Rafe Spall: Locking Eyes with Spielberg & What Makes Cricket So Great

I've spent my life trying to convert people to this sport, so I don't know if I'm going to start succeeding now. And I had that very, I had that thought on stage after making eye contact with Steven Spielberg to feel it. What's that fuck it? I'm going to hit Glen McGraw back over his head. What the umpire would say is is captain. Do you think that this should be out? So it sort of spirited the game. So you go, well, you're within the rules of the game here, but it's not within the spirit. What does that say about you as a person? Yes, exactly. People assume with people who are in movies and films that ultimately that does take up their entire life, but it seems like ultimately that's like a side hustle compared to your cricket of set. To my main interest. Yes, exactly. Hello, and welcome to the luxury dispatch. The podcast that reveals the refined and the rare people items and stories that make up the luxury industry. I'm Tom Chamberlain. And today we should be stepping into that most civilized kingdom of willow leather, flannel and impossible elegance. It's the world of cricket. Few sports carry such a distinctive culture and fewer still inspire the kind of lifelong devotion will be exploring today. My guest is the incomparable rave spall actor, cricket obsessive and advocate for the power of bespoke tailoring. Hello, rave. Hello, Tom. I'd love it to be with you. It's nice to be with you too in your front room. I call this a dispatch box. Well, it's very dispatchy and boxy. The boxy, so yeah, yeah. Family to be here. Well, actually, we're not far from the oval cricket ground. We're not far from the oval cricket ground, but a ball's throw, but a ball's throw. Yeah. Especially with your strength and vigor with my arm. Yeah, absolutely. I'm clear it is. Yeah. So I think two people who are trying to kind of get, I guess, familiar with this podcast and it's sort of nascent episodes may see the topic of cricket and kind of wonder. Firstly, white fits in here. You know, am I just looking for an excuse to talk to a lot of famous actor or am I, you know, do some of the genuinely has a kind of cultural imprint in the world of luxury and in the world of how men are and all could be in terms of luxury. Obviously, this is a podcast, which looks into aspects of luxury. There's no greater luxury than time. Now, this is perhaps the longest game in the world when played in his test match form, which goes over five days. And I, I suppose that the Regency Gentlement was really looking for something to do. Yeah. And cricket simply filled time. Yeah. And was a great novelty. So you could go sit there for five days and watch a game and burn a game. And it's in the same way it isn't just the reserve of the privileged. It's absolutely a game which highlights and crosses and shows up brightly the British class system because it isn't just the reserve of the upper classes. It is absolutely a working class game as much as it is a middle and upper class game. Of course, the English cricket team up until the 30s, I want to say, I'm not great historian of the game was populated by both gentlement and players, where the gentleman were, what it says on the tin gentlemen and the players were paid. They were professional. I'm certain. And they were traveling different classes on the ship to Australia. And there, not so much now, but traditionally, bowlers tended to be from a, from a lower class, and batsman aristocratic. Yes. Because the idea is that you get the sort of bowlers to bowl, you know, me lad. Yeah, me lad. Yeah. And then they get faster and faster. And then that's why you get this great sort of contest between bat and ball. And that's one of the great things of this in terms of fairness, this idea of right and wrong. What's cricket? What's not cricket? Englishness, fair play, morality is that it speaks to the fair contest between bat and ball. Yeah. And I think good sportsmanship, fair play, and I guess, honourability. That is so behind, I think, you know, any kind of conservative value. And I don't mean conservative in the political sense. I mean it in the sense of anyone with a kind of nostalgic view of Britain. You know, if you look at good sportsmanship and good conduct, that is behind so much of how people across history have, you can understand why they behave a certain way. I absolutely agree. Going over the trenches and all these sorts of things, you know, I mean, the whole poem of play on play with the game, you know, it's links to going over the top. And the way that that was done was, you know, it was all about, you know, cricket, cricket, cricket, played its part there. Yeah. That's fascinating. Yeah, absolutely. It is a small-seed conservative sport, as you said. It absolutely is. But it is