Bella Ramsey

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1:14Welcome to the Off Menu podcast, taking the peanuts of conversation, adding the caramel of friendship, drizzling on top of the nougat of humor and dipping it in the chocolate of the internet. What you got there, James? A Snickers of a podcast? Yeah. That's a gamble. My name is James Acast and together we own a dream restaurant and every single week we invite a guest to ask them a favour ever. Start a main course dessert, side dish and drink. Not in that order. And this week, our guest is Bella Ramsey. Bella Ramsey is wonderful, James. They're a fantastic acting talent. So good. The Last of Us.

1:49Yes. Game of Thrones. And Sunny Dancer. Sunny Dancer. Brand new film starring Bella Ramsey and friend of the pod James Norton James Norton friend of the pod Neil Patrick Harris future friend of the pod future friend of the pod Jessica Gannin future friend of the pod everyone who's not a current friend of the pod is a future friend of the pod we'll get you we'll get you one day August 14th it's in cinemas yes that's this Friday if you're listening to this episode when it comes out wonderful film that we will talk to Bella about indeed so we won't do any we won't waffle on about it you've of course recently worked with Bella as well but that might not come up because it's a secret well it's not a secret is in the public people know yes we have been in the castle together yes but yes everything that happened in there is currently a secret currently a secret thank you very much I'll be in big trouble strung up I'm worse you don't know the things they threaten you with Ed when you come out of there oh man well when you come out of there the first thing you get threatened with is talking to me yeah you've got to go and talk to Ed Gamble which is worse than being strung up I'm like are you kidding me that guy that guy with his riddles at the top about because he still does it on the Traitor's Podcast.

2:59He goes, welcome to the Traitor's Podcast. Taking the nougat of conversation. What the hell? Not trusting the peanuts of the castle. But, if Bella says a secret ingredient which we have deemed to be unacceptable, we will kick them out at the Dream Restaurant. And this week, the secret ingredient is Bella's pudding. Bella's pudding. And that might scratch the brains of some of you who've listened to many episodes of this, Bella's pudding was on Richard Herring's dream menu. Yes. It was a pudding he had once that he can't remember what it was. He can't find it. He can't find the recipe for it. A family friend called Bella made it.

3:34Yes. So he just knows it as Bella's pudding. Yeah. Very unlikely that Bella Ramsey will choose Bella's pudding. One, because it's their name, but also because like, probably they don't know Richard Herring's family friends. Unless Bella was Bella. That would be amazing. That would be huge for us and huge for Richard Herring to find out. I don't think the years and ages necessarily match up, so it feels unlikely. And I will say, Bella will select a dessert as part of their menu, but that is not Bella's pudding. Bella's pudding is a specific dish. We're not saying that if Bella picks pudding, they get kicked out.

4:13Yeah, we're not saying that. No. So don't go complaining to Benito. Although, you can if you want to. Oh, yeah. You get signed shopping board if you complain. Yeah. Let's do this. This is the off-menu menu of Bella Ramsey.

4:32Welcome, Bella, to the Dream Restaurant. Thanks. Welcome, Bella Ramsey, to the Dream Restaurant. We've been expecting you for some time. The horns. Yeah, we're throwing up the horns? Yeah. These are called horns? Yeah. The devil's horns. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's rock and roll, or is that the same thing? Are they exchangeable? That's where it comes from. Right, right, right. Got it. Glad we're learning this. Yeah. I was raised a little Christian boy. Me too. Yeah, okay, great. So I got a younger brother, and we were both into metal and rock and stuff in school. And probably when I was 14, he was 12, he threw the horns across the thing, and then I went up to him and really just said, away from everyone else, you should know, that's the devil.

5:16You should know. And you looked at him like that. I think it was quite intense. I know we both like the music, but we need to keep away from the devil. Yeah. So don't throw those up because you don't know what you're getting involved in. Yeah, it's probably good that you warned him, to be honest. Yeah, and you just had that experience. I know, yeah. You didn't know that you'd... No, no, no. You've welcomed the devil into this podcast. Oh, do you? Yeah. But that's cool. I'm cool with that. I love the devil. You do? Yeah. Okay, cool. He's sick. You like this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like that and I'm like that.

5:45Yeah. Me and the devil. That's what I do at gigs. Yeah, yeah, there you go. Throw it up like that. See Ed's t-shirt, System of a Down. I was looking at this and I was thinking, sorry, I don't know what this is. System of a Down, really cool band, really cool hip-happening band, very new. Super cool. Yeah. The more you say they're cool, the more cool they sound. They're cool, they're funky. Yeah, groovy. We all went to see them last week. Nice. At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Nice. Yeah, it was good. It certainly wasn't a gathering of millennials all just washed away with nostalgia. No, no, no, of course not.

6:16No, it was very new, exciting music. And your T-shirt is food and drink based. Yes, it is. On the Off Menu podcast. And here you are with a Lipton iced tea T-shirt. Semi-unintentional. I do like this T-shirt a lot. It's been through a lot. It's had a lot of food and drink down it that I've managed to get out by bleaching it in the sun. Congratulations. Over and over again. It's looking quite clean right now. That's pretty cool. Are you a fan of iced tea? Yeah. Not like a hardcore consistent fan. That's not why I got the T-shirt. I sort of liked the T-shirt. Yeah. But I would drink an iced tea, yeah.

6:47Have you ever met Ice-T, the rapper? No. An actor? No. I have yet to do so. Have you? No, but every time people bring up Ice-T on the podcast, we ask them if they've met Ice-T. It has to be us. And you actually, I think, the first one who is associated with Ice-T, you see your T-shirt, but has not met him. Everyone else, weirdly, has always met him. To be fair, Bella didn't bring up Ice-T. You didn't bring it up. Or put Ice-T on their menu. So I feel like that's why it hasn't paid off this time. Yeah. yeah yeah it's not your fault thank you yeah if I have anything that I get food stains on yeah even if I get the food stain out I think about the food stain when I'm wearing it even when it's clean and it sort of ruins it for me oh really yeah so you just got these t-shirts on just with the ghosts of the food stains yeah exactly it's the ghosts of the food stains I'm like I feel dirty even though it's clean really yeah the ghosts of the food stains is a great like band name or something that is good throw the horns up for that yeah ghosts of the food stains feel dirty I feel dirty even when it's clean yeah It's all working out.

7:47I don't know what that says about me, but it definitely, it permanently stains it for me. Spiritually, you know? Yeah, he's quite spiritual. But only when it comes to like curry stains and stuff. That's my only spirituality, yeah. Yeah, nice. What about Sunny D? Sunny D, the orange juice. No, Sunny Dancer, the film. Yeah, really good. Bella has coming out. Oh, yeah. See, that's quite good, that bait and switch. I did this thing. That was good. Yeah. Is it about Sunny D, the drink? No. any references? No, but I did get everyone... You know what it's about. Don't choke. I did get everyone Sunny D stickers at the end.

8:24Did you? Yeah, yeah. Because, yeah, I did do that. But it's not about Sunny D at all. I don't think there's any orange juice in it. No. If Sunny D is orange juice, I'd just like to double check. I think it was purporting to be an orange base juice, but the media would have you believe it was pure sugar. Yeah, it was like if orange juice got bitten by a radioactive spider. Yeah. that kind of thing frequently I think I wasn't allowed it when I was a kid oh really because it was so like it was really in the tabloids it was like don't give your kids sunny delight gosh because they're going to lose their minds and my friend had it once and I smelt it and it smelled like piss really it did smell like piss it did smell like piss were you allowed it in your head?

9:07we were allowed one every couple of months and when it was gone it was gone wow it was great it tasted so exciting that's lovely Sunny Dancer it all doesn't smell like PSO no no Sunny Dancer I saw the trailer for it in the cinema the other day yeah it's cool very excited to see it so many brilliant actors in it yes great cast Bella Ramsey in the lead oh yeah it was fun we filmed it up in Glasgow where they do square sausages and potato scones and I normally say scone but in this instance it has to be potato scone if you're from Glasgow but no it was very fun it's a summer camp it's a comedy about kids with cancer yes which feels like a juxtaposition but it somehow works and these summer camps exist right where young people diagnosed with cancer can go to this summer camp all hang out together yeah and just kind of be normal and it not be like a weird thing that people are being weird about just being like well we all have this thing in common and we don't really have to talk about it but also if we did talk about it they wouldn't they would you'd just get it you know which is nice yeah the editor of the film actually she had called caitlin she had cancer when she was younger and went to these summer camps and that was sort of where the idea of the film formed with george the director who like worked with her before so it's pretty cool that's cool for the editor to like have had that experience because they are the people who then essentially like make the final film at the end so exactly to have that person's like eyes over it right until the end is pretty great it's really cool yeah and And we had a camcorder on set every day that was like filming behind the scenes footage and stuff.

