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Speaker 1: Hi, everyone. Mel Brooks is a hundred and we've a

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Speaker 1: present for you on Thursday, a new edition of the

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Speaker 1: podcast we recorded three years ago. Happy Birthday, Meil. He's funny,

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Speaker 1: he's brilliant, He's one hundred.

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Speaker 2: Ruthie's Table four brought to you by Sky and Montclair

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Speaker 2: cab Drivers.

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Speaker 3: When they always say, oh, the worst one I ever

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Speaker 3: had was they loved telling you the most miserable person,

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Speaker 3: And I always look, you don't know, you know, you

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Speaker 3: met them in that window of their life. You don't

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Speaker 3: know what happened before, you don't know where they were

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Speaker 3: going now. In fairness, mostly I think they're right when

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Speaker 3: they say that name, I go, yeah, betcha.

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Speaker 2: Many years ago, my husband, Richard Rodgers, and I were

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Speaker 2: leaving Danny Meyer's restaurant my Lino in New York City.

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Speaker 2: As we passed the table and spotted Graham Norton. We stopped. Graham,

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Speaker 2: I said, you're my hero. Without a second's hesitation, he

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Speaker 2: looked up and he said, Richard is mine. That small

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Speaker 2: moment told me everything I needed to know about the broadcaster, author,

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Speaker 2: and storyteller I've been watching for years to be a

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Speaker 2: truly great host as Graham is every week on his

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Speaker 2: television sofa. You have to understand and genuinely like people.

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Speaker 2: It's the same for me in the River Cafe. There's

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Speaker 2: no such thing as a difficult customer. Everybody has a

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Speaker 2: story and every table is a world. If life is

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Speaker 2: about luck, then having Graham here with me today is

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Speaker 2: part of the luck I have. After all, he is

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Speaker 2: my hero.

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Speaker 3: Oh that's very nice, Thank you very much. That sounds

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Speaker 3: very rude that I looked up at you.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right, I wasn't a hero and you were

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Speaker 2: growing up in Ireland. Let's start at the beginning, you know,

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Speaker 2: tell me about your parents.

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Speaker 3: My mom was, I mean, she would have called herself

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Speaker 3: a housewife. Now they're homemakers. So she did all the

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Speaker 3: cooking and all the shopping, and a lot of stuff

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Speaker 3: was made from scratch, certainly, I think when I was

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Speaker 3: very little, everything was sort of made from scratch, and

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Speaker 3: she did baking, you know, all of that. If the

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Speaker 3: oven was on, you couldn't just put one thing in it.

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Speaker 3: You had to fill it with stuff so you weren't

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Speaker 3: wasting energy.

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Speaker 2: Who is your sister.

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Speaker 3: I had a sister. She was four years older than me,

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Speaker 3: and it's interesting that that age gap. You know. Now

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Speaker 3: it's no age gap at all. And I'm very close

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Speaker 3: to my sister, but growing up, she was always slightly

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Speaker 3: out of my orbit. Yeah, because you know, she would

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Speaker 3: be going to a different school when you were.

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Speaker 2: Twelve she was sixteen.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, kind of thing.

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Speaker 2: So what were family meals like? Would you sit down?

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Speaker 3: We would sit down and have them sometime. My father

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Speaker 3: he worked for Guinness.

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Speaker 2: And what did he do?

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Speaker 3: He was he started work in the brewery, and then

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Speaker 3: he became a service rep, which meant he traveled around

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Speaker 3: an area kind of fixing the kegs or the coolers,

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Speaker 3: all that sort of stuff. And then he became a

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Speaker 3: sales rep, which I don't really know what that was.

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Speaker 3: It seemed to be just delivering free beer mats. And

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Speaker 3: every glass in our house said something about Guinness on it,

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Speaker 3: Every ashtray had something about Guinness on it. And even

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Speaker 3: like with the towels, towels and branding.

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Speaker 2: Ye did you did he ever cook? Was it a

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Speaker 2: woman's world?

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Speaker 3: It was a woman's world or a man's world where

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Speaker 3: he didn't cook. He you could make. You could scramble

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Speaker 3: an egg or boil an egg, you make toast, thing

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Speaker 3: like that. If mom was away for any I can't

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Speaker 3: remember why she would have been away. He could, we

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Speaker 3: wouldn't have stopped.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and did you ever go in the kitchen a

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Speaker 2: little bit?

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Speaker 3: I would help my mom a bit, really when I

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Speaker 3: started to cook. And this is kind of still my

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Speaker 3: problem is when I went to America, I I lived

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Speaker 3: in a hippie commune in San Cisco.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have to discuss this.

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Speaker 3: And everyone had there was a chore wheel and everyone

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Speaker 3: had a night to do the thing. So this twenty

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Speaker 3: year old from Ireland, which like twenty to me, doesn't

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Speaker 3: seem that young. Now, I feel I was about baby.

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Speaker 3: I feel I felt I was a fool.

