Ep 279: Stephen Graham

Summary

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster - Episode 279: Stephen Graham

Release Date: February 19, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 279 of Off Menu, hosts Ed Gamble and James Acaster welcome acclaimed actor Stephen Graham to their whimsical Dream Restaurant. The episode seamlessly blends humor with heartfelt conversations, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into Stephen's culinary preferences, personal anecdotes, and professional endeavors.

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Welcome and Playful Banter

The episode kicks off with the hosts engaging in their trademark playful banter. Ed Gamble humorously references past episodes where James joked about "beating up" Stephen Graham, setting a lighthearted tone for the conversation.

James Acaster (03:33):
"I've called him out many times on this podcast saying that I beat him up for that. And now he's walked straight into the lion's den."

Stephen Graham (07:27):
"Thank you. It's lovely to be here."

The hosts quickly establish a friendly rapport with Stephen, ensuring the atmosphere remains both entertaining and comfortable.

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Stephen Graham’s Latest Projects

A significant portion of the conversation delves into Stephen's recent and upcoming projects, notably:

• A Thousand Blows: Premiering on Disney on February 21, this project showcases Stephen in a bare-knuckle boxer role, demanding rigorous training and dedication.

• Adolescence: A four-part Netflix series where Stephen co-wrote and stars, addressing heavy societal issues without passing judgment.

Stephen Graham (09:21):
"These one-shot episodes are designed to capture genuine moments, much like my previous work in 'Boiling Point'."

James Acaster (13:59):
"How do you balance personal feelings when portraying such intense subjects?"

Stephen Graham (17:10):
"I strive to remove my personal judgments to authentically reflect societal issues, allowing conversations to emerge organically."

Stephen emphasizes the importance of authenticity and empathy in his storytelling, aiming to foster meaningful dialogues among viewers.

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Training for "A Thousand Blows"

Stephen provides an in-depth look into his preparation for the bare-knuckle boxing role, highlighting the physical and mental rigors involved.

Ed Gamble (13:04):
"Did you feel like by the end of the training that you could enter into a bare-knuckle boxing match?"

Stephen Graham (13:10):
"The dedication required is immense. It took six months of rigorous training, strict diet, and constant conditioning to achieve the necessary physique."

Stephen acknowledges the discipline required to embody his character, praising his trainer and the comprehensive regimen that shaped his performance.

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Personal Food Memories and the Dream Menu

Aligning with the podcast's theme, Stephen shares cherished food memories, intertwining them with his dream meal selections.

Starter: Wonton Soup
Stephen reminisces about a perfect bowl of wonton soup in Chinatown, New York, describing it as the "Holy Grail" of wanton soups.

Stephen Graham (32:05):
"The dumplings were perfectly floating with bok choy and spring onions, creating a harmonious and delectable experience."

Main Course: Lobster with Auntie Vera's Chips
He recounts purchasing lobsters from Chelsea Harbor and pairing them with his late Auntie Vera's renowned chips, emphasizing their unmatched taste and texture.

Side Dish: Long Stem Broccoli with Chili and Parmesan
A healthy complement to the rich lobster, Stephen values the simplicity and flavor balance this dish offers.

Desserts: Milfui from The Wolseley and Nana's Apple Crumble
Drawing from childhood memories, Stephen highlights the authentic, homemade quality of his Nana's apple crumble, contrasting it with commercial alternatives.

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Humorous Interludes and Host Interactions

Throughout the episode, Ed and James infuse humor, referencing past podcast moments and engaging in witty exchanges.

James Acaster (21:40):
"You learn all your facts from Guy Ritchie films."

Ed Gamble (26:04):
"Stephen Graham is, I would say, a national treasure."

A notable moment occurs when the hosts playfully hint at previous tensions, only to resolve them with laughter and mutual respect.

James Acaster (48:22):
"I don't want another Romesh nick on our hands."

Stephen Graham (73:15):
"But I do find you funny."

These interactions highlight the camaraderie between the hosts and their guest, ensuring the conversation remains engaging and personable.

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Reflections on Comedy and Storytelling

Stephen delves into the nuances of acting and writing, particularly in realistic and emotionally charged roles.

James Acaster (54:16):
"I love the film so much. It could have gone so many ways."

Stephen Graham (54:09):
"It's about finding the same objective together to get there creatively."

He emphasizes the balance between structured storytelling and improvisation, drawing parallels to beloved procedural dramas.

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Closing Thoughts and Menu Finalization

As the episode nears its end, the trio finalizes Stephen's dream menu, intertwining personal significance with culinary delight.

Stephen Graham (72:26):
"That sounds really nice."

Ed Gamble (72:40):
"The two desserts sum up your menu nicely, blending fanciness with nostalgic comfort."

The menu crafted reflects Stephen's journey, encapsulating moments from his childhood to his professional achievements.

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Conclusion

Episode 279 of Off Menu offers a captivating blend of humor, heartfelt storytelling, and culinary exploration. Stephen Graham emerges not only as a talented actor but also as a storyteller who deeply values authenticity and meaningful narratives. Through shared memories and delectable menu choices, the episode underscores the essence of the Dream Restaurant: a place where dreams and stories intertwine over a perfect meal.

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Notable Quotes

• Stephen Graham (13:10):
  "The dedication required is immense. It took six months of rigorous training, strict diet, and constant conditioning to achieve the necessary physique."

• James Acaster (54:16):
  "I love the film so much. It could have gone so many ways."

• Stephen Graham (54:09):
  "It's about finding the same objective together to get there creatively."

• James Acaster (73:15):
  "But I do find you funny."

• Ed Gamble (72:40):
  "The two desserts sum up your menu nicely, blending fanciness with nostalgic comfort."

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections, focusing solely on the substantive conversation between Ed Gamble, James Acaster, and Stephen Graham.

Transcript

[James Egas]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[James Egas]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[James Egas]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[James Egas]

Whoa, easy there.

[Stephen Graham]

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[James Egas]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[James Egas]

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[Stephen Graham]

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[James Egas]

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[Stephen Graham]

Turns out you can love a work management platform. Monday.com the first work platform you you'll love to use.

[Ed Gamble]

Opinions will always differ. And so they should, because everyone draws from different influences. Parents, peers, politics, education, media, culture. What you believe depends on who you believe. Financial Times readers know that their opinions are reliable because they're shaped by trusted journalism. Robust opinions, confident decisions. Source FT to subscribe go to FT.comSourceSource FT welcome to the Off Menu Podcast. Taking the tortellini of conversation, pouring into the boiling water of humor. Bubbling away for just a few minutes until all of the great anecdotes float to the surface. It's the Off Menu Podcast Tortellini bowl of tortellini.

[James Egas]

That's a gamble. My name is James Egas and together we own a dream restaurant.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh no.

[James Egas]

And every single week we invite in a guest and we ask them their favour. Ever start a main course, dessert, side dish and drink? Not in that order. And this week our guest is Stephen Graham. Graham.

[Ed Gamble]

Uh oh no.

[James Egas]

Uh oh.

[Ed Gamble]

For Those of you who may not be across all of off menu lore, you might not know that James, on multiple episodes of this podcast, has said he can beat Stephen Graham up.

[James Egas]

Yep.

[Ed Gamble]

Because of something that Steven Graham said to Romesh Ranganathan on an episode of Jonathan Ross.

[James Egas]

He said that it's Romesh's fault for not being funny. If the audience aren't laughing and they're shouting and they're hecting him in Liverpool, well, bad luck. He didn't bank on me seeing that episode. I have called him out many times on this podcast saying that I beat him up for that. And now he's walked straight into the lion's den. Yes, I'm the lion.

[Ed Gamble]

We're assuming that Steven doesn't know about this.

[James Egas]

He's going to know. He's about to know.

[Ed Gamble]

Is he?

[James Egas]

Yeah, he is about to know.

[Ed Gamble]

Is he really? Because there's a lot of bravado coming out of you, Ed, if I feel like. Because you like Stephen Graham's work as well, and I think when you actually meet Stephen Graham, I don't think you're going to be able to say anything to him.

[James Egas]

I think Ed. Wrong. I've said it on a podcast about three times. Four times.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Benito put a section on the best of of me calling him out. That is basically saying it to his face.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

I know that when I say that, he's going to hear that.

[Ed Gamble]

So. Okay, so if he has heard it and he's coming in, what does that say to you about his level of confidence? That that's not going to be an issue.

[James Egas]

He's coming with his tail between his legs to apologize for what he said on Jonathan Ross about Ramesh. And guess what? It ain't going to cut it. No apology is going to cut it. I said I was going to beat him up and that is what's going to happen. Two hits.

[Ed Gamble]

Two hits.

[James Egas]

Me hitting him. Him hitting the ground.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay. Well, I think maybe things might be different when you meet him.

[James Egas]

Well, we'll see, won't we? You'll be eating your words on this food podcast. Have that as your start, a main course and dessert. Ed, your own words.

[Ed Gamble]

Do we? Me?

[James Egas]

Yeah. You're saying I'm not gonna do nothing.

[Ed Gamble]

I'm having my own words. Am I?

[James Egas]

That's what you're gonna eat.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Are we gonna bother with the secret ingredient then? Cause if it's you hitting him and him hitting the ground early doors, then he's gonna be at the dream restaurant straight away, isn't he?

[James Egas]

He will be at the dream restaurant straight away. But in the meantime, just, just for let's. I'll give him a sporting chance.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[James Egas]

The secret ingredient. Which. Which if he says he's going to get kicked out.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

A knuckle sandwich.

[Ed Gamble]

A knuckle sandwich. Okay.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, that's what you're going to give him anyway, right?

[James Egas]

Yeah, he will get that anyway.

[Ed Gamble]

So is it still the secret ingredient if you put it on his dream menu?

[James Egas]

So I'm going to punch him.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes. So he's at the dream restaurant. So it's not if he selects it because he's not going to pick a knuckle sandwich, is he? Or is he doing it?

[James Egas]

He might as well save himself the embarrassment and pick it because at least then it looks like he wants it. At least then it looks deliberate. Okay. That'd be my advice to him. You should pick a knuckle sandwich, mate. You should order one.

[Ed Gamble]

Stephen Graham is, I would say, a national treasure. So I'm absolutely devastated if you ruin this for me.

[James Egas]

Yeah, I can't.

[Ed Gamble]

I absolutely can't wait to meet him. He's done so much good stuff. He's got so much good stuff coming up. James.

[James Egas]

Oh, yeah. Well, you're.

[Ed Gamble]

You love. This is England.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You love time.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You love all his work that he's done with Martin Scorsese.

[James Egas]

Yeah, all the Scorsese stuff.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

He's in Gangs New York. It was in. He was in an amazing scene in the Irishman with Al Pacino.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, just.

[James Egas]

What? That's in a restaurant. We can talk about that if I.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, no, we're not going to talk about it though, because you're coming in all guns blazing.

[James Egas]

Correct.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, correct.

