The Green Green Grass

We spoke to Ellla Kenion and Ivan Kaye about the Green Green Grass! (Contains Colourful Language)

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:21

We welcome to the Only Fools and Horses Podcast, Ella Kenyon and Ivan Kay from the Green Green Grass. How's it going?

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Very good to meet you. Delighted to be invited to something of such uh significance. Thank you for inviting us. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

No problem. So, Ella, what are your memories from the series?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Oh, the ones that can be repeated. Gosh, wow. Wow, straight in there. Um uh uh lot of laughing. Um golly, how do you but that was huge, huge question. Um Ivan, could you start?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

I'll tell you what my take home from this is being an a person of a certain vintage, uh, and theatre being the original reason why we were interested in this kind of uh business, is that it with the green green grass, we not only got the chance to shoot stuff in the uh in the studios, etc. etc. etc. And then also go off and do stuff which was the outside work, which was the uh stuff at Boise's house and everything else, and then still to get to play the theatre part of it in the you know in front of live people.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Wow, this is the best of both worlds. Absolutely, he's absolutely right. It was brilliant. You get to rehearse, you kind of, you know, and it's so different when you get to rehearse something that you then see on telly compared to when you're trotting out your doctors, your Cory, your Eastern, you know, you it's basically block it, light it, film it. Oh, can we swear on your thing? You can, yeah. Oh that would be fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. I bun. Honestly, the whole point about green group grass is you never score. Um mickle's as good as a muckle in a whatever. I think that instead. Um, but yeah, so that was uh that was great. You got you got to really hone it and then do it as a as a theatre piece and then get very silly on location in Ludlow.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Yeah, yeah. And it really was John Chalice's house, as well as it was.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Oh yes, it absolutely was.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

We rarely rarely get got to go supposedly indoors there, but the outsides and the uh the the when the bull comes home and the beds where the Driscoll brothers and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Many action, much action in the barn, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Oh yeah, that's all jealous's house.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Yeah, bless the governor. He is the governor. Do you remember his huge hands? Oh, yeah. He had such big hands, and when he would talk to you and make a point, his huge hands would come down when he was.

SPEAKER_01 3:15

You know what they say about big hands?

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Stop it! Big gloves. What do you think? Oh, big gloves, big gloves. Actually, to be fair, his wife's hands were even bigger. Steady on! Sorry, no, they weren't, they absolutely weren't. But Carol was a model. Oh no, and a beautiful one at that. A beautiful model, and what a cook. Ah, she was a very, very fine cook. Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Well, I got fucking missed out on that.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah, very good cook. Anyway, yeah, sorry, you weren't there that night. I don't mean it. Oh no, it was fabulous. And to have John, to have John Sullivan, uh, you know, it he didn't miss a day, did he? Oh, do you remember the time when he couldn't get into the studio?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Oh, and also that time when we were on in Shropshire and he went into the uh car park at the back of the place that we were staying in. Yeah, had to take the car out of the place that he was staying in, and it didn't quite make it through in the same way that you'd hoped for. But there was very charming about what was frankly something that I would have spun out completely. He was, he was fine about it.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Oh, he completely took it on the chin, beautiful. It was amazing, unlike when they wouldn't let him into the BBC rehearsal room.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Well, obviously, that was a different, a different time, a different place. Wasn't happy about that.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

That's fair, you know. Oh no, I'm on live, totally. I am John Sluthervan. I need to get upstairs to my rehearsal.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

You don't have a badge, you're not coming in, you're not all that he always tries to fucking damp down his ointment with society, etc. etc. And they didn't made it impossible. No, no, nearly to make a fuss, made a fuss, correct.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Yeah, the answer. Yeah. He really I mean, he was so he was so humble, wasn't he? I mean, for somebody who did you remember that time when he wrote the thing and it said something about strawberry movies? Yes. And we went, Oh, I don't know if we should say a thing about the strawberry movies, because it's like a bit of a stock thing they trot out on the alternative. And he went, Oh, let's change it. And he changed it. Oh no. Wasn't fucking precious. He really wasn't precious, was he?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

I I did a play with John Gopper, and um we're sitting there with the uh play printed that is out there if you went and onto Amazon and said whatever, and when a couple of words uh I suggested might be changed and whatever, uh Goppa didn't mind at all, just tore it out and did it. Really? And also, much to my credit, uh I came up with the name for the one with the Chris Show thing, because I knew how much he loved the kind of Johnny Nash whatever, whatever. More questions than answers. He took that straight away. Really? Oh no, it was right up his street, it was just a good shout at the time, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Oh, he was so he was so open to all that, wasn't he? And his son wrote some very good scripts, too. Yes. He did. And Darren Litton, who wrote Benadorm, he wrote a couple of them. Now you couldn't muck about with his lines.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

