Gabby Best

[00:00:00] This show is nominated for a 2026 Golden Globes Podcast Award. Get in!

[00:00:37] The guest for episode 77 is the writer-performer Gabby Best. Hello! Hello! 77? 77 and this one has been a long time coming because when I first asked you to do this... I was six months old. You were pregnant. Oh my God! And now you've got a... He's nearly five! Nearly five, so yeah. Alex, that is terrible, sorry. That's alright.

[00:01:04] There's only so much you can blame on being a mum in terms of an organisation. It's all good. No, I mean, you're here now. I'm here now, yeah. FCS 77, thank you very much for joining me. You're a pleasure. How have you been? Apart from mothering... That's a long time, that's quite a long period to cover. I've been alright, it's been a very busy five years. Yeah. Yeah, God, lots, lots. Yeah, you've been writing a lot. Yes, mainly you've been writing.

[00:01:31] Yeah, yeah, yeah, various things. Since, yeah, for about that entire stretch really. That sort of started in earnest when I was pregnant probably, so yeah. Most recently was it Changing Ends? Yes, yeah. So you co-write that? Yeah, with Alan, yeah. Wow, that's great. So did you start off acting in the show and then turn into the writing? Or were you already kind of writing? No. Was it?

[00:01:57] So I was cast as the homophobic neighbour in the pilot and then it went to series and the first series was written by Alan and Simon Carlyle who wrote Two Doors Down. Oh yes, Simon. And was brilliant. Yes, yes. I never met him sadly but he was incredible and he passed away. Yes, I remember, yeah. Which was, yeah, I mean so young. Yeah, I remember, I met someone at Tiger Aspect. Yeah, yeah, and he'd done so, I mean he was brilliant and they'd obviously sort of conceived

[00:02:26] that together. Oh. Yeah, basically series two, they knew I was a writer as well and they were like, do you want to come on and maybe we'll do a bit of just something, we'll see how it goes and then I ended up co-writing a few episodes on that one and then series three and four were actually written and shot back to back and we co-wrote all of those. Oh wow. So it sort of developed bit by bit really. Yeah, yeah. But obviously I knew all the characters. Yeah.

[00:02:55] I knew, yeah, so I was sort of in that headspace already so that it probably, it made sense and then, yeah, it was, you know, it's been great working with Alan so we just sort of work out. Yeah. That's great. Are you in the room together writing it or? We, yeah, how does that sort of, how does the process kind of work with the writing? We sort of all sit round his kitchen table, by all I mean the producer and director and Alan and me. Mm-hmm.

[00:03:21] And we sort of talk through whatever period of time we're covering for that series and we'll pull out key moments or events or just the vibe of the time on how he was feeling and stuff. Yes. And then what will happen is we'll go, oh, definitely one episode about that and another one about that and then other episodes might have to be a bit more fabrication, shall we say? Yeah, you're sort of, you're inventing plots basically.

[00:03:47] But some of the, it's, it is genuinely the case that the maddest plot lines are true, which people often don't believe. So there's an episode in series two called The Party and the Perverts where his mum and the neighbour who I play had to honey trap a local pervert and that is absolutely true. They genuinely did do that. Oh my God. And then there's other episodes where, you know, there's slightly more believable plot line that are completely sort of, um, Truth is strange. Invented.

[00:04:16] Yeah, always, always. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's always the case where you kind of think, um, you tell someone something and they go, oh, well that doesn't seem realistic, that wouldn't happen. It's like, you've been usually, yeah. But those are the ones we would not, we wouldn't dare to invent those ones. Yeah, that's it, that's it, yeah. So, you know, even if we wanted to. But, um. That's great. Yeah, so it's a mix. But a lot of it is, particularly all the football stuff, we're very, we sort of follow his dad's timeline religiously because that is obviously the backbone in terms of where they were and what the family was up to.

[00:04:46] Yeah, yeah. Um. Do you, cause it's quite, obviously it's a very personal story and everything. When you're trying, when you are writing that. Yeah. Is, um, I don't know, does it sort of feel, how does it feel kind of telling someone else's story? Yeah. In a sense. Interesting. Well, I said to Alan the other day actually, it is his life that will flash before me when I die, not my own. Because I've spent so much time in it. But, um, it does feel, when you feel like a massive responsibility.

[00:05:14] I mean, a lot of it's very funny, but it's also incredibly, you know, moving and difficult some of it. Yeah. So that always feels, it's a really delicate thing trying to write those moments from someone else's life. I just, I think we have the trust now and also I've just, I have listened to Alan talk for years now in terms of, so I feel like I've sort of hopefully can capture the feeling, um, as well as the sort of logistical stuff, you know. Yes. Um, but it is a, it's a responsibility.

[00:05:43] It's a real pleasure and it's a real honour, but you do, yeah. And I think it's quite, without sounding trite, it's quite important even now. Like he gets letters and we get tweets and stuff, less so tweets these days. Yeah, yeah, of course. Because that platform is a hellscape. But, um, from people saying, oh, that's how it was for me or that's really helped my son or, so you kind of, you feel that quite keenly. Mm. That's like a responsibility. But basically we are just laughing around his kitchen table and eating Wagamamas. That's basically the process. That's great.

[00:06:13] And then we write them totally separately. Oh, right, yeah. So, and then I sort of pass them to Alan and he'll pass his to me and we sort of... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Had you done a job like this before in that kind of, that kind of writing, um, uh, what's the word? That kind of, well, process. Yeah. Yeah. I sort of, with, um, because Dreamland wasn't like that. I wrote an episode of Breeders, which is Simon Blackwell's show. Oh, yes, yes.

[00:06:43] And that might be the closest sort of comparison because I came on quite late because I needed someone to take on an episode and sort of trying, essentially you're trying to ape the voice, you know, slot in. And I mean, you're always doing that on a long running show anyway, but I guess that would be the most, but with that it wasn't his life obviously. No, no. So it's not, it's not loaded in the same way. Did you feel like you could, you could invent mad plot lines with that? What with Breeders? Yeah, yeah. Well, no, the plot was like, they had the sort of, they had the shape of the plot.

