September 15, 2024 • 25 mins
David Walliams is a renowned English comedian, actor, and author, celebrated for his collaborations with Matt Lucas on BBC’s Little Britain and Come Fly With Me. His role as a judge on Britain's Got Talent from 2012 - 2022 earned him significant acclaim, including multiple National Television Awards for Best TV Judge. Walliams has also made a mark as a bestselling children’s author, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide. His popular works, such as Mr Stink and Gangsta Granny, have been adapted into television films.
In addition to his entertainment career, Walliams is known for his impressive charity work. In 2006, he completed a challenging swim across the English Channel for Sport Relief, raising over £1 million. This monumental feat took him 10 hours and 34 minutes.
David’s legacy spans entertainment, literature, and charity, cementing his status as a multifaceted and influential public figure.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk s ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talk sed B.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to Real Life on Newstalk seed B. I'm John
Cown and I'm privileged to be talking to David Williams,
known to US adults for his TV comedy work, but
you're going to find out that's just one part of
David's world.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome David, Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now we're pre recording this and you're over at Canberra
at the moment. And what's bringing you down to c
US Colonials.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well, I love you Colonials. I've always had a kind
of great audience in Australia and New Zealand. I've been
to Australia, first time was two thousand and seven with
Little Britain Life to it, but we didn't get to
go and see people in New Zealand because we couldn't
(01:18):
work make it work as the logistics. But I really
regret that now because I realized we're quite a big
following there too. But I've come and done book events
and always had an amazing response, and so this is
a brand new show. I do a show called an
Audience with David Williams. It's never been done before, as
I've never apart from in Australia, I've not done before,
(01:40):
and it's a couple of Little Britain characters appear in
the show. Carol Beer Computer says Now opens the first
half and Lou from Lou and Andy opens the second
half with Matt on video in a It's basically like
a video call that I make as Lou I miss
Helper and he's in a wheelchair. And then I'm also
(02:01):
doing a book show sometimes a matinee of a children's
book show the days sometimes, so it's quite It's an
exciting time for me because I have these different audiences.
You know, grown ups like yourself, mature people, mature people, yes,
and then you know kids and families who know me
more as an author.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right, it's interesting that you can change gear like that.
I guess you wouldn't want to get the material too
mixed up.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You would not. I mean, I think give you a
life well plus you probably you'd enjoy the evening show.
I mean it's not like rude or crude or anything.
But obviously there's some sort of you know, adult humor
in some ways without there being swearing and stuff, but
they're sort of you know, adult themes and kind of
slightly rude things. But but yeah, I mean we've worked
(02:53):
a really hard on the shows. The book show I
do sometimes do in the UK, so I was pretty
up to speed on that. But the Audience with is
a kind of more ambitious show and it's longer and
there's more clips and things like that. So we took
a long time putting it together. And I've been doing
(03:13):
it in Sydney and had an amazing response, so I'm
very very pleased it got off to such a good
start and I can't wait to take it to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And part of it's sort of autobiographical too, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, I mean it's not soul searching, but we do.
I do talk about like my childhood. I do show
the clip of me in a school play aged to
get a good laugh because I'm playing a queen in it.
And then also the bit I love most about the
show is the bit where the audience are allowed to
(03:45):
ask questions, because that is the most fun because people
know then you're thinking on your feet and basically, you know,
anything can happen, and the spontaneity and we've that's been
the sort of that's actually been the biggest laughs in
the show really because it's the interaction with people that
people love and the fact that it's not it's not
it's all completely in the moment and this be different
(04:07):
every night wherever you go.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
What's been the best question so far?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It was this girl about twenty. She got up and said,
can you give my mom a hug? Because she hasn't
been touched by a man for many years. I was
not expecting that, did you. Well, yes, I gave her
a hug, said no further, but it was funny, excited
to come out into the audience to do it. So
obviously the audience like that because it was, you know,
(04:35):
a bit of an arcic and we had a boy
ask I mean, he was being like funny, but he
got up. It was in the grown up I said, David,
I've read all forty three of your books, and he
got around applause, and then he said, when you're going
to write a good one, which was very funny, well
(04:55):
funnier for the audience that it was me, but it was.