at the same time very progressive. So you get new forms of the game, like 2020, like the 50 over game, like the 100, which is a recent incarnation of the game. So yes, there are certain things which are immoverable in terms of its sense of fair play, in terms of certain rules, but at the same time it is progressive. So in that dichotomy and in that paradox, it makes it apolitical, which is why it's again appealing. Because you know, we've all played cricket if you're English at school. Yeah. I went to a state school, played cricket. We've all had a go. So I guess when you watch it at the highest level, you can't help but put yourself in their shoes. Oh, you cannot go up to the crease with a bat and not have every sort of young boy's dream of kind of, you know, it's sort of that Hollywood moment of absolutely. Absolutely. It's just at the right time or, you know, playing the perfect shot. I still think about it now. Yeah. I'm a fine-bed, fantasising about going out to bat at lords against Australia to win the ashes. And I would genuinely trade any success that I might have been lucky enough to garner in acting to play cricket for England. I really mean it. Marvelous. I really would just to know what it's like to go out. And the closest I've ever got to what it must be like is doing plays. Yeah. I went to see you in a play. You did. You saw me into Kil'a-Mockingbird. I did. And you were absolutely superb. Well, we tried, don't we? We tried. You're very trying. But I, you know, I did a play on Broadway and I, what was that? I did Betrayal by Harold Pinto. I did it with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weiss. And it was, I'm sorry, he was James Bond and she's one of Oscar. And I, it was the three of us. And it was directed by Mike Nichols, who directed, who was afraid of a junior wolf and the graduate, one of the great film and theatre directors of all time. And on the opening night, I, in the audience, there was a piece of paper up backstage who Tato Siu was in the audience. And then the audience was Steamus Billberg, Bruce Springsteen, Glenn Close, Betmiddler, Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, Joe Biden, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and every, head of every studio. And it was the most sort of terrifying experience in my life. And I was that nervous before I went on that my dresser, Joe Hickey went to put on my jacket and I couldn't get it on my arms when num. And when you're backstage on a theatre show, you've got two lights, this big. You've got a red one and you've got a green one. And the red one flashes and you press that red one, which then tells the stage manager that you are on your mark ready to go. And then that stops flashing and it goes block red. And then you wait for the green light. And the green light means you go on. And the first scene of that play was Rachel Vicer and I come on and we meet and we have a 15 minute chat. And in that moment, I felt like I was good about going back for England, right? And I had this very clear choice in my mind because I was that nervous that my knees were going and I couldn't raise my arms. The music started, the lights dimmed, the green light went on. And I walked out and I looked out into the audience and made direct eye contact with Stephen Spielberg who looked exactly like Stephen Spielberg. I bet he did. So I came on and Rachel was there. And I looked out and they're Stephen and I went and started speaking to Rachel. And now in this moment, a cricketing analogy came to my head, which was you are batting at lords and you've got two choices. Mitchell Johnson is bowling at you at night, you five miles an hour. And you can I say Mitchell Johnson quickly. Mitchell Johnson is a fearsome Australian fast boulder from the late 2000s and bold like the wind. And he's bowling at you at night if I'm not sure how you got two choices. You can stay in and do whatever you can to stay in. Just block it. Just get behind the ball and don't get out. Or. You can do what Kevin Peterson did in 2005 against Glen McGraw, dance down the pitch, and try and hit him back over his head into the stand. I dare you. Now what can happen in that situation? You can miss it. You get bold. How humiliating. You got to trudge back to the Bavillion. Or you hit Glen McGraw back over his head. And 30,000 people at lords go, wow, what the living F was that? And I had that thought on stage after making eye contact with Steven Spielberg and looking at the great Rachel Vicer on stage, I could feel it. I was like, fuck it. And I'm going to be as free as I possibly can. And I'm just going to try things that I've never tried in the previews. I'm not going to try and stay in. See, literally did play out. I did. I did. I went for broke. And it all sounds rather self-aggrandizing. We know. We're