Jack Whitehall

Speaker 10:00

This is the BBC.

Presenter0:03

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Welcome to Desert Island Discs, where every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, the book and the luxury item that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away on a desert island.

Presenter0:16

For rights' reasons, the music on these podcast versions is shorter than in the original broadcast. You can find over two thousand more editions to listen to and download on the Desert Island Disc's website.

Presenter0:48

My castaway this week is the comedian, actor, and writer Jack Whitehall. He's done a lot quite quickly, award-winning stand-ups, sitcoms, and panel shows. And, in a job where upper-middle-class privilege could be a distinct disadvantage, he's made it his gilt-edged calling card. Even his hair looks posh. He's not quite thirty yes, but he's been at it for a good long while. His first professional acting job was at three years old. But then his father, Michael, was a theatrical agent, and his mother, an actress. Although connections and coaching have far from guaranteed success, his audition aged eleven for the movie role of Harry Potter was something of a low point. Lately, he's been part of an unlikely double-act, teaming up for a TV chat show and travelogues with his dad. It shouldn't really work.

Presenter1:33

But it does. He says I was a show off in class, always fooling and pranking around. I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I was a bit of an odd fit. What's so weird is the minute you find an outlet where you can go on stage and make people laugh, you suddenly settle as a person. So welcome, Jack Whitehall. You look a bit terrified.

Jack Whitehall1:51

I look settled.

Presenter1:52

Okay.

Jack Whitehall1:52

I'm worried because any time I do any kind of like grown up interview, I always read it back and I'm like, wow, this guy sounds suicidal. I sound so depressed whenever I talk about myself, so I'm going to be conscious of nothing.

Presenter2:07

Okay, well there is a difference of course from from a print interview. People can hear the tone of your voice. So they can hear when you're being funny. And obviously we pride ourselves in our unimpeachable standards, Heretessa Islandists. We will not misrepresent you in any way. So you do, as I alluded to there, you do lots of stuff. You you write for T V, you exec, produce, you perform, you do stand-up. Which is the one that feels most natural to you to do?

Jack Whitehall2:11

So they can hear when you

Speaker 12:16

We will

Jack Whitehall2:30

I think that nothing really beats that excitement of being on stage and the immediacy of it and saying something and an audience reacting. But whenever people ask me what I prefer, I always say it's whatever you're not doing. So whenever you're on tour and you're doing stand up and you're loving it,

Jack Whitehall2:47

Within a couple of months you're like, I wish I was locked away in a room with just one person writing some stuff. So you're never really truly happy because the grass is always greener.

Presenter2:57

With stand up, of course, um the general temperature of stand up these days is the kind of everyman. And of course when you got up on stage you were not like most people because well, you're a bit posh and you have turned that into your unique selling point. How long was it before you realized that actually I just have to come clean on this one?

Jack Whitehall3:15

Oh, quite a long time. And there were various incarnations of Early Me on Stage, which were as varied as me going on and literally talking like I was Danny Dyer. There's some footage on the internet of me in the early days, and I'm talking like that. And my dad was horrified. He's like, Why do you keep dropping all of your consonants? Why did I send you to school? And you go on and you embarrass me like this. And I also thought, Oh, I should go on wearing a jacket, a big Parker jacket, like one of the characters from South Park. And I did these deadpan jokes. I did a poet as well. One gig was enough to realize that that was not the direction to go in either. That's the most frustrating thing when you start doing stand-up, though. Other comedians, critics, they always say you have something there, but you need to find your voice. And you're like, well, what is my voice? Can you tell me what my voice is? But you have to go on this kind of journey to find your voice.

Presenter3:26

Yeah.

Speaker 13:53

Okay, so

Presenter4:05

My voice is

Presenter4:08

Can you sing?

Jack Whitehall4:09

I can't sing.

Presenter4:10

Didn't you sing on your chat show back chat?

Jack Whitehall4:12

I did sing. I sung with Michael Ball. No, I can't sing, but I have sung, and I sung recently on a job that I did. Yes, in which.

Presenter4:18

Yes, in which case. Tell me about your first check then. What are we going to hear today? Why have you chosen this?

Jack Whitehall4:23

I recently played Mark Bolan in.

