CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Hello. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you for being here, and thank you for tuning in at home.
Good evening, everyone, and welcome to The Jonathan Ross Show,
and we have some fabulous guests lined up for you tonight,
so let's have a look at who's in my green room.
First up, an international star who is a triple threat.
She's an actor, a comedian and a presenter,
who's best known for her hilarious roles
in films like Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect.
It's the fabulous Rebel Wilson!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Alongside Rebel, a British actor who's currently on everyone's radar
thanks to the brilliant White Lotus,
but of course, for a whole generation,
he'll always be Lucius Malfoy.
It's Jason Isaacs!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
My next guest is one of the greatest cricketers the sport has ever seen,
and he transcended that sport
to become one of the nation's best-loved TV personalities.
We are thrilled to have him back on the show.
It's the one and only Freddie Flintoff!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Hey, Freddie!
And up next, an actor who is brilliant in everything he's in,
whether he's playing Dr Martin Luther King in Selma
or Nigel Basil-Jones in Peter Rabbit 2,
it's the supremely talented David Oyelowo!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
You have range. I was demonstrating you have range.
Plus, a writer, actress and comedian
whose sitcom Alma's Not Normal won a BAFTA after just the pilot.
She went on to make two more series
of some of the best TV comedy you're ever likely to see.
She's absolutely fabulous. It is the hilarious Sophie Willan!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
So excited to have you on the show, Sophie.
And as if that weren't enough,
we also have some great music for you tonight
from a Grammy and BRIT Award-winning band
who are back with new music for the first time in three years.
They are also the only group in the world cool enough
to write a song about a chaise longue.
It is Wet Leg!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
And I think they have brought a goblin with them.
I think that's a goblin there with them.
Either that or Jason has brought along his house elf.
LAUGHTER
Here's a story that caught my eye this week.
Apparently, young people are shunning traditional beach holidays
in favour of safaris.
I don't know if you've seen this.
They're saying, "No beaches, we wanna go on safari."
And may I suggest an alternative, the safari park?
Because it's much closer than going on a safari.
You've got the same wildlife
but enjoyed from the relative safety of your car.
Like, for example, this lady who came face-to-face with a llama,
and it's quite beautiful.
He's eating my car. Maybe there's something in this.
LLAMA SPITS, AUDIENCE MEMBERS GASP
CHILD WHINGES
APPLAUSE
Shall we get on with the show? CHEERING
Let's get my first guests out.
It is the classic matchup of Australia versus England.
It's Rebel Wilson and Freddie Flintoff!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Rebel, thank you for coming on.
Freddie, great to see you again. Come and sit down.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you both for being here.
It's great to have you both on the show.
Rebel, since I last saw you a few years ago,
your life has been through some big changes.
You are now a married person.
Yeah, yeah. Taken. Congratulations.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Married to... I got married in Sardinia.
It was beautiful, it was gorgeous.
And, yeah, very happy to be married.
And didn't your sister marry you? Is that why this is...?
Well, my sister, she has a side hustle as a wedding celebrant,
so she actually did...
The kind of show wedding was in Italy,
and then we got legally married in Australia,
and then my sister, she had a busy week
cos she married me, and then she married my mum the next day.
Wow. Yeah.
Was that like a two-for-one family deal?
We didn't pay her, and she's really, like, upset about that.
But also, you've become a mum as well.
Yes, yes. So, I have a daughter.
How lovely. That's a lovely picture.
APPLAUSE
Her name is Royce.
And I probably shouldn't have named her after a British luxury car brand
because it turns out she's a bit high maintenance.
She's kind of conned me into massaging her feet
before she goes to sleep.
And sometimes, it's not, like, two minutes,
it's, like, 45 minutes of baby foot massage.
And I was doing it last night for, like, almost an hour,
and I said, "I should have called you Volvo."
There's a big difference.
Freddie, we're sitting next to an Australian, of course.
And how are they? Because you won...
Freddie won the Ashes twice.
Twice. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Amazing.
Yeah. I mean, once was good enough. You had to rub it in.
Yeah, I did all right,
but you failed to mention, in between the two wins,
I went over as captain and got absolutely battered.
So it evens itself out.
How are they with you?
Obviously, it is a big thing, England v Australia.
How are they with you when you visit Australia?
Do they hold this against you
or do they like you as most other people do?
They seem to be all right. They're funny, the Aussies, aren't they?
If you do well against them, they say, "He's one of us."
I'm not, I'm from Preston. I'm nothing to do with Australia.
And since then, they've been good to us.
Played cricket against them, and they give us work,
so I presented a few shows out there.
Did Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!
Yeah, you did the Australian vision
of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here,
and you won, didn't you?
Yeah. Amazing.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Amazing. King of the Outback. Yeah.
It was the easiest month I've ever had in my life. I bet.
I managed to cheat the system a little bit,
so I managed to find a gap off camp every day,
and I broke into the medical hut
where I could get fresh water and fruit.
Hold on. Yeah.
AUDIENCE:Ooh!
I'm from Preston. I can take a window out. Yeah.
I mean, well, that's, er... So, so... So, you cheated, basically.
LAUGHTER
If you can't beat 'em, join them. LAUGHTER
Of course, growing up in Australia, do they play cricket at school?
I went to an all-girls' school, but I did play cricket.
I was in the firsts for cricket.
And a lot of the girls went on to become professional lesbians.
LAUGHTER
I don't know what the correlation is.
Freddie, I think you mentioned,
cricket is very important to you again.
