Spieling The Beans

My guest for this episode of Spieling The Beans is Dame Judi Dench. You know who she is. Recorded 9th April 2026.

My guest this episode is the globally-renowned, multi-award-winning playwright, poet, and performer, Inua Ellams MBE FRSL, whose work has been produced by the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC / Disney+'s Doctor Who, to name just three. Research Producer: Eileen Gbagbo

Tomorrow, the Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke starring SAIPAN opens in UK cinemas. In October, at the London Film Festival, I got to talk to its directors, Glenn Leyburn & Lisa Barros D’Sa. This is that. Producer: Farah Sadek.

My guest this episode is Daniel Bailey: award-winning director, writer, dramaturg, former Associate Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, Chair of Judges for the Alfred Fagon playwriting awards, and all-round theatre-making phenomenon. Recorded at ID Studios, Hackney, December 2025. Research Producer: Eileen Gbagbo.

For the finale of season seven, my guest is the Booker Prize winning author Sir Salman Rushdie. Recorded at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2024.

In the longest interview we've ever done on Spieling The Beans, my guest is the sixth Artistic Director of the National Theatre (2015-2025), Sir Rufus Norris.

Dom speaks to the globally revered comedian Gary Gulman (The Great Depresh, Born on Third Base), on constructing masterful stand-up, working with directors, and effability of the word 'ineffable'.

Dom talks to Simon McBurney OBE, the co-founder and artistic director of the monumentally consequential theatre company Complicité, and an actor you’ll recognise from his roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Duchess, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Rev, to name just a few. His latest show is FIGURES IN EXTINCTION, a co-creation with the Olivier Award winner Crystal Pite; a collaboration between Complicité and Nederlands Dans Theater. The conversation ranges from what it's like to direct Al Pacino in a play, to being directed by Robert Eggers and Christopher McQuarrie, to humanity’s relationship with mortality and how to convey that through physical theatre. With special thanks to Sadler's Wells, Will Ferreira Dyke, and Farah Sadek.

My guest today is Rupert Goold - the double-Olivier-winning, Tony-nominated director behind such shows as Dear England, Enron, Ink, King Charles III, Tammy Faye, Patriots, and Cold War. His screen career includes directing Ben Whishaw in the BBC adaptation of Richard II, James Franco and Jonah Hill in the movie True Story, and perhaps most notably directing Renée Zellweger’s Oscar winning performance as Judy Garland in 2019’s Judy. This summer, we met in the boardroom of the Almeida (of which he's Artistic Director), to talk about directing film vs theatre, when to give an actor a note, his early inspirations, what he looks for in emerging talent, how to cast Hamlet, and so much more.

My guest this episode is Max Webster, the Tony & Olivier Award nominated director of astonishing theatrical feats including The Life of Pi, David Tennant & Cush Jumbo's Macbeth, and imminently the Ncuti-Gatwa-led The Importance of Being Earnest. We discuss the construction of these shows, his training at La Coq, making the invisible visible, directing barefoot, how film and tv perfecting hyper realism has changed theatre, and so much more. Recorded at The National Theatre in June 2024.

MY guest this episode is the Olivier-Winning, Tony-Nominated Super-Producer of Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, and Kathy And Stella Solve A Murder, Francesca Moody MBE. On how to produce a hit show from script to cult fringe favourite to global domination, how she became a producer by accident, what exactly a producer does, and so much more. Recorded at The National Theatre.

My guest is Emmy, Golden Globe and double Olivier Award winning actor, director, producer and writer, Brian Cox. In a wonderfully unguarded conversation, we talk Eugene O'Neill, Logan Roy & Succession, great examples of directing, acting with Gielgud, how to shape a character, how to run a rehearsal room, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and we end with a recitation of his favourite poem. Recorded in his dressing room at the Wyndham's Theatre in London while he was starring as James Tyrone opposite Patricia Clarkson in Jeremy Herrin's production of A Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Season 6 Premiere Episode: My guest is the multi Grammy and Emmy nominated comedian, filmmaker, actor, writer, and podcaster Tig Notaro. A true artist of standup. Continually pushing bits and using boundaries to advance all of our understandings of quite what one can do and achieve with stand-up comedy. As we discuss, and is mentioned in virtually every introduction given to her, she has suffered more hardships and misfortunes than many of us could fathomably bear, and yet has not only survived them all but turned unrelenting darkness into hall of fame level comedic joy, with a unique talent of crafting material that resonates, connects, and uplifts people at every possible point in their lives. She is creative genius. And a couple days before her birthday, we sat down to talk.

