Reflecting on Parenting and Career

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Parents can easily manage spending from their own Monzo app and you can deposit regular pocket money for things like taking the bus to school, going to the shops or their first cinema trip with friends. Monzo's award winning kids account. Search Monzo to get them started with money independence. For children aged six to fifteen, parent or guardian account needed first, UK residence only, T's and C's apply. This episode is brought to you by Pizza Express. Now serving up After School Club, a selection of Pizza Express favourites for just five pounds each, available three to five Monday to Friday. It's a tasty way to reclaim those family moments that's kind on the wallet too. Oh, Rob, also you get the after school meltdowns, don't you? You do. They're hungry, they're tired, they're one wants to sit in the front, one wants to choose the music. Or I you've brought the wrong snack or you get home and they want to watch different things on TV. Josh, when the kids come out of school and like they just throw their bags at you, say I'm hungry, arguing with each other about who sits wearing the car. Oh my word . Couldn't agree more, Rob, and do you know what? When you find yourself in that situation, in my experience there's no three thirty meltdown that can't be calmed with a five pound serving of doughs. For more info about what's included and how to redeem, visit pizzaxpress.com. Terms apply. Hello, you're listening to Parent in Hell with Mave, can you save Beckett? Beckett . And can you say Josh Whitakham? Beckett . Good girl. And Miles, can you say Rob Beckett? Rob Beckett. And can you say Josh Whitakham? Josh Whitakham. He sounds about twenty-six, yeah. Well done. Miles is five. May is Maive is two. I think five, you know. Yeah. It's a bit old for that, isn't it? My husband and I have listened to your podcast from the very beginning after hearing about it from my mum. Oh. When she hears this intro, she will hundred per cent shed happy tears. Oh, that's nice. Oh, that's nice. As we didn't tell her we were doing this. Stay sex and relatable, Sarah, three hundred and ninety seven months. Jordan three, hundred and ninety five months from Ipswich. That's that that will be nice 'cause imagine just watching, listening, and you hear your grandchild. Amazing. I the big question . That's the only time you hear your grandchild on a podcast and not panic. They might have a question on the rest of entertainment. No, no. Your grandchild? Texting in to say how many days does it take to film something special? Everyone's someone's grandchild . Oh, here we go. Here we go. It was quite wise, wasn't it? During that I realised that my jacket is filthy. That's okay. We're busy guys. Can I take my jacket off, Michael, or will I strobe ? I I think we'll be alright, won't we? It's up to you, I think you'll be fine. Take your jacket off, mate. I don't know what the rules are with strobing. Well, it can look a bit anno y Don't move your body like that. What? Well you ought now you're strobing yourself. Well , you strobing yourself off, mate. You're shaking your jacket off on the floor. Cat I've got a piss up. How are the cats by the way? Great actually. Uh well you have to take them out of the bedroom. You have to take them out of the bedroom. So last night um a squish and a squeeze your bedroom isn't it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you're all in the same room still. Love it. Have you got a mattress on the proper bed mattress? No. You've got to do that. I know. Accept your fate. You're on the floor, but at least have a mattress. Accept my f certain fate, yeah. I know. I quite like it. I don't I can't I can't imagine ever going back to a bed. Is anyone else still sleeping on the floor? Let us know. What's the longest you've slept on the floor for? Not in a bleak way. someone that was held captive. Yeah yeah Terry Waite. Anyway. Anyway Terry White's my go to reference for hostage. Yes. Give me some other genres of Lewis in that TV show. The hostage. Was it called that? No. It was called something else. Um Give me some other genres of thing and I'll tell you who my go to reference is. Um okay, um attractive lady. Cindy Crawford. As in like who do you think you are? Like if it's Cindy Crawford. Cindy Craw Cindy Crawford okay. Um Tough Man. Uh Ross Kemp . Great game Okay. Someone a bit silly. Uh Joe Pasquale. Nice. Um super intelligent. Um super intelligent, Carol Vorderman. Carol Clumsy. Clumsy. Um Mr. Bean. Yep. I thought I thought you were going to go Frank Spencer. Oh yeah, that's a good one, yeah, yeah. I could have gone with that. Sexy man? Sexy man, David Gandy. Good singer. Good singer. Uh Beyoncé? Um Bill, yeah. This is a good one. I'm not thinking . This is your first thing. I'm trying to. Have you got any more, Michael, you want to throw in? Bad boy. Bad boy. Yeah. Um Darren Day. Good person, kind heart. Oh, Jane Dame Judy Dench. Jane T Mother Teresa . Yeah, Mother Teresa. Um someone a bit cool and edgy. Oh um I think um the sleepered mods. Oh someone who's dangerous. Um Reggie Cray. Boring um bor ing. Oh that's a good one. Who's boring? Um It's hard when the reference points yourself. Um we don't get on . Someone who's boring, I would go with Steve Davis. It's a very neat short of end diagram of your reference. I love it. It's great. Well, on another intro, we'll do yours. But yes. We have a proper do you know what? If I was to say national treasure, you might say this person as you go to reference. A Hollywood star. Hollywood star. This is exciting because let's be honest. In six years of doing this, you have to work through a bit of chaff. Yeah. And today we've got all wheat. All wheat. Wheat of bits. Exactly. Wall to wall wheat. Four kids as well. Four kids, perfect. Brilliantly talented actor, Eddie Marzen. Is it Marsden or Marzon? Marzen, I think. Yeah, I always thought it was Marsden, but it's Marzen. Yeah, it's an I found that. Is that Chris Marsden, the board footballer? Exactly, yeah. That's what's that Ginger person. Um Paul Scott's. But that might be because I'm already thinking about football. Yeah, sorry, okay, yeah. I'll do some other ones, yeah. Tall person. We're rolling. We're rolling. Oh, we're rolling. Oh fuck. Eddie. Yeah. But normally when you're rolling, you were in character. Yeah, I am, yeah. Do you do you like being yourself or are you one of those actors that hates being Um I don't mind being myself I d I I I like b disappearing. It's it's what I do and I and I quite like that. When uh you know, initially up when I first started I I thought I was gonna be the next Tommy Steele, you know, like yeah. Like charismatic cock me and then my life and then real ise very very early on that that I was gonna be Long Cheney Junior. Yeah. And she was playing all the monsters so I thought