Presenter4:24

Didn't

Jack Whitehall4:25

A one-off for Sky about when Mark Bowden and David Bowie met when they were younger. And I had to sing with Luke Treadway, who's got a wonderful voice, and I do not have a wonderful voice. So I had to have someone in my ear singing the song and I would sing it back. Because I can sing it when I'm hearing someone else singing it directly into my ear. Okay. Then I can carry a tune.

Presenter4:26

Follow.

Presenter4:42

Okay.

Presenter4:45

Taste fine, real taste good, real

Speaker 14:50

Yes.

Jack Whitehall4:59

I'm a little baby.

Presenter5:00

John, I'm a resting I'm a bee baba wanna be on

Speaker 25:15

Come back.

Presenter5:15

Fuck me.

Presenter5:20

That was T-Rex and 20th Century Boy. So, Jack Whitehall, you've started doing a lot more serious acting these days. In 2016, you starred in Evelyn Moore's Decline and Fall. Quite a cast alongside you. Eva Longoria from Desperate Housewives, Douglas Hodge, David Suchet. Such a different environment from doing stand-up, of course. Has that been quite a step change for you, getting used to that?

Jack Whitehall5:40

Yeah, definitely. It's kind of terrifying doing stuff to silence and not knowing whether it's working and even at the end of the day you don't know whether it was good or not and you go home and you're like, Oh, I could have done that better and am I rubbish? So there's a lot of worry uh attached to it and when you go out and you do stand up, you know whether it's worked in the night and that's hard to make that transition.

Presenter5:40

Yeah.

Presenter6:00

Stand up is such a risky business, isn't it? It always fascinates me with comics what it is that propels somebody up onto that lonely stage. What was it that propelled you up there?

Jack Whitehall6:08

I l just love making people laugh, even if it was just in conversation. And so to be able to go on and do that to a room full of strangers was like a kind of drug. And the minute I went up on stage for the first time, I was like, I'm I will always have to do this because I love it.

Presenter6:24

Would you have been maybe not so much now, but when you were a bit younger at least, if you were out at the pub, would you have been the person in the group who was entertaining people? Did you feel the need to sort of keep the laugh in the air and be liked by a group of people?

Jack Whitehall6:35

Yes, I think so. Yes, definitely. I was the sort of clown. But as you mentioned sort of briefly at the top, you know, the minute you go on stage and you start performing and and you have that outlet for it, you stop doing that. And then also your friends are so conscious of it. So now if I'm trying to be funny when I'm out with my friends, they're like, Mate, you're not on stage now and they instantly put you down. So it's quite hard to then be funny in real life.

Presenter6:59

Tell me about your second piece of music, Jack Whitehole. What are we gonna hear?

Jack Whitehall7:00

What are we gonna hear? My second piece of music is a song that reminds me of my childhood, and it reminds me of me and my brother and sister jumping around on my dad's bed or wearing matching pajamas, singing into a hairbrush, and um this was a song that he loves, Napkin Cole, Let There Be Love.

Presenter7:02

Ping

Speaker 17:19

Let there be you

Speaker 17:23

Let there be me

Speaker 17:27

Let there be oysters.

Speaker 17:31

Under the sea?

Speaker 17:35

Let there be wind.

Speaker 17:39

An occasional rain

Speaker 17:43

Chili con conni

Speaker 17:47

Spotlink

Presenter7:48

That was Nat King Cole and Let There Be Love. You said Jack Whitehall during that music playing that you'd chosen it for wonderful family memories, they sound like, but also'cause that was the thing your father would listen to. But he would also listen to what else did you say?

Jack Whitehall7:59

Do you like it?

Jack Whitehall8:01

Well the other option for the father based track was the plain chant of the monks from Ampleforth, which was the other thing that he would play on loop, which I can appreciate now, but as a seven year old child is not necessarily the kind of music that you would go to.

Presenter8:15

Is it true that Nigel Havers was in the delivery room in evening suit when you made your way into the world?

Jack Whitehall8:20

Uh yep, that's how I answered that message.

Presenter8:21

Oh, absolutely. Right, explain yourself. How come?