[James Egas]

He's not going to get a chance to talk.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

You might as well turn this mic off. Bonito. For what he sits in because he's not going to be saying anything. Do you know what else he's doing? He's got some stuff coming up. Ed. A Thousand Blows launches on the 21st of February on Disney.

[Ed Gamble]

Anything you want to say about the title? A Thousand Blows.

[James Egas]

Yeah, Two Blows.

[Ed Gamble]

Two blows.

[James Egas]

Me blow. No. And he also stars in. And there's Covid and Adolescence, a four part Netflix series which is coming soon.

[Ed Gamble]

All the episodes are one shot. It looks fantastic. And 1000 blows. He's playing a bare knuckle boxer and I was led to believe he's got an amazing shape for that, to truly play a bare knuckle boxer and done all the training and stuff. So, yeah, looking forward to this episode. This is the off menu menu of Stephen Graham. Welcome, Stephen, to the Dream Restaurant.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you. It's lovely to be here.

[James Egas]

It's a pleasure and a privilege, Stephen.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you very much.

[James Egas]

Thank you. Coming to the Dream Restaurant.

[Ed Gamble]

Now, normally at this point, James. James is a genie in this. And he bursts out the lamp. And I don't know why he hasn't done that.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, there's a lamp there. Should I.

[James Egas]

There's a lamp there. Yeah. I just forgot this episode again. No.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, he normally interrupts the guest by sort of going and bursting out the lamp. And he's not done that with you. And I'm intrigued.

[James Egas]

Oh, I thought it seemed rude. Just didn't seem appropriate.

[Stephen Graham]

Is that your only reason?

[James Egas]

Yeah, I just thought it wasn't appropriate to do that today.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So you threw him under the bus there, didn't you?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, I've absolutely thrown him under the bus. Cause our listeners will be going white. Cause every single other episode in, I mean, nearly 300 episodes, I'd say, Steven, he bursts out the lamp, but for some reason he seems to have a quiet reverence around you that he's never had for a guest before.

[Stephen Graham]

We do have the lamps.

[James Egas]

Yeah, it's right there.

[Ed Gamble]

Do you want Jones to try and get into that lamp and then burst out?

[James Egas]

What?

[Stephen Graham]

Should we just give it a shot?

[James Egas]

Okay. The listeners will have to believe me that I'm getting into the lamp.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

I put some sound effects in post that I'm squeezing in there. Let's talk about a thousand blows.

[Ed Gamble]

No good. Burst out the lamp.

[Stephen Graham]

We want you to come out the lamp. Right. So let's. Should we. Okay, we're talking. Go on, ask me.

[Ed Gamble]

Welcome to the Dream Restaurant, Stephen eight.

[James Egas]

Welcome, Stephen Graham, to the Dream Restaurant. Been spending you for some time.

[Stephen Graham]

Wow.

[James Egas]

You like that? That was good. You can swear.

[Stephen Graham]

Sorry?

[James Egas]

You can swear.

[Stephen Graham]

Wow.

[James Egas]

Let him fly.

[Stephen Graham]

How does he get up? Sell the lamp. I've never seen it before.

[James Egas]

That was. Good word, actually, quite well done.

[Ed Gamble]

Look. That's good. We got there in the end, didn't we?

[James Egas]

Yes, yes, yes. I just. I just wanted to say it was an honor first.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that's very nice of you.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Yes.

[Stephen Graham]

It's an absolute pleasure to be here.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you very much.

[James Egas]

Thank you for coming on A Thousand Blows. I'm very excited about. I'm a bit intimidated. No, I'm not intimidated, actually. You're a bare knuckle boxer in it.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

There's a lot more to him than just a bare knuckle boxer. But no, it. Look, it was a. It was a wonderful project to be a part of. And it kind of. It came from me and Hannah. We got sent a photograph of Hezekiah Moscow, who's played by Malachi Kirby, who was a young man who came over from Jamaica during the 1800s. And it was a photograph and an image of Hezekiah in his, like, you know, his box and attire, and stood there in this beautiful kind of regal shape and form that he was in. And so we got sent a photograph of that and two paragraphs. One about Sugar Goodson and one about Treacle Goodson. These two brothers who also existed at that time, who kind of ran the underground boxing scene to an extent in East London. And, you know, we. I worked on a. A program with Danny Mays called Top Buzzer. No, it was. That was the first time.

[James Egas]

Oh, wow.

[Stephen Graham]

Top Buzzer. You know, Top Buzzer.

[James Egas]

I love Top Buzzer, man. That was my introduction to you guys. You maze. Trent Crim from the Independent, what with that guy's actual name, James Lance.

[Stephen Graham]

James Lance.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Ashley Walters.

[James Egas]

I'd watch that. Me and my friend Jake Ashton. Shout out, Jake Ashton be listening to this.

[Stephen Graham]

Since you and Jake used to smoke a bit of weed.

[James Egas]

We. We watch Top Buzzer. Let's just say that.

[Stephen Graham]

Because I still. Every now and again, I'll get someone come over to me and go, oh, mate, we used to love watching Top Buzzer when we were stoned. I was like, oh, thanks, mate. Well, that's kind of the audience we were aiming at.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Yes. That's what I was. When I saw this, the cast list, I was like, it's a Top Buzzer reunion.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, it's. It's similar.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So it came from that. That, you know, that was the. That was it within its embryonic stages. And then Hannah kind of went, this is really good. This could be really interesting. I was like, okay. And they were looking for a writer. And she said, I know who write this. And I was like, okay, who's going to write it? And she went, steve Knight. And I was like, shut up, love. Behave. There's no way he's going to write. Are we going to get Steve Knight to write this? And then she was like, well, I've been talking to his assistant. They want you to do Peaky Blinders and blah bl. And she went, I think he would really love this. You know, I know what kind of stuff he likes, and I'm gonna see what he says. And I just kind of. I'm one of them ones where you go, okay. Although she is the brains behind everything. Do you know what I mean? She's. Yeah, she's phenomenal. But I was like, okay, love, nice one. And then literally three days later, she went, oh, look at this. And I walked over and there was an email and it was off Steve Knight saying, I would love to write this script. Wow, this sounds right up my street. And that's kind of how the process began, do you know what I mean? So if it wasn't for Hannah making that marriage in the first place, we probably wouldn't be sat here now.

[Ed Gamble]

You need someone who has that belief sometimes, don't you? Like, yeah, I can definitely make this work.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, completely. But also she knew who'd be ideal to write it. Do you know what I mean? And thankfully, he said, yeah, that's great.

[James Egas]

Did you got some of the press shots here as you swinging the punch?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, okay.

[James Egas]

Did you have to do a lot of training? Do you train up for this one?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, it was. Yeah, it was a lot of training, A lot of eating. Yeah, and a lot of training. So to, you know, and to get into that shape, it took six months, so it was like it was done properly. I had an amazing trainer, Rob, who was kind of. He did all my training and also on my diet and everything. And then I had a good friend who did all of my boxing training with me, Graham. He. I was with him like three times a week, and I was training five, six times a week as well. But we. I got all my bloods tested and everything, and my kidney and my heart and every. You have to go through a full MOT first. And then we slimmed down and then we kind of built up the muscle as we, as we went along. But it did, it took in the total process was six months.

[Ed Gamble]

Did you feel like by the end of the training that you could enter into a bare knuckle boxing match?

[Stephen Graham]

Cameras make you look really good. I really appreciate and you know, the dedication and the work that goes into. To that kind of. To that pugilism. But MMA and boxing and all of those kind of martial arts is unbelievable. The technique and the ability, do you know what I mean? And the stamina and the determination and just that, you know, you do. It becomes a regime. You have to eat as healthily as it says. You just follow everything that they tell you to do. Do you know what I mean? But it's lots of protein, lots of chicken, fish, vegetables, small amounts of carbs, and you just have to Keep eating these on a regular basis and lots and lots and lots and lot, lots of protein.

[James Egas]

And are you enjoying because like it's a food podcast. So like when you are doing, doing that, does it stop being enjoyable, like eating food or are you still looking forward to it? You know, is there certain little treats?

[Stephen Graham]

In the beginning, this slimming down, the losing the weight was kind of hard. And then when we got to that next stage of like, right now we're going to build from that structure, then with the eating the rice and the chicken and stuff and the broccoli and it was okay. And then you're throwing in a whole meal bun as well, or cobbler you call it, that's your treatment. But then after a while, do you know what I mean? And in between them, you've got to make sure that you get your protein. But when it comes to like half nine, ten o'clock at night, you've got to eat another 120 milligrams of natural yogurt with two scoops of whey.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

And one Malteser is your sweet. It's a bit hard, you know what I mean? Forcing that down your butt. It was a great experience and it was just that, you know, I really, really admire and appreciate what goes into trying to achieve that look. Or for athletes more.

[Ed Gamble]

How quickly would you say you managed to. Once you didn't have to eat like that and you'd finished filming, how quickly did you destroy all of your six months of work?

[Stephen Graham]

I didn't.

[Ed Gamble]

You didn't. You just kept going with it. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Mostly managed to keep it together a little bit, you know what I mean? To that extent.

[Ed Gamble]

So you're still in boxing shape?

[Stephen Graham]

No, I wouldn't say I'm fighting weight. No. Kimbo's just finished, so there's a bit of turkey. Yeah. Some crackers and cheese and all that right around me a little bit. But it's something that I've kept on doing, you know what I mean? I've kept going to gym and stuff.

[James Egas]

And I've maintained that also adolescence will be coming out in 2025.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Which is something that you co wrote as well. Every episode's a one shot.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

What?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, there's four. Four episodes and each episode is one take. Wow. And again, that kind of. I mean, it's a bit of a heavy subject in many ways, but that kind of come from something that, you know, I had an idea a couple of years ago. A young girl got stabbed to death in Liverpool just before Christmas and she was 13 years of age. She was stabbed by a young lad who was her age. And there was three boys. And I just, you know, just kind of made me think, what's happening? What's going on? Where are we? That this kind of thing happens in broad daylight. And then there was a young girl as well. Forgive me, I forget the names of these beautiful people. There was a young girl at a bus stop not long ago, do you remember, in southeast London. And their boyfriend stabbed her to death.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

And then there was that lovely young trans girl who was murdered up in Leeds. She was lured into the park by those two and she was stabbed to death. And I just kind of thought, what's going on with our society? That these kind of things are happening quite regularly in a little way. Do you know what I mean? And just thought maybe it was a good thing to look at without judgment or with anything, but just to see why. Why these kind of things are happening. See if we can try and have some way of understanding it. And as a parent myself, do you know what I mean? Who has. Too late, teenage now our Grace is 19 and Alfie's 18. Just kind of try and shine a light on that and look at it from a different perspective.

[James Egas]

Because there's a big part of, like, you know, acting and like, writing for, like, dramas and stuff is like, removing that judgment, like you say. But then obviously you have your own feelings about it and your own take on it. How do you balance that? And, like. Because comics, we just go on stage and run our mouths off.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

About whatever it is we think or whatever. But, like, how do you do that when you're approaching. Is it just second nature now that you try and just remove how you feel or remove the judgment?