It was a great moment in the show. And actually
the rude of the question the funnier it is.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, he got it wrong with the forty three books,
doesn't he give? Actually is it sixty three? You're up
to now?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
No? I think it is forty three?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Forty three?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay, to lose count on, But saying that Michael Morpoco,
who wrote Warhorse, has written over two hundred books. I
think Agatha Christie wrote over one hundred books, you know,
so any Blyton wrote a couple of hundred. So you know,
it sounds like a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It is a lot. I mean you're pulling out those
numbers from other people. It's still amazingly and you've said
long ago, yeah, yeah, And I see you what fifty
five different languages? So if you if you get to
you know, if you've finished all forty three and you're
still wanting more, I suppose you could read them in
French or Swahili or something else as well, and you know,
(05:51):
get enough extra doce there in the audio books as well,
and you've sold sixty million copies? Yeah, we had how
much area that covers? I'm not going to work.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It out but it's a pretty it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I mean, when you have success, you could you know,
you've got to remember how fortunate you are. And but
you know, you it's you don't kind of you know,
we've stopped at certain points, like, you know, to think
about it. Like when I saw fifty million copies, the
publishers took me out for lunch. Thought well, I thought, oh, okay,
(06:28):
well do I have to sell another fifty million until
I get another three They laid on quite a big lunch,
you know, for like what you'd expect to be quite
a good lunch at Yeah, it was lovely, but it
was just quite funny because it was like, gee, they
went to the next lunch, going to be a million, sell.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
A few more, though I'd even start paying you gosh.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, but it's great, but you know, you don't. The
thing is, it's great, but you just have to move
on to the next thing, right because you go and go.
You know, it's nice to sort of market, but then
you're straight onto the next thing, thinking, Okay, what's next.
The next book's got to be better than the last,
because you know, there's an audience out there waiting for
the next book. Book and you know, it's got to
(07:10):
be different, it's got to feel fresh, it's got to
be funny, it's got to be exciting, and so sort
of you know, I'm just put my I put all
my energies into that. And you know, I stopped to
think sometimes about the success. But as I say, what
are you going to do? Do a little lap of honor?
Run around the streets telling everybody how many books you've
(07:32):
I think I might.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Maybe I will, then maybe why not? Don't rull it out?
When you have success like that, you must occasionally think
back to when you didn't have success. And I've been
browsing through your autobiography and reading about playing at Edinburgh
with sometimes you'd come on at midnight and you have
(07:58):
an audience of three and some of them walk out
because they're the wrong show or something like you to.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have three people. Yeah, that's absolutely true, and that Yeah,
it's good to remember that because we went from playing
to three people, me and Matt because of that, obviously
it was the two of us and the show to
playing to like, you know, ten thousand people. Well, you
know all these things that it's good to you know,
(08:24):
it's good to remember and people don't really see the
journey because they just they're not really obviously aware of
you until you're successful, I mean, you know, on a
big level. But yeah, we remember, and that's a pretty
amazing journey.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
When we were playing arenas, we'd just sort of looked
around the arena and went to the back of the
arena and sort of just took in the whole before
the audience came in and took it in. And it
was like, this is crazy, because, to be honest, we
were you know, when we started, we were in a
room that seated one hundred people, and if we filled it,
we were you know, we were over the moon. Yes,
(09:00):
So yeah, it's it's just I feel very very lucky
and that I've had success in these different areas, you know,
and to have a successful comedy career and then have
a successful career as an author is you know, it's
not It's not one that I don't take it for granted.
(09:20):
I think I constantly remind myself.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I'll like, yeah, yeah, with your TV career going off
so well and everything like that, why did you think
I'd like to write children's books?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I just had a kind of hankering for it. I
wasn't really chasing success. I just thought, I've got a
story to tell, and I thought, there's this book. I
had the idea for Boy in the Dress, about a
boy who goes to school dress as a girl, and
I thought was friends, I was family. That was fifteen
years ago, where you know, the culture has moved on
quite in these kind of issues.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
The world span a few times since, the.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah has really has and and so I thought, oh,
I'd like to write that just as a you know,
as a to be creative to see if I can
do it really And then I really loved it because
I realized there was so much I could do in
a book that I couldn't do in a comedy sketch.
(10:15):
You know. I could take the reader on an emotional journey.
It didn't all have to be funny. I could have
sad bits too. Half the characters could be sort of
deeper and richer because you're spending more time with them.
And so the process was really enjoyable for me. And
then I was proud of the end result. And it
(10:37):
was a kind of modest success in terms of sales,
but I just couldn't wait to get onto the next one,
and that's the thing is not so much that I
wrote one book and because I wasn't an instant here,
it was that I wanted to do more. And I
think it's like the audience sort of. I don't know,
people can come into your work in different ways of
different books. You know, they're not necessarily reading chronologically because
(11:00):
there's no need for them to do it to read chronologically.
So people have come into my work it sort of
different books, different time zones, not time zone, So it
means like rather just you know, some kids you just
read the book that I brought out, you know, this year,
and they haven't read any others, which is great, you know,
so I feel very you know, it's it's it's been amazing.
(11:23):
It's beyond my wildest dreams. And and you know, to
be able to go around the world even I mean
I haven't been to everywhere, but you know, I was
just in Spain, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. I'm
going to.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Do you even get to go to Tasmania.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, which I remember, an India next year going to
I want to go to China. You know, it's it's
it's pretty incredible. Fifty five languages. I couldn't even name fifty.
