Latest / Whats Your Story With Richy Thrower / SAS Legend Hoss’s Son: Danny Ligairi | Tom Hardy, Taboo & The SAS Legacy

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SAS Legend Hoss’s Son: Danny Ligairi | Tom Hardy, Taboo & The SAS Legacy · Whats Your Story With Richy Thrower

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right, so Danny, mate, thank you so much for coming down.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um I appreciate you inviting me.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, honestly, this this is gonna be great.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, um, such an interesting story, like, and you do so many good things now, and like there's just there's there's not enough time in the day to talk about everything that you're doing and have done and and the history um of your family and everything else.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: But let's go right back to the start.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: What did young Danny look like growing up?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: Lewis Collin, no Doyle from Professionals Curlier, into everything.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_04: Mum used to work in um pea picking fields, even though she never had to work because my father was quite wealthy, my English parents.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um thought I'd be the boy, stood in front of a fight, got punched because I would be protecting everybody, um, set fire to a whole orchard by accident because I thought I'd make in a fire for my mum while they were all working.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_04: Burnt all the fruit pickers' boxes and all that, and fire engines came in on sat there going, that's what Danny was about, doing crazy things.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_04: Everything that should kill a kid now, I was doing BMX jumps, out of doors, barrels with my best friend, going down go-karts, reenacting Death Rated 2000 and Mad Max.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what I think it's weird that kids you don't see that now.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like when even when I was a kid, like we were never in the house.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now everybody's stuck to the IBM.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: The phrase isn't it?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_04: When the outside light was on, you were designed to come in.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: Or you're easy and it wouldn't be your father you'd be scared of.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's your mom.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they talk about coercion, then they coerce control.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: Your mother'd be like that, you wait till you get in, you'd be like that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_04: I think we were lighter all our lives and bullied.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And do you know that do you know what the funny thing is that as kids, you know, now if the kids are naughty, like you know, uh even even in my house, if the kids are naughty, like, carry on and you'll lose your iPad.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, carry on and you'll lose the PlayStation, carry on and you lose this, that you lose your phone.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, but they'd have one of each.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: But we'd never have anything to lose, so they just used to fill you in.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean the great the great thing about the Yeddy Murphy stand-up and the Peter K thing was they reflected on what we remembered.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, how fast can you run in slippers?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_04: But what hit you from around the corner and you didn't realise was a slipper or a trainer, yeah.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_04: And your dad and your mother were dead shots.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I remember as a kid lying to my parents over a hacksaw blade.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: And I only spoke to my brother the other day and he was laughing.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_04: So basically, I used things, I used to make things.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_04: I was like MacGyver in the 80s out of cellotape Lego and wood.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm cutting something up in my father's garage and I snap the axle blade.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_04: Remember the old flexible blue things?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_04: So I hide it under the the the Fred, the fridge, the chest freezer, whatever.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_04: Chest freezer, there you are.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: No bodies to bury, but that was a chest freeze in our garage.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and one day he found it.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: Is this yours?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's not yours.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_04: But I was like that.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, sorry.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_04: So mum, dad didn't do anything.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: He got frustrated, disciplined as a young guy, served British forces as well.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: Mum went, get here.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm looking at my mum.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_04: She picks a garden cane out.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: Garden cane, she didn't see them very often anymore, do you?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: No, wrapped it across my legs, broke.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm laughing.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_04: And because I laughed.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's the Fijamian, yeah.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I didn't even know then.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_04: I just thought it was Cyril Weijes back then, because I used to be called Cyril as a kid because I was the only coloured kid in the football team.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_04: So my mum grabbed a broom, puts her foot on the head of the broom, twists it, pulls it off.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: What's holding the broom handle in the in the broom head?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_04: A little tack.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, woo woo woo woo mum mum mum.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: You should have thought about that before you laughed.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I legged it, and she still got me.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: That was the discipline.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_04: Now they wouldn't do anything like that.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if you obviously, if you don't mind, obviously you were adopted as a a very young kid.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um but let's talk about the biological father, um, which I suppose is what people would know you most for.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, yeah, only because I've I've sort of embraced it because I was absolutely and it's amazing to see that like it's a lovely, it's a it's a really um it's nice to your um you're spreading your dad's history, aren't you?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's and like you say, it's it's really, really nice.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's a light-hearted tale, as I said, that somebody was going, Oh, your father, you just you just your dad's the guy just passed the election, but there's a bigger story to that, and no people know um and as I've said on various other broadcasts and stuff over the last couple of years, there is a hell of a story.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: And when we did Taboo, yeah, we were talking about it, and they said, Oh, it's all over the papers.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: And someone said on set, there's a big story behind that as well, because even Tom knew who my father was.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I I always respected them, but as a child growing up, I always wanted to be the SAS after watching Who Dares Wins Lewis Collins, not realising me jumping through windows, pretending to Ab sale and me leading army games as as a seven-year-old and go, go, go, go, watching a war movies like The Bridge Too Far, that my father, biological father, was a hero and a legend, and yeah, involved in coups and stuff like that.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: But then you go to the the biggest name, and I embraced it because, like any other man of colour or boy of colour, you'd want to know where you came from.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_04: For years I thought it was might be Spanish.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_04: Even said on my adoption certificate, possible Mediterranean birth.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_04: And they were like, No, nobody like that has hands that big, nobody like that runs around and plays every sport.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't have to be great, but just good.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: So, who is your biological father then?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: For everyone who doesn't know.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_04: In as I said previously and other things, is that 1962 212 Fijians were recruited by the British Army.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like the Windrush came over, these guys joined the forces, 12 nurses, 200 men.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_04: Seven of those 200 men were selected by Sterling to join the SAS.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_04: They were uh intermittently um recruited and all past selection and became absolute legends.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you imagine me as uh a 19, 20 year old kid loving the SAS.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_04: Loved everything about him.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't turn out, I could never join the army, couldn't do what you've done and other guys.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_04: But I knew how to do things, but it was just child make-believe stuff was fun.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_04: But um through the research, it was this man who made a phone call and spoke to my biological mum at the time, said, Look, where's my biological father from?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_04: And she went, Fiji.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: And it was the old push-button phones where you could put on speaker.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like part of it, I think it was part of my my fax machine I had at the time.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and everyone went, that's why he runs around sideways at rugby, does all this stuff.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, Fiji, what what is that those guys who wear a white kit and do things like the hacker?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_04: So we got toward.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: And then more and more research, finding out who he was, and then in '99, 2000, uh I'm at a dead Fijian event.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: And everyone's coming in and go, Oh, I think he looks like Hoss.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: And Hoss was the nickname for my father during his years in the forces.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um H O S.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then you find out he's uh one of the original senior instructors, uh Ponent instructor, I think it's called is it, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: Ponent directing staff and stuff like that, and had huge accolades and uh situations where they like to play out the blame, but then you find out the truth of no well as I said to you earlier in the other meeting, that he served in every major conflict in the 70s and 80s for the British for Her Majesty's government at the time and Commonwealth.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Everything that's a boy boyhood dream.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: He done it, oh I want to do this, I want to do it.