[00:07:13] So I was just, it was the dialogue and the structure. Oh, I see, right. You know, it was that stuff rather than. Yeah. I came on quite late in the process for that. Oh, I see, right, yes. But I haven't done a room where I'm sort of trying to sort of capture some one person's voice. Although it is obviously an ensemble comedy, so a lot of it is, you know, I did character comedy for years, I just talked to myself in different voices really. Sometimes in public, which is concerning. Oh, I mean, it won't surprise you to hear that, that's what a lot of people, a lot of people do.

[00:07:42] So, mumbling to yourself in a cafe. Which I think is no weird, I said this in the last time, I said, it's no weirder than people doing, you know, their kind of TikTok or Instagram videos like in the street. That's true. You know, which people are sort of getting used to. Yeah, that's true. It's no. It's the mumbling over a laptop element where your voice is, you know, sort of going from a 74 year old man to a 12 year old boy in people are like, is she? Is she okay? Is she alright?

[00:08:12] No, she has had nine coffees and she hasn't slept in five years, but she. Yeah, I don't know. You're right. You're right. People are getting used to that kind of. I always remember when Hands Free Kit first came in. Yeah. It was that thing of, are they on a Hands Free or are they just a nutter in public? I know. Exactly. Boy, so. Still, yeah. Not that. Yeah. So, casting back.

[00:08:42] Yes. Since, you know, this is a show about character comedy. Yeah. When did you first sort of get into comedy? What was the sort of comedy you grew up with and what sort of interested you in actually putting yourself through it? That's a very good way to phrase it. It is an ordeal. No. It's all so lovely. Yeah. So, my family is quite a, we are, we like comedy. That sounds very basic, but like my brother and sister aren't performers.

[00:09:12] My dad was musical. My nan always said she should have been an actress and she should have. So, there's like bits of it sort of running through, but we just watched a lot of comedy growing up. Huge amounts. I was sort of raised on a Victoria Wood. Yeah. Far Show. You know. So, God. Only Fools and Horses my family loved. That was like the childhood kind of watch. And then stuff like, which was stuff like the British Empire and stuff. Oh, yeah.

[00:09:38] Just there was always, we were just constantly watching comedy really. And doing the voices to each other. And I sort of, from a very young age, I guess just liked it really. Oh, nice. So, it is a very, it was a very communal thing watching comedy. Yeah. Totally. Totally. And then when you realise you can pretend to be Hyacinth Bouquet and everybody laughs, you're like, oh, okay. I like this. I like this. I like this.

[00:10:07] Because I'm doing my shah-da-dum. Or whatever. But, yeah. So, it was just a sense of like, yeah. Everyone sort of enjoyed it from early doors. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And the Royal Family, I think, was, that did something to me in terms of like, Carolina Hearn, writer-performer. I was obsessed with that show. So, yeah. Oh, is that like the first time you kind of come across a sort of writer-performer? Well, Victoria Wood and French and Saunders and Alpera.

[00:10:36] There was lots of that. I think just, Carolina Hearn, there was something about her that I just, obviously, just something Yeah. Or maybe I was the right age is probably more the truth. I was slightly older, so I was a bit more. When you're younger, you're absorbing it, but not with any sort of conscious thought that that's a career put off. Particularly if that's not in your family's history. Mm. And then with Carolina Hearn, I guess because she seemed also quite normal, she didn't seem like... You know what I mean?

[00:11:06] There's a lot of... Yeah. I think I'd wanted to write books from when I was little, but it seemed quite, you know, removed, sort of over there. There was something immediate and, I don't know, yeah. I just love her. I love Carolina Hearn. Did you first kind of do comedy yourself, if we're not counting doing impressions in the... Doing it in the garden. In the... Whether anyone wanted it or not.

[00:11:36] Seven days a week. So I did a lot of acting at uni. Hmm. And then I did drama school for a year. And I remember at the end, like a post-grad thing, I remember at the end of drama school, they'd been trying to, like, bash the comedy out of me all the way through drama school, basically. Really? They did... Whatever you go with, they'll try and push you in the opposite direction just for range and just to take you out of your comfort zone. So they were making me play, like, bloody Thedra and doing all these, like, Greek tragedies and stuff.

[00:12:05] And then I remember at the very end, they were like, you need to make up your mind whether you want to be a stand-up or an actor, because we think you might want to be... Oh. You clearly want to do comedy. Yeah. And I was like, I thought I was hiding it so well. But, um... And then I came out and like everyone else who goes out of drama school, well not everyone, but most people didn't get work. So I started writing stuff and did news review at Canal Cafe, which is the way in for a lot of people. Oh, yes.

[00:12:33] So doing news review then, was that your first... Because having spoken to a couple of people who have done news review, that whole down to the wire could change at any moment, the topical aspect of it. Was that... How did you sort of take to that? Well I found that quite addictive. I'm quite a last minute personality. I was writing my essays between midnight and 6am, I don't know what they were doing.

[00:13:02] I really liked that. It felt... Yeah, I don't know, drama school was obviously lots of technique and lots of control and lots of... And this felt suddenly like a bit more electric, if that makes any sense. Just the nerves and the sort of adrenaline of it all. It's a bit more free-flowing as well. Yeah, and you're mucking about and you could improvise. I mean, you know, obviously you've got scripts, but you're improvising, you're writing some of the scripts. You get... Obviously a lot of the scripts were submitted, but we would write some or improvise some.

[00:13:32] So I guess that was the first taste of... Yeah. It was 2009. We're going so far back. Do you remember what was happening politically? Sarah Palin. Oh, when we... It was 2009, 2010 I think my first one was actually. Yeah. Back when we thought that that was the worst thing that could happen, that Sarah Palin becomes the most unprecedented. It all seemed like... It's quite innocent now, doesn't it? I know, I know. Yeah, Sarah Palin. I remember doing a Billy Piper sketch for some reason. I don't remember what that was about.

[00:14:01] I remember some big things coming in, but I don't remember it being quite as frantic as it feels now. But I guess that's also because... I know social media was obviously a thing, but it wasn't quite so aggressively fast as it is now. Not quite. Yeah. No, it was great. It was very good training in thinking on your feet and... And working with people, it's nice to be... The thing I was found with like gigging character comedy, obviously there's a circuit and you meet people before, but it is fundamentally quite lonely. Yeah.

