John Bishop

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.

Presenter0:35

My Castaway this week is the comedian John Bishop. His success has been fast and furious, catapulting him to the front line of the entertainment business. It started with a sort of mid life crisis. As his marriage broke down, his stand up career got started.

Presenter0:50

Twelve years ago he'd never even set foot on a stage. Now he sells out major venues. He's also just raised four point two million pounds for sport relief, by completing a two hundred and ninety mile triathlon in five days.

Presenter1:04

Growing up on a Merseyside council estate, his early ambition was to play football for Liverpool otherwise he thought he might find a way out by winning the Pools, or joining a band.

Presenter1:13

He says of his success now

Presenter1:15

I feel like I've nicked someone else's life. Somewhere there's a sales rep going, Haven't I got a gig to night? Is it true, John Bishop, that when you told your three sons you were going to give up your job and try your your hand as a stand up, the the first thing they said very very quickly was, But you're not funny.

John Bishop1:30

Yeah, and they often repeat that now.

Presenter1:33

And your first spot then was in your early thirties. You're around about thirty

John Bishop1:35

No, no, it was just before my thirty-fifth birthday. Okay. Dad split up with Melny, my wife, and uh that worked in the pharmaceutical industry and so where I was running a sales team, which meant I couldn't guarantee when I could have the kids from Monday to Friday. And I didn't want to be one of these dads who just had them on Sunday afternoon and sat in McDonald's trying to buy happiness in a meal. So I um

Presenter1:38

Okay.

Presenter1:51

Right.

John Bishop2:01

I said I'll have them every every weekend, and so I picked them up from school and nursery on Friday and took them back on Monday. And Mondays were the most miserable days in the world to do a telephone conference on Monday morning with the sales team. And I used to take Monday as a day when I was doing that working from home thing, which basically meant I just used to sit there, do the telephone conference, get drunk during it and be miserable and drunk during the day. And I did that for a few weeks and I just thought, what am I doing? Drunk on Mondays, watching Richard and Judy on the telly, thinking, why can't my life be like that? So I thought I need something on a Monday night to go to. And I started going out with a couple of my mates. But it's a very difficult thing because if you split up in your relationships in bits, and particularly if you're a bloke, you're boring. And so I thought I need to do things I can go to on my own. And I knew there was a comedy club in Manchester because I've been to it once before. So I just went and the guy on the door said it's an open mic night. And he said that means that if you pay, you can go in, it's four pounds to get in, but if you put your name down, you don't have to pay. And I thought, well, that's you know, halfway through a divorce. I thought that's four quid she's not getting, so I put my name down and I went in. And I just thought.

John Bishop3:23

I've got nothing to lose. I don't live with the person I want to live with. You know, I'm not in a family anymore. I haven't got my kids tonight, so what have I got to lose?

Presenter3:31

There's so much to talk about and we we do have time to talk about it, but I very quickly in case anybody's in tears by the radio, I need to to let them know what happened. This actually if somebody wrote this in a Hollywood rom-com script, most people who bought a ticket would say, Well, that's just ludicrous. Tell me what happened a few weeks later.

John Bishop3:47

It was actually nearly nine months to a year later. I went back, did it a couple of times, got into it, got got asked to do a few gigs, and so I ended up doing more gigs. And in the meantime, me and Melanie were basically doing what most divorced people do, we were talking through lawyers, and I walked on the stage one night and I used to do a joke about splitting up my wife. The joke was we split up, but it's not that bad, we're not divorced or anything, I've just killed her. But I knew I'd miss her, so I kept her head in the fridge. Now that was not a brilliant joke, but actually, as I said, that joke, I looked to the left, and the head that was meant to be in the fridge was sat in the audience. Oh god, that's gonna cost me another twenty grand. We then met at the bar and and she basically just said, You were the person I met. You were back to the person I fell in love with. And at the time she was refusing to sign the final papers, so we we went to relate. I think like a lot of people, we just needed a referee. We got back together after being apart for two years. I regard the relationship now as like the second marriage'cause we are two different people now.

Presenter3:52

Soak

Presenter5:03

We should have the theme to love story, but we don't. We're going to kick off with your first choice of the day then. Te tell us what you've chosen, what we're going to hear now.

John Bishop5:09

Yeah, I've chosen the Beatles, I saw the standing there and it it was because the Beatles invaded our house when my brother Eddie started bringing them in. I was about eleven. By Osmosis, I probably know the words for every Beatles song that is, but I then fell in love with them, and what I've done is I've always used this song as my my karaoke song, um, although I've been booed off singing this more than I can possibly imagine.