Yeah. At one stage, it was your professional life,
but now it's become very important to you as a coach.
Tell me, why is it so important to you now?
Yeah, I think, you know, I finished playing at 31, retired,
and then started doing TV stuff.
And in recent years, past two or three years,
you know, I had an accident,
and I've found myself back around cricket, which I'm loving.
So, I'm coaching the England Lions,
which is the team underneath the England side,
And I think with everything that's happened over the past few years,
that's the one place I feel most comfortable.
Cricket's embraced me again, my mates and everything.
So, the TV was good, but I feel like I'm back home now, actually.
I think we all read about, we all heard about the Top Gear accident.
This was back in 2022, I think, December 2022.
And just an awful accident,
just an enormous life-changing accident.
Just to get over that and get out the other side
is an incredible achievement.
When you look back now from a different perspective,
what do you make of what happened?
Yeah, no secret that I had a car accident filming Top Gear,
and then afterwards,
obviously, there's the physical scars, which I've got,
but then the mental side of it as well.
I didn't leave the house for probably six, eight months.
And the only time I was leaving the house
was for medical appointments and surgeries.
And then afterwards, a mate of mine, Rob Key, who's actually my boss,
I've known him for 30 years, he started inviting me
to come and watch the cricket at the Test matches,
but sit in, like, a back room, not in the crowd.
Cos I'd wear a full face mask for months.
And I started getting back into it,
and I started to find my feet a little bit again.
So, for me, cricket, ever since I can remember from being a kid,
has been a massive part of my life.
But at that time when I probably needed it most,
cricket embraced me again, and I found myself back in it now.
The TV stuff was good. I'll still do the odd job.
I've got bills to pay.
But cricket now, back in coaching and working with these lads
is my definite future, and I'm loving it again.
There's a documentary film about the recent years of his life,
which is on Disney+.
I think it's out on 25 April
and, obviously, you cover all these things in it,
and I wonder how difficult it was for you to open up
and to let people come and film you and for you to talk about all this.
Yeah, at first, it was quite strange
cos, you know, it's something you live with
and, you know, since the accident,
I had the flashbacks and nightmares and things,
and you're talking about it quite a lot.
But, yeah, it was interesting.
The hardest part is seeing people talk about you.
I don't wanna spoil it.
I had a crash, I survived.
Er...
Yeah, that's not a plot spoiler, by the way.
There's some great footage in there.
Some great footage of you playing, as you've said.
There's a great moment where you hit a ball right out,
and I think your dad catches it,
he's in the crowd, and he catches the ball.
Yeah, it was against the West Indies.
I hit a six, and my dad was in the crowd somewhere
and it was going straight towards him.
And my dad's got massive hands. His nickname's Big Hands.
That's the least imaginative nickname.
LAUGHTER
I'm from working class Preston. It's as good as we could come up with.
"Oi, Big Hands!"
And he fumbled it, and he was rooting around for it,
and as he dropped it, I think he fumbled it
and he ended up with his head in Michael Vaughan's mum's lap,
trying to look for the ball.
I think that was the plan all along. Well, yeah!
LAUGHTER Well, it's an amazing documentary.
I'm gonna show you a little bit of it now.
As I said, it's on Disney+ on the 25th. Have a look at this.
JOHN INVERDALE:English cricket's finest hour in a generation.
Cricket is suddenly cool.
A sport that has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.
2005 was the summer we all pretended to like cricket.
And he was the reason for that.
He gave us these images...
..which are ingrained in our sporting psyche.
It was just amazing.
The support, everything was just out of this world.
Andrew was loving it. He was like the life and soul of the party.
APPLAUSE, JONATHAN LAUGHS
There is...
There's an amazing bit in the documentary
where you talk about when you go out the first time to coach the kids,
and you say you couldn't leave the room,
it took you four, five attempts to leave the room.
Yeah. Cos I'd not been doing anything.
And then like I say, my mate Keysy got me back involved,
and firstly, I started doing a bit of work with the England under-19s.
And I wasn't sure about it.
I was struggling with crippling anxiety.
It was a struggle to get out of bed.
And then I had to have about five or six goes at leaving the room,
and then I had to go and have a chat with myself
in t'mirror before I left.
What was it when you went to leave?
Was it fearful of how people would react to you,
fearful of what you'd have to say? What...?
I think because I'd not done anything for such a long time.
I'd not left the house,
I'd not shown myself without a face mask to anyone.
So those social skills had got rusty...
Yeah, not that they were there anyway.
But, yeah, it was like starting again.
Sportsmen like to take the piss out of each other.
Mm. Was there a period when they started doing that to you again?
Did you know, "OK, now we're completely over all this"?Yeah.
I remember I'd not left the house for a while,
and I'd gone down to London to the office.
I used to make a thing of it,
get some nice food in cos I'd not been going out,
and then one of my mates was there,
and I've got a bucket hat on and glasses,
and had my face covered.
The first thing he says was, "Fuck me, it's the Invisible Man."
You know what I mean? And I was laughing underneath.
It's always better when that starts happening.
Cos it's back to normal.
Yeah, back to normal and just treated normal.
And you're pretty OK now? You still have bad days, I guess?
Yeah, I still do, but I'm more accepting of it now.
It is what it is, and move on.
Well, it is great to have you back.
It's amazing to have Freddie back, isn't it?
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank you.
I really wanna watch the show. Really? Yeah.
It's a really great watch.
You and Rebel have something in common.
I don't know if you know this.
You have both sang in musicals. Yeah.
What musical have you sung in?
Fat Friends.
