WEBVTT - Tom Hollander 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.880 You're listening to Ruthie's table for in Partnership with Montclair. 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:10.440 Imagine going to a close friend's birthday months after the 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:14.600 death of your son. Imagine realizing it was too soon 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.000 and telling the man you're talking to, who you hardly know, 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:22.319 why you need to leave. He takes your arm and 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.079 he insists on seeing you to the lift. Then he 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.960 goes down with you until you get to the street. 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.200 This becomes a ten minute walk to the car park, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.479 a climb up the stairs, him holding your hand tightly, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.519 until you find your car, driving off. You see him 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.320 in the rear view mirror, waving good bye. I was 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:46.440 this woman, and Tom Hollander was this man, and his 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.320 act of tenderness and compassion has stayed with me for 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.519 thirteen years. There are many stories about Tom Hollander. The 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.600 best ones are told by him, not least his life 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.680 in the Day for the Sunday Times, the best in 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:04.839 a great ever written. He is a fantastic actor White 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:10.679 Lotus Patriots, most recently captivating audiences as Truman Capote in 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:15.200 Feud Capote versus the Swans. He sings beautiful songs to 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.200 a six month old son. He's passionate about what he 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.760 cooks and what he eats. Yesterday he sent me a 0:01:21.800 --> 0:01:25.440 photograph with no caption, of fran Hickman with a large 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:31.240 stainless steel saucepan obscuring her face, drinking the contents. Imagine 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:35.080 being me in the River Cafe with Tom Hollander on 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:40.040 a Tuesday afternoon, talking about memories of food, memories of friendship, 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.560 family and all he is doing. Then imagine how special 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.720 this feels. And it's true, I remember that, and it 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.000 is something that stayed with me for years. But what 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:55.240 is really staying with me is spaghetti with peas and pascutto. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:02.640 So ingredients untagrams of butter, one small red onion, chopped, 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.520 three hundred grams of peas, sea salt and ground pepper. 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.800 One loaf of garlic, thinly sliced, two tablespoons of chopped 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:13.800 flat leaf parsley, three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, one 0:02:13.880 --> 0:02:17.400 hundred and fifty grounds producto slices torn into pieces, three 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.640 hundred grounds of spaghetti, fifty grounds of freshly grated parmesan. 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:23.960 Heat the butter in a heavy frying pan over a 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.919 medium heat, Add the onion and fry until soft. Add 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:31.600 the peas, and salt and pepper, reduce the heat low 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:35.720 and cook for five minutes. So that's the thing about peas, 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.280 I know quite sure. Mostly we cook frozen peas, don't we, 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:40.920 And you can pretty much just sort of put them 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.080 in water for about a minute and then they're ready. 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.839 But these peas fresh, so you cook for longer. That's 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.320 why they they take five minutes of cooking. 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.920 Yeah, it depends really what part of the season you're in. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.240 When you have the very very small pieas, you hardly 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:59.239 have to cook them at all, I see. And then 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.079 you know, the tougher they get and the larger they get, 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.400 you might not use them in a pasta sauce because 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.720 you want them to be cooked down and really part 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.280 of the softness of the pasta. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:15.360 But so these were new seas, fresh fresh peas. So 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:16.959 you've added the peas and the salt in the pepper, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.320 and you reduce the heat to low and you cook 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.640 it for five minutes, and then you add the garlic, parsley, 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.920 produter and olive oil. You cover and cook over a 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.520 low heat for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:34.519 of salted water to the boil, add the spaghetti and 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.200 cook until al dente. Add the spaghetti to the pe mixture, 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.480 stir well with a spoon. Stir in the pasta water, 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:44.720 and top with parmesan cheese. Serve immediately. 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.400 So you've just made this in the River cafe. What 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:49.000 was that like? 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.960 I watched Joseph. It was thrilling because I haven't ever 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.960 seen somebody who knows really what they're doing that close up. 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.720 It was also delicious and made me want to go 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:01.680 and cook. It's good to watch, isn't it. 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.960 It's good to actually see something being made rather than 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:06.080 always reading. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:10.760 Yes yes, and to see his hands move someone who's 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.640 done it for years, so it becomes like a dance. 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:15.320 Have we ever cooked on stage? 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.440 I don't. Oh, I feel like I did. When I 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.760 was a child actor. We did sausages. We had sausages 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.719 in It was called Captain Styrick and it was one 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.520 of the greatest shows that the Children's Music Theater, which 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.000 is I think now called the National Youth Music Theater 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.400 National Youth Music Theater created. It was a brilliant dark 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.719 ballad opera. It was called and we were all ragged Children, 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:52.599 Dickenzie and Beggar children in Bartholomew Fair, and there was 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:56.159 a and Captain Styrick was the young It was the 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.080 young kid who was our leader. There was it wasn't 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.680 fake in like, it wasn't Oliver Twist. It was actually darker. 