Jack Whitehall8:25

Well, he'd been trying on a dinner jacket at Piero de Monse, and my mother was taken to hospital. And my father, who was best friends with Nigel Havers and his agent, called him up and said, Oh, the baby's coming. And Nigel arrived in his dinner jacket. But also, the gynecologist that was delivering me had been that night speaking at a gynecological convention. And so he was also in a dinner jacket. So I was delivered by a man in a dinner jacket. Were you in a dinner jacket when you were in a dinner jacket? Yeah, they put me straight into a dinner jacket.

Speaker 18:50

And

Speaker 18:55

Uh

Presenter8:55

Were you in a dinner jacket when you

Jack Whitehall8:59

So that was how I entered the world, and I think it set the tone.

Presenter9:03

How did your parents how did they meet your mum, Hilary, your dad, Michael?

Jack Whitehall9:06

They met because my mother was a young actress and she wanted an agent and my father was an agent who wanted a wife.

Jack Whitehall9:14

So she came to meet him just because she was looking for representation and they met and they fell in love and then they got married.

Presenter9:22

Your dad then was in his late forties, I think, w when you were born. You were their first child. Your dad has said in the past that that it was something of an advantage, he thought, being an older parent. What do you think?

Jack Whitehall9:34

Yeah, I d I think it had its advantages in that, you know, when we were younger he he'd sort of retired, so he was a present father and really focussed on his family. I think a lot of my love of comedy comes from him and watching old Laurel and Hardy films and things like that. He has always had a very dry sense of humour and has always been very witty and funny and you'd see him entertain people and and I definitely think I looked up to him and thought, Oh, I'd like to do that one day.

Presenter10:02

You you do those brilliant sort of moments where you kind of can't believe he said what he said on screen. Do you know what's coming? Or or are you genuine? Are those moments of genuine surprise and sometimes horror?

Jack Whitehall10:12

Yeah, I think sometimes I'm genuinely shocked by what he says. I mean, you can prepare yourself for a lot of it and you're ready to excuse him and apologize on his behalf, but every now and again he will just sidestep you with something outrageous.

Presenter10:27

What can you think of the worst, one where you've been absolutely dumbfounded?

Jack Whitehall10:30

Sometimes you write a routine and you have to embellish it, and sometimes you write a routine, something just comes to you, and it's like gift-wrapped and perfect and ready, and you can just repeat it. And one of my first routines, and one of my favourite routines, is directly something that he said, which was that we were watching the news together as a family, and it was a report about Robert Mugabe. And my dad was ranting and raving at the television. And in a kind of moment of like lapse, he dropped the C-bomb in front of my mum at the kitchen table. And my mum went absolutely berserk. She was like, How dare you use that word? You can't say that in front of my babies. I was like 16 at the time, but you know what mums are like. She's like, How dare you can't use that horrible word in this house. And my dad turned to my mum, and I always remember he went, This is typical of you, Hilary. You are always defending Mugabe. I was like, What?

Jack Whitehall11:26

Where does that come from in your

Jack Whitehall11:28

So that was, yeah, that was like one of the first times I spoke about my dad on stage and I repeated that story and it's just verbatim. That's exactly as it happened.

Presenter11:37

Let's have your third piece of music, Jack Whitewell. Tell me about this then. What what are we going to hear now?

Jack Whitehall11:41

This song is the theme from E. T. I love music scores. I saw E. T. at the Royal Albert Hall with a live orchestra last year. It was amazing. This is John Williams' theme from E.T.

Presenter12:31

Flying from the film E.T. composed by John Williams. Um so Jack Whitehall, as I mentioned, you made your T V debut when you were just three years old. Uh you were in something called The Good Guys that starred Nigel Havers in fact. Yeah, I wonder how I got that geek. Yeah, I wonder. Um I've seen a remarkably beautiful picture of you uh dressed up as a a Tudor lady at Hampton Court Palace when you were a little boy, and you did love dressing up as a little kid.

Jack Whitehall12:52

Oh yeah.

Jack Whitehall12:55

Yeah, I was obsessed with dressing up. I would dress up as Robin Hood all the time to like everything, like family function.

Presenter13:02

Where are you? One of those kids that turned up and people were just like, Yeah, he's in tights. Yeah.

Jack Whitehall13:05

He's in tights. Yeah. Made my mom made me a Power Ranger outfit and I wore that all the time.