I couldn't either. If you've just tuned in, you'll probably
recognize that voice. I'm talking with David Williams, who's a
(12:04):
very famous for his TV comedy but as you're hearing,
he's also now a very very successful author and after
the break we'll talked to him about some of the
other things he's done as well.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
This is real life on News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on News
Talk ZBB.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Welcome back to real life. I'm talking with David Williams,
who's picked some music there for us. What are we
listening to there?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It's a sin by Pet Shop Boys. My favorite band
since I was a teenager, used to go, you know,
sneak out of school at lunchtime, go down to the
record shop and buy their latest release. They've now been
going forty years or forty years since they had their
first hit, West End Girls, and I recently took my
(13:11):
mum to see them. I think it's one of the
very few concerts she's ever been to and I took
her to see them. They were playing the Rawal Opera
House in London and my Mum had a great time.
I had a great time. I'm fortunately now I'm friends
with them and so I go and see their shows
all the time and hang out with them, and I
(13:32):
love them very much. And I think that song is
an absolute banger as a record, but also such an
original lyric and I think that might be one of
the reasons I'm drawn to them that I think Neil
Tenant the singer is an amazing lyricist. Everything I've ever done,
everything I ever do, every place I'm going to, it's
(13:54):
a sin. You know, It's great, isn't it. And it's
about his childhood growing up in the North of England
as a Catholic and I guess, you know, for him
being gay is a big part of it. And it's
just an amazing thing to have a I mean, that
was a number one record in the UK and it's
a very original theme, you know, Catholic guilt for a
(14:16):
pop song, and then to make it an incredible piece
of music you can dance to. Absolute extraordinary. So they
are one of my absolute favorites. Neil Tenant just turned
seventy and I was at his seventieth birthday dinner and
a pretty extraordinary illustrious career and I do. What I
(14:37):
love about them is they've never sort of they've never
split up, they've about to get back together, and they've
always really cared about what they do, you know, artistically,
and they won't do if they don't believe in something artistically,
they won't do it. Like for example, they've been asked
to be on the Royal Variety Performance but they are
not Royalists, so they say, no, we won't appear on
(14:58):
anything with the word royal at the start of it,
although they did just play the role out of perhaps, but.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Now you hosted the Royal he showed, Yes, you could
have them a lot. You could have You could have
probably put you there and push them on stage.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And I know they didn't want to, but yeah, I
hosted the Royal Variety Performance twice and it was I
did the last one the Queen went to. I don't
know if it was last one because she hated it
so much. No, but she was getting older and so
the battom gets past and it was it's pretty incredible,
but it's a funny thing. So you know, they have
an amazing bill comic singers, dance groups as in you
(15:41):
know things like street dance groups, all kinds of things
like that, and and then Neil Diamond was the the
the headline act and pretty legendary personals and the audience
loved him. It's like the older audience who would certainly,
you know, know his work and love his work and
(16:03):
so but if you're the host, you come out last. Right. Yes,
Diamond came out at the Royal Albor Hall and the
whole audience were on their feet because it's like, my goodness, me,
it's Neil Diamond. And then I come on and they
they don't sit down. They stayed standing up. So I
got I got his standing ovation.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well that was that's nice that he's allowed to share
it with you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
But I think if it was just I think if
I come on before him, there have been no standing ovation.
But yeah, those things are great, But you know, all
these things they happen in the moment, in the moment,
and then you're just on to the next thing because
you know, I don't know, you just it's just you've
got I feel like you've got to keep going all
the time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well you've certainly kept going. I mean there's all sorts
of series and books and plays and tours that you've done.
But one of the most amazing things I saw was
that you decided to do a swim. And you say
things are in the moment, but that wasn't a moment.
That took what months of preparation just to do that
in the first one, it didn't. Yeah, well, and I
(17:09):
think I think you were touring at the time and
you're still getting hours of training and for us charity swim.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
A bit of a workerholic. But yeah, so basically if
people don't know the story, so I swam from England
to France, which is about thirty kilometers maybe plus. It
took ten and a half hours. The water is about
fifteen degrees so pretty cold, and it's like sitting in
a cold bath. And I did it for this charity,
(17:36):
comic Relief, to raise money, and I had to train
for a year and at the same time I was
doing the Little Britain Live Show. But in a way
it was the perfect scenario because I had time during
the day, so I would wherever I was, I'd either
swim in a lake or the sea or swimming pool
and work on, you know, various things to a technique.
(18:00):
Withstanding the cold. I mean, Ivan swam in the North
Sea off Newcastle in the United Kingdom in like December,
and it was so cold like you can't even grit,
you know, your hands become like claws. You can't compare.
But it was good practice because it was like, Okay,
it's never going to be as cold as that. And
(18:20):
then yes, I got to do it, and I did
it in ten and a half hours, which was considered
a pretty good time, and lots of money was raised,
lots of good was done.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
But it was also go over a million pounds, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
It was, yes, and you know it was. It was
just it was a wonderful thing. But again it was
another thing of like, Okay, you know you've thought I
was just this thing, but look what about this other thing?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And that's the amazing thing. I guess when reading through
all that you've done, you've done, You've done these extra things,
and when you were talking about all the countries you've
been to, the thought, the thought was flickering through my mind.
