November 24, 2025 • 14 mins
Stand-up comic and actor Alan Davies joins Nick Mills to discuss his new show touring Aotearoa next year.
The pair chat about his career history - including Jonathan Creek, his inspirations, what keeps him going, his family and discuss the All Blacks, England rugby feud.
Davies tells Nick about his memories of NZ and what he's looking forward to this time around when he comes on his tour in 2026.
Alan Davies will be performing his tour 'Think Ahead', in Wellington, Saturday 8 August at the Michael Fowler Centre
General public tickets go on sale on Thursday, November 27 at 1pm.
For tickets and more information, please head to livenation.co.nz
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My guest this morning is one of the most recognizable
faces and voices in the British comedy. Alan Davies is
coming to New Zealand on tour for the first time.
I think probably ever. I think he came here as
a kid or when he was very young, but I'm
not sure. I'll ask him when he gets here. He's
now starting the starting the show called late middle age
(00:33):
stand up, even though most of are still picture him
as a sharp, slightly bewildered Jonathan Creek solving impossible mysteries.
He's never aged. He's spent two seasons sitting behind Stephen
Fry and Sandy Takovic on Cure. I hosted seven seasons
of as yet untitled and written best selling memoirs. Now
(00:57):
he's coming to New Zealand as a stand up Good
morning and welcome allan.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Good morning, how are you? I'm all right, I'm good
A good morning in London.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So it's night time over there, good evening, good even
they got good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
But can you tell me if you've been in New Zealand?
Before I know you've been here as a very young
kid many times.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I've toured twice. This is the first time though, for
ten years. That's the kind of that's the thing. And
I toured New Zealand and loved her in New Zealand,
been all up and down the country and I had
a wonderful time, such a beautiful place. But there's been
ten years since I did a stand up show, and
I've got this. I'm sixty. I'm sixty. By the time
I get to New zeal And, I was sixty years old.
(01:37):
It's the show is called Think Ahead because really I've
started to do a lot of that and I've decided that,
you know, I've got to go on the road, otherwise
I might not get off my backside and do it again.
So the tour has been running here in the UK.
Show's going great, going to Australia before Christmas, coming to
New Zealand next year, and yeah, it's been fantastic. I
(01:57):
really loved it. It's both of my first love really
stand I started stand up comedy when I was twenty
two years old, and it's the think I started doing
and probably the thing that love thing I'll ever do.
I imagine we'll be holding the microphone in my hair.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So that was going to be my next question.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What do you prefer the acting roles or the stand
up comic stuff?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think the stand up's my thing, that's my job,
that's my trade. I loved acting, especially in Jonathan Creek.
It's a wonderful experience. But I did it. It was
in that part for twenty years, and I've been on
QI for twenty three years. So I'll be very lucky
in television, done these long running things. But stand up
will outlive both of them, and it was there before
(02:38):
them and it will be there long after they're gone.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Do you realize how big you are in New Zealand?
Do you realize how Josho are on the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Popular Yeah, I've had great receptions before, and the first
time I toured, you know, I couldn't really believe it,
and I don't really need to change the act at all.
It's just the sense of humor is so similar, and
of course, if in doubt, you can just make some
rude remark about Australia and bring the house down.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that was You're sort of almost like reading my
notes that I haven't sent you. But my next question
was going to be what what difference is there going
to be on your show that you're doing the UK
than you do in New Zealand or Australia.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well really not a lot parenting and so that's where
That's where I'm coming from, and that's what works for me,
what I enjoy. I enjoyed that presenting. I thought, you know,
the whole cake, not leaving ingredients out. I used to
be quite a sort of skin deep, people pleasing sort
comedian when I was younger, but doesn't really fit when
you're fifty nine sixty, so better off being a bit straighter.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Do the crowds react to you differently in the UK?
I mean, obviously you're huge in the UK too, but
you're a novelty here.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You're you're in you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You're part of the UK infrastructure, so they see you
when they want to. But New Zealand you're you're a novelty.
Do they react differently to you?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I've always had good experiences, I think. I mean, some
people say to me that some performers or bands or
me or musicians to Australia and not make the leaps
to New Zealand, and so I've never had any issues.
I've always been had great reactions and fairly enjoy performing.
You know. It's it's been great, so I'm really looking
(04:23):
forward to it. Even though no I'm coming in the winter.