here for a podcast. Welcome to the luxury dispatch. But we don't talk about luxury. We talk about something entirely different. Exactly. We're going to be self-aggrandizing. We'll be self-aggrandizing, which is a great luxury. Which is a great luxury. Yeah, it is indeed. And I went for it. And I've absolutely got cricket to thank for that. Now this was a tiny insight in what it must be like to play top level professional sport. And actually, what separates the good from the great? Because anyone, not anyone, but very good players can score 100 for their county with 50 people and a dog watching. And they can do it relentlessly. But it's a very, very different game when you play test match cricket. When you play at its highest level against the best people in the world. Yeah. That's different. You think when Ben Stokes goes out now, if he's feeling in the bin nervous, he goes, look, you can either be rave sprawl on the first line of the trail. On the first line of the trail. And look at Steven Stokes. Who am I to say whether it's occurred to him? But you know, it may of. I don't know what's inside Ben Stokes is. My none of us do. But it's entirely possible. Can we get Ben Stokes hot enough? It's not beyond the realms of comprehension, of course. But yeah, that's the way the English cricket team are playing now, which is about expressing yourself, which is about if I get out, who cares? Yeah. Because I went down trying. I went down going for greatness. Like Bon Jovi. Like Bon Jovi, exactly. Exactly. Like Blazer Glory. Exactly. Exactly. Because if it works out. Wow. Yeah. It's got a poetry about it, cricket. And you know, I go to a high angle, can mass every Sunday. And in the same way that through the litigy of the bells and the smells and the incense and the casks, you might have a brief glimpse of the otherwise ineffable. I get that watching sport, specifically cricket. The ritual, the rules that are old as the trees, that you get glimpses in something deeply poetic and unspeakable in between those gaps. I think is why it's so powerful to me and sort of like a religious experience. What is it about cricket that invigorates you the most? I should start by saying that cricket isn't the sort of sport that if you're watching or listening to this podcast that you're going to come away from it going right, I'm going to get into cricket. I think it's a hard, I think it's higher. No, because I've spent my life trying to convert people to the sport. So I don't know if I'm going to start succeeding now. I think it's the sort of thing that unless you're brought up with it, it's befuddling. And I understand why people don't like it. But that doesn't stop me from having a deep, lifelong passion for it and with it. Yes. A huge relationship. And I think like all sport, but specifically cricket, you can map one's life with it. So if you say to me 2005, that means one thing. That means the most famous actually series ever played in this country, which we, the English one, are that cricket ground over there. So it's got an emotional thing for me. And it's strange because it's sport, which means nothing, but also everything at the same time. And I was thinking about why it is emotional. And I think it's bound up in familial relationships. I think from an early age, it's when your dad starts paying attention to you. Yeah, okay. You see what I mean? Is when you go, you know, it's a way of bonding with your father to sit there watching your test match for a day without having to speak. Even though my father was, you know, he's a very sort of garrulous man, but I know wonderful father, but I think it speaks to a form of sort of parental bonding. But it just captured me to the point where now I can sit there and watch all five days of a test match. I watch a full day from 11 to 6. I watch the highlights. I'll read all of my favourite writers' coverage of that specific day. And I will scroll to it for hours. I know why the writer has been here. Because it's such a subjective thing. And different people pull out different things from it. It's got this wonderful sort of novelistic quality to it. It's a cliche to say, but it's got these ebbs and flows where you think you're on top one minute or you think you're behind and you think you'll never win. And then from the jaws of defeat or, in fact, victory, the other can be snatched. And that speaks to me to life. Yeah. Which is why I like it so much. It's like a philosophical side to it. I guess so. If I'm really looking down deeply into it, I'd say that would be one of the reasons why I find it so appealing. But did you, when that sort of scholarly or intellectual side of things, whether you are researching it deeply and reading reviews and just sort of finding as many opinions on it as possible? Did that go back pre-internet when