Matt Lucas

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in two thousand and six.

Presenter0:27

My castaway this week is the comedy performer and writer Matt Lucas legend.

Matt Lucas0:31

Clear

Presenter0:32

Comedy legend. Legend, I beg your pardon. As one half of the team that created the hit TV show Little Britain, he's won a bundle of awards and is responsible for the character of Vicky Pollard, the chaff teenager who swapped her baby for a Westlife CD, and Daffyth, the Welsh homosexual who, despite all indications to the contrary, considers himself to be the only gay in the village. The comedy characters that have brought him and his on-screen partner David Williams such success are grotesque as well as funny, appearing to reflect the habits and attitudes of a nation as though through a fairground hall of mirrors. They exaggerate and distort, but at the same time show us something of the truth of how we behave and how we are. Matt, the Little Britain catchphrases now are part of everybody's everyday life, the yeah, but no but and the only gay in the village. Do they follow you around everywhere you go?

Matt Lucas1:18

They do. But it would be churlish to see that as a bad thing because um me and David have been writing together. Is it me and David or David and I?

Presenter1:27

It is uh David and I.

Matt Lucas1:29

Oh, well you and David have been writing together for ten years. I can see where this is going to go. Yes. And um and you know and many years without much success. So finally we have this big audience. So um any people can shout out whatever they like. Um it's nice to be noticed.

Presenter1:31

I can see where this is gonna go.

Presenter1:47

Just to be clear, it was your voice correcting me there in the introduction and saying that you're a comedy legend rather than a comedy performer. I mean, obviously sending yourself up, but a aware are you aware as you walk down the street of your status in the nature of the consciousness?

Matt Lucas1:50

That's right.

Matt Lucas1:57

I don't walk down the street anymore. That's not true, though.

Presenter2:02

That's not true though, is it? I mean you do endeavour to l I mean you get on buses, you take the tube.

Matt Lucas2:06

Well, actually, yeah, you've got to live real life, otherwise, you won't be able to write about it.

Presenter2:10

I see. Did did you and David Williams deliberately set out to make a comedy brand with Little Britain?

Matt Lucas2:16

Not really. I mean, we did have some aims to make the most accessible show possible. We wanted a T V show where you could turn on and within five seconds you'd know what you were watching. People do talk a lot about the kind of eschatological nature of Little Britain, the the vulgarity. And I don't apologise for that because I think that harks back to a great British tradition of comedy. But I think also there are satirical elements and there are surreal elements in the show and there is just plain silly daft visual comedy in there as well. And so I think that we do think about it a lot, you know, and we do we do govern and censor ourselves and question ourselves. And for all the stuff you see that shocks you, there's plenty that didn't even make it to the screen, or stuff that we filmed and haven't used. And people tend to pick out sketches like Bitty or The Vomiting Ladies and Speaker.

Presenter3:06

And just to be just to be clear, for people who haven't seen it, Bitty is the the man who who looks to me to be in his sort of thirties and is still breastfeeding. And the vomiting ladies, the terribly nice ladies who conduct themselves immaculately until they come into contact with anybody who's from an ethnic minority or anybody who's homosexual, and then they they projectile vomit. There's a lot of dressing up as well, there's a lot of prosthetics and wigs and makeup. David Walliams, I read, enjoys all of that. He enjoys the dressing up. How do you feel about it?

Matt Lucas3:33

What I like is dressing up and being someone else in the process. You know, I'm not that fussed with myself. But I don't get any particular rush out of dressing up as a woman. Walliams does rather enjoy all that though, I I sense.

Presenter3:47

What's your first record?

Matt Lucas3:48

My first record

Matt Lucas3:50

Is from the Broadway cast recording of 42nd Street.

Presenter3:55

And why have you chosen it?