No, no, but he uh oh, I think he he looked after me in one of his episodes.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Indeed, you looked after me in the other one.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

So we did quite well. We did very well off him. I got to do a bit of singing, which I wasn't expecting it was gonna be me choose. Um and he did, and uh, I was very delighted. And obviously, like I was gonna say, where the fuck is he now? But yeah, no, he's fine. He's a bit sorted, actually.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Yeah, living in high school. Oh, and fair place for him. Yeah, he's done very well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

That's great, and uh Chris, as as spin-offs go, the green green grass was a great spin-off, wasn't it, of only fools and horses?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, it it was it was excellent, yeah. Um I think it gave Boise and Marlene more of a kind of main, well, the main characters all of a sudden, weren't they? Um how did that how did John and Sue feel about that? Did they say how they felt about the the show difference between Fools and Horse and Screen Green Grass?

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Well, I all I seem to remember the of the uh of the origin of the whole thing was it was an important birthday of John Chalice's. That's right. He invited uh Sullivan and all the loves down to his death to uh have a little chat, and then he talked about the idea of, and I think that was the inspiration for uh Boise to uh turn into something beyond.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

Yeah, it was that's how it originated.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

They were just so happy to use the house that you know this place that Chalice had looked after and had transformed. Yeah, it was really called Wigmore Abbey. Incredibly impressive, Wigmore Abbey, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

That's right, yeah, because he also did books, and I'm sure it was Wigmore Publishing or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Well, that's all his wonderful earth, his uh his biographies are fantastic, but they are a good remote. The way that they transformed the Wigmore Abbey was uh sensational.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

It was such a labour of love, and he loved that garden too. Oh yeah, very precious about that garden. They were it was just it it was idyllic, wasn't it? Lentwardine. Oh, is that how we say it? Lempwardine? You probably know Ivan.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Uh I can't uh I can't recognise Ledwardine. Uh but what I can do know that Carol, yeah, uh who was his wonderful wife, uh every now and then on Facebook posts another uh picture of Chalice's tombstone where people have put down flowers there and are continuing to honour his memory.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So lovely.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

In that place, it's so charming. Yeah, it's it's charming and it's not really something that happens naturally. I uh certainly don't know anyone else that has that kind of thing going on. No, utterly charming. I mean, chalice is the governor, yeah. Lovely man. He really, really is difficult not to like him.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Yeah, he really is. I remember doing a professional foul with him. Ah uh when we did, I don't know if you remember the one with the psychic where Mrs. Cateworthy's um a psychic. I mean, where did we come up with that? Anyway, and uh I was I had John's hand in my hand and it would all got we were all a little bit tense, and uh we quite rightly, it's so nice when you know each other really well and you act together a lot and you know what the other one's thinking, yeah, and and we just paused a little bit too long, and then we both pretended to call and that was it. It was brilliant. Everybody just fell about, and then we pulled it together, and then everyone was much nicer to us. Sometimes it's really worth doing that. Very terrible to admit. But uh, I know that Sue was uh she just was so happy to have another life in Legazine.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

And also, it's I mean, Jesus Christ, you know, I could ask. So, yeah, but you know, unfortunately, what happened? Well, she's up to her ass in fucking terrible. Doesn't stop, she's all over the fucking doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Yeah, most deserved, uh, an absolute fucking uh and do you remember how she used to love um you know, because when you're doing the studio show, um you come out and say hello at the beginning, like you know, and she just loved it. Hello, darling, it's Sue here. And they were like, What?

SPEAKER_04 11:34

Yeah, it's it is kind of surprising if you've never met Sue before because obviously her character in Only Fools and Horses is completely the opposite, so it is quite her breasts because she's quite flat-chested, and the way she would get those boobies up was marvelous.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

It was quite a feat of physics.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

Sorry. Quality turn, the hold on this quality turn. She is a quality turn. Well, did I see her in the other day? I saw in something like uh an Alfred Hitchcock presents or a or other being absolutely genius, being sort of totty a hundred million years ago and still now. Oh can you imagine having that longevity of tottiness?

SPEAKER_02 12:24

And she's totted for decades. She is top totty.

unknown 12:29

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Still top totty, and whereas I've just been a bucks and biscuit eater for 40 years.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Oh, darling, you're up to your arse in it. I've been watching you on the replays and the whatevers of the Catherine Tate thing, where you are not to put too far in a point on it, fucking stunningly good in all of them. Oh, watch them again and again when they're on, and I I only watch Muggle TV, I haven't got one of these uh uh cheaty type things. With all the sticks and things, all the sticky things and this and the other. I get to see you chicking about on the uh Catherine Tate and smashing it. Oh, thank you, love.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Thank you. You can see him another red wine. What do you want, darling? What are you drinking?