you, did you have copies of Wisden and your-- Yeah, absolutely. You're right with Wisden. But I would go and buy every single page. Do we need to explain what Wisden is, do you think? I think Wisden is a sort of arm and neck of the years statistics. Because across all forms of cricket. Yes. Well, what I like about it is it kind of speaks to just how important people have always felt cricket is. It's something that needs to be dockronical. Chronicles at all times. And I think that's amazing. And you can look at a scorecard and get a feeling of a game. And so the other thing that I do to follow the cricket as well is whilst I'm watching it, I will also on my phone have the BBC's ball by ball coverage of it. Because the rich are the tapestry of description, the greater I find it. Also I've been known to have it on the TV and listen to Testmaster Special on the Radio at the same time. That creates quite a difficult sinking experience because quite as quicker than the other. But if you can get it down, that my friend is a rich experience. Let me tell you. Gosh. It's a sort of obsession that has really brought me a great deal of joy. Yeah. But our interest is important. Some people aren't. And I sort of envy and feel sorry for people that aren't because it dominates my day. See this is the lovely thing. And why it's so lovely that you're here is because my guess is people, and I think actors are often to blame for this, is that the amount of emphasis put on the craft of acting and the time need to be spent on sets. Because you were not shy of work these days. You are a busy man and we'll go into that later. But people assume with people who are in movies and films that ultimately that does take up their entire life. But it seems like that's like a side hustle compared to your cricket of sex. To my main interest. Yes, exactly. It's like Paul Feigel cocktails. He's like, you know, he'll direct a film when he's sobered up. Exactly. But you know, but I am a blessed player. I imagine that the Paul, I mean, a huge fan of it. Not only his films, but his terrific dress sense. I don't imagine he's drinking martini's during the day, whereas I will definitely be listening to Tessema Special right up until the board has gone on on a take. And you have a ritual during that as well, not just what you're listening to, but when you watch the game itself, do you have, I guess I know sports people have it for sure. But as a spectator, do you have your superstitions as you watch? I don't. I was brought up in a very superstitious household. So I've hence renounced all superstition. My father, because it's similarly with sports, there is a great history of superstition with actors as well. My dad being an actor. Great. A great, a great national treasure, one of our finest, not any actors, but Englishmen. And he, here, he won't say the word Macbeth. Really not? Good for you to do the Scottish play. He will call it the Scottish play. And if I was to say the word Macbeth, and I'm saying it now, sorry, dad, if you're watching, I don't imagine you will. He doesn't consider himself as such things. He would, he would spit into his hand like, or he would walk out. He wouldn't like it. Good for him. So I like to say as much as I'm really into it. That's fabulous. I know it's ridiculous. But no, I don't, I don't have, I'm saying that if, if, well, I like to think that you sort of renounce the things that you've been given by your parents that you rebel against them. But actually, if there's a batsman that I really want to stay in trying to save a game and he's still in, I have been known just not leave the room, just in case me leaving the room means that he's going to go out. But I think with superstition, you end up putting yourself in the center of the world, don't you? Which you should always try and. - Try and avoid. That's the right point. - Yes, yeah. Sporting in general has that because I think it's especially the slow moving sports. And I think that that's an interesting point with Cricket is that however much you may with your wonderful vocabulary and capacity to deliver a line very well and convincingly, Cricket is a slow moving sport. - It can be. It fits and starts. It's in much the same way that baseball is and actually American football is that you can go and sit at the oval or lords, Ed Baston, some of our great sporting Cricketing arenas in this country. You can sit there with the paper, sit there with a mate all day having a chat and not miss that much. And then you get these extraordinary flurries. But I think there's this idea that Cricket isn't athletic. And I think that perhaps in the past, it hasn't been. But the modern game is deeply athletic. And I think actually the game has changed in the 70s by those great West Indian sides. Malcolm Marshall, in people like