James Corden

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.

Presenter0:33

My castaway this week is the actor and writer James Corden. Still in his early thirties, success on T V, stage, and film has come thick and fast, and that's just the way he likes it. He is searingly straightforward about his need, his burning ambition, to be in the spotlight.

Presenter0:51

As a little boy, marching in the Salvation Army brass band with his family gave him an early taste of the thrill of being the centre of attention, and he's been chasing the applause ever since. He says

Presenter1:01

My dream was always to be an actor, and I knew that if I ever did become famous, it would be because I had done something memorable. So then, James Gordon stints on Broadway, the National Theatre. You're currently starring in the West End in a huge hit, but it is probably your T V show which you starred in and co-wrote, Gavin and Stacey, that is the thing that's made you a household name. How does the idea which you had for so long of being famous compare actually with the reality of being famous?

James Corden1:28

Um, it's okay, you know. I always find it weird when when people might complain about it. On the whole.

James Corden1:37

I rather like it. People are lovely. You know, the majority of people who I meet are really nice.

James Corden1:43

I think growing up I just wanted to I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to perform and I wanted to do all of these things and then

James Corden1:50

I think less so.

James Corden1:52

Now

James Corden1:53

Other things have perhaps taken a greater priority, I guess.

Presenter1:56

I think it's um hugely honest of you to have admitted that that's how you felt when you were young,'cause I think probably a lot of people who are performers, they do just feel that they want attention and they know it feels good

James Corden2:04

Well, I've never met a performer who doesn't, so most of them don't say it though. Sure, but that's fine. That's because it's not very cool to say it, and I appreciate that. But I've not met an actor who hasn't, at some point in their life, longed

James Corden2:18

for those things

Presenter2:20

Gavin and Stacey is no longer on our T V screens, but at its height it it got, I think it was ten million viewers. That's a lot of people watching.

James Corden2:25

I think it was thirteen, but yeah.

Presenter2:27

Was it?

Presenter2:28

Not that anyone's counting, clearly.

James Corden2:31

So

Presenter2:31

Yeah.

James Corden2:32

Thirteen million viewers.

Presenter2:33

I think the seven

Presenter2:35

You do know.

James Corden2:36

Do you know when it's fine?

Presenter2:39

Anyways, lots of people. Uh people did they think you were Smithy, your character, who was the he was sort of plumber builder from Billeric, was the

James Corden2:39

Yeah.

James Corden2:46

Yeah, yeah, then I can understand that. We look alike and, you know, I can occasionally be found in a tracksuit top, but I don't feel similar to him as a as a person. I've never been to Billarique.

Presenter2:57

The great British tradition, of course, that you're more than aware of is that we build people up and thirty million people watch their shows and then we really enjoy we mostly being the press I'm talking about now knocking them down. And peop there was a period in your career where people really did enjoy having a go. I mean mm three, four years ago.

James Corden3:15

Yeah, yeah. I was responsible for that.

James Corden3:20

There's a strange thing when when you go through those periods of where you can really do no wrong.

James Corden3:26

And you can either take it all with a bag of salt.

James Corden3:29

Or you can start to think you're perhaps a bit more of a dude than you really are. And and that very much happened to me. You know, I had a swagger in my walk. And also the work that I produced at that time, it it wasn't good enough. I I don't think it was as bad.

James Corden3:44

as people were saying it was. But by the same token I you know, I feel like I met them halfway and probably deserved

James Corden3:52

I think definitely deserved.

James Corden3:55

Uh a little bit of a smack I guess. Someone asked me recently if I'd if I felt I was represented badly at that time.

James Corden4:02

And and my answer was, Well, no, I was representing myself quite badly at that time, so

James Corden4:06

I can understand it to an extent.

Presenter4:09

Let's have some music.

James Corden4:09

Yeah. And Do you

Presenter4:10

James Cordon Uh

James Corden4:10

Tell us what

Presenter4:11

Uh

James Corden4:11

What's first uh on your list today? This is a song by a a brilliant artist called Bright Eyes called The First Day of My Life, and it's one of my favourite songs ever.

Speaker 44:22

With these things there's no telling, we just have to wait and see.

Speaker 44:28

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck Than waiting to win the lauda

Speaker 44:39

Besides, maybe this time is different. I mean I really think you like me

Presenter4:52

That was Bright Eyes and First Day of My Life. What a very sweet song that is. Are you a big softy?

