135. Rev. Seaton Returns...Again!

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That's www.beer52.com forward slash wtaf. The following podcast contains strong language like what the actual fuck. Hello, this is Daisy and you're listening to what the actual fuck? Skyr co-test was like the most important idea.

Dark cow? This is just ridiculous. What the actual fuck? Hey, what the actual fuckers and welcome to WTF of this country podcast first.

He's a man who's just got back from the garage as he has to try and sort his car roofite. He just had 25 pair of dot martins crushing his car roof like a co-can. It's Neil. Hello, and how about I'm just going back from the garage?

What because of dot martins crushing your roof? It's just a faulty door lock that I've been waiting to be fixed since way before all this lock power happened. But now you've sorted it. Yeah, and now it's been crushed by the scene.

Okay, now series three in the show may have finished, but this episode we have the man who many, including ourselves would say was the star of the final series. He's back for his third appearance on the podcast, which means we need to send him the match wall after a hat trick of episodes. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the nicest man in show business, Reverend Fiery Francis Seton himself, Paul Sheidi. Oh, what an introduction.

Thanks guys. The hat trick. I've done it. You've done it.

We will literally find a football sign it for you. That will mean nothing and send it to you. So you're the very first person we've had on three times. Oh, I'm honored.

I am absolutely honored. What a pleasure to be back. Thank you. It's wonderful.

Well, we will start with series three because, like I said in the introduction, I think everybody that we've spoken to in the fan community said that it was your series. So when you got the scripts originally, were you excited by that? Were you adaunted by it a little bit? Because it's a lot of the emotional way I think fell on you in this episode.

Yeah, I was delighted. I mean, just one of those things, it's such a gift that you can only dream of really. So tab writing of that caliber and written for you, because by then by now you see, I mean, got to series three, we've had a special in between all that as well. You know, Charlie and Daisy and Tom and Simon, they just, we all just know each other so well.

They know each of us, the actors so well. And Charlie and Daisy's writing, it's like, you know, it's like a tailor made suit, difference between an ill-fitting off the peg and a beautiful, saddle-rope suit, where that must be your life. Because I just had to say, I've never had one. Anyone listening out there who wants to get me one, that would be very, very welcome.

But yeah, it was, well, I did look at it and go, oh, there's a lot of line learning. And I'm going to sort of crack on with that. But no, in every way, I was like, this is wonderful and such generous. Writing for the vicar.

And it felt like it had been building on each series. You know, the vicar, they went deeper with him and with other characters. But particularly the vicar. And yeah, I was just blown away by, again, the quality of the writing.

I mean, I don't know how people feel. But I felt like, although the previous series and the special were beautifully written, I thought this was the best of the lot, because it just went deeper with everyone. And it kind of plumbed more emotional depths. So Paul, when you first got to the set, was it like you haven't been away?

You all instantly came back as a family? Yeah, yes, it was. I think very much so. We, you know, we all like each other.

That really, really helps. We're all very at ease with each other and enjoy each other's company and also respect and enjoy each other's work and rate each other. And, you know, there were a few wonderful new faces on board and then plenty of the team returning who were on series one even. And that just put students, so, you know, everyone just slots in.

You've got to share vocabulary. You don't have to get to know each other too much. You're just slotting in. You can get things done very quickly because everyone understands what's needed, you know, from the camera crew to sound to the actors make up all of us.

You know, it was, so it was joyous, you know, coming back to North Leads. When you say set, it is, it's the town of North Leads. And it just, you know, the old streets, the old venues, the, you know, the Vickers office was still there and, you know, the hall next to it. And, yeah, so it was one of a way, oh my goodness, I can't really, that anyway, was I mean, it was August or something, but we had the most glorious weather as well.

And it was just idyllic. So yes, couldn't have been nicer. So you were given the task. I mean, I remember when we were speaking about after Michael died, unfortunately passed away, we think, oh my God, how is the show going to address that?

And you were given the task in the show as the Vickers to sort of, it's hard to work out exactly how to put it because it's like, you're not announcing it. You're supposed to be announcing it to certain people, aren't you? But you're announcing it within the show to the people watching the documentary. That must have been very emotional and hard to get through that one particular scene.

Yes, it was. I mean, there was so much sadness that everyone was carrying, and particularly Daisy and Charlie, because they were so close to Michael. And I think they held a lot of that in in order to just get on with the work. It came out more actually afterwards.

And we had a Q&A at the BFI just before the launch of Series 3. And Daisy, it was beautiful actually. Daisy was talking about Michael and she was crying. And I think it was finally she had the chance to start processing it and letting it out.

But it was a beautiful honouring of Michael's spirit written by two of his closest friends. So you knew it was authentic, you knew it was respectful, but it was also absolutely true to the show. And it is, at least it's what Michael wanted. We know that.

I mean, Michael wanted to be in the show at one point. He said, look, when I'm gone, can you can my costume appear? You know, can we get? And we were like, I'm not sure if I can happen, Michael.

