Vicky McClure, roast topside of beef with peppercorn gravy & aligot, and a bloody Mary

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0:39Hello, welcome to Dish from Wictros. I'm Nick Grimshaw. And I'm Angela Hartnett. Hi, Angela Hartnett. Hello, Nick Grimshaw. How are you? I'm very well, thanks. Do you know what we've not spoken about? We've not spoken about the live episode of Dish. The live episode, yes. But it was also the opening of your new restaurant as well. Yes, yeah. Terrible night to open a restaurant and do a live show. But did you enjoy it? I did, I did. Because that was our biggest live show today. 2 ,000 plus people. Nuts, I know. Really crazy. Yeah, but it was fun. I really enjoyed it. I was really relaxed into it.

1:09And I thought Jack was brilliant. I loved it. No, no, you love the stage. Yeah. You basically should be an actor. I find it quite hard now to eat dinner not on the Royal Opera House stage. With 2 ,000 people in front of you. Yeah, no trapdoor. No trapdoor. No lowering down of objects. I know, we need to, if you do do it again, we need to use more of the effects, I think. I think definitely. Yeah. Like coming out of the trapdoor or hanging from the ceiling, I think that would be the way to do it. Have you ever seen when Pink does a show and she gets like flung around a stadium? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:41That could be you. That could be us, yeah. Could be you with a pot of gravy or something. The live show that we did, you'll actually be able to check out pretty soon, in November, be able to see what happened when me and Ange and Jack Whitehall did Dish Live at the Ron Opera House. I know, amazing. Do you still have that now, Dismisha? Nick Grimshaw to the stage. Do you remember that when we were there? No, it was funny, wasn't it? So when you've been in the dressing rooms there. Angela Hartnett to the stage. Yeah, they'd be like, and the next call is for Angela Hartnett to the stage. We don't even know where the stage is.

2:15We didn't know where the stage was. We both said that again. Where's the stage? You don't actually know. And they said it a few times. They were like, final call now for Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett. Me and Angela were like, where is the stage? We'd never been. Hey, today on the podcast, we have Vicky McClure. Oh, very exciting. who is one of our most loved actors. People love Vicky McClure, us included. Yes, yes. And we've got a lot to talk about from Line of Duty. We want to talk to her as well about, she's in that film that Madonna directed. Madonna handpicked her to be in something. A new series for Trigger Point.

2:49A new series, Trigger Point. So a lot to talk about with Vicky McClure. Before we get Vicky in, I thought we could see what's seasonal. Seasonal? Yeah, what's seasonal right now, Ange? Oh, we've got our squashes, haven't we? Yeah. Scary. So we're coming into sort of end of October. So we've got our pumpkins and our butternut squashes. Yes. And all our varietals. This might be a daft question. Yeah. I will ask. Does an orange pumpkin taste different to a green pumpkin? But it's not green inside. No, I know. I mean, from the outside. No, it's not a daft question. So this is a Delica pumpkin. The other much bigger ones that you use for Halloween, they're the French varietal of pumpkin.

3:29And they're much more watery, whereas these Delica ones are just more intense, more starchy and then firmer and a great flavour. And then this one is your butternut squash, which you can get all year round. So just before pumpkins are coming to get into flavour, you can sort of use these as a substitute. But they both make great risottos, great soups. They're brilliant in lovely salads with beetroot and bitter leaves, you know, all those bitter leaves we love. Yeah, just roast them. Just, yeah, roasted pumpkin. It's great with things like hot honey. You can put a little bit of hot honey on it or some lovely pomegranate molasses, all that sort of stuff.

4:02We make a pumpkin tortelli, like a little pasta dish. So there's loads of stuff you can do with pumpkin. Very versatile. Pumpkin cake. No, what is it? Pie. Pumpkin pie. Well, that was one of Neil's classics when someone brought it at my brother's for Thanksgiving. And I think they brought a gluten, dairy, sugar-free pie. And Neil just went, that is the most f***ing disgusting thing I've ever eaten in my life. in front of the person who made it. My brother just went, I f***ing love you, Neil. And literally every year my brother's like, that is the most f***ing disgusting thing I've ever tasted.

4:44Thank you, Ange, for your pumpkin advice. There goes the pumpkin. There goes the pumpkin. Shall we get Vicky McClure in? Let's get her in. Let's do it. we have here a BAFTA winning actor who has achieved many a great thing but maybe nothing better than having a tram named after her it's the brilliant Vicky McClure everybody thank you hi welcome how are you I'm good I'm really glad to be here thank you so much for coming to see us thanks for having me yeah we're very excited very excited very excited about what you've chosen we're going to get into your food in a second but I'm really excited about this.