Ah! Yeah.
I've actually seen that. Have you? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll tell you what, I ruined it.
It's worse when you see the audience laughing
as soon as you start singing.
And they're nudging each other, going, "He's gonna sing here."
It's no Pitch Perfect, I'll tell you.
That happened to me when I started acting.
I thought I was gonna be a serious actress,
and I went on stage, and from the first line, people started laughing.
Yeah. So I just went with it, yeah.
What were you doing, big roles like Shakespeare?
Yeah. I mean, back in the day, I did, like, the classics.
Shakespeare and Marlowe. Not Home And Away, not that classic.
Yeah. Rebel...
This will excite you if you're a fan of Rebel, as indeed I am.
..has a new musical film coming out.
Yeah, speaking of Shakespeare, yeah. Speaking on Shakespeare.
It's in cinemas on 11 June,
but it's a flip on what you might think
cos it's not Romeo And Juliet, it is...
Juliet And Romeo. Big difference. Yeah.
What's the difference? What have they done differently this time?
They've flipped it a little bit.
If you love the classic love story, you've got that.
But it's kind of a pop musical take as well on Romeo And Juliet,
so if you've got kids
and they like movies like The Descendants on Disney,
it's kind of got these pop songs that are like that.
But it's set in 13th century Verona.
And we shot it in real medieval castles.
And it's an amazing cast.
Yeah. Jason Isaacs, who is here tonight, is in it.
That was so cool to work with him.
I'm, like, "Oh, my God, he's from Harry Potter."
Let me show you a clip of it.
As I said, this is Juliet And Romeo,
and you can see it in cinemas on 11 June. Look at this.
# I'm more
# I'm more than the crown I wear... #
You will stand with this family or you'll stand alone.
# I'm more than the role I play... #
You will be the Capulet you've been raised to be.
# This mask I wear... #
Romeo. We're running out of time.
Tonight, I tricked him.
# ..on fire tonight. #
What now? It's a mystery.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
It's something to take the kids to. Yeah, looks great.
Cos you've got a little one, haven't you?
Yeah, we've got four kids, haven't we?
Daughter, she's nearly 21.
Boys are 19 and 17, and the youngest, Preston, he's five.
So that's a big gap there. Big gap.
That's when you weren't leaving home for a while, wasn't it?
LAUGHTER
Freddie's back on our screens doing TV work as well
because he's back with the classic British game show Bullseye.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
You can't beat a bit of Bully.
It's coming back for a full series soon, I think.
Did you play darts while you were playing cricket?
Was darts part of your life? Yeah, I've always loved darts.
I got the chance to do Bullseye.
It was the first thing I'd done,
and it's a format and a show which I loved in the '80s.
I think we were brought up in it, Sunday night's Bullseye.
With Jim Bowen. Jim Bowen. I'm no Jim Bowen.
But, no, we've got a series later in the year.
I think we've got four and a Christmas special, so, yeah.
It's been lovely having you on this.
Stick around for the rest of the evening.
Up next, we'll be joined out here by Jason Isaacs.
See you after the break.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Welcome back to the show. Let's get my next guest out here.
He is a British acting legend who's currently starring
in the global phenomenon that is The White Lotus.
It is the fabulous Jason Isaacs.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
You look amazing. You know Rebel, you know Andrew.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
You're gonna go over here.
We shuffle people along. We shuffle you along.
Ah! I don't know how many of you watched White Lotus,
but what an amazing experience.
Congratulations. Fabulous performance, of course.
But quite an intense film... How long did you film for?
We were there for seven months.
And you kind of all lived together while you were doing it.
All the cast, the crew, the admin staff, we were all in these...
They were gigantic, beautiful resorts,
but we were all there, breakfast, lunch and supper.
Presumably, you can't, then, get away from people either.
Well, yes, there is some of that stuff.
You do see people all the time, but you can get away.
Some people didn't leave the hotel. Some people didn't leave their room.
My wife and I travelled all around Thailand,
and we went to Cambodia, we went to Bhutan.
Who didn't leave their room? That sounds weird.
Doesn't it? For seven months, someone didn't leave their room?
There were some weird people, let me tell you.
Someone didn't leave their room for seven months?
Virtually. Never appeared socially.
You're not gonna tell me here, are you?
No, of course not. What happened in Thailand stays in Thailand.
I will tell you afterwards, yeah.
Tell me afterwards, and I'll tell you all afterwards, OK?
Does it worry you, though?
Obviously, you've wound up with an incredible show.
But you also had, from the sound of things,
an incredible experience making it.
It's very intense.
First of all, there's the experience of living in Thailand,
but my character Tim Ratliff is... miserable and suicidal,
and stripped down,
gets his entire personality removed, essentially.
I liked the stripping down bit. Thanks very much.
There's a good bit in it, guys. Yeah.
But you don't really like talking about that, do you?
Well, it's just because the show is so fabulous,
it seems a little bit odd to just be talking
about my dick all the time. I don't know.
There are other things to talk about.
Well, yeah, but it's a... Bigger things, as it were.
Bigger fish in the sea.
Because people were talking about whether it was prosthetic or not.
They were. LAUGHTER
You noticed that, did you?
What was weird, doing all these interviews with people,
very serious journalists, like yourself,
were saying, "Is it prosthetic?"
Let me unpack, what you need to know is have you seen my penis.
"Would you like to see it backstage? What's going on here?"
Then they look slightly shifty and look down at their feet.
Yeah, yeah. I WOULD like to see it backstage.