10:43And some of that is in the film and we'd always do little messages to Caitlin, the editor, on the camcorder footage. Yeah, it was fun. We try and put in little messages for Benito into this podcast when he's editing it. Nice. He doesn't care. Really? He made a stone. Like, the guy doesn't fucking give a shit. I know. Oh, Benito. Really hard. James really wants to be friends with Benito, but Benito is not interested. That's what happened. We went to this gig the other night. James turned up late. He was sat at the other end of the row to Benito. I don't think they exchanged one word. I kind of nodded to him on the way past on the row.

11:18At one point they played a song that he liked and he was singing along to that. But it wasn't like at me or anything. I wasn't involved in it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I was singing a lot of songs at you. How did you feel about that? Yeah, that's fine. I kind of expected that. Great. But like I just kind of kept my eyes on the stage and just like was aware that you were singing at me. Yeah. Did you and the cast get on better than I get on with Benito? Did you all like bond just like at a summer camp? I think so, yeah. Sounds like it from your description. Yes, we did get on very well, actually.

11:49We're all quite similar. We'd like go out to the pub after work for one drink and then all be tired and go to bed, which was exactly my pace, which was good. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, we got on very well. Do you have a preference with like when you're like working on something, is it not nice and refreshing to do something with a bunch of people who are like closer to your age than like all the old fuckers you have to do stuff with normally well and you usually know like that I was so intimidated coming into sign dancer because I'm not I usually find people my age harder to relate to just because well that was more when I was younger I think I was always around adults and so like going on set full of adults I was way more comfortable than going on and doing something with a bunch of kids the same age.

12:32But now I feel like now it's levelling out. Now everyone's getting older and it's sort of levelling. It was fine. It was good. It was actually refreshing. I spent a lot of time with older Canadians, basically, when I was filming the last I was in Canada. And so it was nice to have young British people. But you did get to hang out with James Norton on this. He's old. Yeah. Younger than you. Huh? Younger than you. it doesn't look it if he's younger than me then you could have played my dad yeah on it James was playing my dad and was very upset to be like playing a dad to a teenage child sure so if you're older than him then you could have been my dad yeah not vibe wise though I don't think no I think Norton is probably the right call on that yeah I don't think me or James have dad vibes I think we're cousins yeah actually we've got cousin vibes right yeah definitely have cousin vibes yeah yeah like a fun cousin who you're like you look forward to seeing them at Christmas maybe.

13:29Yeah, yeah, exactly. But after a couple of days you like, it's a bit much. I was thinking about how to make fun cousin one word and I realized it's just like, fuck us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't end well, that's not good. Or cousin. Yeah, James Norton would send you to your room for that kind of language. Yeah, he would. We'll start with still or sparkling water, Bella Ramsey. You have a preference? I'll take sparkling, please. Yeah. Oh. You surprised? Yeah. You thought Bella would be still? Well, yeah, I mean, Bella and I have only like hung out once and it was in a castle in Inverness and there wasn't much sparkling water now I think about it Was there not?

14:05There wasn't much water at all No Wowee So I would have thought for the celebs they would have been they would have been cracking out the sparkling water coming out the taps No No So I guess I shouldn't be surprised really because I didn't see you have access to it No fair I do I could go here I when when asked normally I look at the other person if I'm with someone else or with a group I like go wait for someone else to like finish it because I really don't mind but I do like sparkling I think it helps with I think it's maybe a myth that it helps with digestion but it seems to help me I think there's so many myths about sparkling water that so many people have heard and they can't like that it's bad for your teeth I've heard that that it's good for digestion that I mean all these things bad for your teeth come on it's water that's carbonated yeah it's probably bad for your teeth if you keep it in there and like swirl it around and stuff.

14:58Which I do. Yeah, which you do do. Yes. You've got to do it. Let's start a new myth about sparkling water right now. Yeah, good idea. We can start one. See if the listeners can spread it for us. Yeah. And people won't know it came from this podcast. Yeah, okay, great. It's a new kind of like, it makes you more right wing. I don't want to be associated with sparkling water. You have attached your name to it now. That's pretty bad. We can't say that. So you're now changing your answer to still based on a rumour we've just made up about sparkling water. Yeah, okay. Exactly. Improves your eyesight?

15:33That's better. Improves your eyesight. We can start that. People think everything improves your eyesight. Go on. Frickin' carrots, but they probably do. Frickin' carrots. Frickin' carrots. Fully believed that when I was a kid. I like ate carrots and then went upstairs and it was dark. I was like, I can see. Yeah.

15:52so carrots make you see in the dark I got that one a lot when I was a kid what was it that put hairs on your chest did you get that one black coffee I mean most black coffee most of us meant to put hairs on your chest definitely not that I drink a lot of that that'll put hairs in your chest I got a lot of about a specific vegetable spinach makes you strong like Popeye of course oh of course yeah yeah it does have quite a bit of protein in it it's got iron in it iron that's what it has Yeah, so it's the iron, yeah. It's all about the iron. Did you get told that if you eat your crusts in your sandwiches, it makes your hair go curly?

16:25No. That's what I got told. That might be the hairy chest thing. Were you not eating your crusts? I was, but I still get told it. People still want to rush in to tell you that stuff. It was mainly in school, when the kids who wouldn't eat their crust would get told about the dinner ladies. Yeah. You know. Dinner ladies got nothing bad to do. And they've all got curly hair. Yeah, but it's in hand that you can't tell. Yeah, that's true. we got told that if you put toothpaste on your face it gets rid of freckles oh that's weird so me and my friend Tom did it it really hurt yeah like proper like aqua fresh on your face it's so painful we left it on overnight it's gonna burn yeah it's burning all night did you get rid of freckles?

17:05yeah did you have freckles that you wanted to get rid of? I didn't really but he's ginger oh yeah he was a freckly ginger boy and he was like I want to get rid of these tube of aqua fresh all over his face to sleep woke up in the morning like fuck I don't know did he recover from that ever oh no no no I never saw him again no I bet probably still freckley too yeah no plaque on his face though to be fair to the kid that's good isn't it yeah pop it up with all bread pop it up with all bread Bella Ramsey pop it up with all bread bread nice what kind of bread would you did you see Bella eat any bread in the castle no all of this is now very suspicious to me I think I did eat some bread you would have thought you'd got some bread there's a stale loaf in the kitchen yeah throw that throw that on the floor we'd all scramble for it and fight in the corner yeah yeah yeah exactly like mice yeah do mice eat bread?

17:55yeah they do now yeah big time they do now they do now they didn't use it you know mice eat chocolate rather than cheese if you're trying to catch a mouse you have to put it chocolate not cheese really? I know that I've grew up with cats yeah who would bring presents but I actually none of that ever worked so you just had to like coax them out and like squeak to them in their language and that worked yeah it was squeak to them in their language squeaks them in their language. Works for me. You could play a mouse in the film? Yeah, I could. I was trying to think if I have ever played a mouse, but I haven't.

18:22I've played a chicken. I've played a mouse. Have you? I mean, most of James' anecdotes are clearly leading towards him playing a mouse in a film. Of course. Everything he's asked up until now, he's tried to build it into. He played a mouse in a film. What film? Cinderella. 2021 version Camilla Cabello.

18:41I'll watch that on my journey home. I'll play John the Mouse. John the Mouse. Is there like a clipped version of you being John the Mouse? Someone's clipped it up on the internet. Someone's probably done a fan cam on TikTok or something. Yeah, like the first rap edit. Me and Romesh. And Romesh? Oh. Me and Romesh. Oh. Yeah, yeah. So there you go. Rob Beckett was in it as well. He played a pervert. Yeah, Rob Beckett's a pervert in it. Classic. So three people that you're in that castle with are in that film. Well, I'll give it a no. Two of them play Mice and one of them plays a pervert. I have done something where I'm in a voice for something with Romesh.

