Ruth Jones

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BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

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Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

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My castaway this week is the writer and actor Ruth Jones. She's the star of many stage and screen productions, but best known and loved for her BAFTA winning creations Gavin and Stacy and Stella. The characters she portrayed in both series, Nessa in Gavin and Stacy and the eponymous Stella are unforgettable, funny, down to earth and hugely capable.

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It's tempting to see this as a case of art imitating life, since their creator exhibits a similarly grounded view of her enormous success as an actor, screenwriter, showrunner, and now best-selling novelist. She got her equity card by shifting scenery and playing a ninja turtle, Michelangelo, since you ask, in Panto, and prefers spending time at home with old friends to showbiz events. After a recent incident when she failed to recognise a famous singer and congratulated him on what she assumed was an excellent amateur performance, she commented I'm really not good in that world. I get it wrong, so it's better for me to stay out of it. That's why I live in Cardiff. I'm not going to find any paps at the end of my drive.

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Ruth Jones, welcome to Desert Islanders. Thank you very much. So hopefully nice to be here. Well, hopefully we're not too show busy for you today. This is radio, so the best you're likely to be offered is a cup of tea and a biscuit. That's fine by me. I'm a big fan of the biscuit and a huge fan of the tea.

Ruth Jones1:47

That's an island disc.

Ruth Jones1:50

So hopefully nice to be here.

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Perfect. Obviously, you've created so many well-loved TV characters, some of whom you've also played, like Stella and Nessa. How do those creations take shape? Is it a slow process or is it a light bulb moment? I don't think there's a hard and fast rule to it, really. I remembered the one key thing, the starting point for Nessa, was that she would always sing Wild Thing at her friends' weddings, and that was very much based in truth. I have been known to give a little version myself at times.

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And when it comes to writing, how do you like to work?

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You know, it depends if it's a collaboration. So, obviously, with Gavin and Stacey, I worked with James Corden, and we always wrote together. We never sort of went away and wrote separately and then came back and showed each other what we'd done. We were always in the room together. And the same with Stella. I co-created it with David Peet. And Stella was a much bigger machine in a way because it was 10 one hours each series, and we had a lot of other really great writers. And it was a team effort. And I just loved it. For me, it always feels with creating anything that ends up on screen, or as recently you mentioned in a book, is starting with a little seed and planting it, and then seeing it grow into this big plant or tree, hopefully.

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You're going to be sharing some of your tracks today, your favorite music. Tell us about the first disc and why you've chosen it. Picking eight tracks from as far back as I can remember has been a very, very difficult task. But when I was little, I'm one of four children. I have my two older brothers, Mark and Julian, and my little sister, Maria. And

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One glorious memory I have, which was quite a regular event in our house, is that my dad would buy the latest Max Boyce album. And we literally would sit around as a family and he'd put the LP on the old record player and we would listen to it. And I have very, very affectionate memories of all of Max Boyce's albums. But the ballad of Morgan the Moon is a particular favourite because I just thought it was such a funny story. And we ended up in Mrs. Dent's class when I was seven singing it. The whole class dressed up as rugby supporters. We made our own red and white rosettes, had our red and white hats on.

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Helen Shepherd got to carry the giant lee.

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Which I have still not forgiven her for. And I think perhaps that was one of my earliest memories of wanting to perform because I wanted to carry that giant leek, it wasn't fair. But yeah, Max Boyce holds a very special place in my heart, and Morgan the Moon will always make me smile.

Ruth Jones4:27

I have

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I remember

Speaker 34:49

him well He once built a rocket, or so they will tell, From an old winding engine that he found on the door.

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Thereupon were empowered by coal.

Speaker 35:06

Sing Fadara Dadara De

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Max Boyce, the ballad of Morgan the Moon. You know what was lovely? Was back in the early 70s, I think when this album, Live at Triorkie, came out, Max Boyce was at the Seabank Hotel in Porthcorp, and my dad was there having a drink. And he saw Max Boyce, and he literally ran home. We live a couple of streets away from there. Got my mum, he said, Hannah, Hannah, Max Boyce is at the Seabank Hotel. Come quick.

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Bring the album and she had to bring the album with her.