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Speaker 2: What made you go from so you went? You went

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Speaker 2: to university and then you went straight toge.

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Speaker 3: I dropped out of university now and I kind of

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Speaker 3: knew I was ropping out of university, but I didn't

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Speaker 3: tell anyone. They have these amazing visas for I don't know,

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Speaker 3: just for IRIS students. I feel it is just for

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Speaker 3: IRA students called j One visas where you can go

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Speaker 3: and work in America. I got on the bus in

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Speaker 3: New York and the idea was I was going to

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Speaker 3: go to LA and I was going to meet a

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Speaker 3: pen pal in LA, and because I didn't have a map,

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Speaker 3: I was just followed. I would just get leaflets in

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Speaker 3: the bus stations where the lines went east to west,

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Speaker 3: not north to south. So who knows what route I took.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, the rambling bus ticket ran out in San Francisco, see,

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Speaker 3: which was so lucky I didn't run out and some

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Speaker 3: or if I'd got to LA, it would have been

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Speaker 3: terrible because I don't know how to drive. I you know,

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Speaker 3: I knew one person who lived I think out in

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Speaker 3: Orange County, which I now realize is not LA. This

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Speaker 3: was nineteen eighty three. I went, and I went with

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Speaker 3: two hundred pounds. Now, even then it was a delusion

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Speaker 3: amount of money to go with, and I thought fifty

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Speaker 3: pounds a week, so that two hundred pounds would last

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Speaker 3: me for a month and I'd be able to get

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Speaker 3: a job in that time. Of course, the money was

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Speaker 3: gone by the time I got San Francisco.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's hence the commune. Or did you know about

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Speaker 2: the commune?

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Speaker 3: I know, I didn't know anything about the commune, but

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Speaker 3: I'd met someone in Cork who gave me some phone numbers,

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Speaker 3: which was so nice of them, and of course I

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Speaker 3: rang them, and this very nice woman said, oh, maybe

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Speaker 3: I could find you a room. There's this commune. They

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Speaker 3: might they have a hostel room. And so I stayed

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Speaker 3: in the hostel room, paying nightly, and then we got

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Speaker 3: on and they said, oh, do you want to live here.

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Speaker 2: So it's funny because when I read that you'd gone

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Speaker 2: to San Francisco in the eighties to live in a commune,

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Speaker 2: I thought, he's about twenty years too late. But that's

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Speaker 2: okay because maybe.

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Speaker 3: That you can San Francisco commune is still there.

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Speaker 2: Because I always think about the communeist flower power and

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Speaker 2: when I was growing up by then, I'm older, lot

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Speaker 2: older than you, but I think that we kind of

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Speaker 2: divided into the political people who were fighting the war

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Speaker 2: in Vietnam and who were very serious and trying to

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Speaker 2: understand the new Left and what it meant. And then

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Speaker 2: there were the communes, you know, the people of the

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Speaker 2: hippies who went to the communes. And so it was

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Speaker 2: a big deal in the sixties, very gentle, very beautiful

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Speaker 2: that people would go with a very kind of strong

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Speaker 2: idea and philosophy. But was that the kind of commune.

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Speaker 3: Was that really encouraging.

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Speaker 2: Do you think there's still It was a.

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Speaker 3: Continuation of that. It was just off the hate Ashbury,

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Speaker 3: you know the panhandle that was up to Golden Gate

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Speaker 3: Park and it was just there and they were probably

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Speaker 3: forty and I was twenty. So that was really so.

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Speaker 2: I had been there for twenty years.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was I loved it. It was just great.

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Speaker 3: You know, I was so conservative with a small see

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Speaker 3: in that way that young people can be sure because

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Speaker 3: you know that's stupid, you know that kind of thing.

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Speaker 3: I was a bit like that, and they really kind

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Speaker 3: of opened my eyes to different ways of looking at things,

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Speaker 3: different ways of being and eating. I went back, I have.

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Speaker 3: I went back to some anniversary. There are now sort

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Speaker 3: of hippie retirement communities and it's so sweet because they

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Speaker 3: get when there's a demonstration and the staff wheeled them

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Speaker 3: out to be in the demonstration and they you know,

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Speaker 3: they tie their placards to wheelchairs and things. It's you know,

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Speaker 3: it's a life of it's been a life of kind

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Speaker 3: of activism and campaign I think.

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Speaker 2: It made a different. I mean the communes and communes,

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Speaker 2: you know, there are somes that are very radical and

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Speaker 2: very and bringing up children altogether and in a way,

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Speaker 2: you know, but different ways.