[00:14:29] And I really did enjoy being in a little foursome. Yeah, yeah. That felt nice. Was that the only time that you'd been in a sketch group or were you in another sketch group? I was never in a sketch... Oh no, yeah I was in... A group called the Feral Pigeons. We met doing a Shakespeare in the Park show. Oh wow. And then we formed a little trio and wrote quite... I suppose quite... I hate this word normally because... Surreal. Quite surreal stuff.

[00:14:59] And did like Latitude and a few things. Oh great. It was a musical about... It was like a sort of... It wasn't musical. It was like a play with odd songs. Yeah. How long did you keep that going? We were together a few years. Really? Yeah, yeah. In the end we sort of went in slightly different directions but it was... I look back on it fondly. Nice. I am Marianna and this is the Marianna method.

[00:15:29] And do you have relationship? Somebody special in your life? Not right now. Yeah but you are looking. I'm not ready. You would like what? Not quite now, I'm not ready at the moment. Absolutely like to have somebody to rest your weary soul with. Not just yet. Walk into a room, see me think... Yeah. Hmm. I would like maybe one of those. One of she. Well I'm just here to do some yoga. That's it pretty much. I know. That's all in fact. I know. I remember how we met.

[00:15:55] We met, we were on the bill at a Real MacGuffins night. Yeah, oh my god, yeah. And that was like my first... It was, I think it might have been my... It was my second ever character gig. And it was you and the beta males and Staple slash face who... Oh yeah, yeah. Tom Burgess and Sam Nicorestian. Yeah. Um, uh, and then, uh, Toby Williams. Oh, Toby! Yeah.

[00:16:25] So yeah, we were... Oh my god. And I was like, because it was my, one of my first ever gigs, I was like, holy shit, I'm on the bill with these guys, oh my god. Like, yeah. Oh no. It was great. Um, they were very fun nights those were. God, that feels like, I mean, because it was a long time ago, but um... Hmm. Yeah, no, I remember that. I remember meeting you. Yeah. There's some gigs that are really, um, clear in your mind. And other gigs, obviously.

[00:16:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can block them or they're... But um, yeah. But the, um, and then, and then I came to see your Edinburgh show. Oh yeah. Was that the Mariana one or the standard? Mariana and that's it. I did see, I did see, I did see, I did see, which I do want to come into a bit later, but trying to, I always fail this. No. Try to go in order. Keep on, I'm taking off the piece. It's, it's, it's, it's, um, no, it's alright, but um, yeah, so, when I met you, you were still doing Mariana. Yes, yeah.

[00:17:22] How did like, you probably answered this before in many interviews, but how did Mariana kind of come about, um, sort of origin? I had to play the porter in this outdoor Shakespeare show. Oh right, okay. And the director was like, essentially that was, the script as you see it, his working theory was, was rough notes of what would have actually been more of a like, reactive kind of stand up set. Mm-hmm. It would have been a bit of like, topical gags, bit of this. Like relief. He's like, do you want to write something?

[00:17:52] Mm-hmm. Um, and sort of play a character and not do the, the whole, not, not port of it, but, but make it your own. So I sort of went off and wrote some stuff and improvised some stuff and found this voice, um, cause they knew she, they didn't want her to be, to have an English accent. And, um, and then sort of went from there. People seemed to like it. And then entered the funny women competition with her, with that character.

[00:18:21] What, straight after doing the shapes? Yeah. Really? Really soon after actually. Oh okay. And then, I don't know, somehow won that, God knows how. And then, so then it was like, oh right, I guess I'm, I guess I'm good, I guess I'm good. It was such an experiment, the whole thing. Yeah. It wasn't like, this is my character, you know what I mean? It just kind of grew and grew. How did she change? Like, was she a, uh, like a guru from the very beginning? Uh, ish, yeah, ish. It was more, it's, it was probably more political to begin with.

[00:18:50] The Porter speech was a lot of like commenting on politics of the day from, with a slight detachment of someone who, you know what I mean? Yes. Like able to, to like social commentary essentially. Oh. Um, but, and then it went more into the kind of wellness stuff I guess. Yeah. Did you feel like that was kind of, was that more fun to parody or to kind of put her in? Yeah, I think so.

[00:19:17] And also I think back then, I mean now it's sort of, I guess what I'm saying, but back then it felt like that was all just emerging all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So it felt ripe for the, you know, um, making, but yeah, she just kind of emerged. Yeah. It's so strange. It's, I can't even really, I'm just living in a shared house trying to make my mates laugh with this accent and this person sort of like, she was from nowhere really and everywhere

[00:19:45] and she just, yeah, yeah. She just kind of grew. Yeah. Um, yeah. And then, was it, was it when you won the funny women award that you were kind of like, oh I could take this further or were you already planning to do that and the award was just a kind of nice validation of the character? Yeah. Well it was really early doors. I'd only actually done three gigs when I entered funny women. Wow.

[00:20:13] But no, but it's that thing where it, it sort of, that sort of came, but then, but then it's not like, there wasn't loads of, um, movement afterwards. Do you know what I mean? It's sort of that thing where you get a bit of a like, oh, oh maybe I could, oh actually I knew I wanted to do comedy. I didn't know how, I didn't know whether it, like, I didn't, I was like, am I gonna, I don't know, I'd already been with the feral pigeons and been in a trio so it felt like I knew I wanted to do comedy but I never thought of doing it on my own really.

[00:20:42] Maybe writing on my own but not performing on my own and then that just sort of happened. Yeah. Um, and I really enjoyed it but I do love working with other people. Well you were saying like, it's quite a lonely thing. I mean, yeah. Yeah. But did you, so when you did your first Edinburgh show, that was quite a lonely experience then. Yeah. I just sort of went for a room in assembly. I sort of tried to do it all properly, do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember you were in a really nice venue in assembly. It was, yeah, it was nice.

[00:21:09] It was so, I think it was the wrong slot, maybe the wrong type of room for, for that. I think something a bit sketchier and messier might, I sort of learnt my lessons and then when I went back with the stand up shows I'm doing free fringe, I'm doing it a different way. Yeah. But, I learnt a lot. I mean I played, I did that show to three people in the audience someday, we really didn't, didn't really get reviewed, didn't really, it's just, I think you've got to have a year like that. Yeah. It does you so much good but bits of it were, good God.