I bit, you'd lad you don't have to swim there.
I mean, you've one from one continent to another. Yeah,
going from from.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Across to Africa, the Gibral Straits which isn't as far.
But yeah, you're basically going from to Africa to obviously
North Africa, and there are great white sharks in there.
You can also swim in New Zealand, can't you from
the North Island to the South Island. Oh? Why don't
you do there? Quit you've got a bit of tie
(19:23):
between shirts. Yeah, they've got up early one morning. Do that? No?
I don't know. I like doing stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah. I mean it's interesting. You survived the cold of
the of the Channel, and the survived the shacks going
across to Morocco. The one that caused you probably the
most time was swimming down the teams.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yeah, because and that was like one hundred and forty
miles from the from the source, which is a tiny
little place called Lechlade. And then I went to central
London and stopped at the Houses of Parliament. That was
I SA. What was fantastic about that is that people
could line the river banks because they knew where you were,
they could kind of plot it, I don't know, through
(20:03):
news or apps or whatever, and so people would turn
out to see me. And if the was like a school,
you know, backed onto the Thames and like a thousand
kids would come out to wave to you, and also
you have to get out at certain locks will be
there with like cakes and stuff like that. It was
like a sort of real It was almost like a
(20:24):
little festival or something like that. It was. It was
a very exciting time.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yes, added excitement. You got Giadira and did you be
I got?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I got ill And it stayed with me for quite
a long time because it's this weird bacteria and basically
it makes you feel very sick. But then it's sort
of your body fights it and then it lays dormant
for a bit, but then a week later you get
it again. It's this very that's miserable thing. Yeah, it was.
It took quite a while for me to kind of
(20:54):
know what it is and actually, you know, have it treated,
but it but basically I think it's inevitable. If you
swim in you know, rivers and lakes and things, there
are bacteria in there and it's quite easy to to
catch something. But you know, it all added to the
drama because the thing is if you do something like that,
(21:16):
what makes it interesting is if things go wrong, it's
a weird one. If everything had gone totally to plan,
you know, people wouldn't have cared so much, but it
suddenly got he's ill. He's ill, brilliant, he's ill. He
might not get there now we're interested. We found it
boring before, but now there's a chance of failure.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And again a couple more million pounds coming for your charities.
And that's what you get job for, as well as
all you work for TV and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, it's not been bad. No, think about all
these things. The first thing that comes into my mind
is made my mum proud. That's the first thing I think, Mom,
that's nice. Yeah, it is in a way because I think, yeah,
I got to take her to Buckingham Palace when I
got my obe. You know, she was there a lot
of the time when I was swimming the Thames. She
(22:08):
even followed on a boat when I swam the channel,
and I think that was she gets very seasick, so
the boat goes very slowly because obviously it's following us
swimmer and I'm only swimming like about three kilometers now, and.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I'd be miserable for her. She wasn't saying, oh hurry up,
Harry up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
She was sick the entire time, so she was below deck,
vomiting into a bucket for ten and a half hours.
And then afterwards when we got back to to England
and to Dover, I said you shouldn't have come, mum,
and she went, I wouldn't have missed it for the world,
so lovely. Yeah, I am having such well.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Do say to her that the people of New Zealand
sind their love to her.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Okay, you would be very happy to know that.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And we're looking forward to you coming. I'll run quickly
through the dates that you're going to be over here,
and tickets are available from Ticketmaster if you wanted to
catch either the the grown up show or the matinee
for kids discussing his books and things. There's Auckland the
September the twenty eighth at the kerried Dekanawa Theater. I
think there's an extra show on the twenty seventh as well.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It's very full. The twenty eighth sold out very quickly,
so we've added this extra show on the twenty seventh,
so there's still some good tickets available for that show.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Okay, down on the down of Wellington on the thirtieth
September and on the second of October and the town
Hall in christ Church. It's been great fun talking with
David Williams and looking forward to meeting you when you
come over here, David, and you've got another song for us?
What if you got picked? Well, it's not a song,
it's an instrumental.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, it is an instrument. It's the title music for
the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The
music's by John Parry. I think it's the most exciting
piece of music ever composed. And it's it's a Bond
movie that is unloved by some because it stars George Lazenbye,
Thestralian well model turned actor, but he was not a
(24:11):
great success in the role in terms of you know,
he didn't get to do another one. But Bond fans,
hardened fans like myself love the movie. It's the one
where he gets married and his wife is sort of
instantly shot and arm which is great for James Bond
because it means he can go back to, you know,
shagging everything that moves. But this is I think one
(24:34):
of the most exciting Well for me, it's the most
exciting bit of music and it always makes me happy.
