Iain Stirling’s road to Love Island, comedy & where it all began

Iain Stirling takes Alex around his adopted home city of London reminiscing about working the comedy circuit, his time at CBBC, taking part in Task Master and writing for Love Island.

We matched Iain with a classic 1972 MGB GT (now converted to electric!). The drive takes us from Tattershall Castle Comedy club to the BBC TV Centre, past Iain’s local sewing haunt, Ginglick nightclub and finally Gladstone park – an inner-city haven for him and his family during lockdown.

You can see exclusive video footage of the drive on Auto Trader’s social channels, and see the MGB GT for yourself.

To find your perfect match, go to www.autotrader.co.uk

Don’t forget to click here for your chance to win your own electric car.

Show on the Road is a Fresh Air Production for Auto Trader.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Ian (00:00):
I accidentally nearly walked in front of Eddie Izzard as he's run into
the Jonathan Ross Studios. It was like mad. The first
series was pretty bad really, if I'm being honest. I think we nearly got sent
home, true story, after about three, four weeks because it
wasn't working, the voiceover. Sometimes Laura would notice me like
doing essentially a gig in the kitchen while where we were making dinner
and she'd be like, you need to go on Twitch

(00:20):
or do a gig or something.

Alex (00:22):
This is Show on the Road brought to you by
Autotrader. We're driving famous faces on a personalized road trip,
visiting the places that help shape them and hearing how
the locations turn them into who they are today. We've
matched each celebrity with a car chosen specifically for them.
So join me, Alex Legouix as we get this show

(00:43):
on the road. Chances are you'll know my next guest
the moment you hear him speak. He has one of
the most recognizable voices in the country, thanks to his
amazing, very funny commentary on hit reality show Love Island.
It is, of course, Ian Sterling who is a critically

(01:04):
acclaimed comedian. So we are very lucky that he had some time
to take a drive with us, and we're about to
visit some of the London haunts that have been key
locations in Ian's life. And I am so excited to
show him this car. It's small, classic, 1972 classic, with

(01:25):
an amazing modern twist. So we've matched Ian with this
MGB GT that has been fully converted to an electric
by frontline. MGs played a huge part in Ian's life,
so I'm very excited to show him this little lady
and see what he thinks.

Ian (01:44):
Oh, wow. Oh, she's a classic. So much smaller than
I remember. Look at it.

Alex (01:55):
What do you think?

Ian (01:56):
This is amazing.

Alex (01:57):
Isn't it?

Ian (01:58):
Oh my God. My dad will be so jealous that I get to have a go in this.
The color's lovely as well.

Alex (02:04):
Yeah.

Ian (02:05):
And I even remember the fold down boot at the back.

Alex (02:08):
Yeah.

Ian (02:08):
Has it technically got some seats in the back, have you-

Alex (02:10):
Well.

Ian (02:11):
I mean you'd have to be double- jointed really, to
use them. Oh my God, it's gorgeous. It really is.

Alex (02:19):
And it's fully electric.

Ian (02:22):
This is fully electric?

Alex (02:23):
Yeah.

Ian (02:23):
Oh, is it like a rebuild?

Alex (02:25):
Yeah.

Ian (02:25):
Who would've thought you'd have saw the day? Look at
it. I just love it. It's just the shape's just timeless.
Should I try and get in?

Alex (02:34):
Yeah.

Ian (02:36):
Look at it. Oh my God.

Alex (02:40):
I think we can safely say that he likes it.

Ian (02:42):
Oh, it's got a lot of legroom.

Alex (02:44):
Surprisingly, right? Let's go going shall we?

Ian (02:55):
Can I just say, as someone that's not from London originally, London in
the sunshine, especially when you're near the water, all the
big buildings, I will be 90 and I will still
be blown away by the fact that I live here.

Alex (03:09):
Yeah, agreed.

Ian (03:10):
Every time I go over any of the bridges, which
I always sort of recognize from the Eastenders birds eye
view. I just always think, imagine living here. I came here
once with my family like a holiday, I remember thinking,
it must so mad to live here.

Alex (03:30):
Yeah.

Ian (03:30):
It still blows my mind that I do. It's incredible.
And they just think everything through so much and that,
there's all the skyline, is so iconic, like Oxo Tower,
Gherkin, all those sorts of things, you just imagine you
can just casually wander past them. And then down on
the Embankment as well here, I spent so much time

(03:52):
down this way when I first moved to London anyway,
which is wild. I literally walking, this is the walkup
from the tube stations, so I remember this walk, doing it
so many times.

Alex (04:03):
And I guess this is because you'd be walking to comedy venues, right?

Ian (04:09):
Yes. Yes. So there's a low round here. On the embankment, one
of the is called the Tattershall Castle.

Alex (04:18):
Yeah, that's great.

Ian (04:18):
And I think it is still called this. They do weekend gigs on Fridays and Saturdays called the
Boat Show. And it was run at the time, and
I think it might still be, it was run by
a guy called Christian Knowles, who's a brilliant guy. He
represents Mickey Flanagan and stuff and he's really big in
the comedy world, but lovely lad. And I came down

(04:39):
here, and when you first start doing standup in comedy
and stuff, you have to do tryout spots. We'd do
like five, 10 minutes unpaid. And I'd done a spot
down here. I'd been gigging in Scotland for a year
and I came down here and done a gig at
the Tattershall Castle and it went really well. And then he
came up to me after the gig and he was
like, he went, " I can't not pay for that." And he gave me 30
quid. And that was the first time I've ever been

(05:02):
paid to do comedy. And it was mad. It was
just absolutely mad. And then for a man that high up in
the show to do that. And then I ended up,
he booked me for weekends and getting weekends is quite
hard. So I ended up doing weekends there.

Alex (05:18):
Wow.

Ian (05:19):
Long before I was doing any paid work anywhere else,
which sometimes didn't necessarily work out.

Alex (05:24):
So you grew up in Edinburgh?

Ian (05:26):
Edinburgh, yeah. It's the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh, I don't
know if you know that about it.

Alex (05:33):
The Glaswegians.

Ian (05:34):
A lot of people think it's Glasgow. Glasgow is actually,
it's got a larger population, Glasgow. I'm quite apologetic in
sort of... unsure of myself in many ways, aspects of
my personality and my myself. But then weirdly, the Scottish
thing is this thing that I'm incredibly, unfailingly proud of, so it's really

(05:55):
nice to have that string to your bow. Yeah. I
like telling people that I'm Scottish, talking to Scotland. I
love coming from a country where if you meet another
person with your accent in another country, it sort of
feels like this really exciting thing has happened. I don't
know if English people have that quite as much. If
you meet a Scottish-

Alex (06:11):
No way.

Ian (06:12):
Yeah, if you meet a Scottish accent in Spain, you
sort of are almost expecting it. Ultimately, I think if
someone Scottish finds success then they are a Scottish success story.

Alex (06:26):
Yes.