But we're going to win a vote. And they handled it with such delicacy and amazing humour, but just such delicacy and such emotional truth. And they handled it, they dealt with it head on from the word go, which I think was the right way. And it was such a difficult balancing act they achieved.

And I can't quite believe how they did it. But you know, they walked that highway around between honouring him and the seriousness of something that actually happened. And just being absolutely brilliantly funny and true to the show was not being as respectful to him. And we know that that came across because his family were very happy with the way it was dealt with, which was a hugely important thing to all of us.

Yes, it was an honour to say those lines particularly. And you know, my memory is it was one of the earliest bits of filming. So quite glad to get that done because it did feel like a responsibility. But at the same time, I felt so glad they asked me and felt deeply privileged.

So yeah. So what was your thoughts for when you first read the script of that episode? Was it exactly as it was when you saw it? But pretty much.

Oh, gosh, it's a while ago now. Gosh, we're coming out to nearly a year since we filmed. I always change it. So we know by now when we go to the script for this country that to not get too attached to anything, because whatever's written, we might change even the day before or even on the day.

And again, going back to your earlier question, that's one of the beauty, beauty of people things about working with such a tight team is you can do that on, you can turn on a six-month, you can do that, it's not a big deal. And yeah, just give me that. Just give me 10 minutes, I'll learn those new lines. We can do a whole scene.

We'll riff our way through some of it. We'll come on script for the rest. And what was your question? Okay, I'll go block.

I need to refresh your script. So when you first read it to when it was filmed of episode one, was there much of a change or was it pretty much there on the page? I think most of it was there. There was one or two episodes which we knew a bit overwritten, were a bit too long, and we knew that they were working frantically away at it while we were filming.

And we were having the odd read through of things and just seeing if they worked. So I mean, I think this one got written quite near much nearer the time of filming than the other series, perhaps. And to be honest, there's always been a script that's delivered for the start of filming, and then masses of changes as we go along, some of which are scripted through scripting and some of which are through improvising. So I don't think it was a massive change from what we got, but there weren't changes.

Yeah. Well, with series three, I think another thing that we've said all the way through all series and the special as well is that Kerry and Curt and Don't seem to have an arc. They just float around and they carry on doing what they do. And you get the feeling that even in 2030 is tying, they're both still going to be in the village, both still going to be looking at decaying foxes or whatever.

They're never going to change. Whereas in this series, the Vicar had a definite arc. I don't think anybody saw the Vicar leaving as a thing that was going to happen. We had all these different theories of what was going to happen.

Were you happy that there was a bit of an ending to the Vicar story? Yeah, I was. It was a beautiful ending and something needed to happen. But I don't think it could have ended with Kerry and Curt leaving the village, because that just wouldn't have been true.

It wouldn't have been true to the characters. And it felt right that the Vicar would move along. I mean, I know what you mean when you're talking about their characters, but actually I think they did have an arc and they did change. It's just that they stayed in the village.

Right, OK. So well, in that I think they matured, even within their own parameters, Kerry and Curt learnt to be having gone from being absolutely the children to the Vicar father figure. They were kind of the parental figures at the end. They were giving him advice.

They had matured enough to go to him and come full circle and say, you know, you've got to go, don't you? You know, and it's beautiful. They did that. You don't expect that.

You expect the village to have fallen there, their arc of, well, yeah, he's a bald snake. You know, he's a evil psychopath who's running control. That's always a puppet master. But that twist was so beautiful.

So I would say there was an arc for them, but absolutely staying in the village. So I mean, I know it's not going to happen, but it would be fascinating to see how they are. You know, five years off, it's a village. You can imagine them and what they're getting up to.

You know, but yeah, it was a writing to do and it was a kind of good bull stock to the end of this whole story. One of the questions I wanted to ask you for after watching the series was in the driving lesson, episode two. You're actually driving the car around North Minnes. What's that?

How hard is that? Well, luckily, I haven't got my driving gloves on. I'm a really handy driver. I don't want to get all top gear about it.

Well, it was quite an old Volvo on that series. I was much happy with the Golf, if I'm honest. She was a beautiful little move on the Golf. But no, I think you may know the saga.

On the day we were supposed to start filming that whole episode, the Volvo arrived and it's all about learning how to drive. And the Volvo we got was an automatic, not a station. And it come all the way from Essex. So we thought, you know, we were screwed.

The whole day was going to be wasted. But somehow they got another Volvo that looked similar enough that was fiction by the end of the day. And we just filmed certain bits of the X-Series on the automatic. But it's fine.

There are some sort of hairy moments where you're having to do dialects when you go down the country lanes. The town is fine because that's easily negotiable. But you go down the narrow country lanes and you started a scene. And it suddenly there's a huge lorry that no one's checked.

You've got to keep talking. It's like spinning the plane. You've got to kind of, there might be a funny bit or an emotional rig. I mean, that's got to keep going.