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't that everybody wanted to go up and be an Axe Man, didn't they?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we looked.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wanted to go old, and we we all had these action men who was like, I want to be that one older.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_04: So even even in my mid-20s, I got my action man out and dressed him up, made a smoke and got every other gear, little action man.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: And my son was two, gave him my action man.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_04: Got him all the gear, got all went and found all the toys and dressed up my own little doll.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'm in my 20s.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: I'm playing basketball at the time, no rugby.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: And what was it, 12-inch figure?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_04: And that was my action man.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted that guy.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_04: I was wanted to be that person not realizing who my father was.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: That was crazy.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So how how why did why, if you don't mind me asking this, so how why did you why were you adopted?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: So there's two stories.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_04: One which if you if you read earlier that I actually came face to face with my biological mother that I haven't seen for over 20 years, at my older brother's funeral in Hereford, um, and I was the hidden one.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's the biggest fear because the TV stuff's brought my name to the fold.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I heard the other day that um oh, she never thought you'd find your real father.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_04: So you you don't know what's gone on.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's great for storylines, and yeah, like I said, you like the crown, you don't know what's gone on in the TV series.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's just not allegations, just wow, you don't know.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I was put up for adoption out of all the boys, so I have nine siblings.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: A bit like the Waltons, really, isn't it?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: But only from two two parents, three parents in so English adopted, biological father, biological mother.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I was the only one out of everybody to put up for adoption.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: So we have we have we have ideas, the SAS thing at the time, young mother, she's already had two boys at that time.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: The other two had gone off to mean give raised by their her grandmother, which would be my great grandmother, and they knew her as their mother.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I was adopted by two wonderful people in Worcestershire who were my heroes.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I I think I showed you the articles that my mum was my hero then.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then so do you think it was more to do with the sort of conflicts and sort of going on at the time because it was obviously obviously a dangerous place back then.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_04: It it was you got you will imagine.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we we we look back at now the the stories um of what are gone, but then I've also had to research the way military behave around civic towns.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: Hereford was a military town, so the guys go out on the night out, they meet a young girl, the girl wants to be woed by an officer, and you know that from all the all the barracks and the America it hasn't changed since World War II.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: All the American GI's got so many kids over here because that's what was happening.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um men were away fighting, the only men who were here were the Americans.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_04: You you you're a civvy in a a military town.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's gonna be that sort of thing, and I think I was that sort of person that was the was it the offspring or the result of a relationship at that time.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, since then you've come back in touch with your dad though, haven't you?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'd like to.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: So can I get this right?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: I call him my father.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_04: Because that guy who raised me was a white, yeah, not middle class, but very, very clever, affluent family raised in a little rural village of dealing with the only coloured in the village, and that was me.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, exactly.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_04: People when they came, sorry to but when they came to sports day, they'd be cheering me on.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_04: And and I've talked about this before that I'm on the start line and everyone, where's your parents?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Go on, Daniel! And they're over there, and the lads go, Well, where?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's primary school, sports day.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_04: Not realising these two white, this white couple are amazing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: We're adopted.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody knew about adoption.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, so I always reflect as my father in Fiji is my father.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, my dad is the guy who raised me.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's nice.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's nice.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then obviously, like going into like the history of your father, obviously, like you've shown him some pictures and stuff like that, and it's like so if you what's like your relationship like with your father now?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_04: So he's had two strokes.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_04: He's 87 years old.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_04: We flew to Fiji at Christmas.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um amazing.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: Just amazing.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: He knew we were coming, sort of, but when he's had two strokes, he hadn't smiled for ages.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: But I presented him, I mean, you can shoot show this image later with his great grandson.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm dealing with sibling conflict of you're not our son, you're not our brother.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, I'm pretty sure I am because my biological mother didn't think I'd find my biological father.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: But then everyone's like, But you look more like your father than your siblings do, yeah, yeah.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: And your mannerisms are more like your father's.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: Give first, never take.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_04: People say, I take you, but not actually, I'll give more than what you actually see.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but it was great, and I sat there quietly, and it was all about my son and my grandson, which is his great grandson.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_04: But as you know, with siblings, it was like they've just inherited all this part of the island, the untouched paradise of Savage.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_04: We're going into the town, and people are bowing their heads.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's like coming to America, you know, the bit the burger bar.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_04: And starts bowing out, we're doing that, and this is Reese, this is Tommy.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: Tommy looks like me.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_04: Tommy looks like Reese and Reese, they both look like my biological father.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, mate.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that was it.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, to see his reaction on that day, that was heartwarming.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_04: That was quite emotional for me.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_04: But to see him kiss his great grandson.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_04: But again, I knew conflict would be coming after that because that's the way Fijians are, you know, you've served with them.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's one place that always was saying to you before, I'd love to go to Fiji more than anywhere.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's just such a beautiful place.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's 333 islands.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_04: Every time there's a they say tsunami stuff, you lose an island, but you also grain one because it pops up for the is it tectonic plates?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_04: Remember those things are so yeah, but another island may pop up, and we may lose an island, but another one pop up.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_04: Volcanic islands everywhere.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um it is beautiful.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_04: Um is warrior culture.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: I watch the rugby and they're still trying to kill each other and they're training.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm still there watching, oh god, just get yourselves together, you'd be still the force, which they didn't prove it during the the July tests.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: But um, if you just get it right, um, but it's beautiful, and what was funny is a lot of people think you've got to save up loads of money, and you haven't, because when you get there, it's three to four Fiji dollars to the pound.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_04: So you you're quite minted.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: You're laughing.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: So we spent a fortune out there, but we spent a fortune on everybody else, not ourselves.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: Had a had a nice hotel towards the last two days so Tommy could enjoy and see him just walk out, and people go, Dadadan.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: My grandson can't say grandad, so he says dad.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_04: Why are all these people saying good morning, Tommy?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: And he he now speaks for Gene.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: My grandson's just turned six and he speaks for Gene.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: Little blonde kid can say good morning, goodbye, hello, thank you, um, good afternoon, good evening, all that sort of stuff, and smiles because they think it's cute.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: That little white Fijian with his little Fijian nose.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: He's got massive hands and feet.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_04: Can speak Fijian.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's so mad, like when like when I was in the army and and we had we had a lot of Fijian lads with us, there was such a like because obviously you you and I never knew this until you're in the army.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: But like, you know, you've obviously got your ranks within the army, but then you've got the ranks within the Fijian.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So like we had we had a guy called Laggy Laggy who was like back home in Fiji, he was like the village uh chiefly, chiefly name, chiefly surname, right?