[00:21:39] Like, my words, you know what I mean? I mean, because from what I remember, you have, you, do you have a lot of audience participation? Yeah, for that show loads. Yeah, you did for that. So for three people. You're like, that's you again. Also that it requires a bit of a like group think from the audience for some things you're like, oh this is, but look, it make, it teaches you so much. Yeah. And it was character building. My character was hench by the end.

[00:22:10] But yeah, it's very funny. I look back, there were some very, yeah, sad dinners on the Royal Mile, crying into a jacket potato like, oh God. But you found, you had, you had a good support, support network around you. I wasn't sort of like wailing. That was my first ever Edinburgh. Oh, wasn't it? That year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Edinburgh is amazing. I do think it is brutally expensive. So now, my God.

[00:22:40] Now prohibitively so, like, it's sort of eating itself or has eaten itself really. People, it's not. Yeah. But an amazing place to be and full of lovely people that I still see a lot of. Yeah, yeah. But I think what was already maybe starting to happen towards the end of that was, I was sometimes turning up for gigs and I could feel that I wanted to say things that weren't in the character anymore. Or I was slightly dampening down the accent. And then one gig, I forgot my costume.

[00:23:10] And I think it might have been subconscious. And I went, can I go on it? I just, can I go on and just do some stand up? It's obviously not what they had. Oh, interesting. And then it, I loved it. And I was like, oh, I think, I think I'm ready to not maybe always do the same character. This is interesting because I, my next question was literally what made you stop? Uh, or like, yeah. Stop doing Mariana and doing character comedy. And that's, that's interesting.

[00:23:40] Well, it's liberating to play a character in the first instance. You know, you've, so far from, she was incredibly overly confident and almost like sexually aggressive sometimes. You know what I mean? Like she was oozing this kind of confidence. Yes, yes. It was so different for me. But then I think maybe you hit the ceiling of like, oh, but it's always that. That, even when they change. Yeah. Fundamentally to stay funny, you can't change them too much. They can't really grow. No. Massively. No. Often. I mean, because obviously like, when you're sort of talking about like how a character has

[00:24:09] grown, I guess like Alan Partridge is the only one that's kind of changed. Like changed in a way that is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And even then within, because of context and like he's trying to prove he's keeping up with, but you can still see very much the original. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Did you feel like Mariana kind of, it came as far as she could kind of thing? I don't think that for me, for me, I just, I realized I wanted to be able to slip in and out of all sorts of different voices and tell stories, which now looking back was the beginning

[00:24:38] of me wanting to write scripts. Like everything. I think it was like I was one step behind maybe what I was trying to get to. Do you know what I mean? Not that there was any clear thought. It wasn't strategic. It was like, this feels fun, but now I'm sort of slightly itching to do this and this feel. And I guess script writing now feels like, oh, I get to write all of these characters. And I feel like, oh, it kind of makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

[00:25:12] And I did love the stand-up. And really, it was lockdown. I was meant to be doing a Soho run for that show. Lockdown and then becoming a mum sort of. Yeah, of course. But I do love the writing, so I feel like it's all sort of happened for a reason. But I mean, yeah, gigging was great. I mean, I missed stand-up. It was great. Yeah, I mean, I loved your show, which I wrote the title down because it's 1,432. 1,432 Sheep. 10,000 words. 10,000. Oh, no, don't.

[00:25:41] Only because it's based on a really obscure song about insomnia that was such a bad title. Yeah, yeah. 10,432 Sheep, which was about your insomnia. Yeah. And I guess like, yeah, did that ever, did you ever have a notion of making that, obviously you've got stand-up in it, but putting a character twist on it at all? Or was it very much like, no, this is a very personal story.

[00:26:09] I really just want it to be me as me. Yeah. I sort of slipped in and out of little voices for anecdotes within it and stuff. And I think if I'd carried on, because I had started writing the next show, and that was going to be much more character, like slipping in and out more of characters. But I do enjoy just chatting. I did enjoy the kind of being myself element as well. Or maybe because I'd spent so long in high heels and a headscarf.

[00:26:37] Either I was like, this is actually quite... I like the sort of immediacy and the honesty of it. I didn't really have like a persona. I think I know that a lot of people do have a stand-up, even when they're themselves. But I didn't really, I was just... No, and it's a very, I mean, it's a very personal subject as well. And something that, you know, probably isn't so easy to talk about. Yeah, some of it, yeah. Let alone make comedy of it. Yeah, I tried to stick clear of the heavy stuff, but it is...

[00:27:06] I mean, lots of people who didn't sleep came up afterwards. I had quite a lot of chats and a lot of insomniacs. I mean, you can tell by the state of my face that I still very much have it. But yeah, not as bad as it was, actually. Yeah, I think a lot of people affected it. Yeah, I was surprised by how many people came up after this. Either with a suggestion like, have you tried? I used to have it, have you tried this? Or... Yeah.

[00:27:35] Yeah, that was a fun show and I loved Banshee Love Room. I love that room. Which one was that? Such a cosy, smelly little room. So it's an old cinema. Free fringe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very cosy. I think it's about 70 seater or something. It's not massive. But I loved that. That's great. Loved waving my little bucket around at the end. Back when people still carried cash. I mean, I know people that made more on the bucket than on a pay show. Yeah, easily.

[00:28:02] Now that I think about it, I think Banshee Labrador, wasn't that where Richard Gad did Waiting for Gadot? Yes. And that was a free show. Yeah. And then because... And that went so well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. As we know. I mean, look at him now. I know. Flying. It's crazy. Yeah, he did do that. Yeah. It's a great, lovely little space. It's not. And that felt quite pure. It felt like I had no PR. I had no... I just was... Oh, really? Purely sort of for the love. And it... I loved it. And it sort of restored my faith.

[00:28:31] Not that I'd be somebody who wanted to go every single year for a month. I think that is, frankly, insane. I mean, I don't know how people manage. Not even... Not just financially, but how to have a whole show in you every year. It's also just the thing of it all. Just all of it. The gearing up to it. The whole month there. The... Just all of it is such a thing. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But fair play. I mean... They can do it, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Brilliant.

