5th February 2010 appearance by Bobby, talking about The Fattest Man in Britain and as a general guest throughout the show
Initial segment
Christine: Hello, welcome to your Friday one show with Adrian Chiles
Adrian: And Christine Blakely and the comedian turned actor in whose honour I’m wearing these. Pardon me. Let me do a bit of this. (pulls braces)
Christine: Rock on Chilesy. It’s Bobby Ball.
Bobby: Fantastic, come on, fantastic (mimes braces)
Adrian: Where are they?
Bobby: Well, after 46 years of doing this, this bust is 1 foot bigger than this, right. So I’lve had to stop it, you see
Adrian: Well, to mark John Terry’s departure from the England football captain’s role and your appearance on The One Show, Bobby, we’ve decided to have a bit of spot the ball fun tonight. OK, spot the Bobby Ball actually.
Christine: Yeah, here’s a picture of the ex England captain, we’ve hidden Bobby Ball somewhere in this picture. Now this is just for fun. You don’t have to e-mail us or anything else. But we want you to see if you can spot the ball. All the family can take part in this little bit of fun. We’ll give you the answer at the end of the show.
Adrian: Look closely now. We’ll be speaking to Bobby later about the role in The Fattest Man in Britain. Widely acclaimed.
Bobby: Yes. It’s not me. I’m not the fattest man in Britain
Adrian: No, you’re his mate.
After a feature about old cinemas
Christine: It is sad. Bobby isn’t it, those beautiful old picture houses.
Bobby: I think they’re absolutely gorgeous. We had one in my village called the Pavilion
Adrian: Where was that?
Bobby: In Shaw, just outside of Oldham. It were like that, beautiful, and they had double seats where you could sit with your girlfriend? But there were always three of us, me, the girlfriend and the fleas. It was a beautiful place. Yeah. Loved it.
Adrian: And what happened?
Bobby: Pulled it down didn’t they
Adrian: No, no what happened with the girl?
Bobby: Oh I can’t tell you… That’s enough now.
Adrian: Have to use our imagination
Bobby: I married her actually.
Foodie Friday and interview
Christine: Well, finally this is my favourite part of foodie Friday. Your recommendation for a tasty treat for the weekend. What is it this weekend then?
Jay: It’s cockles, but not the cockles that we are used to vinegar in a little plastic pot. This is fresh cockles in the shell, which are a marvellous, marvellous thing. I think they’re as good as clams, but they’re half the price. They’re sustainable and we send most of these out to Spain. They are fabulous. Bobby, when you went in the jungle you ate some very strange appendages. You can say no. I won’t be hurt.
Bobby: I’m saying no.
Adrian: I’ll have a cockle with you, Jay
Jay: Thank you very much, Adrian. I’m touched.
Bobby: Let me have a go
Jay: They are very, very easy to cook. You just pretty much heat up a pan, throw in an onion, sautee it, then throw these on top, put the lid on. There you go.
Christine: It’s all about for this weekend. Thank you. Very much, Jay
Adrian: Well, Bobby’s also here to talk about food, in a manner of speaking. Doesn’t like the cockles. Never mind.
Bobby: Ohh man
Jay: Don’t you dare criticise my cockles
Bobby: I’m not saying nothing. Aw man.
Adrian: Bobby’s performance in the drama, the Fattest Man in Britain, alongside Timothy Spall, earned him some well deserved rave reviews.
(Clip from The Fattest Man in Britain)
Christine: Your character is kind of a sidekick, bit of an agent I suppose
Bobby: I was his manager, yes. He wanted to be the fattest man in Britain, so I fed him up because I was his manager. I looked after him.
Adrian: It’s the first proper kind of acting role. It’s taken you a long time to get round to it or them a long time to getting around to asking you. You were brilliant.
Bobby: This year’s me and Tommy, 46 years together, me and Tommy, and it’s a long time and they asked me, they got in touch with my manager and it were Caroline Aherne and said she’d written this part especially for me and would I be interested in doing it. And I met her and Jeff Pope, and read the part I thought was fantastic. So yeah. But I was nervous, I mean, when you get with these people, I was very nervous, but they was wonderful with me, they just helped me out and everything.
Christine: Timothy Spall, who’s been on the show before, is a great actor. Did he help you then along the way with the hints?
Bobby: Unbelievable, all the time. All the time. Yeah, just little things he helped, and you know, put me at ease. Bit like today, with Captain Pugwash here, I felt fantastic.
Adrian: So it’s Spall and Ball
Bobby: Spall and Ball. Fantastic. Spall and Ball.
Adrian: So what did you find difficult about acting then? How was it a different kind of craft?
Bobby: I found, yeah, there was one little part where he says he don’t want to be the fattest man anymore. And I had to get very upset about it and I didn’t know how to do that. So you just spent time, and I thought of something very sad in my life and it made me cry. So it worked. So you’ve just gotta think of certain things that suits the mood, you know? So, yeah, it was excellent.
Adrian: And you like to do more now.
Bobby: Oh, I want to do more. If anybody’s listening, I want to do more. More acting. Yeah. Yeah. I’m an actor. Thespian.
Christine: But you haven’t left the comedy behind.
Bobby: Oh, no, no, I couldn’t leave that behind, no.
Christine: No, no. How is Tommy?
Bobby: I’ve gotta keep with him. He keeps having kids. So I’ve gotta keep working. He’s doing alright. He’s a good lad.
Adrian: The Fattest Man in Britain is is out on DVD now