I mean, the biggest problem with filming inside the car was getting the diggles because, you know, I get giggly at the best time with Charlie and Daisy. And Charlie, when he was in some of the outtakes, when he was driving and pretending to lose control, I was just absolutely wetting myself. But he asked the question, no, I was just about OK. I had some practice with it.

So OK. There's other things about seriously I want to talk about. But you talk about the bloopers. And we've said that hundreds of times on this episode, and with podcasts, we love bloopers.

And so we were so happy when finally there were some of this country bloopers. I'm assuming that that isn't all of the ones that would have happened in Series 3. But the one where you're at the door and Curt and his he can see you for that one that seems to me that took a long time to get over that one. That I tell you this story find out that was my last day of filming.

One of the last days of filming. And it was such a simple scene. I mean, how hard can it be to just open the door? And it's the first time I did it, Charlie went and I went, I thought I were in trouble here.

And we had to get it done. It was my final day. Yeah. And it was also as it happened by the end of that morning, the day that Simon, making you Archer, the producer got the call from his wife that her water was broken and she got into hospital and he hot-tailed it down to London, left early and to be at the birth of his son.

Right. But that, that, that door scene is just, well, yeah, it was starting to get out of control. And there's a point at which it goes from being funny to actually being quite scary because you feel like you have no control or self-discipline whatsoever and some kind of laughing demon is taken over and you'll never get anything done. But we just about reinded it.

I mean, only just. But that was just one of many. I mean, the blooper reel is probably about a 20th of the number of scenes that were just lost to uncontrollable giggling. I mean, there was one day, I mean, it was one, I'd say the hardest day of all was with Big Mandy in the book club scene where she just kicks off and the scenes where I had to sit with her and while she recounts her story, she's written herself.

It just had us all in stitches. And at one point, I had Ashley McGuire, such a brilliant, brilliant actress who plays Big Mandy in between takes. We were all giggling and loads of her stuff was directed at me. And so everyone else got off really lightly with digging off the camera, while filming was happening.

And I had to keep it straight face because I was receiving and the camera was on me as receiving all this stuff and listening. And in between takes, I said, Ash, I don't do this. You're just too funny. I said, look, it's staring at me.

You know, whenever I'm speaking with this kind of stone cold killer stare and she, I said, well, what are you thinking? What's going through your brain as Big Mandy? And she said, well, Big Mandy just hates you for being a bicker. That's it.

I was like, yeah, that sounds like Big Mandy. She just hates you for being a bicker. That's a motivation. Yeah, I didn't help.

It just made me laugh even more. But yes, it's always that. I mean, you've got to watch it because you've got to get it done. But it was just glorious.

And Eva and Celeste, who, you know, Celeste drinks she never goes. She was going as well. So who plays Kaylee? Yes.

Much fun. Do you have a process of getting over that? Or is it just a fact of taking some deep breaths and trying to just calm yourself? I punched myself in the face.

I know. I literally, you know, you do. I've done it before. I've literally sat myself.

Come on. You know, like, right. You imagine people do this. That's good.

But no, you just take a deep breath and you have to. And Tom is brilliant. Tom George there. He's brilliant.

Okay. Okay. It's fine. He never gets to lose his temper because he goes as well.

But you know, he'll just say, let's take a moment. It's fine. He laughs. It's fine.

As soon as someone says, if you laugh, you laugh and it's all fine. It starts to subside. It's when you feel like I mustn't laugh and it can just get worse. Like a tsunami of laughter.

Yeah, you just deep breaths. And, you know, when you know the camera's not on you, you just take your moments. I just can't, whenever I could, in those good club scenes, if it didn't look weird, I just wouldn't look at Ashley. Because I couldn't, I couldn't hurt.

She would just send me on. And she was staring at me the whole time. I guess I could. Brilliant.

Well, it wasn't active then. I mean, when you're on stage and you corpse like that, how do you recover then? Well, that's really, I mean, until I started this country, I was very rarely the one who coursed. And I don't corpse that much on stage, although I do enjoy laughing stuff.

I usually am the one who controls it very well. And other people go. And yes, but it did happen. I mean, I hate for anyone to think I was totally hell-proced.

I do get three performances. And without any quorpsic. But there have been one or two occasions where, I remember earlier in my career, I did a production of the Arabian Nights. It was in the round.

So all around us, the audience is very close quarters at the younger. And the group of us just got the giggles. There were only six of us in the cast. And it was just horrendous.

And again, you have to just, you have to think of something really unfunny or grim or sad or anything, anything at all to just get you out of the giggles. One of the hardest things, just myself and Pablo. I bet you have. Yeah, we try.

Yeah, let me try. Recording jingles, they'll be something that will be just, it's not funny. It's not something that's funny that makes you laugh. I think that's the problem.

But then it's six in your head and like the video recorder, kids, they can't even go for a video recorder. It plays it, replays it in your head over and over again. And then that's it. There's nothing you can do.

You just, yeah, it's a very, very strange phenomenon. We actually finally got to meet you in the flesh in the summer of last year at the This Country charity football match. Yeah. Which again, was another one of those amazing days that just like, it was fantastic.

