Michael Sheen Is In The Building! We Celebrate St David's Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Plus Ways Celebs Embarrass Their Kids

7:45Declan Donnelly:Okay. Parents, St. David. St. David! Is it St. David? Yes. The parents' aid of Wales. It was St. David's Day yesterday. Sunday was St. David's Day. That's why there's leaks in here. Is that offensive? Is it too stereotypical? It's not offensive.

8:01Michael Sheen:When I was a kid, and on St. David's Day, we'd also have a sort of like mini Eisteddfod. Have you heard about the Eisteddfod? So Eisteddfod is an ancient tradition in Wales, celebration of Welsh arts and culture. There's poetry competitions, singing competitions. There's very strict rules around it. Like Wales has got talent. Exactly. Exactly like that. But without Simon Cowell. And you'd have houses, which, you know, all schools have, you know, like in Gryffindor. So we'd have houses with Llewellyn, Rhys, Tudor, Glyndour would be the four houses. And you would compete in the Eisteddfod in your school.

8:35Michael Sheen:There's a national Eisteddfod as well, which is for the whole country to take part in. And it moves around Wales each year and it's in a different place and people get the druidic seat. They become a bard. It's an amazing thing. But we have little mini ones in school to celebrate St. David's Day. And on St. David's Day, you wear a daffodil or a leek or something like that. Now, I remember wearing like a full-size leek. Full-size? How do you get that old? How do you pin it to your top? Your mum just like stabs you with it. All these little kids, like 10-year-olds, wandering around with massive leaks on it.

9:12Michael Sheen:It's like It's a Knockout, like the comedy waiters on It's a Knockout. So like a leak like this, you would have... Yeah, bigger than that. And you'd have it just pinned to your chest. Pinned to your chest, yeah. And of course, what happens is... I love leaks. In school, all day as it's going on, because you're sitting there listening to little Gareth singing Yesterday, for the 20th time, you know. And so you just have a little nibble on your leak.

9:34Declan Donnelly:You have a little nibble,

9:36Michael Sheen:a little nibble. By four o 'clock, tits are just chucking up. Yeah, I bet. Because it's horrible. You eat a whole leaf. It's like, oh. So you just used to be like vomiting on the way home. Oh my God. After eating leeks. Happy St. David's Day, everyone.

9:51Declan Donnelly:Do you know, that reminded me when I was a kid, and I say this frequently, and I must apologise in advance, right? To the other kids. Uh-oh, this is our whole show. To the other kids. No, but I was in primary school, and I remember it, and we had to, it was the harvest festival time, and we had to do this little play about what your favourite bird should be. We had to stand up and sing a little bit about what your vegetable was. And then you'd sing a bit.

10:15Michael Sheen:Yeah, yeah. All those vegetables, you know.

10:19Declan Donnelly:But it was all about like, you know, the beans or this, et cetera, et cetera. So anyway, it comes to me and we'd learned on a little chord, Orbit, right? And there was, say, 10 of us. And there was, I was the third person in and it came to me, it came to me. We'd all put the cards down. we knew our bit and suddenly went blank and I couldn't remember my bit he dried love he dried I completely dried well I remember the person after me's bit so I said his bit I mean how awful I said his bit I got a round of applause and I sat back down and then he stood up and he stood up and just burst into tears and sat back down and it still haunts me that I did that have you met him since?

11:04Declan Donnelly:I feel like such a s*** wonder what he's up to now yeah I wonder what he's up he's not an actor and all that. I know, I feel really awful.

11:10Ant McPartlin:That doesn't surprise me.

11:12Declan Donnelly:So if I knit your line in primary school at Wingrove Junior School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne about 83, then I really apologise. Get in touch and we'll give you some merch. I love a Welsh king. Love a Welsh king. We used to stay whenever we did British. You're welcome. You're welcome. Yes.