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She met Max Boyce, was introduced, he kissed her hand and he wrote to dear Hannah with love, Max Boyce, on the album. And we went with my mum to see Max Boyce again live'cause he's still performing and he signed it again. So we've got a double signed album by Max Boyce.

Ruth Jones5:59

The hubback

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How utterly precious. This track was referring to a time when you remember a taste for performing and wanting to be in the spotlight. When did you get your chance? It wasn't carrying the giant leak. No, that chance passed me by. I used to go to Little Theatre, which was my grandmother took me to every week. And I think I had one line in a pantomime early on. I knew that I loved being in front of an audience. I mean, I played the guitar when I was quite young, and my dad would often say, Ruth, come down and play Streets of London for everyone if they had a party or something. And I was always playing Streets of London. And then as my sister got older, she would be roped in to do the harmonies. But I did love that sense of performance. But I don't think it was really till I got to the Porthcall Comprehensive where we had a brilliant drama teacher, Roger Burnell, who taught Rob Ryden as well.

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Every year would would produce a musical. We would rehearse it all year round and then we would do Westside Story and Carousel and Guys and Dolls and it was utterly heavenly. I loved it. And I think that's probably where I I kind of got the real buzz for it all. Let's go with the music. Tell me about your next disc today. I mentioned that I love

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Westside Story, and I remember my dad buying the album, the original soundtrack, and it was this red and black and white album.

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I loved all of the songs on there. I just thought they were so dramatic. But I've chosen this track because.

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When I was a little girl and I was listening to it, I just found it so amazing that I had a little sister called Maria, and there was this song on there called Maria. And hearing it, I just thought, Austin, this is amazing that Maria's got a song named after her. And I even used to think, you know, like how you get confused in your head when you're little, I even used to think that my dad.

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was actually singing on the album. I actually thought it was my dad's voice on there. And I can remember her coming back, being brought back from the hospital. I just thought it was so amazing that there was this baby. But I'm very proud of my little sister and she

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Even though she's like 47 now, she's still my little sister, and this song will always remind me of her, I guess.

Speaker 38:25

Maria, Maria, Maria I've just met a girl named Maria And suddenly that name will never be the same to me Maria I've just kissed a girl named Maria And suddenly I found how wonderful a song

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Maria from West Side Story, sung by Jimmy Bryant from the original soundtrack recording composed by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

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Ruth Jones, you were born in Bridge End, Glamorgan in Wales in 1966. Tell me about your mum and dad. Mum was a doctor, and dad worked at the steelworks. He trained as a solicitor. I guess a very traditional South Wales non-Welsh-speaking Welsh family. You know, went to the local primary school and the local comprehensive and four kids. And my mum was working full-time as well as a doctor.

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We kind of muddled along really. Many writers use their family members as inspiration. I think Alan Bennett's written about recycling his own aunties repeatedly. Would we recognize any of your family members' character traits in your work?

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If I said yes, they would all kill me. No, I've certainly lifted lines from relatives. I've shamelessly stolen those. And what I love about being Welsh is that we're very melodramatic. So my character in Stella Auntie Brenda, played by the brilliant Dibaucher, she epitomised that type of Welsh woman who could never say yes or no. She always said yes or no.

Ruth Jones10:10

Yes.

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And I love that about the Welsh. I love the way that we embrace everything so dramatically. And the tiniest little thing can be a massive drama.

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Time to go to the music. Tell me about your third desk today. Why have you chosen this one?

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When I was fifteen, I made a new friend, my friend Kerry, who was very exotic because she came from Cardiff.

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And so she had all this exciting new music to listen to, and this one album she had was Bette Midler's The Rose. The actual song, The Rose, that was taken from the album, became a bit of an anthem, really, for me and my friends. Over the years, we have been known to sing this song at various friends' weddings, probably even a couple of funerals of parents and things, christenings. We don't really need an excuse. We will always sing The Rose, and I pity the people that have to listen to it'cause we try to do these harmonies and it must sound atrocious, but yeah, it's very much our anthem.

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It's the heart, afraid of breaking.

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Uh

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That never

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Yeah. Learned.

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Then Dance.

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It's the dream afraid of waking

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That never take

Speaker 211:44

It's the chance.

