out of here",
apparently you might be able to hear the words,
"Get over here, you bloody bear,"
the word "bloody" might have emerged from the mumbling.
But the other was when I dressed up as a cleaner
that it was a bit provocative.
[Laughter]
Well, you kindly put a picture in your book
of you dressed up as the cleaner,
and I see what they mean.
I mean, this is pretty phwa...
Can you get a close up of that?
I mean...
Wow. Yeah.
Calm down, everyone.
He's right here.
[Laughter]
I love that that got it a PG-13.
Yeah.Those legs.
Now, talking of classic children's characters,
Matilda, Matilda the Musical
is now a movie, and, Lashana Lynch, you're in it.
You were at the premiere. Was it this week, the premiere?
Yeah. Wow.
So, who do you give us?
Miss Honey.Miss Honey.
They love Miss Honey. There you are.
[Applause]
So, a lovely role, you've get to act, you get to sing.
But a lot of children, I imagine.
Yeah, about 200 children.
[Gasps]
[Laughs] Lesley gasping with horror.
Yeah, we survived. It was -- It was fine.
I mean, there's the main cast, and there's, you know,
an ensemble of dancers, who were all fantastic
and they worked so hard to get this choreography on point.
But, you know, they're a lively lot,
and it was a lively time.
[Laughter]
I'm reading, "No."
This is awful.
This is terrible.
But now the reason that Lesley might have gasped
at the idea of working with so many children is
one of your very first jobs wasn't as an actor,
it was a presenter.
Yes, I was 17, and I was presenting --
It was when I TV was all broken up into regions,
and this was Westwood Television,
which sort of covered Devon and Cornwall
and a few other places.
[Laughter]
The program is called "Young Eyes",
and it was like a "Blue Peter" type program,
but we had to film it as if it was live,
even though it wasn't live
because they quite literally didn't have an editing machine.
Oh. Yeah.At Westwood Television.
So I would do these interviews,
and I was pretty good at it, Graham, I mean, you know.
All right, back off.[Laughter]
Big Zuu's already got the BAFTA.
[Laughter]
But one week, I got this little boy
who was into speleology, which is cave digging and diving
and all of that stuff.
In the rehearsal, he was fantastic.
This is a seven minute interview.
He was about 8, 9 years old.
So then then we go live, as it were.
And I ask him all these questions about speleology,
and, "Do you this," and, "Do you that."
And he just went, "Yes."
And...?
Another question.
No.
You know, it was awful.
I mean, do you ever have that problem?
I do, but happily, I've got some other
children on the couch.
[Laughter]
I can turn to.
I mean, I take my hat off to you
because it's not easy, is it?
And I haven't done it again since.
Oh, okay, good. Keep it that way.
[Laughter]
But actually, Big Zuu, you've worked with young people.
You did the young chef show "Hungry For It."
Yeah. Yeah. Working with 10 young, up and coming chefs.
Yeah, okay.
See, that's me, Stacey Dooley, Chef KK.
We love Stacey. Man, it was a beautiful show.
The young people are amazing.
I had to get into my Gordon Ramsay bag.
But I wasn't swearing at them, calling them little shits.
I'm actually nurturing them to become great human beings.
You look easily impressed, Big Zuu.
Burger! Burger!
[Laughter]
Meat and buns?!
And, Hugh, the book. The book.
Lots of -- as you'd expect, lots of showbiz stories.
But also it's really lovely about your parents.
Just tell us about your mother.
I'm sure she was always an interesting woman,
but later in life, you discovered
she was really interesting.
Well, yeah, because when I was about 10, she went off
to do a part time job at the Foreign Office
where she'd worked when she was much, much younger,
before she had a family.
And we'd -- my dad would drop her off at work
at this building in Lambeth, and he'd go off to the hospital.
And sometimes I went with him or whatever.
And then cut to years, years later,
when they were both well retired,
and I opened the paper one day and it said,
"MI6 building to be sold."
And I thought, "That's Mum's workplace."
[Laughter]And so I phoned her up,
and she was in the garden, and she went, "Hello, dear."
And she came from the gardens, and I said,
"Did you work for MI6?"
And she said, "Mm-hmm."
And I said, "You were a spy?! Whoa!"
And she said, "No, I did some filing."
Which is what it turned out she did.
But it was quite sort of classified filing.
And I discovered this years later.