[Stephen Graham]

I think in many ways that's a great question. I think you have to. There's a way of, you know, that kind of. And we don't sound pretentious in any way, shape or form. That kind of Buddhism sense of dispassion. So you have to remove your own passion, your own personal feelings from it. And maybe, you know, it's not an opportunity for me to stand on a. On a soapbox and shelf from the rooftops in any way, shape or form. It's just merely trying to put something on the screen which reflects society without the judgment. And then hopefully the conversation can be had with fathers and daughters and mothers and sons in their own home. Do you know what I mean? So hopefully you can reach through. Jack calls it a beautiful phrase. Jack's always Said it's an empathy box, the television. And hopefully, you know, you have an opportunity to put that mirror up to society occasionally and let them have a look at it. And then it's not for me to cast judgments at all, do you know what I mean? I may have my own views and opinions on it, but I have to take that out of what I'm making and try and be as neutral as possible.

[Ed Gamble]

What was the decision behind making them one shot episodes? What about the project felt like it needed to be that?

[Stephen Graham]

Well, it was because of. We did a film. We did a little. A little film called. Which actually is very relevant, Boiling Point, which was set in a kitchen, which we loved.

[Ed Gamble]

Yes, we spoke to. We had Izuku Hoyle on the podcast and sponsor about that as well. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely brilliant film.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. And I thank you very much. Thank you. And it would, you know, that was a pleasure and it was an honor to do. And we, we got approached about doing something in a similar vein, but I didn't really want to do that. I wanted to try and tell a story along the process of 18 months or 13 months and just jump in to this story on that timeline, maybe for an hour every time, because that's all you have, and try and progress that story along within the context of what we have to say within that time. Do you know what I mean? And keep the audience with you. And I just thought, I'm obsessed with 24 hours in police custody. I love it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, it's great, isn't it?

[Stephen Graham]

As soon as you, you know, it just drags you in. And I just thought, because I love that and look, procedural dramas, police dramas are great. They've been gone for years. Crackhead, you know what I mean? Prime Suspect, all of those great programs that I was brought up on, it's trying to find a new way of telling that same story. Do you know what I mean? So we just thought it really worked well with the one shot. It's our job then, and we're under the obligation to try and keep the audience involved, but also tell that story and have that story move along. I just thought it'd be a really good way to tell the story, basically.

[James Egas]

Well, let's see if we can do this episode in a one shot. Yeah, maybe Bonito won't edit anything out. Yeah, we always start with still. A sparkling water. Stephen, do you have a preference still, please? Still.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

How come?

[Stephen Graham]

It's a bit like Alka Seltzer or something in it, you know what I mean? I don't want to start my stomach rumbling before I've even had me dinner.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Do you know what I mean? Personally?

[James Egas]

Sure. Would you call it mineral water? Sparkling water?

[Stephen Graham]

You could if you want to. Yeah.

[James Egas]

So you're saying that you don't have the minerals.

[Stephen Graham]

See what he did there?

[Ed Gamble]

James is coming for you this episode.

[James Egas]

Yes, he did it.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes. He said the line, what was the astronaut.

[James Egas]

You want to see if I've got the minerals.

[Stephen Graham]

You want to see if I've got the minerals? Yeah. Oh, that was it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, that was it.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, you want to see if I've got any minerals. Yeah.

[James Egas]

That's a good moment for Tommy comes in.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. He's brave moment finds himself. You know what I mean? He gets to stand there and be. Yeah. Be what he's always wanted to be.

[James Egas]

That character which for the listener is the character in Snatch, knows a lot about. Well, maybe not food, but drink. Whole monologue about milk that you have in that.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes, that's right. What was it, pasteurized? Yeah, that was a great monologue. I remember the day we filmed that and. Yeah. And he takes the canton milk off me, then he throws it out the window.

[James Egas]

I've taken it as. I've never researched what Tommy says about milk. I've just taken it as gospel.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes, and so you should.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

When I drink milk, I think I'm not. The human stomach has not evolved to cope with this. I shouldn't be drinking this.

[Stephen Graham]

They've only been domesticated for however long it was.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah. It's been domesticated for. I think. Have I learned nothing? Why am I still drinking milk?

[Stephen Graham]

You shouldn't drink it.

[Ed Gamble]

James learns all his facts from Guy Ritchie films. That's.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

That's how it should be.

[James Egas]

Yeah, that's. That's. That's all I know.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Including, you know, that's why I'm a genie now. Because he made Aladdin.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Yeah. So now.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, now I see it it all on that.

[James Egas]

Yeah. I just based my life on Guy Rich's career choices.

[Ed Gamble]

Whenever he's cutting bread up, he says, guns for show. Nice for a pro.

[James Egas]

Don't. Yes, I do say guns for show. Nice for a pro. Yeah. Do you want anything in your water? Do you want some ice? Do you want some?

[Stephen Graham]

No, just on its own, please.

[James Egas]

On its own.

[Stephen Graham]

Let me just enjoy. Depends where we are, I suppose.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, this is good. So where's. Where's the dream tap for?

[Stephen Graham]

Well, now I'm going to sound like really, you know, me and Alan have just come Back from. We went to. I can't pronounce the name of the place in Finland.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

Right next to Father Christmas's house.

[Ed Gamble]

Rovaniemi.

[Stephen Graham]

That's you.

[Ed Gamble]

Well done.

[James Egas]

Wow.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, Good lad.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, I know. My wife worked there. She went and did a TV job there. And. Yeah, she loves Rovaniemi. And they went and met Santa.

[Stephen Graham]

Absolutely. What a beautiful place. And we stayed in this really lovely hotel, this Treehouse hotel. It was beautiful. The lights, gorgeous. It was amazing. But the woman said at the desk, you won't need to drink the bottle water. And we were like, oh, okay. And she was like, no, what is it? How do you pronounce it?

[Ed Gamble]

Robin Yemi.

[Stephen Graham]

She said, Robin Yemi. See, I said that.

[Ed Gamble]

Just leave that in.

[Stephen Graham]

She said, robin Yemi has the most purest water in the world.

[Ed Gamble]

Wow.

[Stephen Graham]

And I was like, really? She was like, yeah. And I was like, okay. All right. So obviously we get into the room and I just. My first in me. And I'm going, no chance. No, there's no way.

[James Egas]

There's no way.

[Stephen Graham]

There's no way. It's not happening. No way. And I literally put a case. And I went, cheers, mate. Thank you very much. Thank you. Shut the door, ran in the bathroom, grabbed a glass, had a sip, and I was like. I went, oh, honey, she's right. And she's off doing something. She's like, what? I went, the woman at the desk, she's bang on. This water's gorgeous. So, yeah. And I would have tap water from. From Robin.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, Robin.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And for the listener, by the way, we got to see some proper. You. You pretended to drink some water there. I'm not even lying here. I'm not. I'm not saying this to be a smart ass.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

I genuinely thought you'd swallowed some water. I knew you hadn't. I knew you'd mimed a cup.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you very much.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

When you have the Rovin Yemi water, do you want Father Christmas to be there?

[Stephen Graham]

Depends what time of year it is. Really.

[James Egas]

Sure.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. It'd be weird to see him in summer, wouldn't it?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

I want to see something in a Hawaiian shirt. Yeah. And sandals, Bermuda shorts.

[Ed Gamble]

That's all right.

[Stephen Graham]

There's a good character there, though, isn't it? What does Santa do when he's off?

[Ed Gamble]

Summer Santa. Yes, yes.

[Stephen Graham]

Summer Santa.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Maybe it would feel slightly different to your other work, the body of work. I feel like if suddenly it'll be a real left turn if you played summer Santa in something.

[James Egas]

We still do it In a oner.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

One shot.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

Santa on a holiday.

[Stephen Graham]

Santa on holiday.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. What do you reckon? Do you reckon he shaves his beard? Because you're not going to be wanting to get recognized by everyone, are you?

[Ed Gamble]

No. And if you're in a hot. If you're going to Hawaii or something, you don't want. You don't want a big white beard. Yeah. You don't want that.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay. So he shaves the be kids off.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Where's he going?

[Ed Gamble]

Away, I think. Yeah. Hawaii maybe. I think he wants to go somewhere warm, I guess.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Or in safari maybe.

[James Egas]

I don't know if that'd be in. His job is so grueling.

[Stephen Graham]

Don't you reckon? Mrs. Claus has picked where they go because she's the one who's doing all the graft. Really.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Do you know what I mean? So if it's anything like Aros, she's decided where he's going, he just goes along.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Do you reckon he gets told to shave before they go?

[Ed Gamble]

I'd imagine so. I'd imagine. What happens is he gets told to shave every year. Then he complains about having to shave, but when he arrives he's like, oh, thank God you told me to shave because it's so warm here. But then he forgets by next year and he's like, I'm not going to shave this year. Do you remember what happened last year, Santa?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

So it must be weird for him to choose a location because he can get anywhere. He can get the whole world in one night if he wants to.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

So it's weird for him to go, are you serious? Where you're going to choose one place for a week.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. But then look at it, right?

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

He's kind of like someone that works is as a cabin crew. Does that make English?

[James Egas]

Yeah, Yeah, I think that makes English.

[Ed Gamble]

I think that makes English.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay, let's keep that English then. He's kind of like a cabin crew person. And then, you know, they don't always get to stop off duty the after. Clean the gaff, clean the plane, get everything done and then they're back off again.

[James Egas]

Sure.

[Stephen Graham]

So they know when you go, oh, you must see some lovely countries. Not really.

[James Egas]

No.

[Stephen Graham]

No. We stop, we have a little.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Ourselves together and have a coffee. Then we're back off again.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

And we're back home and we're in our own bed by half nine, 10 o'clock.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So it's the same for Father Christmas, isn't it, really?

[James Egas]

It's the. Even worse.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, even worse. Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

He's just seeing chimneys and.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Fireplaces if he's lucky. Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

It's just like necking brandies. He's so pissed by the second country that he doesn't remember any of it anyway.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Rudolph's not eating all of them, is he?

[James Egas]

No, slave. Rudolph, any carrots in there this time? None this time. Rudolph. I'll let you know if there's some in this in the next one. The world's changed, though. Yeah, yeah, One of those. Pop it on some bread. Stephen Graham, would you like.

[Ed Gamble]

James normally shouts this. The whole thing is he shouts it at the guest.

[James Egas]

Well, there's not a need to shout it every time.

[Ed Gamble]

What's happened is, Stephen, he's seen the pictures of you boxing.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, of course.

[Ed Gamble]

And he's got scared because, I mean, you're. You're almost certainly not aware of this, but James has called you out on the podcast before. Oh, oh, when he's called, he's called you out for a.

[Stephen Graham]

For a ruck.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

Hold on a second.

[Stephen Graham]

Is this. Is this fact?

[James Egas]

I don't remember this.

[Ed Gamble]

It's happened. It happened on Izuka's episode.

[Stephen Graham]

So you're back up with a recording of this?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's been out, you know. Can we play the recording?