19:14Chicken Run. I think he was one of the, maybe, what are the characters in Chicken Run? They're chickens mainly, I think. He was one of the uncles. He's one of the uncles? Who's a chicken or a bloke? No, no, no, no, an animal. An animal. A rat? He's a rat. He was a rat. So he's played Mice and Rats as Romesh's speciality. What a CV that is. That's incredible. If you need a rodent, you get Romesh. Yeah. A list of absolute rodents. Romesh, Rodonathan. Ratonaton Ratonaton Bromhouse Ratonaton and that's the end of the rest Bromhouse Ratonaton we did it everyone the best pieces of podcast in podcast history what kind of bread would you like I'd like oh I'd like either sourdough or focaccia oh focaccia's good yeah with like little bits of actual tomato in it and like fresh basil with olive oil and balsamic vinegar I think it is better and I really miss that era like which I mean this might even be before your time, Bella, but there was a big focaccia boom when we were kids.

20:18I think I was alive for that. Were you? Yeah. I made my own focaccia once. You might have caught the tail end of the focaccia boom. Yeah. But you weren't in the thick of the focaccia boom, Bella. No way. I can't possibly understand. No, you weren't there. This is like turn of the century. Where I wasn't born yet. Yeah, yeah. It was really exciting. Really? Yeah. John Kearns came on the podcast once, comedian John Kearns, and talked about the focaccia you used to get from Sainsbury's. In the foil tray. Yeah, and it was next level stuff. It was so good and kind of doesn't exist anymore. I was going to say, I don't know.

20:51It was probably the sort of focaccia that an Italian would get really angry about. Okay, the best kind. Yeah, exactly. So not like, you know how good focaccia is like super airy and light. Yeah. But this probably had far too much oil soaked into it. But that made it so much better. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The foil tray, like tear and share focaccia boom. You should bring that back. Yeah. Get rid of, it doesn't matter about sparkling water rumours. we need to get back like focaccia focaccia focaccia focaccia oh I've never known you've got to do the hand otherwise it doesn't work exactly fill that with a lot of things do what I don't like go on when people go when they do that and then say chef's kiss after it fucking annoys me they go it was chef's kiss no fuck off either do the thing or say the thing don't do it and then say the thing afterwards it really annoys me a lot of people do it if I see a chef doing this in the kitchen I'm not fucking eating that food no of course not get your hands out your mouth before you touch my bread yeah absolutely my focaccia yeah my focaccia yeah thank you I think I've said this on the pod before but I am slightly put off by focaccia now I've seen loads of videos of people making it because they finger it so much yeah there's a lot of fingering going into it I made focaccia and did that very thing yeah it is like a bit but I wash my hands you know quite well exactly but you can't trust people you can't trust people you can't trust these chefs so you're kissing their fingers and then...

22:15Sticking them in. Yeah, and then massaging it. Yeah, but that's the same with any handmade bread. It's like a lot of kneading involved. Yeah. Made bread quite a few times. Yeah? Yeah, quite a lot actually. One of the things I did for a while was make bread. I should do that more. Do you have a specialty? Is it for catcher? No, but I would like to make it so. I've just bread really. I don't have a special, just like some flour and some yeast and some salt and just bread of any kind. I love the idea of it it's really good of making bread yeah but making bed I love the idea of making my bed I don't do that but then I'm like just go buy it I feel see I feel that way about most like I made croissants once for Christmas and there was so much effort and like store bought was just way better and easier but bread is homemade bread does taste it has a different sort of taste to store bought bread and it's satisfying when you're eating it do you think I'm made yeah yeah tastes better because of it that's how I feel when I listen back to this podcast really I made that yeah you've never listened back to this podcast huh you've never listened to an episode of it I love it would you like your own homemade bread for this then for your dream meal or would you like it to be bought from a shop oh I'd like it I'd like it to be sourdough made by someone else yes anyone specific that you want to make your sourdough James Norton I don't know if he can make a good sourdough.

23:41He feels like he might be able to. Do you think? He can turn his hand to a lot of things, that guy, I think. Do you think? Okay. This is a bit rogue, but there's a script supervisor on The Last of Us called Chris Rufus and he would bring in sourdough just to give out and that was really good. That he made? That he made. You can have Chris Rufus's sourdough if you like. I'd have Chris Rufus's sourdough. Shout out Chris Rufus. Go on, Chris Rufus. Go on, Chris Rufus. your dream starter my dream starter would be i actually think i'm gonna do like butter and jam on toast like for real fantastic like really good toast with with really good butter and really good jam and i'm gonna just like not be vegan for a day i'm not even really vegan anymore that's sort of a lie but i have like proper butter and proper jam on toast it's funny to say i'm just not going to be vegan for this i'm not vegan anyway yeah it was because i was for a long time and now i'm just sort of not yeah anymore but i actually can i have one can i can i have can i change can i alter my answer yeah i'd like one piece of toast with butter and jam really good butter and jam one piece of toast that's just like bruschetta with with tomato like chopped tomatoes and olive oil and that's i love i love that we've not moved away from bread no yeah you asked you started it you could have had this as your bread course there's a bread course?

25:08well we just did it we just did Bob Adolp's bread you got Rufus's bread I'm having double bread and now we're carrying on with the bread which is great the toast with the butter and jam do you want to use Chris Rufus's bread for that as well or do you want a different type of bread for that? Rufus's getting a lot of air time yeah he is I'd have the same bread for that but it needs to be toasted so it's like a good colour, like golden brown. Yeah. Golden brown, toast, toast, toast, toast, toast, toast, I like that. You'll sing that as you, Ethan. Want to hear the crunch when you bite into it? Oh, yeah.

25:41Well, I mean, with sourdough, you'll definitely get a crunch. Yeah. It's difficult to find that point with sourdough where it goes from bread to nice toast is such a small window before it goes to glass. Sure. Don't you think? I fully agree. It just breaks off in shards, it'll cut your mouth. Do you ever, like, over toast, toast, and then just scrape off the bun? Oh, yeah. big time first layer yeah yeah pop that straight in the butter yeah leave that for next time I ordered from a place called Crunch the other day it was a sandwich place Crunch I just saw it on Deliveroo I'd never seen it before I was very hungover it was a very bad day after after Ed's partner's birthday party oh yeah fucking awful night and the next day I was not in a good way at all I went on Deliveroo thinking like I need like a burger or something this is like this is bad and then there's this place called Crunch and I saw these really pimped up sandwiches I thought that looks good it's basically like a burger but like a sandwich so I ordered it really excited about this crunch arriving I bit into it no crunch what the hell didn't hear anything just like I had a buffalo chicken sandwich everything delicious were there crunchy things in it that should have crunched lettuce the actual thing is toasted it's like a toasted so on the picture it's this toasted sandwich that's like you know everything looked like a burger but it had like toast instead of the bun okay that's a nice idea I was like this looks great yeah but no crunch no crunch that's like when you go to poundland and everything is not a pound yeah yeah that's how it felt but absolute shout out the deep fried lasagna bites what a crunch on those guys no no not at all but like they're a bit crispier but like little cubes yeah of like multi-layered lasagna like quite a lot of layers how do you make that all just smashed in i don't know it was absolutely those were the stars of the show i'll be ordering those again i think yeah if i found myself making deep fried lasagna bites at home i'll be like something's gone very wrong yeah yeah yeah i'll get halfway through that process and go i need to have a look at my life here yeah what am i doing and what will you see i don't know if i should shudder to think whereas making bread I'd be like this is so wholesome deep fried lasagna bites hung over no it was a great night we had a great night awful night absolutely awful we're all in our god damn 40s what are we doing drinking Bakewell tart cocktails ooh sounds good yeah they sound good and they absolutely took people's faces off you're like 12 years old we shouldn't be drinking those we're like 50s yeah I was fine though old cousins drinking like Bakewell tart slushies like idiots Yeah, I get it.