Jack Whitehall13:11

Yeah, I mean they must be why worried.

Presenter13:14

Did you dance?

Jack Whitehall13:14

I wanted to be other people. Yes, you wanted to be other people. I wanted to be other people. There was a stage when I loved Thunderbirds so much, and I wanted my mum to make me look like Scott Tracy. And if she couldn't get my hair to look like Scott Tracy before I went to school, then I would cry. And if she was like, if it's a puppet, I can't make your hair look like a puppet. She'd be spraying it and yelling it and trying to get it to look like Scott Tracy's. No wonder they wanted me to go off and act. It was a day off.

Presenter13:15

But I guess he wants to be other people.

Presenter13:35

What do you mean?

Presenter13:38

But your dad didn't want you to to dance, and what was his problem? Because that's all sort of part of the same thing, isn't it, of performing.

Jack Whitehall13:44

My sister was doing ballet. I was like, Well, why can't I do ballet? So I went and did ballet and he didn't think that that's what boys should do. So he then made me do karate.

Presenter13:53

And how did that go?

Jack Whitehall13:53

And how did that go? Not great. I probably should have taken the tutor off before I started the lesson. So quite an exuberant child. And then but

Presenter14:04

Did you have a sur a surfeit of energy? Were you sort of one of those kids who was kind of bouncing off the walls?

Jack Whitehall14:09

Yes, but I was a really sweet kid and I looked like a little cherub. And then I went to boarding school thirteen, fourteen and I got very awkward, had glasses, buck teeth, terrible acne, and I suddenly became that awkward ass adolescent.

Presenter14:25

I do want to ask you about this Harry Potter audition. I don't know how much of it is embellished to make us laugh, but you were eleven and you seriously were going for the big audition. And you went in full costume, did you?

Jack Whitehall14:36

I went, no, I didn't go in full costume. That's the embellishment. But I looked like Harry Potter. And they did an open audition at my school. And my dad was like, that's a complete waste of time. No one ever gets cast from those kind of things. So I have some contacts. Here's where the nepotism kicks in. I can get you in the door and you'll go to the casting director's house and you'll have a one-on-one with her. So I went there and I did it. But I hadn't read the book. And there was a lot of questions about the book and the audition. And obviously, having not read it, I slightly let myself down and didn't get the part. Obviously. Obviously. You know that. You know.

Presenter15:11

Yeah, obviously that you know, that that you know, so yeah. What did your parents say to you afterwards?

Jack Whitehall15:16

They were absolutely fine. They realized that it was a long shot. I say when I've talked about it before, that they were devastated, but they you know they were very supportive when things didn't work.

Presenter15:25

Tell me about your fourth disc. What are we gonna hear, Jack Whitehall?

Jack Whitehall15:28

My fourth tune.

Jack Whitehall15:30

Is from a cassette tape that my mum had called Mundo Latino, and I always remember she used to play it on the long car journeys back to school. Those car journeys back to school, the two memories that I have are this and the archers, because she listens to the archers religiously. Like doing this show, Desert Island Discs, is the most excited she's been for anything that I've ever done. The text that I got this morning, she was like, I am so proud of you that you're doing Desert Island Discs. The only thing that could top that was if I had like a walk-on part in the Archers. But I have this weird thing with the Archers where I remember getting really car sick and listening to the Archers. Whenever I hear the Archers theme tune, I feel a little bit sick.

Presenter16:10

You might not be the only person there has.

Jack Whitehall16:12

I know. Anyway, the Gypsy King's Bambelay.

Speaker 116:21

No tene la coupa.

Speaker 116:23

Caballena vana, porque muyde presiado porzón.

Speaker 116:29

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Speaker 116:32

I'm not sure if I can do it.

Speaker 116:37

Nothing else.

Speaker 116:40

And all the comprehensive!

Presenter16:41

I'm down. Amore than Imposabo.

Speaker 116:44

Uh

Presenter16:44

Uh

Speaker 116:44

Maybe.

Speaker 116:51

I'm a light on

Presenter16:52

Oh pump or radio

Presenter16:55

Gypsy King was Fandaleo. Your dad has written Jack Whitehall that I thought a boarding school education might help to straighten him out, him being you, of course. What was it that needed straightening, do you think?