[Stephen Graham]

Can you find a recording while we're in conversation and we'll get back to this team? We'll just put this on hold for a minute. Well, just for a minute. We'll just put this on hold for a minute.

[James Egas]

Yes, James.

[Stephen Graham]

Shut up, lad. I'm talking. We'll just put this on hold for a minute. If you find what he said.

[James Egas]

Whoa.

[Stephen Graham]

Then hang on, you've had your mini. We'll find what he said and then we'll come back to it. But for now, we'll carry on as normal. Yeah, right. We're still mates.

[James Egas]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

Just for now.

[James Egas]

I think Azuka might have said it. No, maybe you've got it.

[Ed Gamble]

You said it and Azuka laughed in your face.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

I think he's got his wires crossed, Stephen. But we will carry on.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, let's carry on as normal.

[James Egas]

We'll carry on as normal. I think you've got your wires crossed out.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay, you might say that, actually. I apologize if I've got my wires crossed, but I think we both know.

[Stephen Graham]

That we'll find out because we've got, you know, we've got factual. Oh, what?

[James Egas]

He's got his.

[Ed Gamble]

Which one? Which episodes probably happened on about five episodes.

[James Egas]

I don't think this will be.

[Stephen Graham]

Can we. Can we all hear this and see what they did?

[James Egas]

Meanwhile, Stephen Graham's just stood looking at you like he's gonna rip your head off.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's. That's his resting face, right?

[James Egas]

Oh, he's.

[Stephen Graham]

He's like a giant puppy as well, though.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Oh, here we go. Go on. No, no, no.

[Stephen Graham]

Sure.

[James Egas]

He is like a little puppy dog, so he shouldn't run his mouth off on TV shows. Has he ever, like, made a statement to counter your challenge?

[Ed Gamble]

No, because he's a busy man who doesn't need to be bothering himself with.

[James Egas]

Stupid little Jonathan Ross. And he. He fired shots at Ramesh. That's. That's all of us. And I'm disappointed in you, Ed, for not. Not calling him out.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, look, I. I'm not calling him out, but I'm very happy for you to call him out because I want to see what happens.

[James Egas]

You know what's gonna happen?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. You're gonna get your head.

[James Egas]

You're gonna get absolutely pummeled. As if, man. That would never happen. Have you seen him recently? Has he seen. Has he seen himself? Has he seen me?

[Ed Gamble]

Has he seen himself?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

How's that a comeback?

[James Egas]

Yeah, he looked at himself and went. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Even without him here, you panic there. Has he seen himself?

[James Egas]

Has he seen himself? Has he seen himself? Has he made me think again?

[Ed Gamble]

I don't want to see what would happen.

[James Egas]

I tell you what, we wouldn't even need one take, man. Me beating him up. We do that in half a take. Yeah. Game over. End of film.

[Ed Gamble]

Is it a film that you're getting beaten up in now?

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the hero. I think that might have been. Ed said. That sounded like Ed to me.

[Stephen Graham]

So what did I do to Romish?

[James Egas]

I don't know.

[Stephen Graham]

No, no, come on. You see, what did I do to Ramesh?

[James Egas]

I think that it's out there now.

[Stephen Graham]

Your ass went then, didn't it? What did I do to Romesh? Answer the question.

[James Egas]

Well, I think maybe what that was a reference to was I think you might have gone on Jonathan Ross with Ramesh.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes, I did. Yeah.

[James Egas]

And Ramesh may have said, this is just my memory.

[Stephen Graham]

Go ahead, because I'm with you now. I remember this thing.

[James Egas]

Go ahead.

[Stephen Graham]

What happens?

[James Egas]

I think Rubbish might have said that Liverpool audiences aren't good audience like playing in Liverpool.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And he said, because they heckle and they. They don't listen and stuff. And I think you said, oh, this is my memory. I'm just trying to remember. I think you said.

[Stephen Graham]

No, I said, I'll tell you exactly what I said. I said, maybe if you were funny. I rest my case. Bollocks. It's over. Yeah, that's what I said.

[James Egas]

Yeah, well, that's all I said.

[Stephen Graham]

Look, and I know some of you, some of have this attitude, whereas, like, I'm just doing my job. No, you're a comedian. I've paid fucking 25. 30 quid here. I brought me Mrs. That's 70 quid before I've even fucking sat down. And I want to have a laugh. So make me laugh. That's your job, innit?

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So fucking make me laugh.

[James Egas]

I agree.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you. And that's not just Scousers. That should be all over the bastard country if I'm paying money to go and watch a comedian. What I mean, you like fucking Duracell? Do you know what I mean? You're going on and on and on about bollocks. I don't want you doing that. I want you to be what you should be. Ron Seal. Do what it says on the fucking tin. Make me laugh. Bastard. End of story. Can we carry on now with the show?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

You okay, James?

[James Egas]

I'm good. I agree with you.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

I think that's a fair. Yeah, that's a good point, well made. It a good point, well made.

[Ed Gamble]

I always had your back, Steve.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you. Thanks.

[James Egas]

You know, I think in my defense, I think Benito edited that to sound okay. Yeah. Weird.

[Ed Gamble]

I think you should just admit you made a mistake and we'll move on. James.

[James Egas]

Yeah, Made a mistake.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

Pop dumps or bread.

[Stephen Graham]

I like popping on split.

[James Egas]

Let's get into your main meal proper now. Just get into your main meal.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

The dream starter.

[Stephen Graham]

Dream starter, yeah. Okay. Now I have. I come with an unfair advantage because I've played this game quite a lot. We call it something different. We call it death roll dinner.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, great.

[James Egas]

Lovely.

[Stephen Graham]

And on set, it's a great game to play with, you know, when you. When you meet new people and it's kind of between takes and all that, because it's. Yeah. So my dream started is I was in New York a few years ago and I was in Chinatown. And I absolutely love wonton soup. Yeah, I love wonton soup. And when I used to go to a Chinese with my mum back in the day when I was a kid and stuff, we used to test the quality of a Chinese by its wonton soup. So we'd start with the wonton Soup. And I found this. This restaurant. I was up some stairs and I went into this Chinese restaurant and I asked for a wonton soup. And it came and it was like I'd found the Holy Grail. It was this gorgeous bowl with some beautiful design on it. And it was just a lovely. I can still see it now. It just had the dumplings just floating in it. Just. Right. A little bit of bok choy, a little bit of spring onion and stuff. And it was just there. It was. It was beautiful. And I tasted it and it was absolutely gorgeous. So that's my starter.

[James Egas]

Can you remember the name of the place?

[Stephen Graham]

I can't. Oh, I could probably never find it again.

[Ed Gamble]

It's almost like that's better, like, because it's just a complete sort of, like, hazy dream.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

It's almost like it wasn't real. Just the perfect wonton soup.

[Stephen Graham]

Exactly.

[Ed Gamble]

That sounds beautiful.

[Stephen Graham]

It happened once and it'll never happen again.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, look, I'm salivating.

[James Egas]

Far away. Look in your eyes.

[Stephen Graham]

It was wonderful. I had found the Holy Grail of wanton soups.

[James Egas]

I think everyone's got that with, like, one food item where, like, they. They trying to find the best one.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Wherever they go. And when you do find that one, it is. It is very special and it probably is. I've talked about it on podcast before. Milton Jones and I, on tour did it with custard slices. We found one in a service station in Wales. It was the best one. We've never been able to find it again since. We thought that services has vanished. Like it was a ghost. Services?

[Stephen Graham]

Whereabout in Wales, was it?

[James Egas]

It was like literally the first services we got to when we went into Wales over the bridge. And it's the first. First one we came to and it's like it's not there anymore. We can't figure it out. We didn't. We didn't, like, log in our heads what the services was called because we were just so high on custard. And like, now it's like we just haven't seen it again. It was so. But like. Yeah. It was so great and I know what you mean. Probably the best that you don't even remember the restaurant.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

It's the surroundings as well sometimes, isn't it? If you're in New York, in Chinatown, it's so, like, evocative and. Yeah. What were you doing in New York? Were you. Were you working?

[Stephen Graham]

We were, yeah. We were filming Boardwalk Empire.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[Stephen Graham]

So it was quite a while ago.

[James Egas]

Al Capone Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You weren't still in character as Al Capone when, you know, taxes.

[Stephen Graham]

No, no.

[James Egas]

Did you keep that in your mind when you were playing Al Capone? Did you go, remember, I'm not paying tax?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Does that help with the character?

[Stephen Graham]

No, no, because he was up to.

[Ed Gamble]

Other stuff as well.

[Stephen Graham]

He had a lot of other things going on. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Syphilis.

[James Egas]

Syphilis.

[Stephen Graham]

And he got that from a very young age, actually.

[Ed Gamble]

Did he?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And his scars were very interesting how he got his scars as well when he got there. They were round about when he was 17, 18 or 19, I think, back in New York. And he used to work in a restaurant and there was a fella who was there with a young lady and he was a bit flippant. Al was. And, like, kind of, you know, flirting with this young girl in front of this fella. And the fella actually sliced his face.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, my goodness.

[James Egas]

Three times in a restaurant.

[Stephen Graham]

And. Yeah, it was like a kind of restaurant. Cafe where he worked. Yeah.

[James Egas]

Not our restaurant.

[Ed Gamble]

No. That would never happen in the dream.

[Stephen Graham]

Restaurant, in the dream restaurant.

[Ed Gamble]

Unless you wanted it to.

[James Egas]

If that's your dream, we're going to stand in the way of it.

[Ed Gamble]

People have rarely asked for that.

[Stephen Graham]

No.

[Ed Gamble]

What would you want your dream restaurant to look like? And who. Who do you want to be with for the meal as well? What are the surroundings?

[Stephen Graham]

Obviously, I'm there with Hannah.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

My Mrs. Okay. So when it's a dream, isn't it so.

[Ed Gamble]

Totally.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, my mum. It'd be nice to see my mum again. Yeah. So, yeah, Hannah, my mum, my dad, I think, and my two kids. Yeah. And we're sat there. Should we make it someone's birthday?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, of course.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay. Not mine. I don't want the attention. Let's make it Hannah's birthday.

[James Egas]

Hannah's birthday.

[Stephen Graham]

Hannah's birthday. Yeah. And. Oh, no. Okay, so now I'm bringing a lot back from the dead here. Let's have Hannah's mum and her dad as well, you know what I mean? So I brought three from the dead.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You don't want to have to explain to Hannah that you've had this power and you've not brought her mum and dad.

[James Egas]

You forgot.

[Ed Gamble]

Exactly.

[Stephen Graham]

That's what my brain quickly did. Yeah. So it's like, okay, we'll have all of us. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

And it'd be nice for your mum to taste the New York wanton soup as well, of course, as the fellow wanton soup fanatic.

[Stephen Graham]

And she'd go, oh, well done, lad. You found it.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So that Tuesday and we're in a nice round table with one of those. What's them. One of them lovely Lazy Susan. I love a Lazy Susan.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

It's a great name.

[James Egas]

It is a great name. It's fun.

