Gillian Anderson

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1:05Hello and welcome to season 17 of Tablemaps. How can we be on season 17 when we've been going, what, seven years? How is that, darling? I don't know. That makes me feel quite old. Because I started off... What, 72 doesn't make you feel old. I started off at 65. Season 17 makes me sound 82. Thank God you're still alive, Leigh. Yeah, thank God. We are kicking off with a goddess. Well, she's someone, when I mentioned it, that I think there was going to be a queue of my male friends outside the front door. And female, come on. And female friends. Everyone has an opinion and thinks this woman is extremely amazing and beautiful and wonderful actress.

1:47We've got Gillian Anderson coming on. Started watching her in X-Files as Agent Scully. The Fool. Stella Gibson. Mum, I'm wearing silk in honour of Stella Gibson. She's played some big... Scoop. Scoop's played Emily Maitlis, past guest of Table Manners, Margaret Thatcher. She's just amazing. We've seen her in two different productions of Streetcar. I think so. Do you think? That's really wild. Well, I saw her at The Young Vic. So she is coming on to not talk about acting. She's talking about her new book, which is Want. It's just your cup of tea, Jess. Not your cup of tea, Mum? Well, it's about women's sexual fantasies.

2:26She's curated letters from women about their sexual fantasies. This was very much inspired by a book in the 70s called Secret Garden, I think by Nancy Friday, My Secret Garden, which was anonymous letters about desires and fantasies. I think by playing the role of Jean Milburn in sex education, where she is a sex therapist, I wonder whether that's kind of spurred this on. So Want, submitted by anonymous, collected by Gillian Anderson. And so what she's done is she's collected, I think, thousands of letters anonymously sent in. And there's different chapters. So there's like off limits to be worshipped, power and submission.

3:07I thought that you'd probably write one in that chapter. About how I makes people submit and exercise my power. The watchers and the watched. Rough and ready, Lenny? Me. Anyway, so Gillian's coming on to talk about this book. It's already out. and it's kind of divided us hasn't it mum yeah you've got an opinion on it and i've got an opinion and i'm interested to see what jillian thinks about well i think fantasy is something personal and it shouldn't be published in a way but it's anonymous i know it's anonymous but once you've said it out loud to someone else and shared it is it still your own personal fantasy well yeah because it's faceless and nameless yeah but it doesn't matter once you set it surely for me fantasies in my head.

3:52We'll pick this up with Gillian. What's on the menu today, Mum? She's coming at a bit of an odd time. So we've got some rare roast beef on a bed of rocket and cheese. Parmesan. Classic. Classic wear staple. Classic wear staple. Did you get your little meat slicer out? Got my meat slicer out this morning. Is that still the same one from the 90s? Yes. Not from the 90s. Was it the 90s? I see. I've got a new one, though, that Aunty Liz gave me. You can have it if you want. And there's a food mixer for you. Okay, thank you. So I've made that. I've got a fennel, apple and green chilli salad. Whose recipe is that?

4:28Savanne's Kitchen that I follow on the internet. Oh, I love Savanne's Kitchen. Yeah, with her black rubber gloves. Okay. Yeah, that fit into the sexual fantasy, I think. You've just done some potatoes. Well, you kind of told me what to do, so. Yeah, not that I'm bossy. You did them. I just obeyed. And then we've done some roasted tomatoes with cold yoghurt. Yeah, lots of leggy. We've done it many times on this podcast. I mean, she might not eat anything this early hour, 6 o 'clock. 5 o 'clock's my favourite time to eat. I know, but it's early for most people, late for you. I hope she brings her drink, G-Sport.

5:05Well, she's got a new website called Geode. Oh, so we can ask her about that. Right, I'm going to put some lipstick on. Gillian Anderson, coming up on Table Mom.