might as well earn a few bucks. So how are you out in public though? Because you know, you've done so many films now and you're so known and loved. Do you find that a bit overwhelming when people like recognise you and want to talk to you when obviously you like disappearing and being a character. You know what's funny is people di recognize me for different things. Yeah. I mean a lot of people recognise me for Ray Donovan. Yeah. And specifically over to the States, Ray Donovan is a big thing. But over here, some people recognise you for the Mike Lee thing and they wanna sit down and talk to you about the artistic credentials . And then a lot of the young a lot a lot of the youth know me from Hancock so they just want to talk to me about Will Smith and then you talk about that, you know. Pinked after the Oscars. Yeah Yeah. I said look, I've had him already. So how many how many kids you got? Four kids already? Four kids, yeah. Right. I've got fifteen year old, seventeen year old, twenty year old and twenty-one. Wow. So they're have they for some of them flown the nests. Yeah, my my two oldestest have flown the n to university and drama school. My seventeen year olds yeah and he's about to my seventeen year old's about to go into university and my fifteen year olds about to do edules. And when you've got someone going to drama school, do you think, oh my god, it's a tough industry or do you think amazing? I'm so proud of them for Um I don't think they realise how tough it is. Yeah, because they've seen someone sail through it. Also as well they must see you being you, which is like just a normal dad going off to do something that's and go, Well if he could do it and he's that bloke and just round me out smoking them. And the funny thing is 'cause when you're when you're dad we there's a funny thing when you're dad, you're quite useless at home, aren't you and I'm I mean I was away so much, my wife kept it all going. So when I came home I just fitted in. I'm quite useless. So whenever whenever they they consider what I do, they think, Well, he's useless. So they kinda go, Well, you know, if he can do it, I can do it. Yeah. I remember being in Bethnel Green and there was a there was a guy with uh he had a drug a drug addiction, used to be on the street and he came up to me at Bethnel Green went, Hey don't want to ask you about acting 'cause I looked at you and I thought, well, if he could do it Well that well that representation's important and you've done a lot about that about working class people being in the arts. I think that's so important because you know if you can see someone else doing it then you it looks achievable rather than it being totally alien. For me, I used to love Billy Connolly and Richard Pryor, but they felt like such he was obviously like a folk singer and from Scotland, which when you grab in South East London's like this crazy. Exactly. And Richard Pryor and these mad stories about. Exactly, yeah, exactly. But neither of them are anything like you. But when I saw Alan Davis and Peter Kay talking about dogs and baked bean juice and sprang biscuits. and all that I was like, oh there's a world like these are talking about things I understand and maybe I can do it. Yeah, yeah so like you know, for your kids like well it must be weird that you know they're going into a world now where they're going to uni and studying and stuff like that and they're growing up in a totally different way to what how you grew up. Well I one of the hardest things about for me being a parent is I I come from a completely different background to the ones my kids live in. So sometimes you don't realise how alien it is. When like when my my my boys come from Westland and I went to quite a posh school and they'd play football and all the other dads would be like, oh well done Jasper well done and they'll be on on the the w like, come on, four post boy! Four posts! Come on, accuse you against that . One day with my son, my uh my my my eldest son, and my daughter's the eldest, but my eldest boy, he was in the middle of a football game, he said he stopped, he stopped running he said daddy less cockney let's cock me you've got range haven't you come on blue can you disappear for a bit dad at the moment I was listening my dad used to have his a fag hanging And I was literally my father for a minute, you know. Yeah, gone boy, boy, black My uh my dad had a we had a neighbour called Roy Roy the Boy, who's a cab driver, and he had his cab, it was perfectly clean, black cab drive, and it was it had done three hundred thousand miles, right? And this was I lived sort of near Motting or Melton Way and um I had a girlfriend in Islington, North London. And he'd come up to me and it was so that generation of people, he might have been about your dad's age actually, he'd come up and went, What you going up to North London for, boy? And it was like going all the way there for a girlfriend. But that boy, boy, it's that sort of died off a little bit. That I'm calling the kid boy. Do you say, I came up in this situation and you're in this situation? And the worst thing I did was to tell my kids that because I left school at I left school at fifteen before I was sixteen 'cause I didn't really do any G C S I so I've got no qualifications. And I thought I thought that would inspire them because I I was giving them a good life. Yeah. And I said, you look, you know, I and but and and but I soon realized that they would say to me, Daddy, you don't know what you're talking about because you never did exams. So there is a point where I was just useless. Yeah. There was nothing I could do. You know, and even even with like doing drama at school, I can't really give 'em any notes because I'm not really a uh um a an experienced actor, I'm just daddy and daddy's useless. Really did you go up through drama school and stuff . I eventually got into Mountview when I was I was an apprentice printer initially, and I was I was in a club in uh May Street in Hackney, yeah, and I was dancing in the club and with my mate Emmanuel, and Manuel was like tall St. Lucian of St. Lucian descent look gorgeous and he ended up being a model and someone asked him to be an extra in a movie and he said yeah can I take Eddie? And they took me and I was there and I saw Jamie Foreman who became a friend of mine do a scene on this dance floor where you had to walk across the dance floor and I suddenly thought God I want to be an act that's what I want to do and that's how it started. Wow. Yeah and so how did you then go to get into drama school as well? Well first of all me and Emmanuel I tried to get into drama school so manual coached me on and neither of us knew what we were doing. So I used to be a printer, right? So in print and in printing you got this thing called uh I don't know bore you, but printing is all about the chemical balance between