July 20, 2024 • 15 mins
Comedian and author David Walliams has managed to entertain millions of young fans through his written work.
Since his first book in 2008, Walliams has written 41 best-selling books with 56 million copies sold and translated into 55 different languages.
He's released his first graphic novel, Astrochimp, and he's set to touch down on New Zealand shores for his upcoming tour.
"I feel, because I've been pretty prolific and written lots of books, I always feel like I want to give the audience something as fresh as I possible can - so changing the form really helps that."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks, edb.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right Bottom, Bangers, Bottom Burps and Undercrackers. David Williams A
Sure Knows the Way to a Child's Heart. Since his
first book in two thousand and eight, David has revolutionized
books for kids. Forty one best selling box, fifty six
million copies sold, and they've been translated into fifty five
different languages. David has just released You To another book,
this time his first evergraphic novel, but he's also heading
(00:36):
to our Shawls with a children's book tour. David Williams
joins me from the UK.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, good morning, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's start with the tour. You're doing a tour for
adults and a tour for kids, which is very glous
game tour.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It's the same tour, but the kids and family shows
in the daytime and then the one that's more adult
orientated is in the evening. Because I announced the show
for grown ups in the evenings and lots of messages
saying is this going to be suitable for my young children?
And I thought it would be really nice to do
(01:12):
a special books orientated show because obviously they have a
lot of fans young readers. So so yeah, family shows
during the days and evening shows in the nights. It's
not that the evening show is going to be really,
really rude, But if you've got an eight year old
who likes my books, it's not quite right with them
because there'll be some adult themes. Nothing too rude, but
(01:35):
you know, it's it's they'd have to stay up very
late to sit through the adult show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Which do you prefer. I wonder whether you've got a
little bit more license with the kids show to have
a bit of fun, to be a bit more ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, I'm proud of my books, and it's obviously a
thrill that I've got so many young fans around the world,
and so that will always feel really special to me.
And I think there's more of a sense with kids
that you can try and influence them with to messages
and things, whereas as adults, we're all sort of setting
(02:09):
our ways, aren't we, and all that goodness has drained
out of us, And I think there is a sort
of atmosphere you get with a room full of kids
that is hard to replicate because I go out to
the audience and I ask the kids, I say, I'm
doing research for my new book, The World's Worst Children
(02:29):
for and has anyone got a brother or sister they'd
like to nominate to be in the book. Well, you
can imagine, you know, a thousand hands go up at once,
and everyone's leaping up and down their chairs because they
want to say something. And there's something about when kids
get excited that even in the most sort of I
don't know, the biggest shows I've ever done for grown ups,
(02:50):
it's not quite the same as the shrieking and jumping
up and down that you get with kids.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Do you take questions from the children?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yes, I'm going to take questions on both shows, and
there are prizes for the best questions for the kids,
And yeah, I like I always it's like there being
a spontaneous element to the show, because I think that
that's when you're thinking on your feet, and that's sometimes
when you can be at your funniest. And also I
think people know that it's spontaneous, so they know that
(03:19):
you are coming up with it at that moment in time,
and it keeps you on your toes because there's a
danger if you do a show lots of times that
you start to sort of think, oh, okay, it's like
muscle memory. I do this bit, I do that bit.
But even when we did a Little Britain Live Too,
we built in lots of improvisation because we needed to
keep it fresh for us and to keep it funny
(03:41):
for us. So and I just like that anarchic part.
And sometimes people get the better of you with like
funny questions and things like that, which is great. And
sometimes kids come up on the stage and I say,
who's your favorite author, thinking that they might say me
because I'm standing in front of them, but then they
say they say JK. Rowling, is that she's not here?
(04:02):
Who's your second favorite author?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And I just love that with kids. See all the
parents really like it when the kids say silly.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Things you're asking for really yeah, So I.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Look, I look forward to those parts of the shows
very much, and I think they're necessary because also I
think the audiences want to be part of the show.