Ian (06:26):
Which I quite like. Do you know what I mean? Like comedians, Kevin Bridges for example, is
quite obviously from Glasgow or surrounding areas, but everyone in
Scotland just sees him as this Scottish guy that's done good. Billy Connolly.

Alex (06:39):
Yes.

Ian (06:39):
Andy Murray.

Alex (06:41):
Yes. Of course.

Ian (06:42):
Technically from... well near enough Edinburgh. He supports Hibs, that does it
for me. But yeah, all Scottish. So that is a thing that we're all
very proud of.

Alex (06:56):
What was little Ian like?

Ian (07:00):
What was I like? So a bit odd, quiet I guess. Very
sporty. I loved sport but I couldn't sit and watch
it. I loved my golf and if I was watching
golf on telly, for whatever reason, I'd have to watch
it through the window while I was in the garden hitting
a ball around because I couldn't... Feel quite active, I

(07:22):
guess. Done lots of different things. Sort of jack of
all trades, master of none sort of thing.

Alex (07:29):
You weren't like the class comedian.

Ian (07:31):
Absolutely not. No. I suppose now I know that I'm into
sort of doing standup and that obviously I've discovered that I sort
of performing and that sort of thing. But that really wasn't
an option where I grew up. So just where I
grew up, people wouldn't be into the music I was
into or dress how I would want to dress and

(07:53):
do the things I wanted to do. I sort of
liked rock music and pop, that sort of early noughties
pop punk like Offspring and Blink 182 and all that
sort of stuff. It just wasn't a vibe in my school.
So I was just sort of never really had anyone in my school that
I was like, oh I like this thing. So I don't think
I met my sort of tribe, if you know what I
mean, until... Then I got to university and then I discovered

(08:16):
people that like to work, study hard and drink booze.
So then I met all those people and then I sort of feel like... then
I was like, oh I can just be myself now. And then I got into,
as a result, I got into performing and doing all that because
I felt confident enough to do it.

Alex (08:30):
But you didn't do performing at uni, you did Law.

Ian (08:33):
I don't think there was a big game plan with it. I
think it's just one of those things, I'm sure a
lot of people feel the same. I basically didn't like
anything at school enough to do it. There was no
subject at school that I thought, oh my God, I want to do
this five days a week every day. And then I just so
happened to have the sort of exam results that meant
I could do law. So I thought be mad not to do law. No one my

(08:56):
family had been to uni or anything, so it was quite exciting
to be the first person from your family to not
only go to university but then for that to be
law school. It felt sort of too good a opportunity to
pass up sort of thing.

Alex (09:10):
You were the bright one.

Ian (09:11):
Yeah, well I think it was more just my mom
and dad just encouraged that aspect of me. Where mom
and dad grew up, it was sort of, you left
school when you could to get a job. Do you
know what I mean?

Alex (09:23):
Yeah, of course.

Ian (09:24):
Education wasn't looked on with the same importance. My mum
and dad are a hundred percent more intelligent to me. Jesus,
I'm a borderline idiot sometimes. My sister's definitely more intelligent
than me.

Alex (09:40):
So how did you go from law at uni to comedy?

Ian (09:45):
At Edinburgh, they have the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Alex (09:48):
Yes.

Ian (09:49):
The biggest part of the Fringe Festival now is the comedy.
So the comedy side of it is more than half
I think now, or at least a good third plus.
So I went to see loads of comedy shows all
through the summer every year when I was really young.
And I'd done a few, wrote my own... again because
there was no theater groups where I grew up, man,

(10:10):
none of that. Do you know what I mean? Nobody
was practicing their plays on the estate or anything. So
me and my mate just wrote some sketches. We were sort
of obsessed with Little Britain and Monty Python and stuff
like that. And we just put on some shows at the
Fringe and that gave me my first taste of it.
But I never knew what I could do with that.
And then when I went to uni, there was an improv

(10:31):
class thing called the Edinburgh Improverts. So I joined that
and then from there a few of those guys were doing standup,
so then I went a few standup gigs. And then
I sort of assumed, again even back then, because I
didn't know, I thought standup you just were like, I just assumed that you
were a professional comedian. You'd done comedy. I sort of didn't think
there was like, do you mean open mic nights and
places you could train. So then I found all them and

(10:54):
then I went to Norway in my third year of
uni and then I couldn't do improv and stuff, so
I started writing standup a lot. And then when I came
back from my final year of uni, I started doing
standup. I just had written all this material.

Alex (11:07):
That's it there, isn't it?

Ian (11:08):
That's the Tattershall right there. The Tattershall Castle. Look, they've
even got a little poster up for the comedy and it's
right in the bottom at the front of the boat.
That's where it is. And then sometimes if a wave hit or
something, literally during the gig a wave might hit the boat
and you'd sort of rock. So I can't remember who
it was, it might've been Charlie Baker, one of the regular
hosts there, he used to say a reference of it

(11:31):
was only gig in the country where the more drunk
you get, the more steady you got on your feet.
If you were so drunk you would sort of naturally
counteract the sort of sway of the boat. So that
was it. Yeah, honestly I think that's probably up there, easily
the top two or three venues, the many times I've

(11:51):
gigged in there.

Alex (11:52):
Who at the time then when you were starting off
would've been your sort of comic idols or influences?

Ian (11:58):
Russell Howard was like... There's Russell Howard. I don't think
he'd done it intentionally, but he single- handedly led the,
and he'll hate the term because he's not really him.
But there's this sort of, in the comedy world, there's this sort
of phenomenon known as the T- Shirt comedian. Because before
Russell Howard, yeah, there was never someone that was young and optimistic

(12:20):
and sort of good- looking in a sort of geeky,
quirky way. And he would wear ripped jeans and his
traders were a bit scuffed and he'd come on and
do his stuff. So yeah, Russell sort of gave birth
to this sort of generation of... I guess it's one
of those things, that's why representation is so important on
television because for us it was all these, as a

(12:41):
young guy, you would just look at him like, oh that's like me
and I want to do comedy like that. I never knew
comedy could be sort of like, I love this thing.
So yeah, Russell was massive.

Alex (12:51):
That's interesting, like it's accessible for people. You see someone
like that then-

Ian (12:54):
Yeah, that's why you need that. That's why you need it. You need to see
yourself. You need to yourself echoed in whatever you do. It's
really, really important. But then before that, that was Russell was a person I thought, oh
I could do something like that. But in terms of
influences, it's pretty, especially being from Scotland, it's obviously Billy
Connolley. He's just undeniable. He's just the greatest.

Alex (13:15):
Were you nervous before, and are you now?