James Corden4:57

Yeah, yeah. There there's a you know, there's a line where he says, This is the first day of my life. I'm glad I didn't die before I met you, which is actually one of the most beautiful things you could ever say. And I think anyone

James Corden5:12

Anyone who's met

James Corden5:14

The person who, in an instant, they've thought, God, I could spend the rest of my life with you.

James Corden5:19

Completely appreciates that sentiment. I know I do. You'll see throughout my list, I'm a lover of love, I guess.

Presenter5:26

Yes, you will be revealed through your music, Jens. Um just very briefly, if people think that you sound a bit croaky, it's because you're doing how many performances a week of your big hitters.

James Corden5:34

We do we do eight a week and we've got another twenty-five to go here and then another two hundred and thirty on Broadway.

Presenter5:41

It's One Man and Two Governors and it's had the most extraordinary uh reception from both critics and the public. Um you're feeling tired though? You look a bit

James Corden5:45

Yeah.

James Corden5:49

Well, it's yeah, it's a ti it's a tiring show. I mean it takes every every sort of bit of you really and then if you add into the mix a a ten month old baby

James Corden5:57

It's quite full on.

Presenter5:58

Your son Max then, he's ten months old now. Were you there at the birth?

James Corden6:04

Yeah, it's wonderful.

Presenter6:04

Yeah.

James Corden6:05

It's been a brilliant thing.'Cause you you get told so many times when you're expecting a baby, all these people tell you how you're going to feel, and you think.

James Corden6:12

Well, I I hope I do. I hope I'm not the guy.

James Corden6:15

Who doesn't feel any of these things? And then you realize the reason people tell you these things is because it's impossible not to.

James Corden6:21

There's a great sense of clarity comes when you have a child, that's what I've found.

James Corden6:26

Which I guess is what I was trying to say before, where

James Corden6:29

It really shows the important stuff to be important and everything else to be not that.

Presenter6:34

Do you find that you're much less inclined then when the big fat envelope sort of drops through your door or your agent's door saying, Please come to this do and come to this Premier and you saying, Actually, I'm going to be at home feeding that, because it's not going to be a good thing.

James Corden6:45

No, completely. I haven't been out in ages. Well, and also I was only ever going out to find someone to stay in with. I'm always at my most comfortable in tracksuit bottoms. But it's it's really frowned upon if you wear them to parties. So that's the truth of it, you know.

Presenter6:59

And and will Max go with you when you go to the middle of the middle.

James Corden7:01

Oh yeah, yeah, the the three of us will go. Yeah. I couldn't even contemplate

James Corden7:05

Going without them, really?

Presenter7:07

Let's have some more music, James Gordon. Tell me what we're gonna hear now.

James Corden7:10

Well this is the most positive song ever written.

James Corden7:13

by maybe one of the grumpiest men who's ever made music.

James Corden7:17

Within about 40 seconds you're going to feel a bit better. It's Van Morrison and days like this.

Speaker 47:23

When it's not always raining

Speaker 47:26

WJ isn't like this

Speaker 47:29

When does no one complain?

Speaker 47:31

WJ like this

Speaker 47:34

Everything falls into place like the flick of a switch.

Speaker 47:39

Well my mama told me

Speaker 47:42

There'll be crazy lightness

James Corden7:43

Yeah.

Speaker 47:47

Well you don't need to worry

Speaker 27:48

I don't need to worry about it.

James Corden7:49

Yeah.

Speaker 47:49

There been days like this

Speaker 47:52

We're no one's in a hurry.

Presenter7:52

When no one's in a hurry

Speaker 47:55

They'll be dead like

Presenter7:56

It's like this

Presenter7:57

That was Van Morrison and days like this. So let's get one thing straight, James Gordon, if nothing else, during this conversation. It is that you were not born in Billericky. You were born in High Wycombe. Yes. And it was nineteen seventy eight. And what are your earliest memories?

Speaker 48:02

Yeah.

Speaker 48:05

One is hard

James Corden8:06

Yes.

James Corden8:08

Tsunami

James Corden8:10

My earliest memory is my younger sister's christening. I would have been three. We we were a Salvation Army family, so we would we would go every Sunday, three times a week, to the Salvation Army, mum and dad, all of us in uniform, and uh it was Ruth's christening.

James Corden8:29

And we all went up onto the stage. Oh, it's not a stage, it's a platform. I know. Sorry. But it would look like a stage to anyone else. And we went up and I was looking out and seeing this congregation of people

Presenter8:33

Yeah.

