Dara O'Briain has talked about the stresses of working on Mock The Week to Jay Rayner on the latest edition of the food critic's podcast, Out To Lunch.
Taking very frankly O'Briain even revealed that he considered quitting Mock The Week at one point. "There were many years of Mock the Week that were actually not that fun in some ways. There were very strong personalities who were very staccato. Frankie and Russell (Howard) in particular were very, very good. Frankie in particular had a tendency to kill a topic by bringing it to a brutal end, which people loved, absolutely adored, but it made it more difficult to engender any conversation."
"There were years where it wasn't as much fun as it could have been. I mean, genuinely, I remember sitting down once while one of the rounds was on and with a piece of paper, cause I have nothing to do at that point, writing out the next four years of my career. Going, do I need to tour? Do I need this?"
More recently, however, he has fallen back in love with the enduring show. "It sort of evolved with this generation to a much more conversational show, but it retains a surprising amount of baggage. The only benchmark I can bring to it is that I enjoy significantly more now than I ever did. Partly because this generation I work with are much more conversational, much more collaborative generations."
He added though, that he would rather host than be guest: "I would never guest on this show, it’s a terrible show to do. It's not a show that you can just drop in and talk a bit of shite on. We all love those shows and we also have to be able to do those shows. But it's not one of those, unfortunately..."
He also talks about how comedians don't always have to be depressed, how wine helps his writing, and his scepticism about his upcoming drive-in comedy shows due to Covid.
He later tweeted that Jay Rayner sent him a gift: "This was a pleasure to do, and I was clearly charmed by the decision to send me 15 sausages as accompaniment."
Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner is available on all podcast providers.
Listen to the full podcast here.