Ian (13:20):
No, not now. If I'm being completely honest, it's nearly
15 years. If anything, I wish I could get more nervous because
I might actually do some more writing and stuff before
I do gigs. There's certain gigs I get nervous for.
There's ones that you know are going to be quite tricky
or ones that are filmed or if they're particularly quiet or particularly
busy. But generally speaking, it's like a job, a really fun

(13:42):
job. So I don't get that nervous. At the start, I'd
get right really bad. You'd have it all day. You'd
wake up in the morning and be like, I've got a gig. And it was like hang
over your head. It sort of made me realize, I sort
of messed up uni my final year because I fell
in love with standup and I was doing it every night. But then
actually thinking about it, even on a subconscious level, my

(14:03):
brain having a gig in the evening, that takes up so
much of your mental capacity when you're first gigging. So
the fact I was in lectures and the whole time
in my head I was going, oh no, what if
this gig goes badly? What if it goes well? What am
I going to say to people? So I think there is a
lot of that, the sort of low level of stress caused
by knowing I was gigging at night probably did have

(14:24):
an impact as well on how well I could read things
and learn things and stuff.

Alex (14:28):
Yeah, that makes sense, doesn't it?

Ian (14:29):
Well that's the excuse I'm going to use to my
mom why I got a 2:2.

Alex (14:32):
Are you still waiting for that sit down-

Ian (14:38):
I'm still waiting.

Alex (14:39):
Conversation where she's like, now darling, why didn't you continue
down that route?

Ian (14:43):
I'm still waiting for the letter from Edinburgh Uni going,
we made a huge error. It's a 2:1.

Alex (14:53):
Yeah.

Ian (14:53):
Oh, there's parliament.

Alex (14:53):
Such a cool building.

Ian (14:54):
Mad that we're just driving past. But you know what I mean, that's what
I think about London. We're just driving past parliament. It's like mad.

Alex (15:00):
Yeah, it's great, isn't it?

Ian (15:01):
The flags are out. Whenever I see flags it just makes me
realize how dumb I am. I don't know-

Alex (15:09):
No, what's that one there? That looks like Pokemon up there.

Ian (15:12):
That was Pokemon. That's Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, perhaps Cyprus.

Alex (15:20):
Well more than I do.

Ian (15:21):
Nigeria, Malaysia. Oh my god. Cameroon.

Alex (15:26):
How are you doing this?

Ian (15:27):
It's because I play FIFA a lot. That's not Wales. Pakistan, Ireland, South
Africa. Oh my god. New Zealand.

Alex (15:37):
Listen to you.

Ian (15:38):
Australia, Canada, Britain. This is incredible. But the only problem
is you can't see the flag, so I can just
be saying any country I want.

Alex (15:46):
Yeah, and I don't know any of them.

Ian (15:48):
Where's Aubameyang from? That's his one. I can't remember that. Oh my god. That was exhilarating. That's the most intelligent
I think I've ever felt. I'm not even joking.

Alex (15:58):
There's no one assessing you. I can't assess you. You
could've just got them all wrong.

Ian (16:01):
Look, I'm being very honest. I'd like to make that
very clear to everyone. I'm being incredibly honest.

Alex (16:10):
What is the atmosphere like backstage when you are at a gig where
there's a few of you?

Ian (16:18):
Yeah, now it's very much more workman- like but in a lovely
way. Everyone sort of arrives before their gig and they
normally have to get home. And also I'm at the
age where people are now going home for... They've got to get home
to relieve the babysitter and stuff like that. Or just to
walk... The dog's been home for too long.

Alex (16:34):
How times have changed.

Ian (16:36):
I know, we used just to go out party, now it's like, oh, I could do with a lie in actually, it would be lovely.
So yes, the vibe's pretty cool. Pretty chill actually. I do
feel sorry sometimes the occasional punter will get, especially nowadays,
will get backstage, especially when we're gigging at a time.
So there's like three or four comics at a time. So
we're all trying to work out and get drive back or
what hotel we're staying in, and a drunk audience member will get

(16:58):
into the-

Alex (17:00):
Oh really?

Ian (17:00):
Backstage area. They might find it accidentally. Sometimes they're literally behind a curtain
or they'll just walk into the room by mistake. Or
maybe they've just drunk and they burst in, and I think they're expecting seven
jesters like juggling balls and having a laugh and shotting tequila and they just
get four guys discussing how you pay your toll road

(17:22):
fine and what M- road is best, quickest back there
to London and stuff. So they are a bit like,
oh this isn't what I was expecting.

Alex (17:28):
Well you're not all funny all the time.

Ian (17:30):
No, I mean some of us aren't even funny half the time, to
be honest.

Alex (17:35):
Is it much harder now because you have to be
so much more careful with what you do and don't say?

Ian (17:41):
It's difficult, because do you have to be more careful? I don't
really think you do. I think you'll get pulled up on stuff
more by people that don't like it. But then those people
just have a voice now, as in the same people didn't
like your stick back then.

Alex (17:56):
Yeah, that's so true. Just didn't a platform for it.

Ian (18:00):
I would say I am more offense averse now, but
that's only because I wouldn't want to put something out that
I couldn't stand by because I know people pull me
up on it and that isn't actually necessarily a bad thing. I
think this whole, you can't say anything these days is
actually nonsense and you can say whatever the hell you

(18:20):
like, literally you can say whatever the hell you like. But
you've got to accept that people might object to that
and they're allowed to say whatever the hell they like.

Alex (18:30):
Yes.

Ian (18:30):
Do you know what I mean? So the way I
look at it is there's one of two arguments is you
either are willing to take on that criticism and then
you also make sure that what you're joking about you
can justify in your own head and you can justify,
so you can put those justifications forward.

Alex (18:50):
Are there any things that you look back on, not necessarily like this
where it's offensive, but any gigs where you've looked back
on it and be like, why the fuck did I say that?

Ian (19:00):
Oh, hundreds, hundreds. When I was new I was an idiot, you
do these corporate bookings that are private bookings, black tie events,
and I've come out swearing using a ridiculous language and
getting told to get off the stage after like five minutes, because
I'm just like, what was I thinking? I didn't know any better.

Alex (19:24):
Yeah.

Ian (19:25):
And yeah, there's definitely bits of material that I don't stand
by now, a hundred percent. But I guess time's changing,
that's fine. I think that's fine. I think what I
would love is... I would love... The one thing I
think is, like offense and comedy or anything like that. I think the biggest
issue for me anyway at the minute, is not that

(19:48):
you can't say anything, because I don't believe that's true. I'm
a straight white guy, believe me, we're pretty bulletproof at
the minute. As much as some people like to think
that's not the case, but we're a very privileged area. But what
I would like to happen is there just to be

(20:09):
a more open, to be able to allow... At the
minute arguments don't allow for nuance in the discourse. This
is why we've got such a polarized, especially on social
media, it's such a polarized standpoint on so many issues
at the minute, because you've sort of feel that you've
got to pick a team. A comedian is either offensive
and canceled or you can say whatever the hell you

(20:29):
like and you're a bastion of free speech. Is there
not a gray era? Is there not a middle ground
where people can say what they like but they have
to be pulled up, held to account and then maybe
it goes, you know what? Now you've made your point,
I'm not going to say that that way anymore. That
just feels like a much more useful discourse to me
rather than canceled, or a comedy legend. Someone that's saying

(20:54):
it like it is, because also I don't think there's a
comedian alive that wants to be known... That definitely doesn't
want to be canceled, and they certainly don't want to
be the bastion of free speech and known as the
one person that can say offensive things.