Matt Lucas3:56

I've chosen it because I've got two great passions in life: Arsenal and Musicals. It's a backstage musical, and the leading lady has broken her leg and can't go on. And they think the only girl who can do this is the girl they should have had the part, the chorus girl who's been sacked. And they have to all go to Central Station and encourage her to come back and be in the show. It's an emergency. Julian Marsh, the show's director, says, Where are you going? And she says, Alan Tahn. And he says,

Speaker 34:30

Allentown, I'm giving you the chance to star in the greatest musical Broadway scene in thirty years, and you tell me Allentown It's just it's so

Matt Lucas4:41

No hammer is just brilliant.

Speaker 34:54

Listen to the lullaby.

Matt Lucas5:12

It does what it says on a packet, doesn't it? I mean, it is just a big, brash, unashamed Broadway musical.

Presenter5:17

Lullaby of Broadway from the Broadway cast recording of Forty Second Street. Given that you can quote the dialogue and given uh clearly how much you know about the subject and and the specific recordings, you're uh you say your two passions, your two loves are musicals and arsenal. So tell us first of all about the musicals. How how did that begin?

Matt Lucas5:33

Yeah.

Matt Lucas5:36

I d you know, I'm not hugely sure. I mean, um, although I had a happy childhood, I did sometimes hide away in my bedroom and I would listen to the cast recordings of 42nd Street or Calamity Jane or Singing in the Rain, Les Miserable, just these great classic pieces. And I did go and see this in 1984, 85, and I got Frankie Vaughan's autograph.

Presenter6:00

Uh you waited at the stage, don't we? Yes, but

Matt Lucas6:01

Yes, but I've since found out he was a Tottenham fan.

Presenter6:04

Right, does that put you off?

Matt Lucas6:05

Awesome.

Presenter6:05

Uh Uh

Matt Lucas6:06

Only tinily.

Presenter6:07

Yeah.

Matt Lucas6:08

Stop.

Presenter6:08

Well, it is today. And Arsenal Arsenal then, you're a big Arsenal fan.

Matt Lucas6:09

Yeah.

Matt Lucas6:12

You know, since boyhood. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean, it's something I inherited from my dad and from my brother, and I was. Did he take you to the matches?

Presenter6:12

You know um

Presenter6:19

Did he take you to the matches?

Matt Lucas6:20

Yeah, taken as a boy. And see, I don't really watch soaps, you know, other but for me it's my living soap is football.

Presenter6:28

So a happy and secure family. Your big brother Howard, doting mum and dad. It was scouts, it was a youth club, it was visits to grandma's house in Golders Green at the weekend. Good times.

Matt Lucas6:39

Very nice, you know, very happy, um, childhood, probably quite normal childhood. But I suppose the only thing that happened that was unusual was that when I was six, all my hair fell out. So it did mark me out a little bit as as a kid. I I was, um the kid you remember, the kid you recognize, you know.

Presenter6:59

And what about, um, your first brush with performing? What age did that happen at?

Matt Lucas7:03

Probably, I would say, in the synagogue youth review that celebrated 50 years of the synagogue when I was about 10 or 11.

Presenter7:11

What part did you have?

Matt Lucas7:11

What part did you have? I I came on as a milkman and shouted out Milco, Milco, drink a pint of milk a day.

Presenter7:17

Did you make it your own?

Matt Lucas7:18

I made

Presenter7:18

Definitely.

Matt Lucas7:19

My own cursed year, I spent a few years on the milk floats.

Matt Lucas7:25

discovering who I was as a milkman.

Presenter7:29

What's your next record?

Matt Lucas7:30

My next record, oh, how embarrassing.

Matt Lucas7:33

You two

Presenter7:34

Does it, mate?

Matt Lucas7:34

Adid is a kids from fame Starmaker.

Matt Lucas7:38

Tell me why. Well, look, it's one of the most exciting moments of my life was mum coming in and saying we'd got tickets to see the kids from fame at the Albert Hall do their live show. And indeed, my poor father was given the unenviable task of taking me and my brother and some friends to see the kids from fame. And when they all ran into the audience, Leroy, who was the coolest man and still is in many ways, ran quite near us. So I got quite near to Leroy.

Speaker 38:16

We break the south.

Presenter8:29

Happy now.