My guest for the Season Five Finale is George Clooney. You know who he is. Recorded at a special BAFTA screening of his latest film 'The Boys In The Boat', in December 2023.

My guest this episode is the Edinburgh Perrier and Royal Television Society Award-winning actor and writer, Justin Edwards. Star of The Thick Of It, as Ben Swain MP, along with The Trip, The News Quiz, The Man Who Invented Christmas, The Death of Stalin, Paddington, Thor, Wonka, Empire of Light, Yesterday, or Sorry I’ve Got No Head to name just a few. On being directed by Sam Mendes on Broadway, improvising with Armando Iannucci, comedy sketch writing, and so much more. Recorded at The National Theatre, London, in October 2023.

My guest this episode is Adam James, star of Vigil, The Buccaneers, Charles III, Doctor Foster, Extras, Wicked, Johnny English Strikes Again, and countless more productions. Across our conversation, we discuss what makes a good director, approaching Shakespeare, working with Rupert Goold, the theatrical value of table tennis, performing on Broadway versus West End, playing Ariana Grande’s father in one of the biggest productions ever filmed, and so much more. Recorded with special permission in The National Theatre, London, in September 2023.

My guest today is Patrick Cotnoir, best known as the producer and co-host of The George Lucas Talk Show, he’s also been the producer and talent booker of over 500 legendary UCB ASSCAT 3000 shows, The Chris Gethard Show, Comedy Central's The President Show and Marvel Entertainment, and is a living testament to how a glittering career in showbiz can be started simply by putting your hand up and asking if you can help out at all. Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe, August 2023.

My guest this episode is Kiran Deol, the Emmy-nominated, Oscar-longlisted comedian, actor, writer, director, filmmaker and documentarian. As an actor, she’s performed in shows like Sunnyside, How to Get Away With Murder and Modern Family, she’s a co-host on Crooked Media’s Hysteria podcast and has made films as a writer/director for HBO and Sundance. Over our conversation, we explore the difference in appearing on a long running network show versus originating a role, how she turned trauma into comedy, the underlying current of curiosity throughout all her work, and so much more. Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe, August 2023.

My guest is James Naughtie, one of the UK's most revered and recognisable journalists and broadcasters, perhaps best known for co-hosting the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. He’s been the Chief Political Correspondent for both The Scotsman and The Guardian, as well as the Laurence Stern Fellow for the Washington Post. During his career, he has won both Journalist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards and the Sony Radio Awards’ Radio Personality Of The Year. A prolific author of novels and nonfiction, he was the Chair of the Booker Prize, made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and succeeded Dame Diana Rigg as Chancellor of The University of Stirling for a decade-long term. Succinctly, he's good with words. Recorded in the Media Yurt at - and with special thanks to - the Edinburgh International Book Festival, August 2023.

My guest this episode is Eden Sher, the Critics' Choice Award Winning Star of 'The Middle', on creating her sell-out Edinburgh Fringe show 'I Was On A Sitcom', on learning from her sitcom royalty onscreen parents, being directed by her onscreen brother, being plucked from obscurity as a child by Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and "Brand New Cards". Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe.

My guest is the Peabody and Emmy winning comedy titan and icon of iconoclasm Craig Ferguson. Recorded in his dressing room at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, we discussed him interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu on The Late Late Show (for which the show won the Peabody), being mentored by Johnny Carson’s producer Peter Lassally, being the comedian for Bush’s final White House Correspondents' Dinner, the current whereabouts of his robotic skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson, and why we need stories to beat the rise of the machines.

We're back. With STB history. My guests, plural, for the Season 5 premiere episode are the Emmy-nominated Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney - AKA BriTANick - on what makes a sketch a great sketch, the difference between writing for SNL and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Kurt Vonnegut's concept of Karass, opening for Robin Williams, writing comedy with the drummer from Imagine Dragons, and so much more. Recorded in London during their sell-out Soho Theatre run, following their sell-out Edinburgh Fringe run, and ahead of their currently-selling-out second Soho Theatre run.

My guest for this S4 finale episode is the father of QI himself, John Lloyd, on stories, holism, educational reform, Navajo proverbs, Douglas Adams, mysticism, humanity, producing, directing, Jeff Goldblum, the real answer to life the universe and everything, and why being fired is actually quite a good thing.

My guest this episode is Mary O’Connell - standup comedian, television developer, previous holder of the creative residency at Baby Cow, writer for ITV2’s The Emily Atack Show and The Now Show on Radio 4, and noted clowning enthusiast. Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe back in August, we talk about finances, fighting against being pigeonholed, haunted pubs, TV commissioning trends, identity in comedy, and the joy of silly jokes.