And when she passed away, I asked my dad
if she'd ever talked about it, and he said,
"No, I have no idea what she ever did."
But they allowed you -- didn't MI6 allow you in
and showed you all the secret files and things?
Well, they didn't show me secret files,
but they did very kindly --
[Laughter]
Did they show you secret files?
They didn't show me secret files.
They did not show me secret files.
Please don't tie me to a chair and ask questions.
They -- no, but they did actually ask me
to do a sort of lunchtime chat.
They were having this sort of sequence of chats
sort of from outsiders really to come in
and just natter to the boys and girls who work there.
So I just did a talk about, you know,
about my life in the industry
and people who'd inspired me along the way
and that sort of thing, and then I met a man afterwards.
He came up to me, and he was roughly a bit younger than me,
but he said, "I worked with your mum."
And that was just astonishing.
'Cause she was a few years gone by then.
Yeah.And he said,
"We were in our section, up in the --"
whatever it was called, P section or something,
"And we'd hear these footsteps on the corridor coming,
quick, there's Pat, there's Pat, look busy, look busy."
And that was the weirdest thing.
It was -- that I knew what he meant by those footsteps.
I remembered those footsteps.
And we were connected by a sort of sound.
Yeah.And I've never met this man,
but suddenly I felt really a wonderful sort of connection.
It was amazing.
Aw. Well, it is a great read.
It's called "Playing Under the Piano",
and it is out next Thursday.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Very good.
[Applause]
Lesley Manville has such a great feel good film for us all.
It's called "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris."
It's out in cinemas now,
and this is already a big hit in America.
Here's a little taste.
I've won, Vi!
I've won! [Laughs]
[Both laughing]
[Laughing continues]
[Clanging]
[Muffled shouting]
You'll want to make nice.
She's only gone and won the post.
[Laughing]
Ada, what are you going to do?
I'm gonna buy a dress.
Something pretty for the Legion Dance.
Yeah.
A Christian Dior dress from Paris.
Oh, it's so lovely.
[Applause]
That was you with Ellen Thomas there.
And I was saying to you backstage,
it's like a sort of adult fairy tale.
How do you describe it to people?
Yeah, I think that's really spot on.
It's -- I've been saying it's like a musical
without the music, you know.
It's gorgeous.
It feels like the soothing balm
that we all need at the moment.
It's two hours of absolute gorgeous escapism.
And everyone I know in my life as well as the general public,
but lots of people I know in my life who I sort of thought,
"Ooh, I wonder what they'll make of this film."
You know, maybe it's a bit too feel good,
and they've all just said...
"[Gasps] I couldn't stop crying."
[Laughter]
So people are liking it, which is great.
And so basically the plot was in that clip.
Mrs. Harris goes to Paris to buy this fabulous dress.
Yeah, the clue's in the title.
Yes
The idea of going to Christian Dior
and buying this dress, so it's not just a dress.
There's so many beautiful clothes in this film.
Yes.
And are they re-imaginings of what
Dior dresses would have been?
Or are they the actual dresses, or how did it work?
A bit of a mixture, but that period
for Dior was iconic.
It was called the New Look, and it was post-war,
and fabric was a bit more available.
And so Dior was celebrating that wonderful, if you've got it,
that female shape of the little nipped in waist and all of that.
It was just -- it's sumptuous.
And have any of the dresses ended up at Shea Manville?
No but I did get Ada's hat.
Oh.
[Laughter]It is a bit different.
Thank you very much.
No, I mean, you'd like to think that you can go around
taking those things, but you can't really.
But I did keep -- Ada's got this little felt hat
that she wears in the film, so I kept that.
And, Lashana, you are fast becoming a sort of fashion icon.
Your red carpet looks are out there.
Fabulous. Tonight, you look fabulous.
That's your Bond premiere.Whoo!
And I just wondered, like, are you one of those people,
do you just rock up and go, "Yeah, I'll put that on."
Or are you really involved in all these looks?
Oh, no, I'm really intentional.
I wish I could just rock up.
I wish I found it that easy,
but this one in particular, I wanted to have a hand in it
because it was a special moment
for me to celebrate my culture.
So this is the Jamaican flag, basically, black and green,
and that is our national bird at the back.
So Vivienne Westwood was really happy to be able
to collaborate with me.
[Applause]
I was teasing you about your anorak earlier,
but let's have a look at you on the red carpet at the BAFTAs.
