Paul Ready

0:00

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

How are you today?

0:00

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

0:02

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

great.

0:02

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Thanks.

0:03

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Good, good.

0:04

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

0:05

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

how are you?

0:05

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

How are you today?

0:06

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, yeah, doing fine,

0:07

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Paul. Yeah, good to speak to you.

0:09

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I thought we'd start on the Fringe show.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

You know,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

tell us a wee bit about,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

the writing of this and why you decided to,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

why the Fringe was a good fit for it,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

because I don't know if you've got a background at the Fringe or anything like that.

0:26

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I actually can't wait.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Once in my life.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Right, okay.

0:38

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it's been one of those places I've wanted to go and it's never

0:42

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

worked out but now it is and actually I'm doing something so it's great so

0:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I started writing this piece about five years ago in

0:51

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

fact I started writing it in lockdown when

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

theatre I suppose I was going what are we going

0:59

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

to do theatre felt threatened for a

1:04

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

little while there

1:07

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Because obviously we couldn't gather in any space.

1:11

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So I thought,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so first of all,

1:15

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

the format of the thing I've written is supposed to be done in any space.

1:20

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Anyway,

1:20

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I could do it online to you now if you want.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But like,

1:23

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it's supposed to be done in,

1:24

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it's supposed to be very,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

very adaptable.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So, and initially I was thinking.

1:33

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

It's about a lot of things,

1:34

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but one of the things in the heart of it is about responding

1:38

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

to the uncertainty of the climate crisis.

1:42

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And that's something quite close to my heart.

1:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

It's something that I've been interested in probably,

1:52

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Since my daughter was born,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and also since...

2:01

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

since it was really brought to our attention,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

the public attention in 2018.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So this is something I've been interested in and

2:11

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

how the arts can respond to it.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So anyway,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

this was part of why I wrote it.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And the idea was initially to...

2:21

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I thought,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

oh, I could go around schools and we could have a conversation around this.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But then when I started writing it...

2:29

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there were far too many swear words in it so I thought it's not it's not for school

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and actually it's kind of it's probably for

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

um I don't know it's

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

for a lot of people but like parents and it's for people

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Well, it is for anybody,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but there is an age limit on it,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

shall I say.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

My daughter watched it the other day and I was like,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and she went, I need therapy.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

my own daughter's at that age now where she's interested in plays

3:04

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and so on.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

So she's around 13,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

so I don't know if she'd be a little bit young for it,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

but...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

No,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

she could come.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, I might bring her along.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

The material,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean, do you know anything about it?

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Well, you know,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

what I know is,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I was going to ask you about one aspect of it was male friendship because I thought it's

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

an interesting concept,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

but also it sounds quite metaphysical where I think the brief says,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, we're all made of stars and think about that when you're,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, doing the dishes or something one day,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I think, just consumerism in general.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

So I thought there's a lot of strands going on here,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Paul, I thought,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, I'd love to ask you about it.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

So that's about as much as I know,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

and it's a one -man show as well.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

OK,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so it takes...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So basically a memorial for

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

this, for a man called Richard who has

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

died.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

OK.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And the narrator,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

we call him James,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it's his best friend,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

although he wasn't allowed to go to the funeral for a

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

reason that kind of becomes apparent.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But it is about their friendship,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and that's where the strand of male friendship,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

which I suppose it wasn't where

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I was focused on when I started writing it,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but as it developed,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it became a really strong strand.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

yes, it is about...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

um a response to the you know to the uncertainty

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

of the climate crisis but it's also um it

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

became very much about male friendship which and

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

love between two two male

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

friends and i mean i suppose that's something that is you

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

know we're living in a world of toxic masculinity there's

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

a lot

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

about that um but this is the you know this is another

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

side of it and not to say that it's simple you know like within

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

this play it's not simple but you can still

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

love each other across differing opinions yeah in our

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

polarized society and i think and again

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

i think that's another place where it's for me

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

plays books arts are kind

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

of

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

exist in the grey space rather than the black and white polarisation.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And that's part of the reason why I

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

think the arts are so important.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And the other side,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you were saying about the metaphysical thing.

5:46

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Also,

5:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

one of the questions is...

5:50

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

The stars

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

thing was interesting because the main character wanted to

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

be an astronaut when he was growing up.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

That was his kind of thing.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

So that's why the stars...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

come back in into the piece and it's part

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

of the question is a human being standing

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there looking at the moon going hang on a

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

sec the world is a lot bigger than just me and

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

my job and my family I'm actually

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there's a whole universe out there and like what am I in relation

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

to that part of the question is

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

what is a human,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

what is a human being,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

which is what's called little animals.