Alex (21:06):
Yeah.

Ian (21:06):
Because you don't want to be that person either.

Alex (21:08):
No.

Ian (21:09):
So yeah, I think, I hope as social media moves on and
algorithms and all that sort of stuff, we can't open
the world up to... This guy does not know what
lane he's in, does he?

Alex (21:20):
Not at all.

Ian (21:20):
He does not know what lane he's in. Come on
buddy. And they're now going to the other lane. He was right,
middle, right, middle, left. Unlucky.

Alex (21:31):
Got this, you got this.

Ian (21:33):
Yeah. So I just think hopefully we'll get to a
stage once there's been this overcorrection or get to a place
where... And so basically an answer, the 10- minute summation
answer to your question is you can say what you
want, but you've got to accept the fact that there's
a chance you will be pulled up on what you
say, rightly or wrongly. And you've got to decide there

(21:56):
and then whether you are the wrong or if you're
going to stand up for yourself. And that's where we're at, basically.

Alex (22:02):
That makes sense, doesn't it? What was it like when
you very first started, or, well, when you very first
had a heckler, can you remember that left?

Ian (22:19):
Well, hecklers are funny ones, because it's actually quite a
rare thing to happen. But as a comedian, it's like
the first thing anyone, if you ever meet a comedian
in the street, don't say this only because it's boring. If you want
to seem a bit more interesting, the most number one

(22:40):
thing anyone says to me goes, " Oh, I'm going to
come to one of your shows and I'm going to heckle." Which
is, if you think about it, and they're not being
nasty, but what a weird thing to say something. Because
that's like going, " Oh, what do you do for a living?"
Someone's like, " Oh, I'm a plumber." You're going to go, "I'm going to
come to your job and take a shit in your toilet."

Alex (22:56):
Yeah, yeah.

Ian (22:57):
It's weird, right?

Alex (22:58):
Yeah.

Ian (23:00):
It's weird, "I'm a nurse." " Oh well I'm going to come to your-"

Alex (23:02):
Slate your-

Ian (23:02):
" I'm going to come to your work and spread
a disease." But then also heckler can be really fun. But then
the annoying thing is most of the time hecklers are
someone that's quite drunk and they'll just say a city,
you'll mention Coventry and someone go, " Yeah," because they're also from

(23:22):
there. So yeah, most heckler stories are just that really, just
like people being drunk. But I've had some absolute beauties,
like when I filmed my special, at Alexandra Palace, Ally Palley
in London, actually, this lad went to the toilet, but
he was being really sweet. But the funny thing was

(23:44):
is because it's being filmed, we had to sort of stop the
filming until they came back in the room because it disturbed
the gig, him leaving. But I didn't want start and have
to stop. But he then felt bad for disturbing the
gig. So he was waiting outside?

Alex (23:57):
No.

Ian (23:57):
So then we were waiting for 10 minutes and eventually some
people from the venue ran around the venue, found him
and brought him back here.

Alex (24:03):
That's brilliant. Did you have that whole room of awkwardness?

Ian (24:04):
Well I was like, " We've been waiting for you."

Alex (24:09):
What's this dude doing?

Ian (24:09):
And I was like, " He's back," and the whole room giving him
a stand of it. And then this guy, imagine this guy,
what a night, he's thought he's going to a comedy gig, he's
ended up going for a wee and then come back
to 1500 people applauding him in the room.

Alex (24:24):
And he's made it to the special

Ian (24:26):
And oh, it's on the special. You can watch it. It's literally
him, walks out.

Alex (24:33):
Talk to me about Taskmaster.

Ian (24:35):
Oh, yes please. My favorite thing I've ever done, probably.

Alex (24:38):
What a cool show.

Ian (24:38):
Yeah, what an amazing thing to do. My only regret, and
it's very small, is that I'd done Taskmaster, it was
in this sort of real height of Love Island blowing up.
So I'd gone from doing 60 seater rooms that I

(24:59):
couldn't really fill to gigging some evenings, but not really,
and then having a day to myself. To going on this
tour, selling it out, going to bigger rooms, people wanting
to interview you, do podcasts, telly shows. Not a criticism,
but I mean then Taskmaster was this mad thing that I

(25:20):
fitted in around all that madness. And now looking back on it
and knowing what a special show it was and what amazing time it
was, I wish I'd had a bit more time to,
the day after I filmed Taskmaster, just to think, " Oh,
I filmed Taskmaster yesterday."

Alex (25:35):
Yeah, to actually be in it, experience it properly.

Ian (25:37):
Whereas it sort of felt like, which I think it's reflected in
the way I'd done a lot of the tasks, you can
tell that I am in a very stressful part of
my life when that show is happening,

Alex (25:50):
One foot out.

Ian (25:51):
So I'm sort of always a bit like, just run
into things and I'm not very measured. I don't take my
time and think about things. I just sort of rush
in. Because I think at that point in my life, everything
was like, we need to keep up with this, this
mad thing's happened. And I was sort of adjusting to that.
So I think if I'd done Taskmaster now, a few

(26:15):
years older, it'd be a different thing. But that is
such a small thing because, I mean, just what I
show. You would just, let's say 10, 12 days of your
year, you would just go to the house, you would
sit in a room on your own. They would come
in, they'd say, " Right, come and do this task." Alex would give
you a task, you'd do it, you'd go back into the
room, they'd set up another one, do the task, back
into the room. And it was just that.

Alex (26:37):
Wow.

Ian (26:37):
And then that would be over the course of six months.
And the best thing about that show is when you
watch the tasks being done back, not only are you
watching how other people have done them, but because you do
like 50, 60 in a series, you probably remember three or
four that you think you've done well.

Alex (26:57):
Yeah.

Ian (26:58):
But the rest of them, you completely, oh God, I'd done that. You completely
forget. And the funniest thing is the three or four that
you think you've done well, you watch two other people
do it, and you realize I've absolutely... I think there
was one we done where we had to find a
horseshoe or something and I managed to run around the
house and find a horseshoe in the house. And I remember thinking, I've got five

(27:20):
points, I'm absolutely smashed. I found it. And then when they
showed the video, the first two people they showed was
Joe and Paul who are in my series, and they
noticed that there was a horseshoe hanging from above our head.

Alex (27:32):
No.

Ian (27:33):
So within seven seconds I realize not only is it
not gone well, but I know they've kept my video
to the end because I'm the idiot that didn't spot the
thing that was right in front of me.

Alex (27:41):
You do a lot on Twitch, don't you?

Ian (27:48):
My friend and comedian, Alfie Brown, described it the best. It's basically
long form social media, meaning it's just a live- streaming
platform so you can do whatever you want. The reason I like it is because
you're live for an elongated amount of time, so I think it's
the most true representation of yourself.

Alex (28:04):
Yeah, I was just about to say that. People actually
get to see-

Ian (28:06):
You. Good and bad.

Alex (28:07):
You and probably you get to be able to just be
you good and bad. And that's okay.