28:26Morons. How many did you have? Lost count. Yeah. Wow. A lot of people were sick that night. What flavour jam? Raspberry. With seeds. With seeds? Absolutely. Oh, wow. That's wild. Big bits of raspberry. Yeah. I like jam that tastes like proper, like fruity. Nice. I agree with that. I agree with the fruity taste, but surely the seeds, are they not getting in your teeth? No, they're crunchy. You crunch the seeds. I crunch. Like, you know when you get it right on, it's perfectly on your tooth, you crunch it. Yeah, I like seeds. Also, I could put a bit of black pepper on it. Wow. On all of the toast.

29:01Massively respect this. And on the bruschetta. Nice. Black pepper goes with everything. Yeah. You're right. I haven't thought. And crunch, it's the same crunch thing. Like proper peppercorns and raspberry seeds. Crunch. And if people from Crunch, the sandwich shop, are listening. Get some more black pepper and raspberry seeds in your freaking... Get your freaking ant together, guys. We're all game together. You're called crunch, for Christ's sakes. I got the thousand layer potatoes. They were nice, but not crunchy. They should be. That's great that you're putting the black pepper on the raspberry jam.

29:34I think so. There was a big, you wouldn't have been alive for this, Bella, big boom in putting black pepper on strawberries back in our day. Do you remember that? I know about all of these things. I've done this. Yeah, you probably learned about it in school, in history lessons. There was a big, it was balsamic vinegar and black pepper on strawberries. Oh, yeah. I've done that. No, you weren't there. Sure, sure, sure. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I know nothing. I'm an ignorant gen. Z. Z. Yeah, we're just old, man. Yeah. Are you technically millennials? Yeah. Yes. We're definitely millennials. We're in the thick of it, I think.

30:07Yeah, yeah. Classic millennials. Just cool guys. Benito's a boomer. Benito's a boomer. Gosh, sorry. Summer's supposed to be the easy season. So why are so many people quietly Googling a therapist between summer Fridays? Because more daylight doesn't fix the hard stuff. Sometimes it just turns the volume up. Grow does therapy differently. Grow connects you with thousands of high-quality licensed therapists across the U.S., offering both virtual and in-person sessions, nights and weekends. There are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time.

30:47The therapist you want takes your insurance on Grow. Grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash ACAST today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash ACAST. growtherapy.com slash ACAST. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. yeah

31:24main course main course is pasta salad that my mum used to make for me when I used to go to school back in the day it was like cold pasta with mayonnaise and chopped up bits of cucumber and pepper and black pepper lots of black pepper and that in a Tupperware with a spork yeah that is my main course it has to be a spork it has to be a spork I had a red spork that I used to eat this with at school great oh my gosh and I used to like she'd sometimes make it in the morning and like before I even got to school I was like I would have to like have a bit it was so good like mayonnaise on pasta no one does that yeah it's good that's a nostalgic taste so good yeah freezing cold yeah straight out the fridge straight out the fridge well it's been in my lunchbox all day but I've had an ice pack in there yeah so it's fine yeah that's my that's my and you'd look forward to it would you you're sitting in your lessons just dreaming of it yeah I'd be thinking about it yeah my Bart Simpson lunchbox yeah the Bart Simpson lunchbox I had several I did have a Bart Simpson for a while that's my main one was he saying anything on the lunchbox no no he was just there with his cool yellow hair hmm I mean he was saying he was eating my shorts or something well yeah I mean the the hair is yellow right yeah but so is his whole body and head yeah I think so yeah it's unclear yeah where his hair starts.

32:45Well, it's part of his skull, you can see on that tattoo. Oh, you see? Yeah, sorry, it has a Bart Simpson skull as a tattoo. It's all part of his skull, you see. Okay, cool. Yes. Thanks. No problem. I love this as a main cause. So it's not, there's no like, there's no like meat or like tuna in it or anything. It's just, it's just the veggies and the pasta and the mayonnaise. Arms are folded. Why are the arms folded? I'm clarifying. The arms are folded because my also other favourite thing was tuna pasta there you go so I could put tuna in it absolutely but also it would be completely fine if I didn't have tuna depends on whether I'm being vegan or vegetarian this day or not yeah well there's mayonnaise in it yeah good vegan mayonnaise these days also mayonnaise has even regular mayonnaise has the tiniest amount of egg in it again all these lies crunch poundland yeah yeah mayonnaise being egg based it's not true would you ever trade your lunch with other kids absolutely Absolutely not.

33:43No. No. The kids in my school were having like Marmite and banana sandwiches and like... What? Yeah, no, no, no. I went to a small village primary school. There was like 80 kids there, like the lunch. And there was like chocolate sandwich. I could, I could, I would like to have experimented more with the chocolate sandwich. But no, I really, I was keeping my pasta that was not going anywhere. Well, it sounds like you had the best thing there. 100%. Where was this small village where kids were eating banana and Marmite sandwiches? I want to try that. In the heart of Leicestershire. Wow. Yeah, I don't know where those kids are now.

34:16No. But it was like proper soggy and manky and it was, yeah. Yeah. Bit grim. I still like to try Marmite and banana though. It's not, I have tried, it's not that bad. Yeah. It's really not. Also, you can get Marmite and peanut butter mixed together now in a jar. Yes, you can. That's good stuff. That with banana on toast. Chris Reeves did something. You like that? Yeah, I just really love toast, I think. I just can't imagine being a parent being like, I'm making my lunchbox for my kid. It's Marmite banana sandwiches. What do you think, like nutrition-wise, what's going on there? You've got some B vitamins in there.

34:54You've got some slow-release energy in the banana. I don't know if it's slow-release. Yeah, I suppose so. That's more oats, I think. Banana just feels like it should be separate in a lunchbox, right? Even though it's the most annoying-shaped thing to pack in a lunchbox. It's true, and it gets battered about and it brews. Yeah. That's a good observation we haven't ever hit upon. My last menu is how awkward a banana is to put in a lunchbox. Yeah. We had a banana. You can get like a banana Tupperware. It's like a banana holder. Yeah. But it was really stupid because it only fits like a very specific shape and size of banana.

35:28Yeah. Like what if you have a tiny banana? Like it's massive. Yeah. It's just not going to fit in the case, is it? Yeah. You need a load of different size cases. But then your life's out of control. It really is. If you're doing that. I think so. Also I think I'd prefer a case for my banana that isn't the same shape and colour as a banana. Really? Why? Just because it just feels pointless. Do you know what I mean? You might as well carry the banana. Yeah, you might as well just carry the banana around. I'd prefer like a sort of assassin or something to have a little case with the foam perfectly cut out with the banana in there.

36:00Yeah. And that would make me she'll call at school. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's what, in Pulp Fiction, that's what's in that suit. That's what's in the case when it's glowing. It's like, whoa. It's his mid-morning banana. Yeah. Yeah, you can't believe it. I used to take packed lunch to school and eat it all in morning break. Good for you. That's great. Yeah. Face full of Colgate. Big sandwich, banana down there. But I didn't have a lunchbox later on when I was older at school. I just used to have it in a plastic bag. And still, it was all gone by lunch. All gone, banana, bashed up to fuck in there, just rattling around.

36:35No banana kiss. Straight out my locker at 11 a.m. Roll down. normally a ham and cheese roll one of those ones with cheese on the top you remember like soft white rolls with like cheese melted on the top straight in there probably like a cereal bar a banana that's all at 11am and then go into school lunch and take school dinners steal school dinners that's great you hacked the system there I hacked the system unfortunately I didn't hack my own health but you kind of did yeah I did hacked it to hell yeah I like this pasta it's good it's nice and nostalgic it sounds like you genuinely loved it and maybe where your love of black pepper started I think so there have to be a lot of it it used to be one of my things I'd say to make people like I think try and make people laugh or make people think I was slightly strange which I probably was as a kid which was like I would have black pepper with everything I also used to tell this I had this weird lie that I used to tell it's like the one specific lie that for some reason I thought was like this huge thing that I'd said to people that I would like sneak downstairs in the middle of the night and get butter out of the fridge and just like eat it, just butter.

37:45And I would tell people the story as if it was like the most crazy thing to ever happen. And then I'd like put it back in the fridge and I'd clean the knife and there'd be no evidence and I'd creep back upstairs and no one would know. People believe me every time. Yeah, of course they did. It's perfectly believable. It doesn't sound not believable. It's like, why would someone lie about that? I don't know. I didn't lie about anything. and I just had this one specific lie that I like this story that I told people did you think how did you think that made you appear to them I don't know like cool was that like I think it was cool I think it was to be cool to be like guess what I do I go and eat butter in the middle of the night and you don't know anything about it and I'd also like I think was what reminded me of that was the black pepper thing because I'd also say to people that I like put black pepper on everything and make a point of putting it on everything and then whenever if I'd said that to someone if I was in with that person I'd like just put black pepper on things that black pepper made no sense on because to prove my point.