[00:29:19] Isolated with any TV comedy character, who would it be? Oh, God, this is going to kill me. So the character, not the actor. I wish I'd prepped for this. Oh, it's better if you don't. Surely it is. I was going to say Sam from Cheers. I don't know. Just for the sheer comfort. He has got me through... Nothing wrong with that. That show has got me through... You know the show you whack on when you're, like, ill slash sad? The comfort show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a fair few of them. Yes, yeah, yeah. Of course. You can say... No, do you know what? Anyone else from Cheers?

[00:29:49] Jenna from 30 Rock. Oh, that's a good one. Just for the sheer... I mean, she'd do my nutting, but just from the sheer entertainment value and the odd show tune. Yeah. Are you quite like Liz, then? Probably a dash of Jenna and probably more like Liz. Yeah, I think that... In terms of the friendship? Oh, yeah. You feel like you... That could work. Her or Sam. Also, you know, look. You could do a flash show. I've always fancied Sam as well. Yeah. Can I have a few in there? And then maybe throw...

[00:30:19] You can do a flash. You can do a flash, yeah. And then throw Nana from the Royal Family in as well. Be very gentle, actually, with Nana from the Royal Family. Yeah, Nana from the Royal Family as well. So you want to be living with Sam from Cheers, Jenna from 30 Rock and Nana from the Royal Family. I want to see how they get on more than anything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, are we trying to build a family here or like are you and Sam the mum and the dad and Jenna's the daughter and Nana's the nan? Yeah, nice. Okay, I like that. Yeah. Yeah? I'm essentially trying to create a new sitcom on a desert island.

[00:30:50] Nice. Yeah, I reckon. I reckon those three, please. Great. So you're locking down with Sam, Jenna and Nana. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. People are all the same. You want to go where... I've always wanted to ask you about is the London Fashion Week. Oh my God.

[00:31:17] Where you essentially infiltrated London Fashion Week dressed in ridiculous outfits pretending that they were. Now this was like, this was a prank but it was kind of a bit more official than you just deciding I'm going to... Oh yeah, I didn't just wake up one day and think I know what I'm going to do. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to hire. How was this a pound's worth of...

[00:31:42] But yeah, how did that all come about and what's your kind of memory of that? Because I find it fascinating. I've always wanted to ask you about that. So I... God, that's... It's like I don't think about these things for years. That's a reminder. I gigged. I did a gig in Cambridge. Yeah. And someone in the audience was a journalist who worked with a journalist at the ES Mag, even in Standard Mag.

[00:32:12] Oh my God, yeah. And just then more or less out of the blue I got an email saying, would you consider crashing London Fashion Week as a character of your kind of making? Have they seen you do Mariana? Is that why they'd... They'd actually see me do another... Oh my God, it's also complicated. When I won Funny Women Benefit Cosmetics with the sponsors and they asked, they sort of took me on as their...

[00:32:40] It's all very unofficial kind of comedian for a year type thing. Okay. And they would... They paid towards my Edinburgh show and they paid for some of us, but I would go and do gigs for their like staff parties, staff nights. Oh wow. In sometimes in like shops and stuff playing either Mariana or a character I had created for them that was this sort of demented makeup artist, which is what they wanted.

[00:33:08] Who was that character? She didn't even... Oh, what was her name? Karen. She's called Karen. And I would just do these little skits for them. Yeah. And I think they'd actually seen Karen. At this Cambridge gig. And then they went, do you want to come and do Fashion Week? And they just basically sent me...

[00:33:34] They like couriered over just a box full of clothes from young designers, upcoming designers like Central St. Martins and stuff. Oh my God. And photocopied sheets of one of the journalists dressed as they wanted me to dress. So like this bag goes with this top with these shoes. Wear the shoes this. Do your hair like this. Oh my God. That's great. I just wrapped up my hair and makeup. So they were taking a risk really. They were obviously top knot and it was... I looked like Bam Bam or something.

[00:34:01] But they just sent these things over and I just crashed. Just crashed. I just had to turn up every day. And their aim was to get me on some sort of best dress list or... Which I ended up... I did get on. Really? Yeah. I think it was the Times, was it? I mean, one of them was kind of full like... It was like a gimpsu in kind of camouflage material made out of lace with these insane shoes.

[00:34:28] And I just sort of wandered around and hoped I'd get interviewed. And I often walked because I looked insane. Yeah. And did you have like a different voice for each? Yeah. Oh yeah. It was just sort of... No, no. It was one... Oh, this one... They wanted me to be one woman who they hoped would kind of become the talk of... The trouble is there's a lot of people dressed essentially. Well, yeah. This is why it's so... That's why it's so brilliant. That's why I love the... Did anyone rumble you?

[00:34:54] There was one instance where a woman was interviewing me. And I was obviously pitching myself as kind of hugely into fashion. Yeah. And I'd learnt some stuff. I'd cram some stuff in the... Because this has all happened within... Like, will you do it? Yeah. It's on Thursday or whatever it was. Oh, so not a lot of prep time. Jesus. Crammed a bit. But they asked me some questions about designers. And I was just in over my head. And I was trying to divert the conversation and... You know. Yeah.

[00:35:23] But they rumbled me in the end. I sort of did whisper to that journalist. I'm paying a cash out of that. Leave me alone. But the rest I managed to... I got into one party. Really? Met one at a sugar babe. Yeah. I mean, it was... It was nonsense. But also, they were... This was the funniest bit. They were like, just get cabs. And then invoice us at the end. Well, I was... I had no money. I was so... I was brastic. So I... I was just getting the tube.

[00:35:53] Dressed like that. In these... Yeah. One of them I looked like sort of galactic cardinal walls-y. I had this sort of like huge... It was like electric blues. Oh my God. Almost Tudor kind of ensemble. Wow. And I was just on the tube from Wood Green. And just walking home in these aheat. I mean, it was... And I couldn't take a big enough bar to like take trainers or anything. So I was genuinely hobbling home on like 11 inch heels. Oh my God. Committing to the bit.

[00:36:22] Committing to the bit. Every morning my flatmates would like be... Goodbye. Waving me off dressed as a canary or something. It was great fun though. It was great fun. That's brilliant. Did you go... Did you get to go on like... Was there like a catwalk? No, they don't let the likes of us onto those catwalks. No, no, no. They'd be like, excuse me. You're not five foot 11 and exquisite. Get off. And then I wrote a kind of article about it afterwards for them. Sort of sending it up.