6:38

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Okay, yeah.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean, I like that idea.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean, you mentioned the manosphere and I think we're starting to see the

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

effects of that now.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

But when I looked at the visual,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

it's amazing how just a piece of art can take us out of ourselves.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

But also,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

even the image made me think about as a kid when you hear like a David

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Bowie song.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

and it's about space or stars or Starman or something like that.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

And I think that was a really positive thing for masculinity.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

You know, when you think about the generations of musicians that maybe heard

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

a song and were inspired,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

whereas now,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

instead of progressing,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Paul, we seem to be going back the way,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, because I've got a son as well,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

and I think, gosh,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

it's a challenge to say,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

well, have a look at this instead of that,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

or that kind of way,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, I'm surprised with...

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

arrived at this point in society with the manosphere you know when

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

we were growing up it seemed like that kind of masculinity was was disappearing

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

or taking a back step but certainly the kind of characters you play as

7:39

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

well um like i'd say kevin's a great example of a dad you know

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

um in motherland because when i watched that i thought oh he's like guys i went

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

to school with you know

7:49

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

where he doesn't have a lot of confidence in some situations,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

but in others he does.

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

And I think,

7:55

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

you know, it seems to me like some of the choices you're making are about just

8:00

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

giving us an alternative type of masculinity,

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S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

if you like.

8:02

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

that's interesting.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean, Kevin,

8:05

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there was

8:10

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

a lot of talk around him,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

with the writers,

8:13

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

because I would always go...

8:15

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Because on one hand,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he's a...

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

character of fun like he's it can be the a little bit of a but the

8:25

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

butt of the joke sometime yeah he's he's a clown but

8:30

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

a clown in the sense of i was kind of describe him as a clown

8:34

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

being you can see there you can see what their want is

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you can see what's missing in them like he he he wants to be

8:42

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

accepted

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

as a whole and he's probably looking in the wrong places to be accepted except

8:49

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he's a brilliant dad i mean he throws his life into his

8:53

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

kids they're the most important thing to him and that's something to be celebrated i think um

8:58

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but also it was important not

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

to make him too much of a figure of fun because

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he is like

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

He is a positive figure.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

You don't want to go,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

oh, stay at home,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Dad.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

That's what they're like.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Because, yeah,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean, so there was a balance to be found.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And I,

9:25

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so yeah,

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I was really, as I say,

9:28

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it was an ongoing conversation about how to kind of portray Kevin.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And I

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

think that is an important.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

important role but other I suppose other I'm always looking for I'm

9:45

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

always looking to play different things yeah I

9:50

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

think one of the things about Kevin and I've said this before but I

9:54

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

worried when I started playing Kevin I was like okay that's it I'm only ever going to be cast as

9:58

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

this kind of role because you know

10:00

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

It's quite a big character and it was quite a clownish

10:04

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

character and I thought people wouldn't ever take me seriously again.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But luckily that hasn't happened.

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But what else can I say about Kevin?

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S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

There was something else you said.

10:14

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

The other thing that struck me about Kevin,

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S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I guess the cast.

10:18

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

When I first watched it,

10:20

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

my kids were about the same age as the characters and I thought,

10:23

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

there's something very Celtic about it because I know you're saying your dad's Scottish.

10:28

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I think the Julia character,

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S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I mean, it turns out Anna's parents are Scottish and Irish.

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S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Diane Morgan,

10:34

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I think, has got Scottish roots.

10:35

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

And I thought there's something about this that feel in the writers as well.

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S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

And there's something very Celtic or diaspora culture.

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S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Do you know what I mean?

10:43

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Interesting.

10:44

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

10:45

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

like Kevin Brady.

10:46

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

He could have been in my class.

10:48

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I went to a Catholic school and there was something about Kevin immediately.

10:51

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I thought, this guy's so familiar,

10:53

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

which I don't think I'd seen in comedy before.

10:55

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I don't know if it was the...

10:57

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

the kind of,

10:58

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

the type of,

10:59

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

just the observational comedy,

11:00

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

or the, again,

11:01

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

the mundane things that people laughed about,

11:04

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know.

11:04

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

But I enjoyed that aspect of,

11:07

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

and I wondered if your dad coming from Glasgow had an influence

11:11

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

on your style of humour,

11:12

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

you know, because I think I read that he was quite a big character.

11:15

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

He was a big character,

11:17

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and he,

11:18

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

11:19

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he had a great sense of humour.

11:21

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I definitely think my humour,

11:23

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he has definitely influenced that.

11:27

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean, what could I say about his humour?

11:29

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

He wasn't afraid to play the clown.

11:33

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

11:34

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But also he wasn't,

11:38

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

he didn't take life

11:42

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

too seriously.

11:43

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

11:44

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Because life is serious.