38:38Yeah. So do you think, so did you actually want to put black pepper on it or were you doing it because you're the black pepper student? Yeah, I think that most likely, but I do think that - You've convinced yourself into it. Yeah. I do love black pepper. Yeah. And I don't love like, you know, and sometimes you go to, and it's like mixed peppercorns. It's not as good. It tastes weird. Those red ones. Yeah. The green ones. Yeah. No, no, no. Sometimes they put nutmeg in it. It's a violent flavor nutmeg. sure is you don't need much nutmeg to really make an impact no I don't want that on my jam and butter on toast I only want black pepper ones yeah I like a bit I like a bit of nutmeg but I'm not having that on toast nah it's an impact cameo nutmeg yeah to return to Pulp Fiction it's Christopher Walken sure you don't need much but it leaves a lasting taste yeah good old Walken yeah have you had him in here?

39:29not yet no I mean sorry in the spirit of lying yes we have and he ate loads of butter he ate a whole thing of butter did he did you tell any lies at your school James? no I saved all my lies for Inverness

39:46we had a kid at our school who lied all the time we only found out after like a year or so really? he was like a new kid came like probably when we were like 14, 15 so he's trying to make he's trying to make an impression just started talking out his ass really? but like things that he definitely And he couldn't back up. He said he'd been to every country in the world apart from Luxembourg, which is a crazy lie to tell. Such an easy country to visit if you've done all the other countries. Yeah, exactly. Landlocked. He said that his house, he had a garage that was full of like shrunken down versions of supercars.

40:20Wow. And that is, and then someone obviously went to his house and like, no, it's just a normal house. Gosh, I wonder where he is now. Maybe Luxembourg. I did actually look it up the other day. He's a very successful businessman. Is he? Yeah, yeah. that makes sense yeah lied his way to the top now he's got the big versions of the supercast probably yeah wow I'd also tell people something like during the you know Golden Time do you remember it being called Golden Time was it called Golden Time when you guys were alive when we were alive yeah no no Golden Time was like the time on a Friday where you'd like get to play oh that was fun oh great but during Golden Time I used to like tell people also I don't know maybe this is where the acting began yeah because it I used to see if I could convince people that I was Canadian as well that I was half Canadian but I'd say that like I spoke Canadian and I'd be like make up words being like yeah and and I'd like look at the things around me and like make them a bit funky and like make up this Canadian language and one time a kid said to me I think they speak English in Canada and I went not the part of Canada I'm from people believe me again every time and then but then I felt bad if people actually believed it and I'd have to tell them like by the way I'm not I'm actually not half Canadian and I think they were always very confused and same with the butter lie I'd always tell people eventually and I think they I think that's how I lost friends because they'd be very confused as to why I would why that was an important thing it's such a funny it's a funny lie to tell and obviously people believed it but it's also really funny that then that really weighed heavy on you yeah oh absolutely I've got to let you know I don't eat butter I was a classroom assistant at school for a while when I was like in my mid-twenties and there was a kid there who was canadian and i found out so you think well that's well he wasn't me whoa so that's what i found out later on is that someone had to tell me you know he's not canadian he's just obsessed with canada he's learned everything about it and that they his parents took him to a like a speech and language therapist who's who was canadian and she said his canadian accent was more authentic than hers was wow and she just couldn't believe how good his accent wow and how's how authentic ticket sounded gosh yeah but it was months before i learned that he wasn't that's amazing he knew everything about canada and like he really loved to talk about canada so i'd always just ask him like favorite hockey teams and all this stuff just knew everything about everything but yeah i mean this is canadian the canadian tourist board should start promoting canada by saying loads of english kids pretend to be from here yeah i think that's the best advert for canada i've ever heard yeah probably he also uh i was doing stand-up at the time and he he googled me he googled all the staff online trying to find out stuff about them and he came in the next morning and was like you're a comedian and I had a split second decision to make I went no I'm not and he was like showing me on his phone he's like that's you and I was like that's not me and he was like he knew it was me so much worse at lying than he is the best of the time he kept it up every day going in that is you that's not me that's your name I don't know what you're talking about and then I go we're talking about you being from Canada and go okay fine I'll leave it I'll leave it.

43:31The dream side dish, Bella. My dream side dish is crispy rice with avocado. Great. Talk us through this. When did you first have this? Well, I think I only had it once. Because you can get crispy rice with tuna. But at the time, I wasn't eating tuna. I wasn't eating fish. And so I could never have the tuna. so I just have the crispy rice and it was delicious and then once they did it with avocado in one random place. It's not consistently on every menu. I've not seen it. No, no, no. Is it like sushi site? It's like a little square of rice that's deep fried but soft and squizzy in the middle. Crispy rice with avocado.

44:15Is this in Canada as well? Yeah. It's all over the show. Vancouver? Vancouver. I think I had something similar in Vancouver once. I had some good sushi in Vancouver from a place I can't remember its name but it was really good and it felt very spoiled and it wouldn't surprise me if this is there Is Vancouver where you film? It is, yeah So you spent a lot of time in Vancouver Lots of time in Vancouver They do do good sushi indeed and lots of other things They have good mountains You get good mountain water probably from Canada The mountains are crazy in Vancouver You'd be in the middle of the city and then just look over and there's incredible mountains Yeah, you're looking at giant high-rises, and then you've got the ocean, and then you've got mountains.

44:55You've been to Rain or Shine in Vancouver? Sure have. Great ice cream place. It's really good. They do pop-ups on the beach often. Do they? Yeah. I didn't know that. That's exciting. I didn't go there, but there's one specific ice cream. It kind of ties into what we were talking about earlier, the blueberry balsamic. Oh. With black pepper on it? No, but I bet that would work. And I wouldn't be surprised if Rain or Shine do a black pepper ice cream. Oh, I'm sure they do. Yeah, that blueberry balsamic. You can get it with hot fudge sauce. They kind of push that. Wow. And that's good, but I actually prefer it on its own.

45:27I think it's such a unique scoop. Sounds good on its own. You should get it on its own. I think the... You like unique scoop. Yeah, I really like unique scoop because I could tell James really enjoyed saying it. Yeah. It shows that I probably know what I'm on about with ice cream. It's part of my kind of culture. Because people who don't know much about ice cream don't know that it comes in scoops. No. No, no, no. and that a scoop could be unique to have. Yeah. What was the flavour in? Blueberry balsamic. It's such a good scoop. That's really good. You've got to go and get it. I mean, they've got a lot of good scoops there.

46:00Rain or Shine is one of the all-time great ice cream places. It's really good. There's also a really good Chinese restaurant in Vancouver called Mott 32, which then they do cashew chilli crispy tofu. Tofu, that's another rogue thing. I say tofu. Apparently it's tofu. Yeah. I've never heard someone say tofu but like I think it's a Midlands thing I ordered tofu in restaurants they're looking at me what do you mean tofu sorry tofu I'm Midlands you say tofu yeah get a grip you're the only person from Kettering to ever say tofu though aren't you yeah no one else in Kettering has ever said it tofu yeah they've never said that's a beach Kettering no sorry Kettering if you're listening you know I'm only playing I had great Korean fried chicken in Vancouver actually in a really nice like little bar it was before I went on stage about an hour before and I wanted to try lots of different types of the creative because they had loads of different coatings so I ordered like three portions and they were like 24 wings of the thing wow were you very full yeah it was just me and one other person we absolutely decimated did you smash it yeah yeah I smashed it yeah not the gig the gig was awful because you were so full yeah I basically had to crawl on stage and yeah just eating 24 garlic parmesan fried chicken wings but Ed's audience know what they're getting into yeah they know that when they buy a ticket to Ed Gamble, they're rolling the dice that he might be full.