that, these extraordinary physical specimens who were just stronger and faster and quicker and much cooler than us. - Yeah. - And so they sort of started to change the game. But now, you get the odd fact Cricket. - Well, yes, I mean, I grew up with suddenly in the halls of school, there was a lot of portraiture of W.G. Grace. - Big lad. - Who was sort of a celebrity who became very fat later on. But early on, actually was a middle-distance runner as well as a Cricket. - Yes. He has that sort of Brian Blessed thing where he kind of doesn't really look it but does actually climb ever as fun. - Just a quick digression on Brian Blessed. I once caught the documentary about Brian Blessed climbing every. So I just happened to be flicking through the channel. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. - He is an amazing man. - He climbed it in the guise of Mallory, right? So no oxygen in a tweed suit. - Yes. - Yeah. - And nearly bloody made it. - Yeah. - Nearly got to the top. Not sure he's ever been quite the same since, but no, but I don't think he did much. - I mean, he was Brian Blessed. - Brian Blessed, I mean, he did much training. But on this documentary, what I really appreciate is that even in the pits of hell, on a sheer icy rock face, on the north face of Everest, he still found time to be Brian Blessed. So there was this fantastic shot of him. And he's on the side of this rock face, literally clinging on and a blitzed with two tennis rackets on his feet. And a frozen beard. And he goes, "Now, if I just keep going, I'll get to the top god willing." And that fantastic, he's brain is mangled, but he's still Brian Blessed. - Basically proud to be Britain. - It certainly does. Yeah. But no, what I was in a long-rambling way of saying is that cricket now is actually very, very athletic. Someone like Ben Stokes is a fierce competitor. And obviously a physical competitor. If you're going to bat, potentially for two days, from which can happen, from 11 in the mornings or six at night, you need a quite specific sort of fortitude. And a constitution of accountants. We like big words here. We do. And we're good at the mime. And let's keep going. But not only physical endurance, but the mental discipline it takes. Now, cricket specifically is a form game. Perhaps more than anything else. Golf, maybe, is a relation to it in terms of form? Yes, okay. But batting specifically. Do you mean being in form or having a new form? Being in form or both. Okay, fine. But specifically, I'm talking about being in and out of form because it's such a mental game. Got it. So cricket as specifically batsmen are often talks about being on a run of good form or being in good nick. There's very few batsmen in the history of the world who have ever maintained form for the entirety of the career. I can off the top of my head think of maybe Donald Bradman or Steve Smith, the current Australian batsmen. See, Donald Bradman, that's the story I remember hearing when I must have been eight years old at boarding school. Big fans of cricket at boarding school. They tend to be. My headmaster, his name's, I've said this on a podcast for, but I didn't name check him, but he's a wonderful man called Gerald Barber. Great name. Great name. Great man. Mr. Badman. But he used to walk down the hallway of school and kind of mimic with this with the palm of his hand. A kind of solid forward defensive. Yes, exactly. A forward defensive stroke. And it to him, it was the ultimate example of good character. And if you could do a good forward defensive stroke, then nothing really else mattered. And I think that that's an interesting part of cricket for me growing up, understanding it, is that it plays very much into the idea of Britishness. You know, the phrase something is or isn't cricket. It's not cricket. It's the idea of something relating to character and relating to what we in this country think is, you know, good conduct. I think that's very interesting. I think that's a very interesting observation of the game and one of the reasons why it's so linked up with a specific idea of Britishness. It's one of the things that our American cousins or people that aren't into cricket struggle with the idea of is that you can play a game for five days and still not get a result. And they're such a thing. It's a thrilling draw. And that you can bat the day out or save the game by playing forward defensive. It speaks to a certain kind of resolve and gritty sort of re-aguard action, which I think we find very appealing. In terms of the fabric of British culture and our history, I think it's sort of linked up. The idea of the re-aguard action is a very sort of romantic idea, isn't it? But also that, you know, it's a four-defence strike is not flashy. And cricket is a sober sport. The white kit, the kind of