I mean, even in you go to comedy clubs and things,
people always shouting things out. People always want to be
part of the show. So I'm very happy to accommodate that.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I love it. You've recently released Estrochimp, Did We Really,
which is your first, I should say, your first graphic
novel or sort of more along the lines of a
comic book and things. What lead you to this? Why
did you sort of make a bit of a change
with this book book.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I'd had this idea for a long time. I wanted
to write something about all the animals that were sent
into space, because it's quite an interesting story. It starts
with fruit flies, believe it or not. And then there's
the ones that people know about, which is the dog,
like the chimp panze ham from America, and I thought,
(05:10):
even the French sent a cat into space, which sounds
very French. And I thought, okay, so the real stories,
you know, sometimes tint with a bit of tragedy because
the animals didn't make it home safely. But I thought,
if I create a sort of imaginary world where some
of the same animals center into space and it's about
their adventures, you know, like one hundred years into the future,
(05:32):
they've all survived and they're all sort of battling each other.
And because it was set in space and because it
was animals, I was really thinking of it in terms
of like an animated movie, and I think the closest
you can get to that is a comic book or
graphic novel you everyone to call it. So it felt
completely right. I mean, sometimes the form the story dictates
(05:54):
the form a bit. You know, my new book is
a murder mystery. It just got an outsake called super Sleuth,
and so that really feels like a novel, you know,
because it's in the it's in the realms of obviously
not as good as but it takes its que from
Sharlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, So it felt right. But this
one's space and animals and lots of action. It just
(06:15):
felt right for to be as visual as.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Possible and beautifully illustrated.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, I didn't do those, but thank you Adam Stower
has done a brilliant job illustrating it. And also I feel,
because I've been pretty prolific and written lots of books,
I always feel like I want to give the audience
something as fresh as as I possibly can, So changing
the form really helps that. I like to have original stories,
(06:45):
you know, I'm scared of repeating myself because I'm actually
on like book forty one or something like that. I'm like, Okay,
you need to go into the deep recesses of your imagination,
and you need to find different ways to tell a story,
and you need to make sure you're not going over
old ground. So so yes, I like, I mean, I'd
(07:05):
never written murder mystery before. Spaceboy is set in nineteen
sixties America. I've got short stories in the World's Worst Children.
I've got Beast of Buckingham Palace, which is in the future,
you know. And I feel like some of these sort
of I don't know, almost like challenges I set myself
bring out the best in me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Which one did you write in a Venus gel jail cell?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
All of them? All of them? I wrote it. No,
I just wrote basically, I was I brought my wrong
passport to Italy. I was on a trip to Venice
and it wasn't discovered until I arrived at Venice, and
so they basically canted me off and locked me up
in this in this shel cell and anyway. But the
(07:53):
lucky thing was I was allowed to keep my hand
luggage with me, and I had my computer, and I
was in there for seven hours. Only one point did
they come in and say, would you like a bottle
of water. That was it, and they were quite even
though I clearly wasn't like going to cause any trouble.
You know, I wasn't smuggling anything into the country or anything.
(08:14):
But I think they rather enjoyed, you know, making my
life quite difficult. So and so I thought, Okay, don't
worry about this, David. You've got seven hours on your
own to write, which is why I didn't. I knew
it would be a long time because I knew they
had to send me back on the next plane, which
wasn't until late that night. So and so, yes, I
got deported, but before that I got to write quite
(08:36):
a lot of astrochin. But I mean people often say,
you know, have you got somewhere to write? Like Rold
Dale had a writing show? And I think the main
thing is you want to be alone. And I've never
felt more alone in prison selling Italy.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, if you're struggling next time on the next book,
you know where you need to be, don't you. Encouraging
reluctant readers is a really big goal for you, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yes. I mean I go into schools up and down
the United Kingdom, and if I find myself somewhere I
wouldn't normally be because I'm working there. I was thinking,
let's find a school, you know, because it all very well.
I live in London just to go to schools in London,
but I want to go to schools everywhere. And I
asked the publishers, let's find it underprivileged school, because again,
(09:22):
you don't want to preach the converted. You know, of
private school kids are more likely to have access to books,
and in fact, they certainly are. And I go into
schools and you know, it's fantastic. There's lots of kids read,
but there's many that don't. And I feel like if
we don't, if us authors don't grab their imaginations when
they're eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, chances are they're never
(09:44):
going to read as growing up. So they're going to
miss out on a lot. Because reading isn't just about
reading more books, you know, it's it's stories are about
empathy and they teach us important lessons. So I think that.