5:23Gillian, thank you. You've had like a very busy day. It's been a very busy day. We're going to feed you. Fantastic. We're going to nourish you. And I feel like we should start with the old G spot. Yeah, go on. Is that something that you would reach for in time of need? Okay, which one are you going to go for, Beth? So, I don't need soothed. I need to actually wake up. Lift or aroused? Don't really need to be aroused at the minute. Really? You guys can have some aroused. I will have some lift. Okay, so lift is... Ferries and peppercorn. Sarawak? Yeah, that's right. Sarawak. It's got adaptogens and nootropics.

5:58Yeah. Do you need ice with it? Mushrooms. Am I going to be up all night? No. Okay, great. Definitely won't be up all night. You might want a little bit of ice. Here. Yeah, it's nice cold. Here, darling. Which one's your fairy? You just happen to have ice, like, right at your fingertips. We had a party yesterday. What's your favourite? Lift, actually. Okay, I'm going with lift. But I feel like when in Rome we're talking about want, we should get aroused on the pod too. So I'm reaching through all of your ice. It's terrible. Gillian Anderson is fingering Lenny's ice. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Right.

6:33Cheers. So this is a food podcast. I know. I'm excited. But we're going to eat a little bit. Are you actually going to make it in front of me? No. It's kind of pre-made. We learnt that we don't do that because it just becomes very noisy and chaotic. Anytime I try and cook and I invite people over, if somebody walks in the door while I'm taking the potatoes out of the oven and they ask me a question like, how are you? I'm like, I'm taking the fucking potatoes out of the oven. I'm exactly... Can't you see I'm busy? That's exactly how I am. So Want was my holiday read. Oh, was it? Yeah, and everyone was interested to hear about it.

7:11Yeah. I found it really, really interesting. And congratulations. I think that the way you curated it is really beautiful and generous and protective and respectful. There's all these different chapters which acknowledge different fantasies. But I felt like you were celebrating these people. There was a night and actually I never really thought about what my fantasy would be. And so I think it's quite provocative. And I still don't know what my fantasy would be. What do you mean you don't know? I don't know. I don't know if I've got like an essay in me. Yeah. This is quite an odd subject to be talking about with my mother, by the way.

7:48Yeah, no, no, no, I'm sure. I would probably struggle. But just because they've been turned into essays for the nature of the book doesn't necessarily mean that they would come out as an essay, I guess, in your mind. It could just be purely visual. Yeah, but I did love the dentist one, which was very short and sweet. She was like, you know, I just really want to fuck my dentist. but not my real, it was really good and it was funny. It was very funny. I wanted to ask because there was underneath each essay or letter, there was some information, there was the amount that they earned or there was their religion, sexuality whether they were in a relationship and children.

8:36Why did you choose not to put age in there? Good question. That was an internal decision within Bloomsbury. And as I understand it, it was because they felt that fantasy is ageless and that somehow maybe it would be more identifiable to women if they were reading and not necessarily know. And sometimes it's evident. And sometimes what's really interesting is you read a fantasy and somebody talks about never having kissed anybody and then they reveal they're 70 years old. And so it's a very, very moving book. There's a lot of tenderness and compassion and sadness and a lot of joy and obviously provocation.

9:24There's a lot of cock. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of orgasms. Tentacles. tentacles there's a few tentacles a bigfoot milk feeding yeah but you know what i kind of i didn't because mum and i were discussing this you think you're a bit of a prude don't you i don't think i'm a prude at all oh right i think i'm more private about my sexual fantasies because i feel my fantasy is my own within me yeah and i'm i think if i shared it it would no longer be mine in a way. Fair enough. But it's anonymous. No, but it doesn't matter. It's like publishing something. It would not be mine anymore. That's why I was so impressed by the writers because they give everything to me and more.