LAUGHTER
Again?!
APPLAUSE
Freddie, though...
APPLAUSE
Freddie's getting very nervous now.
I don't know what the fuck's going on here.
Cos Freddie hasn't seen White Lotus.
Can I ask Freddie a question? Yeah.
I'm not getting my pants down.
No, no, fair enough.
I am in a film called Death Of Stalin,
which I played a Yorkshireman... MUTED APPLAUSE
Thanks to that one person over there.
When I read it, I phoned the director and I said,
"Can I play him Yorkshire, because Yorkshireman are the bluntest,
"most honest people I've ever met."
A, you don't have to tell me if you've seen it.
But is that true? Do you think Yorkshire people
are more honest than the rest of the country?
I'm from Lancashire. LAUGHTER
That's why I'm asking you!
LAUGHTER
Yeah, they are right up there.
Some of the players that I've played with from Yorkshire
are just straight on it.
That was nearly one of the most traumatic moments of my life there.
LAUGHTER Let me ask you about earlier...
Because now you're hugely successful,
and you have obviously been respected
and admired for your acting for years...
I don't know about any of that, but yeah, carry on.
Well, no, you are.
But I wonder whether, when you started out,
were you like most actors? How much of a slog was it?
How many other jobs did you have to do to keep yourself going
while you were trying...?
Well, I got my Equity card for entertaining at children's parties,
doing magic and puppets, and games and stuff.
So, what, did you have your own puppets?
Did you borrow people's puppets?
Here's the thing, I like magic, I would do magic for the kids.
They would do games for an hour,
then they'd have tea for half an hour,
then I'd do magic and puppets, supposedly.
But I hated doing puppets,
cos I never made up a story, in years of it.
So I tried to make the magic last a long time and go,
"We never got to the puppets. Can't believe it."
And sometimes, the parents would go,
"I paid for a puppet show! I want a puppet show."
Freddie, what about you?
Before the cricket became... Before you became a professional, I guess?
Presumably, you had jobs to make ends meet when you were younger?
Yeah, I got a job on the record counter at Woolworths.
MUTED CHEERING
I got let go.
LAUGHTER Yeah.
What happened? They call it shrinkage.
LAUGHTER
I know a lot about that!
Well, apparently not, you!
LAUGHTER But, erm...
APPLAUSE
I'm sorry, Jason. Sorry.
Good one. Good one.
It was... My mates used to come in,
and it was days before they had sensors at the front of the store,
so they'd come in, and it started off,
they'd bring a CD to my counter,
I'd just put it in a bag and give it to them.
But we progressed to PlayStations.
Wow. No! Yeah.
I didn't realise... Was that Woolworths that went bankrupt?
LAUGHTER
Freddie's fault, all of it.
I'm like the Robin Hood of Preston.
LAUGHTER
Give it to them.
I love the way you put a positive spin on it.
What about you, Rebel? Presumably...
Because you were pretty young when you became successful.
Yeah, but I worked in the movie cinemas,
you know, making the popcorn,
and, like, catching people doing things in the back row.
I'd have a torch,
and I'd, like, catch them doing stuff in the cinemas. Dodgy.
And I was... What films were they showing?
Like, regular! Oh, OK.
You know, like Harry Potter.
Yeah, Harry Potter! LAUGHTER
And then I still worked at the movies
when I was in my very first movie,
and so the movie was playing, and then the people would come out,
and I'd be the girl there holding the rubbish bag.
And they'd go, "Weren't you just in that movie?"
And I'd be like, "Yeah."
Let's talk about Jason's new movie.
Jason has got a new movie coming out, not counting Juliet & Romeo.
And it's called The Salt Path.
And it is an emotional story, but I thought it was an amazing film.
Thank you. I really loved it,
and I urge you to go and see it.
They're amazing people. It's a true life story.
This is amazing. Tell us the story.
So, these extraordinary people, Moth and Ray,
they'd done a bad investment deal with his best mate from school,
or a very good mate from school,
they got ripped off, and they lost their farm and everything.
There was a long court case.
And on the day they thought they would win
and be told, "It was a con," they went to court and they were told,
"You've got to get out of the house."
They'd lost absolutely everything? Everything.
And in that week, they had to go to the doctors,
he had arthritis, Moth,
he'd fallen through the bar and couldn't use his leg, his arm,
he thought it was the stress of the court case.
Went to the doctor and the doctor said,
"It's a terminal neurological condition,
"CBD, corticobasal degeneration, and you've got not long to live,
"cos you've had it for six years,
"and they're normally six or seven years."
And so they were in absolute blind panic.
The bailiffs came, and they hadn't properly packed the house,
under the stairs, there was a box, and in the box, there was a book,
and it was the Southwest Coastal Path guidebook.
And she said - Ray, his wife said - "Let's just walk."
He couldn't use one of his legs, and one of his arms and stuff,
and sadly, his memory, his faculties were going.
And they walked, and they were freezing, and they were starving,
and they were challenged...
They were homeless, and they were treated as homeless.
They saw what that was like in Britain.
And over the course of this walk,
walking these extraordinary landscapes and meeting people
and being, you know, at the lowest ebb a human being can be,
he started to get better.
His condition, which is irreversible,
miraculously started to reverse.
But this is the story of their first walk.
That's us... Gillian and I were with Moth and Ray there.
And it's such a privilege to play them.
If we can capture anything like the great love story,
and the mystery, miracle of his condition,
we'll have been doing a good service.
As I said, you hear the story there, I watched the film, and I loved it.