James Corden8:41

And all these people were looking at me and so I started sort of doing a little dance and pulling faces and

James Corden8:51

There's a few chuckles and

James Corden8:53

And then it got to a point where no one was really looking at the christening.

James Corden8:56

They were just looking at me.

James Corden8:58

I thought, well this is great, brilliant, why don't we do this every week, you know?

James Corden9:02

And then something clicked that day and I thought, well

James Corden9:05

It's as clear as that. If you're if you're up there doing stuff, it feels great. And if I'm down here, it just feels a bit dull. And I really do remember that as my clearest early memory.

Presenter9:15

And I said that you went marching, of course,'cause Sally Ann bands march through the town traditionally. So you were you actually playing an instrument when you marched the first time?

James Corden9:18

Yeah.

James Corden9:19

Yeah.

James Corden9:21

I used to I used to play the trumpet or the cornet very badly.

James Corden9:26

But yes, I was I was part of the band and my parents were in there.

James Corden9:30

the bigger band and the songsters and yeah, we'd march through the town with a flag and we'd

James Corden9:34

Dad would have a megaphone and

James Corden9:37

would read scripture in some poor group of people's housing estate where they would think, It's eleven o'clock in the morning, it's a Sunday, let me sleep in, you know? And Yeah.

Presenter9:47

Yeah.

James Corden9:48

And we would do that.

Presenter9:49

I mean, obviously, religion was important, but how important was it? Was it more important or as important being part of this community of the Salvation Army, do you think, and actually getting the family out there together to do something positive together? Or was religion at the heart of it for your parents?

James Corden10:00

The truth is, and I can only say this now.

James Corden10:04

In retrospect it's

James Corden10:06

It's brilliant in so many respects. It's terrific. And I think lots of people perhaps don't even recognize it as a church. They just see it as a charity and the work it does and all of those things are great. And there are some wonderful people who are involved in the Salvation Army. But looking back at our congregation,

James Corden10:23

I can only describe it.

James Corden10:25

are some of the least Christian people I've ever met.

James Corden10:28

And if anything

James Corden10:30

didn't want people to come and join this church.

James Corden10:34

They would have been happier if the doors were shut.

James Corden10:36

And it was run, you know.

James Corden10:39

So insular, it is the only way I can describe it, and only realize that now.

Presenter10:44

What about your parents, then? What what jobs do they do?

James Corden10:46

My mum was a social worker and my dad was a musician in the Royal Air Force and uh he's now a Christian book salesman. So any of those fishes that you see on the back of a car that say Jesus loves you, my dad might have sold it. And uh

James Corden11:01

I couldn't have come from a more

James Corden11:03

stable and and balance their, you know, place really.

Presenter11:07

Time for some music, James. Um what are we going to hear now?

James Corden11:10

Paul Simon's Graceland was the album we would listen to driving to the south of France. We always used to go on caravan holidays to Bournemouth or Devon, and one year it rained solid for two weeks and mum said, That's it. Next year we've got to go abroad So we would do like a sixteen hour drive to France and the three of us would be packed in the back with bags all around us and this album would play almost continually for that whole sixteen hours. The minute I hear this song

James Corden11:43

I'm immediately taken back to the three of us in the back, my mum asleep and my dad just tapping the steering wheel. It's got such a great groove and I could have picked any song from this album, but this one, because it's about love, I chose and this is it's gumboots.

Speaker 412:00

I was having this discussion in a taxi heading downtown.

Speaker 412:06

Rearranging my position on this friend of mine who had a little bit of a breakdown.

Speaker 412:12

I said, yeah, you know, breakdowns, common breakdowns, go-so.

Speaker 412:16

What are you gonna do about it, that's what I mean?

Speaker 412:19

You don't feel you could love me, but you could

Presenter12:26

That was Paul Simon and Gumboots. And the scene that you conjured there, James Cordon, of being in the back of the car and your mum asleep in the front, your dad tapping the steering wheel was it a very emotionally literate family with lots of hugs and cuddles and chatting about there were. Yeah, we were

James Corden12:32

Yeah.

James Corden12:37

Yeah.

James Corden12:38

Yeah, we were we were a

James Corden12:40

Yeah. Because my two sisters, if they were here now, you'd be like, Wow, they've really got a confidence about them. They're fun and they're funny and and uh

James Corden12:48

It's almost like we were all fitted with a parachute that said, You know what, if y you can go out to school or to work and if stuff goes wrong, the minute you step in here, there will always be love and support here.

James Corden13:02

So if you feel like that.

James Corden13:04

Life is an easier thing to kinda navigate.