[Laughter]Come on.
Lynch: It's that same thing.
We was on the same wave. Know what I'm saying?
And you know what? I normally wear suits.
So I wore a Stoney.
Was it new? Did you buy it for the BAFTAs?
Yeah, come on, it was fresh, man, it was fresh.
Okay, okay.
Love it. I want to do that.
That's how carefree I want to be.
Listen, I was just vibes, and I thought, you know what?
If I can wear Stoney and win two BAFTAs,
you can do anything.
Yeah. I'm turning up in a track suit next.
That's it.And those are new trainers,
as well, aren't they?They're quite old.
I'm not here to teach the world style.
I just cook. That's it, I'm a chef.
Anyway, here you are.
Here you are, Lesley Manville, movie star now, movie star.
And yet, theater, you love theater.
I mean, you have dedicated your life to the theater.
Is that fair to say?Manville: No, it is.
And I do honestly, honestly believe it's where
I learned it all, because on stage, nobody can edit you,
they can't make you look better than you are.
You know, the audience can look wherever they like.
It's not a director's cut with shots and edits.
So it's very --
And you're on your own, aren't you?
I mean, you have the rehearsals,
but night after night after night,
you've got to go out there and be it and sell it.
And it's very exposing.
I saw you years ago.
I saw you in "The Cherry Orchard"
with Dame Judi Dench.
Did you?Sam Mendes.
The child Sam Mendes directed it.
Oh, look at me. Oh, God, that's depressing.
No! Untouched by time.
And Dame Judi Dench, she has a reputation
for being quite naughty.
Naughty?! That woman should be locked up.
[Laughter]
I mean, she is -- She's so naughty.
Do you want to know what she did to me?
Yes.
So there's a moment in "The Cherry Orchard"
where my character was on stage on their own for a short time.
Judi Dench is in the wings trying to make me laugh,
trying to corpse me, which is trying to make me laugh.
And she's -- How can I put this?
She's pretending that she's being
pleasured by somebody.
[Laughter]
From behind.
[Laughter]
So...Excellent.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Judy,
if you're watching that, but you shouldn't be so naughty!
So I'm on stage, and I can see all this,
and I'm desperately trying not to laugh.
And the important bit of information here is
that I'd just had a baby,
so my pelvic floor wasn't quite what it should have been.
Now, I was wearing a long dress, but I --
Judy made me laugh so much that I wet myself.
[Laughter]
And it gets worse because
the stage was raked, which means it's --
So I watched my piss...
[Laughter]
...trickle down.
[Applause]
I don't think I was there that night. No.
Well, if you were in the front row,
you'd have seen it go over the edge.
[Laughter]
That woman is so naughty.
I mean, you must have stories about her.
You worked with her?
I've worked with her a few times.
Oh, my God.
We did a play at the National Theater
called "Entertaining Strangers",
which was an ensemble -- I mean, a prominent production,
which meant the audience was in amongst the actors
and vice versa, and one evening,
she was in -- offstage, and she could see
a mutual friend, Howard Davies, a director,
sitting amongst the group of people on this stage.
So she thought, "I know," so she scribbled a note.
And then as she passed by to go
and do the same with Tim Pigott-Smith,
she scribbled down, "Fancy a shag?"
[Laughter]
And as she walked past him, she dropped it in his lap
and carried on, did the scene, and feeling very smug,
pleased with herself.
And at the end of the sea, she sort of looked around
and realized it wasn't Howard Davis.
[Laughter]
That's so good!
Well, if you're looking for a good time in the cinema,
"Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" is out now.
[Cheers and applause]
Thank you.
Lashana Lynch brings us a very different film.
This is called "The Woman King."
It is out now.
Already being number one at the US box office.
And here is a taste of what to expect.
♪ Don't know, take my power
Nanisca: You are called to join the King's Guard.
[Singing in native language]
No kingdom in all of Africa shares this privilege.
Train hard. Fight harder.
[Grunts]
We fear no one.
And we feel no pain.
I offer you a choice.
Fight, or we die.
[All shouting]
♪ This that kinfolk, this that skinfolk ♪
♪ This that war, this that bloodline ♪
♪ On the front line, ready for war, where you gon' run? ♪
[Cheers and applause]
It's so good.
[Laughs]
I saw it last night, and it's just terrific.
And it looks like a kind of fantasy film.
But this elite female -- these elite female warriors,
they existed in history.