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The Rose, sung by Bette Middler. Ruth Jones, after leaving school you went to Warwick University to do theatre studies and dramatic arts. Why was Warwick the place for you? Well, it wasn't so much that I chose Warwick, but Warwick chose me in that it was the only university that offered me a place. But I don't think I had the confidence at that stage to apply to drama school.

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And so I thought, well, maybe the best thing is to apply for an actual degree and then take it from there. Not many universities in those days did drama degrees. And I had one interview at Manchester, which didn't go well at all, where, well, I mean, I had to fill out a form to talk about a production that I had seen in recent times. And on this form, I had to describe a production that I'd seen recently.

Ruth Jones12:24

But why not?

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And there was another girl there who was very trendy and she said, Uh, yeah, I'm gonna talk about motor courage or I might talk about uh the Caucasian Chalk Circle I just saw a production of and she was very, very trendy and she wore leg warmers and a beret and I was um quite intimidated. She said, What about you? What are you gonna talk about? and I went Um

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Cats

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When I went in for my interview,

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They were asking me various questions, and my mind just went blank. And I think the interviewer felt sorry for me and just said, Tell us what you're reading at the moment. What's your bedtime reading at the moment? And I went,

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Jackie Collins Hollywood Wives.

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And they just looked at me. You know, the only place that I the interview went well was Warwick, because the guy that was interviewing me loved musicals. And of course uh that's all I knew was musicals,'cause we did one every year in school.

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And I was on Youth Theatre at the time when our A-level results came up, and we had to queue up where we were doing the youth theatre course for the phone box. And I remember phoning, and my dad had gone up to get my results. I went, Dad, it's Ruth. And he went, You got an A in English, a B in history and a B in drama.

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And I just went, I'm going to Warwick, I'm going to Warwick, and I was so happy.

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Time for some more music. What have you chosen for your fourth disc today?

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It's very difficult to choose eight songs and so what I thought I'd do was go a little bit kind of for double bubble and two singers that had a massive influence on me when I was growing up and I still love listening to today were James Taylor and Carol King. And I've chosen You've Got a Friend because I really am very lucky to have had such wonderful friends in my life. It will always remind me of them.

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You just call

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Uh

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Uh

Speaker 314:28

Uh

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Uh

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Where Brevorad Yeah.

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How come I

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To see you again.

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It's winter, spring, summer of all.

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Really all you've gotta do is call

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James Taylor and Carol King, you've got a friend. Lots of actors' careers take a while to get going, and you did do other jobs and to make ends meet. What sort of things did you do?

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I did a tour of the marriage of Figaro and that was great, but then there was nothing after that. So, you know, and I had to pay my rent. So I went to work at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council and was a clerical assistant there for a good long while. And I just thought, what is happening to me? I'm not ever going to act again. So I moved back to Wales and was going to become a solicitor because I just thought I'm clearly not going to become an actress. It's just not happening. And then that's when one of the letters that I had written over the year, you know, I'd kept trying for jobs, came to fruition and Stan Stennett, who was a pantomime producer in my hometown of Porthcall, offered me this job shifting scenery and being a ninja turtle.

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And that's when I got my equity cards. Your first big T V break came in K Mella's I T V series, Fat Friends, and it's quite a pivotal role for you. I remember I had to play a part that was much younger than me, so I went out and bought some trendy clothes, but I kept the labels on so that I could take them back.

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I'm never going to be seen dead wearing these clothes again.

Ruth Jones16:13

Come on.

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And it was one of the best auditions I've ever had in my life because

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When I was there, Kay said, Oh, this has never happened to me before, but she offered me the part in the room. I mean, it was so exciting. Yes. And it was the first time that you worked with James Corden, who you would go on to create Gavin and Stacey with? Yes, indeed.

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We sort of hung out a little bit together, and then he talked about this idea that he'd had about a wedding between a Welsh girl and an English boy.

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Because we were staying in a hotel where there were lots of conferences and things going on, we used to sort of people watch in the bar and we'd go, oh, that would be the drunken auntie and that would be the geeky uncle. And we wrote up these characters. And then one day, I think when Fat Friends was being trailed, it was about to come on and we had to go on Richard and Judy or something like that. We met up in the hotel beforehand and I said, look, should we just write this up now? This treatment for whatever this thing is. It was originally called It's My Day. And it kind of went from there, really. Let's have some more music. It's your fifth disc. Tell me about this one and why you've chosen it. I think this song is the sexiest song ever, ever made. I mean, every time I hear it, I just want to get up and dance. And I just, the lyrics, it's just so potent and hot and sexy. I just love the opening. Man, it's a hot one. Just seven inches from the midday sun.