It's going to be freezy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
We're not quite as bad in the winter as what
you know you are. You're going to be very lucky
to see a bit of snow. Well, you're going down south,
so you might see a bit of snow, you know.
I read somewhere and it really interested me that one
of the people that inspired you most was an Irish
comedian called Dave Allen. Now a lot of our listeners
would remember Dave Allen and I had the lucky, fortunate
(04:47):
experience of actually picking him up at an airport and
setting him up for a gig in Wellington many many
years ago, and he was the most incredible man off
stage that you could ever meet. Did you ever get
an opportunity to meet him?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Did? I was lucky to interviewed him twice actually, once
for a newspaper and once for television, and I love
talking to him. He's very engaging. One time I went
to his house and his house is full of paintings,
all done by him, you know. But he talked about
getting on a bus and you know, putting a hat
on or pulling his collar up so people wouldn't recognize him,
(05:20):
and just listening to people talking. But I saw him
perform in the West End in London in nineteen ninety one.
I was twenty five. I've been doing stand up for
three years, and I really thought I knew everything there
was to know about it, and he was sixty one.
The first half of the show was really funny, and
I sort of thought, well, should I stay for the
second half? Anyway, I'm so glad I did. I stood
(05:41):
at the back of the stalls and he had the
place in the palm of his hand, and everyone's face
was hurt in everyone's sides were hurt, and the tears
were rolling down your face. And I said to him,
I've never laughed so much. I've never seen an audience
last nuth And he said, You've got to be careful.
You've got to give people a break. When you're doing
a show, there's not a trace of arrogance. You've got
(06:02):
to give people a break. I once had someone in
the front row a broken ribbed, were laughing so much.
You know what a real hero of mine.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
If someone said to me, put a gun to my
hid and said, you know what's Ellen Davy's show going
to be? Like, I would have almost said, I pitch you.
He's similar to Dave Allen, that guy that just comes
on pretty relaxed, trying to just get you in the groove,
makes you laugh, tells your stories, and you walk out going, wow,
that was good. That is that kind of what you're
(06:32):
going to be.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
That's what I'm That's exactly what I'm hoping?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Am I right though? Hereby? Is that the sort of
vibe that we'll get it?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Pretty much? Yeah, there's no parrotechnics. I'd always like to
kind of one man and his microphone approach. You know,
there's not a set.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Do you get nervous?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
You can get nervous, certainly. Their nerves are less once
you've got a show working and running and you're going
on every night, But certainly where materials new or you
haven't done it for a while, you can get in
the act. If you don't know what you're doing, things
can go wrong, but they don't.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Usually, So you don't sort of have to have a
ritual before the show that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Sort of keep you calm and get your organized. I
still do on the radio show, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, Okay, I know what you mean, and I do.
I take the same sort of things in the dressing room,
and I have a shirt that I favor that's the
gig shirt at the moment, that's the lucky shirt. You know,
those kind of sort of repeated patterns. I suppose those
are rituals in a way. Well, we have the same
shoes for every gig, you know, and the tour manager
it takes the sound equipment in the back of the
(07:43):
car and my shoes in the carrier bag. Those are
the gig shoes.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So there's those kind of a little odd, little superstitions.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You'll be surprised. You'll be surprised to know.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I went backstage at the Rod Stewart concert and Auckland
last year and he had twenty seven piers of shoes.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I counted them.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, you've got to admire it.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Did you watch the Did you watch the All Black
Game the other day?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I did see it. Yeah, when I saw the highlights,
I couldn't watch it live. Yeah. We don't often beat
New Zealand, and I mean, I know that's a tricky
subject because I have I remember going to the Museum
of Rugby in New Zealand and I talked about that
on the stage because I couldn't find any mention in
the Museum of Rugby of England winning the World Cup
(08:31):
in two thousand and three.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of course not it wasn't there. It was a New
Zealand one.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
It was.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
You weren't going to the museum but London. You go
to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And I talked about that, and there was a match
in England won, and I said, guess what words they
used to describe England's win? And someone Lucky.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Tell me, tell me, can we get a scoop here?
Do you reckon that we'll ever see Jonathan Creek again?