Presenter8:34

The kids from Fame and StarMaker and uh memories there of wearing your leg warmers to the performance and

Matt Lucas8:40

Well I d uh yeah, everybody wore leg warmers. You know, there was a very embarrassing thing though, it's just coming to me that um I was at my primary school and the heating had gone off, but I remember my mum sending through some leg warmers for me and my teacher, Mrs. Pierce, saying, Oh, Matt, um, your mum sent through some leg warmers and it was she might as well have said, Matt, you're homosexual because it was just oh oh dear, oh dear, what a giveaway.

Presenter9:06

Yeah.

Presenter9:08

Uh you said by that point, the point that you went to see the show your hair had already fallen out. That happened when you were six.

Matt Lucas9:14

Yes.

Presenter9:15

Um, very traumatic, that must have been.

Matt Lucas9:17

Well, do you know what? The absolute truth is, probably over about um

Matt Lucas9:22

I don't know, about six weeks it fell off and I used to wake up and find all these hairs on my pillow in the morning. It was bizarre, but I didn't find it particularly traumatic. But uh people around me found it traumatic on my behalf and obviously my parents were very worried and we went for loads of weird cures, you know. We we there was some seaweed lotion that we ordered sort of through mail order that my dad used to rub into my head that gave his hands a terrible rash. And I had acupuncture and tried loads of different things. And in the end, we got a wig on the National Health. And they didn't make children's wigs then. Right.

Presenter10:00

Right.

Matt Lucas10:00

So I had a big lady's wig?

Matt Lucas10:03

put on me and it had to be like cut down but at the time I had really big hair which wasn't very good and did you actually

Presenter10:08

Did you actually wear it? Did you wear it to sit down?

Matt Lucas10:09

Did you wear it to sit? I did. Yeah, I put it on and it was very itchy. And so my auntie, Denny, sewed a handkerchief into the lining for me. And I went into primary school the next day because I looked odd because I didn't have any eyebrows, you see. And I remember just a kid riding past on his bike and whipping it off straight away and throwing it and landing in a puddle. And then I had to make a decision really when I went to secondary school, was I going to keep it or not? And I decided to do away with it. There were times when it's hard. It's hard sometimes going through puberty with something like that because you want to fit in. But it was, you know, that was my lot, and it's fine, you know, it's okay.

Presenter10:50

You've said that as a child you always knew, you always felt you were going to be famous.

Matt Lucas10:54

Well, no, I didn't feel I ever wouldn't be famous. It didn't ever occur to me. I mean, as a as a six-year-old kid living in a sort of suburb and with no hair, you're the kid that people point at and you become a little celebrity.

Presenter11:06

So you have a kind of notoriety. You're surrounded by the market.

Matt Lucas11:08

You're celebrating. You're remembered. And so I had a sort of celebrity.

Presenter11:14

What's your third record?

Matt Lucas11:15

My third record is from Hans Christian Andersen and is sung by Danny Kaye and its Inchworm.

Presenter11:23

And why did you choose it?

Matt Lucas11:23

Well, partly, you know, this is one of the the um films I was I watched a lot as a kid. There is the story in Hans Christian Andersen of um a little boy with no hair who has his cap pulled off. But um my favourite song from this film is uh Inchworm. And and of course this is all written by Frank Lesser who wrote Guys and Dolls, which is also one of my favourite musicals.

Speaker 111:54

In Schwarz, Inchworld.

Speaker 111:59

Measuring the maribo

Speaker 112:04

You and your arithmetic

Speaker 112:08

Uh

Presenter12:08

Uh

Presenter12:10

You'll probably go far

Presenter12:15

Danny Kay and Inchworm from the original soundtrack to the film Hans Christian Anderson released back in 1952. Right now you're on stage every night with uh the Little Britain Tour, the stage show.

Speaker 112:26

Yeah.

Matt Lucas12:26

Tickets delivered. Double at all price.

Presenter12:27

I don't think they are actually. I mean, they're pretty much sold out. But it's this big, slick production with lots of musical numbers in it, lots of uh costume changes. Must be very draining doing that every night.