And it's an incredible performance from you, and Gillian Anderson,
as well as the cast around you. Have a look at this.
Maybe we should just follow a line around the coast.
And just walk.
Are you ready?
I can't move my arms and my legs, but apart from that, I'm good to go.
We've done extensive tests.
All we can do is give you guidance.
Agh!
You should take me back to the shop and get a different one.
I don't want a different one.
I thought the house and everything was us,
but it wasn't.
When you first told me that you loved me,
no-one had ever said that to me before.
I think you're beautiful.
APPLAUSE
That's The Salt Path.
It's out on 30th of May,
and it's a really beautiful, life-affirming film.
APPLAUSE
Let me ask you about Harry Potter.
OK, cos I imagine... CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
An incredible, phenomenal series of books,
phenomenal movies as well.
Presumably people still come up to you because of that?
Well, they don't really recognise me from Harry Potter,
because I rarely walk around with an elf.
Soon, I'll be passing the torch on, they're making a TV series.
And there's fantastic actors being cast. The same people making it.
And a wonderful showrunner, so it's gonna be great,
and it won't happen any more.
But you know what I remember about...
I was looking at photographs today in another interview,
and I saw the picture of us all in the courtyard at the end,
and it felt like the end, and we were all gathered together,
and we shot it right near the end, which was great.
And I just remember thinking what a privilege it was.
It rained almost every day,
so most American actors would go back to the trailer.
We all went in a tent.
And we ate tea in which the spoon would stand up,
it was, you know, like tar.
And we fought over the Family Circle biscuits.
And we listened to Jim Broadbent
and Julie Walters telling stories about her pig farm,
and I thought, "Please let it rain every day forever."
And then we got out there in the courtyard,
and the late, great Helen McCrory,
who was incredibly funny, would whisper to me...
Because we were watching Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort
do essentially a monologue, days and days and days
watching Ralph waltz up and down in his green diaphanous robe.
And she said, "I don't know how you've taken this for ten years,
"I can't bear any more of it."
And I thought, "She's right,
"I've got three lines in the next two weeks."
And I looked over there,
and there was Jim Broadbent, who's got an Oscar, with no lines.
And there was Maggie Smith, with an Oscar, and no lines.
And there was Julie, Oscar, no lines.
And I thought, "Fuck it, I've got three lines!"
LAUGHTER
It's a manner of perspective.
APPLAUSE
I just remember thinking,
"I will never be alongside these..."
But to see my name on the call sheet with all those magnificent actors.
But you were amazing in the role. You were amazing as Lucius.
The casting hasn't been announced yet for that character.
Who would you like to see play Lucius Malfoy?
Mmmm... Oh, I don't know. Danny Dyer?
LAUGHTER
You, possibly? I would do it.
You would eat it up.
Do you know what, I know someone in the casting office, funnily enough,
she came for dinner, and you know what you told me? What?
Fuck all. LAUGHTER
Let's take a break. Shall we?
But don't go away,
because up next, we'll be joined by David Oyelowo and Sophie Willan.
We'll see you after the break. APPLAUSE
Welcome back to the show.
Let's get my next guests out,
an internationally acclaimed star of stage and screen,
and a BAFTA-winning writer, actor, and comedian,
it's David Oyelowo and Sophie Willan.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Lovely to be here.
Hello.
Come and sit down.
Hello. Been a while, hasn't it?
CHATTER
Come and sit down.
Look at that. Yeah, a bit zhuzhy.
It's lovely to have you both on the show. Welcome back, David.
Welcome for the very first time, Sophie.
Are you a cricket fan, by the way?
I did used to fancy you when I was a teenager.
But I had very bad taste, I went out with a lot of scallies.
Wow, OK. You shouldn't say, "I used to fancy someone,"
then say, "But I had bad taste."
That is a very backhanded compliment.
Well, you were always the rebel, weren't you?
And I liked that energy. Did you?
Yeah. Good.
LAUGHTER
Ugly, but a rebel.
No, fabulous!
Yeah. Now you're more serious, which is brilliant.
Thank you.
So I'm boring, then, Sophie? No!
No, you're a laugh. We did have fun back there, didn't we?
Yeah, we did, yeah.
I feel like I'm at a weird Tinder date.
It is a bit. I don't know what's happened.
I started it, and I apologise. Yeah, sorry.
FREDDIE AND REBEL CHAT
You've just come back from a wellness retreat?
I have. What are you chatting about over there?
Slagging me off now. No!
I have come from a wellness retreat. Where was that?
It was in Mallorca. It was fabulous.
Have you been to that place before?
I have not, but I have been to them.
But they're not... It's not...
It's mainly sort of middle-aged women
having some sort of emotional breakdown.
But this was nice cos I had my own room.
Do you share a room sometimes?
I have done.
I actually shared a room with two twins
that had both been cheated on and gone through a divorce.
And it was a lot.
And in the middle of the night, I heard a rustling.
I said, "You all right?"
And then I could hear her crying and eating a satsuma. It was a lot.
Because you have to sneak food in.
So she wanted something to fill the emotional hole?
Yeah, which is why they'd ended up there.
Cos they'd been through a lot.
That's kind of a tough experience.
It was, cos they had sleep apnoea, so it was like...
SNORING
It was a lot.
Yeah. DAVID LAUGHS
LAUGHTER
David?
Yes. Sorry.
Sorry, it's the visual. You looked like you were milking something.
I'm horrible, actually, yeah (!)
So, David, let me ask you about living over in the US,
which is primarily where you are now? Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct. What do you miss about here?