Ian (28:12):
Instagram, I feel that you've got to make everything look so nice,
that's changing a bitt, but you know what I mean. Your reels, you've got
to make things a reel and put music to it and
make it perfect. And then yeah, with TikTok... with Twitch-

Alex (28:26):
Twitch.

Ian (28:26):
I'm getting so old, man. With Twitch you can just log on and
be yourself.

Alex (28:33):
Twist Twost.

Ian (28:35):
With the Twitch-Twotches. Yeah, I just feel you can just be yourself. It's really
nice. I like it. I really like it. It's my favorite
platform. The only problem with it is a live- streaming platform and
it's quite a lot of technology to get it up
and running. The main game I play is FIFA and
sometimes I'm really chill and sort of articulate and we

(28:58):
talk about some stuff that's personal to me. Other times I was an idiot,
35 year old man that should know better screaming at
pixels on a screen because the game's not gone the
right way.

Alex (29:07):
Do you find as a result of who you are and
what you do, that there is a sort of a
social pressure to be that version of you when you're
out and about at dinner parties or whatever?

Ian (29:18):
Yeah, well I suppose that's another element of keeping the right
people around you. So now, my closest friends and family
obviously wouldn't really give a damn about that sort of
thing. And whereas in the past I might have gone
somewhere else, people would be like, oh yeah, be that guy.
And I might have tried to do it because I didn't want to let
people down or because I want to impress people. Now, I
would sort of maybe say something like, "Do you know what? Not

(29:40):
today mate, I can't. I'm just having a sort of
chill one. Thanks very much." I think it's quite important to be
able to just, I don't feel that need to... You're
never going to impress everyone. I think that's something you
learn as you get older. So I'm still not easy,
but I've become much more accepting of that fact, I think. Yeah.

Alex (30:00):
I wonder if the pressure is higher as well as
a comedian.

Ian (30:05):
Well, I suppose so. I definitely find that the most
nervous I've ever been is doing best men's speeches and
stuff. Because I suppose, one, people think you're going to
be funny, but two, it's that sort of thing, people are,
I bet you're going to destroy it. And when I'd done
my best friend, Greg's, best man speech, I was like,
me and Greg have been friends for so long and
that's just not really our vibe. So I was like, I'm not really do that, because I know he

(30:27):
wouldn't want that. I like his family and all that. I
wouldn't want to cause anyone any... So yeah, I don't
think it's a huge thing, but I definitely think comedian more than
like... There's other jobs, you wouldn't expect the person to
do their job at the dinner party.

Alex (30:44):
Yeah.

Ian (30:45):
Do you know what I mean?

Alex (30:46):
Yeah, that's true isn't it?

Ian (30:47):
But with comedy, there's some weird thing where people go, go
on then. But I do get it. Don't get me
wrong, I absolutely get it. If someone tells me they're
a magician and we're a dinner party, I absolutely would love
a card trick. I would love one.

Alex (31:02):
That's true.

Ian (31:02):
But it's not always the right time and place, is it really?

Alex (31:06):
No.

Ian (31:08):
But I've always had that weird thing where I'm constantly
think to myself this, forever, could I do this forever?
And I've just never been good enough at anything else really.
I think that's the difference, because you find a lot in
standup, you'll get people who do standup who are really great and they'll do it
for two years and then when they've got to start
to drive from Edinburgh to Durham for like 60 quid

(31:34):
and they just start going, I don't want this to
be my life. Whereas, that's the difference, people always say that, oh,
do you feel like you were the funniest guy in your school
or whatever like that. I'm never that, but I think the actual comedians
that stay the distance aren't the ones that just think
they're funny, it's the ones that need to be funny. We
sort of want that attention and want that, what's the word?

Alex (31:56):
Validation.

Ian (31:56):
Validation, yeah. Basically that's it. We need it, we crave it.
As opposed to being like, oh, I'm quite a funny guy and this is
a laugh, because it's just not, those people don't tend
to stick it out.

Alex (32:11):
And it's not a big enough motivation.

Ian (32:13):
No, no. And also if you're funny down the pub,
just be funny down the pub. Don't come to the King's
Theater at Glasgow and do it there.

Alex (32:21):
So we are on the outskirts of Shepherds Bush. What
does this mean to you?

Ian (32:27):
Shepherds Bush was my original sort of stomping ground. Because
when I graduated university, I've luckily landed a job on
kids TV, the home of which is sort of around the
Shepherd's Bush area. So Shepherd's Bush was basically the first
place I properly moved to, this is the first place
I called home in London. And it's the first place

(32:51):
I ever lived in London that had, what I find
is quintessentially London in the sense that it's got really old, small,
niche, weird shops that you don't know how they financially exist.
And it's also got the Shepherd's Bush Empire and Westfield

(33:11):
Shopping Center and all these big massive things that are
so quintessentially London, mixed them with little small Chinese takeaways and launderettes.
And you've got high rise council flats next to really
expensive central London townhouses and stuff. And it's just this mad eclectic melting

(33:33):
pot that sort of... It's when I went, I love this because that's like me. It's
sort of where I grew up, as in the middle
of this big city of stuff. So yeah, I've always
felt like, yeah, it doesn't know what it is, Shepherd's Bush.
And I'm sort of feel like I'm that a little
bit as well.

Alex (33:54):
And we're about to pass the sewing machine shop.

Ian (33:59):
Yes.

Alex (34:00):
I mean, why?

Ian (34:01):
This is one of those places that genuinely I remember most because I used
to live in Shepherd's Bush. Two men, Dan Clarkson and
Phil Fletcher, and Phil Fletcher is a puppeteer, still is.
And he mainly plays Hacker the Dog on CBBC, that's what
he's most famous for. But I remember his excitement when

(34:26):
he realized we lived next to a sewing shop because he
builds puppets as well. That's what he does as a
living. So he'd go in that sewing shop all the
time. And I remember thinking, the first time I saw that
sewing shop was like, how can a sewing shop financially
survive in this sort of fairly central London location? And
then he saw it and just thought what a genius

(34:48):
thing to have. And then we lived two doors up
from that sewing shop. We had so many funny memories
of nights out. I remember my single days, because he
builds puppets, we always had puppets in my house. So
in my single days, I remember I met a girl, we went for a
bit of dinner with her, we were coming back to

(35:09):
mine for a drink, 10 at night, nine at night,
something like that. And we walk into the flat and my friend
Phil is there with five other members of BBC and they've all
got puppets on and they're all watching Muppets Christmas Carol
and they're just acting out the film. And this girl

(35:29):
genuinely must have thought I was member of a cult
or something. She just blasted on and she just left.
And I just ended up hanging out with these nutters and
these puppets. So that sewing shop is sort of really closely tied
to those sorts of memories there. Look Olympic-

Alex (35:44):
There it is.

Ian (35:44):
Sewing machines, it's there, it's there. Where many iconic puppets have been
built there. And you literally go, look, there's this church,
there's this hairdressers, and then boom, that's our flat. That's
how close we were to it. We must be the only
people who live near to sewing machine who actually regularly

(36:05):
needed sewing machines every day. That's my old flat. We're
in the top floor. Incredible stuff.