Presenter13:06

Is that where your bravery comes from then as a performer? Because when I watch you on things like, let's say, you know, Comic Relief, where you're tearing a strip off the England team or you're telling Geo George Michael the things that most people wouldn't have the nerve to tell, you're doing it in pursuit of a laugh.

James Corden13:17

Yeah.

Presenter13:19

It takes quite a lot of nerve, though, to do that sort of performance, doesn't it?

Presenter13:23

Duh.

James Corden13:23

Uh

Presenter13:23

I guess

James Corden13:24

But then, you know

James Corden13:26

I would always rather regret doing something than not doing something. You know, talking about my dad, there, you know, he would always say, you know, the difference between doing something and not doing something is doing something. If you grow up in a house where these things are said and it wasn't always like this, I mean, don't get me wrong, we had blazing rows. My bum got smacked more than any child on our road, I'm sure. We weren't all saying good night, John Boy at the end, but.

James Corden13:50

If you hear these things enough when you're growing up, you can only have

James Corden13:54

an in an inner confidence and a want to succeed, I guess.

Presenter13:58

What about when your your father went away being in the RAF? He went off to the first Gulf War. Did did that was that a bit of a wobble in the family at that moment? That must have made you feel a bit.

James Corden14:00

He went off to the

James Corden14:06

Well yeah, it's it's tough.

Presenter14:06

Oh yeah, it's

James Corden14:08

When you come home from school and Dad sits us all down and says, Look, I've been called up

James Corden14:13

I'll be leaving in six weeks.

Presenter14:14

What age were you when that happened then?

James Corden14:16

Thirteen, fourteen, yeah, something like that.

Presenter14:17

Yeah.

James Corden14:19

And then and then the day he left.

James Corden14:21

In this camouflage suit.

James Corden14:24

looking like an action man, looking not like your dad. And that day he left we w it was a Sunday and we were we were all in the kitchen, my mum, my two sisters and I.

James Corden14:35

I remember him saying to me, you know,

James Corden14:37

You're the man of the house now.

James Corden14:41

And I'm sure he was meaning it just as a joke, but you think, Oh, don't say that.

James Corden14:45

And he gave me a hug and he hugged.

James Corden14:48

I was already crying.

James Corden14:50

And then he hugged my mum and my mum started crying.

James Corden14:54

But like sobbing, crying. And then he pulled the three of us in and we all sort of hoped and

James Corden15:01

And then he and then he left and he, you know, we all walked out onto the drive and we watched him get into this cab and

James Corden15:09

And off he goes, and

James Corden15:11

It's the first few weeks are okay'cause everyone kind of rallies round you as a family. People cook things and they bring things, but the reality of life is that that that doesn't go on forever and and before you know it you realize it's just the four of us.

James Corden15:25

So it is quite tough.

James Corden15:27

But um but nowhere near as tough as it is now for a lot of these families.

James Corden15:33

I I can't begin to think what it must feel like now.

Presenter15:36

Time for some music then, James Gordon. Tell us what we're going to hear now. What's our disc?

James Corden15:41

I really wanted to have a Rufus Wainwright song because I think he's just brilliant, consistently brilliant, and we got to know him a bit when we were doing The History Boys because he came to see the play. You know, he he I think he's just he's so theatrical, I think that's why I like him and this is my favourite song of his by a mile and it's called The Art Teacher.

Speaker 216:01

There I was in uniform.

Speaker 216:08

Looking at the a teacher.

Speaker 216:15

I was just a girl then.

Speaker 216:21

Never have I loved since that.

Speaker 216:29

He was not that much older than I was.

Presenter16:35

That was Rufus Wainwright and the art teacher. So, James Corden, may we look at your school career?

James Corden16:40

I'm thinking

Presenter16:42

Uh

James Corden16:42

Uh

Presenter16:42

Yeah.

James Corden16:42

We can call it a career, but yeah, I guess.

Presenter16:44

Yeah, I guess your school record.

James Corden16:46

Yeah.

Presenter16:46

Two GCSEs, they were in English and Drama. One of your teachers said to you, It's all very well having dreams, but at some point you have to live in the real world.

James Corden16:54

Mm.

Presenter16:54

So your dreams were what? Your dreams were dreams of performing as a teenager.

James Corden16:57

Just wanted to be an actor. People always used to say, Well, you need something to fall back on.