What do you miss when you're living there?
Oh, God. The theatre, I think is the thing I miss the most.
So you miss the thrill of performing live in front of a crowd?
Just being around the actors as well.
I was just admitting to Sophie backstage
that, actually, I didn't tell you this,
watching you in Civvies, when I was very young...
Watching you and Lennie James in Civvies was one of the moments
I just thought, "Oh, gosh, I would love to do that."
You were just extraordinary. Oh, thanks.
He had a crush on you as well.
Yeah. LAUGHTER
And I still do! That is the difference.
Yeah, that's it. It was a chest wig, I'll tell you now.
Oh, really? OK. You had quite a big moustache in that, didn't you?
Yes, but Karl Francis, the director, who was bald,
he said, "Let's get you a chest wig.
"Women love rubbing their fingers through my hair."
I went, "You're bald, you idiot!"
But I wore the chest wig cos it was my first lead,
and I did what I was told. It doesn't change anything for me.
The artifice isn't a problem!
When you were on the show last time,
we talked a little bit about your mum.
Did she get to see you perform live?
Cos I know how much she supported you.
Yeah, yeah. Well, she never fully came to terms
with the reality that it wasn't me when I was performing something.
The worst of it was, I did a play called A Taste Of Honey,
it was one of the first shows I did out of drama school,
and she could never understand that it wasn't real.
And in the play, at one point...
And I had just gotten married in real life, to my wife.
And my parents came, and sat in the front row,
both dressed head to toe in Nigerian regalia,
which is very bright, which is not helpful,
but that was typical of them.
And at one point, I have to kiss the girl,
and I'm kissing her, and I hear, "Put her down."
LAUGHTER
"Put her down!"
And I'm thinking, "Who's talking?"
"Tokunbo" - that's my Nigerian name -
"Tokunbo, put her down!"
LAUGHTER So...
LAUGHTER
I am not exaggerating. This is exactly what happened.
After the play, she's at stage door, "Do you know you are married?!"
I was like, "Yes."
And my wife was in the audience, she knows!
LAUGHTER Anyway.
So, I need to congratulate Sophie on the incredible Alma's Not Normal,
the series which you created, you write, you star in.
Do you produce it as well? Are you involved...?
Exec produce. Exec produce.
Winning a BAFTA out of the gate...
Two of them, actually, Jonathan. Oh, thank you.
I've been dying to correct him all night.
Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry. I'm joking.
I'm so... Well, no, you should be proud of that.
Remarkable. It's amazing, that show.
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's absolutely amazing.
If you haven't watched it, you should watch it. It's fantastic.
For those who haven't watched it, explain it to them.
What's it about?
Alma, she's not normal.
Er, she's from Bolton.
It's kind of intergenerational story,
three women, different generations.
The mother has a drug addiction and psychosis.
The grandmother wears a lot of leopard print
and has been through a divorce.
They're an eccentric bunch, I suppose,
and Alma's at the centre of it.
And it's not directly based on your life, per se,
but you draw from things in your life.
Draw from personal experience, yeah.
You're up for two more BAFTAs. I know.
Two more BAFTAs. That will be four. I know.
How excited were you? Because I think it was during lockdown?
Yeah, so, we were filming Alma.
My grandma passed away, actually,
and she'd always wanted me to act and stuff,
and the day that she passed away
was the day I found out I was nominated for a BAFTA.
Wow. I know.
It's weird, actually, cos she took ages to die.
She was dead stubborn. LAUGHTER
And she left on a super pink moon, and she left me a BAFTA.
You know, she was a show-off, and I was very grateful.
But then two weeks later, we were filming in lockdown,
and I was left in this sort of barn, converted barn,
cos you couldn't be out.
And I dressed up for it, but not thinking anything, and I won.
So they didn't hold a ceremony, of course,
cos they couldn't, it was lockdown. Yeah.
So you were watching it remotely, I guess?Yeah.
And it is lovely. We've got some footage of this.
Oh, yeah. I guess, in a way, would it...?
In a way, it's the moment your life changed, to an extent.It was.
It had already changed, but what a big thing.
And Jayde Adams was there with the camera.
I didn't know she was filming it.
Well, you can tell, actually, when you see this.
Have a look at this.
'And the BAFTA goes to...' PHONE ALARM
'..Sophie Willan.' SCREAMING
AUDIENCE LAUGHS
SCREAMING
AUDIENCE APPLAUSE
Oh, my God!
I can't believe it. I'm so sorry, I've won a BAFTA!
I've won a BAFTA! I've won a BAFTA!
APPLAUSE
That's just delightful, isn't it?
Yeah. You film it in Bolton, don't you?
Yes, film it in my hometown.
Do you get recognised much when you are filming?
It is a big hit, anyway,
but people must love that you're still doing it.
In Bolton, they love it. And that's quite nice, in't it?
That they don't feel annoyed by it.
But there's a scene where I'm on a scooter,
you know, but actually, I'm on the back of a lorry on the scooter,
so you're just stood there.
And then there was a bit where we were stuck in traffic,
and I was just stuck at these lights for ages.
And there's a pub right there, and they were all outside drinking,
and we just shared this awkward look.
This one guy looks at me and goes,
"I bet you feel like a right prick, don't you?"
LAUGHTER You know Lancashire.
And I went, "I do, actually." He went, "Well, good on you, lass."
It was lovely. And I went round, but then I had to keep going round,
so every time I went round, they'd be like, "Wahey!"
And it happened about four or five times.