10:10And it's kind of... Well, they wanted to because they've clearly cooperated. So they wanted to do that. I mean, how many submissions did you have? I can't so what I find fascinating is that 1800 women started letters and I think we ended up in the end just under a thousand and maybe I think we had 800 ,000 words and so I'm very interested in the ones that decided against it or you know cold feet or so what did you have to ask for their permission to be published or was it people when you say they started so so we we created a or bloomsbury created a portal and you would sign up to the portal and then you could start your letter and you could see in the portal apparently that people had started and sometimes people would start but not finish and press end so um there were more people who started than finished but we still ended up with you know the equivalent of about eight volumes do you think you will do another book on it because you feel like i don't know appetite possibly i'd be interested whether at the end of all this whether there would be a different question that we would ask or maybe it wouldn't be about fantasies or maybe it would be about something you know it might steer us in another direction based on how people respond to it or you know i wondered whether it would turn men on more than women reading about women's sexual fantasies um would you do a male sexual i might not it doesn't feel like that's for me to do but mostly about you i imagine yeah playing stella gibson yeah oh by the way i'm wearing silk in honor of stella yeah um i don't know i i am interested to see you know because as you know historically sex in the public sphere and particularly porn, the billion dollar porn industry has been very much for the male gaze and geared towards men and men's pleasure.

12:21Yeah. And so obviously on the one hand, this feels like a bit of an antidote to that. But even though, you know, we've got used to that over the centuries in terms of what do men want? What, how, how do they reach climax? not necessarily how to help women be pleasured in the midst of it. And it's sometimes not even considered, not even part of the equation. I would be interested whether it's just become such a habit, almost by rote, that actually men do indeed have needs outside of that. You know, that whether if we did ask men to submit letters anonymously, whether there too would be letters about i just want to be held i just want to be seen for who i am not for my biceps or not for my brain or not from or whatever i don't know it's interesting but there's been so much that is for the sake of men historically that maybe we shouldn't spend too much time talking about that because yeah i agree but like what about geode is that gonna be because I had a quick look on it.

13:36You kind of launched it today, was it today? Yesterday. Yesterday, and it's your website. Can you explain to the listeners what it is? Because I'm wondering whether you're about to create your own billion-dollar porn thing through being able to... Why not? I mean, you have the forum... Is there women's porn? Yes, there is. Apparently there's this website that my friend uses. Your friend uses? Yes. Oh, right. Okay. and it's supposed to be more for the female gaze i guess you would say i don't know if that's a thing but like um but i don't know why you don't just keep on going and become like you know why don't you potentially a global sex therapist i don't know they can buy g-spot on there they can because well on the one hand i'm not a therapist and i have to keep reminding myself of that because i forget sometimes because i'm so interested in in in anthropology and people and psychology and what motivates people to do things.

14:36But I'm not. I am an actor. I want to continue to be an actor. That's kind of part of your work. And that really wants to be, I want that to continue to be my focus. But, I mean, this is a moment in time where it feels I've been enjoying this process and enjoying the conversations that I'm having. and it feels important, you know, as an empowering thing for women to not just engage with and feel like they are, they, because the call out that we made to women, so it was anyone who identified as a woman, you know, including trans community and out to the LGBTQ community and those identifying as non-binary.

15:17And so we were hoping to reach as many people around the world in as many countries as possible and we've got a pretty good cross-section I think there's a very good range of of women and submissions and so in asking them to to be anonymous it means that no matter what their cultural background or societal constraints and illegalities potentially within their countries that they hopefully would have felt safe enough to be able to enter something into the portal and we certainly you know saw that and some of the details of the letters that we received. But there's so much shame still around not just fantasy, but so many women talk about, you know, never wanting to talk to their partner, whoever their partner is, about not just about the fantasy per se, because as you said, that's mine and I want to keep it for myself, but about what we might actually want.

16:18Yeah, yeah. You know, what we might actually want in the bedroom, what we think might bring us pleasure. And the women who talk about, you know, we did a survey actually for G-Spot. And what we found was that women are more likely to reach orgasm outside of the relationship, like through masturbation, than waste the time of their partner or ask for it. Or, you know, afraid he or she doesn't quite do it right. and I don't really want to make that, I don't want to make it uncomfortable, I don't want to ruin the moment, I don't want to, you know, and more likely to actually reach orgasm outside of the relationship, which is interesting.