Alex (36:12):
What a cool place to live.

Ian (36:13):
It was really good, actually. And there's a Chinese takeaway
near this, that's mind blowingly brilliant.

Alex (36:18):
That's important to have in walking distance.

Ian (36:21):
So important to have, and a few decent pubs as well, obviously. Shepherd's Bush
greens, great for pubs.

Alex (36:26):
Defectors.

Ian (36:27):
Defectors Weld, great. And then there was Ginglik, which is the old converted
public toilets.

Alex (36:33):
Ginglik was legendary.

Ian (36:35):
Christian Knowles, the guy that put me at that Tattershall Castle,
he ran comedy gigs in there. And when he booked
me to do a gig there, one of the first ones
I ever done was with... And I remember this is where you're like,
London's mad. Because I used to just do gigs in Scotland
with other Scottish acts and whatever. And then the first Ginglik one I'd done,
Harry Hill headlined it. He'd done a ventriloquist act weirdly,

(36:58):
with a puppet, so loving it. But yeah, he'd done
it. That was the first thing he ever done. So
I was like, this is amazing.

Alex (37:05):
For people listening who don't know Ginglik, it is, was, I'm assuming
it's not open anymore, although I don't know for certain,
it's a converted underground toilet, isn't it, right by Shepherd's Bush station.

Ian (37:18):
There's an old public toilet that I think it was
part of the old Shepherd's Bush station that they then converted
into a sort of bar and nightclub. But it was mad
busy back in the day.

Alex (37:28):
And just very artsy. I always had really interesting conversations down there.

Ian (37:34):
Yeah, you'd never remember them, but you'd have them.

Alex (37:36):
No, no. So we are now heading up to the BBC.

Ian (37:45):
Yeah.

Alex (37:46):
TV studios. What were you doing before you started with BBC?

Ian (37:51):
Literally university. I got the job at the BBC while
I was at uni.

Alex (37:54):
Really?

Ian (37:54):
Yeah. So I had my last exam on Thursday. I moved
to London on Sunday and I'd done my first bit
of telly on the Monday, here. I was actually late.
So the first day I ever done it was... Well the first
day of live TV, they said like you're on camera
at nine o'clock, but they meant live. Now, I've only
ever had normal jobs. So after that meant get there

(38:15):
at nine and I was like three, four minutes late. So
I missed my first ever live link on telly because
they were like, it's live at nine, meaning, they were like,
get here for half seven, hair and makeup, bring your
script. But I didn't know any of that stuff. So I
just showed up in three minutes past nine, I missed
the first link.

Alex (38:33):
Wow.

Ian (38:33):
It was a bit of a disaster really. But then they sort of realize, oh
maybe we should have told this 21 year old kid that's literally four
days ago was sitting his corporate law exam how telly
works. But yeah. And then honestly I look back at this time
so fondly and I'm so fortunate that I got to
work in this place walking through, there's the donut, which

(38:58):
if you're my generation was the round building in Live
and Kicking, the little bouncy ball spun around at the
end and flew up, and there's loads of funny like...
There's a little walkway still there that when Alan Partridge
didn't get his second series and he's walking down going,
you're all on the BBC gravy train, I wish I was,
with his wheel of cheese on a fork. That's literally

(39:20):
that little road down there. Although what is it now?
It's like a really posh coffee shop or whatever now. But this used
to always be buildings, and that iconic television center sign.
The fact I got to... and this used to have a
massive gate across it, you'd have to tap your BBC
pass and every day I'd tap my BBC pass, and
even young, I remember thinking how lucky I was that I get to

(39:40):
come into this building every day. And we used to
be just up there, West Tower it was called. It's
now been totally brought down. It all had asbestos in it at
the end so they had to rip it all out. But yeah, I used
to be in this building here and then television center in there.
And I remember having so many mad stories, like once
I was coming out the lift of the bar and

(40:01):
we got rugby tackled by a floor manager, me and
my friend Phil, and Eddie Izzard ran past as he
was doing, remember these 50 marathons. And then he ran
into do Jonathan Ross and I accidentally nearly walked in
front of Eddie Izzard as he's run into the Jonathan Ross Studios. It was
like mad.

Alex (40:15):
No. It is such a cool building.

Ian (40:18):
Honestly it's so beautiful. And I think it's listed so
there's all this new building around it, but the actual
circular BBC buildings remained unchanged. So it's really cool that
that's... I love that I was so ingrained in such a big
bit of history. All the Children in Needs were there,
I obviously worked BBC so we would just wait after
work even though we don't have the passes because we'd be in the building. So

(40:41):
then as about nine o'clock, because we're already in the building, we'd
get to go Children in Need and Comic Relief and
just sort of blag our way to the bar areas
and stuff. It was so nice. It was great.

Alex (40:51):
Were there any parallels between that TV work and the work
you do now on Love Island?

Ian (40:58):
Well I guess it's right into speck I guess. Do
you know what I mean? With kids' TV, you've got the parameters
of what you can talk about and the language you
can use and all that sort of stuff. And then
I guess with Love Island, you've not got the visuals
and you've got to be very economic with your word
uses, because you can only really write two lines, and
you've got to do a joke and tell the story

(41:19):
of what's happening. So they're both within quite strict... like
doing comedy within strict parameters, I feel like I've always
done that, which is sort of quite mad. But yeah,
so they are very different things.

Alex (41:32):
Did you enjoy kids TV?

Ian (41:32):
Yeah, I loved it. I really loved it. I sort of look back and
I think it was probably the best TV I made
as well because it was live every day, we were sort
of left to our own devices. There's loads of clips
online that I was just really proud of. It would go wrong and we'd
always get way around it. And Norm was telling us
what to do really. We were sort of left at it, and me and Phil, who was

(41:53):
Hacker the Dog, we worked together for every day, five
days a week, for three years. So we sort of
knew each other inside out by the end. So yeah, I'm
really proud of it. It was a really fun time actually. Really lucky to
have started that way. It was great.

Alex (42:07):
Do you write all of your script on Love Island, or?

Ian (42:12):
Yeah. Yeah. I write it with a guy called Mark who's
a really cool guy. So I write it with Mark
and he actually came up with a format as well.
So every year Love Island does well, it's like a little Brucey
Bonus for him as well. But yeah, we write it
together, we've always written it. They didn't really ask me

(42:33):
to write at the start, but they also didn't really...
At the start of Love Island they just didn't really
know what to do with me, and not in the
sense that I just showed up to Spain to record
it. And that was only my job. But it felt
mad to go all the way to Spain to record
something for an hour to then go home. So yeah,
I ended up just going early and sitting with Mark and me

(42:54):
and Mark really got along and then just recorded it all. So it
felt really nice. We made each other laugh and obviously...
The first series was pretty bad, if I'm being honest. I think
we nearly got sent home, true story after about three,
four weeks because it wasn't working, the voiceover. But then

(43:15):
they sort of managed to keep us for whatever reason.
And then after about 2, 3 series, they were always
really funny at it first, at the start, because we'd
obviously do these lines of voiceover. We were like saying
the show wasn't very good, it was a bit silly and they
were like a voiceover can't do that. But then people
seem to like it. So now they let us say whatever we want really. So it was quite a natural progression.