[00:36:51] Yeah, that was where I heard about it. I read out the article. I was just like, that's fascinating. Well, I didn't really tell many people. And then I was... On the day, I just got so many messages from like uni mates and stuff going, what in God's name? I was like, yeah, don't ask. It's fine. It was just a thing. It was just a thing. But yeah, it was very good fun. Have you done anything else like that where you've had to stay in character and not break for like public? Oh, yeah. Did you ever see Glitchy?

[00:37:20] Ryan Sampson's show. Yes. With Ellie Wright. Oh my God, yes. So we had to do some fairly... I remember Glitchy. You had to do... Some specular. You had to do prank stuff in that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With real people just sort of... Ellie and me having like a bitch fight, tearing each other's wigs off and stuff. Oh my God, yes. And then one where a woman came to visit... Ryan and I were playing a very odd couple who were hoarders

[00:37:49] and she was meant to be cleaning the house but then it emerged we'd potentially murdered someone. I mean, it was occasionally morally dubious. After that, I was like, I'm not... It was quite early ITV2 stuff. It was, again, very good... And Colin Holt. Colin Holt. Amazing. Colin Holt was amazing. Yeah. It was Ryan Sampson, you, Ellie White. Colin Holt. They all kind of worked, the pranks, but I became increasingly concerned about just... The moral. Yeah. You really are. You know when you're really...

[00:38:20] They didn't ask for this. They don't know what's going... You know. I don't know if I have the stomach for prank shows. I think I realised after that. Oh, really? It was a good experience, but it's not a path I will be pursuing. You're just not a fan of, like... Even if you were to come out at the end and say, oh, this is a gag. But by that point, you've kind of... Look, it was great. I'm grateful for the work. It was very fun. I love everybody who did it. Oh, no, no, no, sure. But by the time you've finished it... Yeah. ...you've done the damage. Do you know what I mean?

[00:38:50] You've like... Yeah, yeah. Will they ever trust again? Potentially, no. I mean, I don't think we... We didn't humiliate anyone. It wasn't a cruel... It definitely wasn't cruel. No, I don't... The joke was always on us. You know what I mean? Sure, of course, yeah. But you are still lying for seven hours. Yeah, yeah. But it's good boot camp. Good training for staying in character. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, a bunch of different shows

[00:39:20] with, like, character. Glitchy, obviously, being one of them. Yeah. Top Coppers. Yeah, Top Coppers. Were you in that from the kind of... When they first kind of... I know they did it, like, as a short first. They made a pilot, yeah. Yeah, but were you kind of quite on board early on? Because it feels like that character that you do isn't far off Mariana. Well, she's much more austere. Oh, yeah. Well, she's based on...

[00:39:49] Yes, Serol. The killing, isn't it? Yeah. That was terrible. I said that one should... But the knitted jumper. Yeah, bloody loved that knitted jumper. Also, it was filming in winter, so I was glad of that jumper. Tried to keep it. They didn't let me. That sounds like I tried to steal it. I didn't. I politely asked for it. No. Yeah, no, I don't... You mean, no, totally. Within that, like... You can see why they went, oh, let's ask her to audition. Yeah. But, yeah, I was on... I didn't do the pilot thingy, but I was on board from... Yeah. From the series. From the series.

[00:40:20] Was that when you met Jess Gunning? Because you've written together a lot. So we met at my first ever gig as Mariana. In a cafe in Ballum. Oh. And it was for a mate's... A mate's charity thing. And she used to do this amazing bit. Did you ever see it where she would, like, mime the drum? No! Sorry, she would mime conducting Wild Women Do. Wow, Wild Women Do. Oh, yeah. And she was... Oh, God, it was funny.

[00:40:49] Did she do character comedy then? I didn't think so. She used to do, like, skits. So not sort of, like, character... But she would do, like, this amazing sketch. I mean, Jess is phenomenal. Oh, yeah. I first met her when she did Quick Cuts, if you remember that show. Oh, Quick Cuts, yeah! Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. But, yeah, she's brilliant. So, yes, you met her. Sorry, we met at a gig and it was the first time I'd ever done it. I was like, I'm just going to try this thing out. I remember nearly puking. There was only about 20, 30 people there,

[00:41:19] but obviously the first time you're like... Yeah. Was it a five-minute set? Five minutes, yeah. Yeah, really fun. But, yeah, so we met there and we've just been friends since. But then, obviously, Top Coppers came a year or so after that and that was just a happy coincidence. Oh, great, yeah. Her and Lydia Bewley name of the cop duo. Yeah. Lydia is great as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. And the other show I've got to bring up. I talked about it

[00:41:48] with Alex Lowe. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Look, we've got to cover it. Lest we forget. Lest we forget. Yeah, I mean... Working with Noel Edmonds. Not many people have watched Noel Edmonds' miniature train set go around while he's standing there in his boxer shorts. And that is genuinely... Yeah, it was... It was a game show populated by character comics.

[00:42:19] And you were doing Mariana. Kyle, Emily, yeah, I was Mariana and Alex. Doing Barry from Watford. I mean, that was nuts. It started off when they were like, we'll have time to write, you know, we'll write gags in advance. And what happened was no one was winning. Everyone was going out really early, all these contestants. Yeah. And every time they went out an entire three pages worth of gags that you'd written would just be binned. Because obviously...

[00:42:49] Oh God. Right, I've got to go back. The premise was show people three items what's the cheapest of these items. It's so beautifully simple. So beautifully simple. No one was winning. The contestants were losing their minds. The atmosphere in the studio was like thick with fury because they were all like... And what it meant was we were chewing through items and contestants and material to the point where we filmed three episodes a day for ten days. Yeah.

