Spieling The Beans

My guest for this episode of Spieling The Beans is Dame Judi Dench. You know who she is. Recorded 9th April 2026.

My guest this episode is the globally-renowned, multi-award-winning playwright, poet, and performer, Inua Ellams MBE FRSL, whose work has been produced by the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and BBC / Disney+'s Doctor Who, to name just three. Research Producer: Eileen Gbagbo

Tomorrow, the Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke starring SAIPAN opens in UK cinemas. In October, at the London Film Festival, I got to talk to its directors, Glenn Leyburn & Lisa Barros D’Sa. This is that. Producer: Farah Sadek.

My guest this episode is Daniel Bailey: award-winning director, writer, dramaturg, former Associate Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre, Chair of Judges for the Alfred Fagon playwriting awards, and all-round theatre-making phenomenon. Recorded at ID Studios, Hackney, December 2025. Research Producer: Eileen Gbagbo.

For the finale of season seven, my guest is the Booker Prize winning author Sir Salman Rushdie. Recorded at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2024.

In the longest interview we've ever done on Spieling The Beans, my guest is the sixth Artistic Director of the National Theatre (2015-2025), Sir Rufus Norris.

Dom speaks to the globally revered comedian Gary Gulman (The Great Depresh, Born on Third Base), on constructing masterful stand-up, working with directors, and effability of the word 'ineffable'.

Dom talks to Simon McBurney OBE, the co-founder and artistic director of the monumentally consequential theatre company Complicité, and an actor you’ll recognise from his roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Duchess, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Rev, to name just a few. His latest show is FIGURES IN EXTINCTION, a co-creation with the Olivier Award winner Crystal Pite; a collaboration b...

My guest today is Rupert Goold - the double-Olivier-winning, Tony-nominated director behind such shows as Dear England, Enron, Ink, King Charles III, Tammy Faye, Patriots, and Cold War. His screen career includes directing Ben Whishaw in the BBC adaptation of Richard II, James Franco and Jonah Hill in the movie True Story, and perhaps most notably directing Renée Zellweger’s Oscar winning performa...

My guest this episode is Max Webster, the Tony & Olivier Award nominated director of astonishing theatrical feats including The Life of Pi, David Tennant & Cush Jumbo's Macbeth, and imminently the Ncuti-Gatwa-led The Importance of Being Earnest. We discuss the construction of these shows, his training at La Coq, making the invisible visible, directing barefoot, how film and tv perfecting hyper rea...

MY guest this episode is the Olivier-Winning, Tony-Nominated Super-Producer of Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, and Kathy And Stella Solve A Murder, Francesca Moody MBE. On how to produce a hit show from script to cult fringe favourite to global domination, how she became a producer by accident, what exactly a producer does, and so much more. Recorded at The National Theatre.

My guest is Emmy, Golden Globe and double Olivier Award winning actor, director, producer and writer, Brian Cox. In a wonderfully unguarded conversation, we talk Eugene O'Neill, Logan Roy & Succession, great examples of directing, acting with Gielgud, how to shape a character, how to run a rehearsal room, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and we end with a recitation of his favourite poem. Recorded i...

Season 6 Premiere Episode: My guest is the multi Grammy and Emmy nominated comedian, filmmaker, actor, writer, and podcaster Tig Notaro. A true artist of standup. Continually pushing bits and using boundaries to advance all of our understandings of quite what one can do and achieve with stand-up comedy. As we discuss, and is mentioned in virtually every introduction given to her, she has suffered...

My guest for the Season Five Finale is George Clooney. You know who he is. Recorded at a special BAFTA screening of his latest film 'The Boys In The Boat', in December 2023.

My guest this episode is the Edinburgh Perrier and Royal Television Society Award-winning actor and writer, Justin Edwards. Star of The Thick Of It, as Ben Swain MP, along with The Trip, The News Quiz, The Man Who Invented Christmas, The Death of Stalin, Paddington, Thor, Wonka, Empire of Light, Yesterday, or Sorry I’ve Got No Head to name just a few. On being directed by Sam Mendes on Broadway, i...

My guest this episode is Adam James, star of Vigil, The Buccaneers, Charles III, Doctor Foster, Extras, Wicked, Johnny English Strikes Again, and countless more productions. Across our conversation, we discuss what makes a good director, approaching Shakespeare, working with Rupert Goold, the theatrical value of table tennis, performing on Broadway versus West End, playing Ariana Grande’s father i...

My guest today is Patrick Cotnoir, best known as the producer and co-host of The George Lucas Talk Show, he’s also been the producer and talent booker of over 500 legendary UCB ASSCAT 3000 shows, The Chris Gethard Show, Comedy Central's The President Show and Marvel Entertainment, and is a living testament to how a glittering career in showbiz can be started simply by putting your hand up and aski...

My guest this episode is Kiran Deol, the Emmy-nominated, Oscar-longlisted comedian, actor, writer, director, filmmaker and documentarian. As an actor, she’s performed in shows like Sunnyside, How to Get Away With Murder and Modern Family, she’s a co-host on Crooked Media’s Hysteria podcast and has made films as a writer/director for HBO and Sundance. Over our conversation, we explore the differenc...

My guest is James Naughtie, one of the UK's most revered and recognisable journalists and broadcasters, perhaps best known for co-hosting the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 for 21 years. He’s been the Chief Political Correspondent for both The Scotsman and The Guardian, as well as the Laurence Stern Fellow for the Washington Post. During his career, he has won both Journalist of the Year at the Sc...

My guest this episode is Eden Sher, the Critics' Choice Award Winning Star of 'The Middle', on creating her sell-out Edinburgh Fringe show 'I Was On A Sitcom', on learning from her sitcom royalty onscreen parents, being directed by her onscreen brother, being plucked from obscurity as a child by Jay Leno's Tonight Show, and "Brand New Cards". Recorded at the Edinburgh Fringe.

My guest is the Peabody and Emmy winning comedy titan and icon of iconoclasm Craig Ferguson. Recorded in his dressing room at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End, we discussed him interviewing Archbishop Desmond Tutu on The Late Late Show (for which the show won the Peabody), being mentored by Johnny Carson’s producer Peter Lassally, being the comedian for Bush’s final White House Correspon...

We're back. With STB history. My guests, plural, for the Season 5 premiere episode are the Emmy-nominated Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney - AKA BriTANick - on what makes a sketch a great sketch, the difference between writing for SNL and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Kurt Vonnegut's concept of Karass, opening for Robin Williams, writing comedy with the drummer from Imagine Dragons, and so muc...

My guest for this S4 finale episode is the father of QI himself, John Lloyd, on stories, holism, educational reform, Navajo proverbs, Douglas Adams, mysticism, humanity, producing, directing, Jeff Goldblum, the real answer to life the universe and everything, and why being fired is actually quite a good thing.

In the first of our 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Tapes, this week's guest is the magnificent multi-hyphenate Arthur Smith - the comedian-poet-Night-Mayor-of-Balham, on seafood, socks, storytelling, seventy-five years of Fringe, & so much more. Associate Producer: Zaffia Hussain

My guest for this Season 4 premiere episode is Helen Serafinowicz - co-creator of the International Emmy Award Nominated ‘Motherland’, one of my favourite comedies of the century so far. We talk about the difference in writing processes between 'Motherland' and her new CBBC series ‘Nova Jones’, what it’s like to be related to Darth Maul, and so much more.