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:07.400 And Captain Syrih went mad, Julian Sylvester. He was called, 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.320 if you're out there, Julians Soversity, you were unforgettable. Anyway, 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.240 maybe he's listening, maybe he is. I hope he is somewhere. 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:20.560 And we oh thirteen fourteen, and we did it on 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.960 the stage of the National Theater in what was then 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:27.880 called the Cottaslow Theater. And we had sausages which we 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:30.039 cooked on a we I mean, I don't think we 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.599 really cooked them, but we were as if cooking them. 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.840 And then we got to eat them, and you know, 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:37.920 it was quite fun to have something to eat halfway 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:44.240 through the second half. I remember that, yeah, And I 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:47.120 sing a song from that was it? I sing that 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:52.679 kit our son. I've seen it to him. Now, many 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.360 a man has left this land on a boat that's 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.920 bound for Botany. Why should he grieve? He could be 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.839 leaving a life of meal and not any you'll boast 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.520 and brag of the deed he's done to avoid the 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.880 nag of the hungry sun. But he's been undone at 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.200 the feast of fun and it's botany Bay for him. 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:16.840 So do you. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:21.760 When you're on stage, does your schedule for eating change? 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.919 I try to eat in the day before the biggest 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.920 meals in the afternoon before the show because it's quite athletic. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:31.320 So what time would that be if the place starts 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:31.880 at seven. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.240 Then three or fours? Yeah, you two or three or 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.039 four and then go to sleep, yeah, and then do 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:38.600 the show. And then if there are people in then 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.800 you and you find out you're going out to dinner. 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:44.480 Then you have to have fish and vegetables and try 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.320 not to eat all the chips and all the rest 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:51.279 of it and that nose Masnez the last play, I 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.360 would have a fanaffel salad in the dressing room without 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:58.760 leaving between shows, because that you just need carbohydrate and 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:02.320 fuel and then go and you'd try to eat a 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:04.480 bigish breakfast on a mass in a day, but that 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.800 in between showday I would buy it before I'd take 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:10.560 it in, put in my fridge, eat it, go to sleep. 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:12.680 That was a ritual that was very good. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.040 Would you drink. Would you have alcohol if you are 0:07:16.160 --> 0:07:16.680 going on. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.960 Stage between shows? Yeah? No, never, no, though everyone No, 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.960 I tried to. I tried all of those things in 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:28.040 my twenties, and they it's a mess. It affects your 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.200 timing and your memory and your speed and your reactivity. 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:37.440 Don't you can't. It ruins it. But in the olden days. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.880 I remember Oliver Cotton telling me that he remember it 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.600 was very strange in the mid eighties at the National 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:49.120 everyone stopped drinking during the show, and he said, if 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.720 you were on stage with Paul Schofield and you were 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:56.560 downstage center, you would expect to smell whiskey on his breath. 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.160 So they were just they were just used to it. 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.559 I think it didn't They would drink so much more 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:05.800 in those days that it just didn't affect them in 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:11.400 the same way. But obviously alcohol, a small amount of 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:15.400 alcohol or a small amount of any intoxicant allows releases 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:20.960 your imaginative stuff and makes you relax. When I played 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:25.280 the violin at school, I would always find concerts very 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:29.440 tense making, and I discovered that having half a half 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:34.240 of a glass of beer allowed me to play better 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.040 in a concert situation, just because I was so racked 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.679 with nerves otherwise. But the association between, you know, being 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:45.600 artistically brilliant and being intoxicated has got an awful lot 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:50.360 of people into terrible trouble over the years, not least 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.240 of whom Truman Coupoti. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.600 We could talk about Capoti and women and food because 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.520 those women a lot of so many scenes in restauran. Right, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.000 they went to lunch every day. 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.480 You're right, But I wonder if they skin he was 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:11.959 their job. Yeah, they drank. I think they drank and smoked. 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:15.319 They drank and smoked and and sort of died young. Yeah, 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.400 perhaps they were celebrating being in the inn crowd and 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.240 being at the table, the best table in the best restaurant. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:27.480 And yes, they were restraining themselves. He couldn't stop, he 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:32.160 couldn't control his appetite. And he loved cooking. He loved 0:09:32.360 --> 0:09:36.440 he loved his own kitchen. Yeah, in the South was yes, yes. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:40.560 And the black and white ball they served his, you know, 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:44.280 the black and white ball sort of apotheos. The black 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.640 and white ball was a ball that Truman Capoti threw 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:52.080 in I can't remember when the very early sixties, on 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:54.880 the back of In Cold Blood, which had made him 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.559 hugely famous, and his obsession with sort of high society 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.760 and his own celebrity came together in one glorious moment, 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.920 and he created the guest list to beat all guest 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.040 lists that have ever existed, so much so that people 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:12.040 knew about him were fighting to get on it. And 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.560 aristocrats flew from Europe. All the film stars, you know, 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:22.760 Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, the Anneli's the probably Mick Jagger, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.040 we can ask him. They all turned up to the 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:32.360 plaza and he gave them corn beef hash, which he 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.720 remembered fondly from Monroeville, Alabama, where he'd grown up. But 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.880 they all complained about the budget of the catering that 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:43.400 it was very small. For him, it was about getting 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.400 them in. They were the decoration, They were the party, 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.280 their dresses, their masks, but there was nothing there. There 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:56.160 were some balloons and some rather dodgy food that neither wanted, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.400 and I think the party ended relatively early, and a 0:10:58.400 --> 0:10:59.760 whole bunch of them went gambling. 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.319 Was it like filming that scene? Did you do it? 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.079 They recreated it in the place, and Zach Posen had 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:13.840 done the dresses for the ladies. It was amazing that was, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.120 and there was there's a sequence in it if people 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.280 he did it emotionally for his mother, we think, we 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:24.800 think those of us who made that show because his 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.680 mother wanted to Truman's mother, who'd abandoned him when he 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.800 was four, then married a man called Joe Capoti, who 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.360 gave him his name, Truman his name, but who was 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.880 a He was a sort of he was dodgy, his 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.959 finances were dodgy, and she nearly made it herself into 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:46.240 Upper east Side society. And then Joe Caboti was revealed 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:48.319 as being sort of bankrupt and hopeless. It all fell 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:53.120 apart and she killed herself, and then Truman had this 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:58.000 ball to kind of to go, look, Mum, I've done it. 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.080 I've done it for us. Every noone wants to be here. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:05.200 They've all got to be here. And in our version 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.720 of it, episode three of Feud Capodi and the Women. 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:11.800 In our version of it, his mother comes to him 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.360 as a ghost in the ball, and what Lee Radswell 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.400 sees is Truman dancing drunkenly on his own and Lee 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.760 Radswell looks across looks across the room, Callista f Lockhart 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.920 looking at him sadly going look at the Paul sod. 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:30.000 He's just a drunk. And then the final scene of 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.280 the episode is in color and he's not dancing on 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.960 his hand, he's dancing with his mum. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.240 Did he he did? 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:44.520 Loves cooking. Yeah, he was addictive and compulsive. So he 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.440 goes up and down. You see. We in our version 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:52.400 we pretty much do fat Trooman because I couldn't in 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.719 a TV schedule go up and down as much as 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:58.079 I needed to, so we went with fat. Ryan Murphy said, 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:00.920 you need to you need to put some weight, so 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:06.640 I did, which was very enjoyable. Obviously less enjoyable trying 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.640 to lose it again. How do you get weight? I've 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.559 done this a couple of times. I did it, and 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.600 it basically you have to just eat all the things, 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:18.840 the obvious things like pizza and ice cream and cornish 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:22.840 pasties and chips, and then you get fat very quickly. 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:24.240 How does it make you feel? 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.160 And then it's marvelous in the moment, And then and 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.320 I started to find it hard to put my socks on, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.560 and I got breathless doing sensible things I thought, easy usual, 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:39.480 I mean ordinary things. That was that was distressing. So 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:41.880 and also I'm a bit old to be messing around 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:47.880 with my weight like that. And furthermore, I've I have 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.960 a little bit of a compulsion to overeat myself, and 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:55.080 have spent all of my most of my professional life 0:13:55.120 --> 0:14:00.600 slightly going slightly slightly up in between jobs and then 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.240 having a diet before a job, and going up and 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.880 going down, and going up and going down, and trying 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.679 to stay disciplined, trying to be like my father, who 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.400 weighs himself every day and if he ever goes over 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:16.640 eleven stone, he has a look at breakfast, he says, 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:18.720 I work. I know whether I can have a heavy 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:20.720 or like retors, depending on what the scales it on 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.600 every day? Does that which sounds like, you know, one 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.240 of the Swans with its level of obsession, but he's 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.920 he's eighty eight and still going strong. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.280 You're saying before that putting it on was one thing, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.760 but you haven't told us about how you take it off. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.720 So I went to a clinic, about half of it 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.720 came off in an Austrian clinic, and then I really 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:45.600 only lost. And then I went and did the play 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.000 in which I was playing someone who needed to actually 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.680 be a bit heavier than me. So I took me 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:55.600 that was Patriots playing Berezovsky, who was quite portly. So 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.000 I kept it on for that and that worked and 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.920 then I only I only got it off about three 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.760 months ago with the fear of doing the American breast junk. 0:15:06.800 --> 0:15:06.840 It. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:12.360 That motivated me enough to cut down on everything for 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:17.280 a few weeks and it came off. And so I'm 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.320 always trying to to, you know, discipline myself. But I 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.960 do have a tendency to I love eating, but I 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:31.680 also eat my feelings, you know, which which people do, 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.680 and if you do it too much, it's it's it's 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.040 not good for you. So I tried to do other 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:38.280 things with my feelings. 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.160 Friend of mine, I was at a dinner recently where 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.720 they were talking about a zempec. Oh yes, yes, and 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:49.800 they were saying that, and it was kind of interesting 0:15:49.800 --> 0:15:51.680 to her. She said, really, what it's done for me, 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.080 It's taken the noise of food away. It's taken all 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:01.280 that noise. Should I shouldn't? I how much? When? And 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:05.680 actually I understand that a lot, But I also think 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.520 it's a kind of noise we do want in our 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:09.960 life as well. We like the noise of food, don't 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.240 we we like the kind of thought of going to 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:13.800 bed at night and thinking what am I going to 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.080 have tomorrow for lunch or then? 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.320 And actually it's the noise of being alive, isn't it. 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:26.920 It's the desire then, the fulfillment of the desire, that 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.880 the creative process, the gathering of ingredients, the construction, the destruction, 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.680 the kind of the clearing up afterwards, everything from the 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.360 preparation to the end of it. It's all it's And 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:40.760 it's a sort of I mean, you could, I could 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.040 become pretentious if I'd say, but you know, it's a 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.600 cycle of life, isn't it. But yes, But but to 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.400 be at war with food, which you can be, is 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.640 not good. And I have I do have a sense 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:56.680 of that because being you know, an actor, where you 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:02.360 become inevitably obsessed with your appearance, you know, it has 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:04.600 an a tendency to make you think, I mustn't need, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.520 I mustn't need, I mustn't eat, so I'm beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.639 It's never really made any difference. I met her. I 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.200 met her an actor once in Italy who'd long retired. 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:25.080 He'd been a famous sixties heart throw quite famous. And 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.200 I'm not going to name him, partly because it would 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:28.840 be the wrong thing to do, and also because I 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:34.480 can't remember his name. But he said I had to 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.199 retire because I was sick of being thin and I 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.639 wanted to eat. And he lived in the Italian hills 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.960 near Cordona, and he loved food and he ate it. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:46.600 And he's probably no longer with us, but he was 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.800 living the life of a you know, a bonne viver. 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:55.080 And I did sometimes think I'll get to a certain 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.440 age and then I'll give up trying to not be fat, 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.800 and then I'll just become a fat actor. Because fat 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:06.000 actors they never stopped working. They're always there's always rumber, 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.800 a fat actor in everything. Anyway, I can't do that. 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:14.439 Orson Welles Well exactly, Dear Richard Griffiths, or you know, 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:18.080 you sort of think they're they're loved. But I don't 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.159 want to do that because I think I want to. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:22.160 I now need to live as long as I can. 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.160 For sure, we certainly shall, because you have a son 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:34.200 I do. Did you know the River Cafe has a shop. 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.600 It's full of our favorite foods and designs. We have 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:41.199 cookbooks and then a Napkins kitchen ware toad bags with 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:45.320 our signatures, glasses from Venice, chocolates from Turin. You can 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.560 find us right next door to the River Cafe in 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:52.400 London or online at shop Therivercafe dot co dot uk. 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:01.960 What meals like in your house? Did you all sit 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.320 down for dinner every night? Your sister and your sister. 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:10.200 Us, your cook and mom would cook and did you cook? 0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:12.720 His dad didn't cook then, but he did. He didn't 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.760 cook when we were children, really, but he learned to 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:18.000 cook once we left home and he loves cooking now. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.120 That's one thing that's maybe that's changed. I wonder whether 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:23.879 this was true. I was thinking about it, just that 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:28.520 when I grew up it felt like, you know, mothers 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.680 did the cooking, fathers did the eating, but that we've 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.200 lived through a period where that's changed, right as sorry, 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.040 mothers are working, mothers are working, so fathers are cooking, 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.880 and then people like Jamie Oliver, scion of the River 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:47.400 Cafe have taught everyone how that they can do it too, right. 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.320 So but I have image of my father learning to cook, 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.560 and then I am sort of learning to cook actually 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.639 the same sort of age, which is great. That's a 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.240 that's a great development isn't it. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.760 Yes, when you were growing up in your parents' house, 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.320 your grandparents were nearby. 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.680 Were they they were in Devon? No, we were in Oxford, 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.439 but they We used to go to them on the 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:15.960 way to Cornwall every spring and every summer, and sometimes 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:19.000 on the way back. And then towards the end of 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.280 my grandparents' life he was living with us in Oxford. 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:28.720 Your grandfather who came from Germany with your father background, Yeah, 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:30.800 Czechoovcia checkless. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.959 Yeah, in nineteen thirty nine he came with my dad. Yeah. 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.600 And how old was your father three? Oh? I see, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.400 so your father came very early. Yeah, so the grandmother, 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:41.879 grandfather and your. 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.680 Father nineteen thirty nine. Yeah, they made this epic journey 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:54.280 across Central Europe and landed it marriage I think. Yeah. 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:56.800 And they had sort of twenty five suitcases at the 0:20:56.840 --> 0:20:59.920 beginning of the journey, and they were thrown off one 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.159 I won, reduced to about three by the time they 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.199 got to the end. Any money they had left was 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:12.400 there in my father's shoe, the toddler's shoe, and then 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:17.360 they but they knew some people. My grandfather was ran 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:20.640 a radio station in Czechoslovakia. The music was in charge 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:23.240 of the music, the classical music part of it, and 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.520 a BBC producer had sent him this letter inviting him 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:30.439 to come to give a talk about Yanichek as my 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:34.560 father knew Yanichek and had written about Yanicheck and promoted 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.080 Yanischeck and was a friend of his, and please bring 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.919 us your some expertise about Yanicheck. And that was what 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.280 allowed them to get through because they had German accents, 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.720 so people they were immediately people were suspicious of them. 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:49.680 Did they speak English at all? 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:57.320 My grandmother spoke quite good English, and my grandfather had 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:58.960 to learn English. But they were you know, he was 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.080 forty two or something forty He was born in eighteen 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:05.120 ninety nine, So yeah. 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.359 They And as is your grandparents, did they cook for you? 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:13.399 They did a bit. I think my parents used to 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:16.400 take over pretty much doing all the domestic things when 0:22:16.400 --> 0:22:19.120 they got there. We used to say it was Bohemian 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:26.199 their life on it was technically Moravian. Happy food situations 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:32.120 were in our home. I have very happy memories of 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:36.120 our family suppers in which the day would be downloaded 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.440 and we'd all share our experience of school. My parents 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:40.920 were teachers, so we would all be talking about ask 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.320 what had happened at school. They would be as well, 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.399 and I did miss that. That is that's one of 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.280 the principal memories of growing up, is that moment of 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:51.320 the day for sure. 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:52.880 So let's look at this point. 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:56.840 So this is a book that my mother made me 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:58.760 when I was a student and sent me off to 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:01.200 be a student with and put in a few of 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.479 the favorite things that we'd eat and that she'd cooked us, 0:23:03.480 --> 0:23:05.960 and it was just sort of start us off. So 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:08.679 this is when you went to Cambridge. Yeah, yeah, so 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.280 nineteen eighty five. She would have made this for one 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:13.240 So I was looking at a book. So she's written 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:20.440 bon epitty and then she sectioned it into soup, fish, meat, miscellaneous. 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:23.160 Under miscellaneous is tomato chutney. 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:25.320 And your mother grew up in Britain. 0:23:25.680 --> 0:23:28.440 Yeah, yeah, well yeah, she grew up in Africa until 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.119 she was six and then she then she was in England. 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.200 But they're to rollo cross there. That's the sort of 0:23:36.320 --> 0:23:39.679 thing that we used to eat children. So well, it's 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.679 Central Europe. It's Tyrilian. Actually it's Czech Austrian because they 0:23:43.720 --> 0:23:48.200 were so we did eat and dad, what's fascinating about 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:53.080 because dad does not really that is that is an 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:58.640 Englishman now, but when we go it's food. Food reveals 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:02.439 about your origin. So he loves venishntsel, and he loves 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:09.119