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: He was he was a private soldier, and within the the company that we were in, there was Lance Jacks, Full Screws, who were also Fijian.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: But it was funny because they would tell him what to do, or or try to tell him, and then he would backfire with that.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: So there was always like nobody fucking knew who in charge.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: So then if they had rank, yeah, to him, they don't have rank.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_04: So when I used to play against the army, I mean this is why I loved it that they ended up getting me to come in as a Civic, because when they're playing non-Army fixtures against other services, I could play in the friendlies.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_04: So when we used to play for the Army Sevens or at a lot of guest in, when we weren't playing them, there'd be a massive brawl because they were all after me.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_04: Because I'm the SAS son and I'm whiter than them.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_04: But they'd come in slate hit, leg it, and I'd just look at them and say, Come on then.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_04: And then they'd punch me, I'd hand off one, and one would punch me, and I'd be looking at him.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I'll see you in the glasshouse later.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_04: And they'd be like, What?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I will be phoning your regiment, your sergeant major, and they'd be panicked and they would go off.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: But the the cheeky days of those were and you'd watch this, they'd come in, slot you, and then leg it back into the line.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because they were sneaky.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: But then that's what they've always talked about, the Fijians.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: They always say the Samoans are the um infantry, the Tongans are the artillery, the Fijians are the special forces, and they always say that, and I'll just laugh because they're a little sly.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_04: When you're when you are a civvy but you are from a ranking family, yeah, they will respect you.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_04: But any chance they get to disrespect you in front of other people, it's that warrior mentality that comes through.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: They'll have a little dig.
• 17:04
  unknown: Yeah.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_04: I've gotten over the chiefs and I've got Ningiris.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_04: But the problem is I'm English educated, English disciplined, but if it does go off, I will protect me.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: But the boys will just come in, as you know, don't let them drink, don't let them play rugby, don't say anything.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: But let them serve side by side.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Mint.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously, um your father stayed in the South for a very long time, did some incredible job.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: 21 years.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: 21 years, that's crazy.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: That's the benchmark.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: They set the benchmark.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: You see some people like Billy Bingham and that they go, yeah, but they did 20.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: But they didn't ever did 22 years.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, so they too.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_04: I the research I did, he did D Squadron and B squadron, is that right?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: So I think that's how he learned so much.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: So there.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_04: And that meant he was on operational duty.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_04: He was in charge.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_04: So everything was going on.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: He part of the counter-terrorism unit, counter-revolutionary, all that kind of thing.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_04: B Squadron's part of terrorism.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: So he did all that.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: So when you see all this stuff, you just think, yeah, my dad.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, my father was the first.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: Because that stuff was only just formed then because we had all those troubles, didn't we, with terrorism?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: Planes in hostage situations.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's one thing Laggy always used to bring back.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um grog.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: He always used to bring that fucking.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I've got a great, I've got a great photograph, and it's piles of grog.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I keep thinking, I'm looking back, going opportunity, say hello to my little friend.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: Because I've got grog.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's literally what it is.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: People don't still don't realise what is carver.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_04: I it is dirty dish water.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it will numb you, it's an aphrodisiac, hallucinogenic.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's banned in Holland and Germany.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: But you can drink bite in Holland and Barrett.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's mad.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Which is always laugh.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so what for like anyone, what is grog?
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: So we So it's a ground-down root of a tree.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh the Angona tree.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: Look at me pretending I'm for Jane.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: The Angona tree, and you ground it down and you package it, and you leave the longer you leave it, the more potent it will be.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_04: So Mark and I, my younger brother and my English brother, who's my also my best friend, we have a packet that's one kilogram weight, right?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: So, in money wise now, that's worth about 250 quid.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: This one packet cost us 30 pound six years ago.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_04: It still sat there and they went, that is gonna be seriously heavy stuff.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_04: And you can have a low tide, which is a little sip, or you can have a high tide.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's a ceremonial drink to welcome to your villagers.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_04: I remember first having it with the legendary Takavesi and a few others.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: Try this, and I'm like, oh just give me a glass of water and a Coca-Cola back then.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: This is 27 years ago.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_04: Not realizing that my family have young Gonophys uh carva trees, plants all over Fiji.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: And so it's a big thing and it's a massive produced thing that all the islanders have it, as you know.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_04: But it will numb your lips.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_04: If you drink too much, you will be passing black roots of trees the next day.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, they have a wash down of a pint or a small drink, don't they?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you've probably drank with the boys.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I will quickly tell you one story.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_04: I brought into uni, I'm a mature student, I've just done the Commonwealth Games.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_04: I've got a wee Irish guy at a university not far from here.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's lucky enough, it's not around anywhere.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: And the wee Irish guy loved a little bit of weed.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_04: So he's drying out the carver out of the dry cloth that they they rinse it out of.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I forgot what it's called, sorry.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: And he's mixing it with weed and tobacco and smoking it.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_04: The day before we played rugby.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_04: At university.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm with your students, so you remember the film Old School?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_04: I was like Frank the Tank.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_04: But they were dealing, mixing up the weed with this at uni.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_04: Grogweed.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_04: Mate, so his lips went numb, he's lucigenic, and he's already smoking cannabis.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_04: And I used to just laugh, and this was at uni.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so that other way when it's all dry, it's just right, it looks like tobacco.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: No way.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely wouldn't smoke grug.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've drank it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: And that's it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you drink, that's enough.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_04: Your stomach, and then you'd be passing, I would say, black roots of trees in the morning.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's insane.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: If you drunk too much of it, that's potent.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So how much have you had to drink for to do that?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: Remember high tide, low tide?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: Remember when that bowl's full?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: And then they keep filling it up, you're thinking, oh, just wait one more bowl.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_04: And they go, hey, hey, come here, come here, sit, sit, sit, dum, numb, dum, but, dum, and you're like, what?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: And you have the one more, hey, one more, one more, one more, one more.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Seven bowls is still not enough.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_04: But they will drink, as you know, till the morning.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_04: And there'll be there's some great videos on social media where they're actually sat drinking, and one of them sat he's in the army and they're like screaming because you know when you're with the Virgin without knowing because they squeal, don't they?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, screaming like a female.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Fucking brilliant.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: Fucking brilliant.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So how come obviously you've got all these connections to the army and stuff like that.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Did you never want to do it or did you want to do it with it?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted I played army.