Speaker 318:03

Yeah.

Ruth Jones18:03

Black seven inches from the midday sun

Ruth Jones18:07

Well I hear you whisper in the world to melt everyone But you stay so

Ruth Jones18:17

Uh

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I'm on your kids are.

Speaker 318:20

My Spanish hollow on Elisa.

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Smooth Santana. It is sexy, isn't it, that one, Ruth Jones? My word.

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Oh, I know. I love it. I just love that whole give me your heart, make it real, or let's forget about it. I mean.

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So it was whilst we were working on Fat Friends that you and James Corden started thinking about writing something together. We now know it, of course, as the BAFTA award-winning hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey. But how did it begin? We wrote this treatment, which I've still got somewhere, and it was basically.

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the lead up to this couple's wedding day. And we sent it into Stuart Murphy, who was at BBC Three then. And he said, Look, I absolutely love this, but we don't have one hour slots and let's dramatize the back story to this couple's wedding.

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How did they meet what their relationship was like? So that's what we did, and we wrote the first two episodes, and I can still remember.

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Getting an email from Stuart Murphy saying, I think this is going to be one of the best things that BBC Three ever makes.

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And I remember at the time thinking, that's a bit bit much, isn't it? But you know, actually, thank you, Stuart, because it it has hasn't done badly, Gavin and Stacey. At the time, James was on tour.

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with the History Boys and I think he was in New Zealand and he just literally just got off the plane and he phoned me and he went, All right, and I went, Oh, Smithy, we got a green light.

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So happy days. Happy, happy days. Let's have another track. Tell me about your sixth disc and why you've chosen it. One of the great things to come out of Gavin and Stacey was getting to film

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the comic relief film and to record the single of Islands in the Stream. We got to go to Vegas and film this. We got to work with Tom Jones, who was an absolute joy.

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And I was essentially there with my friend Rob from school, and we were making a pop video, and I'll never forget being in that room where the moment came where Tom Jones had to sort of walk through the crowds and part the crowds as he entered.

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And Rob and I just looked at each other and sort of filled up because we were like, We went to Pothcall Comp. And look at us now. We're standing here, we're singing with Tom Jones. I think also the reason I love it is because

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You hear Rob Rob as Uncle Bryn singing these American lyrics with a really strong Welsh accent. Like so he says a fine tooth comb and it will always remind me of one of the happiest times of my life.

Speaker 321:07

And uh

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How, friend, was a care?

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I'm very happy S, and I'll tell you for why.

Speaker 321:21

Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb I was soft inside, there was something going on.

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Islands in the Stream, comic relief. Ruth Jones, great to hear you and Rob Bryden singing together, which you have always enjoyed. It was absolute pleasure to do it. How lucky am I?

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You set up your own production company with your husband David and together created the T V series Stella. What's it like working together? It was a joy to create Stella together, it really was because it was the next step and you know it was quite scary going from I knew that everybody was going to be looking at what I was going to do next after Gavin and Stacy.

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Initially we thought about setting Stella in Bristol. Why did you decide not to? Bristol seemed like quite near at the time because we were living in Cardiff. But I didn't know anything about Bristol.

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I just thought, well, you know, I know about Wales. We decided to go inland a bit and go up the valleys where there is such a beautiful, rich landscape both culturally and geographically to set a a series in. How important has your Welsh identity been to your work and what do you draw from it?

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You know, I was brought up in South Wales and people are brilliant. You meet such brilliant people who don't know that they're funny, who just don't know that what they're saying is hilarious and uh

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I love celebrating that really.

Ruth Jones22:57

Yeah.

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A hugely proud Welsh person. I will sing.

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Call on Lan and Ebob being Seath Featherlon at the drop of a hat, probably with my friends when we've had too many drinks, but

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And we'll try and harmonize. I just love it. It's something very special being Welsh. I know that you've said in the past that you lapse into extreme Welshness when you're nervous. Or at least you did in the old days. Does that still happen?