Jack Whitehall17:06

Um, that sounds like him um trying to be funny. Right. Uh, well, at my my school in London I I was bottom of my class. Really struggle reading. I had like lots of learning support.

Presenter17:09

Yeah.

Jack Whitehall17:19

Am I dyslexic? I don't know. I think if I was tested now, I would be dyslexic.

Jack Whitehall17:24

I was eleven.

Jack Whitehall17:26

I remember when they told me, I just remember being in my mum and dad's bathroom just like in floods of tears. And they were like, you're going to boarding school. And I was like, but I don't want to leave all of my friends behind. And it's going to be horrible. And I was terrified. And my dad was great. He was like, you're going to be fine. And if you don't like it, after a term, you can come back.

Presenter17:47

And did you like it?

Jack Whitehall17:48

I did like it, and also subsequently, he told me that was a complete lie. That I was there and that I was staying there.

Presenter17:55

Did it harden you up a bit? I mean, did you have to form a kind of a a a a carapace, you know, t to deal with it? Because you were clearly a smart, sensitive, creative boy.

Jack Whitehall18:06

Yeah, I think that was w where where it was good is that I went to a school that really encouraged creativity and celebrated it and I could go and do plays and at that point I was obsessed with art. I loved drawing and painting and that was all sort of celebrated, whereas at my school that I was at before, they didn't really know what to do with me.

Presenter18:25

There are many people, of course, who rail against the the seven percent who are privately educated, you know, the the elite that they feel will still get a leg up into so many of our our institutions. I'm wondering, just as a as a young kid, if you were aware that you were part of a a very small and select group of people in Britain?

Jack Whitehall18:42

I don't think you are, and you don't realize how charmed your life is. You don't fully understand what that elite is until you leave. And then I think some people just choose not to care, and other people you get a sort of swelling sense of um

Jack Whitehall19:01

it's a kind of guilt, I guess. At the time you're like complaining, you're like, oh, this lunch is rubbish and you have like three different options and a baked potato bar and a salad buffet. You're living in this bubble.

Presenter19:13

The public school that you went on to was uh Marlborough College. This sort of slight upper middle class guilt that you've spoken about of having gone through the public school system was there a moment when it very forcibly hit you?

Jack Whitehall19:24

I I don't think it was a sudden thing. I think it's just a sort of gradual thing and you're like it it's it's unfair and it's y you can't not consciously think it's ridiculous that some schools have no like sports fields and I went to a school that had a beagling lodge.

Jack Whitehall19:41

Like that doesn't really

Jack Whitehall19:44

And that's true. It had a beagling lodge. Were there beagles in it? Yes.

Jack Whitehall19:49

I mean, that's silly. But at the time, I wasn't stupid enough to think that every school had a beagling lodge. But you're like, there's some discrepancy.

Presenter19:57

It's time for some more music. Tell me about this next one. It's your it's your fifth of the morning, Jack.

Jack Whitehall20:01

This is a song that reminds me of Manchester, where I was at university for about five minutes.

Jack Whitehall20:06

We were very into dance music and this was my entry point, New Order, Blue Monday.

Speaker 220:40

But I was mistaken.

Jack Whitehall20:43

I thought I'd heard your words Tell me how do I

Presenter20:49

Your entry-level dance music, as you described it, Jack Whitehall. That was New Order and Blue Monday. You're a very ambitious person, aren't you?

Jack Whitehall20:56

Yes.

Presenter20:57

Where d where does that originate, do you think?

Jack Whitehall20:59

I think the ambition actually comes from just I I love working and I love doing stuff and creating stuff. I work all the time. Sometimes probably to my detriment because I think I don't focus enough on stuff. You know, whenever I'm filming something, I will go off and do a gig in the evening. I never go on holiday. And I'll go away for like a weekend or something, but I can't sit and do nothing. I have to be doing stuff. Every time that I'm not doing that, I feel like it's like time wasted and I don't know. I feel like it could go all go away tomorrow or I could suddenly be out of vogue and not be able to be creating stuff all the time and doing shows.

Presenter21:36

Given his professional background be being an agent to very, very talented, high-level people, your father Michael, does he give you advice about your career?