11:31Michael Sheen:Just in case. How'd you have him? I'm sure, well, with sugar on usually, I can see that the budget doesn't quite stretch to sugar. No sugar. No sugar. Oh, they're lovely. You probably have an equivalent for this. So when you go to visit a school or, you know, you're there in your official Ant & Dec ambassador of human beings capacity, if you're doing any of that, what do you get served? Because when I'm in Wales or anywhere, everyone puts Welsh cakes wherever I go. I'm so sorry. I really apologize. But I love them. No, no, no. Bring them back. Bring them back. I do love them. A good Welsh cake.

12:05Ant McPartlin:We have a real affinity with Wales because we've been there so much. We've done Britain's Got Talent there over the years.

12:10Michael Sheen:Well, and I let you use my house for I'm a Celebrity that year. Oh, my God. Yeah, didn't I? Gourich Castle. Nos Muta. Nos Muta. Yeah. How was that? How did you feel? I remember watching that at home going, they haven't called me. They're literally in my neighborhood. They haven't called me.

12:26Declan Donnelly:We loved it. When we did it for the first time, because we so used to do it in Australia and then obviously COVID happened and we didn't think we were going to get to go to Australia and they cancelled it. We thought we're not going to be able to do it. So the chance to be able to get a reprieve and go, okay, you're back on, but it's in Wales. We're like, okay, this is cool. It's in a castle. We're like, okay, different, but cool. It's going to be freezing, not sunny. Okay, that's going to be a challenge. But it was wonderful. And the people of Wales and where we were especially welcomed us with our alarms.

12:58Declan Donnelly:So much so we had people doing knitted figures of us to put on top of post boxes in and around where we stayed. We stayed in these little fishing cottages, which weren't far from the castle, about 20 minutes away. And the local school did like cutouts of us and the celebrities and put them in the windows. They had like banners saying welcome. It was wonderful. It was the best. Croeso, welcome. Croeso. Croeso. Croeso. That's good. That's a good one. Yeah, it was wonderful. We loved it, didn't we?

13:28Ant McPartlin:Yeah, we learned a little bit of Welsh. Only Noswith da. Only Noswith da. We said that every night. It was a long way. Yeah, exactly. Can we learn a bit more Welsh? Yeah, yeah.

13:36Michael Sheen:So, Deedh Gwyll, Dewey, Hapis. Deedh Gwyll. Deedh. So, Deedh is De. Deedh. Hapis at the other end. Hapis. Hapis. So, it's all sort of backwards. So, Hapis is at the end. Dewey is David. Gwyll, Saint. So, Gwyll, Dewey, Saint David. Deedh, Dewey, and Hapis. So, Deedh, Gwyll, Dewey, Hapis. Hapis is a good one to know. Hapis. The real derby happens. Yeah, very good. Like that. Excellent. That is a good one. Right, a bit more going on here.

14:03Declan Donnelly:So this is a slightly odd one because in Welsh,

14:08Michael Sheen:I mean, the joke that people always make about Welsh is that certain things don't get translated. Yes. You know, so you go, my Kellogg's cotton flakes. People ask the joke that people do. Right. So normally you wouldn't translate hangout because that's the name of the poem. So Amser, Troilu Amser, is a little bit odd because it's sort of time to spend together time. It's a bit odd. So you keep the hangout. So you keep the hangout. Yes, you say, Croeso, welcome. Croeso, ir hangout. Croeso, ir hangout. So that's easy. You can do that. We can do that. You should start the show with that. We should start with that.

14:44Michael Sheen:Okay. We'll do a special Welsh version. Croeso is a lovely one. Welcome. Croeso is lovely. Right. This will test you. so listen to our new podcast I didn't think it would be this complicated so Grandoch Grandoch listen Ar-ein Ar-ein Podledyad Podledyad that's a good word that's a nice one isn't it Podledyad I like saying that and it's that podcast and then Neweith yeah so Podledyad is podcast Neweith Neweith new Podledyad the clue to Neweith is in the why go further than the first three letters it's alright you're complicating things here guys and Grandoch Ar-ein podledyad podledyad podledyad podledyad

15:24Declan Donnelly:we're using that from now on

15:25Michael Sheen:that's a pleasurable saying podledyad it's like the other joke that people always use is about microwave

15:32Ant McPartlin:how do you say microwave popperty ping is that true

15:36Michael Sheen:so ish yeah but it's a great word now this is this is a hard one so subscribe to our YouTube you see we've decided not to go with YouTube is just YouTube YouTube you just say it with a slightly Welsh accent. YouTube. YouTube. YouTube. No, he's saying with a Welsh accent. YouTube. What? YouTube. Channel is all right as well. Chanel, that's all right. Chanel. Chanel YouTube. The first half of it is a little bit harder.