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I think it's a sort of security blanket to go into my original strong Welsh accent.

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So when I have met people who are a little bit kind of overwhelming, such as President Obama, who's very tall as well, I have to say, very tall.

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And very handsome and um

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He leant down I was introduced to him. He leant down because he was so tall and said very pleased to meet you. And I said, Can I just say, oh, congratulations, absolutely brilliant, fantastic. And I did a thumbs up to him. Double thumbs up. I double thumbs up to him.

Ruth Jones23:59

The hell?

Ruth Jones24:00

Bye.

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And, you know, and he bless him, he said, I really must learn how to say that. Brilliant. Fantastic.

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Let's have some more music. This is your seventh disc today. Kate Rusby I met in about two thousand two, I think. I was doing a film and it was called Heartlands, and it was set

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in sort of South Yorkshire.

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And um Kate did the the soundtrack for it basically and she also appeared in it. And I became a fan ever since. I just thought her voice was

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Attale

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Extraordinary. And so I've chosen Underneath the Stars because I thought, well, if I'm on a desert island and I'm looking up at the sky, I can listen to this and I can think about the people in my life who are not around anymore.

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I lost uh my really dear friend Lucy last January, and I lost my dad six months before that, and um

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It was a bit of a year, actually, a bit of a sad year. And so I will lie on the desert island and I will look up at the stars and um I will think about them because I think they are looking down actually.

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In their own way.

Speaker 325:28

Yeah.

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Underneath

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Stars up I'll meet you.

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Underneath the stars I'll greet you.

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That beneath the stars I'll leave you before you go with your own free world gorgeous.

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Kate Rusby, Underneath the Stars.

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I'm about to cast you away, of course, to our desert island. How do you think you'll be with the solitude that you'll encounter there?

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I will miss everybody. That goes without saying. I won't be able to cope without David, really. I'll miss him so much. But.

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That said, that's what I'm signing up for. So essentially, I quite like my own company. I I can manage on my own. Are you practical?

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I would say I'm practical-ish. I'm not a great cook and I'm not a bad cook. I'm a mediocre cook. I was a girl guide, actually, for a while.

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I'd be a little bit scared of being eaten by animals.

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But then I wouldn't be scared that somebody was gonna

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necessary come and attack me because there wouldn't be anyone else there. I I will have to hold on to an element of optimism that I am going to one day go home though. I think I will have to

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Even if it's not true, I will have to always think I'm going to be rescued. Would you try and escape, do you think?

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I'd have to fare those seas, wouldn't I? And I was in the Girls' Nautical Training Corps back in the day. I have got a life-saving badge, but I don't think that will count for much against the stormy ocean. Time for your eighth disc today, Ruth Jones. What have you chosen and why?

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Well, Amy Wodge is somebody who I think is an amazing singer, songwriter, and um.

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I first met her actually when I did Educating Rita because we used some of her tracks. And I got to know her and um she sang at my fortieth, which was a long time ago. And then it was my fiftieth and um she came and sang there as well. My fiftieth was

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Very different from my 40th. It was a sort of sit-down three-course meal, and there were 80 people there, and I was surrounded by.

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Friends and family, people who had known me since I was born.

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friends of mine from university. I was really surrounded by those that I love. My beautiful stepchildren were there. David was obviously there next to me and

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And my mum and dad, and my brothers, my sister, and I was just.

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I remember when Amy sang this song.

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I remember just sitting there and I was holding David's hand and I was looking round the room and I just said, sorry.

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And I just thought I'm really, really blessed. I'm really blessed. And I'm always going to remember this moment. And so this song will always remind me of that moment.

Speaker 328:48

No matter what life throws it don't

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Seems so hard.

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You by my side

Ruth Jones28:57

I always live, I breathe, I lie

Ruth Jones29:02

And we have got each other in this

Speaker 329:05

Crazy world.

Speaker 329:09

As long as we're together, nothing ever really hurts.