Speaker 35:36

She wouldn't dance with a none

Speaker 35:50

When I cross that through

Presenter6:01

That was the Beatles, and I saw her standing there. Most recently, John Bishop, as well as your comedy, people have seen you will have seen you on television doing this extraordinary feat of endurance to raise money for sport relief. Just take me through exactly what it was you had to do in five days.

John Bishop6:16

I rode a bicycle from Paris to Calais, which is a hundred and eighty five miles, and then rode the Channel along with uh it was me, Freddie Flintoff, Davina McCall and Denise Lewis. For the final three days ran just over a marathon a day from the coast back to London.

Presenter6:36

A marathon a day for the last three days. There's a bit, I mean lots of people, millions of people literally, watch the documentary footage that was made of this, that was run throughout the week of sport relief. There's a bit at the beginning when you're in Paris before you get on the bike and you say, well, you know, what I actually feel like doing is sitting in the corner crying and sucking my thumb right now, but I've got to get on the bike. How bad did it get and how did you get over those feelings of fear?

John Bishop6:58

I think the great difficulty with anything like this is is trying to match everyone's expectation. And it was interesting when we did the actual sport relief night. David Walliams was there and David said to me, How are you? And'cause it was about three weeks later, I said, I'm okay, he said, But how's your head? I said, Well, that's the thing that's battered. And it's true. You don't realize until you finish something how much it's occupied your mind. So there's a lot of come down, I suppose, associated with it.

Presenter7:33

And now when you it was characterized at the time, the sort of subheading of the programme, the the Sport Relief Programme, was John Bishop's Week of Hell. When you look back on your Week of Hell now, with a little bit of distance and time, how do you view it four point two million pounds later?

John Bishop7:48

Very humbling. It's probably the most significant thing I'll ever do. The physical side of it's completely irrelevant. Uh, you know, could have been doing opscotch for a week. The important thing is that people decided to use that as a vehicle to donate money. People got behind it, and uh that's why I think it's everyone else's success rather than my own.

Presenter8:09

You know what these T V charity people are like? They'll try and get you to do something again next year, won't they, or the year after next?

John Bishop8:14

I know, but I I was I was so close to not being able to if if I'd have had to do another day, I think it would have gone. And I think to be fair, Melanie probably won't let me do it.

Presenter8:16

What are you going to say?

Presenter8:26

Some more music then, John.

John Bishop8:27

Although I have come up with this idea of hopscotch for the weekly

Presenter8:30

I'll sponsor you. Um right, next, we've got Watt is your second desk.

John Bishop8:35

David Bowie Let's Dance and I surreptitiously asked all my kids, I sent them a text to say what's your favourite record? Because I wanted records that reminded me of my kids, but me my middle lad Luke came back with this and it's brilliant because it's one of my favourite records. But Luke's a dancer and from my background to have a son whose dancers wasn't what I expected, but he's brilliant at it, so it sums up that, but it also sums up that period in my life in the eighties where you could go to a proper disco and have a dance.

Speaker 39:10

Help you say wrong.

Speaker 39:13

I'll run with you

Speaker 39:19

If you say hi.

Speaker 39:21

Still a five

Speaker 39:26

My love for you.

Speaker 39:30

Would break my heart in two.

Speaker 39:34

If you should fall into my arms, tremble

Presenter9:44

That was David Bowie, and let's done. So you were born then, John Bishop, in nineteen sixty six. You were the fourth child of Ernie and Cathy Bishop. Tell me about your parents. What were they like when you were growing up?

John Bishop9:54

Um

John Bishop9:56

Good parents. I was born in Liverpool in Osborne Mill Road and our life would have been very much based in Liverpool but for the fact that we had a house that my dad had bought. I think he said he bought it for fifty quid off somebody. And then the council came round and that area was defined as a slum area, unfit for human habitation, which did my dad's heading'cause he just decorated it.

John Bishop10:26

Because they demolished this area, they gave people choices. You could go to new estates on Speak, Kirby, or this one in Winsford, which was in Cheshire. But if you went to Winsford, as my mum said, you got an inside-downstairs lib, which was unbelievable. It was like now the equivalent of getting a helipad. And you got a job in a factory. So there was a no-brainer for them. What did you do?