17:00It's just, I find that an interesting fact. You want a job done, do it yourself. I don't know. I don't know. It's what women do, isn't it? Get it done. Yeah, get it done. Yeah. Yeah, if you want something done, do it yourself. Lenny, how much are you enjoying talking about sexual fantasy and G-spots? I'm a social worker. I've talked about these things before. Lots of your acting involves sexual tension, in a way. I mean, Jamie Dornan featuring. Yeah, yeah. I always thought you might end up with him in one of these. Yeah, instead he almost killed me. Instead he almost killed you. Is that never coming back?

17:41It can't really now. No, it's a shame. we tried for a little while that there was a fourth season I mean it could Stella could show up at any time but we tried a fourth season it didn't quite follow through but yeah it could we need to talk about food and we need to eat but I saw you play Blanche no, did you? in Brooklyn so did I did you? yeah but mum saw you in London oh wow was it a different production? no it was the same production Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. Do you guys see a lot of theatre? Yeah. Do you? Yeah, I love theatre. It was much more muscular, the one in New York. We went in and we did another bit of rehearsal before we started to work on it, and it felt even more dangerous than...

18:31It was fantastic. You were fantastic. I wondered whether you saw Patsy... Is it Ferran? I think her second name is. Patsy played Blanche recently in the... Oh, yeah, yes. No, I didn't see that one. Have you ever had that where you've gone to see an actor play the same role that you've played? I mean, obviously Blanche is such a... Yeah, I've seen Doll's House. I did Doll's House. I've seen Doll's House a couple of times since then. I don't think... It's a weird thing. It must be weird. It's a weird thing because I slightly feel like... Not like I own her, but she still feels like she's inside of me somewhere.

19:04so so um and i think it would be very hard for me um unless it was a brilliant if it was i would love for it to be a brilliant performance but if it wasn't and i felt like it was like slit like the scenes were like slipping through the fingers or something i'd really struggle and i wouldn't want to like you know make sounds inadvertently or or start mouthing the work the lines or or getting up pushing off the stage like bloody do it have you ever directed i directed it a short film that I did after I did the London production of Streetcar that was that was a prequel to Streetcar so it was me I did it it was something that the young Vic had um had asked me to do and because I did this series of short films and I thought okay if I if I because I was just at the end of I think doing the play and I thought what if I if I am to do this the thing I'd be interested in doing is doing a prequel to to streetcar so i did that and then actually way back when when i was younger doing x-files in the seventh season i wrote and directed one of the episodes any more on the horizon uh directing um i would very much like to i feel like i won't until my boys are out of the house because it takes up so much properly it takes up more time than than just showing up and being an actor does between pre-production How do you boys?

20:34My boys are 15 and 17 and my daughter's 30 just about to be 30 Have they watched Sex and Education? I hope not At the time that it came out they promised me that they hadn't seen it but I mean I have to imagine they've watched it by now Let's talk about food So you grew up In Chicago You were born in Chicago Born in Chicago Grew up here And then moved to Michigan And then moved back to Chicago for uni Love Chicago Is your American accent a Chicago accent? I don't know I don't think it's I actually don't know If you were in America now You'd speak with an American accent. Is that just because it comes naturally?

21:29Yeah. Yeah. So who was around the dinner table? And what were you eating? What's a really memorable dish from your childhood? So in Crouch End, it would have been me and my mum and dad, and that would have been it. And what would it have been? Like a, mum would kill me, but like a tuna fish casserole with crisp stuck in it? Oh. You're not the first person to say about the crisps. Is your mum American? Both of us are. Okay, so like, it's an American thing. Did you like it? I think I liked anything that I was given. I can't literally remember anything else. How old were you eating a tuna fish presser with crisps?