You were the manager of this country team. Yes. One of the greatest photographs I've ever seen is when you run onto the pitch, renovating with the referee about one of his decisions. I think it's up on our website.

You've got to find it. It's fantastic. How was that for you for that day? Because it was a great day.

It really was. Oh, it's a great day. And it was brilliant to raise money for charity. And great to see all the gang.

And what it turned out for people. And remembering Michael at the match as well was beautiful. And it was absolutely bonkers. And I know very little about football.

I mean, I'm one of the few actors I know who doesn't really follow football. So I literally had to ask people like Callum, who's R-A-D, as is their attend. And asking, what would a manager do at this point? I mean, I was all set to run out and shout.

But I had to say, what are the things managers shout to their team? He gave me a few hints. I took that and ran with it. But it was great.

And it was great to meet so many of the fans. And there is so much, oh, I was blown over by the love for the show, for the people. It really is a passion people have for it. So it's wonderful.

Absolutely fantastic. So when you watch the series, Paul, you're sorry. I have in bit, well, I tell you what, I saw some rough cuts because I needed to, because we were going to do some odd days of filming before it got finally edited. And then I was in America filming when it came out.

And then when I got back, I watched it over two nights. It can sometimes take me a while to come around to watching things I'm in. I mean, partly because I really don't like seeing my, my ugly, my god, this is great. I mean, honestly, I'm still fine.

I'm quite self-conscious seeing myself. And all I can think about is, oh, I did choice, I did choice, but I'm gradually getting better at that. But yeah, I watched it about probably about a couple of months after it, it came out here or the last episode came out. Yeah.

And it was so nice to watch the finished versions because I'd seen something that was not the same. And it was so interesting to see, you know, because you know, Tom and Simon come in and shape it with Charlie Daisy at the end with the editing process. It's so crucial. And to see what they'd left out, what they put in, and particularly the whole ending, how they were going to, to end it.

Because we had a number of different versions of the final scene. I can't remember exactly what they were, but some were a bit more, I don't want to say sentimental, but compared to what they finally went with, they were a bit, a bit more touchy feely, whereas the ending was a bit more like, yeah, you know, let's go then, let's move on. Whatever, you know, let's not dwell on this and make it a bigger, bigger thing than it is. And so it was, yeah, it was, it was lovely seeing it.

Hmm. It's a remarkable thing to have a favorite episode that you watched rather than the period. I'm trying to think from that final series, you mean? Yeah.

I did, I mean, I did love the final, final episode. It's so hard. It's like, how do you, you know, how do you choose the writing is just sublime? It really is.

And so even the ones I was in, I was going, oh, really, that writing is amazing. And I loved so much. I mean, I loved, I loved watching, I can't pick out a certain episode, actually, but I do love the kind of denouement and the whole thing in the final, final episode. And I just love watching the other actors, you know, Ashley and Trevor.

And, you know, it's just, well, all of them, they're just such one for actors, you know, scenes with such brilliant writing. But I liked, I liked any, I mean, it's in all the episode, but I particularly like the scenes where there is a kind of emotional center to it and that comes out more. So I suppose the final one is the big one to that, because it's so much pent up frustration and anger and fear in all the characters. And then it all comes out and resolves itself.

It's funny you say about pent up anger, because in all the series, it's the lovely, reverent Francis Stephen. And so it's got that little bit of anger bubbling away, whether he's having a go at a traffic warder or he's shouting at Len or he's having a go at June in the last couple of episodes. He's always got that little bit of fire that you feel that as nice as he is, there is, you're especially in the episode in the driving lesson, we start talking about his dad. There's a lot more to unpack.

Do you wish that maybe that had been unpacked a little bit more or do you think it was just right in what was shown? I think time was right, because in the previous series, it was much more about Daisy and about Kerry and Curtin. If they were going to explore the character of the become more, it needed to wait till that final series. And you know, what you had references to in previous series, they expanded on brilliantly.

So you know, he talks about having a temper and being a bit of a hot head on the hockey pit or whatever it was. He was a small, and then they take that and give how that beautiful scene in the car. Wait talks about his abusive father who bullied him and a lot is left unsaid even though he says a lot in that speech about his childhood. And then, you know, what's very true to life is Reverend Francis is, yes, he is a kind, nice, decent, patient man.

But as with all people who are trying to be nice and to some extent, although he does ask difficult questions of people, but a lot of the time he's trying to please everyone. And as in real life, people who please or try to please all the time do it at a cost to themselves, because they've never really saved what they actually feel because they're suppressing it to try and help the other people. And that comes out at some point sooner or later in human being. So it's very true to life.

And you know, he eventually reaches his, you know, his breaking point with June, you know, and it had to be June didn't it? And so he should. She's a terrible woman. Yeah.

She's a terrible woman. Well, she did have it coming, honey. Absolutely. Scurphage on a sprinkler hose.

I mean, really. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Yeah.