[Ed Gamble]

It wasn't. Susan definitely wasn't.

[Stephen Graham]

I'm not lazy.

[James Egas]

She's running late to the meal arrived.

[Stephen Graham]

But it's like who's. You know, it moves around in the middle and who's. I think we'll call that a lazy. But anyway, one of those great tables and let's. Let's stick with the theme. Let's make it all. Although none of the rest of the food is. But let's make it a lovely kind of Chinese restaurant.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And what does make a great wonton soup? What this? What is the criteria that you're looking for every time you've had Flavor.

[Stephen Graham]

Pure flavor. But they're not being stingy with the little wontons.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Make sure that they've got a nice big. You know, they're solid.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You don't want to be looking. You don't be looking for them, right?

[Stephen Graham]

No, no. Because then it's all. Isn't it? You know what I mean? Yeah. Nice. Packed one tons.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[James Egas]

You don't want it to leave you wanton more.

[Ed Gamble]

How are we feeling about that?

[James Egas]

I'm feeling bad about it as soon as I said it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. How do you think that go down in Liverpool?

[Stephen Graham]

I do. That's why I'm sad.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. We were doing so well.

[James Egas]

It wouldn't. Probably wouldn't go well in Liverpool. I said that.

[Stephen Graham]

I don't think that would go well in any country.

[James Egas]

Your dream main course.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

Stephen.

[Stephen Graham]

I'm torn between two. Anna's roast dinner is phenomenal.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

She makes an amazing roast dinner. I think I'll be too full and I want to dos on the couch after that. So that's not going to happen. But it is amazing. So what I am going to do is I'm going to pull it from the memory banks and again it's in New York. But I can mix it about with other things. Can I?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

So me and me mate Buck, we went down to the Chelsea Harbor. Is it? I think.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. To this wonderful fish market. And we bought lobsters.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[James Egas]

Right?

[Stephen Graham]

But they weren't like ridiculously expensive. And they were two big massive lobsters. Huge lobsters. And he bought these lobsters and he bought some potatoes. Cause I think we'd been to a restaurant A couple of nights before and we had lobster and it was lovely. Lobster's my favourite. It's delicious. And he was like, we should buy some. And I was like, wow, where are you from? He's like, we'll go to Chelsea Arbour. And I was like, you can cook lobsters. And he was like, yeah, we've got a big pot, we'll just do them. So we bought these massive giant lobsters and he bought some potatoes and he filled the pot and he literally, you know, it's not. It's not the nicest thing.

[Ed Gamble]

Sure.

[Stephen Graham]

When it comes to cooking lobsters. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

But you do have to do that bit, otherwise it's even weirder, I think.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, of course, yeah, yeah, that would be very weird.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't want to be cruel so I'm just gonna eat it like a Big Apple.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

That wouldn't. In the Big Apple.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, in the Big Apple, yeah.

[James Egas]

So we get something in Liverpool. If I did eat it like a Big Apple in the Big Apple, surely that gets something.

[Stephen Graham]

Do I look like I'm laughing?

[James Egas]

No, you don't, to be fair.

[Stephen Graham]

So when you make me laugh, I will laugh.

[James Egas]

Ye, that's fair.

[Stephen Graham]

Ed's done it a good few times, haven't I? You've seen me.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love gigging Liverpool.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, I am capable of laughter.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, absolutely laughter.

[Stephen Graham]

We are all capable of laughter if we are made to laugh.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Yep.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay, so back to the story.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

He throws the lobsters in the pot with some potatoes and then we cracked them open and we had them with a little. That was it. So them lobsters and he had them with some potatoes. But what I would have with my lobster, I'd have that lobster from Bork, I'd have my anti Vera's chips because they're just unbelievable. They were unbelievable. They were the best chips ever. They were phenomenal. My anti Vera chips, they were thick, crispy, crunchy, but dead soft in the middle. They were. They were the perfect chip.

[James Egas]

So like a fryer at home.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, she did, she did it in the front. Yeah. Like the old fat. None of this, none of this air fryer. No. You know, it was proper old fashioned big, proper chip pan. Better than chippy chips.

[James Egas]

Wow.

[Ed Gamble]

That's a big call.

[Stephen Graham]

And I'm saying it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm saying it.

[James Egas]

That's huge.

[Stephen Graham]

Better than chippy chips. Wow. Well, better. These were gorgeous chips. So I'll have them and then I'd have some broccoli, some long stem Broccoli, little bit of fresh chilli and some parmesan on the top. Lovely. And that's it. I'm giving you the lemon.

[James Egas]

Yep.

[Stephen Graham]

Just to squeeze gently over the lobster.

[Ed Gamble]

Are you putting butter on the lobster as well?

[Stephen Graham]

I'm not.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

Just because we're in training for, you know, we've got to lose a little bit of weight, so I'm not.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

But you're more than welcome to.

[James Egas]

Sure.

[Stephen Graham]

You can even do a Thermador sauce if you want.

[Ed Gamble]

I always think that's. Yeah. I mean, it's not like I'm eating lobster every day or anything, but I like the. Just the meat of it is so good. With a bit of butter is delicious.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

So good.

[James Egas]

It's really good quality. And the things. That's got loads of flavor in it anyway. You kind of don't want to cover that up. No.

[Stephen Graham]

You don't want to mess with it too much, do you?

[James Egas]

That sounds really nice.

[Stephen Graham]

Do you like that?

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, God, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

That sounds amazing.

[James Egas]

Yeah. I'll get stuck into that. Are you putting on a bib for the lobster?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to get stuck right into it, don't you?

[James Egas]

And I like the fact you've got your auntie verse chips.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

With that as well. Like you got like two memories going on at once there.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Simultaneously.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And maybe you've. Yeah. You clearly always thought, what if I could just combine those chips with this.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, yeah, that was exactly like.

[Ed Gamble]

Do you. Is your Auntie Vera's chips? Do you think about them every time you're having chips?

[Stephen Graham]

I haven't had chips for a long time, but my Auntie Vera used to make the best chips, bar none. My mum was all right, but she couldn't. She didn't have a patch on my Auntie Vera's chips.

[Ed Gamble]

So that's almost good that you've had the best chips you'll ever have.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

So now when you're in training and you're not having chips, you don't worry about it because they're never gonna be as good.

[Stephen Graham]

No. And even to the extent when I took my. When Grace and Alfie, when we go to Liverpool occasionally and when my Auntie Vera was around, we go to our Vedas. The first thing them two kids would say was, can we have some chips? And she'd go, yeah.

[James Egas]

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[Stephen Graham]

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[James Egas]

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[Stephen Graham]

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[Ed Gamble]

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[James Egas]

So, your dream side dish.

[Stephen Graham]

Can I have some spinach?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay. I'll have a little bit of spinach then as well. Yeah. Garlic. Fresh garlic? Yeah. Mixed in there with the spinach.

[Ed Gamble]

I do love spinach more. More and more. I'm a big broccoli and spinach guy because growing up you're like, just get that down. You know, you're supposed to eat it if you want everything else. But now I look forward to the broccoli and spinach.

[Stephen Graham]

That's nice.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, It's a good vehicle for garlic and butter, essentially. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good.

[Stephen Graham]

Great vehicle. See, that's funny. It's funny.

[James Egas]

What? With the vehicle.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Are you sure?

[Stephen Graham]

I just saw.

[James Egas]

That was like a Small thing.

[Stephen Graham]

Do I have to explain? I just thought it was funny. He's in a vehicle, and I just saw some little broccoli sitting on some, you know, some garlic sitting on the broccoli. It's a vehicle.

[Ed Gamble]

It's me, you know, that's what I was doing.

[Stephen Graham]

He played with the words. He was very clever.

[James Egas]

That's you doing the work.

[Ed Gamble]

Clever.

[James Egas]

He didn't mean a little bit of garlic sitting on the broccoli.

[Stephen Graham]

It's not me doing the work.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

It's given from my head to go. Aha. That's funny.

[Ed Gamble]

Sometimes you just have to plant the seed when you're. When you're a funny comedian.

[James Egas]

What?

[Stephen Graham]

The funny's natural anyway. You just, you know, some people are naturally.

[Ed Gamble]

No. No matter what I'm saying, Ed, Gene.

[Stephen Graham]

Wilder don't have to work at it. You do, Ed.

[James Egas]

And Gene Wilder.

[Stephen Graham]

That's what I've said. Yeah.

[James Egas]

What the. You in that echelon now.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Listen, I'm your biggest fan. I pick you up all the time.

[Ed Gamble]

That's true.

[James Egas]

But Wilder. Yeah. Into G. Wilder.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And you're saying. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Wow. You're Wonka now.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Holy moly. Well, congratulations.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you.

[James Egas]

Didn't know you the new Gene Wilder.

[Ed Gamble]

Sometimes it doesn't matter what you say, if you're funny, it just.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

It just seeps out your paws, doesn't.

[Stephen Graham]

It's a natural ability.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

So you meant. You meant to put in the image of a little bit of garlic riding on some broccoli, like a vehicle.

[Ed Gamble]

No, the broccoli's.

[Stephen Graham]

The broccoli.

[Ed Gamble]

The vehicle.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

So the garlic's riding on the buckle.

[Ed Gamble]

But now you're explaining. You've made it not funny, which is.

[Stephen Graham]

Just with the chili and stuff.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

It's just. It has to. It has to just hit you subliminally. Do you know what I mean? I just saw him sitting on that vehicle.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

He brought. He brought the garlic and the. The chili to life.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Put yourself in my shoes. If I'm seeing Ramesh on a chat show.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And he's my friend, and he's getting absolutely destroyed, like, torn limb from limb. The audience applauded your comment.

[Stephen Graham]

I think they found me funny. And I think that's like, you know.

[James Egas]

Did you speak to Romesh in the green room after being.

[Stephen Graham]

Me and Ramesh. Text often. He's a lovely fellow. Yeah. We get on really well.

[Ed Gamble]

So Romish didn't mind, and you've gone on this campaign.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

On Ramesh's Behalf. You haven't even chat with him in.

[Stephen Graham]

The defense of war.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Defended. All comedy. All comedy.

[Ed Gamble]

Stephen likes comedy.

[Stephen Graham]

I love comedy.

[James Egas]

Yeah. I guess I can't say you don't, because you did find the vehicle joke.

[Stephen Graham]

Funny, and at the time it was funny.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

I do accept full responsibility for running the joke into the ground and removing the humor from it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Wilder wouldn't do that.

[Stephen Graham]

And you can tell I like comedy because I plucked out Gene Wilder from nowhere and even you were impressed.

[James Egas]

And what's quite impressive, it did come out of nowhere. Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

I was like, no, no, I'm similar.

[Stephen Graham]

Only a true comedian could know how funny Gene Wilder actually was.

[James Egas]

Yeah, that's true.

[Stephen Graham]

That's why I hate you.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

See, what I've done is I've beaten you without raising a finger.

[James Egas]

That is what's scary about it. It's like. It's like the fight's already happened in a way.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

But psychological. And it's over. We now don't need to fight it.

