Blank Podcast with Giles Paley-Phillips & Jim Daly

Fiona Murden is a leadership psychologist and author of several books, including Defining You, that looks at the process of psychological profiling and fulfilling your potential. We've been wanting to speak to Fiona for quite some time to look at a bit deeper at some of the science behind what Blank moments occur and what is most effective in combatting them. We started off by chatting about the f...

Paul Pilot aka Paul Wilkinson is musician, composer and producer from Northern Ireland. Best known for his band The Amazing Pilots and his recent film scores on documentaries like Finding Oscar and Netflix production The Final Cut for Orson, Paul has been a producer and sound engineer on works by Duke Special, Athlete, Rue Royale and All the Luck in the World. He is also the composer of our very o...

In a special bonus episode (which we've been thinking of doing for quite sometime) Giles and Jim chat with each other about all number of subjects from minecraft and cult novels to creativity, daily stress, and of course the current news around coronavirus and how we are both dealing with isolation. A special thanks to Dominique White for a beautiful piece she emailed to us which is read out at th...

Marcus Brigstocke is a comedian, writer and actor. Known for satirical stand-up, musical theatre and radio broadcasting on stations such as Jazz FM. We met up Marcus a couple of months back, to discuss all manner of stuff, starting with all of our passions for the arts, particularly music, each of us talking about our first albums. Marcus tells us about his passion for cheese and the poignant mome...

Chris Addison is a comedian, actor, writer and director. Starting in Stand-up Chris made his name touring the UK and playing high profile slots at Edinburgh Festival before moving into acting with his role in the multiple award-winning The Thick of It. Further acting roles and regular appearances on panel shows like Mock the Week have propelled Chris to being one of the UK's most loved performers....

Isy Suttie is an actress, musician, comedian and writer. Best known for role as Dobby in the multi-award winning Peep Show, Isy is also a hugely successful stand-up and is the author of the brilliant The Actual One. We met up with Isy a few weeks back, but Coronavirus was very much on all of our minds and was the basis of our conversation. The chat soon shifted to Isy's childhood in Derbyshire and...

Mark Watson is a British comedian and novelist, originally from Bristol, Mark has been a mainstay of the UK stand-up scene and has had several fiction titles published including Eleven and Hotel Alpha. We met with Mark down at Nordic Bar on what was an incredibly soggy day in London. We started our chat by talking about Seasonal affective disorder and how much the weather changes our moods. Mark t...

Layla Anna-Lee is a television presenter best known for fronting live MMA action and interviewing the best footballers on the planet. She sat down with Giles and Jim at Nordic Bar in central London to talk about moments on live TV when things went wrong, dealing with social media trolls and the pressures of being a presenter. She also brought donuts to the pod, the first guest to do so, and the th...

Stephen Mangan is an actor and writer. Born in London in 1968, Mangan began his acting career in theatre before moving in TV working with the likes of Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan and in the Multi-Award winning Green Wing. In more recent years Stephen has moved away from more comedy roles to concentrate on drama, and has recently been in BBC One's The Split alongside Nicola Walker. We met with S...

Alastair Humphrey is an adventurer, author and public speaker, who has been National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year. Alastair has cycled the globe, busked through Spain and created a new movement of micro adventures. We started our chat with Alastair about his epic journey around the world, where he cycled some 46,000 miles over four years, we find out the darker times along the way, when Ala...

Simon Brodkin is a comedian, performer and renowned prankster. Best known for his character Lee Nelson, which had several series broadcast on BBC 2, and more recently his high profile stunts which has seen Simon give Theresa May a P45 and gatecrash a Fifa press conference to throw money at Sepp Blatter. We met with Simon in Old Street a day or two ahead of his new stand-up tour, his first as himse...

Emily Dean is a writer and presenter, well known for her role alongside Frank Skinner on Absolute radio, she also presents the amazing Times podcast Walking the Dog and is the author of the incredible memoir 'Everybody died, so I got a dog' We met up with Emily on a dreary winter's day in London, and started our conversation by talking about how we cope in a crowd, and are we performing and analys...

Jake Humphrey is a sports broadcaster and presenter. Originally from Norfolk, Jake started in Local TV before joining CBBC as a presenter. He's best known for presenting Formula One coverage and more recently BT Sports coverage of the Premier League. We headed down to Frequency Cafe near King's Cross to sit down for a natter with Jake over a very nice cup of coffee. Jake spoke to us about his upbr...