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Uh vodka and water. Nice. You know why? Because I'm trying to up my water content.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

At least you got that in there. So, Chris, there was also a lot of Only Fools and Horses actors in the show as well that appeared in one-offs, wasn't there?

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Yeah, believe I believe so. You guys probably tell me different, but is it um Dendles in the first episode? It's Sid it Sid's in a few, isn't he? Sid from the calf.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Um not a few, I think a couple.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Oh, a couple, yeah, a couple. And then the Driscoll brothers appear in the second series as well, don't they? Yes, yes. What what were they like? Them characters.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Oh, they're characters. I mean, my god, I mean, um, they uh obviously seminal characters that if you come into contact with you think Jesus Christ, it's these guys. Yeah, the modesty on uh on on uh him off of the young ones was extraordinary. Yeah, Christina Lyon. Probably the least uh probably the least um there's no ego with actory person that I've ever met.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

But conversely with the other one who would so that you couldn't he's a swine, he was, he no, fabulous, but he was smart. So uh if you're editing and you put your gaps in, you know, after your sentences, great. If you are trying to edit an actor and his he just takes a pause within the sentence, yeah, I can't so you managed to put about 10 minutes of himself on it, didn't he, by doing that? Whereas you had whereas the lovely chap from the young ones, he just he was so humble, so humble, too nervous, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Oh, he was lovely. Who didn't didn't think that uh if he'd have pushed his luck and made the tape longer, he would have felt bad about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Yeah, his way obviously some fans perhaps haven't seen greengrass. So, how does Boise end up at uh this farm then? What's what's the reason why he ends up leaving?

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Well, they flee um urban life to get away from the Driscoll brothers, and uh Boise, with the amount of money that he's managed to uh procure from his uh second-hand cars, etc. etc., means that he can buy a great big pile out in Shropshire uh because uh obviously prices are and this, that, and the other, and also it means that he can be off the radar from uh he doesn't want any repercussions from those boys, of course not. Um, and um so when he turns up, it transpires that he has not only bought the farm, but he's also bought the dodgy staff uh who have been working there for some considerable time, and that turns out to be us, Wankers. Um turns out to be an incompetent herdsman, uh a housekeeper that doesn't really want to do any of the work, and um a groundsman and a this and a that and the other, and that's where you meet us lot.

SPEAKER_04 16:53

Yeah. It to me it was kind of like the first Clarkson's Farm, if you know what I mean. It's it's different because it's a sitcom, but you know what I mean, it's that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

You know what? That would be great, and if they'd actually pumped it in that direction, then it would have probably gone on for a million more. If it weren't for the terrible, terribleness of uh Sullivan uh checking out.

SPEAKER_02 17:17

No, that was so freaking awful.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah, no, because he was absolutely up to his next series.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

He was the next series to the next series, yeah. He was really there, he was ready, and his son had written some as well.

SPEAKER_04 17:29

Oh, yeah. Can we find out your favourite scenes from the Green Green Grass?

SPEAKER_02 17:34

Oh wow. Well, I particularly like getting Ivan ready for the date. That was brilliant fun. Do you remember I had to cut your toenails and we had him and he had him all dressed up for a date with was it to go out with Myrtle again?

SPEAKER_01 17:49

It was to meet Myrtle, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

But well, I didn't think it was Myrtle, did I? I thought it was. Oh, that's right. Oh shit, I've blown the episode. Anyway, but it's a really good one. Um also for me the Christmas special I got to do with oh my god, that amazing. What's his name from Cheers?

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Oh, uh uh George Wentz.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Yes, George Wentz from Cheers playing my dad. Oh my god, that was amazing. Oh, yeah. That was like, it was amazing. But there are so many that are really good fun, they are so much fun. I love because it's we're so far away from it as well. At the time I wasn't very good. I never liked to watch myself in things at the time, or even I need to leave, I need a good 10-20 years, and then it's really good fun. Judy Dench is the same, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

She won't watch but yeah. What about you, I've well, I uh firstly I have to chime in with uh when we went to the party to celebrate the end of the series, I went with George upstairs to his room uh to party a little bit before we then came back downstairs. So I have to mention that because that is amazing! Oh no, because it was an exceptionally lovely moment.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Oh, I'm so jealous.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

However, I also uh will have to um I have to sort of remember the one which which I felt the most comfortable with, which was when we were mowing the lawn outside Boise's place, and he came down and I had to sing him a song. Um and it was something like um it's whatever that song is, um I'll be here for you, I don't know. Yeah, one of those. Whatever it was. Um, and I found that the most uh delightful, and I must admit, I felt lousy in one sense because I know that Peter Hepplethwaite is a great singer. Oh, is he? Does oh he does oh he must have been fuming because it must have been absolutely fuming. And I didn't enjoy it because he must have been fuming. Oh, you were too nice. I was delighted that your mate Darren had decided that I was gonna be the guy that was gonna sing.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yes, good thing, or whatever the fact that Oh, and the but that wonderful one when you were all squashed in the caravans.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Yes, oh that was nice.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Great episode where they where somebody you had to be put up, was it you that you'd been kicked out by somebody'd been kicked out by their wife?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah, I didn't have any house anymore.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