16:06Declan Donnelly:Stop it.

16:07Michael Sheen:Stop it. Stop it. YouTube. Stop it. Tanus Griviuq. Tanus Griviuq.

16:15Declan Donnelly:Tanus Griviuq.

16:17Michael Sheen:Tanus Griviuq. In Chanel YouTube.

16:19Declan Donnelly:YouTube. Ian, Chanel, YouTube. There you go.

16:22Michael Sheen:YouTube.

16:22Declan Donnelly:Yeah, stop the YouTube thing. Just stop it. Just say YouTube like you'd normally say YouTube.

16:28Ant McPartlin:YouTube. No, just say YouTube. How do you do that? Chanel, YouTube. No, YouTube. Just say it. Chanel, YouTube. YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. I don't know how to say it anymore. Very good.

16:43Declan Donnelly:Let me tell you a story about when we did I'm a Celebrity in the Castle. There was a few people who thought, oh my God, I'm a celebrity is in the UK, in Wales specifically. I'm going to go and visit. I'm going to get to that castle. I know where it is. I'm going to go and get up there. So we were doing the show live one night and we just linked to a commercial bureau. So see you after the break.

17:04Ant McPartlin:And bearing in mind where the show is on, there is security everywhere. The only way to get near us without anybody knowing about it would be to jump over the fence onto a golf course and trek all the way across a golf course. 18 holes over a little stream. And come up to get to the castle. That's the only way we could get up there.

17:21Declan Donnelly:Breach the castle. Like literally breaching the hill to the road. Yeah. So somebody got up all the way up, right outside behind us. We had a big window behind us. And all we heard was, hello! And there was this one guy with a GoPro strapped to his forehead. Yeah, strapped to his forehead. I'm not a telly! I'm not a celebrity! And we're like, sorry, mate. Unfortunately, we've already linked to commercial. And he just popped up. He just got, hello, I'm on the telly. And then security. And then security.

17:52Ant McPartlin:Got him. Got him. Gone. I've always been fascinated by how brilliant you are at playing all of those characters. So you've done Brian Clough, Tony Blair, Kenneth Williams, David Frost.

18:04Michael Sheen:How do you approach something like that? Well, the best review I ever had was from, so Chris Tarrant's daughter sent me, He somehow got me a copy of a little video of her son, Chris Tarrant's grandson, watching me as Chris Tarrant on the TV and the grandson going, it's granddad. Wow. Best review ever. That's amazing. Isn't it? I've always avoided meeting the person if they are alive. I was fascinated. Yeah, I was going to ask that. Yeah. To begin with, at least. Because I feel like if I've met someone and you have some sort of a relationship with them, then you feel sort of beholden in a way. It puts a kind of layer of responsibility, a different kind of responsibility.

18:45Michael Sheen:There's a responsibility anyway, because if you're playing a real person, I mean, you know, you've got to take that on board as a responsibility in terms of how you portray them. But if you know them as well, then I think that makes it harder. Because you've got to, warts and all, you've got to kind of try and find a fully rounded kind of portrayal of the person.

19:02Declan Donnelly:You've got to try and play in the better version of them.

19:04Michael Sheen:Or thinking that my instinct tells me to do this, but ooh, maybe they won't like that. Yeah. And I've met them. That clouds it a little bit. So with Blair, because I played Blair three times, just before I did it for the third time, I was asked if I wanted to be at a dinner that he was going to be at. And I was like, yeah, why not? All right, this time I will. Because I've done it. I know what I'm sort of doing and I know my interpretation. So I don't feel like I'm going to be swayed. And it'll be kind of interesting just to kind of be in the room with this guy who I've played a few times now.