Kerry Godliman is a comedian and actress, best known for her roles alongside Ricky Gervais in Derek and After Life. She is a regular on BBC Two's Mock the Week and has toured extensively doing stand up for around 20 years. Giles and Jim travelled down to West London to meet up with Kerry just before Christmas. We started by chatting about politics and Kerry having to do extensive research for her...

Dame Kelly Holmes is a one of Britain's best loved and most high decorated athletes and what better person to help celebrate our 50th Episode. We met up with Dame Kelly at Acast Studios to chat about all things Blank, she talked about her time in the army and how the levels of discipline helped her when competing as an athlete. We discussed the difficult moments that come when form dips and how on...

David Baddiel is a comedian and writer from London. He is very well known for his work on The Mary Whitehouse Experience, Newman and Baddiel in Pieces and his work alongside Frank Skinner on Fantasy Football. In recent years he has branch into writing books for children and his sold out tours and recent play God's Dice have been highly acclaimed. We met David on a very cold General Election Day in...

Ben Miller is a comedian, actor, and writer who is known for the award-winning The Armstrong and Miller Show and his acting roles in Death in Paradise and The Worst Week of My Life. In recent years Ben has appeared in many films including Paddington 2 and as well as publishing two highly acclaimed books for children. We met up with Ben at Nordic Bar and began our conversation by discussing Vikings...

Rufus Hound is an actor, comedian and presenter. He is best known for his regular stints on shows like Celebrity Juice and hosting coverage of Glastonbury and Top of the Pops. More recently he has been receiving critical acclaim for his acting roles in a number of stage productions including most recently The Boy in the Dress at the RSC. We met up with Rufus in Stratford Upon Avon at the Royal Sha...

John Bradley is an English actor, best known for his role as Samwell Tarly in the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones, and has recently finished work on the film Marry Me alongside Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. We met up with John on a very cold afternoon in London to sit down and talk at length about his acting process, the little intricacies that he wants to put into every role and how somet...

Dawn French is a British actor, comedian and writer. Her partnership with Jennifer Saunders, which began in the early 80's has produced multi-award winning sketch shows for the BBC and made them household names. She has been a successful actor in her own right starring in comedy shows like The Vicar of Dibly and dramas such as Delicious for Sky Arts. Dawn is also a prolific writer and has had seve...

Jess Impiazzi is an actress, writer and former glamour model and reality TV star. Jess first came to prominence during her time on Ex-On the Beach and Celebrity Big Brother, but her first love has always been acting, having trained at Italia Conti as a teenager and she's now back doing what she loves. We met up with Jess in Surrey to talk about her early life and the many challenges and difficult...

Sir Nick Faldo is one of the greatest British golf players of all time, winning The Open three times – the first home player to do so since Henry Cotton – as well as the Masters also three times, he spent 97 weeks as No.1 in the world and is now a regular analyst for CBS and designer of courses.  We met up with Sir Nick in his UK home in Eton, right by the river Thames. It was an early start for u...

Melvin Odoom is a British DJ, Broadcaster and Comedian. Alongside Rickie Haywood-Williams and Charlie Hedges, Melvin has hosted Kiss Breakfast every weekday morning. Melvin has presented on TV shows like Xtra Factor, Bang on the Money and Channel 4's Lego masters. Giles and Jim met up with Melvin just before the summer to chat all about 'blank' moments in broadcasting, how having a positive outloo...

Lucy Pinder is a British model, actress, and podcaster. Originally from Winchester, Lucy has been seen in several films and has made many TV appearances in Dream Team, Book at Bedtime and Celebrity Big Brother. We met up with Lucy back in July at Acast to chat about our mutual love of podcasting, changing careers and how Lucy's 'blank' moments come from an unexpected place. Support this show http:...

Jessica Fostekew is a comedian, actor, writer and podcaster. We met up with Jessica just before the start of her Edinburgh Fringe show, which she was busily putting the finishing touches to. We discussed food and podcasts before diving into finding out about Jessica's early life and negotiating friendship groups through secondary school and how one group allowed her to finally find herself. Jessic...