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Speaker 3: When I was in my commune, there was a lady

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Speaker 3: and she had a little daughter who lived in the commune,

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Speaker 3: and of course she was rebelling against the kid them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah so she the kid, yea, the little kid loved

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Speaker 3: Barbie dolls. She she wanted to get the Barbie dream House,

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Speaker 3: the Dune Buggy. You know, she was obsessed by kind

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Speaker 3: of bubblecum TV programs. And you know, you could see

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Speaker 3: the parents going, what's gone wrong here?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? I would say that about my kids who grew

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Speaker 2: up in an architects house of you know, white walls,

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Speaker 2: and you know that they were going to when they

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Speaker 2: grew up, they were gonna have a wallpaper, you know,

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Speaker 2: they were going to have decoration or kind of lots

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Speaker 2: of stuff. So when you when you were in a commune,

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Speaker 2: you were sharing, aren't you? And you had responsibilities and

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Speaker 2: did you say there was a kind of chart of

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Speaker 2: who had to do what when?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So what was your tell me about your.

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Speaker 3: Well, you know different things, you know, you have to

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Speaker 3: There'd be a night you did washing up, there'd be

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Speaker 3: a night you did something else. But then there was

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Speaker 3: the dreaded night when you had to cook, okay, and

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Speaker 3: you're cooking for kind of you know, twelve sixteen people.

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Speaker 3: Everyone has to say who's going to be in so

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Speaker 3: and and it's And I had no idea what I

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Speaker 3: was doing. You know, I couldn't cook for myself, so

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Speaker 3: you didn't never mind sixteen people. And then what was

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Speaker 3: weird was when I went back for this reunion whatever,

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Speaker 3: the forty and fifty reunion, a woman who I remembered,

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Speaker 3: she came up to me and went, oh, we still

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Speaker 3: cook your soup. We still make your soup. And I think,

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Speaker 3: what the hell I mean, I don't. I didn't remember

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Speaker 3: it at all. I think basically I would just make

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Speaker 3: stock and chop up the potatoes very small, and they'd

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Speaker 3: cook in the stock protaty bit of onion, bit of

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Speaker 3: garden girl.

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Speaker 2: Like, maybe some other vegetables, maybe some carrots, or.

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Speaker 3: I wouldn't have sullied it with a colorful vegetable. There

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Speaker 3: might have been a leak. Leak, okay, there might have

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Speaker 3: been a leak.

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Speaker 2: And what else did you do?

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Speaker 3: I worked in restaurants. I started. That was the first

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Speaker 3: time I worked in restaurants.

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Speaker 2: Okay, tell me about that.

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Speaker 3: It was a I think it was like a franchise restaurant,

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Speaker 3: but I never saw another one. It was called Vi

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Speaker 3: de France, and it was a kind of fast food

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Speaker 3: French cafe on one side with all these kind of

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Speaker 3: filled croissans with you know, jam and stuff fillings in them,

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Speaker 3: and then on the other side there was kind of

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Speaker 3: a little French restaurant. It's funny. I have no recollection

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Speaker 3: of the kitchen. I'm not sure there was a kitchen.

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Speaker 2: Maybe not.

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Speaker 3: I think maybe it was all.

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Speaker 2: Sality that just got delivered.

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Speaker 3: I can't remember there was soup. I remember the there

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Speaker 3: was soup because the soup again must have been delivered

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Speaker 3: because often we would tell people what the soup was,

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Speaker 3: and that was not what the soup was, and we'd

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Speaker 3: only discovered later. But no one would have sent it

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Speaker 3: back or complained, because it turned out they just wanted soup.

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Speaker 2: They didn't care what it was. It was there any

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Speaker 2: point you thought of staying in San Francisco.

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Speaker 3: No, No, I knew I had to come home. I

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Speaker 3: knew my life couldn't start properly till I got back

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Speaker 3: to where I understood how life worked, you know.

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Speaker 2: But that wasn't Ireland.

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Speaker 3: Well, I went back to Ireland initially, and then I

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Speaker 3: wanted to be an actor, so I applied to drama

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Speaker 3: schools in London and got into Central.

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Speaker 2: Did that acting ambition happen in San Francisco when you

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Speaker 2: were a kid, or did it something you always knew?

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Speaker 3: It was something I always wanted to do. But growing

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Speaker 3: up in Ireland, I felt like I couldn't well look

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Speaker 3: and I didn't know how you did it. How could

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Speaker 3: I possibly go from sitting in a house in London

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Speaker 3: to being in a fact that just seemed impossible. And

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Speaker 3: it was one of the great things about the Hippie

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Speaker 3: commune was the hippies were very it's possible. Yeah, you know,

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Speaker 3: dreams are meant to be pursued to a certain point.

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Speaker 3: Commune like that better than no, And so I I

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Speaker 3: kind of went, well, I'm going to pursue this dream

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Speaker 3: till it hits a dead end. I was at drama school,

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Speaker 3: but I was working in a restaurant, So.

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Speaker 2: Oh, you're working restaurant here as well when you came back,

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Speaker 2: Which what was that like?

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Speaker 3: Well, I worked in one called Smith's. Do you remember

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Speaker 3: Christina Smithstina Smith in co of Garden and Rose very well?

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Speaker 2: I think Rose she did before. She was she there

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Speaker 2: when you were there. She came in a circle.

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Speaker 3: She came in as a consultant.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I remember that because.