It's such a funny show. I mean, it is such a brilliant show.
And it must be nice for you to sort of...
"Vindicated" is maybe not the right word,
but to know you could do something and then to finally get the chance.
I guess, when you were growing up,
you wouldn't have seen many examples of people writing stuff,
appearing in shows, being on television.
I mean, Victoria Wood, Caroline Aherne,
I think that was a good era, wasn't it?
And then when they died, it was actually quite good for me.
LAUGHTER
It's horrible to say. I mean, I love them both, but...
But it's a silver lining.
"Northern women can be intelligent and funny.
"Quick, let's find a new one, get her in!" And I was ready.
It's like I'd been waiting, you know what I mean?
Did you ever meet Victoria Wood? No, thank God.
She'd have not liked that, would she?
She would have found that funny.
She would have laughed. I worked with her.
I'd have loved to have met her, actually.
When I told Freddie you were on the show,
he was very excited there was another northerner on.
Yeah, we've got the same humour.
We were laughing back there, weren't we?
We were having a good laugh. Yeah.
I accidentally stuck my tongue out at him.
You know you're supposed to do that awkward wave, I just went...
like that.
It's just the panic, isn't it, the nerves?
Yeah... LAUGHTER
I tell you... I'm panicking now.
LAUGHTER
Stick my tongue out. No, Freddie, I was laughing
because you know when you said about your dad with the big hands?
That's very northern.
You know, they're not poetic with their nicknames.
It is like Mad Sue. You know?
In Alma, I've got Winky Ann cos she's got a lazy eye.
Winky Ann, Mad Sue.
It's never poetic. It's just dead economical, in't it?
Big Hands. You know, that's all you need.
It's really on the nose. On the nose.
What would they call him?
LAUGHTER
Moving on.
This is the best rumour
to have to deny about yourself, though, isn't it?
It's gonna keep me faithful forever, I tell you that.
You know, so, BAFTAs, already got two.
I've been corrected. Maybe two more on the way.
Do you have your eyes set on Hollywood, on movies, on Oscars?
I would like BBC to sell Alma to Netflix and abroad to America.
That'd be nice, cos of White Lotus,
we've got Aimee Lou Wood repping northern women. We have.
So when they say,
"Oh, we can't have them, not since Daphne from Frasier,"
we've now got Aimee Lou Wood. Whoo!
So I'm hoping she's gonna be the gateway.
I thought you were gonna say,
"I'm hoping she'll die so they can put me in."
No, no, I love her. Oh, good.
Because we don't want that. No-one's saying that.
But Rebel's been to the Oscars.
You presented at the Oscars a few years ago, didn't you?
I did, yeah, at the 2020 Oscars,
I got to present cos I was in a hit movie, Cats (!)
LAUGHTER
So they said,
"Would you like to present? But you have to dress as a cat."
I have a picture. Oh, yeah.
This is the picture of you on stage.
And it does look like there was a moment when,
"OK, this is a good idea,"
and then, "Maybe this isn't such a great idea any more."
OK, this is... Have a look at this, on stage at the Oscars.
LAUGHTER
So, that's the cat look.
But we have this picture of you when the award's being given.
Shall we put up the other picture cos this is amazing. Can you see...?
There you go. LAUGHTER
What I love about that is,
you're standing looking solemn and respectful,
both dressed as cats. Yeah.
Freddie, do you ever get starstruck? Cos you've met most people.
And most people are excited to see you,
but you're a very down-to-earth kind of guy.
Cricketers. Cricketers, mainly.
Cos they're the ones as you were growing up,
but then I remember years ago, Elton John. Wow.
Well, he's a cricket fan.
And then when we won in 2005, he took an interest,
sent some Champagne for us to drink on the bus.
And they had a charity function the following year,
and he came and did it for us at Battersea Park.
So, he got his piano, and he did a bit of singing.
And then he asked us to go and sing with him, Rocket Man,
cos that became like the anthem of the trip.
Unbeknownst to him, I can't sing. So he dragged me up.
I've sat there trying to sing it, and he sent me straight back off.
LAUGHTER
But, yeah, for me, it was always cricketers.
And obviously, everybody on this couch tonight.
LAUGHTER
Just on Elton John, though, I have actually tongue-pashed Elton John.
What? What?!
Yeah, it was at an Oscars after-party, and he came in.
It was 3am in the morning, at just one of the crazy parties.
And I thought he was coming in to kiss me on the cheek,
and he full-on kisses me on the mouth,
and we do a full-on tongue pash.
And I'm like, "It's Elton John..." Wow.
"..I'm just gonna go with it." And it was incredible, so...
I reckon I would as well. LAUGHTER
You would. You would. Elton John, innit? Rocketman.
It was great. Yeah. You'd have to bend down.
All right, easy! Whey. LAUGHTER
Cos he's shorter than you! Bloody hell.
Oh! Getting a bit wild.
David, I'm glad your mum isn't here to see what's being disc...
What would she say? Well, she'd think it was all real.
Yeah. LAUGHTER
We're gonna take a break,
but don't go away because up next, we'll have more from my guests,
and Wet Leg will be performing live at the end of the show.
See you after the break. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Welcome back to the show,
and you'll be thrilled to know all of my guests are still here.
And David is a phenomenal actor.
I have never seen you give anything other than a fantastic performance
in anything you've done. APPLAUSE
And it's the truth.
And he's got a new series with a very odd title.
It just dropped this week on Apple TV+.
And it's called Government Cheese. Yes.
Which is a weird phrase. Yes, here...