[James Egas]

Completely in my own head. Yeah. It's like, you know. You know, in. Yeah. You know, because like, we were. We were talking about food.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And now I just. I'm just defeated.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And it's like, you know when this is England and you're. You're talking about the food.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

With the scene with Milky.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

You talk about rice and peas and making food.

[Stephen Graham]

Of course. Yeah.

[James Egas]

And that's. That's why I feel.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. Can I tell you a quick little story about this?

[James Egas]

I think I know this.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, do you?

[Ed Gamble]

Well, that's an. What an awful interview technique. No, imagine that, having a guest on and them saying they're going to tell a story and going, I know this. I think I know this one. Before you tell it, I'm just too.

[James Egas]

In my own head. I can't even interview people now. I'm just letting them spoil the people's stories. I mean, Graham Norton knows everyone's stories before he.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Norton is just setting people up. Yeah. He never says, yeah, stop. I know this.

[Ed Gamble]

I know this one. The researcher told me it.

[James Egas]

I know this one.

[Stephen Graham]

He's never done that.

[Ed Gamble]

No, no, I. I don't know. I don't know the story.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay, I'll tell you.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you.

[Stephen Graham]

The night before we did that scene.

[James Egas]

Yeah, I know this.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay. But I shall tell her. I asked Shane and I asked Jimmy, who played Milky, because we were filming in. We were filming in Nottingham, I think, at that time, and I asked if we could go to his nana's. House and his nana could make us some proper rice and peas. And we sat down and had a really lovely, lovely dinner. And I met his family. And it was kind of, you know, for me, I wanted to do that so we could have that experience. And then also in the same respect, I wanted his nanny and his side of the family to know that what we were going to do the next day. Cause we didn't really know what we were gonna do. We had an idea of where it may go. But the beauty and the genius that is Shane Meadows, that's the kind of. That's how we work. You know, you improvise it so you're never sure what's gonna happen. You don't really have an end goal. It's all about where we go to and how we get there creatively as a collective, which is beautiful, which is a wonderful way to work. So it was for me to explain that whatever happened that next day, that's not how Stephen thinks at all. And that's not where Stephen comes from. Just to really explain it to them, but also, you know, to share that. There's something lovely about sharing a meal with someone else's family, isn't it? You know what I mean? They accept you into their family. And, you know, it was really beautiful. And also, I felt it was vital and important for me to explain that I'm mixed race as well. Do you know what I mean? So they completely understood where I was coming from. And then it just gave us that kind of sense of. When we were talking about it within the scene, we have that emotional connection and experience with it, because we did it last night. So I know what it's like to be in his joyous family. And he's speaking about what his family are like and how lovely it is, because I met his aunties, his uncles, his nana. And so I saw that. You know what I mean? And then we took that kind of knowledge and information and that emotional connection with sitting around together into the experience of the scene, which just gave it that real kind of sense of gravity as well, I suppose. You know what I mean? It came from a place of truth and authenticity, which is something I think every artist is striving for.

[James Egas]

Yeah. When you did the TV series for this Is England and you bought and the character came back, is it the same process there with the improvising? Because I remember because I loved the film so much, and then I. The TV series was almost like another magic trick where you go. Because obviously you always go, oh, I hope that they don't, like, undo what happened in the film and especially bringing your character back and trying to reconcile with that character. And I felt that by the end, it was the perfect end to it, but it could have gone so many ways. Were you improvising that as well? Like that what those characters were doing in the TV series, or did you have a really clear thing of this is where we want this to go between these two characters?

[Stephen Graham]

No, again, it's that same kind of process. Jack as well, Jack Thorne, who wrote that with Shane, they have a structure and we kind of have an idea of what's going to happen in the scene. But then as again, you know, we're allowed to improvise and create in that process, but we do have a rough idea where we're gonna go to, and it's about us finding the same objective together to get there. Do you know what I mean? But it's all improvised. Jack writes so beautifully. You absorb his writing and then you speak within the scenes and you suddenly realize that, oh, yeah, I'm saying a lot of the stuff that I've read, but you're also adding on top of it. You know what I mean? So that was. And that was one of the key reasons I did say when, because I was like, you've just said there. I had that same fear thinking, is it gonna be as good as the film? Surely the film's on its own, we should leave it alone. But it was when it was explained, and for me, it was more about then getting to follow the other characters and letting them all have a moment in the sunshine. Do you know what I mean? And I thought it was a beautiful series. I thought it was so well done.

[James Egas]

The television series, that whole final series, you know, is. But for me, when I was watching it, like, this is all about forgiveness.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And I just think that's an important thing for all of us to just keep in mind in this room with each other.

[Stephen Graham]

I see what you've done.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Just.

[Stephen Graham]

Just see where you're going.

[James Egas]

Just life in general.

[Stephen Graham]

No, no, I get that. And you've done really well. But, you know, I think that the key. One of the key aspects of forgiveness is to make sure that the other person, as well as yourself, accepts full accountability for their behavior.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Because then they're still holding on to something. And you can never truly pipe down.

[James Egas]

Monger, I'm trying to defend myself. Your dream drink. Stephen Graham.

[Stephen Graham]

Where me nana used to live on on the Road and Minana's Road the Lemo van used to Come round and the LEMO van was. It was think of a Schofield lemonade and it used. It was a red van and back in the day where you get crates a lemon delivered. Do you know what I mean? And if you give the bottle back, it was 10 pence. Yeah, yeah. The bottle was 10 pence and you got 10 pence back. But there used to be all these lovely flavors. But I'm just thinking about that. I remember, like during the summer, running around the block and that, playing footy and just like running everywhere and maybe about 13, 12, probably about 1112, 1110, 1112, running into me nanas, grabbing the Lemo out the fridge and just taking the top off and just. You know that guzzle just when you're yanking it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

You feel like you're about to have a heart attack. You just can't. You just. Your eyes are popping out, you've got tears coming down your face and then you put it down.

[James Egas]

And then.

[Stephen Graham]

Then that lovely bit in Elf within and you just had this almighty babe, didn't you? From nowhere. Yeah, that and the particular flavor that I used to.

[James Egas]

Oh.

[Stephen Graham]

Was in the fridge. I think it was pineapple.

[Ed Gamble]

Ah, pineapple lemonade.

[Stephen Graham]

Pineapple lemonade.

[Ed Gamble]

Great.

[Stephen Graham]

Full of thousands of E numbers. Of course it was, right.

[Ed Gamble]

Was it like bright yellow?

[Stephen Graham]

Each kid was getting a hell of a head rush and a buzz from it straight away. Do you know what I mean? It was our first double whip drugs, really. Lemonade with the amount of stuff that must have been in it, the amount of sugar in there, but that was it. It's got to be. And it was Schofield's lemonade. It was Schofield's lemonade and it was the pineapple flavor.

[Ed Gamble]

Was that the best tasting burp from the lemonade?

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, definitely.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah. Proper taste of pineapple when it comes back up.

[Stephen Graham]

It was from the depths of your soul as well, wasn't it? Or just like a little. Excuse me. It was.

[Ed Gamble]

I can't imagine how excited I would have been if there was a lemonade van coming around my house. I'd be at the window all day.

[Stephen Graham]

It was great.

[James Egas]

Sounds great. I've never seen a lemonade van before.

[Stephen Graham]

Everybody love it. Every week the LEMO van used to come around and also you jump on the back of it as well and get a little ride and get sheltered up and have to jump off. Yeah. On the back of the limo van.

[Ed Gamble]

The poor lemovan driver.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Every street you go, what are you.

[Stephen Graham]

Doing, you little shits? Get off Me, man.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Is it tiki?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

That's what we were like.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

That's what we were like when we were little.

[James Egas]

Constantly having to tell kids to get off his back.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

What were the other flavors? Do you remember?

[Stephen Graham]

Yes. They had American cream soda.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[James Egas]

I love cream soda. Beyond that, which was green. Oh, wow.

[Stephen Graham]

Fluorescent green. Then they had your traditional lemonade. You had. Not Coca Cola. You had a cola. Oh, and then there was like a kind of defunct. Oh, dandelion and burdock.

[Ed Gamble]

Nice.

[James Egas]

Of course. Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Dandelion and burdock. And then they had this kind of like ties, but not quite ties there, because it wasn't either.

[Ed Gamble]

Was it orange?

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, they had an orange. Yeah, they did have an orange.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

But then they had another flavor, like a red. Maybe it was raspberry, but it wasn't quite raspberry. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So, yeah, yeah, they had a crate. We used to get a crate. I mean, I used to get a crate every. I don't know if. It must have been Friday or something like that.

[Ed Gamble]

Great.

[James Egas]

Yeah. And where's the Schofields? Like a local? Like, was that that guy?

[Stephen Graham]

I don't know if it was that fella. It must have been the make of the. It must have been the company that made the lemonade. And the bottles. They had Scofield on the bottle. Scoe's bottles. I remember that because Drew Schofield lived across the road from Manana. And at first, when I was a kid, I used to think they were his. Drew Schofield is one of the reasons why I'm an actor today. He's a. You know, he's from Liverpool. He's a wonderful actor. And he was in a thing called Scully when I was a kid. And because he lived from. He lived across the road from my nanny, and I'd see him, I knew that being an actor could be achievable. It was obtainable because there's Drew, and he lives across the road. So if Drew can do it, maybe I can do it. I even said that to the careers officer. When the careers officer went, so, what do you want to do? And I went, I want to be an actor. He's like, no, come on, lad. What do you want to do? I was like, yeah, I want to be an actor. He's like, no, no, come on, Proper job. You be a brickie or an electrician or something. I went, no, I want to be an actor. You can't be an actor when I can. Drew's an Actor. He had no fucking answer to that because Drew was an actor, and Drew is an actor, and he's a phenomenal actor. His name's Drew Schofield. That's the connection.

[Ed Gamble]

But he's not connected to the Lemonade.

[Stephen Graham]

I don't think so. I'd have to ask him. But, no, I don't think the Lemonade anything to do with him.

[Ed Gamble]

If you'd known, if you'd found out he was. That might have destroyed your dreams of being an actor, because you're like, of course, he's just a. He's in the biz.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Once the Lemonade's done.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, maybe that could have been his cover.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Yeah.

[James Egas]

I had a teacher at school tell me that I couldn't do any of, like, you know, I. I was saying, like, I wanted to do comedy and a bunch of different things. Can't. Can't do that. It's not gonna happen. And then she turned. No. I'm not sure what you're gonna think of this story, actually.

[Ed Gamble]

You are so in your own head. You've never said that. You've never preempted one of your stories by saying, I'm not sure what you're gonna think.

[James Egas]

Well, we'll see what your opinion is.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Oh, by the way, I've heard this one.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.

[Ed Gamble]

You know I know this one.