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Speaker 3: We had an Irish chef called Chef O'Shea, who was

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Speaker 3: one of those very shouty chefs, very terrifying, but actually

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Speaker 3: I think a lovely man because occasionally you'd see him

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Speaker 3: smile and crack a joke or something would make him

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Speaker 3: laugh and you kind of think, oh, actually, you're a

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Speaker 3: nice guy. So he was the chef. I don't know

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Speaker 3: where they found him. I feel regional hotel probably. I

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Speaker 3: remember one day the special. The special which we served

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Speaker 3: people was white fish of some kind in a white

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Speaker 3: sauce and that was served with potato and rice on

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Speaker 3: a white plate.

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Speaker 2: Whoa, this sounds like hospital food.

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Speaker 3: So I think roses brought in.

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Speaker 2: Did you ever go to Greece or Italy? I did

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Speaker 2: a little bit, but not much economic.

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Speaker 3: That was totally economic. Yeah. And also it's that weird

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Speaker 3: thing when you're waiting for a gig, you never want

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Speaker 3: to be away. So you know, when I was waiting

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Speaker 3: for an acting gig, I don't want to be away.

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Speaker 3: And then when I started doing stand up, you know,

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Speaker 3: you just if there was a gig, you did it,

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Speaker 3: and the thought of not being in town sanity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the stand up and the acting was that in

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Speaker 2: drama school you got an agent. Isn't that a big

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Speaker 2: deal when you have an agent?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, certainly it's the aim everyone the ideas you leave

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Speaker 3: drama school with an agent and I. So I did that.

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Speaker 3: Then nothing happened. I mean crickets. I got a couple

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Speaker 3: of jobs, but really nothing. And then I still wanted

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Speaker 3: to kind of show off. So I started writing little

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Speaker 3: comedy skits for myself and I did it in there's

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Speaker 3: a gallery space above the Eagle Pub in.

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Speaker 2: Fir Yeah, I know that pub.

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Speaker 3: So I I said, I'm going to do a show up,

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Speaker 3: but sort of you know, am I really? But then

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Speaker 3: Mike Belbourne, who ran the Eagle with David, he started

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Speaker 3: telling people it's happened like Graham's doing this. So suddenly

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Speaker 3: I was forced to make it happen.

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Speaker 2: That's that's a lot to do that on your own.

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Speaker 2: I always look at stand up.

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Speaker 1: We did.

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Speaker 2: We did an interview with Pete Davidson, you know, and

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Speaker 2: he was describing being doing stand up and American shopping centers,

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Speaker 2: you know, going in the early days of going into

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Speaker 2: these just small little theaters of bars where you would

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Speaker 2: stand on the stage and people would either fall asleep

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Speaker 2: or go and get something to eat. Doing stand up

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Speaker 2: to me, seems such a solitary endeavor.

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Speaker 3: It is, and it's a kind of a shock after

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Speaker 3: being at drama school, after being with people, working with people.

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Speaker 3: But there is something sort of nice about being in

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Speaker 3: control of your own destiny. I mean, certainly as a performer,

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Speaker 3: what's really nice is that you can pick up the

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Speaker 3: phone and get a gig. You're not constantly sitting there

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Speaker 3: waiting for the thing to happen. And also, I've talked

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Speaker 3: to some comics who feel like this and some that don't.

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Speaker 3: But there's a thing about dying on stage. As a comic,

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Speaker 3: I find it so much harder to watch someone die

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Speaker 3: on stage than to die on stage.

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Speaker 2: Tell me about that.

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Speaker 3: To watch a comic, I think. I think watching a

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Speaker 3: comic not get laught is one of the most excruciating

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Speaker 3: things in the world. I just find I can't. I

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Speaker 3: just can't. Whereas when it's happened to me, there's a

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Speaker 3: kind of an odd out of body experience, is it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's not pleasant, don't get me wrong, and

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Speaker 3: and you know, there's a bit of hope. You kind

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Speaker 3: of think, oh, maybe I can turn this around, and

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Speaker 3: I'll try this, and you might get a little chuckle

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Speaker 3: on something, or you talk to some of the audience

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Speaker 3: and that goes well, and you think, oh, maybe maybe,

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Speaker 3: and then no, no, it's flatlining again.

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Speaker 2: Sir Jessica Parker said to me, you know, I asked

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Speaker 2: her about doing comedy and a play, and she said, sometimes,

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Speaker 2: I think, Ruthie, did they all call each other before

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Speaker 2: they came to the play and agree not to laugh?

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Speaker 2: You know, because it's almost as if that audience has

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Speaker 2: decided not to laugh, whereas the night before the same play,

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Speaker 2: the same in a river cafe. I can tell I

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Speaker 2: used to be able to come home one night and say,

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Speaker 2: that was a great night. You know, everybody had the

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Speaker 2: sea bass and people liked it, and they took the

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Speaker 2: same thing pretty much with the same thing, and it

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Speaker 2: was like because and.