Presenter10:50

What did your dad do?

John Bishop10:51

Dad was worked in a factory and was a labourer and and so he was a manual manual worker. Me, mum worked in factory, a sewn factory, and then worked in schools washing washing pans and stuff.

Presenter11:07

And so what do they expect you to do, or any of the kids indeed, to do?

John Bishop11:11

I think the difficulty is the aspirations that anyone could have placed in front of them can only be based on what you see.

John Bishop11:21

When I was sixteen, I was doing O levels and I remember my dad,'cause at that point, you know, life was very clear, you did, you know, CSEs or you did O-levels, and nobody had really done O-levels in our family. And I remember my dad saying to me, Your mum said you're doing O-levels, and I said, Yeah, well done. And that was it. That was that was the first educational chat that we had. I decided to go back and do A levels at the school, and we had a school of just under two thousand kids, and they started the sixth form, and seven people out of the two thousand said they would stay on. And this was in the eighties where there was no work, everybody was on schemes and so on. And I went back for a day to the sixth form, and I had a brand new pair of Wrangler jeans. They were smart jeans, but when I turned up, the school said you can't come in those. You've got to wear smart trousers. You know, at that point, nobody had a job in the house. There was no way I could go home and ask for

John Bishop12:33

asked to do that. So I went and I got a job at ICI, which is the local chemical factory, as a male lad, and it was a proper job, it wasn't a scheme. It looked like that was going to be my future. There was there was some tough times, definitely. But having said that, there was a lot of a lot of laughter as well.

Presenter12:53

Was the laughter quite close to the surface in the house? I mean, often, you know, laughter does it helps people deal with difficult circumstances.

John Bishop13:02

Yeah.

John Bishop13:03

Yeah, but

John Bishop13:06

I think the hard thing is, um, when you're trying to live with a family and you you you are very much hand to mouth, it's a grind. It it sounds crazy now when I think about it, but it you know, just down to the basics, I I would know if my dad had work because when I opened the fridge we'd have cheese.

Presenter13:28

Yeah.

Presenter13:30

I don't know how much money you're earning now, but I'm sure you're earning a very, very good living now.

Presenter13:34

Do does it still affect you now? Do you find that, you know, because poverty does stay with people when people have

John Bishop13:37

Yeah.

John Bishop13:39

Oh yeah. Yeah, I I'm constantly, constantly saying to the kids, and to be fair, me and Manley both are saying, w we're lucky for the position that we're in, but it can change tomorrow. One thing that I know

John Bishop13:56

is I've already won,'cause I'll never ever fall back to where I started from.

Presenter14:01

Okay, we're gonna have some music, John. Um happy little track. Tell me about your third choice.

John Bishop14:07

Tim Leaves and Bimbo. Um

John Bishop14:10

My mum and dad are big Country and Western fans and and so we used to get Country and Western playing in the house every weekend and my mum was a Jim Reeves fan and the the words of this song are brilliant because it's just about the happiness of childhood.

Speaker 214:34

Bimbo, Bimbo, where you gonna go? Eeyo, Bimbo, Bimbo, what you gonna do? Eeo Bimbo, Bimbo, does your mummy know?

Speaker 214:44

That you're going down the road to see your little girly

Speaker 214:49

Oh is a little boy who's got a million friends And every time he passes by they all invite him

Presenter14:59

That was Jim Reeves and Bimbo. So at school then, the fact that you wanted to do exams, did you always have a sort of slightly

Presenter15:09

Shielded ambition somewhere in you, you kind of wanted to get beyond where where you found yourself growing up, did you?

John Bishop15:14

Yeah, I always thought there was life beyond the estate. Uh as I say, I for kids it was quite interesting. I took my kids to where I originally grew up in Winsford uh recently.

John Bishop15:26

And my youngest son just went, That must be great'cause you're living with all your mates,'cause you're in a big row of houses that are dead close to each other and uh he said you must be playing out football. I said, Brilliant, and it is a brilliant childhood. But I always thought there was something else to aspire to. I obviously wanted to do it, or I thought the only reason to do it was via playing football. Were you a good football?

Presenter15:49

Were you a good footballer?

John Bishop15:50

I was all right, I played semi-pro, which helped me get through college, to be fair and paid for me through college.

Presenter15:59

Tell me about the match that you've just played.

John Bishop16:01

Or played soccer eight, which was fantastic.

Presenter16:04

Who are you playing with?