• 21:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_04: I was Ace.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: I was good.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: Scouts, uh, young officers.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Careers, weekends, days, trips.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_04: Where's Badham?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, do you remember the Peter K thing of Uncle Dickhead when they were sliding around on his knees?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_04: I used to wear a Y Vasty style cardigan, purple, you'll be young for this, with my camouflage trousers on.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I'd be at a wedding.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'd never would have left the house without my camouflage trousers on.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I was 27.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: No, I wasn't.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um I was a kid, but they were like, watching me, where's Danny?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_04: You can't see me, but I could, but I was a little kid with Afro.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_04: Who was my shoes, with my camo trousers on?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because I loved the army, not realizing who my both fathers were.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know a story about my English father either.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_04: But um, no, never did.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone thought I did.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody thought I'd joined the army.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_04: But that's why I think I'd want to do more for them now because I never had chance.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_04: But I've understood more about the veterans, understood about the services, been involved with the Army Rugby League, Army Rugby Union guys, know a lot of these boys who served 26 years in the British Army and they're senior officers now or head coaches of the British Army teams.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_04: I've been to the Army Navy games, I've experienced that.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: I've got Fijians that are in the Navy.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_04: People say, What should I join?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_04: I say Navy because when you come out of the Army, you still think you're entitled to stuff and there is no help.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: If you go to the Navy or the RAF, you're going to come out with a CV.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_04: And and it's bad, or a credit card for a hotel.
• 23:21
  unknown: There you go.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can do those sort of things, yeah.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: The so what route did you go down then, Dan?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: What what when you sort of left school college or college?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: So I wanted to be a better P teacher than I had.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't pass my L's.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I actually didn't take them.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_04: I left two weeks before the exams, just meltdown.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I went in and did a teaching certificate at a secondary college by the support of this amazing teacher at this college going, Can you come in and teach basketball and rugby?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_04: We don't have any either.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: So I'd been a coach and I'd done all that, so I'd done that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then I did my teaching certificate while I was at college.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_04: Then I was coaching schools and I was coaching independent schools.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh then I was as a young coach pulled up by the British government, and it was a thing called Raise the Game, and it was for basketball at the time.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_04: And they said to me, Would you come and help train teachers to be better coaches?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like 23 years old.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_04: As me, typical, all right, we'll do it.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm then going around the country teaching teachers how to be better P teachers because I knew what I wanted teachers to be like.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, they used to separate the kids, didn't they?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_04: And like, you're gonna be that group, you're gonna because you don't do anything.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I used to think, well, everybody could be something in sport, and that's what pea teachers were about.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then one day at my college, someone said, Oh, why don't you have a go at basketball properly?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I did.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_04: And and I I I signed for the biggest club in the country at the time.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's part of a squad, but when you're receiving I mean, I told you the abuse I got on the other week, but when you're receiving a pay packet each month, is that not professional?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_04: When you're getting all your kit and you're getting rebuck deals and you're going MTV, that's professional sport.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_04: May not be what professional sport is now, but that's what it was then.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then I got bored of it because the Americans were over, and so we had to sit there and but I played in the second team, which was the A-side, which is the same as reserves, isn't it?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_04: When you play professional football.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_04: So there's no difference.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then I went out to go at rugby and was doing alright.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: But I used to love rugby, but I was I wasn't great, I wasn't from rugby stock.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but I was a hell of a coach.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I was talking about this morning on a f on a call that I had all the criticism being an athlete, and oh, you've not done this, you've not done that, your dad's just served.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_04: But then one thing I did notice, not one of then one of the comments was I'm a shit coach.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_04: Because everything I ever coached, I had my own objectives.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone else is like, I've got to win.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, we've got to grow.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: We've got to grow.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_04: I want you to win that scrum, I want you to win that lineup.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, but we're gonna lose.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if you don't start doing those right, the next game we're gonna do everything wrong.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I did that in every sport, but I learned about those those ethics in sport from basketball.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_04: Because basketball, you got paid to rebound, pass, play defense, score lots of baskets, you got paid to go and visit schools, and and I believe that's what rugby should have been like, which is why I ended up doing a rugby camp in 1993.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_04: And you think back then, how old are you in '93? '93, one.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: This is how I would have one.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_04: So I was just coming back from Spain then, but I did my first rugby camp.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: And as you know, rugby wasn't community because it was all entitled.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_04: So I took those, I think, some of those teaching methods into rugby basketball.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_04: I was coaching athletics as well.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: But um, I used to do my own camps then, and it was all about giving back.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was like, oh, now you look back, oh yeah, yeah, but that was years ago.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: But I was the way I was, just wanted to be better than my P teacher.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 100%.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, obviously, you've done a lot of acting and and a lot of stuff to do with films and your own bits and bobs and everything else.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Where did that come from?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: Where were you like first introduced into it?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_04: We all we all know the story of Tom, the Tom situation, the dog walking in the middle of my P lesson, and everybody hates that because but it's true.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me that.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: So I was I was teaching rugby in London, yeah, at uh Old Deer Park in Richmond.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um and a dog interrupted my P lesson, and the kids are stood there like it's Tom Hardy.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: He played back row for England.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that's Tom Croft, so you sort of being a dickhead.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_04: So I allowed him to do that because it's I keep them on my on their level, yeah.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um and then Tom goes, Oh fella, sorry about that.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, swagger in, and they go, It's Payne from Batman.