And Ivan is huge, he's a really tall guy, and yeah, he's a big lad, Ivan, which is weird because when you meet his dad, who's sadly no longer with us, he's just a sweet, lovely little hippie, and then Ivan is this huge man, anyway. But to get Ivan and a camera and Pete Hepplethwaite and David Ross and oh my god, shocking amount of people in a much in a tiny in a tiny caravan and all round a table. Oh, it was fabulous. I love that episode. I th there are so many that are so good. And they had some really good guest uh stars, didn't we? And when we have one lovely, what's her name when she comes in to play the mum? I've got such bad memory, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Oh, um June Bra June. June Whitman.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Yeah, um Whitfield. Yes, thank you. June Whitfield, she's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Oh, stunning. And she was the only person during the read through on the table that was off book. She was off book by day one. She was like 82.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Yeah, got it. Don't even. Oh, she was wonderful. And she had a very good message about how uh she always balanced family. With her TV stuff. I think I had a new baby at the time, and she was saying, that's that's what matters. Just remember that this that's what matters. Um is your baby now? He's 18. Jesus Christ! Oh god, I think he might have a proper grow-up. He's an actual growed up, and he does and he loves Latin, Ivan. He loves Latin and he's and he's Latin, maths, and English literature is his A levels. How old are your girls now?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

34 and 30 and 30, yes. Wow! That's nuts.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yeah. Oh god.

SPEAKER_04 22:40

So when was the last time you you met up together? Was it filming The Green Green Grass, or did you meet up afterwards?

SPEAKER_02 22:47

I roped you into that film. But then then we made a short of it and we didn't do the long version with you in it. Do you remember Mother Wound? Sorry. I have to apologize for that. He did really well. He was so good in it. So that's the last time I saw Ivan in real life.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Isn't that the read-through that we did? Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

That was Did you end up doing that? I did. I'll send you the short. It's a lot of send it to me. Okay. It's a lot of me crying and eating ice creams. Crying in a bath naked, just crying, lots of crying. I did a lot of crying. Anyway. Um, and then I last saw Jack. When did we see? I saw I went to Jack's wedding or Jack's reception to a wedding or something. Yes. He married some sexy American lawyer.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Uh Pete, Pete, I ran into in a uh I I stopped somewhere randomly for a pee in a pub, but it was like lunchtime, and he was, I can't remember why he was there, and he went, Oh, just the person I want to see. And I was like, What? And he said, Oh, I'm I'm doing something where where people can we can coach people. If you need some work, you know, you can do some acting coaching. I went, nah, you're right. So I'm a cow. So I didn't go for that. But uh that and that was about five, six years ago. And lovely David Ross sometimes reads. He's a darling, and Sue, I always go and see whichever panto she's doing.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

She's wonderful. What about you, Ivo?

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I the the last people that I've really bumped into um are you and um I have you seen Alan Davies? No, no, I haven't seen Alan Davies, but I did send a missive to um Jack from when I didn't realize that I should have realized that actually, because one of my favourite programmes of all time is Peep Show, and he's got a great part. In Peep Show? Oh yeah. Jack Peep show he's the nasty wanker that turns up to try and sell stuff on the door. Oh my god, that's Jack! That's Jack. Oh my mind's just been blown. Now I personally would pay at least a good fee just to be in the background of Peep Show because Peep Show fee it's right up my street, and my children, both my female children, uh are aware of the way that I view Peep Show.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

So I I wish I could have been in the background of that if I show definitely.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Such a good show. So that's the last time you saw Jack. When have you seen Sue at all?

SPEAKER_01 25:55

I haven't seen Sue, but I've been in touch with Sue. That's clever. Uh constantly because uh I was delighted that she came up with the uh whatever the fuck it's called type thing that she's in with another old mate of mine.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

It's in Malta, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yes. Oh, good, what's she in? Oh, the madam Oh, with that thing dumping mysteries with an old mucker of mine who was the guy who was in um uh confessions of a window cleaner, Robin Asgriff.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Oh, that was so much fun. Whatever happened to that, did you get to release it? Did you get released what?

SPEAKER_01 26:43

Confessions of a window cleaner. Well, in the 70s and 80s, yes. No, that turned out to be a bit of a fucking success. It was the first soft porn movie I'd ever seen.

SPEAKER_02 26:59

Oh my god. Was that really Robert Asquare? Yes! Are you also in Benedore?