Jack Whitehall21:44

Uh yeah, he does. He's very helpful. I mean that's you know, it's the thing that hurts the most when I read about myself or if I read s things on social media. The thing that really hurts is when they're like, Oh, he's only got to where he is because of his dad. To become a stand up comedian, the fact that my dad used to look after Christopher Biggins doesn't necessarily help you get stage time. But that's the bit that really like that's the bit that needles me. And I've said it now thus people will needle with me more.

Presenter22:11

Tell me about those first gigs in so you're at Manchester University and you did your first gigs in Bolton, having done a few little taster testers when you were at Maulburg College.

Jack Whitehall22:17

Eastern.

Presenter22:19

What was the worst you ever had to put up with? Because I'm not thinking you and the fine people of Bolton are an automatic sort of fit.

Jack Whitehall22:26

Yeah, there was a f oh, there was some really terrible gigs when I first started. The worst thing is when there's no audience. No, no, worse than that is when there's no audience and no mic. So you would literally be stood in the corner of a pub doing your jokes, at which point you just become the madman in the corner of a pub talking at strangers. You need the microphone. The mic gives you status. Yeah, sometimes you get paid, but and I always think that's the thing that made me accelerate quite quickly through the sort of stand-up ranks is that I started doing gigs in Manchester, in Bolton, in Wigan, in Warrington, Liverpool, and I had to go on as a posh boy, and that meant that the material had to be pretty good.

Presenter22:26

Yeah.

Speaker 122:42

Yeah.

Speaker 222:42

Uh

Speaker 122:42

Ah

Speaker 222:42

Uh

Speaker 122:42

I'm not sure.

Speaker 122:45

And did the memory status.

Presenter22:48

Yeah.

Presenter23:07

What age were you by the time you were financially self-sufficient?

Jack Whitehall23:10

Uh like quite early on because I was I started doing gigs and got quite good quite well not good'cause I still feel like I'm learning, but I I

Presenter23:22

Below to seek

Jack Whitehall23:22

No, I can't say good, but I can't I got paid work quite quickly and was doing weekends at, you know, the comedy store by the time I was nineteen, twenty.

Presenter23:22

No, I

Presenter23:32

So what I'm doing.

Presenter23:33

Nineteen.

Jack Whitehall23:34

So I've since then I've been been working.

Presenter23:37

Tell me about your next piece of news.

Jack Whitehall23:38

You're pretty cheerful.

Presenter23:39

Fitty was.

Jack Whitehall23:40

Oh, it's just like

Presenter23:41

Like, no struggle, no hardship. No, I don't think that's fair, has it? You've put yourself up there. You've stood in empty rooms where no one's laughing. Yeah, actually it has been pretty tough for me. Well, you know, defined tough, Jack. But yeah, you've paid your dues, haven't you? You've done it.

Jack Whitehall23:43

I don't think that's fair.

Jack Whitehall23:49

You know.

Jack Whitehall23:52

Tried to get into the Beegling Society and they wouldn't let me.

Presenter23:55

This is a theme. It's time for some more music.

Jack Whitehall23:57

Tell me about this. We're on your sixth. Oh, this is from my favourite film of all time. It's Elton John and Tim Rice Circle of Life. Now, I told you something before the recording that slightly ruined it for me. And I didn't know whether to say it before the song or after the song. I think it's a song. I think you said it before the song, and I'm going to ruin this song for everyone. Someone told me that at the beginning it sounds like he's shouting Arsen Wenger, and it's slightly ruined it, but it's still a wonderful song.

Speaker 124:12

I think you should say it for the song.

Speaker 124:24

Sybrana

Speaker 124:26

Buddy, see you ever.

Speaker 124:29

When you are here.

Speaker 124:34

A Time.

Presenter24:43

Hi Raba, when you're

Speaker 224:45

See your borough

Jack Whitehall24:59

He didn't enjoy that.

Presenter24:59

It wouldn't be on my list, but it's your list.

Jack Whitehall25:01

But it's part of my life. If we were doing the movie of my life, that would be the beginning. That song and then Nigel Havers just lifting me up in a dinner jacket on a big rock.