5:21We're beginning with a Bloody Mary because we hear you love a Bloody Mary. Yeah, I'm not a mad drinker. So if I do drink, a Bloody Mary feels a bit like a food drink. Yes. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Anyway, cheers, Vicky. Cheers. Thank you. Lovely, yeah. Oh, that's perfect. Yeah, that's right. I mean, it's a pre-mix, so. Oh, okay. And obviously we're going to talk about your BAFTA winning skills, but we've got to talk about the tram. Yeah, let's talk about the tram. Tell us about the tram. The tram really got us going. Here to promote trams is Vicky McClure. My favourite story of the tram is when I told my parents, oh, I've got a tram named after me in Nottingham.

6:01My dad went, oh, great. All my mates will be like, I've just rode Vicky McClure. Which is, you know. Yeah, we didn't think of it like that.

6:13Aside of that, it was an honour and a privilege. because, yeah, there's lots of different trams in the city and they, you know, name them after different people like Robin Hood or Brian Clough, Torvald and Deed. So to be in and amongst those names, I was like, this is a major honour. A major honour. Have you visited the tram yourself? Well, I have been on it. Yeah, I've been on it. All I ever check is if it's clean. Yes. Do you know what I mean? I don't want like chewing gum under the seats on my tram. So I give it a quick check. And then if I hear of a tram crash, I'm like, is it mine? Is it me?

6:45You know, do I need to go out there, check on it, get it to the repair shop? I feel quite responsible for it. Yeah, you do. Now, we have mugs here. I know, I wondered why I was told I'd find out. Well, because we heard that you, one, love tea. Oh, I love tea. But have a grievance with bad tea acting when you see it on the telly or see it in the film. Oh, like... Yeah, that's it, you've nailed it. Was that the bad tea? That is it. BAFTA winning bad tea. I won a BAFTA. So why am I complaining? And they're all like this. Yeah. Fair enough. You know. Yeah. Okay. It's got to have, just, it's really simple.

7:23Liquid or tea in it? Just tea. Yeah. I mean, we can put, yeah, you can find a cup of tea anywhere. I mean, on film sets, if all of a sudden they go, oh, we need a parrot, they can find a parrot. I don't know how they do it, but it's just the way that industry works. So you can find a tea. Tea bag, easy. And it can be hot. Yes. So you can see the steam. Yeah. No, I know what you mean, because then also you either get them like just drinking it too much. or you get the other way it's like and then like and it's like too much it's like too much it's not the character no and I don't mind people like eating and drinking and smoking and doing like normal real things on the telly I like that I like that too so do you want to give your do your best time to drink in tea like not your rubbish one so like she might need a minute you might need a bit of prep time I'll start So like your property action.

8:14We're just chatting away. We're just chatting away. So Vicky, how's your morning been? Yeah, been fine, thanks. Just been chilling and watching a bit of... And did you get the tram in? Yeah. Yes, it is. Mine. Yeah. I got my tram in. This is rubbish. I didn't even notice it was that natural. You see? Oh, that's good. I didn't even know that's what you want. It's just in there, yeah. Before we get into talking all about your new show and also eating. We want to do your food likes and dislikes. Yeah. We always like to do these on dish. I don't know if any other guest has given us sort of, gone as essential with their likes.

8:53Because these are like the sort of the roots of good food. Yes. So we've got Sunday roast. Yeah. It is a Thursday when we're recording this. It doesn't matter. I don't have any day. It's an any day roast. Do you ever do midweek unconventional roast? Yeah, I did last week actually. Yeah, me too. Did it on Monday this week. You love toast? I eat toast every day. Yeah, toast rules. Yeah. It's hard to beat the simple pleasure of toast. Toast is the best, yeah. Toast, bit of butter. You know, sometimes you might throw in a bit of marmalade. Okay. A bit of jam. Yeah. Maybe a bit of Nutella. Cereal. I'm obsessed that you like cereal as a nighttime snack because I get chastised for enjoying cereal as a nighttime snack.

9:33Do you? Yeah. What's yours? Come on, what do you like? I like like a granola. Oh, Nick. Or like Cocoa Pots. too fancy granola feels like substantial I love a crunchy cornflake yeah that's a good state what do you have I'd always go with Frosties I love Frosties Frosties are crazy though why? it's like so sugar Frosties is crazy don't tell me you don't want to know Coco Pops I mean it's all the wrong it's not granola babe I don't mind it I can take it if I'm feeling like I need to have a bit of health in me. But cereal's meant to be sugary, isn't it? So, my question, milk, cold milk, would you put more sugar on?