Do you reckon will you'll ever You'll ever get tapped
on the shoulder and say, come on, hell and let's
do it again.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well if they, if they did tap me on the shoulder,
I would be forced to out of loyalty. But David Renwick,
who created it and wrote it all, he hasn't written
anything for many years. He had a bit of ill health.
I think he's quite happy in his retirement, so I
think he used to find it so difficult to create
(09:24):
these things and the complexity of them, and the ideas
and the originality and the invention and one bad doing
all that. I think he's probably stopped.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
How much of Ellen, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well? He started to write once he heard me, my
voice doing it. Then he started to try and phrase
things to fit me and to make it easier for me.
And he was writing. You know, as he's writing my lines,
he can hear my voice in his head and hear
me and picture me saying them, So that kind of
certainly evolved. And also I was invited to meet him
(10:03):
at the BBC Christmas Party thirty years ago and I
turned It was a freezing cold night, there was snow
on the ground, and I turned up. It was a
black tie event. I hadn't been to a black tie
event before, so I hired a suit and I put
my Duffel coat on over the suit, my own Duffel coat,
and they saw me him and Susie Delbin was the producer,
and they told me afterwards they looked at me and
(10:25):
they thought, that looks like Jonathan Greek because he looks
so out of place, he looks so uncomfortable, was wearing
the wrong coat, and that they kind of felt like, yeah,
maybe maybe he could be because they just were thinking
about auditioning me. You know, maybe maybe he could be
the guy. And so yeah, in the first series, I
wore my own coat. Some of it was pretty close
(10:49):
to me.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, what do you want to see in the future?
What's your what's what do you what's what's driving you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well, if this was a word association game, then then
the word that comes to mind his family. I think
a lot about my family. My kids are ten and
fourteen and fifteen. What they do next and where they
go and seeing that, that's what comes to mind. I've
just written a second another volume of memoir called White
Male Stand Up, which became a book about a search
(11:18):
for family. My mum died when I was six and
my childhood was not great. So looking for family all
the way through my working life. I think in different
places like the crew and Jonathan Creek, for example, or
the comedy circuit in London where I was learning to
be a stand up. And now I've got Katie, my wife,
and I've been together for twenty years. We've got these
(11:39):
three kids, and that's what I see in the future.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Will you travel with your family?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Well, I'm Actually, I'm going to Australia to tour, leaving
at the weekend and they're all going to come out
after I've done the shows and we're going to spend Christmas.
I've got relatives there, so we try to organize it.
They all came up to the Edinburgh Fringe. When I
was doing the sh at the Edinburgh Festival in August.
(12:08):
They all came and we had rented a flat and
we were all together. So yeah, I try to do that.
And when I'm touring usually I do three shows a
week and be at home the other half of the weeks.
It's about balancing it out.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Can I Can I ask you about because I read
that you lost your mother at Sex and you know
that when I read it it affected me and and
I just said to Grace, my producer, you know, it's
one thing that people had to put up with losing
their father when they're young, but losing their mother when
they young.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Is a whole whole different world. Am I right?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh yeah, it's a disaster. You know, it's a I
see I watch my own kids, especially my two boys
going through the age of six with their mum, and
I watched Katie or wife going through the age of
thirty eight, which is how old my mom was when
she died. And you alones can't believe how much interaction
there is between a young mum in her thirties and
(13:04):
a six year old boy. I mean it's all day,
getting them up in the morning, breakfast all day long,
and then bedtime and reading stories. And so I almost
didn't really realize how much I'd missed out on until
I saw a mother and the kids up close in
(13:24):
my own home, you know. So you find your family
where you can. Sometimes in life, not all families are ideal,
but there are people in the world who you love
and who love you, and then so we try and
choose and make sure we keep their people close to us.
Who can, you know, give you that feeling where the
(13:46):
family can. I'm quite lucky now. I'm sixty in twenty
six and now here I am with a wife and kids,
and I feel really for the first time in my
life that this is a proper family.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, thank you, thank you for coming to New Zealand,
thank you for all you've done.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Oh wait, and thank you for being honest and open.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I mean some tough stuff there, and I hope that
you that you your big birthday.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
When is it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I think it's sixth to March, isn't it exactly? Yeah,
you go, well, happy birthday for that date. Hopefully we'll
get an opportunity to have a chat face to face
when you come to Wellington.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I don't know if you've been to Wellington before.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, I have. Yeah, and it played at the Opera
House last time.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But yeah, when you're playing at the Michael Fowler Seata
this time, which is a lot nicer than the Opera House.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So that's good growing up in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Thank you for your time, your evening, my morning, and
we'll catch you when you come to Wellington and we're
looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My guest this morning is one of the most recognizable
faces and voices in the British comedy. Alan Davies is
coming to New Zealand on tour for the first time.