• 27:34
  unknown: It's Pain.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, Tom, oh right, Tom Hardy, Bronson.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's how I know himself.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_04: Or this means war or whatever.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um and he stayed there for an hour and a half, near enough.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: Amazing.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_04: Talking to the kids, and then a couple of months later, we're doing another event, and um I know nothing about this, but he comes up on his mountain bike with his dog chasing up.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_04: Dog recognises me, comes up, kissing my face and talking to me.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_04: And Tom goes, dogs no good people.
• 28:04
  unknown: No way.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then someone said, Mate, you're on Instagram.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, Insta what?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_04: You're on Instagram, there's a picture of you with Tom Hardy, because my mate puts on there, oh my god, that's my mate.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_04: And it says Tom Hardy with his bodybuilding buddy in the park in London.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: And I've actually got a gazebo, you know, the Arnie situation commander when he's walking around with a log on his shoulder.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm walking with a commercial gazebo on my shoulder, just looking around, and Tom's chatting away, and people are going, Why are all these people queuing up and people taking photographs?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I was being photographed, and I never knew about Instagram.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_04: Or and Tom messaged me later and said, Mate, you've been papped.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry about that.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_04: And then we stayed friends, and then suddenly Taboo popped up 2015-2016.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_04: He said, 'Look, I want you to come be in the film.' I thought everybody was lying.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_04: As I said to another podcast before, I was like, Whatever.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_04: Shut up, put the phone down.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, no, this is real.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: Shut up.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, pull him up.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_04: Because I met Tom Hardy.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: Not realising it was real, and it was really Scott Production, Tom Hardy, Scott Free Productions and Harding Sons, and it was to play a character.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: So that's what happened.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh so that sort of set you on the path for the acting stuff there.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, and my mum always just saying you were a pretty good play actor at school, weren't you?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_04: That's sort of thing my mum would have said.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but no, it was it it allowed me more than anything to have the platform.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_04: And one thing Tom said to me, excuse me saying that, but one thing Tom said to me in the rap party was, and he'd given up alcohol as well, um, was that I'll see you on the other side.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_04: I went to shake his hand, he went, What are you doing?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: And he gave me a hug and he said, I'll see you on the other side.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Well, I said, What do you mean?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Well, because your chance to do something in life.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: Amazing.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: And then, like I said, you Stephen Graham came up to me and said, There's never any small roles, any small actors.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_04: So, whatever you do, you just you do it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_04: And it and it allowed me to do create my stories and and write, and everything I've written, and I've showed you seen the pre-production stuff, yeah, and the RMGB says it um everything I've written is ready to go.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um working with people like yourself and the links with Disney, the links with Amazon.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: Who else in the first two years could actually get that sniff?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, yeah, I don't know if you knew the story.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_04: So on one day, I must be the first ever British actor, people are gonna hate me that, but actor who was offered two roles, sorry, to read, not to count two ro two roles in two of the biggest franchises.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: So before it was called Bond 25, I was I had to go for a reading to play uh the new henchman against Daniel Craig.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_04: I I got the story, had to sign the NDA.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I was being interviewed, and and I had to read for it.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_04: And that when they say you're reading, it's usually like the last couple of people to to go for that part.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_04: And they wanted me there to be some badass.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, Well, I'm gonna die, definitely, aren't I?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: In this thing, if I'm going up against James Bond, yeah, chances are so I was like, Oh, there we go, I'm gonna be that Sean Bean, I'm gonna die in every scene before anybody else.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but it was just an amazing experience to read.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: So, anyway, on that same day, I was then up for Hobbs and Shaw to play um uh Dwayne Johnson's big brother.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Mint.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: And so I read for that as well, and they said he did a really good job, but being being out identified to read, how cool was that?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe I said, Oh, I'm I'm doing the acting agency.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And you just sort of take it like day by day, yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_04: So offered June to play in June, but the Bond thing didn't evolve because Danny Boyle stepped down, changed characters, changed everything, changed scenes, changed storyline, which was what you saw now in uh No Time to Die.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, which they went for a skinny henchman and different different angle, and Hobbs and Shaw, they went for the younger the older brother who's skinnier because of Polynesian culture.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of my boys think I dodged the bullet there because it wasn't as good as The Fast and Furious, it got a bit silly.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but then I was also did you ever watch um Equalizer?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, Equalizer 2.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_04: They had the the special forces soldiers and they had the guy trying to kill him in the taxi.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I I was at that time identified to do either one of those roles.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_04: But during 2016, Hooper came in charge of America, Trump, American jobs for American people.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_04: It was either move over there or just don't yeah and I can understand that.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_04: I'm I'm not against it, but I it fell short and then asked to read for Dune.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_04: So I was like, maybe my moa's not got the part sorted, maybe it's me.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but that was cool.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Widows, do you ever seen Widows?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: So Widow's based on the 80s TV series about a group of wives whose husbands have been killed or nicked, so they take on the gold, the the the stealing stuff, the robbing.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_04: So they asked me to read for a part in that.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: That was cool.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_04: But that was with Viola Davis, Oscar renowned actress, and I've got the email saying she's asked if you'd be interested in doing how cool is that?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_04: That's amazing.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so those all those things evolved.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_04: Read for a couple of BBC things.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I learned more and more from production about how I want to.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_04: I've even done essay roles.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: Why?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: I don't need to do that, I can earn more coaching and teaching or sat-at-home design and stuff.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you become a sponge on set then and see how.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, trust me, as we've discussed earlier, uh the big Taylor Sheridan thing is control the narrative yourself.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, create the series, you don't have to be in it, you can be the showrunner, which is I've written so much now that it's all relevant to what's going on.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_04: So it all has a reasoning.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then so obviously you've gone to write your own stuff and stuff, and it's shown us a couple of sizzles and stuff like that.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, what is your I suppose what is the goal with the film store?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Is there no goal you just want to keep doing it and do what's enough?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And what would you like doing the most?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the writing side of it?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the creative thing because it has to have some sort of sense of truth.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a fictional writer, people say, Oh, you live your life that but one thing came up last year was from my friend, because I've done all this stuff, and he said, I bumped into this lad of it.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, Danny Badham used to have some stories, didn't he?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Mocking me.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_04: He said, Yeah, but they're all true though, aren't they?