10:18If it was Weetabix, then, you know, it needs to have a frosted... A few tablespoons. But I will tell you what I do do. Not on a frosty, though. Well, frosties, I will put in the microwave one minute thirty. So it's warm. Yeah. Oh, no. With a crispy top. Ooh. Oh, no. Ooh. Ooh. What, no. I know I'm going to get judged, and I'm all right, because we've already established that's happening. Were you ever partial to a Pop-Tart growing up? Oh, Pop-Tart, the strawberry with the icing. Absolutely. Have you ever had a Pop-Tart? I've never had a Pop-Tart in my life. Oh, we've got to get you having a Pop-Tart.

10:53Not if it's sweet, it's just I don't have a sugary... I've had cereal, but I like cold milk. No extra sugar. I like it. I do like a shredded wheat. I do like the warm milk. Well, shredded wheat is not fun. Frosted shredded wheat's nice. I know, but I like that sort of cereal. Even your granola, don't judge. Yeah, but it's really easy. I don't come here with that. Also, your likes we loved was sausage cobs. Yeah. So like a sausage sandwich. Is that like in a bread roll? Yeah, like a bomb, bat, roll. We call that muffin. Yeah. Not floured. Not floured. No, just a white plain roll. Yeah, like a...

11:26Soft roll, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And didn't you have them at your wedding because they were sort of the first thing that you had with your husband? Yeah, well, we didn't... Yes, that was right. So when me and Johnny first met, he took me for a sausage job and I was like here we go this is it this is it this is love and then at the wedding we didn't have like a sit down meal so Johnny's Welsh so we had Welsh rarebit and sausage cobs and everyone was so happy it was grab and go get some food get back to the dance floor there's no time for faffing about so yeah we did we kept it simple also that's all you want at a party especially if you're like having a dance and having a drink line your stomach yes exactly and something like you know big flavours as well.

12:08And we had a tea station. A salty sausage, yeah. You had a what? A tea station. Oh, a tea station. Oh, yeah, yeah. What did you have for your tea at your wedding? Because when you and Neil, I bet people were like, oh, it's so good. We had all our beers, two chefs. We had, what did we have? Everything was like family styles. Big long tables. We didn't do the whole top table. I just had all our friends because I'm quite older than Neil, so I didn't have like my girlfriends. We had our friends that we'd made together sort of thing, which was nice. And then we had, I think we had asparagus, we had ribeye, pasta, because I've got the Italian side, then pavlovas.

12:43And so it was all that sort of stuff that people... And I remember my landlady, who's my local landlady, Sandra, who's a really good friend, she goes, oh, Ange, I must have had three of those pavlovas. You know when everyone got up dancing, I just sat at that table and I just... She demolished them. She demolished them. And then my other friend Steve said that. He goes, oh, those pavlovas. I said, I think you lot, you two ate all the pavlovas. Yeah, the best time. And I made them all. Me, Neil, and my friend James made them. It was like the night before the wedding. We were like finishing the bits and I said, shit, we haven't made the pavlovas.

13:16We were like, oh, Christ alive. So we did. That's impressive. The day before your wedding. Yeah. And your dislike is kind of only really one. Yeah. And you're like, yeah. Yeah. Rice pudding. Oh. Oh. I like a rice pudding. Why? Texture? Yeah, what's that? No, I think it's school. I think it was just... Bad rice pudding. It was a bad rice pudding and it was the jam on top. It was everything. It's actually making me feel quite ill. Oh, right. Okay. It is. Just the smell of it. I remember being on set recently and I was like, I can smell that smell. And then I could see that they got rice pudding on and I just went, I can't go near the catering truck today.

13:58I quit. Yeah. I quit. Trigger point's over. Because I reckon like Frosty's in a microwave. I was going to say, Not a million miles away from a rice pudding. Like, warm milk. Honestly, Nick, you're not wrong. There's been occasions I'm like, what is that triggering thought in my brain? And I'm like, it is a bit rice pudding, Nick. But then I remember that it's that friendly frosty and it's all right. It's a friendly frosty scent. It's all good. We wanted to talk to you about how outside of acting, your dream job would be to be a food critic. Yeah, I mean, I love food. I know my palate doesn't seem very sophisticated.