[00:43:19] That is too many per day. And they were just giving you an inanimate... You would be handed an inanimate object literally like a cheese grater. Yeah. Or a pack of baby wipes and they'd go on and say something funny. And you would have like the 15 seconds you were walking towards the thing to... Well you have to improvise something funny about a cheese grater. Some of the things would be you'd have prepped. An item would come up and it'd be prepped or the first four questions. Yeah, yeah. But it just got... If you think about any one game you'd have to have all the possible options

[00:43:48] if these contestants go right the way through. Then all the possible options if these can... I mean it's quite hard to explain the logistics of it without getting incredibly tedious. Were you prepped quite before in terms of these are the contestants these are the items Ben Carpenter jokes about that? You would be but then if they didn't get... Then obviously it changes. And then you'd suddenly be like... But at the beginning are you kept on what items you're going to have and stuff? Yes, you'd always have the first few solidly sort of set. I mean we're all

[00:44:18] finding our way. I mean you did news review so that whole thing of having to chuck everything out if something changes. Oh yeah. That's... But there's high octane and then there's high octane do you know what I mean? And also on the last day everyone got a vomiting bug. Oh no. So Emily was very... Lloyd Thaney was very ill. Kael was ill and I sort of went you know what I think I'm alright. Guys I think I can do this. And we got about 20 minutes through the first episode that day and it was quite apparent I was not alright. So then they had to

[00:44:47] put a sick bucket just off Sage and I would go on do a line run off puke come back do another line run off puke. No. Oh that's horrible. I tell you what it's already quite trippy when you're dancing with like Russell Grant and you've got Lionel Blair Tap dancing in front of you holding a margarita pizza and then suddenly you're also you've got a temperature of 103 as well and you're like is this am I in the afterlife? Am I in some sort

[00:45:17] of liminal space? What have I done to deserve this? Noel Edmonds is God. Yeah. Look he's fascinating. It was a funny experience. I don't know how funny it always was to watch but it was a funny experience. Did you and the other character comedians was there like quite a lot of kind of solidarity? Oh my god yeah. I don't know what Alex I don't know what Alex has said. No we were all I think he was kind of like

[00:45:47] we were all traumatised. It could have built and become something but people needed to realise it was it was taking the piss out of itself I don't know who knows but we all we all got on very well and we all had I wouldn't say we always had a laugh because it was quite stressful but we did we did also have a laugh but you'd be going back to your hotel at like whatever time you'd shower eat and then you'd be trying to write material you'd be given pages and pages worth of inanimate objects again about broccoli up till 3am literally going like okay

[00:46:16] Mariana's opinion on broccoli Mariana's opinion on dumbbells Mariana's opinion on a coffin an actual coffin was that an actual one of them Kyle had to get in a coffin I mean there's so much stuff I mean it's a unique experience yeah I don't think it's available I don't think you can find it now which I think is probably best I remember watching it because I remember turning on immediately being like what in god's name is this

[00:46:46] you my mum my mum who's probably watching from behind a cushion like oh my god yeah no look it was funny these things these things are sent for a reason a lot of writing and like writer rooms and as you say you're really enjoying being able to be the voices of so many different characters could you ever go back to character comedy or sketch or stand up

[00:47:15] this is a really dry answer but just because I have a child now literally the lifestyle doesn't and I know people make it work but I find I quite like that I can write when he's asleep if I need to or I can but I do miss it and never say never and who knows but I really like the writing and the acting I feel like they're a nice mix but you never know do you yeah yeah I mean that's with a lot of people

[00:47:45] when you have a child it changes everything yeah and also your appetite for adrenaline changes I don't you do have a sort of low level hum of nerves from about 4pm on the days when you're gigging I don't think that ever goes and I'm not sure how I'm not sure I've got the stomach for that anymore do you know there's other stuff there's enough stuff to be nervous about yeah yeah the world that sort of slightly distracted thing of like

[00:48:14] you're there but you're not entirely there from about 4 or 5 I don't know how compatible that but look I'm sure some people manage it or don't get that or they've managed to condense it down to 10 minutes before yeah but if you found you just prefer the writing and the acting when a gig is brilliant there's nothing like it sure and I'm so glad I've done it and I do miss it but I don't know whether I would have the chance to go back I think that's actually amazing you have

[00:48:44] done it you've done sketch you've done character you've done stand up you've done hidden camera improv you've done and a lot of day jobs along the way as well a lot of them which people never talk about but yeah did you have any unusual day jobs that's a different podcast oh really no that sounded worrying no but I mean in case of like obviously there's the

[00:49:14] classic waiting tables working behind a bar did you have something that was a bit more unusual well it isn't unusual but I worked in reservations at Chilton Firehouse which is a really knobby restaurant which I ended up doing a bit of stand up about so what's interesting is I booked or dealt with a lot of industry people over the phone yes so it's fascinating actually you're going to have a meeting with someone and be like okay oh well years later

[00:49:43] because I know you did not like to be told we didn't have a table for four at the last minute but now this is fascinating you can see the different side mostly very nice but sometimes you're like isn't it fascinating that must be quite nice oh yeah just as a character study as well hearing that level of entitlement and wealth is really useful for writing because obviously I wouldn't have come across that really

[00:50:14] all sides of it but Morgana Robinson who I work with a lot and love we tried to get a sitcom about because she had similar experience in a different restaurant she was kind of glam waitress and I was like a basement rat on the phones and we tried to get something away about that but yeah but anyway yes no I've been lucky that I've tried lots of different bits and yeah yeah and there could still be something to come that you don't know about exactly exactly

[00:50:45] yeah who knows so the final section yes this is called Changer of Character okay right yes yes nice see what you've done there would that have got into cheap cheap cheap it would I mean that would have been would have taken the rest of the day off that would have been a standing oh so this name has been gifted

[00:51:14] to you by Daisy Doris May the name she has gifted you is Rita book I also see what she's done there lovely Rita book so who is Rita book right I feel like Rita book is well I mean she's either a librarian isn't she who pronounces it librarian or she's someone who doesn't who hates reading and aggressively hates literature and hates in fact the written word

[00:51:44] I'd say she's one of those two which one are you leaning more towards hates books yeah if you would read a book do you think that'd be yeah hates books yeah just and that's purely from the fault of other people just yeah also she just doesn't see the point in any of it yeah doesn't agree with fiction she's like against fiction so she will read non-fiction books no she doesn't read anything but if she had to it would be yeah yeah yeah yeah why is that