[James Egas]

You know what happens.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

I was on tour. I went on stage in Cambridge, and someone had their. Not just their feet, but their entire legs on the stage. I looked, and it was her, my teacher from school, who told me I couldn't do this. I looked down as her mates. They're hammered. They just ruined the whole show. The whole show just shouted out, shout, Hector. And then when I tried to deal with them, they'd go, show some. They turn serious and go, show some respect. That's your teacher. I was like. At the time, I was like, I don't know, 30? Yeah. I was like, I'm 30 years old and they're getting teacher anymore. Shut up. They ruined it. And I came on stage and I was still on Facebook at the time, and I went. I went. I had a message from her because she had followed me on Facebook after their school, and she said she was hammered. She's like, that was great. We had a great night. We're in the pub across the street. Come have a. Come and have a drink with us. So I messaged back, where's this going?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

Now she's my wife. This is me. I got It. I got everyone.

[Stephen Graham]

He's laughing.

[James Egas]

He'S laughing. Wild Jean Wilder, come with me, and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. But basically, I said to her, I'm not gonna go for a drink. I did go for a drink of her. And then she. She said, the people next to us, they bollocked us for. For ruining the show. They said, we ruined the show. They don't know what comedy is. And I said, actually, I would never do this. Now I just ignore the message. But I went, actually, you did kind of ruin it. She was like, no, we didn't. She was like, that's what comedy is about. And I was like, well, I'd be. And it went on for a week. Back and forth. Kept replying to her, arguing with my old school teacher. She was like, you know, we on about. We were great. And then a newspaper, a local Cambridge newspaper wrote a review of it, the gig. And the headline was something like, sadly or tragically. It started out, oh, God, Comedian's Gig Tragically ruined by ex teacher was the headline.

[Ed Gamble]

Okay, I did not know this story. That's amazing.

[James Egas]

The whole article slags her off. So I just forwarded it to us. I tried to forward it and went. I think some people agree with me that you did.

[Ed Gamble]

Any response from her?

[James Egas]

She did. She said, well. She said, well, fair enough, then. I'm sorry. And that was it. I never saw it.

[Stephen Graham]

She did apologize.

[James Egas]

Did apologize. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now boarding. Group A, please have your boarding passes ready to scan. If your phone is cracked, old, or was chewed up by your Chihuahua travel companion, please refrain from holding up the line and instead simply go to Verizon and. And trade in any phone in any condition from one of their top brands. For the new Samsung Galaxy S25 plus with Galaxy AI on Unlimited ultimate and a watch or tap also on them. Service plan required for watch or tap. Trade in and additional terms apply. See verizon.com for details. The new Boost Mobile network is offering unlimited talk, text and data for just $25 a month for life.

[Ed Gamble]

That sounds like a threat.

[James Egas]

Then how do you think we should say it? Unlimited talk, text and data for just.

[Ed Gamble]

$25 a month for the rest of your life. I don't know.

[James Egas]

Until your ultimate demise. What if we just say forever? Okay, $25 a month. Forever. Get unlimited talk, text and Data for.

[Ed Gamble]

Just $25 a month with Boost Mobile.

[Stephen Graham]

Forever. After 30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as.

[James Egas]

Long as they remain active on the Boost Unlimited plan, we arrive at your dream dessert. Do you have a sweet tooth? Are you into desserts?

[Stephen Graham]

I can be, yeah, occasionally. But this is. There's two. One sounds quite poncy and the other one's like, really kind of. Yeah, I'll go with a poncy one first.

[James Egas]

Okay.

[Stephen Graham]

I've forgotten the name of the restaurant. Oh, hang on.

[Ed Gamble]

Where is it?

[Stephen Graham]

You've got the bath, the building there. And it's just that. Okay, a little bit. It's called the Woolsey. That's it.

[Ed Gamble]

Got it.

[Stephen Graham]

Well done.

[James Egas]

Well done, Ed.

[Stephen Graham]

Well done, Ed. Yeah, well done.

[James Egas]

Wow.

[Ed Gamble]

Not bad.

[Stephen Graham]

See, look, I'm saying, you can't just pull it out of my head.

[James Egas]

He did.

[Stephen Graham]

Can.

[James Egas]

Okay. Pulled it out.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Amazing. Well done. Yeah. Yeah, that was good.

[Stephen Graham]

Come with me, Mr. Wonka. Okay, so it's in there? Yeah, it's in the Wolseley, which is a really lovely establishment.

[Ed Gamble]

It is.

[Stephen Graham]

And it is a mil fui.

[James Egas]

Lovely.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

You looked so happy just remembering it there.

[Stephen Graham]

Well, because it's absolutely delicious. Yeah, yeah. The particular one that they do is gorgeous. Yeah.

[James Egas]

And what is it? What is that? Dessert.

[Stephen Graham]

Ed, could you. Do you want to describe the effect?

[Ed Gamble]

Milkweed puff pastry layers with sweetened cream. Would you say in between? Sometimes with fruit? Maybe you'd like raspberries or something like that. Dusted with. Dusted with icing sugar on the top.

[Stephen Graham]

Dusted.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, beautiful, soft, creamy center, but then also the real texture of the. The snap of the puff pastry.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, it's perfect. What's the description?

[James Egas]

Description, yeah. Well done. Yeah, that's well described.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah. Top marks. So that's. That's. That's one.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

The other one is Minana's apple crumble.

[Ed Gamble]

Beautiful.

[Stephen Graham]

Which is, you know, it was just so lovely. And I just remember it so much as a kid. I have such fond, vivid memories of being in my nana's kitchen. We come from a big family, a huge family, and Sundays, and that's used to make dinners and. But it'd be all different times. You know, people would be coming into the house at different times and all that and everything, and she'd make a wonderful Sunday dinner. But her apple crumble was unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. It was just the perfect consistency. There was loads of crumble because I ate it. When he just give you the tiny slither of crumble.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

It was. The trumble was. The crumble was thick and you could really get your teeth into it. But then the apples was soft, but still slightly. Just enough. Not. Not Quite. You know that kind of al dente type at the beginning, just for that initial. But then it was like. And. Yeah. And that. And the layer of. Layer of past. Well at the bottom was perfect. It just used to. It just had that right density to it and it was just delicious. And the custard was always, always homemade.

[Ed Gamble]

Beautiful.

[Stephen Graham]

Always homemade. No disrespect to you, but none of the ambrosia are the tin stuff. Do you know what I mean? Or these days, out of the carton, which I found strange.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Cussed in the carton. Feels weird. What are we doing? Feels weird.

[Stephen Graham]

What are you playing at?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, no, no, no, no, don't do.

[Stephen Graham]

That, don't do that. But they do. But his was proper made from scratch and it was absolutely delicious. Yeah. So I think that has to be up there. And I just remember, you know, in Minana's kitchen as well, when she used to make. She used to make like little lemon tarts and jam tarts and loads of little fairy cakes and stuff like that. And mixing this stuff in the bowl, mixing it all together in a bowl. And then, like, about three or four of us stood there waiting to get the spoon, which sounds terrible these days. They'd regret the spoon. She'd take it back, give it to the next one. Yeah, it was lovely.

[James Egas]

It was the best.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Getting the spoon. I remember it won't surprise you. And this isn't really gonna do me any favors in the. You know, trying to sound tough. I mean, although that ship sailed. But, like, I. I was in the Scouts for, like, ages. And I remember there was one. There was one, one night where they're just making something. I don't know what it. But probably was like cakes or something. It was pancake day or some, and we all wanted to, like, half the mixture. And there was this really, like this scout master who's a bit. Bit stern, and he said, if you eat that, you will die. I remember it really vividly because we were all like, we've been eating this all our life. We're all fine. It's like, do not eat that. That is basically poison. And if you do, that is very, very serious about it.

[Ed Gamble]

So, like, the amount of raw dough I ate as a child. Love it.

[James Egas]

Absolutely love it. I was like, don't cook it, Mum. Yeah, yeah, we just want that.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

So when Ben and Jerry started doing cookie dough and ice cream, I was like, finally someone gets me.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Someone understands who I am.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah. I love. I love sweet stuff. I've got big Sweet tooth. It's a big part of the podcast.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

I can tell you. The only sweet thing that I don't like Stephen is. And it makes me wince just thinking about it.

[Ed Gamble]

That's Milfoy and Stephen's Nana's apple crumble.

[James Egas]

Imagine. Imagine if I tried that right at the end.

[Stephen Graham]

Imagine if you get away with a Milfoy.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Taking my life. All the bare knuckle trading comes into. I'll be dead.

[Stephen Graham]

Yes.

[James Egas]

No, it's the sugar in the kettle in the water. In time. Oh. Oh, that makes me wince, that, that every time I think about that.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

It's one of the most painful scenes I think I've ever seen in a TV show, in a film, anything. Like there's obviously the performance of the person who has it chucked on them because obviously they just do it so.

[Stephen Graham]

Well shot brilliantly as well, wasn't it?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, it was so long. Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Because we're in there as well. We're in the room.

[James Egas]

God.

[Stephen Graham]

We come in, we see the kettle, we see it all one like, what. What are you doing? What's going on? And then we go with. And then we see. And then we see the action of. And we come back with that person. Come back with that person and we hear the scream.

[James Egas]

So it's so quickly. So quickly done. Horrible.

[Stephen Graham]

Jimmy McGovern, what a. What a marvelous writer. But again, you know, that's based. And. And then those things. I mean, that really happens in those. Yeah.

[James Egas]

Situations which I didn't know. I obviously didn't know anything about that, though.

[Stephen Graham]

James Nelson Joyce, who's old soul in A Thousand Blows.

[James Egas]

Oh, wow.

[Stephen Graham]

He plays my brother in A Thousand Blows.

[James Egas]

Oh, great.

[Stephen Graham]

He plays. Oh, that's weird. Who plays Treacle? Ah, I play Sugar.

[James Egas]

Oh, God.

[Stephen Graham]

He plays treacle.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Keep you two apart. Yeah, Actually, that's sugar and treacle.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

[James Egas]

Yeah. Yeah, we.

[Ed Gamble]

We shot something there. Do you remember?

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, yes.

[James Egas]

In the prison that you shot time in. Yeah, yeah, we. We did. We did Celebrity Hunted and I, where you get hunted by professional manhunters.

[Stephen Graham]

Oh, I've seen it on Channel four. I've seen. Was it good fun to do?

[James Egas]

Yeah. But they always want to start it somewhere different. And they were like, this is going to be. You're all in a prison and you break out of a prison.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

And as soon as we got there, that's the first thing they said. The shot timing.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, there's one of the cells is like, has signs up saying, yeah, yes, yeah, yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, that he stay. He was in that cell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean. Sean's character was in that cell.

[James Egas]

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, they're very proud of it there, as they should be.

[Stephen Graham]

How did you get on with.

[Ed Gamble]

We tried to. We tried to be funny, Steve. Okay, so we weren't very good at.

[James Egas]

So you can imagine.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, we lasted a week.

[Stephen Graham]

Did you?

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, we lost a week.

[Stephen Graham]

Now, be honest with me then. Is it like kind of. Okay, film's finished now. Go back to your hotel.