In the first of our 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Tapes, this week's guest is the magnificent multi-hyphenate Arthur Smith - the comedian-poet-Night-Mayor-of-Balham, on seafood, socks, storytelling, seventy-five years of Fringe, & so much more. Associate Producer: Zaffia Hussain

My guest for this Season 4 premiere episode is Helen Serafinowicz - co-creator of the International Emmy Award Nominated ‘Motherland’, one of my favourite comedies of the century so far. We talk about the difference in writing processes between 'Motherland' and her new CBBC series ‘Nova Jones’, what it’s like to be related to Darth Maul, and so much more.

My guest for this episode, the Season 3 Finale, is Professor Noam Chomsky. You know who he is.

My guest this episode is Sarah Mills - the award-winning writer-comedian-producer - on turning the boredom of chemotherapy into the joy of ‘The Chemo Chat Show', how she approached writing her first ever pilot script which went on to win the BAFTA Rocliffe award, how to go about booking experts for Philomena Cunk, and so much more.

My guest this episode is Joz Norris - Edinburgh Fringe Comedian’s Choice Award Winner and, quite simply, one of the finest comedic minds around - on how abstract comedy can help convey abstract feelings, the essential distinction between short films and sketches (and what makes a good one of either), the enigmatic excellence of Pierce Brosnan, and so much more.

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My guest this episode is Sadia Azmat, the brilliant and critically-acclaimed comedian, writer, producer, and podcaster. From reaching the final of Funny Women only 15 months after starting standup, her debut show ‘Please Hold - You’re Being Transferred To A UK Based Asian Representative’ was featured on BBC Front Row, followed up by her nationally-toured 2014 show ‘I Am Not Malala’. In 2018, she co-created the landmark (and Apple’s ‘Top Pick’) BBC Sounds podcast series 'No Country For Young Women', which she hosted alongside Monty Onanuga for its four seasons. And, as you’ll hear, in the days running up to the recording of this episode, it was announced she would be publishing her first memoir and has just been hired as the newest BBC Comedy Producer. Among so many other things, we talk about making BBC Podcast history (in two ways), writing memoirs vs standup routines, and being inspired by both the dark poetry of Bill Hicks and the interviewing style of Larry King.

My guest this episode is Charlie Dinkin - BBC Studios Comedy Staff Writer, Co-Creator of the BBC Audio Drama Award Nominated sketch show podcast SeanceCast, Edinburgh Fringe Award Nominated stand up director, and the first ever international student accepted into The Second City's Comedy Studies program, on what makes a great sketch, directing standup vs sketches, how anthropology relates to comedy, & importance of enjoy-it-all mentalities.

Welcome to Season 3 of what is now - officially - the World's 43rd Hottest Podcast, thanks to Podcast Magazine's voters! My guest this episode is Chris Yiu - Executive Director at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where he leads leads the Technology & Public Policy programme - on how to create effective policy, why he's so optimistic about the decades ahead and why a 1999 episode of The West Wing was particularly prescient. (Also, head to podcastmagazine.com/hot50 to vote for this month's Official Countdown!)

A mini episode thanking you for listening and on the stories we tell ourselves. See you in 2021!

Recorded in 2015, my guest this week is the founding President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers. This episode examines the difference in the Supreme Courts and constitutions of the UK and the US, whether he’d ever considered a political career, media itself acting as a lobbyist, and his almost eerily prescient visions of the repercussions of the then-upcoming 2015 General Election. You’ll also hear the story of how the interview itself, recorded when I was 18 and featuring my nervous teenage voice, actually came to be. (Interview expertly recorded by Giovanni Conte, Anjana Stephens and Anna Pledger, and co-produced by Ed Lawrence and Joe Nerssessian.)

My guest this week is Mary Houlihan, a New York based comedian, writer, animator and artist who's appeared on Broad City, Billy On The Street, Difficult People, The Chris Gethard Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack, as well as in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and Reductress. She also did the artwork for the Adult Swim show 'Joe Pera Talks With You'. Her work has also been celebrated by Entertainment Weekly, Vulture Magazine, Paper, Onion AV Club, and Forbes. Esquire Magazine even described her interview with Martin Shkreli as evidence that “justice still exists in our world”. She also created the Comedy Central hybrid animation miniseries ‘Learn to Paint With Mary Houlihan’ - which I urge you to check out on YouTube immediately. Over the course of the show, you’ll hear about art via painting versus performing, what makes alt comedy alt, performing absurdist standup in Montana and Edinburgh, the canon of Jack Nicholson, and so much more.