quiet English countryside feels, the handshaking at the end of the sort of clapping in the new batsman type thing. That speaks to a very specific sober British way of being. That I think can't really be overlooked at all. I think it's a very intrinsic part of not only how we culturally grow up just generally. In the same way that we grow up generally being passed for a Judeo-Christian heritage. But we also part, we also all inherit this cricket heritage too, I think. Absolutely. It speaks for a certain form of sort of Victorian morality, I suppose. And that was actually where the game turned into the game that we know and love today. I mean, it's been around historians, have looked into it. No one really knows about the genesis of it. Exactly when it came from it, sort of a bit watery. But it was definitely someone like WG Grace who really solidified. He was one of the first huge sort of celebrities really, Victorian Britain. And so Victorian morality has definitely had an influence on the game today. And yeah, it is separate in its manners. And the spirit of the game, you can talk a little bit about the spirit of the game because you don't really talk about the spirit of the game of football or golf or even rugby, but there definitely is the spirit of cricket. Yes. Which is this mysterious idea is that you can go, yes, that may well be within the rules of the game, but it isn't within the spirit of the game. Like that's stumping that happens. So that's so. Women's World Cup. Well, there's a few examples. As unborrowingly as I can, I'll talk about the idea of the man cat. Now the man cat is a is a form of dismissal, which is named after a subcontinental cricketer. So basically the bowler is running up to the crease to bowl. The popping crease, as you call it. And then you've got two batsmen. You've got the batsmen facing the delivery and you've got the non-striking batsman. And what the non-striking batsman tries to do when the bowler runs up is back up the batsman. So if the batsman a player is going to play a shot, he needs to be walking down the pitch in order to do a quick run. Yeah. But within the rules of the game, you can, as the bowler see that the non-striking batsman about is out of his ground and with the ball in your hand, take the bales off the stumps. That's called a man cat after the first gentleman to do it. Right. Now it's frowned upon. Yes. Now if you do that and you go to the for every dismissal in cricket, you need to appeal to the umpire. That's another great thing isn't it? If to appeal to the umpire, even though you know it's out, is that out? And he puts his finger up and he says, yes. So so man cat, the original gentleman to do it, took the bales off with his ball, appeal to the umpire and within the rules of the game, the umpire went, well, yeah, you're going to have to go. Now it is then up to the fielding sides, captain to to solidify that appeal. Huh. So what the umpire would say is is captain, do you think that this should be out? So it sort of sort of spirited again. Yeah. And puts the kind of kind of moral, yes, a quandary to the captain. Because ultimately that decision will then go to newspapers and obviously Winston and people will be able to judge the captain accordingly. So you go, well, you're but it's in within the rules of the game, but it's not within the spirit. Yes, exactly. It's fascinating. So in the last Ashes series, Johnny Behrs though, a great nuggety ginger cricketer that we've batsman and a wicket keeper. Fantastic batsman. He kept walking out of his ground, which means that you play the shot. And then he kept walking out of his ground to do what you call in cricket is a bit of gardening, sort of prodding the pitch, to have a look or have a chat with the non-striking batsman. Pat Cummings, the Australian captain, noticed that he was walking out of his ground after the ball was bowled without touching his back behind the crease, which then signifies to the umpire that it's dead ball. Right. So he kept walking out of his ground. Pat Cummings said to Alex Carey, the Australian wicket keeper, he said, next time he does that, because basically the ball was going to pass him into the ump into the wicket keeper's hands. Let's have me does it, throw the ball at the stumps. And he did. And Johnny Behrs though couldn't believe it. He's wondering because he walks out of his ground thinking that it was a dead ball. Alex Carey threw down the stumps and they all looked to the captain and Pat Cummings went, yeah, well, I have that. We will appeal. And then the umpire to go, well, that's out. Yeah. And that caused a huge forora. Yeah, remember that. Which ended up in MCC members, MCC being the Marlowe and Cricket Club, who own lords, one of the great sort of old clubs of London, who own lords, one of the longest wasting