47:19Yeah. Especially if it's not in London, you know? Especially if I'm out and about because I've got to go and try all the places. Of course. So I travel for work. The work is always dreadful because I've eaten too much food. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sounds like you're making the most of it. Again, like hacking the system. Yeah, exactly. Totally hacking the system. Again, not to my own benefit in any way. Have you ever eaten too close to shooting a scene and you can feel it? All the time. All the time. all the time I bought this crafty service on Last of Us in particular that is like I can't tell you how good it is it's unbelievable it's dangerous it's dangerously good and it's like it's the whole day you don't have to like wait for lunch or wait for breakfast it's like a constant stream of like incredible food and so yeah all the time I'm consistently full it's terrible yeah there's this guy on Ghostbusters who did this like amazing Ghostbusters Ghostbusters.

48:15I think ghostbusters. No, but not the original one. Not that old. There's this guy who did this like strawberry yogurt with granola and like loads of bananas and stuff like that. Doesn't sound great. The way that he did it, this guy, there was something that he put in it, was so addictive. Ectoplasm. Oh man, I hate ectoplasm. It might have been ectoplasm. I tell you what, and now you've properly put this in my mind now, Bella. you said that strawberry granola thing. Yeah. My first thought was, a bit of black pepper would go lovely on that. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I think it would. Maybe that was the secret ingredient I didn't know about.

48:54Yeah, it probably was. BP. Oh, BP. It was so good. I'd think about it all day because he wouldn't do it straight away, weirdly. That's weird. I had to wait until the afternoon because I think that was on his shift side. Oh, sure, sure, sure. I'd be like, it's the yogurt man here, yeah. I just want to eat that yogurt. Yeah, I like an overnight oat and a yogurt thing. They did banana boats on Last of Us, which was basically just like a whole bit of banana, a whole banana not beaten up and not encased. It's been in a case. Like cut down the middle with like so much peanut butter and berries and granola on a little cardboard tray.

49:33Wow. So good. But again, afternoons. It only come out in the afternoon. Pascal Wolfe in that down? I don't know if he liked a banana boat. He went, what did he eat? He ate a lot of carrot sticks. Be careful because we will, you know, we've had it on the podcast before where people have come on, told us what co-stars have had, and then we fact-checked it when that co-star eventually does come on the podcast and then they've been exposed as a liar. And we know you got previous to your butter talk. He had to eat a lot of carrot sticks because he had to spot the scary mushroom men in the dark. It has been a long time since I've seen him eat food on set, so that might be incorrect.

50:09But you get like bags of vegetables that he would eat a lot. I bet he's got those in the Mando helmet. Probably. I bet he's just crunching carrot sticks in that helmet all the time and get away with it. Like a nose bag. Yeah, we'll see him, yeah. That's why he looks so dishevelled every time he takes the helmet off. Yeah. He's just been sweatily eating carrot sticks in there. Would you ever do a role like that where, like, for the whole thing people can't see your face, but, like, you're in every scene, you're having to still act in the scene, but people can't see it's you? I don't think so. You wouldn't do it?

50:44I don't think I'd be hired for such a thing. What? I think that, because I don't know. I just, no, I think I rely on my face to do the acting. Fun challenge though. Fun challenge. Yeah, but what, so it's just your voice and your movement. Maybe it would be cool. Well, I mean, that's why it's actually quite good to come on this. You can listen to this when you get home. Just your voice. And you can go, maybe I could do that. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to listen to this back. Huh? I think I've spoken too much about Brad to listen back I think I'm going to leave here and just like trust that I've left everything on the floor you know left everything in the off-main studio there's nothing you can do I don't need to re - that's what we like to hear from our guests I hear that you clearly watch listening back every time I listen back multiple times for every episode just to like really get a feel for it I'd like to play Mando one day I think if I did something with a mask on doing acting I'd be tempted to like do like serious scenes but like with like cross eyes and stuff do like silly stuff under the mask you have to do something like that to entertain yourself you're so bored you gotta be bored yeah whenever a person's talking to you just be pulling funny faces they don't even know it yeah they don't even know it that was me during Covid wearing masks I would just be consistent like I swore so much during Covid because I would because I realised how much I was suppressing all the time and then suddenly I was like saying everything that I'd normally say out loud because no one could see my mouth.

52:11Yeah. Walking down the street just like saying whatever the hell I wanted. They could hear you though, right? Bella, Bella, you've got to know they could hear you.

52:22I don't know. I think that mask was protection for me. I took it a bit too far. I really liked that part. The mask part. I loved it and hated it. I loved it for the literal mask that it provided. I loved the element of it I enjoyed and obviously a horrible time for so many people the masks, all of that stuff I loved there being rules and I loved following the rules and I loved noticing when other people weren't following the rules and getting really angry about it, that's what I liked Were you looking out your window checking that your neighbours were only going on like one walk a day? Big time, yeah I was phoning the police I'm sure they loved hearing from you I'm a Covid Karen Yeah, Covid Karen A lot of people know that Ed the Covid Karen yeah that's me what do you do now when you're in sometimes like going to a cafe coffee shop whatever and I'm queuing up and like when I'm waiting for my coffee I just like idly look down and realise they've still got the things on the floor from Covid times yeah yeah as a Covid Karen do you sometimes want to follow that still because it's on the floor I definitely want to yeah but I now can't get annoyed that other people aren't but yeah can't snitch anymore yeah can't pull out your two metre stick yeah also like it puts me off a place if they've still got all the COVID stickers because I'm like if that's your attention to detail what are you doing to the food you know probably doing this yeah yeah kissing their hands so chef's kiss that stopped in COVID didn't it I'm glad that's back chef's kiss that's why people started saying it out loud yeah and then they forgot when we came out of the pandemic they forgot that you don't have to say it out loud anymore you can just do the mime yeah so now we're understanding so maybe you'll be less pissed off now yeah I will oh look there's still a lot of residual trauma from the pandemic and if that is one of the things that's still hanging over is that people say chef's kiss out loud, I'll let it go.

54:11I miss elbows as well, that's the other thing I miss. Yeah. Yeah. You can't really initiate that now with people. You've got to do the elbow bump. That would be crazy now if you tried to initiate the elbow bump. Yeah. Thank you. That's good. That feels good. It does feel good actually. Yeah, much better. Much better than a hand shake. I agree. Less sweaty. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot that I miss, actually.

55:01are no subscriptions, no long-term commitments. You just pay per session. Grow helps you find therapy on your time. The therapist you want takes your insurance on Grow. Grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average$21 with insurance and some pay as little as$0 depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash ACAST today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash ACAST. growtherapy.com slash ACAST. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan.

55:43Your dream drink, Bella. Fresh orange juice. Freshly squeezed. And this is also, I'm doing this menu is like pretending that I don't have stomach issues. So like I can eat whatever I like and drink whatever I like without getting a brutal stomachache. it's like maybe like a litre of fresh orange juice freshly squeezed and that would give you that would give you stomach problems absolutely yeah probably everything does if you got sent to a summer camp with other people with stomach issues would you enjoy that i'd love it yeah what a summer camp that would be though yeah it would be like they'd need probably like the half of the summer camp would be toilets yeah and queues yeah but they'd have to have enough that there wasn't queues that would have to be one of them everyone would need their own personal private toilet.

56:29Yeah, and like a free Rennie dispenser. Yeah. I love that. Yeah, you love a Rennie dispenser. And have she own personal private toilet. Yeah. You've got one. No, I'm not allowed to use it. My partner says it's not for me. Yeah. I'll be going queue at the shops. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Do you want one of those machines that you get in some Yeah. Yeah, sometimes you go in some places and they've got the Wallace and Gormick machine. Sends the orange on a journey. Sends the orange on a journey. Sends the orange on a journey. Oh, it's like a chichi-bang-bang where the egg... Yeah. The egg...

57:05I loved that freaking invention. Do you ever watch the orange go around and you know it's going to be part of your juice? No. That's my orange. Should do that next time. They send it on too much of a journey. It's fun for the orange, really. It's good to give it a final little bit of fun before it's brutally squeezed and ingested by human enjoyment and consumption. Yeah. I love watching the orange go around that's your orange yeah that's my orange that I say sure would you ever bring your own orange along to the shop and ask them can you juice this please I don't think so I don't know it might be good you said your just your one that you know is good you know it's good orange your special orange that you've like grown on a tree yeah juice this for me yeah there are more and more places popping up like takeaway places where you can you take something in and they cook it for you really or like I get a lot on Instagram I'll get like this like food truck where someone brings like them a bag of crisps and they put a load of crap on top of it.