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: And we used to joke saying, Oh, my dad's gonna get you, yeah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_04: But my dad's gonna bury you lot.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I never did that.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: I was uh and and it's just like but I never could tell anybody.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: So telling the story now and being creative, as I said to you, there's a yellow card, there's Titan with a couple of main stars set to do it, there's Brothers of Crown, it's been ongoing for nearly nine years.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_04: But if you take away lockdown and take away the various things, I read that stuff is in the pipeline for films that take longer than nine years.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we filmed some great stuff, and you saw that stuff, and it was all about that.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I keep myself going.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like I said, I've I've launched the veteran stuff as well, yeah, which is how we met.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: So it's all about telling the story.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_04: Everything you do in life has to have a story behind it.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't have to be fictional because it can have a sense of truth.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: Because you, that sense of truth gives people hope.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds really no, no, it's it's it's bang on though.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like people say, oh it's cringy, but it is it's true.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_04: Because you everybody's living their lives through social media.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_04: I said I've told you my stories through that, and it's been hilarious.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but for those who've done a success, cool.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: For those who keep going, remember, I'm not here to sell anything, I'm here to share it though.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what I mean.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not selling anything.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: I've got links with various brands.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: But I want to control the narrative where do you know what?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_04: If I can make one person smile, that's my job then.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: Which is like I've read your stuff and I'm like, wow.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's bang on.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's bang on.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: And like, so so what are you doing with the forces stuff now, though?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let's touch on that.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so having the the the the amazing story about my uh my adopted father, yeah, having him having him with the um the Royal Artillery, and finding out his story was was when there was a misfire with a shell, he had to carry it to where it was being dumped or disposed of.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but they were like, Oh, he walked, and was like, No, but my dad was quite strong in a runner.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he served there, and having my biological father being in in the regiments um and serving, and seeing all the research that I've done as well, seeing all the information about uh how veterans are shit, that's what I've started focusing on.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_04: The stories, I mean, the yellow card is based on what's been going on with the various soldiers in Northern Ireland, and so much stuff's coming out of Northern Ireland now.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, alright, needs to tell a story.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_04: So that speaks from listening, but then the products.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we've we've both got plenty of through dark gear, yeah, yeah.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of it's priced out of people's ranges, and you can pick it up.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_04: But like design the one coat that we've done and and to help support the veterans of learning about manufacturing, having worked with kit manufacturers and sports manufacturers, it it's been a toughie because you have you either get held responsible or you they come and embrace what you're doing, and um and having done this coat when it is launched and just look at it as look at it as it puts every every other coat in the cold.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's what it is, and it ranges so it can be affordable.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_04: But then what do we do with all the other coats?
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we're gonna help the veterans, we're gonna help raise money for veterans.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_04: If I can't take them out of homelessness, then I'm gonna make them warm in homelessness and give it a voice because the more coats we put and warm clothes we put on them, uh the people go, oh my god, okay.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because if the government aren't gonna do anything, then we can at least put something on them to keep them warm.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 100%.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: And like what where did that idea come from?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: Where did that where did that all come from?
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's I think one of the things when we met on a social media post, I you said what I can't say because I would never work in TV again.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: If I do what I mean, but that's when you but you still got to control the narrative.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm thinking right, I need to make a voice.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_04: If I can't shout about it, then I can certainly prove something that this is going on in the world and this needs help.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_04: And that and that's where it came from because I'm just thinking when when I saw my my father in Fiji and he's he was 85 at the time, or less than that, I think it was his 80th, actually.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he had suffered a stroke, and they were talking about oh, his military pension, and I'm like that.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_04: I said to the siblings, well, where's it all going?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because that's enough to feed you and the bloody village.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know what I mean?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_04: You don't finish it on the senior officers of 21 years in the in the British Army, British military, yeah, to not have uh money.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_04: And when he retired there, he was then an officer in the Fijian army.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_04: A colonel.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_04: So um and trained all the counter-terrorism teams then, back then.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_04: So it was for me thinking that they've got to be something that's going to allow and support the military at the moment.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember when I was 32, I think it was, I actually thought about joining because they'd put the age group up then.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_04: 31 or 32.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_04: I know it's raised it again, haven't they?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_04: Because yeah, we have a longevity.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_04: I'm probably fitter and healthier now than I was in my 20s when I was playing sports.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm the same.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm not gonna be running and jumping everything, yeah, but I will have the wisess to yeah, some people hate this.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: I've been trained how to clear a room, whether they like it or not.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: I've been trained how to fire, I've been trained how to face something of being possible kidnaps.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I've been in those places, I've faced tyre burning in in Africa, I've faced possible hijacking in Kenya.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_04: That adrenaline.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: And if I hadn't been trained by certain individuals, that would have been a typical series.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_04: Stop, let them get out, see what's going on.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_04: I could have been been kidnapped, could be stabbed, murdered, car beans, or just for a car or wallet.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_04: So those things I've learned.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_04: Um and for me it's just like I've learned that from somewhere.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's got to be within me as well.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: So support those servicemen as much as possible because I I I was a massive believer that national service should have come back, even if it was just sporadic.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of the world went to shit, or especially the UK, where I think that's almost where we've lost those values and and work ethic and everything.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like anyone you see sort of that era who joined the national service, that should uh like now, you know, look at the world now compared to then.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we're one of the only countries that don't have in Europe Portugal, Spain, is it, they have it, Italy have national service.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_04: If you're not in you if you're not in uni, yeah, you'll go and join the army for six months.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_04: But you you are I think it's reservists in then.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: So you you are doing your weekends, you're not in full like they used to be, yeah.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: Spending weeks at a time, you're in weekends.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: Which we had the territorial army, didn't we?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: We had a TA, yes, we got mocked.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_04: But we had a territorial army.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: And look at what they're doing now.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_04: Well, my mates, I've last two years they've watched this can you come back note?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: What you what you call it?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: The strategic reserve call-up.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_04: Can you can you do this recall sort of thing?