John Bishop16:04

There's a a mix of um celebrities, which is I I hate that word, but celebrities and and ex-professional footballers.

Presenter16:13

And it was just incredible.

John Bishop16:17

Well, the the pros that were playing for us, we had David C. Meningo, we had Graeme Lasseau, Des Walker, Martin Keown, uh Kevin Phillips, still still playing, uh, Teddy Shanningham, they were all pros. And what grand did you

Presenter16:30

And what ground did you did you play at?

John Bishop16:32

At Old Trafford, seventy thousand people.

Presenter16:35

What was that like?

John Bishop16:36

Incredible, but for a Liverpool supporter to be our old Trafford.

Presenter16:40

I mean, you must have paused for a moment and thought if my ten year old self could ever have known that here I would be playing with a handful of among the best footballers we've ever played extraordinary.

John Bishop16:48

Yes we've ever played.

John Bishop16:51

I um I pause throughout my life and keep on thinking of my ten-year-old self who stood here. Oh, yeah.

Presenter16:57

What do you

Presenter16:58

What have been some of the other moments then when you've done that?

John Bishop17:01

Oh, loads doing that. I I took a penalty at Wembley. I missed. I thought my ten year old self would be ashamed. There was a gig that I did though at the Royal Alberts Hall where I I've never been

John Bishop17:18

So close to tears on a stage.

John Bishop17:22

I just couldn't believe that I was there and I couldn't believe I was getting a standing ovation just for for saying words to a room full of strangers. It was amazing.

Presenter17:35

I don't want to embarrass you, but I n I've heard that you bought your parents a house recently. I'm wondering, you know, that must have been one of those moments when you thought.

Presenter17:43

Who really would have thought that I could do that?

John Bishop17:44

We can do that.

Presenter17:45

Yeah, that's a big one.

John Bishop17:46

Yeah.

John Bishop17:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me, mum and dad were still living in the in the house that we lived in on the estate and had been there for thirty years and it was just nice'cause as I say there was absolutely nothing wrong with the estate, but it was nice to get them.

John Bishop18:06

And you know, a nice detached house with a slightly bigger god.

Presenter18:10

Let's have some music then. We're on your fourth choice of the day, John Bishop. What what have you chosen and why have you chosen it?

John Bishop18:15

Lynn Skinner's Sweet Home, Alabama. Now I chose this because when I sent that text round to my kids, my oldest lad, Joe, came back with some ridiculous song of some band that I'd never heard of. But I've heard him play this a lot of times, and it also reminds me of a period in my life when I was working for the drug company, I had to go backwards and forwards to Chicago. I really fell in love with the blues. This just sort of reminds me of him and that time in my life.

Speaker 318:52

Thunder.

Speaker 318:55

Where the skies are blue.

Speaker 319:00

Sweet Home Alabama

Speaker 319:05

But I'm coming on to

Presenter19:19

That was Leonard Skynyrd and Sweet Home, Alabama. Sir John Bishop, you once said your material should grow with your life. And I have a well, it's maybe not quite a worry, but I wonder about this one. With your material, because you're somebody who talks about your life on stage, and as we know, that's absolutely where it started by talking about the breakup of your marriage. What happens on the next tour? You know, if your life has become being in a BBC dressing room and wondering why there's fizzy water when you asked for a still, or booking into a five-star hotel, you know, what do you

Speaker 319:35

Bring it.

John Bishop19:48

I've got to be honest, I wouldn't be asked if you're not. I'm taking it to excuse me, but you know what I mean? That problem of gender.

Presenter19:50

I'm taking it to extremes. But you know what I mean? That problem of generating material, because your your your life is your material. Does that become more difficult as as your life you know, you become very successful and your life becomes easier in some respects?

John Bishop20:04

There is, I suppose, or there was a fear that that would be the case. The material is still based on the fact that I can still say the stories and say, isn't it mad that I'm I'm at the Albert Or? Isn't it mad that I'm doing this?

John Bishop20:21

You know, I do spend my whole life walking around hoping something funny happens,'cause that's really all I've got.

Presenter20:26

In introductions to a couple of your pieces of music today, you know, you said I I texted my sons, and you do do a very funny bit in in in your stand-up material about saying, you know, that's how I communicate now with my kids,'cause they're teenage boys, I text them, I don't talk to them. Is that near the truth, or is that the truth?