And if I ever sort of get up in the
morning and I've got a big day ahead of me
and I need to feel energized. I listened to John
Barry's On her Majesty's Secret.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Service, fantastic and it provides a bit of symmetry for
the show because we had the anti Royalist Pitch up
Boys and now we're having on her medjesty Secret Service. David,
it's been great talking to you and enjoy the rest
of your troubles down here in the Antipodes.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Thank you so much, and hopefully we'll meet when I
do this show. That'd be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
This is real life on News Dogs. It'd be with
you again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
For more from News Talks at b listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk s ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News Talk sed B.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Welcome to Real Life on Newstalk seed B. I'm John
Cown and I'm privileged to be talking to David Williams,
known to US adults for his TV comedy work, but
you're going to find out that's just one part of
David's world.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Welcome David, Thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now we're pre recording this and you're over at Canberra
at the moment. And what's bringing you down to c
US Colonials.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Well, I love you Colonials. I've always had a kind
of great audience in Australia and New Zealand. I've been
to Australia, first time was two thousand and seven with
Little Britain Life to it, but we didn't get to
go and see people in New Zealand because we couldn't
(01:18):
work make it work as the logistics. But I really
regret that now because I realized we're quite a big
following there too. But I've come and done book events
and always had an amazing response, and so this is
a brand new show. I do a show called an
Audience with David Williams. It's never been done before, as
I've never apart from in Australia, I've not done before,
(01:40):
and it's a couple of Little Britain characters appear in
the show. Carol Beer Computer says Now opens the first
half and Lou from Lou and Andy opens the second
half with Matt on video in a It's basically like
a video call that I make as Lou I miss
Helper and he's in a wheelchair. And then I'm also
(02:01):
doing a book show sometimes a matinee of a children's
book show the days sometimes, so it's quite It's an
exciting time for me because I have these different audiences.
You know, grown ups like yourself, mature people, mature people, yes,
and then you know kids and families who know me
more as an author.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Right, it's interesting that you can change gear like that.
I guess you wouldn't want to get the material too
mixed up.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
You would not. I mean, I think give you a
life well plus you probably you'd enjoy the evening show.
I mean it's not like rude or crude or anything.
But obviously there's some sort of you know, adult humor
in some ways without there being swearing and stuff, but
they're sort of you know, adult themes and kind of
slightly rude things. But but yeah, I mean we've worked
(02:53):
a really hard on the shows. The book show I
do sometimes do in the UK, so I was pretty
up to speed on that. But the Audience with is
a kind of more ambitious show and it's longer and
there's more clips and things like that. So we took
a long time putting it together. And I've been doing
(03:13):
it in Sydney and had an amazing response, so I'm
very very pleased it got off to such a good
start and I can't wait to take it to New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
And part of it's sort of autobiographical too, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, I mean it's not soul searching, but we do.
I do talk about like my childhood. I do show
the clip of me in a school play aged to
get a good laugh because I'm playing a queen in it.
And then also the bit I love most about the
show is the bit where the audience are allowed to
(03:45):
ask questions, because that is the most fun because people
know then you're thinking on your feet and basically, you know,
anything can happen, and the spontaneity and we've that's been
the sort of that's actually been the biggest laughs in
the show really because it's the interaction with people that
people love and the fact that it's not it's not
it's all completely in the moment and this be different
(04:07):
every night wherever you go.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
What's been the best question so far?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It was this girl about twenty. She got up and said,
can you give my mom a hug? Because she hasn't
been touched by a man for many years. I was
not expecting that, did you. Well, yes, I gave her
a hug, said no further, but it was funny, excited
to come out into the audience to do it. So
obviously the audience like that because it was, you know,
(04:35):
a bit of an arcic and we had a boy
ask I mean, he was being like funny, but he
got up. It was in the grown up I said, David,
I've read all forty three of your books, and he
got around applause, and then he said, when you're going
to write a good one, which was very funny, well
(04:55):
funnier for the audience that it was me, but it was.
It was a great moment in the show. And actually
the rude of the question the funnier it is.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, he got it wrong with the forty three books,
doesn't he give? Actually is it sixty three? You're up
to now?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
No? I think it is forty three?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Forty three?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Okay, to lose count on, But saying that Michael Morpoco,
who wrote Warhorse, has written over two hundred books. I
think Agatha Christie wrote over one hundred books, you know,
so any Blyton wrote a couple of hundred. So you know,
it sounds like a lot.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It is a lot. I mean you're pulling out those
numbers from other people. It's still amazingly and you've said
long ago, yeah, yeah, And I see you what fifty
five different languages? So if you if you get to
you know, if you've finished all forty three and you're
still wanting more, I suppose you could read them in
French or Swahili or something else as well, and you know,
(05:51):
get enough extra doce there in the audio books as well,
and you've sold sixty million copies? Yeah, we had how
much area that covers? I'm not going to work.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
It out but it's a pretty it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
I mean, when you have success, you could you know,
you've got to remember how fortunate you are. And but
you know, you it's you don't kind of you know,
we've stopped at certain points, like, you know, to think
about it. Like when I saw fifty million copies, the
publishers took me out for lunch. Thought well, I thought, oh, okay,
(06:28):
well do I have to sell another fifty million until
I get another three They laid on quite a big lunch,
you know, for like what you'd expect to be quite
a good lunch at Yeah, it was lovely, but it
was just quite funny because it was like, gee, they
went to the next lunch, going to be a million, sell.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
A few more, though I'd even start paying you gosh.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, but it's great, but you know, you don't. The
thing is, it's great, but you just have to move
on to the next thing, right because you go and go.