Matt Lucas12:38

You know, I think you the audience lift you up every night and pull you through it really. E even though touring can be quite kind of draining, the actual business of being on stage is almost always about the best fun you can ever have.

Presenter12:53

It's it's quite a long journey, isn't it, from being the the the boy who was marked out by being bald. Although I understand what you're saying, you don't want to make a big deal as if it's the worst cross you could have borne, but then to be on stage and to be, I mean, literally sort of worshipped by all these people who are in the audio. They're cheering and they're cheering because it's you. Does it feel like a long journey?

Speaker 113:00

What I don't know.

Matt Lucas13:12

To some respects. I mean, I I've always made it clear, you know, I had some difficulties in my life and and they've been, you know, fairly well documented. But I think there is is a a cliche that, you know, comedians have had it harder. I'm not sure

Presenter13:25

You don't buy into the tears of a clown's

Matt Lucas13:27

Well, I think there's some truth, but I just think there are many things in my life that are a lot easier because of the success I've had. And also, I've never been without great friends and I've never been without the love of my family who are wonderful people. So

Presenter13:42

You're very, very close to your family is the sensation that I get. I mean, you talk about your mum a lot and you talk about life going to arsenal with your dad and I I mean when you were ten and when they did break up, did it hit you hard at the time?

Matt Lucas13:51

Yeah, absolutely. Because I think you think life is perfect and, um, you know, I I I really, really thought life was like the Adverts as a kid. You know, and my whole life has been a a realization that life isn't like the Adverts.

Presenter14:08

I mean children typically think it's their fault when their parents break up.

Matt Lucas14:12

Yeah.

Presenter14:12

Did you did you feel that?

Matt Lucas14:14

No, I didn't know, no. But, you know, that wasn't the hardest thing that I had to deal with anyway, you know,'cause I don't propose to talk about it in great detail, but my father was in prison, that's something that's out there. And then, you know, and I just had lots of weight problems, which are obviously something I still deal with. You know, there were other things and dealing with sexuality and all those sorts of things were all are all challenges. And uh but I think at the moment, you know, I've reached a point where life is pretty good.

Speaker 314:23

Sure.

Presenter14:37

Sure.

Presenter14:43

What's your fourth record?

Matt Lucas14:44

My fourth record

Matt Lucas14:46

Oh, well.

Matt Lucas14:48

As Queen, these are the days of our lives.

Presenter14:50

And why?

Matt Lucas14:51

Why? Because actually, I keep saying I grew up a huge fan of this and I grew up a huge fan of that. But if I had to pick one person.

Matt Lucas14:59

One person who I have absolutely idolized through my life uh is Freddie Mercury. And um when Freddie Mercury died, uh I went to his house and you know lit a candle and left a note. I was seventeen, I think. That sounds about right. And was just utterly, utterly devastated. Partly because um

Presenter15:13

How old would you get?

Matt Lucas15:25

My favourite singer had had died and died young and in pain. But also, I think, because I was coming to I was going to have to accept that I was gay and it was hard. You know, I remember when Freddie Mercury died, I remember reading the editorial in the Evening Standard, the London Evening Standard the next day, which basically said this is what you get for living a hedonistic lifestyle, and kind of inferred that he had what was coming to him.

Presenter15:55

The days were endless, we were crazy, we were young The sun was always shining, we just

Speaker 116:02

Slip a pop

Presenter16:02

Uh

Speaker 116:03

Sometimes it seems like late, I just don't know.

Speaker 116:08

Rest of my life's been

Speaker 116:11

Just to show

Presenter16:13

Uh

Presenter16:16

Those were the days, all our lives.

Presenter16:23

Queen, and these are the days of our lives. Um you mentioned that you had struggles with your weight. When did you begin? You were you I mean it's characterized always by people as a battle with their weight.

Matt Lucas16:35

Or battle with the Um, probably when I was about ten or eleven, probably around the time that my, um, parents split up and I think I just became one of those kids that started shouting and screaming if I wasn't given a bag of crisps.