58:02That's cool. Yeah. That's really cool. So you'd be like, here's my Doritos chili heat wave or whatever and they put like meat and cheese sauce on it and stuff. That's excellent. Yeah. But that with oranges basically. Yeah, nice. Yeah. I mean, you just have to pay... For the squeezing. Full price for it, yeah. I guess you're just paying for the squeezing. Then you can do that at home. Yeah. yeah but not in that machine you can't send the orange on a journey and also they're paying out of their heads and you know it's not legal to own those machines yet probably not and the oranges probably taste better the oranges taste better if the oranges have had like a good life before like a good journey and a bit of fun before massage and stuff yeah exactly you ever juice oranges at home have you always juice at home sure do what's your set up what's your juicing set up well at home home where I no longer live there's like a old And we have from an, I don't know, I think my dad found this thing that, it's a manual squeezer.

58:58It's like a big contraption where you like pull the handle down and it goes like, yeah, that's good. Just getting a bit excited there. That's good. All the manual like squeezer things and it collects in the little rim around the outside and you pour it into the. That's very labour intensive. It is, but it tastes better because of it. Yeah. How many oranges are you doing though for one glass? If we're going to do a litre, I'm going to need a lot of oranges. Yeah. We need a whole tree. Yeah. You know, I once planted an apple seed when I was a kid, and it's now an apple tree. Wow. With actual apples on it.

59:30Don't believe this just yet. Carry on. Actually, really smacks of a school line. So, so, so quick. Wow. It's actually true. I'm actually quite a bad liar. Yeah. I can act, I can't lie. I'll just laugh, and I'll eventually have to tell you that it's a lie. But the apple thing is true. I've heard this song and dance before in a castle. I mean, yeah. You know me well. Where's the apple tree at? Home, home. Nice. Wow, so you plant it in your garden? Well, I planted it in a pot to start with. And then it grew into a thing and then I planted it. Or maybe I did just plant it straight in the ground. I think I might have planted it straight in the ground, you know.

1:00:11I can't remember. I was seven or something. Wow. And this year, for the first time, it's got actual apples on it. Hold on, you planted one seed? Yeah. You didn't plant a load of apple seeds? and one tree grew. You planted a single seed and that is now an apple tree. I ate an apple, got down to the core, extracted the seed, put it in the ground, prayed to the lords, the lords, multiple lords. Prayed for the rain, prayed for the sun. The apple tree grew. Yeah, that's how much faith I have in, you know, seeds, I loved doing that in school, like germinating a broad bean, you know, seeing it grow. I think I was going through that phase of my life and it was like, what will happen if I plant an apple seed and now there's an apple tree?

1:00:50We all remember the germinating broad bean phases of our life. So fun. And the cress. Sunflower? Yeah. Cress and broad beans. I love germinating those broad beans. And you'd have to do it in different environments to see what worked best. Did you try and get a sunflower on Blue Peter? No. Yeah, they loved it. If you planted a sunflower in your garden, if you've got a real tool, take a photo of it, send it into Blue Peter. They do a little roundup of everyone's sunflowers in the country. This one's really big. Did you do that? Didn't even bother. Couldn't get any that big. I planted it, grew it.

1:01:19I was like, yeah, it's worth it. They're big enough. No point sending it in. Connie Huck's going to be like, look at this one, it's all right, and then cut to another kid who's made a massive sunflower and will look like an idiot on TV. I'm not doing that. No. You've always been yourself, haven't you? Yeah. Yeah. Going, what's the point? What's the point? We look like an idiot. Yeah, exactly. We've got a chia pet at home. Have you? Yeah. What? Chia pet. Chia pet. Don't even know what that is. Oh, that's Pinocchio's dad. That went straight over my head. it doesn't even really work as a joke it doesn't work that well Geppetto Geppetto is Pinocchio's father the Chia Pet it's like I think ours is like supposed to look like a llama or something or I can't remember exactly what a capoeira maybe or something like that capoeira is a dance capybara it's just like a little model of an animal but then you put chia seeds on it you stick chia seeds on it and then it grows the chia grows and it looks like it's wool or fur and you eat it No, you can't eat it.

1:02:21What? You just look at it. But it did, it got... Better off planting caress. Yeah. Yeah, but I mean, look... That sounds like it stinks. James will not be surprised to hear it. I didn't buy the cheer pet. It was my wife that bought the cheer pet. Sure. She loves the cheer pet. It got all big and it looked great. And then it started dying. All the cheer started dying. And then I had to deal with it because she got too sad. It's always the way, isn't it? So I had to strip off all the dead cheer and put it in the bin and then wash up the cheer pet. but then you can put more cheer on it but we haven't done that yet because I think there's the whole residual trauma yeah the cycle of trauma is not good to enter into that's what happens when you like get a pet of any kind it's like the risk of that you're like I'm going to love you so much and you're going to die soon but that's not mine no James's James's won't not my pet immortal cheer pets James got five cats have you got five cats and they're all going to live forever yeah your dream dessert my dream dessert is coffee ice cream on coffee cake with a sort of espresso like affogato with coffee ice cream on coffee cake with chocolate covered coffee beans on top and this is also assuming that I don't have to sleep that night ever yeah yeah because yeah that just sounds so good to me I love coffee flavour you've never had it before I've had all of those things separately but never together I don't know why no one's done it yet I mean it sounds perfect it sounds ideal I know yeah I like the addition of the chocolate-covered coffee beans as well.

1:03:50Get them Caffe Nero. That was my instruction to those. You get little cigarette boxes of chocolate-covered coffee beans. Yeah. They were somewhere between a cigarette box and a matchstick box. It was like the size of the tins. Were they tins? Like little tins? No, no, no. There was paper. And they were blue. Yeah. And you'd get, oh, that was so good. Chocolate-covered coffee beans. I love a chocolate-covered coffee bean. Me too. But I eat them thinking that it's not. Exactly. The crunch should put them in their sandwiches. I eat them thinking that they're not caffeinated and then I like get a bit wild yeah yeah I've once had like a real I think I'm quite sensitive to caffeine and I've once had coffee cake that's been so caffeinated that I made it myself it was so rich in coffee that I like felt really felt it got a buzz off it yeah in Italy they do these pocket coffee things have you ever had them?

1:04:36no it's chocolate and inside it's like liquid sugary like coffee oh wow gloop it's amazing like a chocolate bar like little blocks of chocolate it's a tiny little it's like a chocolate thing like a celebrations size yes with yeah with like liquid sugary coffee inside it's so good nice have you speaking of chocolate now yeah have you had the new M &S choc range no listen to this man who knows what he's talking about you gotta you gotta you gotta go in there and try this so like they're basically doing their own version of Tony's Chocolonely it's a big thick chunky bars of chocolate a bit wonkified and one of them is like this blonde chocolate so it's like a caramac but chunky and it's full of pistachios cornflakes and shortbread my gosh i think it's my favorite chocolate bar that's unbelievable that sounds unbelievable yeah i think about it all the time i had it once i i bought it from a train station on the overground in london and it was quite late and this guy got on who was uh probably i don't know over 10 years older than me but like a bears type clearly on clearly on something but having a good time he sat down next to me and he was running his mouth off a bit of people as they walked past and like a lady walked past at one point it was pretty old and he said something to her and she stopped and told him that he needs jesus and then she flied him with a flyer for her church and then he said jesus you look you're looking at him and then pointed at himself and then she like they had a bit of a back and forth yeah she wouldn't have liked that she wouldn't like that it wasn't up her street and she walked away and he's like i'd like he's like leaning forwards on his legs like that just look at everyone and I was eating this chocolate bar so I just broke off some squares and I offered it to him wordlessly and uh instead of taking him out my hand he just with his mouth just ate out my hand just turned around and just like like it was a thing that we do all the time like we were together that's true love and there was these guys opposite who had already clocked me and knew who I was who absolutely loved it they couldn't believe that they'd seen it that's brilliant it is the most if you saw you and you were like I know who that is and then saw that happen and be like that's the perfect experience of James Acaster yeah that's brilliant wordlessly feeding a drunk man it's actually a chocolate I wish I could have seen that it'd be mad what if he is Jesus because we don't know yeah that lady's going to be so pissed off I know if he is yeah flyering Jesus for his own show basically yeah yeah and then not believing him he says you're looking at me she's like as if yeah yeah see you later you're not Jesus mate if you're a druggie speak to druggies goodbye sounds like you little Christian boy with the devil horns again being like don't do that you're inviting the devil yeah yeah I was trying to help him yeah if he is Jesus you've done really well I've landed on my feet you fed Jesus chocolate like if he is because it's like those who feed me and like give me shelter will like enter the kingdom of heaven yeah I think it's those who thou give me the M &S chocolate yeah yeah will sit at the right hand of my father or something is that Luke or John I think yeah I think it's in both it's Mark or Spencer I can't remember which one I did give him the rest as I was leaving did you?