[00:52:14] why does she hate fiction so much I think it's probably linked to her dad okay yeah so we're having Rita's therapy session yeah this is all very yeah yeah too many books in the house you couldn't move from oh so this is the opposite of Matilda yeah it is reverse Matilda yes she couldn't move from dad hoarded books too much just too much and she hates serve her dinner on a book are you saying like she the plate of food would be served on

[00:52:44] a book or do you mean the food no the food would be served on a book oh right and then that book would still be kept with the stain of sausage bean and egg look her dad's got some yeah stuff going on um yeah he's a hoarder yeah of books and he know he's you know it's made her loathe knowledge I think it is it is reverse Matilda yeah this isn't a comedy character this is a this is a children's book yeah reverse Matilda how can we get kids to not engage with reading because that's what we're all looking for out of a

[00:53:13] children's book isn't it how can we put them off books because I've got an idea sorry Daisy I feel like I've let you down there no no no no this is interesting so but she's a librarian no no that was there was one route where she could have been a librarian what does read her book do what does she do yes um she works with numbers she works with numbers yeah she's a bingo caller oh okay yeah she's a bingo caller she makes a living off that yeah oh yeah and also her dad had a bit of money

[00:53:43] spent most of it on books yes but she's she's got a bit um did she not have one book that she loved as a child surely there's one book that she enjoyed it's gonna be something like the very hungry caterpillar yeah I was gonna say no it's gonna be um it's the spot the dog series she likes spot the dog okay but beyond that she can't see the buddy point it should have stopped there she can get she can get on board with you know there's a dog somewhere yeah and you've got to find it yeah she loves that she still does it on the street like she'll

[00:54:13] sort of has she got a dog of her own no because there's no room in the house with all the books she's still living in that house oh yeah she's still living in that house yeah that's where she lives and she's never had time to sort through it all it's too big a job for someone who hates books wouldn't you want to get away from a place that is literally you would but I guess the bingo calling doesn't pay enough you know what I mean she's stuck in this house is she looking after her dad as well yeah okay she's the only child yeah no mum no mum ran off because of the whole book thing

[00:54:42] was too much mum ran off with a man who was into comics okay yeah oh right poor Rita eh poor Rita you can tell I've had three hours sleep and only have a four year old for company most days does Rita have like a close friend she doesn't really like people but there's an old woman who sits at the front for the bingo who Rita will monologue at between number calls so quite often it will just

[00:55:12] be venting yeah she'll just venting to the mic yeah and Lynn brings her a book each week that she thinks she might like just to try and ease her in she's like I've got enough body books myself so she doesn't want those books but Lynn's trying to kind of yeah I mean Lynn's like 91 but she's trying to help as best she can wow how old is Rita Rita is 52 okay yeah yeah and what does she like doing she hates books and obviously the bingo calling is her job yeah what does

[00:55:42] she like to do she still likes to spot dogs out and about so she'll go and try and just spot a dog somewhere still a hobby for her what else does she do curling she likes a bit of curling didn't quite make the national team which is still a sore point but does enjoy it yeah she couldn't really watch the winter olympics because the telly is obscured by the books so that's tricky for her she just happened to walk past some people

[00:56:12] with brooms pushing some curlers yeah some curlers she walked past some curlers yeah I think it was she she actually would quite like to clean and mop and stuff and she used to try and do that over and around the books there just wasn't enough space and then she saw this sort of free form mopping she was what's that curling and she was hooked from that point on so between that and spotting the dogs and the bingo calling and her one elderly friend doesn't have a lot of time for much no sure sure no yeah

[00:56:42] she eats out a lot because of course no cutlery no plates you know it's all so she still hasn't invested in anything for the well she's tried but they everything you know it doesn't last long doesn't last long he just smashes any plate she brings home yeah he's not happy oh wow okay what happens to the house of books in the end what happens to it Rita is tragically crushed by a falling bookcase oh no which actually did happen to was it Keith Richards I was listening to Keith Richards Desert Island Discs and he was

[00:57:11] wasn't he not to death obviously the man has had like 58 lives but he fell out of a pineapple tree once I'm sure this is right and the other time a bookcase fell on him and crushed him god I feel like that's the way she's going to go yeah and then just as she's going she's waiting to be rescued waiting to be rescued for like two days no one's coming and she thinks and she likes it and that's the tragedy she gets 60 pages

[00:57:41] into like the go between or something and she's like this is good shit oh god all she needed was a bit of George Elliot right J.P. Hartley isn't it oh I don't know the go between well that's what she needed I'm saying that so surely yeah yeah it is oh L.P. Hartley L.P. Hartley do you know I'm thinking of J.R. Hartley fly fishing fly fishing that's what she's reading fly fishing that's better actually she's reading fly fishing by J.R. Hartley that's it she's reading that

[00:58:10] and she's like you know what this is cracking this is absolutely cracking if I have my time I get yeah yeah good old yellow pages yeah I think her dad must have gone out for a walk for two days because he can't the fact that he hasn't called alert to the emergency services is brutal but and also he's just really when he's in a book he's in a book he's not hearing a thud or moans he's in he's living in oh god that's a very funny character is it

[00:58:39] is it I mean it's hardly surprising all these characters end up being quite tragic so that was Rita Book thank you very much for that can you please tell me the name you were going to pass on to my next guest what was it I texted it to you ages ago and I have since forgotten it will be underneath the 46 apologies about late trains hang on where are we Williver Hampspoon Williver Hampspoon

[00:59:09] Williver Hampspoon Williver Hampspoon yeah that I mean you asked for that and I think six seconds later I that no thought went into that I'm sorry that's great that's a Williver Hampspoon okay so who is Williver Hampspoon we shall find out on the next episode of Out of Character in the meantime Gabby this has been lovely oh thank you this has been meandering yeah sorry I took you no no no don't be silly it finally happened

[00:59:39] it did we did it we did it we bloody did it five years later we did it hello this is Alex Lynch here thank you so much for listening to this episode and indeed other episodes if you have done if you like the show why not tell people

[01:00:09] about it you could do this by either leaving a review on apple rating it on spotify shouting about it on social media and then the old-fashioned but probably most effective way of just telling people about it any support really does help push the show to more listeners and it also gives me a little less anxiety that I'm not wasting my life with my audio endeavors anyway that's enough from me thanks again bye bye