11:46

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

11:46

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And there's a lot of,

11:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know, I watch the news and there are,

11:50

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know,

11:51

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it can be very overwhelming.

11:53

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

11:54

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And also the stresses of...

11:57

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

bringing up you know there were four of us kids he was a he was a

12:01

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

self -employed um builder carpenter and so you know four

12:05

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

of us being brought up on that wage i don't know how you couldn't do that nowadays so

12:11

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

even with the stresses of of that and you

12:15

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

know he brought a lot of humor to the family yeah

12:20

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Which, that's definitely saved me at points,

12:22

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know, when life has felt quite overwhelming to be able to just

12:27

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

flip it a little bit and laugh.

12:29

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

But also,

12:30

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I think that,

12:31

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I also think that laughter

12:35

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

is, you know,

12:37

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

the way into,

12:38

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

can be the way to open you up in order to receive all

12:43

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

sorts of things that can be challenging.

12:46

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

12:46

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Little Animals is...

12:48

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

It is serious,

12:49

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but it's also life,

12:52

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so life is,

12:53

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there is a humour to life.

12:55

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yes,

12:55

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

yes.

12:56

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And I would say that is a,

12:59

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I would say,

13:01

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I never like to pigeonhole myself

13:07

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

particularly,

13:08

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but I often...

13:10

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I think even in a drama,

13:12

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

there is humour,

13:13

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

because that is life,

13:15

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

ultimately.

13:16

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I don't know how you feel.

13:17

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, no,

13:18

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I mean, the way you talk about your dad there,

13:20

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I can really relate to it.

13:22

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I'd kind of like to think,

13:23

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I mean, I grew up with an Irish granny who was very humorous,

13:26

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

but in this house,

13:27

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I like to think we have that same attitude to life,

13:30

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know.

13:30

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Sometimes you have to be the clown a little bit to kind of ease the tension for teenagers

13:35

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

and that kind of thing,

13:36

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

you know.

13:38

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Especially as a dad,

13:39

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I think.

13:40

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, yeah,

13:41

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

yeah. The dad role can be a clown.

13:43

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

13:44

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I think so.

13:45

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I think it's a healthy thing.

13:46

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I wanted to ask you,

13:48

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Kevin, sorry,

13:49

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Kevin, Paul,

13:50

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

excuse me.

13:51

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I knew I couldn't drop it.

13:52

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I knew I couldn't.

13:53

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

That's what I feared,

13:54

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

being with Kevin for the rest of my life.

13:56

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Sorry,

13:57

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I'm just thinking about the character now.

13:59

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I wanted to ask you about Android because...

14:03

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I thought Sue Johnson,

14:04

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

fantastic actress,

14:05

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

and again, another one of my favourite comedies,

14:08

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I would say, is Royal Family.

14:09

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

And I thought it was interesting working with Diane Morgan again.

14:13

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Tell us about how you got involved with that,

14:17

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Paul, and just kind of what to expect.

14:19

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I've watched a kind of short trailer for it,

14:22

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

but...

14:23

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

It sounds to me a little bit like concerns over AI and robots and

14:27

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

that kind of thing,

14:28

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

but it's hard to get a handle on it at the moment and maybe what your character

14:32

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

entails.

14:33

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Okay,

14:34

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

so by Di

14:39

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Morgan and Sarah Kendall.

14:41

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Right,

14:41

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

yeah.

14:42

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And it's a six -part series and it's

14:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

about comedy series.

14:48

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Di plays,

14:51

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but a

14:55

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

shitty one, not the top -range model.

14:59

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yes.

15:00

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

secondhand repurposed Android.

15:03

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

And I'm playing Sue Johnson's

15:07

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

son.

15:08

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

And I've split

15:12

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

up from my wife or separated from my wife and I've been living

15:16

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

with my mom again while and she's

15:21

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

lost her husband fairly recently.

15:22

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

So it's kind of worked out.

15:24

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

But as far as my character goes,

15:27

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I want to kind of get on with my life again.

15:30

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

and continue making the bad choices I've been making,

15:33

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

the character's been making.

15:35

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

So I move

15:39

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

out, like in the first episodes,

15:42

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I move out and I buy her a robot to take

15:46

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

care of her, to do things that I should

15:50

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

have been doing.

15:51

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

15:52

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

the truth is about my character,

15:53

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

he's quite selfish.

16:00

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

kind of he thinks more about himself than his mom for sure yeah

16:05

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

and as I say he makes bad choices so he's probably his his

16:09

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

wife is not or his ex -wife or his partner rather was

16:13

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

not the perfect the perfect

16:17

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

person for him to choose but he can't let it go so so he

16:22

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

tries to to rekindle that it's about

16:29

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I mean it is funny but it's also about

16:34

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

For me,

16:34

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

as far as AI goes,

16:39

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

there's something really human

16:43

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

about the story.