My guest, Professor A. C. Grayling, is a titan of British philosophy. The Bertrand-Russell-Award-winning author of over forty books - on everything from War to Friendship - is a representative to the UN Human Rights Council, was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum for several years, is fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Arts, a Vice President of the British Humanist Association, and has been a judge of the Booker Prize twice - the latter time also serving as its Chair. Perhaps most notably, he is the first guest on the show (so far!) to have founded a university. In 2011, he created, and is the inaugural Master and Professor of Philosophy of, London’s New College of the Humanities. Over the hour, we cover the power of effective storytelling in philosophy, education, democracy, constitutions, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche and everything from the premiership of Gordon Brown to Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown. Co-produced by Dom Stephens and Lara Taylor.

My guest this week is Don Roy King - quite simply, a titan of television. The director of Saturday Night Live since 2006, he has directed more live TV than anyone else in human history and won eleven Emmy awards for it. So far, he’s been nominated for 28 Emmys overall as a writer, producer and director. Beginning his career directing The Mike Douglas Show, he spent 21 years directing Good Morning America and CBS This Morning before he began helming SNL. In fact, he’s so good at directing live television, he’s even directed fictional live television - playing Daybreak director Merv in 2010’s Morning Glory and himself in Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born. We discuss the changes in comedy he’s witnessed, directing Presidents Obama and Trump, what Lorne Michaels is like as a boss, what it was like to be in the director's chair of CBS This Morning on the morning of September 11th, 2001, and the power with which television - and live TV at that - can convey, explain and entertain.

My guest this week is Matt Koff, an Emmy-award winning comedian who has been a writer at The Daily Show, with both Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah, since 2013. He’s also written for The Onion and Hasan Minhaj’s barnstorming White House Correspondents' Dinner, toured with both John Oliver and Bo Burnham, and, at the end of 2019, released his excellent debut standup album, Who’s My Little Guy. (If you haven't heard it already, do so immediately!) Recorded on 7 May 2020, we chatted straight after he finished a day of writing for the show, about the day’s top stories, writing late night in a pandemic, the importance of Monty Python, the surprisingly high-octane plot of Goodnight Moon and much much more. Bonus fun fact: this was the first interview we’ve had that spanned two days due to UK / New York time difference.

My guess this week is Chloe Radcliffe - a writer for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, a twice national speech champion, a former corporate speechwriter for Target and a standup from Minnesota. Speaking transatlantically one Friday morning in April, we discussed why The Tonight Show is uniquely tailored to socially-distanced writing, how to characterise Minnesotan comedy compared to that of New York and Chicago, the impact both Judd Apatow and Eddie Izzard have both had on the narrative nature of comedy, what forensicating is, how speech and debate relates to stand up, the comfort of being alone on a stage, an impromptu deep dive into rhetorical analysis on the concept of rhetoric itself, and much more.

My guest this week is Jen Calleja, the 2019 International Booker Prize nominee and the inaugural Translator-in-Residence at The British Library, on why surrealism makes sense, translation vs writing from scratch, the publishing industry under a pandemic, viewing life through the lens of TV, and why Leonora Carrington is like Steve Martin. 

My guest this week is Daniel Matarazzo, a classically trained musical director who, just last week, created a Coronavirus parody of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to share with friends on Facebook. The song immediately became, ironically, a viral hit of its own – albeit in a very good way. Seen by millions and shared by leading figures in the entertainment world, the song has rapidly spread across the globe. Again, in a good way. In our far-reaching and deep conversation, we discuss what sudden global fame has felt like, how music can tell stories, the importance of the arts in dark times throughout history and especially now, how comedic songs are able to reach people in a way stand-up might not, how to approach musical direction, his inspirations, and creating a very good viral hit amid a very bad viral hit. And, to make it even more special, we’ve a Spieling The Beans first as we end our interview with a full, live performance of another of his viral virus parody hits.

My guest this week is the 1988 Democratic Nominee for President of the United States of America, the first ever Greek-American US Presidential Nominee, the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history, a four-term member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and a professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University and UCLA. Recorded in 2018, this episode looks at the concept of storytelling in its many guises – be it about the narrative of a political campaign or how comedy can create the narratives we hold to be true about candidates, issues and so much more. Our marathon conversation covers everything from meeting JFK and interviewing Bobby Kennedy as a student, to how to run and win an ethical campaign, to why he loves teaching, to why he's still an optimist, to how late night comedy has changed over the decades, what it’s like to be impersonated weekly on Saturday Night Live, and his view of Jon Lovitz' impression of him.