19:32Michael Sheen:So I did meet him then. And that was very strange. Because there's a lot of things that were strange about that story. But where it happened was quite strange. It was at Rupert Murdoch's house. Oh, was it? In Los Angeles, yeah. Oh, my God. And that was where Blair was, this dinner for Blair. And had he seen your portrayal? Well, yeah. He'd already been on record talking about the Queen and stuff. So we knew he'd seen it. But when I came into this dinner, we were sort of, I came out, I got out of my car, I drove there, you know, and there was valet people to take the car away. And I literally got out of my car and was swept in front of him, like immediately, just found myself standing there.

20:08Michael Sheen:and the person who was hosting the dinner just went, Tony, it's you! Oh, God. Oh, I don't want to introduce me as though. Oh, my God. And he... You didn't do him to him, did he? No, I did not. No, I did not. Even though I had been asked in the build-up to it, maybe you could dress like him and we'll bring you up. I was like, no, I think you've got... It's a terrible idea. No, no, I don't. No, no. But suddenly we're standing there opposite each other and you could see there were these two impulses in him. On the one hand, he wanted to be friendly. And on the other hand, he was like, but you're the guy who sort of plays me and I don't really want to give anything away.

20:44Michael Sheen:It's a very weird sort of dynamic. And all the other people at this dinner were just crowding around, you know. And someone said, so Tony, you know, what do you think of his performance? I go, well, I haven't really seen it. He sort of said, did he? But then when everyone had sort of dispersed a bit, he then brought up actual moments from within it and talked about it. So it was clear that he, you know, he had seen it. And then when we sat down at the dinner, it was just a very long table with everyone. And I was right down the end. I was clearly kept as far away from him as I possibly could. All I wanted to do was just look at him and, you know, listen to what he was, yeah.

21:22Michael Sheen:And I just wasn't allowed to.

21:24Ant McPartlin:But much easier if they're dead.

21:26Michael Sheen:Sort of, yeah, yeah. Because then all I have to do is lie there. My favourite was Brian Clough in the Darmes United. Loved it. Well, that was sort of a special one for me because, you know, before I got into acting in football, I saw all my care. Yeah, did you play for a little while? Yeah, I mean, I had the opportunity to maybe go down that road. I mean, who knows what would have happened. But, yeah, I had an offer to go to Arsenal when I was very young and I really took it seriously. I loved it. I love football. We got a chance to meet Eddie Howe recently, you know,

21:56Declan Donnelly:Newcastle United's manager. And we met him a couple of times, but when Newcastle won the Cowbell Cup last season. We got invited up to interview the players on stage. So we get there and I can see Eddie's in the corner of the room but Jason Tindall, his number two is there first. And he says to me, he says, were you at the third cup final? I said it was. I said, greatest day. I said, congratulations. He went, yeah, you know, but fine margins. If you look at the scoreline, it was 2-1 in the end. He says, the performance, we were the much better team. He says, we dominated the game. He says, but ultimately, we only won by one goal.

22:30Declan Donnelly:Fine margins. I went, yeah, absolutely right. So then I met me real long. I put me there, anyhow, and he went, hey, how do you feel? Lifelong Newcastle United supporters. He says, what a great day you were there, I presume. And I said, yeah. I said, hey, fine margins, though. And he looked at me like I really knew up for it. Like, he was like, this kid's got it. He knows. He knows. Get him on the bus. Get him on the bus. Get him on the bus now.

22:53Ant McPartlin:He stole somebody else's line. Yes. For the second time.

22:57Michael Sheen:There's a pattern emerge in here. I'm going to hear my story about Tony Blair. You'll be saying I was there at Rupert Murdoch's house. When I played Brian Clough. Do you prefer stage work? It depends. It's a very different life. It's funny that this is the first time, the first play, and I don't really know why. Maybe it's because it's my company now or something. But this is the first play I've done where I don't wake up. As soon as my eyes open in the morning, I'm doing a play. I go, oh, God. I've got to do the play. It like weighs on. It sort of drives you a bit mad. Yeah. Because you're doing the same.