SPEAKER_01 27:06

No, no, I did a job with him. I did um something with uh Michelle Collins. Oh yeah, and it was called Hello baby, uh, and it was called whatever it was called, and um what was that what was it called? Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Your dogs just turned up, my cat's just turned up. Oh for god's sake, don't show him to my dog. No, he's off. He's off.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

No, he's mewing, but she's fucked off.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Oh, okay. Um so I did something with Robin, what was it?

SPEAKER_01 27:41

It was called Sunburn with Michelle Collins. Oh, and um uh Asquith was there, and I turned up to the first night of the kind of get-together type thing, and I looked over in the distance, and I just saw some bloke who was essentially someone that you would go, oh, he must be off Love Island or something. Yeah, yeah. And as you got closer and closer and closer, he still was Love Island, you still was Love Island, still was Love Island, and he got quite close up, and he went, Oh, hello mate, that's you off of uh uh don't tell me I'm a window cleaner. Uh and he still, not to put too far a point on it, is absolutely still sexy.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

He is guy, isn't he? He is oh man, that's so funny. So so Sue's out in Malta with him filming, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Brilliant, yeah, and that's where he lives. He he lives, I can't remember what it was, but it was something like something like a donkey sanctuary or uh whatever sanctuary or whatever, yeah. Um, and um donkey sanctuary, no no, but from a distance, this guy is still knocking out the park as like a 25-year-old. And he's actually a hundred years old now, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Of course he is, but he doesn't look it.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Well, I and we have to um bring it back to fools and horses as well. Are you both fans of the show? Have you both seen it? Do you but what are your favourite moments from the show?

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Oh man, I just love that they just keep getting his name wrong. I just love that when what's his name? I can watch it. It doesn't matter. It's just the best running gag in the whole thing. I love it. Yes, that's my favorite. What about for you, babes?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Oh no, no, I personally, I mean the the truth of the matter is is that the the trademark about where I am and happy with it is that I have three different shows that I will put on uh for me to fall asleep to. Oh no, no, no, no, no. That means that that's because I can visualize every single scene as you. Oh, wow. So my three shows are Only Fools and Horses, Seinfeld, and Peak Show. Yes, I can put on any one of those, and you know, and then I know that uh because I don't need to actually look at the bright shiny lights, I turn my iPad down to minimum brightness. Yes, and I know that because I know where all these things are, I don't need the visual. No, and I will go night night. And no, but that's a respectful yeah, no, that is.

SPEAKER_04 30:44

When you first said it, it sounds like oh no, because it's boring, but that's not true. It's something you love, it's something you know, and it's it's reassuring, and it sends you to sleep. And it's quite funny. Recently, Chris, somebody said that about us, and I was like, Oh no, they falling asleep because it's so boring.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Oh no, it's actually a compliment, is it without it?

SPEAKER_04 31:05

It's a compliment, yeah. She was like, Oh, I love it because as you say, it's it's remembering um all your favorite scenes, all your favorite actors, and it without having to see it.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Yeah, brilliant thing, and I hate to think that it is a recipe for me planning before I go blind, but the truth of the matter is no, it's something that I'm comfortable with. You're not going blind though, are you? No, but what's going on? I could cope because if it's a soundtrack, yeah, I'm in. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

Chris, did you ever listen to the audiobooks or did you ever watch the show like before bed and like before you'd go to sleep?

SPEAKER_00 31:47

The the fools know that I definitely do. I can I can I normally put sleep mode on for half an hour and within five minutes I'm asleep. It's like you say it's a comfort thing, Ivan, isn't it? Really, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah. I'm a big fan of of seeing something again or knowing something by heart. It's lovely.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

You haven't got to concentrate the same, have you, somehow, or work at it or anything. You can kind of drift off with it, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Real cultural thing is I've got a problem because I I currently live alone. And so uh keeping some I'll start the car. No, yeah, feeling something something going on in the house is important to me, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah. I was gonna ask if you have any props or costumes or scripts from your characters at all.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

I do. I have a lot, I have a lot of scripts. Um, they were pretty fierce about us not keeping things. Yes. Uh we we wanted to. Uh I wanted to keep my biscuit tin. They wouldn't let me do that. Yes. Uh I think they let me have they let me have some of those giant shirts I wore. I don't think anybody wanted them. Um I think about you. Did you keep anything, Ivan?

SPEAKER_01 33:02

Well, I actually unfortunately I actually bought more things which I thought were right for me.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Because I just happened to have a couple of uh dodgy uh they weren't tartan exactly, but you know what I mean. That shirty type lumberjack type area that my character was into. Um yeah, they would. We had to buy them, you're right. I think yeah, no, but I bought my own because I knew the ones that worked for me, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:35

And why not?