I think probably ever. I think he came here as
a kid or when he was very young, but I'm
not sure. I'll ask him when he gets here. He's
now starting the starting the show called late middle age
(00:33):
stand up, even though most of are still picture him
as a sharp, slightly bewildered Jonathan Creek solving impossible mysteries.
He's never aged. He's spent two seasons sitting behind Stephen
Fry and Sandy Takovic on Cure. I hosted seven seasons
of as yet untitled and written best selling memoirs. Now
(00:57):
he's coming to New Zealand as a stand up Good
morning and welcome allan.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Good morning, how are you? I'm all right, I'm good
A good morning in London.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So it's night time over there, good evening, good even
they got good morning.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
But can you tell me if you've been in New Zealand?
Before I know you've been here as a very young
kid many times.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
I've toured twice. This is the first time though, for
ten years. That's the kind of that's the thing. And
I toured New Zealand and loved her in New Zealand,
been all up and down the country and I had
a wonderful time, such a beautiful place. But there's been
ten years since I did a stand up show, and
I've got this. I'm sixty. I'm sixty. By the time
I get to New zeal And, I was sixty years old.
(01:37):
It's the show is called Think Ahead because really I've
started to do a lot of that and I've decided that,
you know, I've got to go on the road, otherwise
I might not get off my backside and do it again.
So the tour has been running here in the UK.
Show's going great, going to Australia before Christmas, coming to
New Zealand next year, and yeah, it's been fantastic. I
(01:57):
really loved it. It's both of my first love really
stand I started stand up comedy when I was twenty
two years old, and it's the think I started doing
and probably the thing that love thing I'll ever do.
I imagine we'll be holding the microphone in my hair.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
So that was going to be my next question.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
What do you prefer the acting roles or the stand
up comic stuff?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
I think the stand up's my thing, that's my job,
that's my trade. I loved acting, especially in Jonathan Creek.
It's a wonderful experience. But I did it. It was
in that part for twenty years, and I've been on
QI for twenty three years. So I'll be very lucky
in television, done these long running things. But stand up
will outlive both of them, and it was there before
(02:38):
them and it will be there long after they're gone.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Do you realize how big you are in New Zealand?
Do you realize how Josho are on the.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Popular Yeah, I've had great receptions before, and the first
time I toured, you know, I couldn't really believe it,
and I don't really need to change the act at all.
It's just the sense of humor is so similar, and
of course, if in doubt, you can just make some
rude remark about Australia and bring the house down.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, that was You're sort of almost like reading my
notes that I haven't sent you. But my next question
was going to be what what difference is there going
to be on your show that you're doing the UK
than you do in New Zealand or Australia.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well really not a lot parenting and so that's where
That's where I'm coming from, and that's what works for me,
what I enjoy. I enjoyed that presenting. I thought, you know,
the whole cake, not leaving ingredients out. I used to
be quite a sort of skin deep, people pleasing sort
comedian when I was younger, but doesn't really fit when
you're fifty nine sixty, so better off being a bit straighter.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Do the crowds react to you differently in the UK?
I mean, obviously you're huge in the UK too, but
you're a novelty here.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
You're you're in you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
You're part of the UK infrastructure, so they see you
when they want to. But New Zealand you're you're a novelty.
Do they react differently to you?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I've always had good experiences, I think. I mean, some
people say to me that some performers or bands or
me or musicians to Australia and not make the leaps
to New Zealand, and so I've never had any issues.
I've always been had great reactions and fairly enjoy performing.
You know. It's it's been great, so I'm really looking
(04:23):
forward to it. Even though no I'm coming in the winter.
It's going to be freezy.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
We're not quite as bad in the winter as what
you know you are. You're going to be very lucky
to see a bit of snow. Well, you're going down south,
so you might see a bit of snow, you know.