You know, it's nice to sort of market, but then
you're straight onto the next thing, thinking, Okay, what's next.
The next book's got to be better than the last,
because you know, there's an audience out there waiting for
the next book. Book and you know, it's got to
(07:10):
be different, it's got to feel fresh, it's got to
be funny, it's got to be exciting, and so sort
of you know, I'm just put my I put all
my energies into that. And you know, I stopped to
think sometimes about the success. But as I say, what
are you going to do? Do a little lap of honor?
Run around the streets telling everybody how many books you've
(07:32):
I think I might.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Maybe I will, then maybe why not? Don't rull it out?
When you have success like that, you must occasionally think
back to when you didn't have success. And I've been
browsing through your autobiography and reading about playing at Edinburgh
with sometimes you'd come on at midnight and you have
(07:58):
an audience of three and some of them walk out
because they're the wrong show or something like you to.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Have three people. Yeah, that's absolutely true, and that Yeah,
it's good to remember that because we went from playing
to three people, me and Matt because of that, obviously
it was the two of us and the show to
playing to like, you know, ten thousand people. Well, you
know all these things that it's good to you know,
(08:24):
it's good to remember and people don't really see the
journey because they just they're not really obviously aware of
you until you're successful, I mean, you know, on a
big level. But yeah, we remember, and that's a pretty
amazing journey.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
When we were playing arenas, we'd just sort of looked
around the arena and went to the back of the
arena and sort of just took in the whole before
the audience came in and took it in. And it
was like, this is crazy, because, to be honest, we
were you know, when we started, we were in a
room that seated one hundred people, and if we filled it,
we were you know, we were over the moon. Yes,
(09:00):
So yeah, it's it's just I feel very very lucky
and that I've had success in these different areas, you know,
and to have a successful comedy career and then have
a successful career as an author is you know, it's
not It's not one that I don't take it for granted.
(09:20):
I think I constantly remind myself.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
I'll like, yeah, yeah, with your TV career going off
so well and everything like that, why did you think
I'd like to write children's books?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I just had a kind of hankering for it. I
wasn't really chasing success. I just thought, I've got a
story to tell, and I thought, there's this book. I
had the idea for Boy in the Dress, about a
boy who goes to school dress as a girl, and
I thought was friends, I was family. That was fifteen
years ago, where you know, the culture has moved on
quite in these kind of issues.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
The world span a few times since, the.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah has really has and and so I thought, oh,
I'd like to write that just as a you know,
as a to be creative to see if I can
do it really And then I really loved it because
I realized there was so much I could do in
a book that I couldn't do in a comedy sketch.
(10:15):
You know. I could take the reader on an emotional journey.
It didn't all have to be funny. I could have
sad bits too. Half the characters could be sort of
deeper and richer because you're spending more time with them.
And so the process was really enjoyable for me. And
then I was proud of the end result. And it
(10:37):
was a kind of modest success in terms of sales,
but I just couldn't wait to get onto the next one,
and that's the thing is not so much that I
wrote one book and because I wasn't an instant here,
it was that I wanted to do more. And I
think it's like the audience sort of. I don't know,
people can come into your work in different ways of
different books. You know, they're not necessarily reading chronologically because
(11:00):
there's no need for them to do it to read chronologically.
So people have come into my work it sort of
different books, different time zones, not time zone, So it
means like rather just you know, some kids you just
read the book that I brought out, you know, this year,
and they haven't read any others, which is great, you know,
so I feel very you know, it's it's it's been amazing.
(11:23):
It's beyond my wildest dreams. And and you know, to
be able to go around the world even I mean
I haven't been to everywhere, but you know, I was
just in Spain, Iceland, Italy, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. I'm
going to.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Do you even get to go to Tasmania.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, which I remember, an India next year going to
I want to go to China. You know, it's it's
it's pretty incredible. Fifty five languages. I couldn't even name fifty.
I couldn't either. If you've just tuned in, you'll probably
recognize that voice. I'm talking with David Williams, who's a
(12:04):
very famous for his TV comedy but as you're hearing,
he's also now a very very successful author and after
the break we'll talked to him about some of the
other things he's done as well.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
This is real life on News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on News
Talk ZBB.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Welcome back to real life. I'm talking with David Williams,
who's picked some music there for us. What are we
listening to there?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
It's a sin by Pet Shop Boys. My favorite band
since I was a teenager, used to go, you know,
sneak out of school at lunchtime, go down to the
record shop and buy their latest release. They've now been
going forty years or forty years since they had their
first hit, West End Girls, and I recently took my
(13:11):
mum to see them. I think it's one of the
very few concerts she's ever been to and I took
her to see them. They were playing the Rawal Opera
House in London and my Mum had a great time.