14:32I appreciate that but when I go out or if we go for a nice meal or you're at an event and you try new food like we went to Sweden last year and you know tried things like reindeer and moose and don't get me wrong when they first presented me with reindeer I was like well no because Santa and you know just my head just couldn't compute but I'm always willing to try everything and I just I love trying so I think it would be a nice job to have it's always good to have a backup isn't it? Yeah. But it's quite a powerful job, the food christic, isn't it? Definitely. I had one night in the restaurant where we had four in in one night.

15:12Do you know when they come in? Well, I knew who they all were. So you knew some of them were and then others just turned up. And then we're four in. Not together. Yeah, not all on the same table. That's even worse. It's four different tables. And it was only, we only had 14 tables in the restaurant. It was like, here we go. And it was gridlock. I mean, we always say it's like the M25. The food could not come out. It's a nightmare. Oh, no. And most of them were fine. But it was Giles Corrin that left before his dessert. And I just thought, that's it. We're going to have such a bad review. But then I comped three other tables that night.

15:42I'd gone up to people going, it's been a... And everyone said, the food's great when it arrived. But it just took forever for us to get it out of the kitchen. And then I called Giles and I said, you know, I'm treating you like a normal customer. I've comped three other tables. I would have comped yours, but you left too early. He goes, don't worry, the food was great. I'm coming back Friday. Don't f*** it up again. Did he? And he wrote it in the review and he was absolutely... Because I think you don't treat them as gods, you treat them as a customer. Yeah. And so it worked in your favour. But yeah, they can be very powerful.

16:08Very powerful. That's quite terrifying though, because it's like having, I don't know, the press on set. So scary. Whilst you're doing the scene and going terrible. Yeah. And you're like, well, let me go again. Yeah. Let me send out another dish. It is quite scary. Yeah, well, really scary. And also you're at the mercy of so many variables. Yeah. Food is here. What have we got? We've got roast top side of beef with peppercorn gravy and aligot potatoes. Or aligo, aligo, aligot. And what's aligo potato? So it's basically cheesy potatoes. Amazing. So there's a place in France, Laguil, that's one of their dishes.

16:43Oh my God. And they make it with this cheese called Tom Fresh. Oh yeah. And it's hard to get hold of Tom Fresh. So we've done it differently with Gruya cheese and mozzarella. Oh. So these are like Neil's cheesy potatoes. but I don't think Neil's as good as Neil's Neil's got it because the Tom Fresh is like slightly acidic so it brings that sharpness no this is it yeah you're happy with that this is it I'm very happy wow just a bowl of that bowl of that you're laughing I don't want to talk anymore do you no watch Trigger Point thanks everyone yeah watch Trigger Point why don't we just put Trigger Point on and we eat this and then we go in screen like that so everyone can watch the main show on the small screen I mean, it's just us eating potatoes watching it.

17:29Oh, my God. So my dad and my granddad were butchers. Yeah. And so meat was always a big thing in our house. But, you know, back in the day, they'd come back with, you know, certain types of meat being like, this is, you know, the cheap cut and whatever. And now they're like delicacies, aren't they? Yeah. So, yeah, because we'd always have like liver or like my dad had like tongue. And I was like, ugh. The smell of them, yeah. Yeah, and now it's like seen as quite a, quite celebrated. It's celebrated and everything. But in Nottingham, there's a great butcher. My friend Sat Bain's got a restaurant up there.

18:03I know Sat. I love Sat. Are you going to say Johnny Putzade? The Hungarian guy. He does Hungarian sausages and lots of spice. Yes, that's him. I've been there. He's a brilliant butcher. And amazing sausages and charcuterie and stuff. And it's fantastic. So, Ange, talk me through this. So you've got the roast top side of beef. So we basically roast that off nicely in the pan. To that, we add some grated red onion and peppercorns. And then you put that in the oven for about 15 minutes. And after 15 minutes, remove it from the oven, add some beef stock, some red wine, and then back in. And then that makes your gravy.

18:38Turn your beef for another 15 minutes. And that is your gravy base. So all the bits in it are the peppercorns, the onions, but they've obviously cooked with the stock and the gravy and then obviously the juices from the beef. And then to make the potatoes, you boil some potatoes, peel potatoes. Any potatoes? Maris pipers are good. Good chip potato with some garlic. Put them through a ricer, which is like a masher, a fancy masher. And then you mix it with some cream, mozzarella, gruyere cheese and some butter. And the secret is the potato's got to be hot when you start mixing that in and you have to beat it.