Alex (43:37):
And do you find that when you, I don't know what
the process is, but do you find that you see
or get to know the cast and then think, oh yeah
this one's going to be a fun one, this season.

Ian (43:50):
We deliberately get to know them as we're getting to
know, the same as the viewers, I don't know anything.
The show, at time of recording, the show starts on Monday,
I don't even know the names of the people or what
they're doing. And I'll only find out when I watch
the episode, because I sort of want to find out about the cast in the same
way as a punter does. That's really important. You could
also say it's lazy cause it means I don't have to do any

(44:11):
work beforehand. But I do think it is definitely useful to
be as much as a punter as possible.

Alex (44:19):
I guess as well, times must have changed. I mean
do you still fly out to Spain or wherever it
is? It's not always Spain.

Ian (44:25):
Yeah, I used to, until very recently, I think like
a lot of people, I worked from home in lockdown
and it just became very apparent that that was very
doable. So then it felt like, especially because there's two
of them a year now, it'd be like four months away from home,
so it's just sort of not really an option. Yeah, I used
to, first six series, I went to South Africa, I

(44:47):
went Spain, it was great. Really lovely. And I still
go out now because obviously I know the team so
well and we all get along so well. So we went
out as a family, it was really cool. It was nice. Also, the
mad thing is I've lived in Spain for over a
year of my life. I go for two months every
year and that was for seven years. So was literally
14 months of my life spent in Spain. But in

(45:09):
very, well short- ish, two months, but it shortish dribs
and drabs. It's mad.

Alex (45:16):
I mean technically, you should speak Spanish.

Ian (45:19):
I should be fluent. It's very, again, how very British
of me that I actually don't speak a lick of
Spanish despite being there 14 months.

Alex (45:26):
I bet you can order a beer though.

Ian (45:28):
Yeah, two. I know know how to order two, but I
don't know how to order one.

Alex (45:31):
Is there anything that's happened on Love Island that didn't happen on the show, but you
can tell us that we wouldn't have known?

Ian (45:44):
An islander turning their phone back on after two months.
If you think how many texts they had alone, which
is just their friends, the day they appear on the
show going, oh my God, I can't believe you're on the
show. And they've had two months of texts and calls.
One guy that was on, I can't remember who it was, but their

(46:06):
phone crashed three times as they were turning it back
on because there was just so much traffic going through the phone. It just
literally crashed. So yeah, it was wild. So that's pretty cool. I
think that'd be a cool thing, but obviously who would want
their phone filmed as they were turning it on for
the first time in two months?

Alex (46:21):
Yeah, that's true.

Ian (46:22):
Got mates sending some stupid texts or whatever. So yeah, no, I
see the final, which is really mad and them interacting
with the presenters and just the way the reality of
what's happening dawns on them is really interesting. But in terms of stuff that happens off in
the show, there's not really been much, I mean I'll
see the occasional bit, but the annoying thing is obviously

(46:44):
the stuff that doesn't make the edit is normally the
most boring stuff.

Alex (46:49):
Yeah.

Ian (46:49):
Do you know what I mean? So yeah, I don't
really see that much. I would like to see to them
spice up that final week, as in maybe do some
more coupley challenges maybe. Do you know what I mean? Live an actual couple.
We've got the babies and you've got the meet the
parents and all that. But I'd love them to just have
to do each other's washing, or even set up, I don't know,

(47:16):
take a photo shoot to announce the relationship or modern
day things you've got to do. You know how people soft
launch their relationship now on the internet?

Alex (47:26):
Yeah. Maybe they've got set up a soft launch for announcing
they're a couple and stuff.

Ian (47:30):
Yeah.

Alex (47:31):
I just think there's lots of interesting things you can do with
a new couple that they don't really do on the
show yet, which I'd like to see them doing. This
is London's best kebab by the way, just in case you're wondering.
I love it when they... It's probably next to the
best chicken and they just took the words off.

Ian (47:46):
London Best Kebab. I think they've also had to say
London Best Kebab for legal reasons. It's not London's.

Alex (47:55):
Oh yeah. It's always freshly made. So your daughter has an
Irish mother and a Scottish father. How important is it
that she knows about her heritage?

Ian (48:12):
I think it's nice when you've got little ones to
give them... I think being Scottish, I'm sort of very
proud of my background anyway, so it's nice to instill
that into your kids and stuff. So I think that
is really important. I think it also helps them get
a better understanding of what you're about, if you know what I mean.

Alex (48:34):
Yeah.

Ian (48:34):
So that feels really nice as well. So yeah, it's
really important to us actually. And we try to go back
to Ireland and Scotland as much as possible. It's also nice for
the grandparents, nice for us.

Alex (48:47):
Yeah.

Ian (48:48):
And Scotland, I love it. I do generally love it there. So
I want the people closest to me, Laura as well, it's
nice going up to Scotland so Laura can see Scotland
and meet my friends from uni that I knew growing
up and all the rest of it. So yeah, really important.

Alex (49:04):
Do you see... Is London home?

Ian (49:09):
Yeah, it's a good question. And yeah, I would say
so. I think basically the thing for me I think is
I probably thought there's a world in which I would
end up back in Edinburgh, back in Scotland. And then I
think if I'd met an English person, I think that might have
happened. But I think what happened was, Laura obviously has

(49:29):
such strong connections to Ireland and her family and everything.
And then when she took me to Ireland, I loved
Ireland so much and then I think she saw how great
Scotland was, so I think we both maybe thought at some point
we'd end up moving back to our own countries, but
then it became this thing of like, well, we both actually love

(49:52):
where we're originally from. So I don't think Laura knew
that I probably couldn't go like to Ireland full time and
she couldn't come to Scotland full time. So we just sort of had to strike
up this deal where it was like, well I guess
London is the base that we can get to Scotland and
Ireland from relatively easily. That was a general vibe. I
feel like if either of us had met an English
person, we probably could have sold them, you know what I mean, Dublin

(50:14):
or Edinburgh as a place to live. But because Dublin and
Edinburgh is so great, we were both like, all right, fair
play, London. But then also we love London. I just
love, like we've said before, I love the mixture of
people. And also funny thing about being in London is,
you meet as many Irish people in London as you
do in Dublin. There's such a melting pot here that,
yes, you see such an array of people. People always

(50:35):
say to me, oh our nursery's all full of... There's
everything. So it's such a nice mix. So I quite
like being in and amongst that mix as well.

Alex (50:44):
You were in London for lockdown, right?