the ink and the paper. Right. And when it's wrong, you get this thing called sc umming where the day paper gets dirty, right? So on Shakespeare, you know in Shakespeare you got a lot of commas like where before words like there's a comma where they miss out the beginning of a word pentameter. I didn't know what that was. So I'm reading this thing and I'm going to man look at that scumming on that. Look at that . I had no idea what I was doing. And I tried for four year about four years to get into drama school. Basically got in. Do you know whatt you want' your boss pay for you to go in. Yeah he was an Eastern bookmaker. Yeah he paid for he said to me what do you want to do? I said what do you want to do boy? Yeah and I said I want to be a I want to be an actor. He said well if you get in I'll pay. And he did. Oh wow yeah he used to run a book in Wolf and Stone Doc Oh wow. So it's a totally different childhood your kids have had. Completely different. A completely but they love going back to the East End. Yeah they love going back, they go back there, they go back. I got Emmanuel's mum, his mum, my kids go and see her at Christ Oh wow you still you can still very much in touch with it yeah and my kids love that. It's funny because it's changed a lot, right? Not not not down my end. Once you get past Politzi's it's still the same. I mean up near Shawed it, you saw you saw, you know, uh hipster socialists walking round. It was Twats that moved into Victoria Park. That was me, I left. I left. I've got back to Deb and my roots . This episode is brought to you by Expedia and Visit Scotland. Some places you don't just visit, they shape the stories you carry long after you've left. Start your story in Scotland this spring and surround yourself with blooming scenery, fresh air. Farm animals making their grand debut. Josh, can I tell you something I love about Scotland? Please do. And it's gonna shock you. Go on. We know how beautiful it is. We know the people are great. Oh, it's glorious. I'm into the food. Are you? Talk to me. You don't think of it straight away, but when I was in Glasgow and Edinburgh, yeah, they do all the Scottish stuff, obviously. However, they also do the curry. Like nowhere else I've been. I'd say it's the foodiest country in the UK. It's so good in Scotland. I I think about this a lot. I went to Loch Ness. How serene I felt on the edge of Loch Ness. I love the highlands, Rob. It's beautiful. It's beautiful, Rob. Pick a home base and explore from there. Deep dive into the local food scene, explore striking landscapes and discover deep history around every corner. It's easy to get to, easy to navigate and full of warm people who'll make you feel right at home. Start planning your own Scottish holiday today at expedia.co.uk slash visit scotland so four kids. Yes. And they presumably have come on you know, you've been busy for you, know, twenty years, like sp super back to back presumably. And they've grown up on they've grown up travelling. When we did uh we did Ray Donovan and my wife, bless her, was amazing. She had four kids under the age of seven and she used to take them on planes to over to LA to see me. Oh. Like school holidays and summer holidays and be with me. And they were amazing. They grew up and they grew up on film sets. They grew up on in Culver City where did Ray Donovan They grew up around that and they used to love the uh all the food because they had a load of sweet. You could always tell when Eddie's kids were there because all the ha all the door handles in the studio were sticky because the kids were going And w and were the studio and the produ producers happy for that to happen? Dash had a kid so we'd all have barbecues, all the kids grew up together. It was great fun. Because you're part of makeup artists is that right? My wife was a makeup, she's a writer now, but she was a makeup artist. Yeah, so exactly how you met Yeah. And then did she stop that one the kids were younger then when you were working? She met me. Do you remember Monkey Magic? No, what was Monkey Magic? Monkey Big Steve. Do you remember that? Oh no, the Well it was dubbed. Yeah, yeah. I played to done a movie of that and I played Pixie. Right. So I was Pixie. So my wife did make up. She mar she ended up marrying the pig. But the thing is, the boyfriend before me was like good looking and he was a model and he had headshots. So I used to put his photograph on the fridge and me as a pig next to it. What you could have won. Yeah. Yeah. And what you like as a dad then? Because you seem very affable and fun. Um I can be a sergeant major one week and a hippie the next. Can you? Because you don't know what you're doing, do you? No. You know, when you go to those parent carters when you're a kid and when you're when you're about to have your first kid and someone's read a book and they think, Well, that's how you do it, you think no. Yeah. You you y you you make it up as you go along really. Yeah. All you can do is you just just love 'em really, you know. Yeah. And they do see the worst of you and they see the best of you. Yeah. You know, I mean my there's two of my kids don't get on and one of my kids the other day uh uh kind of had uh got really upset and stormed out of the house and we didn't know where it was and then the one that he doesn't get on with phone he said no he's with me don't worry I've got him and then you suddenly realize that there's connections you did you you don't realize you know and it's really good like that really yeah I I I um I' gotve a funny story is uh I I meditate 'cause I I s I suffered from uh anxiety so I meditate every day. And uh I was trying to teach two of my kids my two youngest to meditate. 'Cause they were like run running. a Whatge was this when they're little? And I said, right, we're gonna meditate, boys, so sit down, I'm gonna show you how to do it. And I sat down. And I closed my eyes with them and I thought and I for a couple of minutes and I thought this is going really well and I was talking them through it, we're closing my eyes. And I thought they're really quiet this is ri and I opened my eyes and the older one is standing he's pulled his pants and trousers down and he's getting his woolly and he's going and the younger one is is trying crying Did you always want a big family like that then? 