John Bishop20:35

A teenage

John Bishop20:37

Is that me

John Bishop20:39

I know that's I mean, I'm talking in the house and they're texting me back. Why do I have to come downstairs?'Cause I've told you to.'Cause it just avoids shouting.

Presenter20:49

How do they feel about being included in the act?

John Bishop20:53

Um I think they've they've grown used to it.

John Bishop20:56

If it was planned that it would have gone the way that it has done, I maybe would have stepped back and had little thoughts about it. Should I do this, should I we've had big conversations about whether I should mention their names or not mention their names and and how they manage it'cause they go to school, they live a normal life and I don't want them to be known because I happen to be the dad. They have to be known as their own person.

Presenter21:21

What about your wife?'Cause you talk ab you talk about her in the act and and, you know, you talk about relatively personal things in the act. Does she ever say, John, tone it down? Or I'm I'm not comfortable with that.

John Bishop21:28

I would say

John Bishop21:31

What happened when we got back together? Um the stand-up was the new thing uh that had come into our our life and I I just said to look man yeah I I can't not do this because there was a time when it was all I had. There was a time where the stand up was the thing that I I think kept me sane. It was like therapy and if I stopped doing it I would go backwards and interestingly after the last tour I was gonna do that your bus thing of take a couple of years off and after three months at home she just said look go out and do a gig'cause you're not the same.

Presenter22:11

We're gonna have your fifth choice. What is it?

John Bishop22:13

Elvis Presley, The Wonder of You, I just think Elvis is an iconic performer, but this is this is one of those songs that just lifts the hairs on the back of your neck.

Speaker 322:26

Your kiss to me is worth a fortune

Speaker 322:31

Your love for me is everything I guess I'll never know the reason why

Speaker 322:41

Love me as you do.

Speaker 322:46

And the wonder.

Speaker 322:50

Will wander all you

Presenter22:56

That was Elvis Presley and The Wonder of You. Uh so, John Bishop, you had three sons in very quick succession when you were first married. Three sons in how many years?

John Bishop23:04

We are John and eighty months later.

John Bishop23:08

We had uh Luke, then we had Daniel just after Luke, so it there was a point where there was three sets of nappies in the house. It puts a lot of pressure on I mean, I'm saying that, but my mum had uh, you know, between Eddie, Cathy and Carol, there's and made as five years, so she had four kids in five years.

Presenter23:17

Blah, blah.

Presenter23:28

What about the you said you you're close to all your family. There can often be uh a problem when one uh sibling is very, very successful in the way that you have been, and not just has public profile but has everything else that goes with it. It can destabilise a family. You know, people can feel

Presenter23:44

That their reality is suddenly altered by the the volume of your success. Is that something that you do you ever think about that? Is it something you've ever had to deal with?

John Bishop23:52

No, I don't think so. I think because we're close enough, it's it's been shared. There there was that occasion when I was thinking of buying the house for my mum and dad. I asked for Eddie Cathy and Carol to to meet up and I said, What are you being so stupid for? Just go and do it. So there was never that bit where they went, Oh, if you think you can do that, Johnny, big big pockets. It's never ever been like that at the moment. The sun's shining on me, but you know, it doesn't mean that it's dark on everyone else.

Presenter24:08

Nice.

Presenter24:22

At that point in your life then where you were you had sort of propelled yourself on to the point where you had a a good job, it was a you know, it was a secure job, you had a company car, you were, as you were saying, traveling to Chicago, and you know, it was a

Presenter24:34

It was a very respectable life you were leading. When you turned round to Melanie and said, you know.

Speaker 324:34

There's a

Presenter24:40

I want to give it a go. I'm going to have a go at comedy and I want to try to make my living at it. What was her response?

John Bishop24:46

Supportive. I mean, she just said, Look, you know, there's something you gotta do. In fact, there's twice in my life that that's happened where someone said, You you feel you gotta do it, you gotta do it. The first time was after I'd left school, I'd I'd gone to ICI to work. I bumped into an English teacher, uh, Mr Logan.

John Bishop25:04

who said to me, You can come back to and do your A levels at school,'cause I was doing them at night school and I remember going home and telling my mum and dad I was gonna give my job up and go and do A levels'cause I wanted to go to university. I remember him s sitting down with me after tea, my mum and dad, and talking till midnight, trying to trying to persuade me not to do it.