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_04: And they're like, no, I'm not a car engine.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_04: You've made a fault.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_04: Busy that day.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, I'm in another country.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: And if you wanted to go back into it, you'd probably go into the CP world because at the moment Europe's a very hostile area.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_04: I know guys who've done CP here don't get to carry firearms because we this is our country.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Which is mad.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_04: And they go to France and they're issued one.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe that.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: The it it really annoys me that we've banned hangguns.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's a way of having them and stuff like that, but there's your section five and stuff, like we have to have a big massive thick silence silencer that isn't a silencer, the barrel.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: And a stock.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: And a big stock on the back, a coat hanger on the back.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, what is the point?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I understand it was because of all the Dunblane stuff that was brought in.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a guy that went around with an iron mill and started chewing people.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not being funny, that was it's that old saying, innit?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: Guns don't people don't guns don't kill people, people do.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: So just be more careful of who you give guns to.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: Don't, you know, there's a lot of you could go and do damage with any gun.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the sheer thing that he has.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: Crossbows, bows, and arrows.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_04: You can buy that stuff on the internet.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and they've banned handguns because of that.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: But it's with the wheels.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like you could do the same with a shotgun.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: You could do the same with the rifle.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you there's a lot of things that you could go and do more damage with that aren't banned than a fight.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_04: Hunger with shotguns, wasn't it?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_04: Huh?
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_04: Hungerford with shotguns, wasn't it?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_04: Dunno.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_04: But do you understand what I'm saying?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_04: It's your access.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_04: You've given a fire a farmer, a disgruntled farmer, a gun.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_04: He's had a row.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, if he's not muck spreading outside the guild all, he's taking a gun.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_04: And and there is that common sense factor.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: But if everybody else in the world evolves, like they said about the American gun law, that was written about can bear arms based on a musket.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_04: Right to bear arms, a musket, not a repeater or what they call it.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_04: Those machine guns, but not machine guns, are they?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_04: But they're they're not they don't realise you can steal that.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_04: And you can actually adapt them now, can't they?
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_04: So you if you've got a criminal record, you just ban anything like that.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_04: Even if you've got a sniff of a criminal record, if it's not civilian, then it's you're done.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have a gun.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: You don't have anything.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I know for a fact when we looked at, I know we shouldn't be talking about this sort of stuff, but there's stuff in Manchester at the airport.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_04: It was like, oh, what's your thoughts?
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, well, I'm I was raised right, not white.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_04: As a police officer, and having trained with these guys, which people keep slightly, I'm like, but I've trained about that conflict thing of the situation.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_04: That police officer was hit over the back of the head.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_04: He turns around and sees his colleague on the floor and the other one crouching in the corner.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_04: He's carrying a firearm.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: He didn't draw his firearm.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: But he could have.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_04: But he felt that they were going for his firearm.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: He's on the floor.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: You don't know if he's got a thing.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_04: You don't know if that officer was actually military trained.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_04: So he's thinking Boot him.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_04: But it disappeared very quickly, didn't it?
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_04: Because they you were we need more of that because if you've done that in any other airport.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it's naughty that they cut the first bit of that video out.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_04: But that's what they needed.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's engagement content, isn't it?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_04: But if you put that in any other airport, if you and I argued with a copper in France, Spain, Italy, Germany.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: You get filled in.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_04: We get filled in, battered, or shot.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Especially in America.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: America.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's like they're not even trained to main.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_04: Our police officers are trained to keep them alive.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: Unless certain regiment guys are involved in that you shoot to get rid of them.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: What did Christian Krackhead?
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_04: So uh SS was motto of SS was who dares wins, not who dare ask for permission.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: And and that and that's it.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it's that sort of situation with the military and recruitment.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, we are a generation of people that don't want to do this and don't that.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_04: But I do know a generation of people that would have wanted to, and now I mean I'm I always joke with my son who's 30 years old, he could fly drones.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't I mean proper military drones.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_04: This kid's ridiculous at all of duty, he's that good, he's blah blah blah.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_04: And look, and I'm like, I tried to get him to career today to actually meet him because he's two inches taller than me.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_04: Absolute unit.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolute unit.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_04: But he's so good when it comes to firearms, so good to airsoft.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: He actually thinks he's his granddad, doesn't care.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_04: And he plays every game.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_04: I know we're talking about that though, like it's real.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_04: So if he gets shot once, he's dead.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he played he goes to Call of Duty.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_04: I know it sounds so petty, but he's like, if I get shot, I'm done.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'll switch the game off, go to bed.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_04: And he plays at that level because he said, Well, because you don't get regen in real war.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_04: So he's even though it's so petty, he he that's his lifestyle.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but um, if anybody called up, we were on about again the other day.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_04: If that happens, what would you do?
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_04: I said, I'd go.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_04: And they're like, You shut up, and I'd I'd go.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_04: I've got all the gear as well.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_04: I haven't got all I've got all the gear, and I won't say I've got no idea because I have got an idea, and all I need to be is am I scared of anything?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: Not anymore.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'll be I'm not a 20-year-old kid, I'm a 55-year-old, 90-stone.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_04: Do you know what I mean?
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not scared.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's been installed from understanding my culture, understanding my history, and understanding that I'm not taking in shit anymore.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I think that's what people need to be respectful of the government.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think about this?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think about that?
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_04: I said we have a government, you've elected it.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_04: As much as I don't uh dis I disagree with stuff, does have need to be sorted out, but I can't get involved because while I'm dwelling on the negativity there, somebody else is suffering.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know it's bang on.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's bang on.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, what's plans for the future then, Dan?
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: What have you got left to do?
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do?
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: I get asked all the time, what you what's your what's your five-year plan?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I've got two weeks.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing next week.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then well I do, I'm working.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but if you and I have been trying to get this in, I'm like, oh, has he got a diary?