James Corden17:02

But I would always see that as contemplating failure. I really had no other. There was nothing else. I wasn't a bully. I wasn't nasty. I wasn't bad. I just was quite open about the fact

James Corden17:13

I would like to do this, and I don't really need to know about these glaciers forming.

James Corden17:19

in wherever they are.

James Corden17:23

And I have to say now, I don't think I'm being cool by saying this, it's just how it was.

Presenter17:27

The reviewer in the Bucks Free Press said of a school play that you were in, This lad is unnatural, and I feel sure he has a future in the acting profession. Did did you read that and glow inwardly?

James Corden17:38

Oh my God, I didn't even know that people came and reviewed our school play.

James Corden17:42

Like I I would be at school going

James Corden17:45

I really want to do this. And people go, You're not going to do that. People from this school don't do that. That's not what people do round here.

James Corden17:52

So for someone

James Corden17:54

To say

James Corden17:55

The very thing that you wish that people would say

James Corden17:59

It's you know, it's great. It g yeah, I mean, I've never forgotten that.

Presenter18:02

Yeah.

James Corden18:02

V

Presenter18:02

Pretty early on y I mean, you were Well, you could call it luck, or you could say that these people recognized something in you, but you you had a sort of extraordinary list of people that you worked with. You were in the chorus of Martin Gerr, which was uh that was produced by Cameron McIntosh. You worked with Mike Lee on All or Nothing and Shane Meadows on Twenty Four Seven, and then you were in the I T V drama Fat Friends. That was where you met Ruth Jones. Can you remember the first impression she made on you?

James Corden18:28

I can, yeah.

James Corden18:29

We were at the the read-through for fat friends.

James Corden18:33

It was basically six episodes and six characters, different stories. And we had the read-through for mine, and Ruth just came up afterwards and went.

James Corden18:41

That was really good there.

James Corden18:43

And um I wanna oh thanks.

James Corden18:46

But there's a you know, a tremendous amount of luck involved in in being like nineteen years old, overweight.

James Corden18:54

And I T V just happening to look for a boy who could play fifteen, sixteen.

James Corden19:01

and to be overweight and to carry an hour o on their own, you know. I don't think that had really happened before.

James Corden19:07

Or since, really. Uh

Presenter19:09

You mentioned there your weight and obviously that's you know it's a visual profession that you work in and that for so many years was was part of your identity. You you look to be in tremendous shape now. You look like

James Corden19:13

That's for sure.

James Corden19:18

It's not tremendous. That's only going to let people down if they meet me tomorrow. I'm still 16 stone, but.

Presenter19:18

It's not true.

Presenter19:25

And you and you used to be what?

James Corden19:26

I think when I was when we were doing Fat Friends well like well the History Boys even, I was like twenty one.

Presenter19:31

Right. Well that's pretty tremendous ship in comparison with what you were in.

James Corden19:33

Yeah, it's going it's okay, yeah. And I would like to still be lighter than I am now. I you know, the last two and a half, three years.

Presenter19:35

Uh

James Corden19:41

Well, I felt like I grew up really, is the truth, and um

James Corden19:45

I don't I'd never been miserable or unhappy, but I just it's that thing where you go, Well, I'm thirty three.

James Corden19:51

And before a night I'll be thirty five, and then before and out I'll be forty.

James Corden19:54

Kind of enough now.

James Corden19:56

Of just being unhealthy because I have a family and I and I really owe it to them to be as healthy as I can.

James Corden20:05

Well it is hard because I love cornettos and so that will always be a weakness to me. But but by the same token I've really enjoyed having energy and feeling lighter and I've realized that bread is my nemesis and I really believe bread has been sent to destroy me to the core and uh it's personal. Yeah.

Presenter20:29

Let's have some more music then, James. Uh your fifth disc is what?

James Corden20:33

This is erasure and a little respect, despite its up tempo dance rhythm. I really believe has got the most heartbreaking lyrics of any song ever. It's a I just love it as a song.

Speaker 420:48

That you've given no reason why you're making me work so hard

Speaker 420:53

That you keep me know, that you give me no, that you give me all that you give me. So I hear

Speaker 421:02

Call the

Speaker 421:04

Oh baby.

Presenter21:17

That's Eurasia and a little respect. You're a bit of a dancer, aren't you?

James Corden21:21

Yeah. Well I I enjoy dancing.

Presenter21:23

I mean, you're a good dancer, you yeah.

James Corden21:25

Well, bless you for that. But I well, I enjoy it. I'm alright on a dance floor, perhaps not on a stage. Yeah.