Presenter16:46

The character of Marjorie Dawes, uh one of my favourites, who runs this club called Fat Fighters, is relentlessly unpleasant and prejudiced. And and you went to was it Weight Watchers Clubs when you were

Matt Lucas16:56

I was taken to Eight Watchers by my mother.

Presenter16:57

Is she based on the woman who ran you?

Matt Lucas16:59

Well, no, not really. And I should explain that the sort of incarnation of Marjorie Dawes that you see in Little Britain is very much the creation of me and David, you know, because I think people hear that I went to Weight Watchers and assume that it all comes from me, and I cannot take all that credit at all. But yeah, I mean, there is a little influence there, just because the woman always used to say every week, have we got any new members? So nothing else. But yeah, I mean, it was a great place to go. I really, actually, really enjoyed going to Weight Watchers. I was 13 and my mum used to take me. And I really enjoyed it. I was a little celebrity there. I was a little boy. And I lost two and a half stone in about three months there, four months.

Presenter17:39

Most people who are conscious about their weight spend their lives trying to cover themselves up. The characters that you play, many of them in Little Britain, are in a state of considerable undress. I'm thinking now about Vicky in her roller skate outfit where she's wearing a bikini or Daffyth when he's wearing the SM rubberised gear. It's very exposing of you.

Matt Lucas17:51

Well she's wearing a bikini.

Matt Lucas17:59

It's because I'm a weak man, because David suggests these things and I kind of go, Yeah, all right. No, I I don't know what it is. Yeah, there's a sense of if I make the joke first, if David makes the joke first.

Matt Lucas18:10

Then we control it. You know, you control. I mean, David often quotes this. It's Ben Miller, you know, the comedian from Miller and Armstrong, who made some quote saying comedy is a way of controlling people's laughter at you. And I just think that's what it's about. And actually, when I used to do stand-up, I was 18 and I started doing stand-up comedy. I used to heckle myself throughout the routine because you just, well, there's no point in you heckling me, I'll heckle myself.

Presenter18:37

What's your next record?

Matt Lucas18:38

My next record

Matt Lucas18:42

Is the Light by the Proclaimers.

Presenter18:43

Why?

Matt Lucas18:44

Because I've always loved the Proclaimers, and there's something so elusive about them. They released an album in something like 87 and another one in 88. Then we didn't get another album for five years, then we didn't get another album for seven years. So when you do get a Proclaimers album, it's incredibly precious. And I think they're very rousing and very soulful, and they just stir something up in you that makes you want to run around the room. So I love them.

Matt Lucas19:11

I've been stumbling in the dark for years, And the light just made me blind.

Matt Lucas19:19

See the lights every pathway

Matt Lucas19:22

Shows me how to live life for the rest of my days

Matt Lucas19:28

For the rest of my days

Speaker 119:33

But I can't put my feet in your words, you words into my

Presenter19:41

The Proclaimers and the Light. Uh the other half of Little Britain then is, of course, David Walliams. When did you first meet him?

Matt Lucas19:47

I first met David in 1990 at the National Youth Theatre.

Presenter19:51

What did you think of him?

Matt Lucas19:52

I thought, oh, he's really funny. He's brilliant. David apparently thought, and he's always told me this, that he thought, Oh, great. I bet he only thinks he's funny'cause he's got no hair. I want to be the funny one.

Presenter20:04

Yeah.

Matt Lucas20:07

Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah,'cause I was sixteen and I think he was probably nineteen. And we just kept in touch and we were good just good friends for three or four years before we even started writing together. I remember going with him to see uh at the Don Mar Warehouse Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing and um that was a very instrumental in me coming out watching that play.

Presenter20:28

What what was it about that that was significant?

Matt Lucas20:29

Well, you know, I think there was an image of gayness that in a way had sort of been desexualized. So at the time I kind of thought I'm gay, but I just didn't see myself in people like in characters like Mr Humphreys or Larry Grayson. I didn't see myself in people like Boy George or Jimmy Somerville, and I just couldn't see myself anywhere. And then I went to see Beautiful Thing and that was the kind of closest, although I didn't come from a working class background, which that was about two working class boys who happened to just kind of fall in love. I just identified more with that than with anything else really.