I was saying, my favorite, I think my favorite scene in all of series three is in driving this. And when Reverend Seet was talking about his jacket with the shoulder pads. And you go through all this very emotional and it's obviously something that's deep inside that has hurt you for years and years. And then Kerry turns around and goes, well, yeah, he didn't hit you, did he?

And you know, all he did was take the piss out of your jacket. And then you say, well, there were other times. And that is heartbreaking because you go from you to like pouring your heart out, Kerry then saying, well, you didn't really do anything to you. Did he just took the piss out of your fashion?

And that is such a gut wrenching line when you say no, they were beautifully delivered on a set. Well, thank you. That was improvised, actually. We, that, that, there were other times thing.

But it wouldn't have come if I hadn't had all the building blocks of that, that amazing speech. Yeah. But you know, we, we said enough by that stage for the character. But when she said that, I can't remember if Daisy's line is also potentially, I think that would have been improvised in my response was also improvised.

But you know, we needed to kind of move on to the next thing. But what, what I felt was, you know, what he described as well as doing was just a tip of an iceberg of some kind. And as far as he was prepared to go in telling him because it's too painful. But it's just, it's so true to life though.

I think we're all, we all have those instances where we've been deeply hurt. And it often goes back to our childhood because that's one of the most vulnerable. And when it's a parent who's done it, you never leave see that. And you, you hide it as an adult, but it's always there and it comes out in moments in life when you're feeling vulnerable again.

And it's funny, you know, I think where we are now with the lockdown and everything, everyone's feeling really vulnerable and stuff is coming out that you don't show people and you, you perhaps keep hidden from yourself. It's been long suppressed. And I think that's a very strange and difficult time for people. It's also, you know, a chance to actually, it might be something good might come out of it on a person level.

But it's, yeah, I thought the writer was so useful there. And so true that someone as nice as him is that way because he wants to please, but also because he is wanting to get away from some deep, deep-seated hurt. Yeah. By focusing on other people rather than himself.

And they are, strangely wise, aren't they? They say the trouble you, Victor, is, you know, you're always thinking of other people. You know, you never think about yourself. They're saying that to get him to do something other than going.

Yeah. Sorry, excuse me. I'm recording. Right.

Well, we can board. Sorry. Sorry. I'm talking to people.

This is so good. I'm sitting there. Don't you realize I'm talking to a man of a cloth? Hello.

You should keep that in. That is a line of the time. You know, thank goodness. We don't have to be.

I'm a polyist. It's my 25 year old daughter wanting to get her scooter. Love it. You're out of the shed.

That's what she wants. That's what she wants. That's what she wants. That's what she wants.

And I think because she did that, I may well keep that in. I apologize. You were in the field. No.

But I think that's I think I think just saying that that is very true to like what they've written. And it was it was so lovely to be able to play with that in the script. So how do you feel Reverend Seton will do in Bristol? But I think we did feel that maybe it was a little bit naive.

And again heart breaking because he felt that it was like he wasn't ready for it. When I think everybody knows that he is. How do you think he's going to do in Bristol? I think he is initially going to struggle.

But I think he's so winning that he will survive and he will find a way of thriving there. I dread to think though what those Bristol gangsters open to use. What is it Bristol? Good balance.

I don't know what the phrase was. It curt me use. Why guys? What they're going to do is the level of advantage taking that will go on there.

I think we'll be on another level together. But I like to think he'll be all right and he will have a support network. He may be a bit out of his depth the first year or so. You know what?

I think after seeing the way he treated Curtin when Curtin ran up behind him on the bridge of the railway, I think he's going to be fine. I don't think nobody's going to want to come nowhere near him because he knows I'd look after himself. I do. I do.

I do. He moves. He moves there. Curtin was on his ass.

He had no chance. I don't think I've got any problems there. I really don't. I would love to see it as a sitcom itself.

I think it would be a perfect comedy. Well, it's interesting. I've listened to you episode with Simon. I tend to agree with him that it would just be read in some ways.

I feel like I mean, I think it's a wonderful character. I'm sure he could survive in some form, but I just don't think it would be anywhere near as good without Kerry and Curtin there. And I feel like the vicar character in that kind of context has been explored before, without Kerry and Curtin in rev. But just on a personal level, I would be curious to see how he was living and for a still absolutely.

But that's how you say that because that's compliment. So I'll take that. I mean, Daisy and Charlie have both said that they're not going to shut the door completely on. This country, do you think it'd be a better thing to maybe like you say, five, 10 years down the line, maybe the vicar goes back to the village just to see what they're doing?

I'm sure you'd be up for that, wouldn't you? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And it made me laugh because at one point after the series went out, it was, no, that's it. It's so bad.

It's over. That is it. Then I sort of look on Twitter or something and I'll say later. And Daisy's gone and said, no, no, I think we'll definitely do a special.

Who knows? Who knows? And if I'm a fan of anything can happen. I think if they were going to do something, the obvious choice would be a special.

Because you could either take it, you know, chronologically and revisit the vicar coming back to the village after he's left or you could do pre-him leaving. You could do a Christmas special or something like that. And that would be fun to do. I mean, I think we'd all be up for that.