22:14I remember her also making it when we had moved to Michigan, so I'm sure it was until I left home. Why did you live here and then why did you move back? So I was born in Chicago But when I My dad wanted to go to the London film school And Or he wanted to go to a film school And asked my mum whether She wanted us to move To either London or California And she said London So we didn't have any money So we went to Puerto Rico For a period of time Because my grandparents My dad's parents were living there with his siblings and so we went there and saved money for apparently 15 months and then we moved to London.

22:56Crouch End. Well, first we were staying on people's couches and sharing houses and stuff and then when they could afford a flat. Were they very young parents? Yeah. And then my dad went to London Film School and yeah, we moved from Crouch End. Eventually we were in Crouch End, then we were in Haringey and then we went back to the States and we moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Were you interested by food when you were growing up? Or was it kind of just a... No. Oh, no. I mean, I was interested in sweets. That was about the extent of my... What was your favourite sweet that you'd go to the shop for?

23:34Anything. Oh, God. You know those things you used to dunk the licorice in? Oh, the licorice sherbet. It was slightly physically licorice sherbet. Oh, I don't know. They're called licorice fountains. Oh. And the licorice comes out and it's sherbet. You dip it in sugar. You just basically dip it in sugar. It's licorice dunked in sugar, basically. I wonder if you can still get it. It's making me salivate. You can. I saw it, actually, within the last year I've seen them. Did you buy one? I did not, no. Should we get some food? Yeah. Let's get some food. I texted Elizabeth Day today, who's a friend of mine.

24:06Oh, is she? I said, oh, I've got Gillian Anderson on, you know. And she said, please send my love. She's the best. We had such a fun time. She loves you, but she also said, can you let David Duchovny know that he's completely ripped off her podcast and she's fuming? Oh, is she? I mean, wink, but yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Fail better. I know, but it's actually nothing like it. Isn't it? Yeah, it's not. What's he like? It's nothing like it. He's your friend, isn't he? Yeah, yeah. We've always had quite a complex relationship. You know, when you work that intensely with somebody for such a long time, I mean we were basically married to each other Yeah right I've actually listened to his podcast a fair number of times And I think it's good It's interesting It's interesting hearing a man talk so openly about emotional things Because he really does talk about loss and guilt and feelings And I feel like I've learnt more about him listening to his podcast than actually when you worked with him.

25:13What's a memorable dish from that time when you were recording in X-Files? Was there something that you... I went through so many stages. I went through a macrobiotic stage for a while. That sounds fun. Which is impossible to make yourself. You really need somebody else to do it for you. Do you actually know what macros are? So macrobiotics is a mixture of grains, so it's usually like brown rice or quinoa or millet or something. And there's seaweed and mushrooms and fermented foods. So kind of healthy food. Yeah, it's very, very healthy. And some people swear by it's very cleansing. It's meant to be very good for your biome and your whole system.

26:01But also sometimes people who have cancer go on macrobiotic diets and feel that it heals them somehow, the process. sometimes they can they believe that they reverse their cancer by eating the diet yeah um so here we have some cold beef with rocket and parmesan very nice otolenghi's dip have you ever had this otolenghi tomatoes with it's so warm tomatoes with um yogurt and they've got kind of cumin in them and lemon. Amazing. That's a fennel, apple, jalapeno and cabbage salad. Delicious. And some potatoes. Yeah. Mustard. And some asparagus if you want to. Asparagi. Asparagi. Asparaguses. Help yourself.

26:47Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. Excellent.

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28:05Do you live in London? Mm-hmm. Where do you love to eat? Do you go and eat out a lot? Or do you cook? When I'm with my kids, I cook pretty basic stuff. Tuna casserole? No. Maybe you need to recreate it. You know, salmon and caballonero and they love chicken wraps. You know, stuff like that. Do they? How old are yours? Eight, five and three. Jeez. I know. I'm so sorry. It's quite intense at the moment. Something's gone down my throat. It's like either the jalapeno. It's very spicy. It's a spicy thing. That happened to me a minute ago and I managed to... No, it's all right. It's quite cheesy. Well, she put them in there.