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Yeah, green bit of blue.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

There's a happy ending in uh green green grass, isn't there? In the end, doesn't Boy C um come good in the end with the farm and everything. Hmm. Did he discover some deeds or something? Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Do you remember Ivan?

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

Well, I sort of remember that actually, um, but I didn't think that it had it was a resolution at all. Oh we didn't think that we were ending. We were ending at all.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it run it run actually, like you say four series, 2005 to 2009, three Christmas specials as well, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 34:22

So uh yeah, if John Sullivan had hadn't sadly passed away, you might have done oh a seven or eight, might you perhaps series well because his son did a couple of superb episodes, yeah. And he was we wondered whether he was going to want to uh carry on. But I I I I don't know what it's like when you're dealing with uh producers and this, that, and the other. And I think there's a very good chance that he would have thought, I don't want to get involved with these fucks.

SPEAKER_00 34:55

Jim Sul Jim Sullivan was the son, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 34:57

Jim Yeah, yeah, another one, and a nice daughter as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Oh, yeah. That's right. And Jim then went to write was it Paul Whitehouse, the musical Lolly Fools and North's musical with Paul Whitehouse.

SPEAKER_02 35:11

Oh, I'm glad he did that. Good for him. Oh, really? I know he'd done, I know he'd got uh five, him and his dad had got five episodes ready for series five of Green Green Grass. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. So it was very nearly there.

SPEAKER_04 35:25

So, really, as fans of the show and fans of the spin-off Green Green Grass, we were robbed of um two shows really when John passed away because it was the Green Green Grass and also Rock and Chits is another another show.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

And that was just that was great. I love Rock and Chits, I thought it was really good. Did you like it, Ivan? No.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Oh no, yeah, and it also made uh it made a couple of careers for people.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Yeah, it did actually.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

And you know what? I don't fucking ruin any of that. No needed to be uh to uh to looked at and enjoyed, yeah, totally. Yeah, it was lovely, but yeah, it would have been nice for Sullivan to have finished his Irv. Yeah, it really would. It really would have been nice, but I mean the truth about it is that God bless him. Uh uh when Chalice checked out, yeah, yeah, you gotta call a day.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Yeah. I spoke to him a couple days before he died, actually. Yeah, and he was like, it's not good, Ella. It's not he was in the hospital at the time, he was like, It's not good. No, he was like, I can't, I'm not done.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah, thing is, is that when because I uh the only other people that I've watched go, yeah, uh like Sullivan is my mum and my dad. Yeah, and the truth about it is is that uh as far as I'm concerned, Chalice absolutely um checked out at a respectable time.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

You know, my dad died at 75, and Scots would find a point on it. I'm creeping up to 10 years away from that. Frankly, if I can make it as long as him, that'll do it.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

Yeah, that's that's not bad, is it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

That'll do me.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Same, yeah. You might not say that when you're 74, though. No, no, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

I definitely will be pissed off. 24 are actually on the upwave. That's a good point.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Sorry, Chris, go on.

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Um, and you were saying about John Chalice and how generous he was. Oh he sort of did uh the cameo thing before cameo as well, where people pay for it, but he used to do it for free for fans, didn't he? For their birthday or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Yeah, exactly. Of course he did. And actually, well, we used to as well, didn't we? Not that anyone gave it, but I did a show on uh for kids on uh CBB's where I'm a pirate captain. And I'm you pirate motherfucker. And um what was so funny was I'd got if these were in the days when you actually went in for an audition, never mind all this bloody self-tape bollocks. And I knew something was afoot when about the third time in a row I went in to do a um a casting, and I was thinking, I'm not sure this is very suitable for me. But and the casting woman took me to one side and went, um, Ella, sorry, do you mind? Could you just record something for my um kit? Could you just record something for Tilly? And I'll be like, Oh, right, there's Captain Sinker, got it, right? So that's probably why I'm here. Right, okay. So, not actually suitable for the role, but you just thought you'd get me in to do a fucking voiceover for your kid. Thanks. Anyway, uh, but these days, nobody wants to pay for it. I think I need to do an OnlyFans. Oh, well, darling. I mean, without fortune on the fact what bit of me? My feet. No, my penis. Oh, your penis and my feet. I really hope nice, friendly people aren't listening to this while they try and go to sleep.

SPEAKER_00 39:21

I'm glad we're not live anyway. Do you?

SPEAKER_02 39:24

Yeah, sorry about that.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Have you ever been approached to do the convention at all? The um with Perry and the the gang?