John Bishop25:25

Because they said, Look, you've got a job, you'll get your pension with ICI, everything's here And I just kept on saying, I don't know why, but I think there's something more and my dad just concluded by saying, Right, well, you gotta do it He said,'Cause if you don't do it, you'll never know. And it was the same with Melly when I said I want to give up the job and have a go to comedy She went, Well, if you don't do it, y you won't know. But, you know, obviously we've got bills to cover, so make sure you're funny.

Presenter25:56

We need to fit in the music, uh John. We're on your uh sixth disc. Tell us about this.

John Bishop26:02

Significant record this because when I met Melanie I met her at college just before the summer and I I was going off working. When I was going she she did this thing which the youth of today will never be able to do. She made the she made the tape.

John Bishop26:21

And the first song on this tape was this song, and it's her favourite song, and in fact I hated it when we split up, because it seemed to be the record that was getting played in every shop I walked into, which when you're going through a divorce does your head and it's simple minds, don't you forget about me.

Speaker 326:41

Forget about me.

Speaker 326:45

Don't, don't, don't, don't.

Speaker 326:47

Uh

Speaker 326:55

Will you stand above me? Look my way.

Speaker 327:02

Never love me, rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling.

Speaker 327:09

Rebound.

Presenter27:12

Simple minds and don't you forget about me. When was that from John Bishop? Can you can you date that record? Is that

John Bishop27:17

What's that I say 1985?

Presenter27:19

How would you have looked in nineteen eighty five?

John Bishop27:21

Oh, magnificent.

Presenter27:24

What was you been wearing?

John Bishop27:25

Er, I would have had short hair'cause I always had short hair and I would have been wearing track suits. At that point, uh, I was playing semi pro football for run corn and we used to get track suits given to us, so it was cheaper to wear preclothes than go and buy them.

Presenter27:40

You've sort of got the look of a footballer about you, and you've also got Showbiz teeth. Are they your teeth?

John Bishop27:44

Uh they are my secret.

Presenter27:46

You never had anything done to them?

John Bishop27:47

No, the only thing I've had done to my teeth, and it's quite a big thing to admit I suppose, is I got them whitened because my teeth probably occupy thirty percent of my head. Uh you know, I've got one of those faces that when I laugh or smile, all you can see is my teeth. So when I first started doing little bits on television, because everyone else on television's got their teeth whitened, it looked like I just woke up on a bench. I just so I just had them whitened, but I've never had any structural stuff done to

Presenter28:16

Um one of the the perks of being a a successful T V star, of course, is that there are many

John Bishop28:21

Many

John Bishop28:22

I feel really awkward when you say that. That's just not how I see myself.

Presenter28:27

Doesn't feel like you.

John Bishop28:28

No, it doesn't. I regard myself as a stand up comedian who's lucky enough to have go on a few other things.

Presenter28:34

Okay. I was th where I was going with that was, though, of course, the willing and attractive female fans. You must get plenty of offers these days, do you? Um.

John Bishop28:45

Let's get back to the T V start.

John Bishop28:48

Um it's quite interesting because it's come at the wrong time in my life, you know what I mean? I'm in my mid forties, I've got teenage kids. Uh there's no way that I'm gonna be caught in a jacuzzi with some girls out of the only way is Essex, you know, and I'm lucky enough to be in a second marriage with the only person I've ever really been in love with.

Presenter29:09

I saw a photograph of your voice, which is very attractive, and I I saw a photograph of you at Downing Street with with the Prime Minister, and I think David Walliams was there with his wife as well. Do you allow yourself, as you're walking up Downing Street with Melanie and you've been given the security clearance and the door's about to be open, to just sort of look at each other and say, who would have thought?

John Bishop29:28

Oh, we do that a lot. We're very much looking at this thing and this is ace and we're lucky, but it didn't happen by accident. We've worked hard to stay as a family and that's the most important thing.

Presenter29:29

The

Presenter29:41

We're going to have some more music then, John. What are we going to hear next?

John Bishop29:43

Hey, we're gonna hear David Gray Sale of April. When we split up and I was at my lowest, I played this album to death. It's become part of my DNA and I just think David Gray's brilliant and now when I'm on tour, it's the thing that sort of eases me down, lets me go to sleep. So I listen to David Gray probably two or three times a week, put my headphones on, sit back and snooze and and feel comfortable.

Speaker 330:10

Sail away with me, honey.

Speaker 330:14

With my heart in your hand

Speaker 330:17

Say long way with me honey now

Speaker 330:21

Now

Speaker 330:23

Now

Speaker 330:24

Say long way with me

Speaker 330:28

What will be wealthy?