So yeah, I've always thought, let's try and reach those
reluctant readers. So I started off with books like Boy
(10:05):
in the Dress and Its sustinc that you know very
much novels. And then I thought, when I went into
school in Glasgow in Scotland and there was some sort
of grumpy boys at the back who hated books, I thought,
I want to write a book that will get you reading.
And that's why I came up with the World's Worst Children.
It was halfway between a comic book and and and
(10:28):
you know, one of one of the books I've already produced,
and I thought, let's make it as visual as possible,
let's make it as silly as possible. There's no big,
important themes like there are in some of my stories.
It's just fun. And that's why I came up with
those books. And you know, most days some parent comes
up from in the street and says thank you for
(10:51):
your books because I couldn't get my child to read
before they read one of yours. So I sort of
I feel like that's an important You know that that
for me is an important part of what I want
to do, because there are I know, much greater works
literature out there than mine. But I feel like, hopefully
my books are the ones that will get kids reading
(11:13):
and then they're going to go on to more challenging work.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I mentioned to my son yesterday that I was going
to interview to you today. He's about to turn eighteen,
and he was so excited and he started reminiscing about
your books and things, and I thought, that is so lovely.
He may no longer be a captive audience, but he's
still a big fan. That's pretty cool, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Well, it is very cool. But I think you never
forget the books that you read as a kid and
what they meant to you, especially if you weren't a
voracious reader. But you never forget the first book that
you read all by yourself, and the ones that made
you laugh, and the ones that got you reading more
and more and more. So yeah, I mean I have
forgotten the books that I read and loved as a kid,
(11:57):
and I still treasure them and sometimes I reread them,
and being the father of an eleven year old boy,
I have had the chance to re read them all
again and read lots of ones that I'd missed because
maybe they were published you know, a bit later or
than you know, after my childhood, or I just missed them.
Because you often think, oh, yeah, I know, Peter Pan,
(12:18):
I've seen the Disney movie, But have you actually read
the novel an Ales in Wonderland is when that's very
familiar to all of us, but not all of us
have read. So I have a lot of pleasure. I
really love reading children's books and especially sharing them with
my son, so and obviously, you know, there's a lot
of nostalgia there when I'm returning to books that I loved.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You've got so much going on at the moment, but
one thing you are doing is working on a new
show with your Little Britain coaster met Lucas. Now Little
Britain isn't coming back. This is new material.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yes, it's new because we wanted. When we did Come
Fly with Me, which followed Little Britain, we had a
whole new cast of characters and it was exciting to
do that, you know, And so that is what we're
we're doing at the moment, is creating a new cast
of characters, completely new sketches. And it's quite freeing that
because you're you know, you're not trying to emulate something,
(13:14):
You're not trying to sort of guess, second guess what
people might want to see. You're just following your own
instincts and trying to create something original. And when you
find something that you believe in. It's very exciting, I mean,
because the books I write on my own and so
the downside of that is it's solitary, you know. And
(13:36):
when I write with Matt is that we meet out,
we have a chat about what we saw on TV
last night, We you know, eat some class arms. Eventually
we get around to doing some work, you know, and
then I'm sort of trying to make him laugh. He's
trying to make me laugh. If we're laughing together, we think,
oh we might have something that other people might laugh
at too. So it's quite a pleasurable. Well, it's a
(13:59):
more pleasurable experience because it's sociable because we've got someone
to have lunch with.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Maybe you two both need to be in a jailt
cell together. Finally, just looking at everything that you are doing,
do you love the creative license your career gives you
in all these different areas.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah. I think that's what probably binds everything together, is
being creative. And I feel very privileged, you know, to
have a job that I love. And you often think,
you know, when you're starting out, you're going to run
out of ideas, but luckily it hasn't happened yet. And
also I think I feel very lucky because I've had
(14:38):
different stages to my career. It's been sketch comedy, had
ten years as a judge on Britain's Got Talent, sort
of like as a TV personality, I suppose, and a
children's author as well, and I'm sort of all of
these have been very excited, are very exciting, but I
do feel sometimes, oh, what's the next chapter?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
We shall all wait and see. Thank you so much
for your time. Really lovely to talk.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
To you, Thank you, and lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The David Williams book Show is coming to News Zealand
at the end of September. Tickets are on sale now
and you can also pick up his newest book, Astrochimp,
in all good bookstores. You're with News Talks itb it
is twenty two past ten.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks AB from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks, edb.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Right Bottom, Bangers, Bottom Burps and Undercrackers. David Williams A
Sure Knows the Way to a Child's Heart. Since his
first book in two thousand and eight, David has revolutionized
books for kids. Forty one best selling box, fifty six
million copies sold, and they've been translated into fifty five
different languages. David has just released You To another book,
this time his first evergraphic novel, but he's also heading
(00:36):
to our Shawls with a children's book tour. David Williams
joins me from the UK.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, good morning, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Let's start with the tour. You're doing a tour for
adults and a tour for kids, which is very glous
game tour.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It's the same tour, but the kids and family shows
in the daytime and then the one that's more adult
orientated is in the evening. Because I announced the show
for grown ups in the evenings and lots of messages
saying is this going to be suitable for my young children?