1:08:09yeah because with that I've got to be careful it's like I'm getting it every time I'm at most train stations and then looking for a way to offload it because I can't eat the whole thing every time sure but I'm just thinking about it so much these days that I just need to get some in me at some point we've got one in the cupboard at home for when you come over great I went through that phase with Tony's Chocolony that almond sea salt I was going through doing music sessions with my friends and literally going through a bar in four hours I felt so unwell we've all had days where we do a whole Tony's so good this coffee dessert I don't want to gloss over this because it does sound fantastic do you have a favourite place to get coffee?

1:08:46no I don't I'll go anywhere yes but I do like the like proper good independent coffee shops and my favorite oat milk that they do is the minor figures oh yeah oyster oat milk oh it's so good a little character on the front yeah i also like the oatly like jokes on the side of the cartons always i always read cartons of everything so like for people making cartons like i just want to reassure that people do read them like i read all of the packaging on everything ever you know like sometimes on the bottom of things it will say like hello nice to see you like why are you looking at my butt and stuff on like bottoms of like packages like i see all that shit and i really know that it's so good you have to like really look at packaging there's so many little hidden things there naked bars you ever had naked bars yeah they always put little fun things naked but yeah i'm just wolf them down no you need to pay more attention to packaging people really what packaging says hello you're looking at my butt on the bottom something i don't remember i don't remember it's been so long I love I love speaking directly to the people who write the packaging just to reassure that someone's reading it yeah because it always says on the side of the oatmeal cartons it's like but no one's I've seen things before people like you're probably not reading this but you don't care I'm like I do and on the back of the oatmeal cartons it says it says the boring side I'm like it's not boring to me I'm really I'm really invested in so like there's sad messages from the people who write it being like no one's fucking reading I'm absolutely a waste of my life sometimes because they can like do whatever they want you know They're making packaging thinking that no one's reading it, and I am.

1:10:19I'm sure I'm not the only one. But coffee, there's nowhere specifically that I like to take coffee. Anywhere. If anyone writes the packaging for oat milk and stuff, and they're listening now, they should put a message to you directly. Bella, hello. That would probably make my life. Hello, Bella. I don't think that would be so exciting to me. If I read a package and there was a little message that said, I would absolutely... On a package of butter saying, hello Bella why did you lie about me yeah yeah yeah that would make my it would make my life yeah or black pepper would be the dream right on some black pepper or imagine it like engraved into the peppercorns yeah little secret message I would do that for someone if there's someone I really loved and they really love black pepper I would engrave the peppercorns for them wow be up for a long time but that would be I mean that the person would never leave you no or they'd immediately leave or immediately yeah yeah it's one or the other yeah I'll take my chance yeah it depends how long I think you'd you'd been involved with them true as to when to pick to do the peppercorns yeah true I don't know if I could put black pepper on this coffee iced this coffee dessert no I think it's so like coffee heavy that that's what you want to lean into if I saw that on the menu I would just be like I want to have the most coffee thing ever yeah exactly so let's just lean into that and just have loads of coffee yeah maybe if they brought along like a pepper grinder but it was just full of more coffee coffee ground yeah that's good we're one of those massive grinders that's really good say when yeah yeah yeah never because I was the poor guy like doing those please say when my god damn wrist shout out to Faculty Coffee in Birmingham where I went yesterday so it's the freshest one in my head nice really great coffee and they did when I was about to leave the guy said look you've got to try this almond croissant bread pudding that we do he knew the pod yeah I was like great I was on my way to see Joe Lycett as you do hadn't seen him since the castle either nice to see you alive and well Joe but like I I bought it to Joe because Joe lives around there but hadn't tried this bread pudding and we both lost our minds over it the almond croissant bread pudding at faculty really really good sounds really 10 out of 10 yeah like like disgraceful absolutely disgraceful yeah but that sounds so good I know people like have always used like things like like dirty and filthy for like nice food for good things yeah I've never heard anyone use disgraceful disgraceful you've never sat down for dessert with Diane Acaster what for good stuff she says disgraceful no just stuff that we're enjoying yeah stuff that her kids and pick up her husband are eating oh but she means it she means it in a bad way so it's disgraceful she enjoys saying it's disgraceful and we have now adopted it as a good thing but if it's disgraceful you should get her on the pod we should mum if you're listening I promise I'll never call you Diane again though she doesn't like that oh she doesn't like being called Diane apologies she's Di she's Di but yeah you know one day who knows maybe get Diagastro on the pod but I think she'd have a few bones to put with me I've shouted her out a few times Ed's been very rude to her a number of times on the podcast I've been honest wow yeah yeah so you know she's a fantastic woman but a lot of her recipes are wrong oh dear Di I have no I don't know you I have no feelings towards you and so I'll reserve my judgement until we meet that's very nice smart she'll love that I hope so I actually hope she does they grew up in the same generation I'm going to read you your menu back now see how you feel about it okay you would like still a sparkly water sparkling or still if sparkling makes you more right wing.

1:14:11Yeah. You would like sourdome made by Chris Rufus. Yes. You would like toast with butter and raspberry jam with seeds and black pepper and you'd like bruschetta with black pepper as well. Main course, your mum's pasta salad, mayonnaise, cucumber, black pepper in Tupperware with a spork. Side dish, crispy rice with avocado. Drink one litre of freshly squeezed orange juice and for dessert, you would like coffee ice cream on coffee cake with an espresso shot and chocolate covered coffee beans. Yeah. 10 out of 10. Smash that. That is pretty great. I'm pleased with that. I might do that. I might do this today.

1:14:44Yeah? All of this. What, make it yourself or try and find it? No, make it myself. Amazing. I really want to see how that dessert turns out. Huge stomach rumble from Bella there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's usually how this podcast ends.

1:15:01Thank you so much for coming to the Dream Restaurant, Bella. Thanks for having me. Bye-bye. Thanks for being lovely waiters.

1:15:13there we are James a wonderful menu really tasty menu actually the nostalgia was great but also the invention yes you know the old and the new yeah in there I got a very specific feeling during that episode that I only get when we have a guest on who's much younger than us when we're just like being idiots yeah and they're way more sort of grown up than us yeah it's a bit embarrassing yeah it's sort of pride as well I think proud that we're young at heart yeah and stupid guys yeah yeah I don't know if I felt proud of that good to see Bella in this context though yeah previously me and Bella just been in quite a high pressure intense situation so quite nice to be here where only one of us has to yeah make decisions and yeah you know maybe Bella was feeling the stress I don't want to talk on their behalf I think that I was much more relaxed than the last time I saw Bella but maybe Bella was sitting there going I can't believe I have to choose what my dream side dish is this is really stressful I think they enjoyed the process I don't know what it's like for people coming on this podcast you don't no idea I can't imagine go and see Sunny Dancer it is out on the 14th of August as in this Friday if you're listening to this or watching this when it comes out because of course if you're watching it the YouTube episode comes out on the same day as the audio episode now thank you Bella for coming on not choosing Bella's Pudding yes thank you so commiserations to Richard Herring you still don't know what Bella's Pudding is we've not got you any closer to that but we will endeavour to get more Bellas on the podcast to try and find out is there a Bella in Feynman Sam or is that just the name I think you're right that's just the name of the cafe we'll get the Bella from Feynman Sam yeah yeah definitely I'm on tour Ed Gamble Fresh Hell starts in January 2027 tickets on sale now edgamble.co.uk Okay.

1:17:06Wonderful stuff. Thank you very much for watching and listening. Goodbye. Goodbye.