But I, in general terms, I think it was a really good bold, strong decision to end it on three series. I mean, you look at some of those programs that you love, like the Office of Voll, Coles, you tell them all that. They make the right decision. I'm sure they were boys to say, come on, we're just running, run, let's do it.

It's like, no, let's end it on an eye and let's leave it where it is. And let's not stretch credibility. I think the problem is what, how much stuff can you have if it's just in the village? The answer is probably it could go on, but it might, it might lose extreme.

And I think that would be a pity. I agree with that completely. I mean, one of the things I wanted to thank you for as well was that we got to speak to Michael Price from The Simpsons because of you. I love that episode.

Indirectly and what a nice guy. Well, the fascinating episode as well, because I learned so much about the writing process there, and I've always been fascinated to know, you know, why is it they go for team writing like that? Obviously got more money and stuff. But you know, that is absolutely what they aim for, is big teams of writers.

And we just don't tend to do that. No. It was fascinating hearing to say that. And yes, unlikely connection between me and Michael Price, you know, via Shakespeare and Broadway.

I mean, all me playing a woman in an ordinary tape production. Who did the audit? And we just stayed in touch on an old game, Michael. I feel now it's just a phone call and all of a sudden we'll be hearing your voice.

Imagine Reverend Lovejoy, Francis Segan, maybe doing something to the congregation together. I think that would be amazing. Yes. That would be amazing.

One can but dream. One can but dream. It would be fantastic. It really would be a pleasure.

Yeah. Have you been filming on before the lockdown in King 3.4? Well, so yeah, that was. And it's still very much, you know, it's in suspension, but the hope is I'll return to it.

It's a sitcom called Chad for an American network out there. And I auditioned for it years ago for a pilot for it with Fox Network. So Fox Studio, 21st Century Fox, as it's called. It got made pilot.

It didn't get picked up for a series after a lot of humming and a roaring over a year. Then it went quiet. And then two years after that, I got a call from the creator who's this brilliant actress and comedian called Naseen Padrade, who was a regular on Saturday Night Live, if you know Saturday Night Live and in America. And she had written and created this series called Chad about a 14 or 15 year old Iranian-American boy and his attempts to fit in and the agonies of growing up in America or just being a 15 year old person.

And it just so happened that his family are Iranian-American. I'm part Iranian on my dad's side. And it was sort of looking at that, looking at how he was trying to fit in by denying his his Iranian heritage to some extent, but then also kind of how he negotiated that relationship, which is very funny writing, quite similar in places in terms of, you know, a little bit of improvising to how he works on this country in that asylum. You know, so we'd have it absolutely scripted and then we didn't provide a bit.

And a wonderful cast of characters. We were filming in Portland in Oregon where they do a show called Portland India and various other things. And we got to, I think the whole thing was due to be 10 episodes, we got to six episodes in a film, and then I got a call on a Friday saying we've halted filming, and it's going to, they was happening all across America, but it took a while before they made a decision on ours. And on Friday I got the news on a Saturday I was on a playing back, so it's all very strange.

But they built it. They've got the studios. It's all written. They've done six out of 10.

So one hopes when, and that's the question, when filming can we start that we might pick up where we left off, which I'm a very lucky person to have that as a potential thing, even because I have many colleagues, some friends who have nothing and particularly friends and colleagues who were in theatre jobs or derived most of their income from theatre work and they're wondering when on earth they'll ever be able to resume that. So yes, so strange times all around. So you know, you go from being very most as we all were in our jobs and I'll work in everything to this, whatever this, whatever we call this now. That must have been the strangest airplane flight on that Saturday.

Because did you know the reason? I mean, obviously at that time you knew about the coronavirus. So that flight must have been really, really strange. Was it?

Oh right. Okay. No, by then the full fear had not, people were just starting to go, should we wear masks? Should we keep a distance from it?

And it wasn't quite at the full, you must do this message from the government of social distancing. But the plane was unusually empty, which was a relief. And it was very odd, just very odd, to go from being fully immersed in work in a disborrion country, miles from home to being on a plane back. I was hugely relieved.

I had to say my worst case scenario, at that point we didn't know what was going to happen. Trump was closing down, flights to and from the country bit by bit at that point. And it looked like at one point, I might not be allowed out. So my nightmare scenario was being stuck in Portland, which don't get me wrong.

It's sort of a beautiful, brilliant place. You know, I don't want to be on my own miles from my wife and child with all this going on. And so I was very glad to be getting home. But it was, yes, it was very strange and it continues to be very strange.

But one adapts, one sort of, you know, I don't want to use it the word normal because nothing is normal. But one kind of gets used to it, to some extent, although one doesn't want to get too used to it because you want to remember what you want to be aiming for when it's all over. But yes, it will vary odd, but very, very glad when I walk through the front door back home. Strange, I've become a new normal, hasn't it?