I read somewhere and it really interested me that one
of the people that inspired you most was an Irish
comedian called Dave Allen. Now a lot of our listeners
would remember Dave Allen and I had the lucky, fortunate
(04:47):
experience of actually picking him up at an airport and
setting him up for a gig in Wellington many many
years ago, and he was the most incredible man off
stage that you could ever meet. Did you ever get
an opportunity to meet him?
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Did? I was lucky to interviewed him twice actually, once
for a newspaper and once for television, and I love
talking to him. He's very engaging. One time I went
to his house and his house is full of paintings,
all done by him, you know. But he talked about
getting on a bus and you know, putting a hat
on or pulling his collar up so people wouldn't recognize him,
(05:20):
and just listening to people talking. But I saw him
perform in the West End in London in nineteen ninety one.
I was twenty five. I've been doing stand up for
three years, and I really thought I knew everything there
was to know about it, and he was sixty one.
The first half of the show was really funny, and
I sort of thought, well, should I stay for the
second half? Anyway, I'm so glad I did. I stood
(05:41):
at the back of the stalls and he had the
place in the palm of his hand, and everyone's face
was hurt in everyone's sides were hurt, and the tears
were rolling down your face. And I said to him,
I've never laughed so much. I've never seen an audience
last nuth And he said, You've got to be careful.
You've got to give people a break. When you're doing
a show, there's not a trace of arrogance. You've got
(06:02):
to give people a break. I once had someone in
the front row a broken ribbed, were laughing so much.
You know what a real hero of mine.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
If someone said to me, put a gun to my
hid and said, you know what's Ellen Davy's show going
to be? Like, I would have almost said, I pitch you.
He's similar to Dave Allen, that guy that just comes
on pretty relaxed, trying to just get you in the groove,
makes you laugh, tells your stories, and you walk out going, wow,
that was good. That is that kind of what you're
(06:32):
going to be.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
That's what I'm That's exactly what I'm hoping?
Speaker 4 (06:38):
Am I right though? Hereby? Is that the sort of
vibe that we'll get it?
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Pretty much? Yeah, there's no parrotechnics. I'd always like to
kind of one man and his microphone approach. You know,
there's not a set.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
Do you get nervous?
Speaker 3 (06:54):
You can get nervous, certainly. Their nerves are less once
you've got a show working and running and you're going
on every night, But certainly where materials new or you
haven't done it for a while, you can get in
the act. If you don't know what you're doing, things
can go wrong, but they don't.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Usually, So you don't sort of have to have a
ritual before the show that.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Sort of keep you calm and get your organized. I
still do on the radio show, you know.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Yeah, Okay, I know what you mean, and I do.
I take the same sort of things in the dressing room,
and I have a shirt that I favor that's the
gig shirt at the moment, that's the lucky shirt. You know,
those kind of sort of repeated patterns. I suppose those
are rituals in a way. Well, we have the same
shoes for every gig, you know, and the tour manager
it takes the sound equipment in the back of the
(07:43):
car and my shoes in the carrier bag. Those are
the gig shoes.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
So there's those kind of a little odd, little superstitions.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
You'll be surprised. You'll be surprised to know.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I went backstage at the Rod Stewart concert and Auckland
last year and he had twenty seven piers of shoes.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
I counted them.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, you've got to admire it.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Did you watch the Did you watch the All Black
Game the other day?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
I did see it. Yeah, when I saw the highlights,
I couldn't watch it live. Yeah. We don't often beat
New Zealand, and I mean, I know that's a tricky
subject because I have I remember going to the Museum
of Rugby in New Zealand and I talked about that
on the stage because I couldn't find any mention in
the Museum of Rugby of England winning the World Cup
(08:31):
in two thousand and three.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Of course not it wasn't there. It was a New
Zealand one.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
It was.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
You weren't going to the museum but London. You go
to New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
And I talked about that, and there was a match
in England won, and I said, guess what words they
used to describe England's win? And someone Lucky.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Tell me, tell me, can we get a scoop here?
Do you reckon that we'll ever see Jonathan Creek again?
Do you reckon will you'll ever You'll ever get tapped
on the shoulder and say, come on, hell and let's
do it again.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well if they, if they did tap me on the shoulder,
I would be forced to out of loyalty. But David Renwick,
who created it and wrote it all, he hasn't written
anything for many years. He had a bit of ill health.