Presenter25:11

I have to tell our listeners who we heard that was Carmen Tule and Libo M with Circle of Life from the original soundtrack of the film The Lion King. I hope you get the rights. Uh Jack Whitehall, much of your recent work then has centered on this I called it an unlikely double act of you and your father on screen. You've done a

Presenter25:26

sort of travelogue series for Netflix called Travels with My Father. You've done a talk show called Back Chat. How would you t to somebody maybe who hasn't seen it, how would you describe your on-screen chemistry with your father?

Jack Whitehall25:38

I think um what people like about

Jack Whitehall25:41

The stuff that I do with my dad is that

Jack Whitehall25:44

Even though a lot of my life, as we've established on the show, is quite unrelatable. My relationship with him is something that people can recognize a lot of stuff from their relationships with their fathers and the way we bicker and the way he puts me down and the way I wind him up is very relatable. And you know, whilst he says glibly that he never wanted it and he doesn't, you know, why am I doing this? He he loves it and I know that he loves it and I love it.

Presenter26:12

There are some very especially in the travelogue series, there are some very tender moments actually on camera where you're surprised by him and he's delighting in you.

Jack Whitehall26:20

Yeah. Yeah.

Jack Whitehall26:21

You can't really plan those, and we don't really talk about our emotions as a family. You're not necessarily very good at that. But it was, it's amazing, you know, the nature of my life. And as I've mentioned, like, I'm working all the time, and I actively choose to do that. That sometimes you sacrifice spending time with people that you care about. And I got very bad at it. I'd come to life when I was on a show and I'd be upbeat and fun. And then when I was with them, I was like kind of twitchy and on edge and anxious about work. And I'd see them for an hour for lunch and then bugger off. And I just, I wasn't giving them the best version of myself. And that really upset me. And then I took a conscious effort. I was like, I need to spend more time with them and be careful that I never do that and never take them advantage because I'm so close to my family and they're so supportive.

Presenter27:15

There has been, not unsurprisingly, tabloid intrusion in your life, which pretty much comes with the territory. How do your family deal with that?

Jack Whitehall27:24

I mean, the m the biggest one was when I made a joke uh about the Queen. It was like a crass joke on a panel show and it was a joke that I actually regret and it turned into a kind of daily mail confected outrage. But it was on the front page every day for like a week. And that was not nice because it was like something that I'd said caused them upset and that that was the bit that hurt the most. I'm fine, I have a relatively thick skin, but I never want to drag them into it.

Presenter27:55

And did that take time to repair?

Jack Whitehall27:57

Um, I think I was just became a lot more careful about what I say. I self-censor more.

Presenter28:04

Let's have some more music, Jack Whitehold. It's uh it's your seventh.

Jack Whitehall28:07

This is a song that is in the last show that I wrote, Bounty Hunters. My co-writer is a guy called Freddie Cyborn, and he's one of my best friends. Freddie has an amazing taste in music, and he's always encouraging me to try and think of songs when we write to put into these scripts. This is a rare occasion where, in the room, we thought this song would be amazing for the end of an episode, and we wrote it down in the stage directions, and it got used. It also became the song that we listened to when we got Writer's Block, Hall of Notes. She's gone.

Speaker 128:38

I'm sorry Charlie for the illness

Presenter28:40

It shouldn't I think I got I got the strength to carry on

Presenter28:51

I need a drink and a quick decision

Presenter28:56

Now it's all to me

Presenter29:02

I'll cheat culture's love for

Presenter29:05

Oh wow.

Presenter29:07

I better learn how to face She's gone

Presenter29:11

MOOH

Presenter29:13

Pay the devil to replace her and she's gone. Oh I, what went wrong?

Presenter29:19

That was Haula Notes, and she's gone. You've got The Brits coming up soon. You're presenting that. That's a big old monster of a show to present. How are you feeling about that?

Jack Whitehall29:24

Yeah.

Jack Whitehall29:26

Um apprehension. If I try to do any joke, then they will not be listening to me. But I'm going into it knowing that. I mean, it's an amazing thing to do. The offices of the Brits, they're in um near Waterloo and I worked on an office above them and I remember I used to walk past and I was like, Oh, I'd love to host that one day and I am hosting it, so that's why I couldn't really say no to it, even though I might crash and burn on the night.

Presenter29:51

I am about to cast you away to solitude.