'Cause it must be exciting. Like always stuff going on and like Yeah, it it''ss it's I mean exciting stroke exhausting. Yeah, it's both it's both I mean life's like that though, isn't it? I mean life's uh one thing you realise one thing I've realized f was that when I when I was younger and I wanted to be an actor , I thought once I achieved that, I'm gonna life's just gonna be happiness is gonna be one direction. Yeah. Yeah. And life's not like life expands like a flower, expands. So you I I love it, but it's also exhausting, stressful, there's a responsibility and per and being a parent is like that, isn't it? Yeah. It the joy is the joy is one direction and it's amazing and the love you feel, but the anxiety you feel and the you know I mean I tell my wife to turn off that live three sixty, you know, tracker. You know where the tra oh look she knows where I had twenty one is my and I say turn it off. Yeah. I mean god my mum would have known where I was when I was There's no way. Well yeah twenty 'cause that's the thing it's like you sort of have it when they're like fifteen and they go to the shops for the first time. But when they're twenty one Yeah, you think you know my my sons are all over the place. Yeah. You know, he's twenty he's twenty he's a good looking boy, girls love him, you know. I mean I honestly when I was when I was a I couldn't pull a toilet chain and he and he's out and he's out all over the place, you know . So what like now 'cause like when they're th younger and you you're in charge and you sort of come on set and follow us around. Now they're off doing their own thing. How do you all come together as a family? Is there anything you you do or do you have special time together as a colleague? I do a Sunday roast. Uh so I I do like to do a Sunday roast and uh a friend of mine taught me how to do potatoes and I'd do my potatoes and I matches. What you gotta do, you gotta boil them, um first thing in the morning, boil 'em, peel em and boil them and then leave them to dry for like three or four hours before you put them in. So all the moisture goes out of them them. So when you put in the oven they come out they're really crisp and soft inside. Yeah. There we go. That's what you want. That's what you want. That's what you want to promote, isn't it? Potatoes. And also as your kids miss fair, put your kids in the oven, huh? That's that Matthew McConaughey's you know, his uh viral was it um tuna salad he did. That's gonna be our version of that . What's his tuna salad? Well he e th he he spoke on a podcast about tuna salad and it went viral and people made the salad. Fuck it. We're a bit more of a dry potato kind of guy. Have you worked with McConnell? Twice. Twice. Twice, yeah. Nice. I did Graham Norton with him. Did you? Yes, it's our competition, mate. Let Eddie tell us . That's what we do, we get guests on and then we try an out anecdotum. Yeah, who you met? Go on, give me more, give me more, give me more. You met Robert? I have. I've got a feeling Eddie might beat you. No, I won, honestly. I won. What was score say is he like? He was already. Have you met? No. I mean what I mean is what was he like with you? Because when he was with me, he was C hay Cha I could make your style that I don't want it, Mark. How did you eat your potatoes? It was all right. I mean I I had nine months with him on uh Gangs to New York in Rome. Yeah. He was fascinating. Nine months. That's pre-kids though more or less. Pre-kids, yeah. My wife came out. It was wonderful. We had I poster in in Rome. Oh. St. Peter's Square. I was in my pajamas. We were both half-cart, I was in my pajamas . I lived on a road on the on the on the entrance to St. Peter's Square. So all the saints were looking down. I asked the marriage . Oh my wow. It was amazing. Wow. And what was Daniel Day Lewis like? Was he a laugh? Oh he was a laugh, yeah. Was he? Yeah, joking. No, he was a laugh. 'Cause he's known to be serious, right? No, people misunderstand what he does. People think that that when he when he's keeping in character. The thinky he's kind of keeping the psychological and he's not what he's doing is he's keeping the physicality, the accent, but you can ask him about have you read this, seen this article in the Guardian, Daniel? You do that with this whole working class South East London thing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm I'm riding trained. Your Benedict Campbell's elder problem. Yeah And I just put this on a stay in road but it's just now podcasts is coming on and social media's exhausting. Do you talk to uh like really famous people that you say like McConaughey? Would you sit around and go, I'm having this problem with my kid won't sleep or whatever. One of the things you talk about a lot is the logistics of being a parent and the industry. Yeah. So what Matthew does is he I think his kids come with him, trouble you know, and he does that. But he's had to work that out. We all do. I mean I um all of us have the same problems. We're away for a couple of nights all the at all but literally you've been waiting you away for six months and you're trying to work out how to do it and whether and how to get the kids out and when to get back . That's probably the big that's the thing you talk about most of all. The acting is easy. No it is. It's the logistics of your life. So will people have their kids like educated on set and stuff. Yeah, yeah, a lot of the crew do as well. Sometimes you go and I remember going doing Miami Vice in wi uh with Michael Mann and walking past this hotel and realizing that all the crew and their families were in this one hotel. Yeah. So they would all have like home schooling and then they'd have a period off where they all go and jump in the pool and it was a great life for them. How how did you manage that then? When you know, when they were back in school pro you know, it's easy when they're under five and they can come yeah over, but when they're in in school, and they've got their own lives and clubs and the case. No, I was doing I was doing a film with Stellan Skarsgaard, who had load of kids who are now big movie stars. And when I was very early in, I I had young kids and Stellan had kids, and his advice to me was Eddie, when you do a film and they want to put you in a hotel which can be quite expensive, don't ask for a hotel. A ask for a house and have extra rooms so when your kids come and see you, they can bring their friends with them or their cousins. So they can bring their lives with them. Yes. Do you know what I mean? He said that's the best thing to do. And I've I've done that ever since really. So have you seen these kids grow up in like other people's kids grow up? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's the you know and the thing is people don't realize they're all good parents, you know. It's 'cause it's a weird old life to choose for yourself. It's weird. And you and we were saying before we start, you're booked up till next summer now, aren't you? Yeah. So you're on then you have promo and stuff. Is that quite fun when you get to the promo 'cause you're back home in the evenings, you go out in a day and do I don't know you see I'm always um I can't do that fucking podcast first. Pricks. Ironically you promote Christ . I was very excited. I'm coming to see you too always you're always prepping one sh well shooting one prepping one, shooting one and promoting one. It's like a it's like a always. It's just a you know. And have you turned down drop like would you if you were if you were a year in Australia or something, would you go I just can't do that. No, I've been I've been asked to do things and uh I think I was approached to do the rings of power when they first went to New Zealand and I said no I'm not gonna do that. But now they came back to the U K and then they asked me to do a season C I'll do it, you know. Yeah. And I and then I and then I'll be back. I think I think they came back for me. Yeah But it's all it's all it's all you know, it's all very um it's it the biggest challenge is marrying your career and your family life. The biggest achievement when when we finished nine years of Ray Donovan , I suddenly ed realis as a family we were still together. That was the biggest achievement. Above and beyond anything else. So how often like and how would that work with like your partner and stuff? Like how often are you getting back and forth or is are you out there full-time and they come and visit? What happened was we went the first season, I because they were they were making the show and they were the and it the show was just beginning, my wife had to come out like she would come out a week before the school holidays and a week after with the kids and we'd be at home and the school would give them work to do and they'd do the work and then go back. But we realized that the kids were always jet-lagged. Yeah. So it wasn't a great idea. Second season we moved out there and we lived out there and then my oldest son um developed m well he we realized he had Tourette's and he has quite quite extreme Tourette. So we realized that we needed a support network and we didn't like so we came back the end of season two. Season three they got a new show runner in and I said to him, I'll I'll can c can I commute back and forth. So they would allow me to go home at weekends. I'll go out to LA, fly back weekends and and for school holidays and uh like Easter and and summer holiday, my wife would bring the kids out. So we managed to keep together. 'Cause from LA to L Yeah, yeah. Oh you just were you just sleeping the pants Do you 'cause when you sign up to a show like that, you a you don't know whether it'll be one series, presumably. But presumably you're contracted for the Yeah, they've got an option on you. They've got an option for like seven years. Plenty yeah. So you gotta do you they they want you they have you. So you knew show prisoner. Yeah yeah yeah . Where was it filled? In Cardiff. There you go, perfect. Lovely. And you know the one no ordinary heist. That's gonna go on sky. It's out in the cinema this week. Yeah. As we filmed, but that's going on Sky as well. What was that was uh true story in Belfast. We filmed that in Dublin. Couple of nice little local drums. No, we did that. So that's coming out that's coming out at the end of this week and then Sky of uh it's the Sky Originals that's coming out later on in the year on Sky. It's a great film. So what's the premise of that film then? It's uh it's a true s it was based on the true story about in in two thousand four there was a northern bank robbery in Belfast, which is the biggest cash robbery in the history of Britain and Ireland. And and what the robbers did was they kidnapped the security guard's wife and the no, security guard's mum and the bank manager's wife and threatened to kill them unless the security guard and the bank manager rob the bank themselves. Oh my god , and the security guard yeah and the security guard and the bank I'm the bank manager. Right. And Aynah Hardwick who played Roy Keene , he's uh he's um he he plays the security guard. But the funny thing is he's very good in he. I mean I was that fan . And so that's on that's out now. And that's coming out on Friday, yeah. It's a lovely film. And it'll be on Sky. Yeah, and I'm not sure. Did he play Keane before or after that? Before that. He played Keane before that. He played Roy Keane before yeah, load of stories back. You're northern Irish in that. I'm northern Irish in that. And then are you Welsh in prisoner? No, I'm well I'm uh I'm no I'm kind of uh I'm kind of London in prisoner. Your accent does you can notice it because you've obviously played it, it doesn't go in and out, it goes very east London, then it goes out in the right. When I go back to East End sometimes my wife can't understand what I'm saying. Oh really? Really gets really strong. And some then then and then I'm you know and I'm talking with a blood of actors and I sound like Stephen Fry. Is she has she got working class background or more good. No she comes from well she comes from she comes from uh Windsor and Dashett. Oh yeah. So when you even before the kids did you notice differences in your upbringings and stuff and and and that kind of stuff. She uh I she w And we and I took my took my took my then girlfriend around to have uh a meal with him and Charlie went to her was at a meal and Charlie went, um, do you want an R eight? And she went, what did he say? I said, he said, do you want an after eight? Can you tell when you're making something if it's good? So if you're on the if you're on Gangs of New York set , you're doing the odd scene, you cut you don't know how it all pieces together, you're kind of you don't know how he's gonna edit it, how much when you're doing something can you go, I know this is gonna be a hit or I know this doesn't quite work . I dunno, I I I th I think you can only judge it by your own work. I mean it's very interesting. I you know, sometimes I've worked with comedians, right? A a as in acting. Yeah. And the rhythm of comedians is a very short term there's a there's an immediate payoff because you you can judge whether an audience likes what you're doing, of course yeah. So the rhythm of being a comedian is is like you do something and y you wanna you want to uh acknowledgement or reassurance immediately to judge how it's going down. I want immediate reassurance. Not just in comedy, just constantly life, yeah. Life. Especially sex. Yeah, yeah. How was that? Tell me now. Is that okay? Yeah . But acting is different now, I think. Acting is you you've got to judge whether you're just you've gotta be you've gotta be true and then let it go. And then think I I've d my job is just to be honest in what I do. Don't show off and step back and let them do what they wanna do with it really. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so do you when you watch things do you get a bit I hate watching things. Do you? I hate watching things. I haven't seen Prisoner. And no, I haven't seen Prisoner because I've just I just I've just too n too soft. I don't watch anything I do . Honestly, I think I'm I you know, I wake up in the morning and I think and I I'm offended when I look in the mirror. So it's worked out for you. It's not like you go and that's what's held me back. Do you know what I mean? Like you've not watched anything and it's all gone well. Yeah, no, I I hate watching myself. Uh because I also you also know what you're trying to achieve. You can see the cogs working, can't you? And when you get you must have to do it at premiers though. And that's must be worse. Oh though that's easier. Is it? Yeah, because what happens is you tap into their consciousness. So so if you watch it with a collective consciousness and then suddenly realize oh yeah so you on your own watching it on your own in your d in a T V i it's terrible. Yeah. 'Cause you're so self conscious and you're so insecure. You know without naming names, have you sat in a premiere of your own film ever and thought Oh this is shite I've done some tem I've done some I've done Oh god Yeah, I honestly yeah I've done some terrible stuff. Honestly. But you but the world averages everyone has, right? Yeah, of everyone has. And the funny thing is when people say to me, when people say you make incredible choices, I love the choices you make. I say yeah, you should see some of the crap I didn't get. I'm literally auditioned for cats. Did you? And I didn't. No, and they gave it to Ray Winston. Oh wow. And he played the part that I auditioned for. Oh my god I can't believe you're still auditioning. I auditioned for cats. Because I'd never I wasn't singer and I thought, well yeah, I'd do that. And then Ray got it and and it was and it's the kindest thing he's ever done for me. He took one for the two. You spoke about meditating and stuff like that. How much are you doing that like is that everyy da? And or do you th do you increase that sometimes when you've got l a lot of high pressure work coming in? If I'm doing if I'm doing like sometimes if I'm doing a long makeup job, like on Lord of the R on Rings of Power, I would In the makeup train? I was sit in the makeup chain doing it. With headphones in or just on your own. There's a there's an a thing I wear you have bells and the bells every five minutes and it tells me what to go to a different level or whatever. Is that transcendental meditation? No, it's just breathing, it's just pretty simple. It's not uh anything I don't like the word spiritual because it sounds a bit puncy, do you know what I mean? Yeah. So I I to me it's just it's all just no, it's not I could beat up if I want to. So it's all a feed off energy? I won't tell anyone if you do. I think you might. I've definitely heard you say you feed off energy. The only way the only thing about energy is saying listen, boy, there's radiators and there's drains. Make sure you're a radiator. But no, I do it I do it every day and it's it's just mindfulness of breat hing really. Yeah. Yeah. And it's been uh it's for me it's been over thirty years it's been great. And I I can feel it. If there's days when I can't do it for whatever reason, you can really I for me I can feel it. My anxiety So when you get up with your kids when they were seven, five, two, and three or whatever they were, were you managing to fit it in? I'd get them to school and then come back and do it. And sometimes when you feel So I I so I I meditate a lot and I do it before my shows normally 'cause I get to the I'll do the sound check and then I've got like an hour and a half. Yeah on stage. Just listen to the fucking bells and I ask what job you do. Alright. Shut up . You'll all benefit from this . I I find that on tour actually which on paper should be the most stressful time. I'm at my most peace because every day I'm doing like forty five minutes of it in the dressing room and then when I get back home like you say, this stuff that we struggle with a bit is that you have to try and fit back into family and you can't and the hardest thing about kids isn't that you're doing a lot is that you're doing nothing because you every five you you you're tuned into their rhythm so for five minutes you're doing this and five minutes you're doing that and your brain is like wow wow wow. But with when you' re at work, you're focused on one thing. So you can work twelve hours, but because your mind is centered on one thing, it's less exhausting. That's what I find. And also you can say to people at work, give me twenty minutes and I'll be much better for it. Whereas a kid you can't go right, just don't w walk into the fire. I'm gonna shut my eyes and meditate. 'Cause my wife worked on worked on film sets, so she she kind of knew how I was being treated, you know, I was being treated like a movie star. So so sometimes she's like she's at home saying, He's got bad temperature and he's got you know he's got chicken pots on and I'll be like, Oh I'm so sorry but yeah I'll have a mocker y so hard for her She knew she knew I was getting looked after. And are you talking to her when she's calling you about a kid having a temperature in the accent of your character? No, no, I come out of it. You come out of it. Not that deep. No,. no. Well I can't put them to bed I've got Parkinson's. She's funny. I th the funny thing is when I audition for Ray Donovan, I I w I went into Soho to do an audition. And um and and it's a great lesson about playing someone with Parkinson's. Because you have to work out where the edges frame is. So I did this audition and I thought, oh, it's great. And my wife was she said, you're just wanking. Because you're literally like that. But Yeah like that. So you literally have to do well on Ray Donovan, you see me I'm always shaking in vision. Because if you're not it just to slow down and do less then, or you still got that bug and hunger. The kids have got out now, so surely I don't know, I mean I've I've just signed on to do a new uh uh a series in New York for FX. So that's kind of like on a Ray Donovan kind of thing. Oh, so that could if that goes, that could be a lot. Yeah, lovely. I'm doing my own. There must be actors that are in those things thinking I could fucking do with the ratings dropping off here 'cause I'm stuck for the next seven years. There must be people in history who've gone I'm stuck in fucking lost. Well if you know if you there's certain actors when you do it, you know you're gonna be a big star and they and they wanna get out and do you know. Yeah like Piers Brosnan was doing something and he couldn't be James Bond and he had to be James Bond. But if you if you're you trapped in the same show for years and years with the same co stars on every single Friday night there's no way out, you know. Let's talk about Tourette's Are you alright to talk about your son's turrets? So when did you first realise that he had Tourette's? Well the funny thing is Dash Myhawk, who played Bunchie in Ray Donovan played my brother. He he has Tourette's. So he was he's a big advocate for Tourette's in America. Yeah. And we were on set one day and we were and I said I said I