Yeah. Yeah, they're a female army from 18th century Benin,
as in our story, and they're incredible.
We've got Viola Davis, we've got Sheila Atim,
we have Thuso Mbedu, we've got John Boyega,
all coming together to represent this
based on true events story.
And it's just an epic drama full of real stunts
and real life, real women, real power,
real inspirational, everything, really.
For myself included.
Because for most of the film,
your character refuses to feel pain.
Yeah, that's based on the real Agojie women, as well.
They literally were taught not to feel pain.
Which it must be quite hard to pretend
that I'm not going, "Ow, ow."
Look at that clip there, you see me standing on a rock.
There's about five rocks under my foot there,
which is fantastic.
But do they give you a protective thing
for the sole of your foot?
No.
[Laughter]
No, we were just barefoot,
just raw the whole time.
Which was amazing, because we were,
you know, were in 3:00 a.m., doing stunts in the dark,
taking down men, as you see.
And like I said, 100%.
Are you throwing him with a sword?
Yeah, with a machete in my hand.
So you've got the sword and you're throwing him.
Yeah.Damn.
And then after I throw him --
[Laughter]
After I throw him, I then have to take him down again.
Yeah!
[Applause]
Very good.
Because you've done things like "Captain Marvel"
and particularly, you know, James Bond and stuff,
were you ahead of the game?
Were you head of the class?
No.[Laughter]
I thought I would be.Oh, really?
I wasn't. I wasn't ready. I'm not going to lie.
I thought that having done a couple of stunts
that I'd be able to just go in and just
springboard off experience.
But this was 100% stunts, and Gina Prince-Bythewood
was really determined to have us just come in,
and she even joined us in training, which was amazing.
But no, this was throwing men, this was machete work.
They're really heavy.
This was discovering muscles in your wrists
that you didn't realize you had.
This was working on a Sunday.
[Laughter]
Big Zuu laughed first.
Big Zuu: No, no!
[Laughter]
He was waiting, like...
I saw your eyes.
[Laughter]
Lay it out. I want to hear it.
No, it's just, you know, you were
just the right hand, isn't it?
[Laughter]
Well, I learned about all about that.
And now, Lesley Manville.Manville: Oh, yes.
Obviously, you've done lots of lots of acting.
Have you deliberately chose, at every role to avoid stunts?
Have you ever done a stunt?
I light my own cigarettes.
There you go!
Actually, I do do my own stunts.
When have you done stunts?
No, I haven't done major stunts like that.
But, you know, I -- if there's falling --
I was doing some only last week when I could have had
a stunt double tumbling and tippling around.
And I didn't. I did it myself.
Well done, you.Yes.
Yes. We're very impressed.
[Applause]
We look forward to Princess Margaret's
fight scene in...
She'll be like that, just...
And you've had stunt people in the past, haven't you?
Yes, yes. Occasionally.
I can remember one.
I did a film in America called "Underclassman",
which didn't trouble the box office.
And I can remember getting ready for this big
fight sequence at the end,
and they said, "We're going to be bringing in a stunt guy
for a more tricky bits."
I'm like, "Fine, fine, when's he coming?"
They said, "Well, he's over there."
I said, "Well, I can't see him."
Well, there's a really big bloke over there.
I mean, quite, you know, I mean, there's him.
They said, "Yes." I went, "What?"
And they said, "Yes, that's your stunt double."
I said, "Do you think I look like him?"
And they went, "Yes, you do look like him."
[Laughter]
And when I watched the finished film,
I literally couldn't see the join.
Aw.
And, Big Zuu, you don't do your own --
You don't even drive your own food truck, do you?
No, I ain't got a license still.
[Laughter]
It's not my fault. You do this industry stuff.
They get you a lot of cabs, isn't it?
You know what I'm saying.No, yeah.
Yeah. Are you learning to drive?
You know what? We got a rad driving school.
'Cause I just got seven hours.
[Applause]
No, I haven't done it.But you bought it.
I've bought the seven hours.
Oh.
Yeah! Don't do it.
Yeah, I got an automatic license
'cause I don't want to do manual.
No, no. I'm so with you. I learned on an automatic.
What's the point?Yeah, it's like
walking across the room to change the channel
after they invented remotes.Yeah.
That's a great way to put it.
Why would you bother learning how to do that?
Nonsense. Nonsense.