Speaker 330:32

I wanna hold in

Presenter30:34

That was David Gray and Sailor Wade. You you once said I'm still the person I was when I left school and started working on a building site, and sometimes that bit of me comes out. What did you mean by that?

John Bishop30:50

It's just that I and uh if if all of this stopped tomorrow and someone said there's a shovel here, we've got you the job digging holes, I dig holes. You know, I'm I'm lucky to be in the position that I'm in. When I check into hotels, I I I always carry my own bag in. I feel odd when another bloke who's the same age as me wants to take my bag off me so that we can walk to the reception which is fifteen yards away. Never ever think you you're too good to carry your own bags.

Presenter31:17

What do you think would have happened to you if you if you'd stayed in that you were a sales director of this pharmaceuticals uh firm and you know, given what a great communicator you are, there must have been a bit of you just dying inside, was there?

John Bishop31:29

Um, I certainly don't want to belittle anyone's life who's working in the corporate sector or working in any job where they're doing it to make ends meet. That's what you do, that's what you do as a as a person, and certainly what you do as a provider. But I think there would have been a little bit of a light inside of me that would have been getting dimmer and dimmer. And so I thought I don't want to be fifty and saying you know what I could have been. I thought I'd rather have a go and fail than be a successful mona.

Presenter32:00

How how do you parent your three boys then? Do you you've already said, you know, one of them is is really interested in dance and and good at it. How what's your approach?

John Bishop32:09

What I've said to my kids is that if you've got a passion for something that you love, try and follow that and if you're really lucky, you may be able to make a living from it. And if you're very, very, very lucky, you'll be able to make a good living from it. But underneath it, you'll there's a good chance you'll be happier than going the other way of chasing the money.

Presenter32:29

I'm going to cast you away to an island, John Bishop, where you will be all alone. How will you cope with your own company?

John Bishop32:34

Okay.

Presenter32:35

Yeah.

John Bishop32:36

You know, I've got lots of mates, but there's a lot of times where being on my own is where I wanna be.

Presenter32:44

Well have your final piece of music then. What are we going to hear? As your eighth trifle?

John Bishop32:47

Snow Patrol chasing cars. It reminds me of Daniel, my youngest lad. There was a moment which was just beautiful. He would have been about eleven, maybe ten, and he was lying in our bed for some reason, in our bedroom. And as I walked in, he just looked at his mum and started singing the lines of this song and it just it just nearly choked me. So I just turned around and walked out'cause I didn't want him to see his dad crying,'cause then you can't tell him off for being on my bed.

John Bishop33:19

If I hear

Speaker 333:23

If I just lay here.

Speaker 333:28

Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Speaker 333:40

I don't quite know.

Speaker 333:45

How to say

Presenter33:50

How I feel That was Snow Patrol and Chasing Cars. So, John Bishop, we come to the point where I give you some books. You're going to get the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and then you get to take another book along to the island. What would you like to take?

John Bishop33:58

And the comp

John Bishop34:04

Um probably a family photo album. If I could take that because it'd be nice to have pictures of the family there.

Presenter34:11

Okay, you've sneakily subverted the format, but I take my hat off to you. You can have that. Yes, because you are allowed a luxury too.

John Bishop34:14

Yeah.

John Bishop34:19

Huh.

John Bishop34:20

A lifetime supply of toothpaste and toothbrushes.

Presenter34:23

You were laughing there. You were going to say something else.

John Bishop34:25

No, it wasn't. I was laughing because of all the things I've thought of as luxuries. You know, in the room that we sat in, there's a piano and I thought, oh, yeah, you know, like a lot of people, I'll take a piano and a book and I'll learn it. But I know almost even on a desert island I'll be looking at, oh god, I can't be bothered learning that. And what I found, you know, in my life and all the travelling I've done, no matter how long it takes you before your next bat, if you're able to clean your teeth, you just feel fresh. Okay. And particularly if your teeth are as big as mine. So that has to be a lot of toothpaste. The only way I'll get spotted by a patent blade, big white teeth looking up.

Presenter35:02

As the sun glints against them, you've got to pick one of the eight to save which one disc would you like to save?

John Bishop35:03

Clips against

John Bishop35:09

Things gotta be number six, simple minds, don't you forget about me.

Presenter35:14

It's yours, John Bishop, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

John Bishop35:17

Thank you.

Presenter35:53

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio 4.