don't know what's wrong with my boy. He every time we sit down at a meal, he he has to jump up, he has to sit up. And Dash was concerned, how long has he been doing? I said no, he's been doing it, he does things like all his life. What do you mean sit up like that? Like he literally goes like that. It was a tick he had. Yeah. And Dash said he said it sounds like Tourette's and he got us in to see some specialists at UCLA. And then they diagnosed it and we realized that that he'd had this all his life, but had been suppressing it, you know. Right . And then and then he came back to we came back to London and um there's times when it can be really bad. I mean the one of the worst times was when he was doing A levels and me and my wife had to type for him because he had a tick where he would just delete everything. So we had to type all all his stuff. Yeah and he's had some things where he really hurts his neck. But so he was so he suffered from that. But he was a good boy. He he went on BBC television and spoke about it and he was very nervous. And he went on with me and to just to talk about w you know, wi with for the Tourette's ch charity. Yeah. And he I'm very proud of him. He made a he made a film, he studied film on A level and made a film about having Tourette's. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. And is there anything like so how does it work in terms of how he lives with it and stuff? Is there things he can do to kind of help control it and stuff or just explain the th I mean the interesting thing is he he's at drama school so when he's acting and this is very common with people with Tourette's when they're doing well like they play music or if they're drumming or if they're when he's acting he doesn't have ticks. It's when he it's it's afterwards. You get that with people's stammas as well, don't you? Exactly, exactly, exactly the same. So for instance, if he would have gone to that evening at the BAFTAs, he would have been that would have been almost so stimulating for him. He he would have to do it. So what is it that stimulates? your brain that um the best way to describe it is I think I mean I'm I don't have Tourette so it's very hard for me to give it an existential description but you know when you when you're in a tall building you stand at the edge of a tall building and part of you thinks about jumping off. And you you do your that's your brain telling you to uh uh assess the danger of that right and it's like that but Tourette's people have that when when you say when you want to say the worst possible thing, you'll say it. Yeah. But it's not only vocal, only ten percent have have the vocal ticks. The other thing is is physical as well. You know, my my son will have terrible injuries to his necks and and shoulders because of ticks and things. Yeah. God, that's so tough. And exhausting for him. And then was it a a relief getting that diagnosis so that then you can understand that. And Dash was brilliant because Dash is Dash was amazing because Dash has w when we're not filming he has quite extreme Tourette's and then when we're filming he w so w what was funny was he wo we'd be act we'd be w just about to act and he would be full he'd be full of like physical movements because he had Tourette's and they go and I wouldn't and then they go action and then it did stop and I started Wow So it's amazing to talk about it as well and raise the awareness of it. what what are the kind of things that parents would first notice of that then? Well mo a lot of kids can have ticks. A lot of kids will have things, but if you have it for over a year, then that's usually a sign that it's some kind of uh that it's it's it's it's it's a form of Tourette's really. And also it's like a it's it's it's on the same spectrum as ADHD and and uh uh it's not it's on that spectrum. So it's like a flashing light for that within other members of the family as well. Right., right. Yeah Okay. Wow. But he's managed to go to film school and drama school. Drama school, yeah. And and he works on a flower stall, he's been working on a flower stall since he was fifteen. And that's been one of the best things for him. Oh , he has to engage with the public. And everyone knows him in the area and they know he has Tourette's and they and he's great and he talks to the reconnect with your working class roots. Yeah, yeah. Is that what it is? Yeah , I've got a barrel out and I And so when he's 'cause you say when th you're engaged in acting it stops. Yes. Is there other things if he was really engaged with like uh the on the flower stall, would that take his mind off it. So if he's like Yeah. Is it like a hyper focus thing or something that's something if you can focus your mind it's it's very s it's like people with sometimes people with Parkinson's, if you ask them to if you ask them to step over uh uh a bromstick, they can't do it. But if you put a broomstick in front of them, they will spontaneously do it. There's something about the way your brain tells you what to do how to do things. Yeah. So he he sub the it's worse for him when he's exhausted, tired, yeah, when he's stressed, when his diet he hasn't had a good diet, things like that. Which are for a teenager are quite normal, you know. Yeah, you have pot nood when you're a student you got you live on pot noodle for four years or whatever. When you're not sleeping, you're out of it. Yeah. Yeah. And how about like with sleeping and stuff? So if you go to bed are you is he No, no, he sleeps he sleep my wife my wife was really good with his sleeping, got really made him you know it was very hard for him when he was jet lagged. That was that was another thing. The jet lag . It's a really good thing to talk about 'cause you don't get many people talking about it. Did you feel like it was a thing you wanted to be a like oh I've got a platform here to talk about this? Well he he's amazing and and and um he's been approached of recently to do some more talking about it. He's very he's very um he's very articulate about it. He's very he's he's very brave because he was really scared about going on the BBC News. Yeah. And I said to him, you're you know, I I went on with him and he w he I I in the end that you know you there's this thing, I'm gonna I'm gonna help you get through it. I I I just just said to shut up and he just sat there beaming. Yeah, just said where you go and he was brilliant. It's incredible. Yeah, it's uh it's more important than ever, I think, to be vocal about that after what went on, which was totally unacceptable. Yeah. And some of the reactions to it were disgusting really. Yeah, I I came back I was in Dublin doing a f because I'm a I'm patron of the charity. Yeah. The Tourette's charity. So I was in Dublin doing the premiere for Northern Reheist. And when I came back I heard about what had happened at the Baptist . And then