Presenter21:30

Perhaps on an island. You can do it on the island. Nobody's what

James Corden21:31

So

Presenter21:34

So one day, James Corden, as a young actor, you received a script, and on the front of it were the words surely that every not just young actor, but every actor dreams of a new play by Alan Bennett.

James Corden21:43

Mm.

Presenter21:44

Yeah.

James Corden21:44

Yeah.

Presenter21:44

Yeah.

James Corden21:44

Well yeah, it's so exciting because you're going to get to create something.

James Corden21:49

For the first time.

Presenter21:50

How old were you?

James Corden21:51

Eh, I was twenty-four when I auditioned here.

Presenter21:54

And just to be clear, it's the history, boys, and that's the thing.

James Corden21:56

That's right, yeah, yeah. So the plays, the history boys, and um there are a million incredible things about Alan Bennett.

James Corden22:04

But one that I found amazing was that we met for like ten minutes. And he went away and he he basically wrote The Boy I Was at School. He wrote this character as like this kind of cheeky

James Corden22:17

Class Clown

James Corden22:19

Who's the first with a quip?

James Corden22:21

And if someone's gonna play a French prostitute in a scene, then it'll be him.

James Corden22:27

And I found that kind of incredible, that he could meet me for ten minutes and go, I'll give you something fun to do.

James Corden22:34

And it'll be exactly what you were like at school, you know?

James Corden22:37

The whole experience of that play was

James Corden22:41

Life-changing.

James Corden22:43

But uh the biggest thing about being in the History Boys

James Corden22:46

For me was um

James Corden22:48

A realization that if things were going to happen for me, I was going to have to try and do those things myself.

James Corden22:56

Because when when the play became a huge hit here in London.

James Corden23:01

Almost every day most of the boys were coming in with

James Corden23:06

film scripts or T V scripts under their arm and that that wasn't really happening for me.

James Corden23:12

and because of the way that you look

James Corden23:15

People aren't they just don't see you like that.

James Corden23:18

And I was in Fat Friends and

James Corden23:20

And that was when I sort of thought, well, if if no one's gonna write these parts for you, then you might just have to do it for yourself.

Presenter23:27

Did you have faith that you had the ability to write the parts?

James Corden23:30

I must have on on some level, but

James Corden23:33

I happened to go to a wedding in Barrie Island. I was watching this wedding unfold. It was a wedding where I didn't really know many people.

James Corden23:42

People are spending a really long day together, a lot of people who don't know each other and they'll start being very polite.

James Corden23:48

talking about the weather and how they got here, and at the end of the night they'll be doing oops upside your head, and a couple of them might be snogging, you know, and you go, God, this th there's a journey here of a day.

James Corden24:00

And I went back to film Fat Friends and I told Ruth Jones about this idea and I said, I really think it could be a good.

James Corden24:06

Ours T V

James Corden24:08

And that was it, really. We just went

James Corden24:10

Should we have a go and just see if we can knock something up?

James Corden24:14

So it was born out of that feeling of

James Corden24:17

You're gonna have to meet your career halfway here.

James Corden24:20

You're gonna have to really show people that you've that you've got something to say.

Presenter24:24

Let's have some music, James Gordon.

Presenter24:26

Uh time for your sixth choice.

James Corden24:29

This is I had to pick a song from a musical because I love musicals so much. And it's performed by a brilliant actor called Brent Carver, and it's from Kandra and Ebb musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and it's called She's a Woman.

Speaker 424:43

He wears diamonds, brightest stars.

Speaker 424:49

She has lovers open doors to fancy colours

Speaker 424:55

She's lucky, so lucky, she's a woman A perfume by Longfin To dab across her wrist

Presenter25:10

Brent Carver and She's a Woman from the soundtrack to Kiss of the Spider-Woman. So after this stellar rise on television, James Gordon came.

Presenter25:19

It wasn't exactly a fall, but it was certainly a stumble. It was the BAFTAs 2008. You'd won two BAFTAs that night for Gavin and Stacey.

Presenter25:28

And you started to complain from the podium, and I remember watching it and thinking

Presenter25:32

What's he doing?

James Corden25:34

But What

Presenter25:34

Yeah.

James Corden25:34

I have no idea. I was so stupid, so foolish.

James Corden25:38

Because it can only come across as ungrateful, it can only become across as spoilt.

Presenter25:43

Yeah.

James Corden25:43

And Brattish

Presenter25:45

Uh so what it was the callowness of youth, was it was just somebody who's who was giddy on the whole?

James Corden25:50

Giddy and experience.