And I thought it would be really nice to do
(01:12):
a special books orientated show because obviously they have a
lot of fans young readers. So so yeah, family shows
during the days and evening shows in the nights. It's
not that the evening show is going to be really,
really rude, But if you've got an eight year old
who likes my books, it's not quite right with them
because there'll be some adult themes. Nothing too rude, but
(01:35):
you know, it's it's they'd have to stay up very
late to sit through the adult show.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Which do you prefer. I wonder whether you've got a
little bit more license with the kids show to have
a bit of fun, to be a bit more ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, I'm proud of my books, and it's obviously a
thrill that I've got so many young fans around the world,
and so that will always feel really special to me.
And I think there's more of a sense with kids
that you can try and influence them with to messages
and things, whereas as adults, we're all sort of setting
(02:09):
our ways, aren't we, and all that goodness has drained
out of us, And I think there is a sort
of atmosphere you get with a room full of kids
that is hard to replicate because I go out to
the audience and I ask the kids, I say, I'm
doing research for my new book, The World's Worst Children
(02:29):
for and has anyone got a brother or sister they'd
like to nominate to be in the book. Well, you
can imagine, you know, a thousand hands go up at once,
and everyone's leaping up and down their chairs because they
want to say something. And there's something about when kids
get excited that even in the most sort of I
don't know, the biggest shows I've ever done for grown ups,
(02:50):
it's not quite the same as the shrieking and jumping
up and down that you get with kids.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Do you take questions from the children?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yes, I'm going to take questions on both shows, and
there are prizes for the best questions for the kids,
And yeah, I like I always it's like there being
a spontaneous element to the show, because I think that
that's when you're thinking on your feet, and that's sometimes
when you can be at your funniest. And also I
think people know that it's spontaneous, so they know that
(03:19):
you are coming up with it at that moment in time,
and it keeps you on your toes because there's a
danger if you do a show lots of times that
you start to sort of think, oh, okay, it's like
muscle memory. I do this bit, I do that bit.
But even when we did a Little Britain Live Too,
we built in lots of improvisation because we needed to
keep it fresh for us and to keep it funny
(03:41):
for us. So and I just like that anarchic part.
And sometimes people get the better of you with like
funny questions and things like that, which is great. And
sometimes kids come up on the stage and I say,
who's your favorite author, thinking that they might say me
because I'm standing in front of them, but then they
say they say JK. Rowling, is that she's not here?
(04:02):
Who's your second favorite author?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And I just love that with kids. See all the
parents really like it when the kids say silly.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Things you're asking for really yeah, So I.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Look, I look forward to those parts of the shows
very much, and I think they're necessary because also I
think the audiences want to be part of the show.
I mean, even in you go to comedy clubs and things,
people always shouting things out. People always want to be
part of the show. So I'm very happy to accommodate that.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I love it. You've recently released Estrochimp, Did We Really,
which is your first, I should say, your first graphic
novel or sort of more along the lines of a
comic book and things. What lead you to this? Why
did you sort of make a bit of a change
with this book book.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I'd had this idea for a long time. I wanted
to write something about all the animals that were sent
into space, because it's quite an interesting story. It starts
with fruit flies, believe it or not. And then there's
the ones that people know about, which is the dog,
like the chimp panze ham from America, and I thought,
(05:10):
even the French sent a cat into space, which sounds
very French. And I thought, okay, so the real stories,
you know, sometimes tint with a bit of tragedy because
the animals didn't make it home safely. But I thought,
if I create a sort of imaginary world where some
of the same animals center into space and it's about
their adventures, you know, like one hundred years into the future,
(05:32):
they've all survived and they're all sort of battling each other.