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Speaker 3: I think that's what keeps all these sorts of jobs

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Speaker 3: constantly interesting, is that there is an alchemy. There is

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Speaker 3: there's something. There's always a weird named extra ingredient that

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Speaker 3: none of us know what it is. So some nights

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Speaker 3: that kitchen will sing and the dining room is just

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Speaker 3: everyone is just having the loveliest night. And it might

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Speaker 3: be the weather. But it's not as simple as that.

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Speaker 3: And it's the same, you know, on the chat show,

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Speaker 3: we often have the same ingredients. You know, we'll often

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Speaker 3: have the same guess no, they'll be in a different combination.

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Speaker 3: But a guest who was brilliantly funny. Yeah, before we're

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Speaker 3: thinking great, they're all, oh, that's oh, we don't need

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00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:07,240
Speaker 3: to worry about them nothing. And whether that's the audience,

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Speaker 3: whether it's them, whether it's.

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Speaker 2: The combination with argument on the way to the theater,

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Speaker 2: like got lost. I always think what happened to the

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Speaker 2: person before?

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Speaker 3: I always say that to cab drivers when they always say, oh,

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Speaker 3: the worst one I ever had was they loved telling

359
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Speaker 3: you the most miserable person. And I always like, you

360
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Speaker 3: don't know, you know, you met them in that window

361
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Speaker 3: of their life. You don't know what happened before. You

362
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Speaker 3: don't know where they were going now. In fairness, mostly

363
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Speaker 3: I think they're right, But.

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Speaker 4: When they say that name, I yeah, do you have

365
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Speaker 4: kind of not techniques, but do you have ways of

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Speaker 4: you know, navigating the difficult person or the do you.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think one of the one of the

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Speaker 3: things that makes the chat show on TV easy is

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Speaker 3: that I'm not interviewing people one on one interesting because

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Speaker 3: I think, then this is everything you know, it's all you,

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Speaker 3: it's all me, and if one of us just drops

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Speaker 3: the ball, then kind of Whereas on the talk show,

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Speaker 3: I've got other people, so you know, if if it

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Speaker 3: is like getting blood out of a stone, I'll just

375
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Speaker 3: go to the next stone and let's see what I

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00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,040
Speaker 3: can get out of them. And that I think helps.

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00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,560
Speaker 3: And also I think the other thing helps is because

378
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,560
Speaker 3: they're not just talking to me. You know. I think

379
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Speaker 3: a lot of those stars, all those big stars, like.

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Speaker 1: You are.

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Speaker 3: But I think if you're sat next to you know,

382
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,720
Speaker 3: Dame Helen Mirror, you don't want to be a dick,

383
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:57,360
Speaker 3: so you will tell your interesting story, but for her,

384
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 3: not for me. But I don't care why they're telling it,

385
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:01,679
Speaker 3: as long as they're telling it.

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Speaker 2: I have a friend whose mother said that within some

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Speaker 2: thirty or forty five seconds of somebody coming into the house,

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00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,040
Speaker 2: no matter somebody to fix a dishwasher, you know, the

389
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,919
Speaker 2: Princess of Greece or a relative who's just arrived, they

390
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 2: should have a drink in their hand, because it means

391
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,960
Speaker 2: you're stopping whatever you're doing and focusing on them. And

392
00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 2: I think it's a good you know that that kind

393
00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:27,200
Speaker 2: of and you give people, have you give people something?

394
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Speaker 2: Don't you give them a drink? And I think that's

395
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Speaker 2: kind of again offering something to somebody.

396
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Speaker 3: I just think it is. I think it's signals. Yeah,

397
00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,920
Speaker 3: it signals to the audience that we think we might

398
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Speaker 3: be going to have a nice time. Yeah.

399
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Speaker 2: Did that take an effort on your Did you have

400
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 2: to convince anybody to give people something to drink? We saw?

401
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 3: I mean you started. I started doing talk shows back

402
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 3: in nineteen ninety eight, and so you know people could

403
00:21:52,800 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 3: drink people. Yeah, and we weren't Channel four people smoke.

404
00:21:57,320 --> 00:21:59,439
Speaker 3: You were never allowed to smoke. But we have had

405
00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:04,280
Speaker 3: people try but tell me the story. Oh, like Mickey Rourke.

406
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 3: I remember like the minute he thought the camera wasn't

407
00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:11,480
Speaker 3: on him, he'd be like, I'm like, no, we people

408
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,680
Speaker 3: can see you. It was like a child doing that

409
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:20,640
Speaker 3: the teacher can't see me. Yeah, he's he's been the

410
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:25,000
Speaker 3: only one. We've had a couple of sneaky vapes which

411
00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:27,480
Speaker 3: I kind of pretend I didn't see, but you know,

412
00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:32,639
Speaker 3: clearly you do see. But yes, smoking, yeah, you were

413
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:34,520
Speaker 3: never allowed to do. I do love looking at the

414
00:22:34,560 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 3: old Do you ever watch on YouTube the old clips

415
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 3: of Dick Cavott.