Presenter25:53

Yeah.

James Corden25:53

Dunno.

James Corden25:54

I will never ever understand it.

James Corden25:56

and I will always regret it.

James Corden25:58

I regret that because I was over the moon.

James Corden26:01

And I shouldn't have been afraid of showing that. I had started going out quite a lot, and I was.

James Corden26:09

Twenty nine

James Corden26:11

And I was single for the first time in my adult life since I was eighteen. So I'd never really gone out a lot, I'd never really been to university and there I I I got so lost.

James Corden26:22

I got lost beyond.

James Corden26:25

Anywhere I thought I could have been.

James Corden26:28

This door had opened to this world that I thought looked like fun.

James Corden26:33

Where people go, You're amazing, you're great, can I have a photo? Do you want a drink? Come out with us.

James Corden26:40

And so you just end up on this path of just

James Corden26:43

three AM cab rides with people you don't know.

James Corden26:46

Heading across London to someone's house who you don't know either.

James Corden26:51

with a group of people who think it's amazing that you're there.

James Corden26:55

This is an intoxicating thing to be part of.

Presenter26:58

Um, you're out on the town and the paparazzi are there and you're arm in arm with whoever did anyone tell you did anyone say to you, James, you're looking like a bit of a pratsky.

James Corden27:02

Yeah, whoever else is.

James Corden27:09

Yeah, yeah, a few people. Yeah, Ruth did. And Rob Bryden took me for lunch. He said, Wha w what are you doing? Going out all the time and being photographed with all these people and you're saying these things and you're acting in this way.

James Corden27:25

This isn't you?

James Corden27:27

This isn't the you I know and it isn't

James Corden27:29

The you I tell people about. And then he said, But it's the you I'm having to defend to people.

James Corden27:35

It just came out of a point of loneliness, is the truth.

James Corden27:38

That's the absolute truth of it. But then, you know, it can only start to affect the work that you're doing.

Presenter27:44

You had a you had a film that did very badly and you had a T V series that didn't do very badly but it didn't do very well and and the critics mauled it. I was there a moment then? Was there was there a moment of epiphany? I you said that that Rob Bryden had that conversation with you?

James Corden27:51

I I

James Corden27:56

Um, yeah. Well, there were a few. There were a lot of things. I guess a big one.

James Corden28:01

There was a day and I was at home.

James Corden28:04

Kinda hung over.

James Corden28:06

And my dad called and I answered the phone and he said we're in Primrose Hill and we're coming round.

James Corden28:14

They sat on the tiny two-seater sofa, and I sat on the floor, and we didn't have any milk.

James Corden28:21

I had like half a bottle of vitamin water in the fridge, and a lint chocolate bunny. I remember that, and eh?

James Corden28:29

And we sat and I'd had such a great relationship with my parents.

James Corden28:32

But over the last year it seemed like I'd done all I could really to try and sever that.

James Corden28:38

And I was just looking at the floor really.

James Corden28:42

I felt embarrassed that they were seeing me like this. I felt embarrassed at so many things, the way I had behaved or acted at points over that sort of seven or eight month period. My Dad just stood up and he walked ac across to where I was and he just put his arms round me.

James Corden29:02

and said, You got to get through this, son. And I just, you know, started to cry, as you do when your your dad hugs you when you're thirty and my mum came over and joined us, and we sat there

James Corden29:17

And my Dad said, I'm going to say a prayer for you.

James Corden29:20

I can only the only way I can describe it is it felt like every

James Corden29:23

Every tear that was

James Corden29:25

Leaving my

James Corden29:27

Eyes was making me feel a bit lighter.

James Corden29:30

'Cause it it started as like a light cry and then it became like a real sob.

James Corden29:37

And then there's always that weird moment after you finish crying where you're all just sort of been crying and then you just sort of

James Corden29:43

Oh, just, you know.

James Corden29:46

I think we went and had some lunch and uh and as we left my dad said

James Corden29:52

It'll be alright, but you can't carry on like this.

James Corden29:55

And only you can decide what happens now.

James Corden29:58

And that and that was it, really.

James Corden30:01

Uh

Presenter30:01

Uh

James Corden30:01

Music, James, what I'm gonna hear.

Presenter30:02

What I'm gonna hear.

James Corden30:03

Yeah.

James Corden30:04

Well, this is one of my favorite songs and it's Bonnie Rait and anyone who's laid down in a bed next to someone thinking, I'm not sure whether you like me anymore.

