Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor and writer best known for co-writing and starring in the TV series Gavin and Stacey.
On the island
Eight records
This is a song by a a brilliant artist called Bright Eyes called The First Day of My Life, and it's one of my favourite songs ever.
Days Like ThisFavourite
Well this is the most positive song ever written. by maybe one of the grumpiest men who's ever made music. Within about 40 seconds you're going to feel a bit better.
Paul Simon's Graceland was the album we would listen to driving to the south of France. ... The minute I hear this song I'm immediately taken back to the three of us in the back, my mum asleep and my dad just tapping the steering wheel.
I really wanted to have a Rufus Wainwright song because I think he's just brilliant, consistently brilliant ... this is my favourite song of his by a mile and it's called The Art Teacher.
This is erasure and a little respect, despite its up tempo dance rhythm. I really believe has got the most heartbreaking lyrics of any song ever.
I had to pick a song from a musical because I love musicals so much. And it's performed by a brilliant actor called Brent Carver, and it's from Kandra and Ebb musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and it's called She's a Woman.
Well, this is one of my favorite songs and it's Bonnie Rait and anyone who's laid down in a bed next to someone thinking, I'm not sure whether you like me anymore. Can associate with this song, and I certainly can.
Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti
This is a piece of music from from the film Hannibal. It's by Patrick Cassidy, but I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:01How does the idea which you had for so long of being famous compare actually with the reality of being famous?
Um, it's okay, you know. I always find it weird when when people might complain about it. On the whole. I rather like it. People are lovely. You know, the majority of people who I meet are really nice. I think growing up I just wanted to I wanted to be an actor and I wanted to perform and I wanted to do all of these things and then I think less so. Now other things have perhaps taken a greater priority, I guess.
Presenter asks
7:57What are your earliest memories?
My earliest memory is my younger sister's christening. I would have been three. We we were a Salvation Army family, so we would we would go every Sunday, three times a week, to the Salvation Army, mum and dad, all of us in uniform, and uh it was Ruth's christening. And we all went up onto the stage. Oh, it's not a stage, it's a platform. ... And we went up and I was looking out and seeing this congregation of people And all these people were looking at me and so I started sort of doing a little dance and pulling faces and There's a few chuckles and And then it got to a point where no one was really looking at the christening. They were just looking at me. I thought, well this is great, brilliant, why don't we do this every week, you know? And then something clicked that day and I thought, well It's as clear as that. If you're if you're up there doing stuff, it feels great. And if I'm down here, it just feels a bit dull. And I really do remember that as my clearest early memory.
The keepsakes
The luxury
I'd take a piano. I'd figure if I've got time to spare, then it would be nice. It's the one thing I wish I'd done or stuck at, really, when I was younger, so I would love to be that person. I would love to one day come back from the island and go 'Just going to wrap this up, you know, and it would be great.
Presenter asks
9:49How important was being part of this community of the Salvation Army, and was religion at the heart of it for your parents?
The truth is, and I can only say this now. In retrospect it's It's brilliant in so many respects. It's terrific. ... But looking back at our congregation, I can only describe it. are some of the least Christian people I've ever met. And if anything didn't want people to come and join this church. They would have been happier if the doors were shut. And it was run, you know. So insular, it is the only way I can describe it, and only realize that now.
Presenter asks
13:58What about when your father went away to the first Gulf War? Did that cause a bit of a wobble in the family?
Well yeah, it's it's tough. When you come home from school and Dad sits us all down and says, Look, I've been called up I'll be leaving in six weeks. ... And then and then the day he left. In this camouflage suit. looking like an action man, looking not like your dad. ... I remember him saying to me, you know, You're the man of the house now. And I'm sure he was meaning it just as a joke, but you think, Oh, don't say that. And he gave me a hug and he hugged. I was already crying. And then he hugged my mum and my mum started crying. But like sobbing, crying. And then he pulled the three of us in and we all sort of hoped and And then he and then he left ... the first few weeks are okay'cause everyone kind of rallies round you as a family. ... but the reality of life is that that that doesn't go on forever and and before you know it you realize it's just the four of us. So it is quite tough.
Presenter asks
18:02Can you remember the first impression Ruth Jones made on you [when you met on Fat Friends]?
I can, yeah. We were at the the read-through for fat friends. It was basically six episodes and six characters, different stories. And we had the read-through for mine, and Ruth just came up afterwards and went. That was really good there. And um I wanna oh thanks. But there's a you know, a tremendous amount of luck involved in in being like nineteen years old, overweight. And I T V just happening to look for a boy who could play fifteen, sixteen. and to be overweight and to carry an hour o on their own, you know.
Presenter asks
27:44Was there a moment of epiphany [after the critical mauling and your period of going out too much]?
Um, yeah. Well, there were a few. There were a lot of things. I guess a big one. There was a day and I was at home. Kinda hung over. And my dad called and I answered the phone and he said we're in Primrose Hill and we're coming round. They sat on the tiny two-seater sofa, and I sat on the floor, and we didn't have any milk. ... And we sat and I'd had such a great relationship with my parents. But over the last year it seemed like I'd done all I could really to try and sever that. And I was just looking at the floor really. I felt embarrassed that they were seeing me like this. ... My Dad just stood up and he walked ac across to where I was and he just put his arms round me. and said, You got to get through this, son. And I just, you know, started to cry ... and my mum came over and joined us, and we sat there And my Dad said, I'm going to say a prayer for you. ... as we left my dad said It'll be alright, but you can't carry on like this. And only you can decide what happens now. And that and that was it, really.
“I've never met a performer who doesn't [want attention], so most of them don't say it though. Sure, but that's fine. That's because it's not very cool to say it, and I appreciate that. But I've not met an actor who hasn't, at some point in their life, longed for those things”
“Someone asked me recently if I'd if I felt I was represented badly at that time. And and my answer was, Well, no, I was representing myself quite badly at that time, so I can understand it to an extent.”
“There's a great sense of clarity comes when you have a child, that's what I've found. ... It really shows the important stuff to be important and everything else to be not that.”
“It's almost like we were all fitted with a parachute that said, You know what, if y you can go out to school or to work and if stuff goes wrong, the minute you step in here, there will always be love and support here. So if you feel like that. Life is an easier thing to kinda navigate.”
“I would always see that as contemplating failure. I really had no other. There was nothing else. I wasn't a bully. I wasn't nasty. I wasn't bad. I just was quite open about the fact I would like to do this, and I don't really need to know about these glaciers forming.”