Now, the BAFTA winning "Big Zuu's Big Eats",
three series now.
They're all available on UKTV Play.
So just to remind you of what "Big Zuu's Big Eats"
is like, here it is.
Big Zuu: You can't have a roast without carrots.
But for Mel, we're boozing them up.
It's time to take these carrots on a club night.
Start with some shallots and butter in the pan.
Slice up multi-cultural carrots. No discrimination.
And bud the wine from Mel B, the champagne thing.
Whoo!
Get your beautiful batons into the pan, give you a chef flick.
You know me. When I go to the club,
[speaking indistinctly]
While the champagne carrots all bubble, bubbly in the pan,
check on Tab Z, add some honey for my honey
and a little bit of chefyness.
Whoo!
We out.
[Cheers and applause]
Little bit of chefyness.
See, the wrist.
The wrist. It's all in the wrist.
That's what you were talking about.
Yeah. Yeah, the chefyness.
Yeah, cooking the carrots.
That's it. But here's the thing.
You know, it started small, and now it's grown and grown.
Now it's got this mainstream success.
Do you think you'll end up sort of cooking it in
like a studio, like a souffle kitchen?
Oh, no, man. You know what it is?
We had a little breakfast show on ITV.
Went well, but the whole like, this kind of vibe
with the cameras and that, nah, man,
I just want to chat shit in a van.
You know what I mean?
And that's what we're good at.
Like, I enjoy coming in the studio.
It's way more relaxed. There's no rain.
Nothing can go wrong
You know, the van is not going to explode in here.
But I like the rawness of the program
when we're out on the road and it's me and my brothers
just chilling.
But you've been on those shows.
Was it "Sunday Brunch" you did?
Yeah. Yeah. I've done "Sunday Brunch"
a couple of times.Okay. And did you cook?
I cooked, I've cooked a couple times there.
It's gone all right.
It's very nerve racking cooking live.
You know, when you cook live, there's too many things.
Someone's in your ear talking rubbish, and you're like,
"Bruh, let me just flip the pancake."
But when I went on "Sunday Brunch" the last time,
Michel Roux was there.
Oh, yes. Big Michel Roux.
You know, big boy chef?Manville: Yeah.
He cooked me a souffle. Very dead.
I'm not gonna lie.
[Laughter]
You can't say that about Michel Roux?
Why can't I say that? Look, I come from rap,
where there's battle rap, yeah?
I think with chefs, there should be battle chefs.
I want to battle Michel Roux.
I send a challenge.
Michel Roux, I know you've got a family dynasty.
But I don't care. That souffle was dead.
[Laughter]
[Applause]
So, how did all of this happen to you?
Because you mentioned rap there.
Like, music was the thing you were supposed to be doing.
Yeah. Yeah.How did this come along?
I started cooking when I was like 9, 10.
My Mom was pregnant with my little brother,
because I wanted to help run the house.
Come on. Aw.
[Audience "Aw"s]
Yeah, and then being a young, fat man, I stuck with it.
[Laughter]
Look at me now!
[Applause]
[Laughs]
So, all these things come out of it,
and like acting has come out of.
You've done acting now.Yeah. Yeah.
I got a little main lead in a program called "Sneakerhead."
The three actors are now going,
"This isn't that funny anymore."
[Laughter]
This was hilarious when he was cooking.
[Laughter]
But "EastEnders", you're a huge "EastEnders" fan?
Yeah. Big "EastEnders" fan.
Have you been on the set?Yeah.
When I was filming a music video in Elstree,
my friends was walking around, as they do,
and they found a door, it opened, and it was like,
"Oh, my God."
This is the pub, we was in the pub,
we was in the Queen Vic.
But obviously it's not the real one
because it's a TV set.
So we tried to go upstairs, and then when you realize
you can't go upstairs, you're like,
"Oh, bruh, this ain't real."
We tried to pull a pint. The pint wasn't going in.
And then we walked into another room like,
"Oh, my God isn't this like Billy's room or something?"
Basically, we realized "EastEnders" isn't real.
I thought it was a real neighborhood in BBC.
But, nah, it's broken up rooms and stuff.
I don't want to blow your mind. I don't want to blow your mind.
But someone here has starred in "EastEnders."
Ooh! [Gasps]
What? Hugh Bonneville.
What?! Yeah.
[Applause] Yeah.
Who did you live?
I played the headmaster in one scene with Wendy Richard
in about 1980-something, 1990-something?