[Ed Gamble]

No, not at all. So you've got to find places to stay along the way by a certain point when they stop filming legitimately. Legitimately, yeah. So we would arrive. We'd be basically in a race to get to where we wanted to go, to be able to sleep somewhere. We were, like going to pubs and, you know, begging for a room and all of that sort of stuff. Yeah, it was more real than I thought. If I'd known how real it was.

[Stephen Graham]

You wouldn't have signed up.

[Ed Gamble]

I wouldn't have signed up for it.

[James Egas]

It was really good watching him realize that. It was fun. But, yeah, I enjoyed it. We had some good food and drink there. The best pint I've ever had was on. That was on the Run with Ed. The Timothy Taylor.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah. There's nothing more refreshing than a pint after a long day on the run.

[James Egas]

Yeah. After a long day of running for your life. I made your menu back to you now. See how you feel about it.

[Stephen Graham]

Okay.

[James Egas]

You would like tap water from Rovaniemi. You would like poppadoms. We didn't really talk much about that. Starter. You would like wonton soup from Chinatown in New York. Main course. She would like lobster from Chelsea Harbour. Auntie Vera's chips on the side. Your side dish, we got the long stem broccoli with the chili and the Parmesan with bit of lemon to go over all the lobster and spinach and garlic as well. On the side, drink Schofield's pineapple lemonade. Dessert, the milfui from the Wolseley and Nana's apple crumble with homemade custard. What do you think about that?

[Stephen Graham]

That, I think that sounds really nice.

[James Egas]

That does sound really nice.

[Ed Gamble]

The two desserts sort of sum up your menu really nicely because there's, like some fancy things in. In your menu and then some stuff that means loads to you from being a kid as well. Yeah, it's a really nice mix of the two things.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, I never thought about it like that. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

The lobster and auntie berries chips.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

And look.

[Stephen Graham]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

You know, I'd like to take this opportunity, Stephen, to apologize for what I said to Azuka Hoyle in that episode. I think that was okay. He doesn't know.

[Ed Gamble]

He doesn't know about the other episodes.

[Stephen Graham]

Yet, but I think we can. We can both safely say that, you know, we'll put this behind us. Yeah. I just want you to know, though, James, I do find you funny.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Thank you, Stephen.

[Stephen Graham]

You're a very might and show it that often.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

But I do find you funny.

[James Egas]

Thank you. You're a gifted actor. You're an inspiration to it. Some of us, Ed, you pointing it.

[Stephen Graham]

At, are born great. Some of us achieve greatness.

[James Egas]

Yeah.

[Stephen Graham]

And some of us just have greatness thrust upon us. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

Which one is James?

[Stephen Graham]

He's not in any of them.

[Ed Gamble]

Thank you so much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Steven.

[James Egas]

Thank you so much.

[Stephen Graham]

Thank you very much.

[Ed Gamble]

So how do you think that went, James?

[James Egas]

Yeah. We don't have to relate to all the episodes we record, do we, Benito?

[Ed Gamble]

I mean, that one, we don't have.

[James Egas]

To release all the episodes we don't have to.

[Ed Gamble]

But that one, I think, ranks in probably my top. Top three. Top one, actually, to be honest. Top one. That is the most fun I've had during a recording of this podcast. What an amazing man he is. We're releasing this episode, James.

[James Egas]

I think the listeners should bear in mind that, you know, the way stuff sounds on audio isn't necessarily how it is in the room. And like you.

[Ed Gamble]

You guys here to say that it's exactly what it was in the room. That is so. That was so much fun, man.

[James Egas]

Yes. Well, yeah, of course it was fun for you.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Called Gene Wilder.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, he loved me.

[James Egas]

You came up with that brilliant garlic vehicle bit.

[Ed Gamble]

I didn't dare say it at the time, but I was. That wasn't supposed to be a joke.

[James Egas]

Wow.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

Wow.

[Ed Gamble]

But, you know, he loved it.

[James Egas]

Yeah, he loved it. Oh, man. I mean, I guess people should go and watch A Thousand Blows on Disney Plus.

[Ed Gamble]

I mean, I was going to watch it anyway, but I'm going to watch it with a whole new appreciation of what it's. What it's like.

[James Egas]

I don't know if I will be able to watch all of it. I mean, there's just a still image of him is like if I had a punch out the camera.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that's your pov, mate.

[James Egas]

It's my pov.

[Ed Gamble]

I think he's still outside.

[James Egas]

Oh, God, he is.

[Ed Gamble]

James genuinely looks.

[James Egas]

I didn't look here. Thought he might be outside still.

[Ed Gamble]

Watch A Thousand Blows on Disney from the 21st of Feb. And watch Adolescence on Netflix that is coming soon. Both of them look absolutely amazing. And what an episode. Listen to this episode again, and I cannot wait to see what clips Benito picks for this episode.

[James Egas]

Benito, don't put any clips out. There's no need to put clips out of this episode.

[Ed Gamble]

I think just a mega mix of all the times where Steven got out angry and was dead staring at you. Because a lot of people won't be able to appreciate that from the audio when he was just absolutely dead staring at you. Yeah, I think a mega mix of all of those things strung together and we release it and say, most awkward podcast of all time.

[James Egas]

But he said, do not do a mega mix and do not say most awkward pocket. Don't try and make this a bigger deal than it is.

[Ed Gamble]

This is viral. Beyond viral.

[James Egas]

Some episodes should be allowed to fly under the radar.

[Ed Gamble]

No, all are saying, not this one. This is way above radar.

[James Egas]

Does that mean it's also not on the radar? It's so high above the radar. It's not.

[Ed Gamble]

No, it's on radar.

[James Egas]

Oh, God.

[Ed Gamble]

It's like a. This is a commercial. Commercial passenger jet.

[James Egas]

Okay.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, he didn't say knuckle sandwich, did he?

[James Egas]

No.

[Ed Gamble]

I think if you tried to give him a knuckle sandwich, he would have avoided eating that.

[James Egas]

Yeah, I don't think he would have eaten that necessarily if I'd offered him a knuckle sandwich.

[Ed Gamble]

Lovely menu as well, gotta be said.

[James Egas]

Yeah. To be fair, the menu was pretty delicious.

[Ed Gamble]

Really nice. Some wonderful stories and memories.

[James Egas]

And I think that from across Stephen's life, you dropped me in it.

[Ed Gamble]

I didn't drop you in it.

[James Egas]

Dropped me in it. I was. I was. I was speaking. I was just having a nice chat with him.

[Ed Gamble]

You dropped me right from the beginning.

[James Egas]

I was being nice and civil. You dropped me in it. I had believed a little snitch played in the audio.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, that was snitchy, actually.

[James Egas]

It's a snitch. Yeah. You dropped me in it first, and then he played the audio and that ruined everything. And I. If. If you hadn't done that, that it.

[Ed Gamble]

Would have been a lovely episode anyway. But from the beginning, I think we had to tell him why there was an atmosphere created by you in the room.

[James Egas]

Oh.

[Ed Gamble]

Because you didn't burst out the lamp. You didn't shout papadoms or bread. Because you were scared as soon as.

[James Egas]

You can't prove I was scared as soon as it.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, you Weren't big in the intro. As soon as he walked into the studio, you look like a little boy quaking.

[James Egas]

He's different in person. When you see him in person, it's actually quite tough.

[Ed Gamble]

Lovely. We got on really well. Really nice man. Well, hopefully we have someone that you can overpower next week.

[James Egas]

Who's next week? Benito. Who's next? We've got the schedule.

[Ed Gamble]

Well, look, you need to go and have a little lie down. That was absolutely amazing. I loved every single second of that. The menu, meeting Stephen, his reaction to you. It was absolutely perfect. This is why, years into the game, we're still the best podcast out there.

[James Egas]

We're still the bed pokes.

[Ed Gamble]

Oh, no. But unfortunately, it's the final episode because James is now so in his own head, he can't speak English. Oh, also, before we go, please, never. When a guest says, I've got a story about that, say, I know this one.

[James Egas]

I did know it.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, listeners, I'll just step out of it quickly. Obviously. That was really fun. It was amazing. Meeting Steven, it was amazing. He went with that and improvised these incredible monologues. Just what a talent that man is. And a lot of the stuff James was doing being silly. What a great guy James is. Wonderful comedian, pitched it perfectly. Benito is the perfect snitch. But when James said, I know that story, that wasn't him trying to egg on the situation. He genuinely. A guest said, I've got a story about that. And James went, I know that one. That was total instinct from James.

[James Egas]

So now I'm getting a real dressing down.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[James Egas]

But a load of comical ones.

[Ed Gamble]

Yeah.

[James Egas]

And we've all been having a. We've all been having a laugh, but at the end of it, I'll still get told off for real. I will hold my hands up. I don't know. It was. It was insane that I said that. Yeah.

[Ed Gamble]

We're having such a laugh. I mean, I really hope we can release some sort of clip where it shows Steven laughing and enjoying it, because to go from acting like he's. He's gonna kill James to laughing, just what an amazing thing to switch into. And such a nice smiley man.

[James Egas]

I love this smiley man.

[Ed Gamble]

I don't know if you can tell I'm buzzing off.

[James Egas]

You know what? I am going to say that now as well at the end of the episode. He was a lovely man, a lovely smiling man. We were all in on that. It was all fun. And I'm only saying that because I don't want another Jesmynick on our hands. I don't want everyone trolling Stephen Graham because they think he was mean to me.

[Ed Gamble]

But no, they'll be trolling you, mate.

[Stephen Graham]

What?

[Ed Gamble]

They're trolling you. No one's going to because no one else in the UK is stupid enough to try and have a go at Steven Graham. We'll see you next week. Don't preempt guest stories.

[James Egas]

We'll see. I make no promises.

[Ed Gamble]

Bye bye.

[James Egas]

Goodbye. There are some things you wouldn't mind being stuck with, like a large unexpected inheritance. An always on the verge of death phone that has to be plugged in just right so it charges is not one of those things. Switch to Verizon and we'll pay off your old phone up to $800 via prepaid MasterCard so you can get a new one. Just trade in any phone from our top brands on any unlimited plan. With new line on my plan additional terms apply for trade in and pay off your phone offer. See verizon.com for details.

[Stephen Graham]

This episode is sponsored by Boost Mobile. It's Jason Fuhad from Shits and Geese podcast and we're here to talk about Boost Mobile, the newest 5G network in the country. With compelling deals for new lines, Boost Mobile makes it easy to switch. Today, Boost Mobile's new network delivers customers the speed and service they'd expect from the Big Three, plus groundbreaking benefits you'd only get from a true challenger in the industry. These include letting people try the network risk free for 30 days and offering a 25 per month unlimited plan that's guaranteed to never go up in price. They have blazing fast 5G and plans for all the latest devices. Visit your nearest Boost Mobile store and find us [e-mail] Opinions will always differ.

[Ed Gamble]

And so they should, because everyone draws from different influences. Parents, peers, politics, education, media, culture. What you believe depends on who you believe. Financial Times readers know that their opinions are reliable because they're shaped by trusted journalism. Robust opinions, confident decisions. Source FT to subscribe, go to ft.com sourceft.