23:39Michael Sheen:It is, you know, it is like Grand Doctor. You're doing the same thing every day. And the challenge is how do you keep it fresh? Yeah, yeah. And I sort of say to myself, it's only a few hours a day. I mean, it's not like going down the mic. No. You know what? I mean, come on.

23:51Ant McPartlin:We did. We've done some live stuff. But the very first live thing we did together was we did Panto in 1998 in Sunderland.

23:59Declan Donnelly:Sunderland of all places two Newcastle lads

24:01Ant McPartlin:that was shows a day

24:03Declan Donnelly:yeah

24:04Ant McPartlin:one day it was a matinee and it was an old people's home had come out and they'd come out for the day so they were sat in there and apart from that like the circle was closed the gods obviously were closed so it was just it was a smasher of people in the stalls and we came out at the beginning of the play and we had a bit that lasted about 15 minutes yeah

24:22Declan Donnelly:it was a proper double act thing and one of us had a magic invisible tyre and no it was a real tyre We rolled it off in the wings, that was it. But then we pretended it went round the back of the stage. I don't know if you've ever seen this. But what you do is you get people who work in the theatres to open the doors and... There it is, there it goes, there it goes. So it sounds like this magic tyre is moving around the theatre.

24:44Ant McPartlin:And then somebody rolls it on from the other side of the stage and goes, it's made it. The kids love it. They love it. But the old people, they weren't that keen on the magic tyre. But we looked out at the curtains. What are they doing? Magic what? We looked out at the curtains before the show and we looked and we went, oh my God, we've got to do 15 minutes with this tyre. And we went, I reckon if we cut this bit out, this bit out, this bit out, we can get it down in about five minutes. And that's exactly what we did. We got the magic tyre routine down. It wasn't that magic, the tyre in the end.

25:12Ant McPartlin:It's just a tyre.

25:13Michael Sheen:Hello, everybody. Here's the tyre. Tyre, thank you. Well, I did Panto this year. Did you? Yeah. I was Sheenie the Genie. Brilliant. Brilliant. In Swansea Grand Theatres. Panto, my mother, Maddox. seeing that on screen. Ah! That's the way to do it. Brilliant. Joe Pasquale directed it and was, you know, one of the stars of it. Yeah. And he asked if I would come and do it. That's the way to do it. That is the way to do it. Did you go and see yourself? Yeah, with the kids. How was that? Well, I was not going to tell them because their first panto was the year before and they were, you know, they were a bit overwhelmed by it.

25:53Michael Sheen:It was Jack and the Beanstalk and the giant was just a voice and they were terrified, terrified. And so this year, taking them to a panto would have been still testing it out anyway, but with me in it, I thought, well, should we just keep it as a surprise, get there? And then they'll go, daddy, or they go, ah! And be traumatised. So we told them about it. So we went to see it and it was great. They loved it. And now my three-year-old calls me Sheeny the Genie all the time, just around the house. They'll just shout it out at me. Sheeny the Genie! as I'm walking around. Grab me three wishes. Lyra.

26:30Declan Donnelly:I wish to stay up late tonight.

26:32Michael Sheen:Lyra, my six-year-old, when we're out and about, just in public, she'll suddenly shout out, Michael Sheen is here. Amazing.

26:43Declan Donnelly:It's a weird sort of trajectory. It's them working it out in their heads that you're famous, but they're also my dad,

26:51Michael Sheen:more importantly, my dad. I've seen her. So it started with people coming up and saying, hello and you know wanted to talk to you and i could see her kind of noticing this first when she was very little and then the first thing she started doing was going if someone came up to me yeah she'd say uh my name's lyra she wanted to be the person that yeah that was the first thing and then she saw a photograph can i be in the photograph no you can't be yeah no it's not it's not a photograph for me it's trying to explain that she didn't quite get that and then as she started to understand that I was on TV and that kind of thing.

27:24Michael Sheen:Now it's sort of turned into this thing where she's like, my agent, Michael Sheen is in the building and available.