My guest this week is Dr Joanna Nadin. Starting out as a journalist, she soon entered the world of politics, working in Downing Street helping craft Blair’s speeches. She then turned to novel writing and has since become a hugely prolific, multi-award-winning author. Predominantly writing books for children and young adults, she's been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Prize, the Carnegie Medal, and the Queen of Teen award along with winning many more. One of her novels, Joe All Alone, was recently adapted for the screen by the BBC and has subsequently won a BAFTA and been nominated for an Emmy. On campus at Bath Spa University, where she also works as a lecturer in Creative Writing, our conversation covered how writing a speech is like writing a novel, how you turn dry subject matter into a compelling narrative, what Roald Dahl was like to meet in person, the other side of spin, and how good rhetoric can alter neurological chemistry.

My guest this week is Devin Delliquanti. After getting his start at The Onion, Devin’s written for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah ever since Trevor took over the show from Jon Stewart. He’s also written for Kenan Thompson when he hosted the NHL awards and has himself hosted the New York Video Game Awards three times. Recorded the day after Boris Johnson prorogued parliament, our transatlantic conversation covers the less-than-upbeat political similarities between the US and UK, how Trump has changed late night, what people don’t tell you about hosting award shows until you’re doing it, what it’s like writing jokes that play to the audience at home versus those that play to the audience in the room, why stories are vital in both light and dark times, and how not wanting to dissect a fetal pig led him on the road to comedy. It’ll make sense when you hear him tell it, don’t worry. (It’s no secret how long I’ve been a massive fan of The Daily Show so this was phenomenally exciting!)

My guest this week is Maggie Lalley, comedian and creator of Cold Blooded Witch: The Sex Musical. Maggie’s one woman show about her stint as a teen witch, which after a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe has since sold out all over NYC, is testament to the power of storytelling and Maggie’s ability to turn even the darkest material into incredible comedy. (Fair warning, this probably isn’t the episode to show your grandmother to introduce her to the podcast, but it’s by far one of the giggliest interviews I’ve ever conducted.) In addition to the musical, her inspirations and writing process, we talk about what it’s like working as a standup in different countries, George Carlin’s report card, why so many comedians have at one point been teachers, and end with a perhaps surprisingly frank and open conversation about mental health and the vital importance in talking about it to ensure no one suffering ever feels alone. It’s quite a journey of an episode.

My guest this week is Byron Lane, an actor, writer, Emmy-award-winning journalist and creator of Tilda Swinton Answers An Ad On Craigslist - one of the funniest plays I’ve ever seen. In the play, Tilda Swinton, played by Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Tom Lenk, is a modern-day Mary Poppins who finds a depressed gay man, Walt, played by Byron, on Craigslist and dissects his life for a character study for her next movie role. A few days after our interview, Graham Norton would describe the show as “fabulously funny” and Tom Lenk’s portrayal of Tilda as “pure genius”. We discussed the process of writing a hit play, how journalism connects to surrealist comedy, what people don’t tell you about making movies until you begin, what it’s like being the personal assistant to Carrie Fisher, and why all we really have are stories.

My guest this week is Gabe Mollica, whose Edinburgh Fringe debut hour - entitled The Whole Thing: A True Story of Love, Comedy and Rice Cakes - has seen him be compared to a young Mike Birbiglia. He has also been featured on the NPR / BBC Radio 4 storytelling show The Moth, has written jokes for the New York Video Game Awards and is the host of the ever-popular Funniest People I Met This Month comedy show in Queens, NY. We discuss why narrative-based stand up is more common in Edinburgh than New York, why someone who did a music degree intentionally doesn’t do musical comedy, how the internet has affected live storytelling, and why Danny, The Champion of The World is the best Roald Dahl book.

My guest this week is Catherine Bohart, star of BBC Two’s The Mash Report, Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier and The Guilty Feminist Podcast. We spoke about how to write a weekly satirical show, how school debate clubs create comedians of the future, and why stories within stand-up can create empathy.

My guest this week is Anna Drezen. As a writer for Saturday Night Live, Anna created the legendary Debette Goldry sketches (played by Kate McKinnon), along with many others including the brilliant Romano Tours and Nephew Pageant. She's also been the editor of Reductress and even a student of Shakespeare at RADA. In a busy Pleasance Courtyard bar, minutes after she stepped off stage from her Edinburgh Fringe debut 'Okay Get Home Safe!!', we discussed what makes a great sketch, the importance of oddness in comedy and her burning love for Whose Line Is It Anyway.