28:51If I didn't have a voice, I now certainly won't have a voice in my session. She said to put Serrano peppers in, but I didn't know. Then I looked it up and someone said, oh, they're just like green chilies. But they are pretty powerful. I'm so sorry. It's such an innocent piece of apple. Yeah, yeah. It just like kicks you in the nuts. It kicks you in the face. Anyway. I'm sorry not to talk too much about food. I don't have a big food history. There was a certain point where apparently my mum decided she was no longer going to cook after it. Because I had a brother and sister who were 13 and 16 years younger than me.

29:27And there was a certain point, I don't know where they were in their schooling, but my mum just put her foot down and said, I'm not cooking anymore. Did you have to cook them? No, I was no longer. Were you living in America? Yeah, I was, but I was probably already, I may have already been doing X-Files by the time she declared that. But, yeah. Chili. Chili. Yeah. Oh, chili con carne. Chili con carne. Rice and beans. I like cooking for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Oh, yeah. I enjoy that. Oh, you celebrate Thanksgiving. What's your dish? Will you make it all or what's your dish that's like the Jillian's bash?

30:06I'll make it. Well, I think we pretty much, if it's family, which it usually would be, it's the usual, you know, the usual turkey. Sometimes a ham as well. and sweet potatoes. With the marshmallows? Don't usually do marshmallows, but sweet potatoes. Do you put cinnamon on? I like cinnamon with my sweet potatoes. I don't, no, but I do put a little bit, sometimes, depending on sweet potatoes, I might put a little bit of maple syrup in it, just a little bit and salt and butter. And onions, gratin. So like pearl onion, gratin. Really yummy. Ooh. Yeah. So what, their whole? they're whole but tiny but tiny and you can only really get them except you can buy them frozen and they're just as good oh that's good yeah because otherwise all you can get here is just um like shallots the shallots are too big so proper pearl onions you get frozen so you can get frozen pearl onions and it's got you know cream and uh breadcrumbs oh great yeah It's really, really yummy.

31:12That sounds delicious. I think we're going to do that, darling. Any herbs? And Brussels sprouts with... I can't remember. Pancetta? Maybe. Yeah, with pancetta, yeah. And chestnuts. But then there's also this thing that we make, which is called a green jello, green glass jello. Oh, Rita Wilson. Rita Wilson talked about doing this too. Really? Tom Hanks' wife. Yeah. She did a green jello. Go on, you tell us about your green jello. So there's a green jello, but we call it green glass jello. Why? Because famously there was a dish where my mother was growing up in Wisconsin that was made in a beautiful antique green glass bowl that was put up on the fridge and somebody opened the door and the green jello fell onto the floor and destroyed everything.

32:03But within the green jello is lime jello and pineapples. and I think lemon jello and also cream cheese. But it's like a sweet, you look disgusted. It's a sweet dish that you actually have on the same plate as you have your turkey and cranberries and stuff. It's fantastic. This is pioneering stuff. I guess you have kind of cranberry. Yeah. but not kind of not jelly and blancmange on the same plate as your turkey with orange peel in it love that I would try it I'd try it but it's the image of it kind of looking like it should be in Ghostbusters that's kind of killing it for me and then also a stuffing a really nice cornmeal stuffing with lots of herbs and onions absolutely delicious what would be your last supper starter main pud, drink of choice you're going off to a desert island starter would probably be really eggy courgette flowers oh yum stuffed with ricotta ricotta or mascarine we've only had them in Greece and they stuffed them with rice and dill and stuff.

33:32Rice and dill. The same as dolmades. Yeah. But ricotta sounds pretty good. I know. So good. Maine? Probably a ribeye. Perfectly cooked ribeye with brunettes, maybe. What other sides are you having? I love salads. Like, really good salads with seeds and... I must do better than a salad. What else could it be? Fries? Cream spinach? Yeah, not a huge... I like sweet potato fries. Maybe sweet potato fries and... Courgette fries are nice. Courgette fries. Let's do courgette fries. And maybe some spinach but sautéed spinach with garlic. And what else? Do you eat fish? I do. Which fish do you like? I really like salmon.