Jack Whitehall29:53

Oh, great.

Presenter29:53

You'll do fine on the island?

Jack Whitehall29:55

I think I would be terrible on an island. I watch the island on Channel 4 as I would be the first to leave that. Also, in any kind of situation, I am so blind. I wear contact lenses, five and a half in both eyes. I was like, I would just be dead within the first couple of days. The minute the contact lenses went, I'm done. So I was tempted to bring contact lenses as my item. We're doing that in a moment. I'm going to ask you about that in a moment. I've thought about it so much.

Speaker 130:10

Yeah.

Presenter30:10

The minute the contact then

Presenter30:15

We're doing that in a moment. I'm going to ask you about that in a moment.

Presenter30:18

Good. Tell me about your final choice then. What's the problem?

Jack Whitehall30:21

Oh, yes, we got the song. This was quite a rogue choice. I asked my family, I was like, I'm doing Desert Island Discs, and told some of my friends and family. It was met with utter contempt by most people, like, you're too young to be doing this. Why are you doing Desert Island Discs? So, apologies. And I said, What song should I pick? And all of them said this because I was obsessed as a kid with the cause, but I don't know why. Was it the beauty of the cause? I mean, the music, of course, is perfect. Core is a very handsome man and.

Presenter30:48

Music of course is preferable.

Jack Whitehall30:53

I think partly the beauty and the beauty of them, but also the beauty of their music none more so than the cause run away.

Presenter31:05

Close the door.

Presenter31:09

Lay down upon the snow

Presenter31:14

And I cannot lie.

Presenter31:18

Make love to me sooner than you

Presenter31:22

Cause I have a runaway

Presenter31:28

I haven't run away.

Presenter31:30

Yeah.

Presenter31:33

I have a runaway, a runaway!

Presenter31:41

That was The Coors and Runaway. It's time, Jack, for me now to give you the books. I give everybody the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare. Thank you. You get to take one other book along with them.

Jack Whitehall31:50

I'm going to take Nigel Williams's The Wimbledon Poisoner, and it's darkly comic.

Presenter31:56

We shall give you that. Thank you.

Presenter31:58

You're allied a luxury.

Jack Whitehall31:59

Okay, so my luxury, and I gave it loads of thought, and I said the contact lenses, it was maybe going to be those, and then I thought maybe some crocs, because I hate walking on hot sand.

Presenter32:07

Other plastic shoes are available.

Jack Whitehall32:09

Exactly. But in the process of doing this interview, I've realized that there is a a glaring omission to my luxury item, and it was obvious all along. So my luxury item will be a dinner jacket. Because I want to leave the world as I entered it.

Presenter32:25

Full talks.

Jack Whitehall32:25

Full tux. Full tux black tie. And you'll find me lying on a beach in black tie.

Presenter32:31

I

Presenter32:32

If the waves were to threaten to wash away the disks, which one would be the one that you would run to save? Oh, it's so hard.

Jack Whitehall32:38

Having listened to them all, I think I'm gonna go with Nat King called Let There Be Love, sat on a beach in a dinner jacket listening to Let There Be Love.

Presenter32:46

Michael will be very proud. Jack Whitehall, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Jack Whitehall32:50

Thank you.

Presenter33:01

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Desert Island Discs. You'll find over 2,000 interviews with artists, musicians, scientists, sports stars, comedians, and more at bbc.co.uk/slash desertisland discs. And I have a favour to ask: if you could rate and review the Desert Island Discs podcast wherever you download your podcasts, it'll really help other people find us. Thanks again for listening.

Speaker 233:38

This is the BBC.

Speaker 233:42

Hello, I'm Jenny Murray. And I'm Jane Garvey. And we wanted to let you know about another podcast you might enjoy.

Presenter33:48

You can download the Woman's Hour podcast right now and hear great stuff like this.

Speaker 233:53

I'll tell you something though, this will never happen again because there's precipitated by Harvey Weinstein is a network now of women who speak to each other. It's the podcast about women, but made for everyone. With arts and culture to sport and politics. You're sure to find something to enjoy and to make you think. So download the Woman's Our podcast now. It doesn't cost you anything.

Speaker 234:20

Well, go on. What are you waiting for?