I had a great time. I'm fortunately now I'm friends
with them and so I go and see their shows
all the time and hang out with them, and I
(13:32):
love them very much. And I think that song is
an absolute banger as a record, but also such an
original lyric and I think that might be one of
the reasons I'm drawn to them that I think Neil
Tenant the singer is an amazing lyricist. Everything I've ever done,
everything I ever do, every place I'm going to, it's
(13:54):
a sin. You know, It's great, isn't it. And it's
about his childhood growing up in the North of England
as a Catholic and I guess, you know, for him
being gay is a big part of it. And it's
just an amazing thing to have a I mean, that
was a number one record in the UK and it's
a very original theme, you know, Catholic guilt for a
(14:16):
pop song, and then to make it an incredible piece
of music you can dance to. Absolute extraordinary. So they
are one of my absolute favorites. Neil Tenant just turned
seventy and I was at his seventieth birthday dinner and
a pretty extraordinary illustrious career and I do. What I
(14:37):
love about them is they've never sort of they've never
split up, they've about to get back together, and they've
always really cared about what they do, you know, artistically,
and they won't do if they don't believe in something artistically,
they won't do it. Like for example, they've been asked
to be on the Royal Variety Performance but they are
not Royalists, so they say, no, we won't appear on
(14:58):
anything with the word royal at the start of it,
although they did just play the role out of perhaps, but.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Now you hosted the Royal he showed, Yes, you could
have them a lot. You could have You could have
probably put you there and push them on stage.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And I know they didn't want to, but yeah, I
hosted the Royal Variety Performance twice and it was I
did the last one the Queen went to. I don't
know if it was last one because she hated it
so much. No, but she was getting older and so
the battom gets past and it was it's pretty incredible,
but it's a funny thing. So you know, they have
an amazing bill comic singers, dance groups as in you
(15:41):
know things like street dance groups, all kinds of things
like that, and and then Neil Diamond was the the
the headline act and pretty legendary personals and the audience
loved him. It's like the older audience who would certainly,
you know, know his work and love his work and
(16:03):
so but if you're the host, you come out last. Right. Yes,
Diamond came out at the Royal Albor Hall and the
whole audience were on their feet because it's like, my goodness, me,
it's Neil Diamond. And then I come on and they
they don't sit down. They stayed standing up. So I
got I got his standing ovation.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Well that was that's nice that he's allowed to share
it with you.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
But I think if it was just I think if
I come on before him, there have been no standing ovation.
But yeah, those things are great, But you know, all
these things they happen in the moment, in the moment,
and then you're just on to the next thing because
you know, I don't know, you just it's just you've
got I feel like you've got to keep going all
the time.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Well you've certainly kept going. I mean there's all sorts
of series and books and plays and tours that you've done.
But one of the most amazing things I saw was
that you decided to do a swim. And you say
things are in the moment, but that wasn't a moment.
That took what months of preparation just to do that
in the first one, it didn't. Yeah, well, and I
(17:09):
think I think you were touring at the time and
you're still getting hours of training and for us charity swim.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
A bit of a workerholic. But yeah, so basically if
people don't know the story, so I swam from England
to France, which is about thirty kilometers maybe plus. It
took ten and a half hours. The water is about
fifteen degrees so pretty cold, and it's like sitting in
a cold bath. And I did it for this charity,
(17:36):
comic Relief, to raise money, and I had to train
for a year and at the same time I was
doing the Little Britain Live Show. But in a way
it was the perfect scenario because I had time during
the day, so I would wherever I was, I'd either
swim in a lake or the sea or swimming pool
and work on, you know, various things to a technique.
(18:00):
Withstanding the cold. I mean, Ivan swam in the North
Sea off Newcastle in the United Kingdom in like December,
and it was so cold like you can't even grit,
you know, your hands become like claws. You can't compare.
But it was good practice because it was like, Okay,
it's never going to be as cold as that. And
(18:20):
then yes, I got to do it, and I did
it in ten and a half hours, which was considered
a pretty good time, and lots of money was raised,
lots of good was done.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
But it was also go over a million pounds, wasn't it.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
It was, yes, and you know it was. It was
just it was a wonderful thing. But again it was
another thing of like, Okay, you know you've thought I
was just this thing, but look what about this other thing?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And that's the amazing thing. I guess when reading through
all that you've done, you've done, You've done these extra things,
and when you were talking about all the countries you've
been to, the thought, the thought was flickering through my mind.
I bit, you'd lad you don't have to swim there.
I mean, you've one from one continent to another. Yeah,
going from from.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Across to Africa, the Gibral Straits which isn't as far.
But yeah, you're basically going from to Africa to obviously
North Africa, and there are great white sharks in there.