And because it was set in space and because it
was animals, I was really thinking of it in terms
of like an animated movie, and I think the closest
you can get to that is a comic book or
graphic novel you everyone to call it. So it felt
completely right. I mean, sometimes the form the story dictates
(05:54):
the form a bit. You know, my new book is
a murder mystery. It just got an outsake called super Sleuth,
and so that really feels like a novel, you know,
because it's in the it's in the realms of obviously
not as good as but it takes its que from
Sharlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, So it felt right. But this
one's space and animals and lots of action. It just
(06:15):
felt right for to be as visual as.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Possible and beautifully illustrated.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Yeah, I didn't do those, but thank you Adam Stower
has done a brilliant job illustrating it. And also I feel,
because I've been pretty prolific and written lots of books,
I always feel like I want to give the audience
something as fresh as as I possibly can, So changing
the form really helps that. I like to have original stories,
(06:45):
you know, I'm scared of repeating myself because I'm actually
on like book forty one or something like that. I'm like, Okay,
you need to go into the deep recesses of your imagination,
and you need to find different ways to tell a story,
and you need to make sure you're not going over
old ground. So so yes, I like, I mean, I'd
(07:05):
never written murder mystery before. Spaceboy is set in nineteen
sixties America. I've got short stories in the World's Worst Children.
I've got Beast of Buckingham Palace, which is in the future,
you know. And I feel like some of these sort
of I don't know, almost like challenges I set myself
bring out the best in me.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Which one did you write in a Venus gel jail cell?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
All of them? All of them? I wrote it. No,
I just wrote basically, I was I brought my wrong
passport to Italy. I was on a trip to Venice
and it wasn't discovered until I arrived at Venice, and
so they basically canted me off and locked me up
in this in this shel cell and anyway. But the
(07:53):
lucky thing was I was allowed to keep my hand
luggage with me, and I had my computer, and I
was in there for seven hours. Only one point did
they come in and say, would you like a bottle
of water. That was it, and they were quite even
though I clearly wasn't like going to cause any trouble.
You know, I wasn't smuggling anything into the country or anything.
(08:14):
But I think they rather enjoyed, you know, making my
life quite difficult. So and so I thought, Okay, don't
worry about this, David. You've got seven hours on your
own to write, which is why I didn't. I knew
it would be a long time because I knew they
had to send me back on the next plane, which
wasn't until late that night. So and so, yes, I
got deported, but before that I got to write quite
(08:36):
a lot of astrochin. But I mean people often say,
you know, have you got somewhere to write? Like Rold
Dale had a writing show? And I think the main
thing is you want to be alone. And I've never
felt more alone in prison selling Italy.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, if you're struggling next time on the next book,
you know where you need to be, don't you. Encouraging
reluctant readers is a really big goal for you, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yes. I mean I go into schools up and down
the United Kingdom, and if I find myself somewhere I
wouldn't normally be because I'm working there. I was thinking,
let's find a school, you know, because it all very well.
I live in London just to go to schools in London,
but I want to go to schools everywhere. And I
asked the publishers, let's find it underprivileged school, because again,
(09:22):
you don't want to preach the converted. You know, of
private school kids are more likely to have access to books,
and in fact, they certainly are. And I go into
schools and you know, it's fantastic. There's lots of kids read,
but there's many that don't. And I feel like if
we don't, if us authors don't grab their imaginations when
they're eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, chances are they're never
(09:44):
going to read as growing up. So they're going to
miss out on a lot. Because reading isn't just about
reading more books, you know, it's it's stories are about
empathy and they teach us important lessons. So I think that.
So yeah, I've always thought, let's try and reach those
reluctant readers. So I started off with books like Boy
(10:05):
in the Dress and Its sustinc that you know very
much novels. And then I thought, when I went into
school in Glasgow in Scotland and there was some sort
of grumpy boys at the back who hated books, I thought,
I want to write a book that will get you reading.