Yeah, no I think this is when I used to watch "EastEnders."
Here you are.Manville: Oh, good.
[Laughter]
Oh, my God.
Tell me this. Tell me this.
Did you go into it thinking, maybe the audience will
demand that the headmaster comes back?
Did you?
Well, no, I actually --
I'd met the director for a for another job,
and I said I would give my I-teeth to be in "EastEnders."
And he said, "Well, there's this one tiny scene
with Wendy Richard.
And so like you, I turned up at Elstree.
I was all excited, and walked across Albert Square,
and I saw the Queen Vic, and somebody had said,
"Oh, they're doing some Queen Vic scenes at the moment."
So I thought, "Oh, well, there's the Queen Vic.
I'll just pop in and say hello
on the way through to the dressing room."
Opened the door, scaffolding.
[Laughter]
Nothing. Nothing.
Lesley Manville, also soap veteran.
Oh. Which one were you in?
Well, when I was about 19, I was in "Emmerdale Farm"
when it was a twice weekly lunchtime soap.
And I did it -- I did it for about just under a year.
Who did you play?Rosemary Kendal.
I think we've got a picture of you as Rosemary.
Oh, my God. Oh!
And that tree is real.
[Laughter]
No fakery on "Emmerdale Farm."
So, at the end of the year, do you have a sticky end?
What happened to you?
I got to snog Fraser Hines in the cow shed.
[Cheering] Ooh.
That was --
Did that kill you?
Because it was only --
[Laughter]
It was a case, a bad case of unrequited love
and a cow shitting in the background.
[Laughter]
And that was it. I'd gone.
Yeah. I'm out of here.
You might be thinking, Lashana Lynch, she's too classy.
She's never been in a soap.
But kind of, you were in -- was it "The Bill" you were in?
Yeah. My first job.[Gasps]
My first -- a double episode.
Oh, they were the best.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Yeah.
What was your story line?
I was kidnapped
by a gang of people and had to be, like,
handed over as, like, a package between two gangs.
I think we've got a picture of you in "The Bill."
No.Here you are.
There she is.Oh, my gosh. I had hair!
Yeah. [Laughter]
Was this pre-kidnap or post-kidnap?
This was the handover.[Gasps] Oh.
Yeah, that's Aml Ameen.
He was just about to hand me over to, like,
a really bad boyfriend of mine.
And was it one of those things where you thinking, again,
will the audience demand I return?
Can I be a regular?
Yes. They need me now.
[Laughter]
Let's find out what happened to the other gang
for the next six years.
And it never happened.
And, Big Zuu, tell me, with all the success,
what does it mean to you?
'Cause your speech at the BAFTAs
was so lovely, talking about what it might mean
to people seeing you on TV.
Yeah, it was a surreal moment because I felt like I got
to represent my whole community, people that look like me.
And for me now, working in television,
it's important to see people like myself on screen.
But I think it's also about working behind the screen.
So, you know, I started working in production,
got my own production company, I'm gonna start
trying making telly so we can start putting people
in the right positions to actually represent us on screen
and behind the screen, you know?
Well done, that man. Very good.
[Applause]
Listen, all series of "Big Zuu's Big Eats"
are available on UKTV Play.
And once again, Lashana Lynch's film
"The Woman King" is in cinemas now.
Go see that.
All right.
[Cheers and applause]Yeah.
It's time for music.
This British singer songwriter has had an incredible year.
Involving TikTok for Eurovision,
he scored the UK's best result in over 20 years,
here performing his latest single, "Somebody",
is is Sam Ryder!