27:35Declan Donnelly:Mine are like that.

27:36Ant McPartlin:Isla is seven and she's, for the last little while now, she's get it. She used to be, Daddy, why does that lady want a photo with you? And I go, well, you know, when I go and do the show, she's seen my TV show and she's seen that. So she gets now and they come to Australia. So she's been to the show and then she gets it. So now she'll be, there'll be times where we're out and she'll be there with, you know, other kids and go, excuse me, what's your name? How old are you? Have you seen that celebrity? Get me out of here. That's my daddy. So there's a bit of that as well. So she's getting it. Jack hasn't got a clue.

28:08Ant McPartlin:He's oblivious to the whole thing.

28:10Declan Donnelly:My step-girls are older so they are like 19 and 17. So they've kind of grown up through being in all of the situation and then a bit embarrassed by the situation. But then now, what's really lovely is them being able to notice. Say if you're out and about and somebody wants a selfie but they're too embarrassed. My girls will go, those girls over there really want to call them but I can tell they're a bit embarrassed. Right. Would you mind if I reach out? It's quite nice to...

28:35Michael Sheen:They've got a fame reader.

28:37Declan Donnelly:A fader. Fader. They've got a very good fader.

28:41Ant McPartlin:You've got a big job in Wales as well, haven't you? Artistic Director of Wales National Theatre. Yeah, the Welsh National Theatre. Are you setting that up

28:48Michael Sheen:or did you? We did, yeah. Well, there was a, for ages, years and years and years, people wanted for there to be a National Theatre in Wales. And I was in the first season. I did a thing called The Passion of Patalbert, which was a one-off performance lasting for 72 hours all over the town and thousands of people involved. So I was in the first year of the National Theatre in Wales. So it was very exciting. But then over 14 years, various things happened. Anyway, all the funding got cut for it. So, you know, Welsh actors, we were all like, well, what are we going to do now? Why can't we have our own national team?

29:24Michael Sheen:It was a sort of sad moment. And so there was a lot of talk about what should happen and what went wrong and if there was one, how different should it be and all those sort of things. And I sort of was keeping myself out a bit, a bit. I was like, well, you know. And then cut to a couple of months later. All right, I'll do it. Couldn't help yourself. Couldn't help myself. So we're doing our first production right at the moment. A play called Our Town, which is actually an American play. So we've done the whole Welsh tour now. Now we're coming to London. Amazing. So we've just finished doing it.

29:55Michael Sheen:We're at the Rose Theatre in Kingston. We started in Swansea and then we went to Llandidno and then to Mould. And it's been everything I hope for and beyond. And the audience has been great. Doing it to audiences and it's like we're doing a story about them, about their community. They've totally taken it to their hearts and people are really affected by it and people saying it's the best thing I've ever seen in the theatre or people who've never been to the theatre before saying, oh, you've completely converted me to it. Right. So it's been fantastic.

30:25Declan Donnelly:This has been wonderful. Thank you. You can come back whenever you want. Yeah, we can sit and chat all day. It's just nice to see you. I know.

30:31Ant McPartlin:It's lovely. Thank you. Thank you, Michael Sheen. Let's get you out of it. One more, one more. What? Got to have this one.

30:36Michael Sheen:Oh, respect, guys. Park Boys. Park Boys. That's a good one. There we are. What a wonder to finish on. Brilliant. and not a Welsh cake was formed during the recording of this show.

30:46Declan Donnelly:It's a bit hard anyway. I wouldn't eat these.

30:49Ant McPartlin:We will leave it there. We'll be back on Thursday for the main pod. But for now, can we have a huge round of applause? We love you. Michael Sheen. Thank you. The open bow. The open bow.

31:02Declan Donnelly:The open bow. Oh, thank you. No, he loved that one. That was a lovely surprise. Yeah, he did. Oh, good. Did you really not know? No, I didn't know. I didn't know. Last week I got punched in the stomach by KSI. So this is a win-win. Much nicer surprise. Yeah, exactly.

31:17Michael Sheen:I'm glad you lowered the bar that much. Thank you for that.