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Amy Wodge and Moon and Back. So, Ruth Jones, I'm sending you away to the island with three books: the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, and one of your choosing. Now, you've asked for the Bible in Welsh. If I take the Welsh language family Bible that my mother has from her father's side of the family, I could then sort of like use that as a way to learn Welsh. Because I can speak a bit of Welsh, but I thought, well, that would help me improve it so that when I do get rescued, I can have conversations in Welsh. Albeit, it will be about Naomi and Joseph and the technicolore coat and lots of biblical references. But still, I think it will be a useful tool. Sounds like a good plan. Yeah, yeah. Okay, absolutely. It's yours. What about the book of your own? What are you going to take with you?

Ruth Jones29:58

Sounds like a good plan.

Presenter30:04

I'm going to go practical, and I'd like to take the Halliwells film guide, please. And I'll tell you for why. When I used to do Info's comedy,

Ruth Jones30:10

Yeah.

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With Julia and Rob, we used to do this one little part of the show where we'd have the Hallywells film guide and we'd get the audience to pick a page and a film number.

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what it would do is it would describe the film in three lines, and we would improvise a musical based on those three lines. So I thought, well, if this book contains all of the storylines of all the films ever made,

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That will keep me going. And even if I don't know the films I'm reading about, I can imagine them. And if I manage to fashion some kind of writing instrument with a a seagull feather and a a bit of parchment, then I can maybe

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Create my own stories using the film guide as inspiration. Perfect, it's yours. You can also have a luxury, something to make your time on the island more enjoyable. What would you like?

Presenter31:02

Well, for those people who know me well, they know that I'm a a massive fan of the Archers. I can't imagine life without the Archers. So please can I take

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All of the episodes that have ever been recorded up until.

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when I landed on the island. I'm presuming you're going to say no to this, are you? Well, it's a controversial request because it is additional listening material, which obviously goes against the concept. However, a precedent has been set in nineteen ninety four

Ruth Jones31:29

Yeah.

Ruth Jones31:34

Oh.

Presenter31:36

By Sir George Christie, chairman of Glindbourne, and he was given the back catalogue of the archers to listen to. So, because of that moment in 1994, they're now yours. Oh, that's marvellous. Oh, I can't wait. I'm actually looking forward now to being on the Desert Island just so I can go back to episode one. It'll take you a good six months to listen to them all. Best of British.

Ruth Jones31:42

It's to listen to the

Presenter31:59

Thank you. Finally, which of these discs would you save above the others if you had to? I'm going to go for Santana's Smooth because I'm also going to try and fashion a guitar and I'm going to teach myself that amazing guitar solo so that when I do get rescued I can perform it for my brother Mark who's a brilliant guitarist and I can show off to him.

Ruth Jones32:11

And I'm good.

Presenter32:22

Ruth Jones, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs. It's my absolute pleasure.

Presenter32:41

Hello, I hope you enjoyed that interview with actor and writer Ruth Jones. Desert Island Discs has cast away many actors and writers, including Dawn French, Victoria Wood and Kay Meller, who created the series Fat Friends that introduced Ruth and James Gordon to each other. James was cast away in 2012 and here he is talking to Kirsty Young about how and why he began thinking about what would eventually become the hit sitcom Gavin and Stacey.

Ruth Jones33:06

The biggest thing about being in the History Boys

Ruth Jones33:10

For me was um

Ruth Jones33:12

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

Ruth Jones33:20

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

Ruth Jones33:25

Almost every day most of the boys were coming in with

Ruth Jones33:30

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

Ruth Jones33:36

and because of the way that you look

Ruth Jones33:39

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

Ruth Jones33:42

And I was in Fat Friends and

Ruth Jones33:44

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

Speaker 233:51

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

Ruth Jones33:54

I must have on on some level, but

Ruth Jones33:56

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.

Ruth Jones34:06

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.

Ruth Jones34:12

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.

Ruth Jones34:24

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

Ruth Jones34:30

Ours T V

Ruth Jones34:32

And that was it, really. We just went.

Ruth Jones34:34

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

Ruth Jones34:38

So it was born out of that feeling of

Ruth Jones34:41

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

Ruth Jones34:44

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

Presenter34:48

James Corden, next time on Desert Island Discs you'll be able to hear the Shepherd and best-selling author James Rebanks.

Speaker 235:06

Before you go, let me just squeeze in here and tell you about the Flip Podcast from BBC Radio 4. Each month there's a new book set to listen to from people like Rhys James, Mae Martin and Joe Lysett. Subscribe to the Flip Podcast on BBC Sounds.