lists in clubland, 25 years in New York, people have certainly passed away to become a member. People were thrown out of the Marlowe and Cricket Club because of their conduct towards the Australian players, because they were so outraged that they had appealed. So basically lords is very unique in the fact that the cricket has walked through the club. Yes, in order to, through the pavilion, it's called the long room in order to get up to the dressing room. Yeah. And the Australian players were walking through and they were given some pretty hefty abuse by MCC members. I remember the MCC members. Yeah. Which again is not Cricket. Yes. But nor was the appeal. So no one covered themselves in glory. Gosh, we've, I mean, we've really branched out of anything happening on the pitch now. Yeah, but it's good, isn't that great? That's what I mean. Yeah. It's caught up with this. Yes, there's the rules, but there's the spirit. There's the spirit in which the game is played. Gosh, I mean, this is what a conundrum you find is sort of these paradoxes. Sorry, it's a real, it's a real, a quandary. It goes back to the whole play-up play-up and play the game. That fantastic, fantastic poem. And actually another poem is everyone's heart drops when everyone says that, but it's very short. I promise you. In fact, it's two lines and it goes back to what I was talking about in terms of mapping one's life and the emotion of cricket. And it's by Harold Pinter, who was, it was a great cricket lover and played for the authors, who was a cricket team of authors and actors and stuff. And he said, the poem simply says, "I saw Len Hutton in his prime another time, another time." And it's just lovely because it's, it speaks to the past and nostalgia. And so when I think of the 2005 Ashes series, I was 22, full of questions that were yet to be answered, full of hope and ambition and dreams. And I've answered a lot of those questions now. I know what happens in my life, which is inherently melancholic. But then I was full of hope. And I can marry that to the game at the time. I'm sure in 20 years time, I'll think back to this time and think, wow, I was really in my prime then. When very little works anymore. Going bloody all that Ashes series, I was really living life. I had four young kids and at the time, wow, I was really stressed and thinking that things were difficult. But wow, I had it easy because, you know, as the cliche goes hindsight, it's 2020 and it's very, and happiness is pretty retrospective, isn't it? Yeah. You look back on things and go, I was happy then. But it's very difficult to find it in the time. So if you can marry it with sporting events, that's very sort of beneficial to me. And that's why that poem by Pinter, I think, is very specifically moving to me. Another time. Yeah, another time. Now, is there cricket gear that you think is particularly remarkable? Like, you know, a certain bat or a certain, you know, is there such a thing as, you know, elevated cricket gear? Or has it all remained kind of green nickels, you know, sober, old fashioned ways of doing things? Ultimately, yeah, cricket whites are cricket whites as well. So, you know, in the long form of the game, the first class game we would say a game played between three and five days, you would wear whites. Yeah. And then for the shorter forms of the game, you, which is called the white ball game, not the white game in terms of the kit, but the white ball game. You would work quite colorful clothes. But in terms of those brands that were around since we were kids like great nickels, a gun and more. Gun and more, you know, a slashing jaw. I love the county. Yeah, that's right. I love the county, because I loved having the sort of stag. Yeah, very cool. I thought I hit the ball better because I had that straight off the stag. Yeah. But, you know, we've all had that experience of knocking in a bat because you would. The mallet. Yeah, the mallet. Or the cricket ball at the end of a stick. That's it. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you would brandish your bat after a hand innings at school and you would show off your cherries where you're middled a few. Yeah. And so all of the gear that you need in cricket, of course, sadly keeps it exclusive. Because you need a lot to play at a higher level, but saying that. You go to India, you see it played everywhere, just with a tennis ball or ball of tape and a bat. And it's, it is quite involved gear wise, but it can be played quite frugally. Do you, you must own a cricket jumper? Yes. Yeah. I do. Quite smart. Yeah. Again, you know, you're playing top level sport in cable knit. Yeah, it's marvelous. It's fantastic. And also the wide brimmed hat. Yep. The, the bucket hat, of course, which has become very fashionable in certain circles in the last 