Presenter21:04

So what was coming out like for a nice Jewish boy?

Matt Lucas21:07

It was absolutely fine. It was really painless. All my friends were absolutely fine. My mum was very shocked and surprised, which was a surprise to me because I thought, oh, come on, you know, you don't see me with many women. I'm a young guy. I go to the theatre a lot. I'm acting. You know, I thought the clues were there. But she was very surprised. But when it becomes a reality, i.e. in my case, when I settled down with somebody and fell in love with just someone who was I'm not going to say normal, but somebody who was no crazier than me, then you know, and was patently happy as I am now, then I think it it becomes much easier for them to deal with.

Presenter21:47

Daffyth's um grandstanding about his sexuality, his homosexuality is plainly uh ludicrous, you know, fighting this battle that in in his village doesn't actually exist. Do you have a a particular view on on people who do grandstand about their sexuality, whether it's homosexual or whether it's heterosexual?

Matt Lucas22:03

I suppose all I think, and again, I cannot emphasise enough. I mean, this was actually an idea. There was somebody we both met who inspired Daffy, but again, this came from one of David's suggestions. And what did this person do to inspire the character? Well, this person was bisexual and actually wore it as a real badge. But for many people, I think it's probably a bit of a disappointment. I mean, it was for me. I mean, my closest friend, when I said, oh, I think I might be bisexual, which is how most people come out, by the way. I think I might be bisexual. He said, oh, my girlfriend's bisexual.

Presenter22:14

And what did this person do to inspire the character?

Matt Lucas22:35

I thought, Oh, cheers, I'm not even the only one you know Oh, great I was furious I wanted someone to throw plates, I wanted tantrums, I wanted to be a real martyr, a real victim. You've really created in your head all these these scenarios of great drama, and actually when you come out, it's not very remarkable.

Presenter22:54

You're in a very settled and happy relationship now.

Matt Lucas22:57

Yeah. Kevin. Kevin. Who I wanted to take along as my luxury item. But we can't do it. Absolutely not. Outrageous. We'll talk about that. That's later.

Presenter22:59

You are

Presenter23:02

You can't do it. Absolutely not. Outrageous. We'll talk about that. That's homophobia.

Presenter23:08

We'll negotiate that later, though. What's your next record?

Matt Lucas23:09

Okay.

Matt Lucas23:11

My next record is Songs of Love, which is written by Neil Hannan of The Divine Comedy. But this version of it is sung by Ben Folds, and this is a way of combining two of the greatest musicians we have together in one song.

Presenter23:29

Pale, pubescent beasts roam through the streets and coffee shops.

Presenter23:37

You have time

Presenter23:39

Let the sun shine down from above.

Presenter23:44

And fill you with songs.

Presenter23:54

Ben Folds and Songs of Love. As you mentioned, you were doing stand-up when you were eighteen. It wasn't always successfully and happily received. You were you were booed off stage at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Matt Lucas24:03

Oh, yeah, I was booed off at the uh Edinburgh Playhouse, uh, in front of two and a half thousand people. But I mean, the one thing I uh say is that as a comedian, you know, your worst death is ahead of you and you don't stop

Matt Lucas24:15

Dying, you know, you must never think, oh, now I'm safe. No, where did you?

Presenter24:19

Where did you find the strength or after being booed off in front of two and a half thousand people? Where did you find the strength to get back on the stage?

Matt Lucas24:24

Well, i in a way I'm not sh quite sure that I did because I do think that that particular gig did precipitate the end of me going around the country on my own.

Presenter24:32

It was while you were at Bristol University that you were spotted for this T V show Shooting Stars with uh Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves.