Yes, it has on every level. Have we managed to use the lockdown and for to do anything creative yourself, right? Or? No, I feel, I mean, I do feel quite strongly, if anyone's doing something creative and, you know, getting some good things out of this, then I'm really pleased for them.

I, I've been doing bits and pieces of things. I did a small playlet for the series of plays, obviously, for called unprecedented, which I think is still going, which was commissioned by Headlong Theatre Company and with the BBC in response to the coronavirus crisis and so I had a little bit of work with that. I've done some sort of play readings for people, script readings and things like that, the odd podcast that I'm doing with you. But really, my time has been taking up with what I look very little home schooling, our son, and just, you know, just keeping everything ticking on the home front with my wife, who's been amazing.

I do feel strongly though, great, if you're coming out of some creative from this period, fine. But if you're not, that is more than fine. You know, I don't, I just think one shouldn't have one more thing to beat oneself about and it's like the home schooling. I feel like I'm sailing on every level, but we do our best.

We do our best as parents. We do our best as people and that is enough, you know, as we decided early on my wife and I that, right, our son's arithmetic might slip a bit or his reading might slip a bit. If it doesn't, that's great. But if whatever happens, that doesn't really matter.

It's obviously safe, it's obviously healthy, as long as he's loved. Nothing else matters and it's kind of the same about getting through this period, the best you can, and that is enough and not to feel you ought to achieve anything from this because I think there is enough stuff going on in the world and every day, stay for everyone without one beating myself up about not achieving things. But in honest with you, I've been lucky I've had a few approaches for things and, you know, I've done the odd things and talking to people like this is one, people like you, it's wonderful doing this, but you know, I'm not writing anything at the moment. Although a couple of friends have said I should maybe have a go with it, but kind of like everyone, just getting through day by day, I find it very hard to to deal in units of longer than a day or past maximum a week.

And if we get through one day with no major upsets, then that's a win. Even though weekends are kind of meaningless, we get to the weekend. That's great. We've done it.

We've done another week and it's kind of been kind to yourself, isn't it? It's the worst I hope will come one day. It will come again. And one just tries to stay on top of things as best one can.

Yeah, I think as long as you can keep your mental health just over that line to the positive, rather than negative, I think I agree. Before we let you go, I did want to ask you about the American remake of this country. Yes. What do you think about that and that your part is going to be taken over by Storm William Scott?

He's a good looking bastard, isn't he? I'm delighted. It's still what they look as someone that was like your equal and they said well, it's Storm William Scott, obviously. The one mistake they made with with casting him is he's only got one chin.

You've got to have a double chin if you're a bit. I know in also I am fascinated to see I think it's a look if you'd asked me this before the American office had come out, I'd say, oh, this is probably a bad idea. I'll never work for the American office and to some extent shameless, but particularly the American office has proved that things can work. Now, having said that, there are other series that make the trip over the Atlantic and didn't.

But there are similarities in field to the office and I can see it working in a small rural American town. And I will just be interested to see which way they go with that. I don't know much about the actors involved, but I'm sure they're fantastic and hell of scoured the country to get them. And I hope they managed to resume because I presume they didn't say either started and stopped in the middle or they didn't start.

Yeah, I don't know if it's definite whether they finished the pilot, but I would assume like you say once everything gets in inverted commas normal, they will pick it back up again. Well, and it's fascinating because they got Paul Seegg on board as a producer and director and of course he did, well, many things, but not least which was the office episodes of the American version of the office. Some of the episodes as well. I tell you what, I am throwing lockdown.

I've been watching stuff as you do when I got three times once the voice got into bed. My wife and I watching things and sometimes we're watching new stuff and sometimes we're going back to stuff that everyone else has watched and we haven't. And one of those is currently the American office that I'm on series four and I cannot believe I didn't watch it until now and I am blown away by how good it is. And you just think if Paul Seegg is behind some of those and if you're saying some of the best episodes then it seemed good hands and I think Charlie and Daisy are involved as some extentsors, executive producers on some level.

So I wish them well and I'm fascinated to see the American version and again going back to Michael Price, if it's picked up a series then they'll probably have a writers room with loads of writers. They may go for 10 because they made it a classic 22 per series and they could run and run. You know the beauty of the American office because it's hard, it's not fair to compare perhaps the American and the British office. British office was such a beautifully formed short-lived gem, three series and moved on.

But because it's three series it couldn't explore the characters as fully or as long as the American one. And how they managed it, I don't know how many they did in America is it 12, 10? Nine series at once. I think we've liked 20 odd episodes on each.

How they managed to sustain the quality. I mean I'm going to get halfway through but everyone tells me the quality is just so high throughout. It's extraordinary and I do wonder whether it's something to do with the writers room and so many different fresh voices coming to write on the same series. But it'll be a wonderful thing I hope I wish every success.

I think it's definitely going to be interesting. I do hope it falls in the American office and not the in-betweeners or IT crowd of the American version. I think they have to, as with the office, they have to retain some of the awkwardness and some of the kind of bleakness of it. The American office didn't go as bleak as the British office but it really captured some of the awkwardness.