34:29Do you like salmon? I love salmon. I made it yesterday and Alex says, oh mum, whatever you do, don't make salmon. Your son doesn't like fish though. That's true. But honestly, I did a side of salmon and it went straight away. I love seeing a poached salmon on the table. Yeah, me too. And it was really delicious. Was it poached? Yeah, I poached it and I did it in the oven with lemon and it was delicious. It's one of your stock 90s. Oh shut up. I have a lot of stock 90s. That's when you say it that, it makes me feel embarrassed. No, I like it. I love a cockle vow. I sometimes do.

35:03Jessica so perfect yeah I do I have this I have all these cookbooks you know Odelleninga cookbooks and Moro cookbooks and I use grandmother's favourite recipes basically I do love Moro's she hasn't opened it she's too busy making her cocker van and I don't know so pudding Are you a big pudding person? No. I was. But I recently gave up sugar and gluten. But if it's my last supper, I would absolutely eat sugar and gluten. So I'd probably do a, gosh, what would I do? A banoffee pie. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. Another banoffee pie. It gives everything. It is delicious. It's got a lot. A lot. Yeah. Yeah.

35:57How long have you been off the sugar and gluten? Since September. And do you feel better for it? Not necessarily, but I was... I know I should say yes. Is it rude to ask why you gave it up? I was drinking five Cokes a day. Full fat? Full fat, yeah. Ah, okay. Yeah. For the sugar, you think? And the caffeine for everything. The heaven. But so then I also did a drink to kind of help me to get off. So I stopped, yeah, stopped sugar. Can I ask what your drink of choice would be? Would it be... Do you want fizzy? Yeah, well, I usually drink... I drink apple juice with a bit of fizzy water in it, or a juice pot.

36:43An apple-tise, that was my theatre drink. I used to always have an apple-tiser. Can I ask, out of all the characters that you've played, who would you like to have dinner with? it would be pretty fun to sit at a table with um thatcher serving you uh what would she serve well she served in in the city like she would make what was it it was um kedgery she served it to her ministers yeah have some margaret thatcher kedgery that'd be interesting interesting did you like playing emily makeless i did yeah powerful yeah she's she's pretty cool does it feel hard to play somebody that is alive harder than somebody is no longer yeah because you want to honor them and yeah don't want to i don't know honor them and also you know she's in the community she's out and about you see her every once in a while or in like hyde park or something and that's um and also you know mutual friends god that's spicy how can i just do that it's not your fault I'm such a wimp.

37:48Hang on, let me just put some potato on it. I hate chileys, so I don't even have it. What's the kitchen staple that you can't live without that's always there as a permanent fixture? Mine would be Marmite. Really? Yeah. You couldn't live without that in your kitchen? I mean, like, fine, yeah, olive oil, yadda yadda yadda, but, like, Marmite is something that I need in my shop. Interesting. Go on. What do you think that says about me? I love that you don't know that. That's so interesting. I know she loves Marmite, but it wouldn't be my staple in my kitchen for food. What would yours be? Chicken stock.

38:26Interesting. I mean, that's quite niche. No, because I use it in so many... Telma. Telma. Yeah, she's talking about chicken soup. Because I make chicken soup a lot, and I couldn't live without that. And I use it in everything, even when I make other soups. Okay, Gillian. Yeah. avocados probably always have avocados um yeah i mean i put my boys like to have literally the same thing for breakfast every single morning and so i use um potest eggs on toast with avocado and seeds see add a little marmite in that and it's gonna really it's gonna it's gonna give it a little bit of sriracha it's spicy a little bit yeah tagine do you have tagine on it do you know what that is?