I think he's quite happy in his retirement, so I
think he used to find it so difficult to create
(09:24):
these things and the complexity of them, and the ideas
and the originality and the invention and one bad doing
all that. I think he's probably stopped.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
How much of Ellen, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Well? He started to write once he heard me, my
voice doing it. Then he started to try and phrase
things to fit me and to make it easier for me.
And he was writing. You know, as he's writing my lines,
he can hear my voice in his head and hear
me and picture me saying them, So that kind of
certainly evolved. And also I was invited to meet him
(10:03):
at the BBC Christmas Party thirty years ago and I
turned It was a freezing cold night, there was snow
on the ground, and I turned up. It was a
black tie event. I hadn't been to a black tie
event before, so I hired a suit and I put
my Duffel coat on over the suit, my own Duffel coat,
and they saw me him and Susie Delbin was the producer,
and they told me afterwards they looked at me and
(10:25):
they thought, that looks like Jonathan Greek because he looks
so out of place, he looks so uncomfortable, was wearing
the wrong coat, and that they kind of felt like, yeah,
maybe maybe he could be because they just were thinking
about auditioning me. You know, maybe maybe he could be
the guy. And so yeah, in the first series, I
wore my own coat. Some of it was pretty close
(10:49):
to me.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, what do you want to see in the future?
What's your what's what do you what's what's driving you?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Well, if this was a word association game, then then
the word that comes to mind his family. I think
a lot about my family. My kids are ten and
fourteen and fifteen. What they do next and where they
go and seeing that, that's what comes to mind. I've
just written a second another volume of memoir called White
Male Stand Up, which became a book about a search
(11:18):
for family. My mum died when I was six and
my childhood was not great. So looking for family all
the way through my working life. I think in different
places like the crew and Jonathan Creek, for example, or
the comedy circuit in London where I was learning to
be a stand up. And now I've got Katie, my wife,
and I've been together for twenty years. We've got these
(11:39):
three kids, and that's what I see in the future.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Will you travel with your family?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Well, I'm Actually, I'm going to Australia to tour, leaving
at the weekend and they're all going to come out
after I've done the shows and we're going to spend Christmas.
I've got relatives there, so we try to organize it.
They all came up to the Edinburgh Fringe. When I
was doing the sh at the Edinburgh Festival in August.
(12:08):
They all came and we had rented a flat and
we were all together. So yeah, I try to do that.
And when I'm touring usually I do three shows a
week and be at home the other half of the weeks.
It's about balancing it out.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Can I Can I ask you about because I read
that you lost your mother at Sex and you know
that when I read it it affected me and and
I just said to Grace, my producer, you know, it's
one thing that people had to put up with losing
their father when they're young, but losing their mother when
they young.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Is a whole whole different world. Am I right?
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Oh yeah, it's a disaster. You know, it's a I
see I watch my own kids, especially my two boys
going through the age of six with their mum, and
I watched Katie or wife going through the age of
thirty eight, which is how old my mom was when
she died. And you alones can't believe how much interaction
there is between a young mum in her thirties and
(13:04):
a six year old boy. I mean it's all day,
getting them up in the morning, breakfast all day long,
and then bedtime and reading stories. And so I almost
didn't really realize how much I'd missed out on until
I saw a mother and the kids up close in
(13:24):
my own home, you know. So you find your family
where you can. Sometimes in life, not all families are ideal,
but there are people in the world who you love
and who love you, and then so we try and
choose and make sure we keep their people close to us.
Who can, you know, give you that feeling where the
(13:46):
family can. I'm quite lucky now. I'm sixty in twenty
six and now here I am with a wife and kids,
and I feel really for the first time in my
life that this is a proper family.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Well, thank you, thank you for coming to New Zealand,
thank you for all you've done.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Oh wait, and thank you for being honest and open.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
I mean some tough stuff there, and I hope that
you that you your big birthday.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
When is it.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
I think it's sixth to March, isn't it exactly? Yeah,
you go, well, happy birthday for that date. Hopefully we'll
get an opportunity to have a chat face to face
when you come to Wellington.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
I don't know if you've been to Wellington before.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah, I have. Yeah, and it played at the Opera
House last time.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But yeah, when you're playing at the Michael Fowler Seata
this time, which is a lot nicer than the Opera House.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So that's good growing up in the world.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Thank you for your time, your evening, my morning, and
we'll catch you when you come to Wellington and we're
looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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