10 years. Yeah. Before there was Liam Gallagher, there was the England wicket keeper, Jack Russell. I used to love Shane Warren's like sunblock. Zinc. Backer, yeah. It's cool, isn't it? It's sort of like a war paint. Yeah, yeah. On the, on the lip and on under the eye, Shane Warren, great man, you know, even though I am very proud Englishman and a great lover of English cricket. I think he's the greatest cricket ever to have played the game. These great, sort of, greats of the game. I find it all very emotive. It's emotive to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And just the idea of Len Hutton and these great ghosts of the past, Dennis Compton. Yeah, Dennis Compton, yeah, exactly. And, you know, and Ian, both of them, even though, you know, I was, well, I came of age right at the tail end of his career. They're like gods, you know, they're like superhumans. I remember Graham Gooch was everyone, you know, if you wore white helmets. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alex Stewart wore a white helmet. He was still very involved over it. The oval. And again, it's just that they're super heroes. Okay, so we've had, we've had some top bands and that's been marvellous. I think it's worth, however, pointing out that you are a busy man. And so you're being here as a very generous. What is the real luxury, actually? T-Shay. Well played. Well played. Sorry, gone. But it has to be serious with the sake. You are a busy man. Yeah. And you have plenty coming up. And I'm, you know, I've, as I said, I went to see you in tequila mockingbirds. And your chops were really on display. So where else are we going to find your chops being on display in the future? Because you've been, I mean, I haven't seen you in a while because you've been on set. Yeah, I think quite so. I'm lucky enough to be busy, which is merciful because I've got four young children. So they all, they've all got their needs. Goodness me, do they? In terms of my acting and my chops, flailing around the city and the terra firmer, in fact. I just finished season five of trying on Apple TV, which I do with the love of my life as to Smith, who's my leading lady and the mother of my fourth child. Just wrapped on season five of that. I've got a new show coming out with Gemma Arterton, which is called Secret Service, which is a spy thing, ITV. I've got another thing coming out called Under Salt Marsh with the fantastic Kelly Riley. It's a yellow stone fame, some of known and admired for a long time. That's called Under Salt Marsh. That's going to be on, that's a murder mystery, which is going to be on Sky in January. I'm just about to play the Prime Minister in a show called Number 10, which is about the inner workings of Number 10, which is written by Stephen Moffitt, start shooting that soon, which is all quite exciting. Stephen Moffitt, I mean, that's a sheer love. - Yeah, I'm one of the great writers. So, you know, things are looking up, which is good. Very lucky to do what I do. Really enjoy it. And to me, there's no greater luxury. - Well, look, having you here has been a great pleasure. - I really enjoy it. Maybe we'll do every episode together. - Yeah, let's do it. But perhaps we should, you know, jacking all these jobs so you've got coming up. - Just do this. - For a more lucrative proposal of being here, talking on a sofa about. - Yeah, I know it was your idea, but let's call it 1910. - Yeah. - Money-wise for me. - Yes, because I'll be the face of it. - Yes, that's fair. - Look, that's fair. - You're big of a face. - You've got your social media presence. But, you know, let's be real. - Yeah, and. - You see? (laughing) - Who's gonna, you know, who's gonna go on, Graham Norton and talk about it? It'll be me, so. - No, let's call it 1910. And. - I thought when he said, let's call it 1910, I thought you meant that's the name for a podcast. Oh, there's a rubbish name for a podcast. - No, no, no, no, no, no, financial split, mate. - Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Anyway, we can talk about that when we start. - There are a lot of hallucinations. - Paul Cut. (laughing) - You are a great friend and a great gentleman and kind generous person for being here. God bless you. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much. I remain Tom Chamberlain. And this has been the luxury dispatch. The podcast that tells all the stories you didn't realize you wanted to know and answers the questions you've not yet thought to ask. If you've enjoyed our exploration from the crease to the cutting room, please do like, subscribe and leave a comment. We look forward to reading them. Agree, disagree, propose theories or suggest other passions and curiosities you'd like us to investigate. No review will go unread. Thank you for listening and happy dressing. (upbeat music)