39:12I do I've got one here, do you want it? Yeah I'd love it Oselenghi's got this red paste that he makes, I don't know what it's actually called but one of my sons really really likes it and you can mix it you can serve it with chicken or mix it into pasta or whatever it's a tomato based something or maybe it's red pepper or both but it's really yummy and so I probably always have that in the fridge as well because they um oh i must get it yeah it's really good have you discussed where you like going out for dinner um there's a new restaurant in um or maybe it's about a year year and a half old that's actually in is it a holland park called akub do you know a k-u-b what kind of food um it's middle eastern food um it's really really yummy i'll try it it's really nice it's in a house that they've redone as a restaurant, but it's really beautifully done.

40:13That sounds great. It's very, very yummy. Can I ask you what is a nostalgic taste that can transport you back to someone? The other day, where was I? I had a potato that tasted like a school dinner potato from when I was going to nursery in Crouch End. It was a boiled potato. Why did it come? I can't remember what I was eating or with whom or where. I was in Copenhagen and this potato took me right back to being four years old. Wow. Isn't that crazy? Was it a happy memory? It was so yummy. Oh, was it? Yeah, it was so yummy. I don't know if I was particularly happy there in that nursery, but it was so yummy.

40:57Gillian, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to meet you. It's a pleasure to meet you. and sharing your books so early for a holiday. Can I just ask you one more question? Did any of the episodes terrify you or did it make you not scared of scary movies like when you did... X-Files. Yeah, with X-Files. Terrifying. Because I used to watch it and I was terrified. Reading the scripts was terrifying. I had to read them in daylight because reading them at night time was too much. So I never used to be able... I used to have panic attacks when I used to see scary things and horrible things.

41:34until because I mean after X-File I did some scary things I did you know the fall and blah blah blah yeah but it was only when I started shooting sex education that I started being able to watch crime stuff and so and it started with like Ted Bundy tapes or something like that like the darkest of the darkest I started watching it until like 3 o 'clock in the morning because maybe because I was doing comedy is that weird? that's really interesting Isn't it? Yeah, fascinating. But I'm just wondering, when you were filming The Fool, Yeah. I just, it was so sexy. Was it terrifying doing it, though?

42:13It was terrifying. Don't get, like, when you were in the room, and he was in your room, and you were in the shower room, or you were going for a wee, and you were getting undressed. Like, there was a scene like that. He came in your room in the hotel. He did, but that was for the diary. I think somebody else was showering, wasn't it? I thought it was you showering. I mean, I forget. You were in your hotel. You did a lot of swimming. I did do a lot of swimming but did that feel like a different my swimming devil did I thought it was you it was at the beginning but I had a frozen shoulder so I couldn't actually do the crawl but can you swim but did that feel like a different kind of fear was it kind of hot was it hot I mean he was a murderer I know but he was so sexy it was like we didn't want you to be in there him and James Norton have really fucked up my issue with psychopaths do you know what I mean Jamie Dornan you've got a lot to answer for well Ted Bundy was pretty hard after going there was he should I dare should I I don't know if I get my trio yeah my trio of hot psychopaths baddies on that note goodnight goodnight sleep well yeah thank you

43:40Mum, you won't mind if I take these G-spots home? No, darling. They are delicious. Have you found your G-spot, then? Oh, I've found... Found a few G-spots, so... Yeah, yeah. Thank you to Gillian Anderson for coming on and talking about WANT, submitted by Anonymous, collected by Gillian Anderson. It's out now with Bloomsbury. It's a really interesting read. Yeah, it was such a treat having her on. I mean, she's a legend. She's a living legend. She is a legend. Stella Blanche, all those people she's played. And then she was sitting at my table. Eating your rare roast beef. Eating my rare roast beef.

44:16I felt a bit starstruck by her, you know. Yeah, I did as well. She's got such power. Yeah, she's very serene. Yeah. Thank you everyone for listening and we'll see you next week.

44:49We'll be right back.

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