Ian (50:47):
Yeah, it was sort of madness really. Me and Laura were
in the house. It's sort of weird because it was
so tricky and obviously as a standup, work sort of
finished for two years really because we are literally professional

(51:08):
social gatherers, which obviously became very illegal, social gathering. So
lots of my friends were out at work and there was lots of
elements of it that were so tough for so many people. There
was something about living through an era that will be
like era defining. It's sort of funny actually doing things,

(51:29):
when you're standing outside clapping the NHS thinking this will
be in modern study textbooks not long from now, and I
lived it. There was a nice stillness about it as well.
The idea of having nothing to do that day and
actually knowing, not only were you doing nothing that day,
but the guilt- free knowledge of nobody was doing anything

(51:50):
that day.

Alex (51:51):
Is so true.

Ian (51:51):
Sort of mad. There was a real calmness that came with
that I really miss to this day.

Alex (51:59):
Me too.

Ian (51:59):
Yeah.

Alex (51:59):
Did you find that you guys sort of slotted into a routine and stuff?

Ian (52:04):
Yeah, I was doing Twitch. I was doing the Twitch
thing. And then the most important thing about the Twitch thing
was, one, it gave me an outlet for performing. Because
I remember sometimes a lot of Laura would notice me
doing essentially a gig in the kitchen while we were
making dinner and she'd be like, you need to go
on Twitch, do a gig or something.

Alex (52:21):
Do something.

Ian (52:22):
Just be a performer somewhere else.

Alex (52:23):
Stop talking to the saucepans.

Ian (52:25):
Not while we're making a steak and ale pie. So
there was that. And then also I would do it
in the morning. So it sounds really bleak doesn't it,
but it was literally a reason to get out of
bed, which is really important. So yeah, we sort of got a bit... And
also we were very lucky working from home and stuff.

Alex (52:45):
The speed that our creative industry adapted, I found quite
fascinating. Everyone was switching to Zoom, doing live things, interviews,
podcast. Was it there that your crime podcast was born?

Ian (53:03):
We actually done that long after lockdown, because I was doing Twitch,
I didn't do a podcast and there's a bit of
me that thinks maybe we should have done something in
that time that was sort of podcast related. Lots of
my friends done podcasts and they had so much fun
making them. But yeah, no, that was after. But we don't

(53:23):
really work together all that much. Even in Love Island, we
weren't really in a room together working, we're doing very different
jobs. So yeah, in lockdown we didn't do any... I think
as well with lockdown, I think that thought of working with someone
that you were living with in lockdown seems a bit
mad because it was obviously, it's nice to get a

(53:47):
bit of downtime, do you know what I mean? Yeah,
no, we didn't do it in lockdown. Maybe we should have
done it. But we love doing that, those podcasts and stuff now. It's so much fun.

Alex (53:56):
Partners in crime. So how do you go about working
together and living together?

Ian (54:04):
We've been together for so long now, we've also been
through so much. It's really easy actually. It came really naturally.
We just got into this sort of habit of doing it
and do you know what the main thing is, genuinely, it sounds really, we really enjoy
doing it and actually we really enjoy that it's true
crime. We're sort of not doing that thing where we
do a podcast where we talk about what it's like

(54:26):
to be a couple or whatever. I feel like that's really been done
and done well by other people. And we are still
quite private people so we don't really want to talk
about our private situation too much. True crime are perfect, because
that is what we used to do with our time
is we'd sit and watch Netflix documentaries or true crime,
listening to true crime podcasts and all that. So it just feels an

(54:46):
extension of the conversations we would normally be having anyway,
if that makes sense. It's like we literally would be sitting talking
about true crime in our house and then we end
up doing that and recording it.

Alex (55:00):
So what's next then for Ian?

Ian (55:03):
Well, I'm going to look into buying an MG, I'll tell you that
for free. If I can afford one. And just do
more standup really. Me and Laura are going to hopefully
look into doing more true- crime podcasts after taking a
bit of time, when we had children and stuff, I

(55:25):
took a bit of time off the evenings, so I'm now
just slowly getting back into gigging and building up new
material and writing a new show and I'll go on
tour in 2024. That'll be the plan. And CB in
front of audiences again.

Alex (55:40):
That'd be nice.

Ian (55:40):
Yeah, really nice. Yeah. And I always think, oh I
don't know, this is what I want to do anymore.
And then I get in front of an audience, I'm
like, oh yeah, this is actually what I... I was cut out for
this, sort of thing. This is what I was born to do or this, so it's nice.

Alex (55:54):
How has it been going to your London haunts?

Ian (55:55):
Do you know what, it's been really lovely actually. Especially Shepherd's Bush, because Shepherd's Bush
was a sort of drinking hole, so to speak, for
me. And then you sort of just see it as
a sort of night out thing, but then you look,
go back and you think, oh yeah, that was actually
really rather important to my development. I met so many
lovely people there. And also like BBC, I still fortunately go there

(56:19):
quite a lot, but it's nice talking about it. And
it's former glories before it had private members clubs and
hotels attached to it. When it was just a car park
and some asbestos laden buildings, that's when it was in. And ironically, that's when
a lot of people think it was in it's heyday. So yeah, it
was nice. It's nice to have a little trip down
memory lane. And it's also funny doing a car that my

(56:40):
dad drove around when he was probably like my age,
if you know what I mean? So that's funny as well. It's
been lovely. Yeah. Thank you very much.

Alex (56:48):
Thank you too. Is your Pop still with us?

Ian (56:52):
Yes, he is.

Alex (56:53):
Will he?

Ian (56:54):
I've sent him a picture already. I'll need to tell
you what he says when he...

Alex (56:57):
Yeah.

Ian (56:58):
Nice car. He's saying, " Nice car." Thank you. Thank you. It's not mine.

Alex (57:03):
Okay, there we go.

Ian (57:05):
Thank you very much for the lift, I mean practically
to my front door, I very much appreciate it. And I love it. And also
Gladstone Park in this sun, you don't get much better
than that, really.

Alex (57:14):
No, it's great, isn't it? Finishing up here.

Ian (57:17):
Well, there you go. I'm going to go and have
a frolic, which is what I believe people do when
it's sunny.

Alex (57:22):
Yeah.

Ian (57:22):
So thank you for having me.

Alex (57:24):
Thank you for joining us. It was fun.

Ian (57:24):
Any time.

Alex (57:31):
Thanks so much to Ian Sterling for taking me on
a personalized tour around his old haunts in London. You
can see exclusive footage of the drive by heading to
the Autotrader socials, look at the episode page for links.
You'll also be able to see the electric MGB GT
that we had such a fun drive in. Plus, we

(57:51):
are giving away a brand new electric car for free
every single month as part of the Autotrader electric car
giveaway. Find out what we're giving away this month by
heading to the episode page. And if you're looking for
a new vehicle, you can find your perfect match at autotrader. co.
uk. This is a new show and I'd love you

(58:13):
to follow on your favorite podcast platform. Like what you
hear? Rate and review and make sure you tell your
friends so you don't miss an episode. Show On the
Road is a Fresh Air production for Autotrader. The executive
producer is Annie Day and the producer is Oli Seymour.