James Corden30:14

Can associate with this song, and I certainly can. It's brilliant, and it's called I Can't Make You Love Me.

Speaker 430:21

Turn down the light.

Speaker 430:25

Turn down the bed.

Speaker 430:29

Turn down these voids.

Speaker 430:33

Inside my head.

Speaker 430:36

Lay down with me.

Speaker 430:40

Tell me no lie.

Speaker 430:44

Just hold me close.

Speaker 430:48

Don't pay tonight

Presenter30:52

That was Bonnie Rait and I Can't Make You Love Me. Um so the past eighteen months it would seem James Gordon has seen quite a change in your life. There there's a woman that you love that you're getting married to and there's a new son, as we know, who's ten months old. How did the love start? Where did the love start?

James Corden31:02

But yeah, there's a new

James Corden31:03

Who's Denmark?

James Corden31:07

Ah, it was it's terrific. Went to a party and

James Corden31:10

It was the most instant thing I've ever felt and uh

James Corden31:14

That's kind of it really. I just I loved her instantly. I never thought I would I would meet someone as great as as her and uh

James Corden31:24

It's been the best thing that's ever happened to me, meeting her. She's given me a an anchor in my life, a a kick in my step.

James Corden31:33

and a glint in my eye every day.

Presenter31:35

You're about to embark on this big adventure together, then, with Jules and with Little Max. You're going to Broadway to do one man two governors there, which of course the sense of expectation will be huge, because once you've had a hit

James Corden31:39

Going.

James Corden31:42

Which of course

Presenter31:45

And not just in the West End, but at the National Theatre. You know, people expect something when they pay their ticket money on Broadway. Yeah.

James Corden31:50

Yeah, and who knows how it'll go down. We we know we we don't know. You never know how these things will work and

James Corden31:56

You know, w we can only go and and try our best.

James Corden31:59

I mean, my God, if we if we have half the reaction that we've had in London

James Corden32:03

Then we'll be a big hit show. You know, no one could have predicted when we started rehearsing at the National Theatre that it would go on and be.

James Corden32:08

The fastest selling play in the history of the West End, you know, it's it's amazing that.

James Corden32:13

I'm well aware that this this could well be the best part I ever play on stage. It is it's a gift for any actor who has any interest in comedy. It feels like all my dreams come true, you know. It really does feel like that.

Presenter32:27

Given the domestic circumstances you find yourself in and given that you're doing the good work that you're doing, I feel terrible that I'm about to cast you away, but I am. You're you're going to be on your own on the island. I can only imagine that will be a terrible place for you.

James Corden32:34

I am.

James Corden32:41

Well, you know, I've got a bit better at being on my own recently. So, how long am I?

Presenter32:45

How long am I there?

James Corden32:46

I'm there for Ever

Presenter32:46

Uh Potentially forever.

James Corden32:47

Oh, well then I'll be distraught. Without Julia and Max it will be awful. But within the context of what we're talking about, I'll enjoy a bit of a break in the sun. To to tell you the truth, two weeks, I'll be fine. And uh and maybe even a month I'll be all right, yeah.

Presenter33:02

Let's have your final piece of music then, James Cordon. What are we gonna hear?

James Corden33:04

This is a piece of music from from the film Hannibal. It's by Patrick Cassidy, but I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.

Presenter33:56

Danielle Denis and Bruno Lazzoretti and Vide Cormaeum by Patrick Cassidy from the soundtrack to Hannibal. It's time to give you the books, then, James Corden. As you know, you get the Bible, you get the complete works of Shakespeare, and you're going to take what?

James Corden34:09

I'm going to take a book that will teach me how to play the piano.

Presenter34:13

And on that basis I'm guessing what your luxury might be. What's your luxury?

James Corden34:16

I'd take a piano. I'd figure if I've got time to spare, then it would be nice. It's the one thing I wish I'd done or stuck at, really, when I was younger, so I would love to be that person. I would love to one day come back from the island and go

James Corden34:30

Just going to wrap this up, you know, and it would be great. So that's what I'd do, yeah.

Presenter34:35

Okay, they're both yours. And if you had to pick just one disc from the list of eight, which one would you pick?

James Corden34:42

I would take Van Morrison days like this,'cause on any island, anywhere, even this cold, blustery one, it makes you feel pretty good.

Presenter34:51

James Gordon, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island discs.

James Corden34:54

Been a pleasure. Thank you.

Presenter34:54

Yeah.

Presenter35:41

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio Four website bbc. co dot uk slash radio four.