16:44

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

It's called Android.

16:45

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

It's about robots,

16:46

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

but it's also about loneliness,

16:48

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

like growing older.

16:51

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

So Sue Johnson is growing older and she kind of,

16:54

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

like the relationship between

16:58

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

human and AI.

17:00

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah.

17:01

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

Filling a place where the

17:05

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

relationship between humans and...

17:07

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, yeah,

17:08

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

yeah.

17:09

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

is is changing and can that can that relationship be replaced

17:14

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

yeah yeah so how

17:18

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

else can i describe it it's it's it's so it's funny but it's

17:22

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

also i find it really poignant and sue sue's incredible as

17:26

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

an actor like just like i was watching some takes and and

17:30

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

then i have actually seen the series because i knew i'd be doing some publicity on it and um

17:34

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

she just yeah she seems effortless um

17:39

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

yeah

17:40

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

but also there's always so much humour

17:44

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

and poignancy going on.

17:46

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I think they've done a brilliant job of the series.

17:49

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, that sounds like quite a fun part to play,

17:52

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I would imagine, Paul,

17:53

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

your character there.

17:54

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

Great part to play.

17:55

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

17:57

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

again, he's a little bit

18:01

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

of a clown,

18:03

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

but in this sense,

18:04

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I think his clownishness comes in his bad choices.

18:08

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, yeah.

18:12

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

do you know what i think i might describe a lot of characters as clownish you know because otherwise why

18:17

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

are they on the yeah they that's what clownish

18:21

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

choices can make um good dramas but um but yeah

18:26

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

he's great fun to play and and really

18:30

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

Whereas somebody like Kevin had a really open,

18:34

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

good heart and he was trying his best to please other people,

18:37

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

this guy is the opposite of them.

18:39

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

He's just trying to make choices so his life

18:43

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

can work.

18:43

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Yeah, it sounds interesting.

18:46

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

I'm looking forward to that.

18:47

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

What was it like to work with Di again?

18:49

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Because, again,

18:51

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

in Motherland,

18:52

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

they had a genuine friendship,

18:54

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

the two characters,

18:55

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Liz and Kevin.

18:57

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

And I wondered what it was like to work with Di again for this,

19:00

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

because you just had a great chemistry in the show,

19:04

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

and I think the cast in general did.

19:06

S… Speaker 3 (Paul Ready)

Was it nice to come back and work with her for this concept?

19:09

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Totally.

19:10

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I love working with Di.

19:12

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

I mean,

19:12

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

she's...

19:13

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

I love her as a writer.

19:15

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

There was

19:21

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

another job we did with other,

19:23

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

which I kind of forgot about until I started thinking about.

19:27

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

press for android we did uh did you ever see a program called

19:31

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

utopia it was a it was a rings a bell yeah dennis

19:36

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

kelly wrote it okay and it was like there was two

19:40

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

seasons of it then it became an american series i think

19:44

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

they only did one season but it was quite a cult show

19:48

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

back in the day um channel four

19:53

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

it was on

19:55

S… Speaker 4 (Paul Ready)

And that was the first time I met Di, working on that.

20:00

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

to do with her in that but I was playing a

20:04

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

complete psychopath and we

20:10

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

were in a scene together and I was really talking to her my

20:16

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

old business partner who had started going out with Di's

20:20

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

character and she was brilliant straight away I just thought

20:25

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

she's so brilliant she has a presence

20:31

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

And also,

20:31

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I feel like a particular way of looking at the world,

20:34

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

which is really refreshing.

20:35

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

20:36

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

yeah, absolutely.

20:37

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Yeah,

20:38

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

sorry, carry on.

20:39

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

You're going to say something.

20:40

S… Speaker 2 (Paul Ready)

Sorry, I cut you off there,

20:41

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Paul. But again,

20:43

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I think where her influence is,

20:47

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

and she would have to speak for herself here,

20:49

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

but she is influenced by...

20:52

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

slapstick but also the cleverness

20:56

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

of what the comedy is doing and I think the work

21:00

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

she creates can be

21:05

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

can play with the ridiculous but also underneath it's

21:09

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

doing something really interesting there's a moment in

21:14

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

Android where and

21:19

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

I don't know

21:22

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

how can i say without like giving anything but there's a moment in android where where

21:26

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

it takes place on a campsite and at one point the

21:31

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

kids go oh you're an android can we meet you and so she comes to say she

21:35

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

goes she goes to meet the kids and they ask for a scary story and

21:39

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

she tells them about what's happening to the planet and they carry

21:44

S… Speaker 1 (Paul Ready)

a story that kind

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