19:12And you can see it's sort of slightly shiny, so you're beating that cheese in slowly and slowly until you can wobble the potato and it goes like that. Stringy. Yeah, stringy. and I was saying to the guys when Neil worked in the Obrac region at Laguil where Michel's restaurant is they had a big party and there's literally a picture of him with this massive pot like this and the potato's like stringy probably as tall as you they got it to literally I mean it's amazing I'll find the picture after and show you but you know it's something and Michel you know it's a three stars a very fancy restaurant but every main course whatever you're having they come to the table with the pot and they do all the potatoes there because it's part of what the region does Yeah, amazing.

19:52It's so delicious. And it's sort of like, in the Alps? No. No, no, southwest France. Oh. But it is, I know what you mean, the Alps. It feels something that you would have like skiing. It feels like something you need for insulation. It's great comfort food, isn't it? Yeah. That is absolutely delicious. So it's basically two types of cheese, cream and butter. Yeah, why wouldn't it be delicious? Yeah, exactly. Add some Frosties on top. Yeah, you'd be keeping some white, you know. Wacken in the microwave. That is so good. What would you serve with this? What about these greens that we've got? Well, I've just basically done cabbage boiled with green beans and put them with just butter and pepper.

20:25Just easy. And it doesn't matter if they get a little sauteed in the pan, it has a little bit of caramelisation to them. And then we've got a wine pairing. Yeah. And we've got a Malbec with it, Catena Malbec, which will be delicious with beef. Bold fruit flavours, firm, smooth tannins, and balanced acidity, which complements the richness of the beef. Oh, that is nice. If you want to try these potatoes and the steak, Waitrose.com forward slash dish recipes. All the recipes, all the how-tos on there. The wine pairing is on there as well if you want to go and check it out and make this potato situation.

21:01Should we talk about Trigger Pime? I think we should. We should talk about Trigger Pime, shouldn't we? Like I say, just have a watch. I'm here. Just eat it. Yeah, just watch it. Just eat the potatoes. So it's back. It's back. Season three. Yeah. Lana is your excellent character that you get to play. Tell us about Lana and where we find her in this brand new series. Lana's basically back with the Expos. And if you've watched series one and two, you'll know that she's had a lot of loss and she's, you know, she's been through it. Quite a lot of trauma in her life, hasn't she? Do you always feel drawn to characters like that, that have a deepness to them, or they've got a history that evolves through their character?

21:40Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm ready to do some comedy or do something a bit lighter or, you know, because... Yeah, it's always guns and bombs. It is, it is. But then I feel like, you know, even doing that is such a privilege because you try and do it as real as you can. You want everything that I do, I always want to try and make it as authentic as I can. And actually, my training is more improvised over the years and working with people like Shane Meadows, you know, there is no script. So I've moved into a realm now with things like Line of Duty and stuff where it's very script heavy.

22:14So with Triggerpoint, we get to do a bit of both really, which is brilliant because we're on the third series. The characters are developed so we can play around a bit more. And, you know, it's just wanting to make it as real as you can for the expos as well as the audience. And, you know, touching on things like PTSD is so personal to everybody and so individual. It was more a case of just talking with Joel, who is our expo who you know is there on set with us all the time and figuring out how that was for Lana not so much how it may feel for like you know somebody's case in particular I think you do a really good job as you say of making things feel real and like your character now you know it and you get a sense of that do you have to really work to make it look so effortless and and real is that is that a lot of like prep for you and a lot of like getting the script digested in a way that you can just make it feel more real?

23:10Trigger point, you can't, we shoot so out of sequence and we did season three and four back to back, so I knew I had a nine-month shoot in front of me. And, you know, being totally realistic about it, there was no way I could have stayed in Lana's head in that way. And it's a very distracting sort of, you know. I don't know how you do that out of sequence. This is England 86. Yeah. There's a really tragic scene with my dad the rape scene at the very end. But because of filming schedules for other actors and Shane was getting married and there was like all kinds of different things, that was the first thing we shot and that was the end of the entire series.

23:53So sometimes that's just the way it goes. And in that, what I'm saying is like, you know, I can't just be Lana for nine months. I've got to step out of it. And so, you know, in between scenes, you're just sort of catching up with the crew and just doing new stuff. And do you find that or be able to do to tap in and tap out and switch into characters? Can you go home and be like, right, that's done till tomorrow? Yeah. That is, and don't get me wrong, like, if I'm doing something like This Is England and LOL and something that feels very internally intense and kind of requires that process, then fine.