[Cheers and applause]
♪♪
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do
♪ You bring me summer every weekend ♪
♪ Like a rooftop in LA
♪ When it heats up in the evenin' ♪
♪ You cool me off like lemonade ♪
♪ So don't go changin' like the seasons ♪
♪ 'Cause you're perfect in every way ♪
♪ Baby, you got a love that's worth bleedin' ♪
♪ If you were runnin', I'd lead your campaign ♪
♪ You can wake me up
♪ You're the caffeine in my coffee cup ♪
♪ And like a shootin' star, you light me up ♪
♪ Oh, you're amazing
♪ 'Cause we all need somebody
♪ Even lonely hearts need somebody ♪
♪ So before this love leaves your body ♪
♪ Give it away
♪ And if you've got somebody
♪ Let 'em know that they got somebody ♪
♪ A little love never hurt nobody ♪
♪ You use your light and shine it like crazy ♪
♪ We got one life, let's make it amazin' ♪
♪ I love you, baby, no, that ain't changin' ♪
♪ You got, you got somebody who loves ya ♪
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do ♪
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do
♪ Baby, you and me, we got chemistry ♪
♪ Call it alchemy, call it what you want ♪
♪ I don't know what I believe in ♪
♪ Oh, what a time to be livin' and breathin' ♪
♪ And I got a feelin' that we're here for the same thing ♪
♪ Wake me up
♪ You're the caffeine in my coffee cup ♪
♪ And like a shootin' star, you light me up ♪
♪ Oh, you're amazing
♪ 'Cause we all need somebody
♪ Even lonely hearts need somebody ♪
♪ So before this love leaves your body ♪
♪ Give it away, yeah
♪ And if you've got somebody
♪ Let 'em know that they got somebody ♪
♪ A little love never hurt nobody ♪
♪ You use your light and shine it like crazy ♪
♪ We got one life, let's make it amazin' ♪
♪ I love you, baby, you know that ain't changin' ♪
♪ You got, you got somebody who loves ya ♪
♪ You got, you got somebody who love ♪
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do ♪
♪ Do, do-do, do-do
♪ Do-do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do
♪ Wake me up
♪ You're the caffeine in my coffee cup ♪
♪ And like a shootin' star, you light me up ♪
♪ You're amazing
♪ 'Cause we all need somebody
♪ Even lonely hearts need somebody ♪
♪ So before this love leaves your body ♪
♪ Give it away, away, away, away ♪
♪ And if you've got somebody
♪ Let 'em know that they got somebody ♪
♪ A little love never hurt nobody ♪
♪ You use your light and shine it like crazy ♪
♪ We got one life, let's make it amazin' ♪
♪ I love you, baby, you know that ain't changin' ♪
♪ You got, you got somebody who loves ya ♪
Whoa!
[Cheers and applause]
Sam Ryder, everybody!
How great was that? Come on over, Sam, do.
Whoo! Hey!
[Cheers and applause]
Thank you so much.
Have a seat there, do.
Lashana, Lesley, Hugh.
Good to see you.Thank you so much for that.
The voice. The voice. The voice.
Amazing voice. Amazing.Thank you.
Appreciate that.Really, really good.
And that track, here's exciting,
off of the upcoming album. Yes.
"It's Nothing But Space, Man."
[Laughter]That's out on the 18th of November.
Available to preorder now, and this is all new tracks.
Yeah, and that is definitely a fake
because it doesn't exist yet.
There's no vinyl inside it.
I'm not meant to give that away, but I...
[Laughter]
I'm taking that home to play it.
[Laughter]
Yeah, but it didn't look like that.
I don't have one yet.
That's the first I've ever seen of it.
It'll look like that. It'll look something very like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So normally you would have been on the show before
Eurovision, but we weren't on, so congratulations.
Because you've taken the curse off it, you know?
[Cheers and applause]
Yeah. Thank you.
You've made it cool again.
But you, you know, you live in the world.
I do. Yeah.
You know whatever about the space.
You're here, so you knew the vibe of the UK and Eurovision.
So, what was going through your mind when they said,
"Do you want to do it?" Were you really gung ho?
Well, I've always been a fan of it.
So to be asked to do something that you like
in the first place, to not do it seems
a little bit, I don't know, the wrong energy.
Just because you're scared of coming last or something,
it shouldn't stop you from -- maybe you should.
[Laughter]
No, but I love that you said a thing,
you said a lovely thing about loving music
more than fearing the competition or something.
My enthusiasm is greater than my fear for something like that.
Like, I love Eurovision. It's bonkers. It's wonderful.
And it brings us all together in a world
that all too often pulls us apart, right?
And to say, "No, I don't want to do it
because I'm scared of the outcome,"
like, you're not really a fan of Eurovision in that case
because it's not about where you come.
Yeah. Well, I honestly, I think you've changed everything.
It's -- You did an amazing job for us.
Well, you changed everything.
And now here's the thing.
[Applause]
Of course, Eurovision is going to be here.
So will you be playing a part in the show in Liverpool?
I don't know. I haven't got a clue.
You have to do.I want to be there
because it's going to be just incredible, I think.
So I don't know. I might be giving out tickets
at the door.