And so who the version of Kerry and Curtin, the US version of Kerry and Curtin, they can be as badly behaved as you like and as a notch as you like but you have to find that vulnerability and that warm heart to them but without being sentimental which is the great skill of what Charlie and Daisy have done. It's such a tightrope walk but if anyone can do it, it's that team there and they will have Charlie and Daisy on board to advise them, I'm sure. So yeah, fascinating to see what will happen with that. I just want filming to start in general.

It seems like, you know, where will that happen? We have to have hope, don't we? Indeed, indeed we do. One thing I would like to have to have a seat in Todo and I still think there's time for it, it's the fourth floor on BBC Radio 2.

Is that like thought for the day, isn't it, before it's cool? Yeah. I'd love to do one of those. If someone wants me to do that, I'd love to do that.

Because I think on Radio 4 they've had various people from our industry, actors and writers and composers and things like that, talking about the things they were going to be doing or reading a poem or you know, it would be great. If Francis Seaton would be a good character to have a voice. Right. Yeah.

Before we do go, sorry, I'm going to let you hear again. I don't want to get this far. When Series 3 came out, there was the whole thing on Twitter about, you know, the, there was you and the sexy Reverend from Fleabag and it was like, which one would you have? How did that feel that you would be, you would be input on that pedestal?

Well, did you see the brilliant film, they cut the mashup of Fleabag and this country? Oh, no, you haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. I haven't even got to see that.

It's basically, they have cleverly edited bits of 3D Waller Bridge and Fleabag talking about the priest and then cutting to me, saying from various episodes, Francis Seaton, it looks like they've been having an affair. It's brilliant. I mean, we had always had this joke once Andrew Scott did his amazing performance as the hot priest in Fleabag, but you know, the hot priest, the hot priest. I am the only reason I have it.

And we would say we must do a little bit of filming when we could find the time when we were actually filming to sort of show me having an argument in the corner, getting really riled about Andrew Scott's in Fleabag and you know, me forcing him to be actor with Tom George, and you know, really, really upset about it. But this was just a lovely bit. So yeah, I've enjoyed all that. I've enjoyed all that.

Yes. That's what made me photoshop the revenders. I love that. Yeah, I thought, well, you have to be Tony Stark.

You have to be Iron Man because you're the number one. I just loved all that. I thought that was fantastic. I really did.

Paul, thank you so much for giving us your time again. So it's a pleasure, it always is. I've said this today, as in Charlie, and I said this to Tom Antosseumann, but also to yourself, I want to thank you really from the bottom of all of our hearts for the last three series and the special. We know from the fan community how much it means to everybody, the work that you did and the performances that you put in.

And for all of us, it's not just a show. It's not only a show. It's something that everybody dearly, dearly loves. And it's because of yourself and your performances and the fact that you are just, we've said it to any, every guest that you've had on this podcast, that you are one of the nicest people that we have ever met in our lives.

So from the bottom of our heart, we just want to say thank you for everything you've done from episode one up to the final episode of Series 3. So thank you very much. Well, thank you. Well, thank you.

Firstly, that's so sweet of you and very, very much appreciated. But also thank you for being such supporters of the show from day one and all of our work, because that means a lot. And by extension, I'd also just like to thank everyone who's followed the show, because it's meant the world to us and we do notice it, and it does mean something to us. It means an awful lot.

And but YouTube in there from the start and have been such ardent supporters of us all. And that means a lot to me. So thank you. Well, thank you again, Paul.

It's a little bit useful to do. And of course, the football will be in the post. Lovely. I'd like to see how that takes a game.

We think it's from December in the post. It's weird. I don't know what's going on. And I'm sure this time next year, there'll be a bathroom in the post for you as well, Paul.

I don't know about that. But we'll always have Paris. We'll always have North Leats. We'll always have North Leats.

Paul, thank you so much, sir. Please stay safe. And just good luck with everything in the future. Love to your family.

And yeah, just please stay safe. Thank you. And love to you, you too, and your families. Thanks for asking me on again.

No problem. Thank you, mate. Thank you. Take care, guys.

Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. There goes the wonderful Reverend Seton.

Paul Seton. Bless his heart. And may I just feel all relaxed? That is a voice you can listen to for hours.

I could listen to so many audio books with that, man. I really could. Absolutely. Do you want to do your bits, Neil?

Let's do it. You can find us on all the social media sites under WTF This country. You can email us at wtf.com if you want to ask us any questions or just drop us a line, please. Feel free to do so.

And we have a website that you can click on to for all your these country goodies and needs at wtfpodcast.com. And you can get t-shirts like this, Lesa, the F and Jeff in from that website. And you can also come and be a Patreon bozo if you go to patreon.com forward slash WTF. There are different tiers, different rewards for different prices.

Just go there. All the information is there. Thank you very much, everybody for listening. Thank you.

Just everybody. Please stay safe, everybody. Neil, stay safe. Oh, I'll do my best, sir.