um uh Christian Guru Murti and on Channel 4 did a podcast with me and Dawn Butler and we did a where we just talked about you know the experience for the black community and the experience for the Tourette's community and that the two truths exist at the same time and she was brilliant she was amazed she's gonna have the film uh icewear being shown at the at the houses of parliament and it's really just taking the heat out of the situation because social media social media can 't deal with two truths at the same time. You can only do with one and not the other, you know. And and and and this and compassion is dealing with multiple truths, isn't it ? Yeah. Do you did you like that film? Yeah it's amazing. I thought I thought the performances were incredible. I I th thougoughtht I thought the way it was written, I was so proud. There's an amazing scene where he's in a car with a girl and you know that the girl has got Tourette's and he hasn't, but he's improvising with her with the and it's just incredible. Yeah. Yeah. I was so proud of that. I mean it's done so much good for everybody. Yeah. For the whole for the whole community really. Final question, Eddie. Uh thanks for coming. It's a joy. We've done six years of this. We do two episodes a week. We've had some chaff on. How do you do it when you're touring stuff? You can do it remotely. Oh you do it remotely? Yeah yeah yeah. But we've only just started doing it in personal recently but to have someone of your level on the real colours for us. Oh yeah. We wouldn't we wouldn't zoom you.. No Can't zoom you. Face like mine, you won't see you . Do you think like 'cause you've got like a identifiable look, right? You are well okay. I'm gonna let you two do this. No no but you look like you n you don't just look like a another person. Like do you does that help you with parts and stuff? Do you think you are blessed with the look of 'cause let's be honest, we've both got quite kind of odd looks, which I think helps with us being called. I know, I'm saying that's us. I tell you what I think I think I look like the other. Right. And I think and and w and w the way the way especially within film, the way film is made is the protagonist. If if you uh I think a film story is structured like a ghost train ride, right? Yeah. And the protagonist is usually quite good looking and quite neutral. And they become an so that they become an avatar for the audience to sit in with and see the see everything through their perspective. Yeah. So they become the the train on which the ghost train ride goes on, right? Yeah. And I play the guy who goes boo. Right. Yeah. And that's that's what I do. Do you think that's a comedian thing as well? But we I I think it's a huge disadvantage to be incredibly good looking as a comedian. I've managed you got a power up. Imagine the tickets you'd be selling. You just gotta overcome those obstacles, isn't it? It's true though, because like you have to I think comedian y you need a face that works for that, right? Yeah. And I I went to get some new glasses and they were trying to get me in like the c I always go see through because they'll get me in these big ones and I was like there's too much going on with my face already. I've got the teeth, I've got the eyes, the beard, yeah, I don't need a big I look like all of fucking guess who at once on my head. And I don't know and I put another No try these on, I'll put 'em on. And she burst out laughing and went, see? I thought I I thought I'll calm it down. Um these go more neutral. Should I do the final question? Do the final question, Rob. Okay. So um Eddie. glasses. There you go. Too much going on. Too much. No, you got nice glasses. Do you know what? I was delighted when I got glasses 'cause I thought my face needs something. I've got to be a little you look a lot more intelligent with your glasses, don't you? Yes mate. It's good as a lot of communists do like do you like the that put on the punchline It's a little tick. You go Kenneth Williams Just a funny little just it gets the ball over the line if it's a bit Yeah. Uh what's the one thing your wife does parenting wise where you go, she's amazing. I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have this person raising, you know, and giving birth to our children. And then what's the one thing she does as a parent? It's quite annoying and winds you up, but you've not mentioned it. Um and if you were to, she may go. Well he's got a point there. Even if she doesn't admit. She's amazing uh organizing everything. She organizes the kids have had so much support like school and and they've had a great home life and she's been an amazing mum in that she it everything to do with blues tourette's and and other issues and and my kids have all done academically much much better than I could ever imagine. They made it to sixteen. You pardon? They made it to sixteen. But earlier in the interview you did say your fifteen year olds doing A levels, which I imagine isn't. So he's doing GCs. Right, so although my seventeen year old i is really bright. He's doing he wants to be a quantum physicist. Bloody I can't even say it. Where's that come from? I well his grandfather on on my wife's side was a rocket scientist. Oh wow probably there then. What the market is a barrel, Watney Market Oh the land spell, I reckon it's him. Yeah I'm lucky if I became my lot became cab drivers. So you say she's amazing at that. She's an amazing mother in that she's everything every the every kid has been incredibly supported and but in for individual needs. Yeah. So she's got this amazing mind where she can do some I can't, I'm useless. I just come back and fit in, but she's been amazing at that. always say that we make we make vices of our virtues. So the opposite side of that is sometimes if my if my if my s if my kids are like if my son is doing an audition and I go right, acting white she goes no, let me and she says yeah but I'm the mum. So that's that makes me laugh yeah. She's so across everything. Yeah. Even the acting advice. Yeah. Yeah. I like we make vices of our virtues. I've not heard that before. It's nice saying, isn't it? Yeah. It's very true though, isn't it? It's really true. Sometimes there's certain elements of people you think I love that about him, but I hate that. Sky? Are they both Sky? One's a Sky. Julie Heights is is a Sky Original film and Prisoner is Sky TV series. Drama, yeah. Oh there you go. Yeah. There you go. It's lovely. Thanks guys. Story, like Monsters Inc., stays with you forever. And Disney Plus is where you'll find your next great story. From the return of the award-winning hit series Rivals. Welcome to the naughty show on television. To the unmissable crime drama high potential. Gotta dead body, gotta go. A lifetime of great stories awaits. This spring on Disney Plus. 18 Plus. Subscription required. Ts and C's apply.