Matt Lucas24:39

It was actually before. I mean, what happened was, I went on a comedy course run by this comedian called Ivor Dembina, and then I had it all booked up. On the Saturday night, I was going to perform at Punchlines. On the Sunday night, I was going to perform at a club called the V D Clinic, which was the Val Dunikan Clinic, which was a club for New Axe. And then on the Thursday night, I was going to perform at the Comedy Store, and that was it. My legend was secured. Let's just say that after the second gig, I cancelled the Comedy Store gig. But what actually happened was I was performing at this club, and Bob Mortimer was in the audience. And I was 18 and I'd been going five weeks. And I was the biggest Reibs and Mortimer fan you could imagine. I mean, probably them and David were the two reasons I was doing comedy. And I had this dream of one day meeting them. I mean, the idea that within two or three years I was working with both them and David was kind of that I didn't have any other ambitions.

Presenter25:29

Bob Mortimer said that at the time he met you, you were the angriest man he'd ever met. What do you mean by that?

Matt Lucas25:33

What do you mean by that? Well, I think I was really angry. I was I'd had this from you know ten onwards. You know, it had been qu things had been quite difficult and and I think I never felt I could get up there and be myself. I didn't really want to. And I think that a lot of the comedians would go up there with a a pint glass and a cigarette and it would all be, oh, you know, I'm just like you, we're just the same. And actually I felt very different to everybody else. I felt quite estranged. So in a way, going on stage was a great way of letting go.

Presenter26:03

I hope you don't mind me mentioning it, but you have said that you you've had therapy and you you've described having therapy as well.

Matt Lucas26:07

This is good therapy today actually. Hasn't cost me anything. Very nice.

Presenter26:09

Very nice. You've described it as the beginning of me. I mean, that sounds momentous to say that therapy was the beginning of you.

Matt Lucas26:17

Well, I don't remember that particular quote, but I I was certainly you know, subscribe to that now because, you know, I did reach a point where I was just ju the career had sort of reached a bit of a halt and me and David couldn't get stuff on television. And I was thinking, well, do you know what?

Matt Lucas26:32

Maybe this isn't what I should be doing. This was five or six years ago. Maybe this isn't what I'm destined to do. Maybe I should should go off and and do something else.

Presenter26:41

Matt, it seems extraordinary given your success that you're saying as recently as five years ago you thought about chucking it all in.

Matt Lucas26:46

Yeah, I mean, you know, because what happened was Shooting Stars was really big and and I was like, oh, wasn't he that guy that used to do that? And so sometimes I just thought, well, maybe I should just maybe, yeah, maybe they're right. Maybe I was that guy who used to be in that thing and maybe I should just think, yeah, well, I did that, that was fun, that exceeded any expectations I ever had. And I'd just come out and my father had died and and it was it wasn't good, you know, life wasn't good and and I was smoking too much dope and doing all of that. And actually what I had to do was just just stop doing that, really. Stop smoking dope, go to the gym, start feeling better about myself, give myself reasons to feel better about myself and you know, and start dating, start going to clubs, just doing the things that actually kind of people do.

Presenter27:32

What's your next piece of music?

Matt Lucas27:33

My next piece of music, Kirsty, is from Sweeney Todd.

Matt Lucas27:39

by Stephen Sundheim, who, you know, is probably the greatest living writer of musicals. And it's from from Sweeney Todd, as I say, which I think is his best piece, and it's Not While I'm Around.

Presenter27:53

Nothing's gonna harm you, no, sir, not while I'm around.

Presenter28:00

Demons are prowling everywhere. Now what air And so they are, dear. I'll send em howling, I don't care.

Presenter28:12

I can't wait! Of course you do, what a sweet, affectionate child it is.

Presenter28:20

Manuel Felciano and Patty Lapone singing Not While I'm Around from Sweeney Taught by Stephen Sondheim. As well as uh spending your nights then doing um the show as it comes to an end, the stage show of Little Britain, you're spending your days planning a wedding.

Matt Lucas28:35

Oh, well, I am. Yeah, planning a civil partnership, moving house. Yeah, lots going on.

Presenter28:42

What sort of wedding do you want to have?