416
00:22:38,200 --> 00:22:40,120
Speaker 2: I love to Cavot. He was a great one.

417
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,760
Speaker 3: So Dick Cavit has these shows that they're all out,

418
00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:47,479
Speaker 3: they're all online, and you know, the guests are wearing

419
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,080
Speaker 3: you know, the women are wearing gloves and hats, and

420
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Speaker 3: they're smoking, they've got a cocktail. I just love it.

421
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Speaker 2: I went on the Jimmy Fallon show. I was in

422
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Speaker 2: New York. I got there and there's a team around me,

423
00:23:01,119 --> 00:23:03,400
Speaker 2: and then I sat in the green room and the

424
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:05,720
Speaker 2: producer came and he sat down with me and we

425
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,920
Speaker 2: did a kind of mock questions that Jimmy might ask,

426
00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:11,720
Speaker 2: and again it was quite tense. Then Jimmy came in

427
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:14,159
Speaker 2: and then suddenly it was fine because he kind of

428
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:17,280
Speaker 2: came in. They gave me this great hug and he went, Ruthie,

429
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,160
Speaker 2: I'm so lucky to have you a boy. Oh boy,

430
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:20,880
Speaker 2: we're gonna have a great time. And then I got

431
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 2: out there and I was fine. It was so fine.

432
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 2: It was like the best five minutes I've had, and

433
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,720
Speaker 2: I think it was for me, it was that preparation.

434
00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to ask. You can you

435
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,840
Speaker 2: tell the guests who've prepared? Or do they not prepare?

436
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 2: Or do you prepare? How do you prepare?

437
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:40,280
Speaker 3: It's really interesting for me to hear that what you're

438
00:23:40,320 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 3: talking about, because I forget that being a guest isn't easy.

439
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:48,719
Speaker 3: It isn't because I'm there every week and so I

440
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,639
Speaker 3: just you know, it broke up. And so if I

441
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,359
Speaker 3: know that a guest is nervous, or if a guest

442
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 3: asks to see me, then I'll go meet them before

443
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,680
Speaker 3: the show, and you know, just or I guess often

444
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:01,760
Speaker 3: it's a has never been on before, I'll go and

445
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 3: see them before the show. But usually I just meet

446
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 3: them backstage and on we go. And sometimes I'll be

447
00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:12,320
Speaker 3: sitting in my chair and I look across and there

448
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:16,760
Speaker 3: might be a young actor and you just, oh, oh,

449
00:24:16,800 --> 00:24:21,639
Speaker 3: you're terrified, and I'm so I feel terrible because you know,

450
00:24:21,880 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 3: oh no, and you just want to stop.

451
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,480
Speaker 2: But then now it's really nice that you say that.

452
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,560
Speaker 3: What I tried to do is then ask them some

453
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:36,040
Speaker 3: things just so that they speak, you know, so because

454
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:37,960
Speaker 3: I think once you speak and the world doesn't end,

455
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,400
Speaker 3: and oh, actually that that's okay. I could do that. Yeah, yeah,

456
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:48,239
Speaker 3: then it's fine. Then we have the guests who and

457
00:24:48,280 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 3: they are genuine that they like the show, but they're

458
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 3: terrible guests, and you can see this show is normally

459
00:24:55,560 --> 00:25:02,200
Speaker 3: better than this yeah, because you're on it. Yeah.

460
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:05,119
Speaker 2: I think that The other thing that is interesting for

461
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:08,400
Speaker 2: me in the house when I have people over, are

462
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,280
Speaker 2: we sitting around. I find that the couch almost architecturally

463
00:25:12,680 --> 00:25:16,880
Speaker 2: design wise, the hardest place to converse because you're you're

464
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 2: kind of side by side and you're looking at each other,

465
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 2: but you're not able to have eye contact. But they

466
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 2: have eye contact with you, so they.

467
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,080
Speaker 3: Like with me, and I got with the audience. And

468
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,159
Speaker 3: also I think, really, our couch is designed not to

469
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 3: be comfortable. Oh I see so people, So people have

470
00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,919
Speaker 3: to sit up yet just kind of you know, not

471
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,520
Speaker 3: off what it's going on. You know that. I think

472
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:45,360
Speaker 3: that's that's the death of performance, is that people are

473
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:49,800
Speaker 3: too comfortable about these chairs.

474
00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 2: These chairs are okay, because I just wonder if we

475
00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:53,760
Speaker 2: should have more like couchy.

476
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,720
Speaker 3: Comfortable chairs you're at a table, These are perfect yeah, I.

477
00:25:56,680 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 2: Quite like a table and when people come over, actually

478
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 2: very rarely sit on the couch. We just go to

479
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:03,080
Speaker 2: the table right away.

480
00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 3: Home tables, we do a bit of badalth sitting and

481
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 3: then get to the table, but rarely leave the table.

482
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, never leave a table. The idea of let's now

483
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 2: go that's owd fashioned dinner party I used to go.