What does it mean? ..not in America.
Well, government cheese is sort of government-subsidised food.
A bit like in World War II, when we had rations,
so it's the equivalent of that.
And low-income families would get this government cheese,
and particularly in the African American community,
it became this delicacy
because they would make these grilled cheeses out of them,
mac and cheese with it.
And so it's symbolic of the fact that in the...
In the show, I play Hampton Chambers,
who's the patriarch of this family,
and they are all aspirational to do something other than they are.
He is... When we first meet him, he is in prison.
He feels like he's had this spiritual epiphany
about an invention of a self-sharpening drill.
I thought that's a good invention. You thought it's pretty good, right?
It is a good invention. Yeah.
And so he decides, when he gets out of prison,
that's gonna be the thing
that is gonna help his family forge a better path.
Transform all their lives. Exactly.
It's a lot of fun to watch.
It's set in '68, I think, or '69? '69, yeah.
So there's some great fashions in it.Yeah.
Some great music in it as well.
As I said, it's just out now for you to watch on Apple TV+.
Have a look at this.
Dad can make something out of nothing.
He made the best sandwiches
out of government cheese and white bread.
All that poisoned food is probably what made him a criminal.
This invention is my family's future.
What's wrong with him? You would know if you'd been around.
Do you know the Prevost brothers?
GUN COCKS, SHOUTING
I owe the Prevost brothers? I think you have a date.
Are you in trouble? No.
Do you need money? Yes.
It's best to deal with situations in a timely fashion.
Dreamers are dangerous.
Then consider me dangerous.
APPLAUSE Government Cheese.
Now I know what it means, it makes sense.Yeah.
But it is talked about in the show as well.
Where did you shoot that? Where in America were you?
We shot that in the San Fernando Valley,
which is where I have lived for 18 years.
And nice place to shoot?
Well... I will say, I have an apoplectic phobia of snakes.
This... We had three snake wranglers
because they had told us
that everywhere that there is a tall grass
is likely to have snakes in it.
And... at one point, we were going for a take.
The camera woman suddenly jumps out of her skin and says,
"Snake, snake, snake, snake, snake."
The snake wrangler rushes in, has this contraption,
pulls out this giant snake out of the...
out of the grass, and everything in me is thinking,
"Get out, get out, get out."
And they go, "OK, the snake is gone, and roll sound, and..."
And we're straight back in, and I'm just thinking,
"Lord, I am Hampton Chambers. You're Hampton Chambers.
"You're not David Oyelowo, you're Hampton Chambers."
And they picked up about two or three snakes a day. Wow.
Can I just say, though, I don't think that's, like, a phobia,
I think that's a very rational sort of response.
Sophie, who I'm so excited to have on the show,
because I think you are an amazing talent.
Everyone is an amazing talent here, but really a new, fresh talent.
And you are writing your memoirs, is that right?
Well, it's gonna be short story, memoir, manifesto.
Basically, I got the deal last week. I'm figuring it out.
OK, OK. Yeah.
But it is gonna be your story told in some form.
It's gonna be my story, and it's gonna have different chapters.
A kind of personal, political... er, manifesto.
Humour and also more poignant moments.
What is it going to be? LAUGHTER
I'm not really allowed to talk about it. Sorry.
My publicist will be in that other room going like that.
I was told you could talk about it. Oh, am I? No?
Yeah, all right. Yeah.
Sorry, this is a bit uncouth, isn't it?
You can tell I've not done one of these before.
So what can you tell about the book? Cos I'm genuinely excited.
Right, what I can say? It's gonna be a... Sorry!
It's gonna be a series of short stories. OK.
Kind of manifesto, memoir, humour.
I've said this, an't I?
Freddie, you've already had an autobiography out, haven't you?
Yeah. I think you're doing another one, is that right?
I've done eight already. I'm gonna do another one.
You've done eight altogether?
This one's gonna be like a short story, a manifesto...
LAUGHTER Yeah. Yeah, thank you.
Well, it is. It is.
I don't know if I can speak about it.
Today, I was told that's all I can say, and then you're digging.
But what you said didn't make any sense,
never mind, "That's all I can say." I don't know.
LAUGHTER Yeah, that's it.
You'll have to buy it. Yeah.
Do you know what... I did the deal like a week ago.
If anything, I'm even more excited about it now.Yeah.
OK, well, that is about all we have time for this evening.
So join me in saying thank you to all my guests tonight, if you will.
You've all been fabulous. Thank you so much.
This... APPLAUSE
This is the final show of the series,
but I'll see you again next year.
But now we catch these fish from their upcoming album, Moisturizer.
It's Wet Leg.
APPLAUSE
SONG: 'Catch These Fists'
# Can you catch a medicine ball?
# Can you catch yourself When you fall?
# You should be careful Do you catch my drift?
# Cos what I really wanna know Is can you catch these fists?
# Ah, ah, ah, ah
# Ah, ah, man down
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, level up
# I know all too well Just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# We're on our way to the club
# Stupid is, stupid does
# Limousine, racking up
# Ketamine, giddy up
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, man down
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, level up
# I know all too well Just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# He don't get puss, he get the boot
# I saw him sipping on dark fruit
# This always happens late at night Some guy comes up, says I'm his type
# I just threw up in my mouth When he just tried to ask me out
# Yeah, don't approach me I just wanna dance with my friends
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, man down
# Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
# Yeah, yeah, level up
# I know all too well Just what you're like
# I don't want your love I just wanna fight
# Man down. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Subtitles by accessibility@itv.com