Matt Lucas28:45

I don't want to talk about it too much, I have to be honest with you. I mean, everybody, each to their own, but to me, you know, I realize there is some public interest because after Elton John and David Furnish, and probably in this country, the next highest profile people to have a civil partnership. I think I know it sounds quite a grand thing to say that, but I think that's probably the case.

Presenter29:05

No, it sounds realistic.

Matt Lucas29:06

I think I probably accept that there's some public interest and you know

Presenter29:10

Will you have to go some way to to siting that public interest?

Matt Lucas29:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I you know, I'm a realist, but Kevin isn't a performer, he's not a celebrity, and to us it's it is a private thing, and like most people, we you know, we just want to have a nice day.

Presenter29:25

I get the impression that that Kevin is almost a necessity, a constant support to you, given this very public life, this very demanding fame that you have. Would that be fair?

Matt Lucas29:34

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Publicly, you know, my partnership is with David, and privately, obviously, we have a great partnership together. We've been on an amazing journey together. Privately, obviously, at home, I've kind of feel in many ways I've been saved by Kevin, really. You know, I don't really know where I was going without him, and I was just really, really, really lucky. He's as childish as me, and he's as fun-loving as I am, and he's as silly as me, you know, and he really, really, really makes me laugh a lot. We're like kids, you know. We just bought a nice big house, and then for his birthday, I bought Kevin the TARDIS from Doctor Who. And so, we've got this lovely house, and we've got a bloody TARDIS in the middle of it. But we're just like kids, really. What's your last record? My last record is from an artist who I've sort of discovered relatively recently, and I don't really know what the words are because they're in French and it's all done very fast, but it's just very joyous. It's Jacques Brel and it's Madeleine.

Presenter30:41

Telemount Jolie.

Speaker 330:43

Let's uh

Matt Lucas30:44

C'est mono, c'est monic camoi, dom piece les rodier ponoi, from dison que sain joel, doma, chaton de maluis, bon lo sina, chevu de

Presenter31:02

Jacques Brell and Madeleine. Um, marooned then, Matt Lucas, you have the complete works of Shakespeare. Traditionally we give the Bible. I mean, would you like the Torah, or would you like the Bible? I think that's neither of those. None of them.

Matt Lucas31:11

Mike.

Presenter31:15

Uh you are allowed to take your own book. What are you going to take?

Matt Lucas31:17

I'll tell you what I picked. It's just it's just my favorite book because it's just really, really funny. And it's by Douglas Adams and I think John Lloyd as well. And it's called The Meaning of Liff. It's just it's really funny.

Presenter31:28

I've got to ask you about your luxury. You're allowed a luxury.

Matt Lucas31:31

My luxury item well, I was thinking about this'cause I wanted to take Kevin obviously and then I thought and I can't take Arsenal, Highbury Stadium, but I thought, well, am I allowed to take a whole restaurant?

Presenter31:34

Yeah.

Presenter31:41

Yes, yes.

Matt Lucas31:42

Well, that's what I'm going to do. Is this really good?

Presenter31:44

Any particular restaurant?

Matt Lucas31:45

Yes, it's this really strange restaurant on the ground floor of a block of flats. And it's amazing, but the the the the best thing is the the dessert waiter there.

Speaker 131:55

Tunis says Okay, let me tell you now about what we have today for dessert. The first thing we have is creme brulee. If you like creme brulee, you will enjoy the creme brulee. And then we have fruit salad. Don't bother, it's boring. Then we have a wonderful raspberry tart, mm, fresh, made this morning.

Matt Lucas32:13

And he tells you what you're gonna have. So you got he goes, I know what you want, the chocolate pudding. For you, I give this and he's just utterly bizarre. But the great thing is, he's really flamboyant, and I said to him one day, What's your name? thinking it would be Flavio Briattorio and it's just Neil.

Presenter32:29

Right. What record would you save if if you could only take one record? What would it be?

Matt Lucas32:33

If I could only take one record.

Matt Lucas32:36

I think

Matt Lucas32:37

I would have to take Queen.

Presenter32:40

Matt Lucas, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert hymn discs.

Matt Lucas32:43

I enjoyed it.

Presenter32:51

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.