[Laughter]
Cashing out the till.
[Laughter]
No, no, no.
But we have to check your availability
for Eurovision because you're on tour.
Yes. Yeah, I'm heading out on March. That's it.
Shortly after the record comes out, and it's going --
It's like the biggest tour we've ever done.
So this is the amazing thing, right?
Like Eurovision, you have no idea
what it's going to do, but the door is an opportunity
and it's opened.
Like, the other week, I was playing with Queen,
and they're like my absolute heroes.
I can't explain what they mean to me as a singer,
or probably all of us, right?
Queen and bands like that, they're like --
just they bring us all so much joy.
So like, yeah.
And actually, I meant to say to you earlier, Zuu,
have you stopped music now for the TV and the cooking?
Nah, nah, nah, I'm still recorded.
Oh, okay.Yeah, I know, I know.
Everyone's on me. Everyone's on me.
They're like, "Zuu, why you not trying to rap?
You're just trying to cook chicken."
[Laughter]
But I'll be back.
Yeah, I can sing like Sam, as well.
Yeah.
I can sing a ballad.
Don't make me sing a ballad.
No, I'll chill, I'll chill.
Duet, duet, that's what we want in our future.
Soon come, soon come.Big Zuu, Sam Ryder.
You do great facial expressions when you sing,
you do that...
[Laughter]
It's because the suit is tight.
[Laughter]
And thin, as well.
You wear it well, sir.Thank you.
You wear it well. Thank you so much for that performance.
Good luck with the album. Good luck with the tour.
Sam Ryder, everybody.
[Cheers and applause]
Right, that's nearly it.
Before we go, just time for a visit to the Big Red Chair.
Who do we find in it tonight? Hello.
Hello.Hi. What's your name?
Sarah.Sarah. Hello, Sarah.
And where abouts are you from, Sarah?
Near Market Harborough. Leicestershire.
Oh, you know. Market Harborough. Near Market Harborough.
Market Harborough adjacent.
[Laughter]
Are you just out in the country,
or are you little village or something?
Yeah, in a little village.In a little village.
It will remain nameless.
Okay. I tried.You did.
Did you work for MI6?
[Laughter]
All right, Sarah. Off you go with your story.
I used to work for the Foreign Office.
[Laughter]
What the -- What the -- What the -- What the --
[Applause]
Go on.
So, I was at the British Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay,
and one of my jobs, I had to cover
for the accountant one time, and I had to go to the bank
and cash some checks and get some money.
And while I was in there, two armed robbers came in
and bundled us all into the corner,
there was all this crying.
Not me, but a lot of people were crying and upset.
And I was trying to sort of help people around
and, you know, do my do my consular thing.
And eventually, the robbers found
what they needed and ran off.
The police came, and it took forever
and ever to answer all their questions.
Meanwhile, eventually I got out, and I was like, "Oh,"
and I was a little bit nervous and a bit sort of shaken myself.
Yes, of course.And I thought,
"Well, you know, I've done my bit.
The ambassador will be so proud of me."
You know, I've helped all these people.
They'll be a cup of tea. Maybe there might even be a gong,
or, you know, an MBE. Who knows, you know?
Anyway, I got back to the embassy,
shut, everybody, gone home.
I found out the next day our driver had messaged
and said she's held up at the bank,
she won't be back early,
so you might as well all go home.
So I was like, "I was held up at the bank," you know.
No tea, no nothing.
You deserve to walk, you deserve to walk, Sarah.
Well done.
A bank robbery?
[Applause]
I mean, that is a better class of story than we're used to.
I mean, normally there's some dog poo involved
or something, but no.
All right, that really is all we've got time for.
If you'd like to have a go in that red chair
and tell your story, you can.
Just contact us via this very website.
Please say a huge thank you to all of my guests tonight.
Sam Ryder!
[Cheers and applause]
Big Zuu!
[Cheers and applause]
Lashana Lynch!
[Cheers and applause]
Lesley Manville!
[Cheers and applause]
And Hugh Bonneville!
[Cheers and applause]
Join me next week with singer Self Esteem,
Hollywood star Elizabeth Banks, boss of British Vogue,
Edward Enninful, Oscar nominated Kate Hudson,
and Irish legends
Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell.
I'll see you then. Good night, everybody, bye-bye!
[Cheers and applause]
--Captions by VITAC-- www.vitac.com
♪♪