SPEAKER_02 39:31

Yes, we've done. I've done that. I'd love to do it again. I did something with Perry, but it was quite a bit of a while ago. Um, but I love Perry's bits, and he was very good, and he gave he printed out loads of Mrs. Cakeworthy things for me to at another time. You know, he's a he's a sweet man, he's a lovely man. I would definitely do the convention again. There's bills to pay.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

It'd be nice to do a green green grass one, wouldn't it? With getting a few of you together.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

We did one. Do you remember when we couldn't go to the loo, Ivan? Yes. I'd never seen anything like it because I've done Doctor Who ones. I play, I play a one small part in a Doctor Who episode. And I mean that's great, you know, and it's it's good fun. But the Fools and Horses, I have never seen anything like it. Different level, amazing. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was amazing. Have you done have you done it? I know we did one together, Ivan.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Yeah, we did a couple in some sort of um Where were we? It's a sort of a sports centre in It was, wasn't it? Up north.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:36

Inagreeable, paying in cash.

SPEAKER_02 40:38

It was bloody great front of you that looked like We got robbed that night. I got robbed at my in my house that night, and I lost all the cash money. Oh god. So annoying. I had to get Perry to write a letter saying he'd paid me and anyway. But um yeah, we should get on to Perry. Yeah. Nobody's gonna want to see us though, are they? They want to see.

SPEAKER_00 41:01

Well, they've got a convention in May. Get in touch with him soon. They've got a convention, 10th of May, I think it is. Chris, for God's sake, man. Not that long, no, but we're gonna go. Think him now while we're on, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

Right, Chris and Chris. Right, hang on.

SPEAKER_04 41:14

And you earlier on you were talking about the scripts and the read-through. What was that like? Because they don't always do that now, do they?

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Oh, brilliant. Unfortunately, the idea of having a table read is such a luxury when you're doing anything. I mean, film obviously, you get absolutely fuck all uh preparation. Telly you get a little bit more of it because sometimes they get you to all sit around and do a table read. Truth of the matter is, um, it's less and less more of the time that I've turned up to do jobs. Um I mean, I I obviously, if I've been given the job, then I'm going to be working on it and making sure that I cover the best I can. But sometimes you don't even get a chance to see whether your uh director's got a better idea than you have. It just has to be your idea. Um listen. Your call has been forwarded to voicemail.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

He hates me when you're trying to reach. No, he hates me. When you have finished recording, hey, hang on. Perry. Perry, darling. I'm on with Chris and Chris at the Only Who Fools um podcast and lovely Ivan Kaye. And we just wanted to say hello, and for God's sake, surely you need Ivan and Ella at the convention in May. Um, and we love you lots. And um Ivan, say hello. Hello, Perry. There you go. Chris, Chris, say hello, Chris and Chris.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Hello, Perry. How are you doing? Perry, how's it going? You know it makes sense. Book them up soon. Come on, Sam.

unknown 42:55

Soon.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Hopefully that works. Well, by good value, at least we can talk endlessly.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

I mean, you just wind us up and let us go. And we will talk your asses off. I'm so sorry. And our own. Ella, your child is 18 years old. Oh, I please, I just got wait, stay there. I've got me! I've got to get it. Tell me what you got. Wait, William, William, you have to come here.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

A real visitation?

SPEAKER_02 43:29

What's he doing at the shop?

unknown 43:30

Honestly.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

My sweets, for God's sake! He's meant to be at dinner!

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Did any of your kids ever appear in the show at all? You know, as any roles, no, they didn't have a kid.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

No, but I've got a gorgeous picture of John Sullivan holding William as a baby. Oh it was just the best. Oh, wait, I should shut the door. Hang on.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

Sorry. Ivan, do you think this is one of your best roles in your career? You've probably had many, but what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 43:54

Oh, I I I you know, to be completely honest, the truth of the matter is is that. The idiot fun unreconstructed caveman basic fella uh is my favorite version of that. Yeah. It's my favorite version of that.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

It's uh it's you know, yeah, i it's not uh yeah no, I uh I think that it is probably the closest to my um natural proclivities and Ella, same question, where would it be up there uh for you in the what in what green in the room?

SPEAKER_02 44:38

The roles you've done. Oh my god, I love it. Absolutely. When the my favorite thing was that he wrote my own language for me as well, and then it just didn't Will, just come here a sec. Okay, sorry, this is my son This is my son William. Now Ivan last saw you when you were a baby. And this is Chris and Chris. Oh well, how are you doing Chris? They do an only Falls and Horses um podcast. Oh yeah, and this is all this stuff in Chris's house is is all like actual he actually lives in a Trotters environment as all the memorabilia from only Falls and Horses.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Yeah, it's not a student, it's actually house. I don't know, I don't know why I'm a bachelor, do you?

SPEAKER_02 45:19

I don't want to thank you, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

30 years 30 years collection, really, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

But you're not old enough for that.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

Oh, thank you. No, I am, I truly am. Yeah, Chris is the baby, I'm nearly 50, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Bloody hell.