484
00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:19,439
Speaker 2: I'd go to this anymore where they would then have

485
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:21,639
Speaker 2: like coffee in the other room or something like that,

486
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 2: whereas we sit around the table till you can't see

487
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 2: the tablecloth it's so dirty.

488
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:30,199
Speaker 3: My mother loved a restaurant where you sat somewhere and

489
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,959
Speaker 3: had a drink and you were shown the menus and

490
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: you ordered there and when the starters were nearly ready,

491
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 3: they bring you through to That sounds kind of cool.

492
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 2: That is kind of home.

493
00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 3: It's quite regional hotel.

494
00:26:47,320 --> 00:26:48,760
Speaker 2: But back to the preparation.

495
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,400
Speaker 3: So basically we take the show on a Thursday Thursday night.

496
00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:57,320
Speaker 3: So on a Tuesday night I get emailed all the

497
00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:02,360
Speaker 3: research notes for the guests. I read those. I then

498
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 3: go in on Wednesday to the office and we sit

499
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 3: in the office all day kind of mapping out how

500
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 3: the conversation might go. You know, most people will have

501
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,679
Speaker 3: a product they want to talk about. They might have

502
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 3: a kiped a show, they might have a book, they

503
00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,680
Speaker 3: might have whatever it is. And then the things we're

504
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:24,680
Speaker 3: looking for are links. We're looking for connections, connections, things

505
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:26,840
Speaker 3: that might between the guests. Yeah, between the guests. So

506
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 3: you know, oh, so and so had a pet rabbit

507
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:34,720
Speaker 3: as a child, So did they did too, that's amazing

508
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:38,359
Speaker 3: or whatever, So that kind of thing. So we map

509
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 3: it all out that day and then on the Thursday

510
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 3: afternoon we do a very strange thing, but it's really

511
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:50,320
Speaker 3: good fun. Is the researcher. Each researcher who is responsible

512
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 3: for that guest plays the guest. So we do the

513
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 3: show without the guests.

514
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 2: So you might have some you know, eight six foot

515
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 2: a person being Taylor Swift.

516
00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:05,719
Speaker 3: And they just have a sticker on and we do

517
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,439
Speaker 3: the whole show. And actually, I mean the bad thing

518
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,360
Speaker 3: is sometimes the researcher is better than the guests.

519
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 2: Well, definitely, we better be careful here a researcher.

520
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 3: And then it's a disappointment for the real person shows up.

521
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 3: But what it does is it gives you a very

522
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: good idea of when a guest has dropped out of

523
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 3: the conversation or dear God, we talked to them forever

524
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,439
Speaker 3: about their love of woodworking.

525
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:36,960
Speaker 1: You know.

526
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,120
Speaker 3: So then we sit in the office and we go

527
00:28:41,240 --> 00:28:43,640
Speaker 3: through the we call it a script, was not really

528
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 3: a script, but we go through it kind of hacking away.

529
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 3: Let's get rid of those questions. Let's ask them some

530
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 3: new questions so that they're speaking in a bit and

531
00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 3: they're not. And then you do the show. And then

532
00:28:56,240 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 3: you know, I was saying earlier, What's what I think

533
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 3: keeps us all interested is you never know. You can

534
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 3: have the best guests. They could be all selling just

535
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 3: great products. It could be sunny outside, there could be

536
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 3: a full audience, and yet somehow that show will fall

537
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 3: a bit flat.

538
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:16,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't seen one of those shows. I have

539
00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 2: to say that I have not seen the show. I

540
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 2: see the shows and I watch them, and I see

541
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 2: the way you, as you say, you kind of navigate.

542
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 2: You bring people in. They tell their stories, they laugh

543
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 2: with each other. I think they're great with each other.

544
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 3: I think that's often. I think often that is the

545
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 3: most revealing thing, because you know, these people are all

546
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 3: media trained. I'm never going to make them crack. They're

547
00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 3: not going to sup that you start sobbing over them. Yes,

548
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 3: I killed a man seventeen they but I think often

549
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,800
Speaker 3: what's revealing is how they react to other stories or

550
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,959
Speaker 3: to other people, and in those moments you see the

551
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 3: real person. Yes, you do, you actually go?

552
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 1: Oh yeah?

553
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 2: And at home do you cook?

554
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:11,600
Speaker 3: I do now vegan vegan though actually recently I've been

555
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 3: let off the hook and my husband is cooking because

556
00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 3: he's getting those ingredients delivered.

557
00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's separating.

558
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 3: Yeah, and actually the food is delicious and it feels

559
00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 3: really fresh. It's fresh vegetables, it's fresh everything, and you know,

560
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 3: easy to follow recipes. So yeah, that's kind of been

561
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 3: that's transformed our live.

562
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,200
Speaker 2: When you're writing, do you eat in a different way?

563
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 3: No? I drink a lot of coffee. You do a

564
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:45,520
Speaker 3: lot off.

565
00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:47,520
Speaker 2: Do you have kind of set hours that you write?