You can also swim in New Zealand, can't you from
the North Island to the South Island. Oh? Why don't
you do there? Quit you've got a bit of tie
(19:23):
between shirts. Yeah, they've got up early one morning. Do that? No?
I don't know. I like doing stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah. I mean it's interesting. You survived the cold of
the of the Channel, and the survived the shacks going
across to Morocco. The one that caused you probably the
most time was swimming down the teams.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Yeah, because and that was like one hundred and forty
miles from the from the source, which is a tiny
little place called Lechlade. And then I went to central
London and stopped at the Houses of Parliament. That was
I SA. What was fantastic about that is that people
could line the river banks because they knew where you were,
they could kind of plot it, I don't know, through
(20:03):
news or apps or whatever, and so people would turn
out to see me. And if the was like a school,
you know, backed onto the Thames and like a thousand
kids would come out to wave to you, and also
you have to get out at certain locks will be
there with like cakes and stuff like that. It was
like a sort of real It was almost like a
(20:24):
little festival or something like that. It was. It was
a very exciting time.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yes, added excitement. You got Giadira and did you be
I got?
Speaker 3 (20:33):
I got ill And it stayed with me for quite
a long time because it's this weird bacteria and basically
it makes you feel very sick. But then it's sort
of your body fights it and then it lays dormant
for a bit, but then a week later you get
it again. It's this very that's miserable thing. Yeah, it was.
It took quite a while for me to kind of
(20:54):
know what it is and actually, you know, have it treated,
but it but basically I think it's inevitable. If you
swim in you know, rivers and lakes and things, there
are bacteria in there and it's quite easy to to
catch something. But you know, it all added to the
drama because the thing is if you do something like that,
(21:16):
what makes it interesting is if things go wrong, it's
a weird one. If everything had gone totally to plan,
you know, people wouldn't have cared so much, but it
suddenly got he's ill. He's ill, brilliant, he's ill. He
might not get there now we're interested. We found it
boring before, but now there's a chance of failure.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And again a couple more million pounds coming for your charities.
And that's what you get job for, as well as
all you work for TV and everything.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
You know, it's not been bad. No, think about all
these things. The first thing that comes into my mind
is made my mum proud. That's the first thing I think, Mom,
that's nice. Yeah, it is in a way because I think, yeah,
I got to take her to Buckingham Palace when I
got my obe. You know, she was there a lot
of the time when I was swimming the Thames. She
(22:08):
even followed on a boat when I swam the channel,
and I think that was she gets very seasick, so
the boat goes very slowly because obviously it's following us
swimmer and I'm only swimming like about three kilometers now, and.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
I'd be miserable for her. She wasn't saying, oh hurry up,
Harry up.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
She was sick the entire time, so she was below deck,
vomiting into a bucket for ten and a half hours.
And then afterwards when we got back to to England
and to Dover, I said you shouldn't have come, mum,
and she went, I wouldn't have missed it for the world,
so lovely. Yeah, I am having such well.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Do say to her that the people of New Zealand
sind their love to her.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Okay, you would be very happy to know that.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And we're looking forward to you coming. I'll run quickly
through the dates that you're going to be over here,
and tickets are available from Ticketmaster if you wanted to
catch either the the grown up show or the matinee
for kids discussing his books and things. There's Auckland the
September the twenty eighth at the kerried Dekanawa Theater. I
think there's an extra show on the twenty seventh as well.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
It's very full. The twenty eighth sold out very quickly,
so we've added this extra show on the twenty seventh,
so there's still some good tickets available for that show.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Okay, down on the down of Wellington on the thirtieth
September and on the second of October and the town
Hall in christ Church. It's been great fun talking with
David Williams and looking forward to meeting you when you
come over here, David, and you've got another song for us?
What if you got picked? Well, it's not a song,
it's an instrumental.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Well, it is an instrument. It's the title music for
the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The
music's by John Parry. I think it's the most exciting
piece of music ever composed. And it's it's a Bond
movie that is unloved by some because it stars George Lazenbye,
Thestralian well model turned actor, but he was not a
(24:11):
great success in the role in terms of you know,
he didn't get to do another one. But Bond fans,
hardened fans like myself love the movie. It's the one
where he gets married and his wife is sort of
instantly shot and arm which is great for James Bond
because it means he can go back to, you know,
shagging everything that moves. But this is I think one
(24:34):
of the most exciting Well for me, it's the most
exciting bit of music and it always makes me happy.
And if I ever sort of get up in the
morning and I've got a big day ahead of me
and I need to feel energized. I listened to John
Barry's On her Majesty's Secret.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Service, fantastic and it provides a bit of symmetry for
the show because we had the anti Royalist Pitch up
Boys and now we're having on her medjesty Secret Service. David,
it's been great talking to you and enjoy the rest
of your troubles down here in the Antipodes.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Thank you so much, and hopefully we'll meet when I
do this show. That'd be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
This is real life on News Dogs. It'd be with
you again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
For more from News Talks at b listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.
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