SPEAKER_00 45:37

Yeah, look at it doesn't he? Well, you can't um but I would I wouldn't have put my cap off, I'm not going to.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

You know, so you have my kid drop. Um but this is my gorgeous Ivan K. And do you remember him when you had to watch Green Grass? He was Brian, who'd always brilliant. You were too little. But you did watch him. I did oh yeah, I've watched Green Green Grass, yeah. Yeah, he's lowering his ass. No, I've watched. I have watched it. I love watching you, mum. I was like three. I was like one. No, you were very tight. No, but it's been repeated since not all the time. Could you I love you? What did you do? Go and get sweets or something. Oh, all right, fair enough. Go and see my object. Nice to see you all. And you nice to meet you. Well sorry, thanks, guys. Thank you. Oh pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

You still get recognised for your roles when you're out and about, you still get recognised for the green being grass.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

I more than anything. Really? So and I love it. Like, so the other day I was at Fat Club, Slimmingwell, and um, and I wasn't at my usual meeting, and I went to uh had to go and pop in at a different one in uh Hemel Hempstead. Um anyway, the the lady who took the money said, Oh my god, it is you, isn't it? And I thought, oh, I said, Oh, I've got one of those faces because people say that and then they think they're gonna go or something. And I yeah, yeah, one of those faces. No, no, no, it is, it's it's Mrs. Cape Worthy, isn't it Miss Cape? I nearly kissed, I nearly kissed her. I was so excited. No, it's the one, it's and particularly down because we live on my parents were on X-More. Um, uh particularly down there in Somerset, uh, they are they love it, they absolutely love it, and they always spot me in the village shop and stuff. It's so sweet. I love it when people recognise us from that because it's such a happy time. I I honestly weren't we we were like I know everyone says, Oh, we're like a family on that. It sounded like a prank blank, doesn't it? But it's true with us. We really were. I mean, Jack, Jack learned, you know, he had to learn to be on time soup, you know, but he couldn't keep coming in late or not knowing his lines, she wasn't having it. You know, they were proper old professionals, and uh we all had to, you know, man up, didn't we?

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

And it was great, it was a lovely, lovely show, wasn't it? I loved it, I loved it so very special time. It really was, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 48:09

If you could actually choose for your year's work to actually go and disappear at Shropshire for a couple of years, yeah, yeah, and then come down and do live studio audience things, not to put too fine a point there, it's got not only the theatre part of you that wants to do it, but it's also the film part of you that wants to do it. Yeah, it's yeah, you can't argue with that shit.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

And the re and you know, just they're so nice to rehearse and play uh uh with uh you know, with other people who know what they're doing with comedy, and it was just oh it was so it was so rewarding and so lovely, and you knew you were in the presence of some some pretty big hitters as well, you know. Like Drive and Kay, for one. Yeah, right. Yeah, it's true, and uh and and the Ross. Oh, Ross goes. D. Ross. Forum manager, Dr. Ross, Elgin Sparrow, you know he married his first he everybody he married was called Margaret, and that's not even a joke. And the and Mar Margaret won, he married again, yeah, and he's now with her. So the first Margaret he married, he remarried. Have you had on here yet? You've had David Ross on. No, he's good value. Oh, he's very good. Oh, he's good value, is David. Elgin Sparrow, this isn't he? Yes, Elgin Sparrow. Far manager, far manager, yeah. So lovely. Oh, he was so lovely. Can you just see his hands with that briefcase, far manager? Oh, he was so gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 49:51

Loved it the bits. Was there any any chance at all? Or any men I know Del Boy's mention in Roddy. Was there any chance or did you ever think at the time Delboy might disappear in an episode? Was that never really?

SPEAKER_02 50:03

Wasn't it? They always asked us, didn't they? I don't know if David was up for it. What do you think?

SPEAKER_01 50:12

No.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

No. No, you think you asked, No.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

No, it's a difficult gig to uh make a choice on, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Yeah. I don't think um that was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 50:24

But the other ones the the when I think of David Jason and on a farm, I think of Darling Buds of May, really.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

That was a great show. That would have confused it, wouldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Yeah, it would have done, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

Yeah. Cat needs to run away if my dog sees it, that'll be it.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

It could have come in as parlark in now you've said that though, couldn't it?

SPEAKER_02 50:45

You could have just done it that way. Yeah. That would have been funny.

SPEAKER_04 50:48

Well that was quite a good show, actually. I do remember that. That was with Catherine Zia Jones, wasn't it? And I seem to remember with um David Jason's character, he liked tomato sauce with everything, which was a bit weird. But yeah. I do remember that. Well, thanks a lot for joining us on the podcast. It's been great speaking with you.

SPEAKER_02 51:04

And you, thank you, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

Thanks very much. Hope we see you at a convention sometime. Yes, please. Yeah, come on, Perry.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Come on, Perry. Night night, Ivan. Night night, beautiful. I'm getting tired of the city of night.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

One, two, three, and two, and we are