And that's why I came up with the World's Worst Children.
It was halfway between a comic book and and and
(10:28):
you know, one of one of the books I've already produced,
and I thought, let's make it as visual as possible,
let's make it as silly as possible. There's no big,
important themes like there are in some of my stories.
It's just fun. And that's why I came up with
those books. And you know, most days some parent comes
up from in the street and says thank you for
(10:51):
your books because I couldn't get my child to read
before they read one of yours. So I sort of
I feel like that's an important You know that that
for me is an important part of what I want
to do, because there are I know, much greater works
literature out there than mine. But I feel like, hopefully
my books are the ones that will get kids reading
(11:13):
and then they're going to go on to more challenging work.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I mentioned to my son yesterday that I was going
to interview to you today. He's about to turn eighteen,
and he was so excited and he started reminiscing about
your books and things, and I thought, that is so lovely.
He may no longer be a captive audience, but he's
still a big fan. That's pretty cool, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Well, it is very cool. But I think you never
forget the books that you read as a kid and
what they meant to you, especially if you weren't a
voracious reader. But you never forget the first book that
you read all by yourself, and the ones that made
you laugh, and the ones that got you reading more
and more and more. So yeah, I mean I have
forgotten the books that I read and loved as a kid,
(11:57):
and I still treasure them and sometimes I reread them,
and being the father of an eleven year old boy,
I have had the chance to re read them all
again and read lots of ones that I'd missed because
maybe they were published you know, a bit later or
than you know, after my childhood, or I just missed them.
Because you often think, oh, yeah, I know, Peter Pan,
(12:18):
I've seen the Disney movie, But have you actually read
the novel an Ales in Wonderland is when that's very
familiar to all of us, but not all of us
have read. So I have a lot of pleasure. I
really love reading children's books and especially sharing them with
my son, so and obviously, you know, there's a lot
of nostalgia there when I'm returning to books that I loved.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
You've got so much going on at the moment, but
one thing you are doing is working on a new
show with your Little Britain coaster met Lucas. Now Little
Britain isn't coming back. This is new material.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yes, it's new because we wanted. When we did Come
Fly with Me, which followed Little Britain, we had a
whole new cast of characters and it was exciting to
do that, you know, And so that is what we're
we're doing at the moment, is creating a new cast
of characters, completely new sketches. And it's quite freeing that
because you're you know, you're not trying to emulate something,
(13:14):
You're not trying to sort of guess, second guess what
people might want to see. You're just following your own
instincts and trying to create something original. And when you
find something that you believe in. It's very exciting, I mean,
because the books I write on my own and so
the downside of that is it's solitary, you know. And
(13:36):
when I write with Matt is that we meet out,
we have a chat about what we saw on TV
last night, We you know, eat some class arms. Eventually
we get around to doing some work, you know, and
then I'm sort of trying to make him laugh. He's
trying to make me laugh. If we're laughing together, we think,
oh we might have something that other people might laugh
at too. So it's quite a pleasurable. Well, it's a
(13:59):
more pleasurable experience because it's sociable because we've got someone
to have lunch with.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Maybe you two both need to be in a jailt
cell together. Finally, just looking at everything that you are doing,
do you love the creative license your career gives you
in all these different areas.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah. I think that's what probably binds everything together, is
being creative. And I feel very privileged, you know, to
have a job that I love. And you often think,
you know, when you're starting out, you're going to run
out of ideas, but luckily it hasn't happened yet. And
also I think I feel very lucky because I've had
(14:38):
different stages to my career. It's been sketch comedy, had
ten years as a judge on Britain's Got Talent, sort
of like as a TV personality, I suppose, and a
children's author as well, and I'm sort of all of
these have been very excited, are very exciting, but I
do feel sometimes, oh, what's the next chapter?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
We shall all wait and see. Thank you so much
for your time. Really lovely to talk.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
To you, Thank you, and lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
The David Williams book Show is coming to News Zealand
at the end of September. Tickets are on sale now
and you can also pick up his newest book, Astrochimp,
in all good bookstores. You're with News Talks itb it
is twenty two past ten.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks AB from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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