566
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 2: Do you say I'm going to do ten pages or

567
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,920
Speaker 2: two hours or I wish no? Tell me about being

568
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 2: a writer.

569
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 3: That was a thing I always wanted to do, and

570
00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 3: then when I turned fifty, I just thought, well, I

571
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 3: either shut up about this and never mention it again,

572
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 3: or I do it. So a publisher was sniffing around

573
00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 3: wanting me to do a memoir. So I said, okay,

574
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,640
Speaker 3: I'll do a memoir if you give me a two

575
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 3: book deal, and the second books a novel, and bless them,

576
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:21,880
Speaker 3: they didn't I write a novel, but they said yes.

577
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 3: So I wrote this novel and it turned out I

578
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,959
Speaker 3: could write one, and it did well enough that they

579
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 3: want me to do another one. So I'm currently working

580
00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:32,880
Speaker 3: on a number.

581
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,960
Speaker 2: Six six and one of them is in a restaurant

582
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 2: called pom right, oh, I read tell me about that.

583
00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 3: Which is because it's a joke on the Big Apple.

584
00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 3: So it's a French restaurant in so it's called the

585
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 3: Little Apple, and that was based a little bit on

586
00:31:55,120 --> 00:32:03,000
Speaker 3: Milange I worked here. But I like, I've used restaurants

587
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 3: a couple of times in my books because I feel

588
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 3: confident writing about them and and all that kind of

589
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:12,120
Speaker 3: you know. The I think the interest thing about restaurants

590
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 3: is that it's that it's never finished. Yeah, Like, the

591
00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:24,280
Speaker 3: minute you've done all your mison class, it gets destroyed.

592
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 3: And the minute you do that then it's gone again.

593
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,480
Speaker 3: The minute you polish a glass, it's dirty again. The

594
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 3: minute it's just it's endless.

595
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 2: I used to say that to Richard. You know, you

596
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 2: build a building and it's up there, you know, forever,

597
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 2: forever and ever and ever. And I make something that

598
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 2: I think is a work of art and it's eaten,

599
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 2: you know, in five minutes.

600
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,320
Speaker 3: You don't. But I think you also people maybe in

601
00:32:48,360 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 3: a restaurant because they're paying an education, maybe they are

602
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 3: appreciative enough. But I feel like in your house when

603
00:32:56,480 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 3: you cook for people, people are never appreciated enough because

604
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 3: we also because they don't. It's like even though they've

605
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 3: cooked themselves, they have forgotten that that stupid thing that

606
00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 3: they kind of poked at you were chopping for an hour. Yeah.

607
00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:15,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if we think about food, and it's been

608
00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,200
Speaker 2: such a joy to have you here, they think about food.

609
00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 2: We think about that it sustains hunger, you know, it

610
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,440
Speaker 2: stops hunger. That it is a way, as you say,

611
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 2: cooking to get praise from your friends. If you entered,

612
00:33:27,200 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 2: you know, if you performs a performance, or it can

613
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 2: be exploration of a new going to San Francisco and

614
00:33:33,800 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 2: you know, being in a commune, or it can be

615
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 2: working in a restaurant. It could be so many things.

616
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 2: But it also is comfort. And so Graham Norton thank

617
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:47,040
Speaker 2: you for coming. If you would kind of reach for

618
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:51,280
Speaker 2: food for comfort, comfort from whatever you're going through and

619
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:53,200
Speaker 2: you're not wanted. Is there a food that you would

620
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 2: reach for?

621
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 3: A baked potato?

622
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:56,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's quite good.

623
00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,040
Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty, there's something very comforting.

624
00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 4: About do you have what?

625
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 3: Do you have any just butter, just butter, butter, salt.

626
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 3: I do quite like tuna. Do you like that the

627
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:15,439
Speaker 3: in theato? I do quite like that. Last summer, there's

628
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:19,799
Speaker 3: supermarket in West Court called super Value, and I was

629
00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 3: starving and my husband to get us sandwiches and he

630
00:34:23,680 --> 00:34:29,800
Speaker 3: brought me back uh tuna mao in a freshly baked

631
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:35,239
Speaker 3: white roll with some slices of tomato in it. And

632
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 3: it was I think the most delicious thing every It

633
00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:40,040
Speaker 3: was just so gorgeous.

634
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:41,320
Speaker 2: I love a Tunafish sandwich.

635
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 3: It was just something about the bread and also it

636
00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:49,960
Speaker 3: was a sunny day, but it was just delicious. So

637
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:54,799
Speaker 3: maybe that's potato. Thank you, thank you.

638
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,600
Speaker 2: It's so good to.

639
00:34:58,600 --> 00:34:58,799
Speaker 1: There.

640
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 3: We got our cred cannidation. Ruthie's Table four was produced

641
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,280
Speaker 3: by Alex Bell, Robbie Hamilton and Zad Rogers, with Andrew

642
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 3: Sang and Bella Selina. This has been an atomized production

643
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:13,799
Speaker 3: for iHeartMedia