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's just a date to tell me what date you're doing.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_04: Get this in.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I wanna uh, which is one of the reasons why we we we've start to collab more, is I want to get these sizzles done and these films done.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_04: I want us to control the narrative.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_04: I believe getting and working with the right people allows your network to grow.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_04: We've both been in industries where we've allowed other people to work off our network and see them gone on.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I've my charity, which is now it's about to be a CIC, so it's a charitable organization now, is I've introduced them to people over the UAE, schools, colleges.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you have one bad word, and they all collaborate on size away from me, even though I was trying to protect somebody else from professional issues, um, and they've all gone off and done it themselves.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_04: But then, as I said to you earlier, it's just like business.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_04: I was I stopped beating my head in over it all.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's like a professional football team.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_04: The villas and the United's been stripped of any players, the all the regulations and stuff.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_04: So for me, it's getting the right collaboration, the positivity, the drive, working with yourself, your your colleagues, coming up with other ideas.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm I'm in a film in November up here, um, a Bromcom.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_04: Amazing.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_04: But I'm playing the mate of the lead actor.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's being filled up there, so you'll be invited along to that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_04: But that's with a director that I've known since I started writing, and she thinks I'm very clever, and I've got all this stuff done, and so that's happening.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_04: But my my idea for the next six months, five, six months is you and I to that do that collaboration, get things going, and as we said about Taylor Showden, control the narrative, control the film, and see what we create out on those screens.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_04: Remember, it's never about one person, I mean, sorry, many people, it's about one person too many going, wow.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_04: I've had that.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_04: Because in three or four years' time, that one person turns into 20,000, 30,000, 40,000.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_04: And agreeing those terms is really important because I love your stuff, which is how we know.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_04: Nice one, mate.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: Nice one, and yours is ace as well, like the the few sizzles and that you show is fucking class.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's on, it's unreal.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_04: But that's why I said it.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_04: You've I'd learn something.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you do it, you do it.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: The the the the one thing I do want to say is, and I've been in the film industry for a very short time, and one thing I've found is there's there's thousands of people going, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna do that.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: There's very little people actually doing it.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you you know, there's people that have said, Oh, I'm yeah, I'm I'm just working on this, I'm gonna do this.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you speak to them a year later, two years later.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: Are you getting on with that?
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I've just not started it yet.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: Nah.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas you've just, yeah, I'm doing this, done, bang, done, and I looked at it.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_04: You create this story, yeah, and the best thing about AI is you can remember, AI can only go off what you tell it.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then it re-researches it.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_04: So you use AI to finish off your scripts because then when you hand it, it just they'll get in a script writer.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you just want them to come in and and write it for you.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_04: So looking at your stuff as well, and look at the angles and and look at you have to have a story, yeah, a real story.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_04: That's where people reflect.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_04: So you've got the Brad Pitt coming out with the dog, dogs hook people.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_04: The story's based on a book, the book's based on memoirs.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, everything, everything has to have a sense of truth.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_04: The the Star Wars thing, the Jedi was based on samurai.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_04: Simple.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: It was like, oh, Star Wars based on samurai, the seven samurai.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_04: The Jedi's were swords, guardians.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_04: Everything you write is got to have some sort of truth.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_04: And yeah, you you bend it, but you create it.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_04: And one of those things, as I said, we things you will only learn by falling over.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_04: And you only fail when you actually give up.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Denza Washington said, always fall forward.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_04: My my other one is four down seven stand up eight.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_04: Nice.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_04: And as I said to you before, we have a trait, a mechanism in our brains.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: What if?
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and it's it's an automatic uh protection system.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_04: When you go in, like you guys are trained to go through doors and windows, what's on the back?
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I don't know, but I know what I've got to do.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I can't, while I'm waiting around here, they could put a bomb behind the door now.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_04: So for me, it's um it's never a loss, it's a lesson.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_04: And you you have to go for it, and it's just feel don't fear failure.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: If you don't feel failure, you can get on in life.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_04: And as my mates will say to me, if they're not doing one thing, I'm doing another.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_04: Every day I'm trying to structure my days, it's not gonna happen because as I said, I'm the coat manufacturing, I've done all the designs.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_04: I spoke to leading printers to link with the coat.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_04: I've had seven different coats designed to to undercut the other bets but be better than another.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_04: I've then looked at the work where and some of those projects come through, and I'm like, I'm just happy.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'm being creative.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's and it's control the narrative.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_04: The Taylor Sheridan thing.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if you're not gonna make it in one, why don't you control it and make it self?
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_04: Which is what you've done, and that collaboration is exciting.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_04: So if you're gonna do it, you do it with people that you trust.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: What a nice word to finish on, mate.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_01: Bro, thank you so much for going to fucking size your hands.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_04: My parents said as a kid that I'd never have any rough fingers and I haven't.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: She was like, What are you gonna do?
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_04: I said, never gonna be like that.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'd fucking hate to get hit by one of your snowballs.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_04: I got I got banned from playing sh uh very close up to the wickets at cricket.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_04: I had to go and stand deep because I'd just launch it, and they're like, No, no, no, no, then that'd be the teachers and then snowballs and uh go get bader for the snowball fighting because I was good for a cricket ball.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, but no, it's uh it's been handy.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: The rugby's always been good because the joke was it's the palm of Dubai, the real palm of Dubai is there's to come and see it, and and I I had a couple of international Welsh players play one year, and they went, I've seen it, I've seen the palm.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_04: I oh, he was Welsh, but I've seen the palm, and he stood there, he's like, I've seen it, I've heard all about it, but I've seen it.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_04: Whoa, I don't want to be touched by that.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_04: And he's on my team.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_04: So no, big hands, but thank you for having me.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, no, thank you for coming down.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_01: I really, really appreciate your time and and and it's been an amazing chat.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um yeah, yeah, I mean, the the other hour and a half earlier, two hours.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_04: Even your mate was going, I don't want to go.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: Podcast for a podcast.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's it's something you you've driven and you speak well about the veterans.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_04: I'm never a veteran, I'm not a Walt.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_04: I I'm the son of two former British soldiers, um, and I have a lot of love for the military.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like you said, Action Man must have been the main man for me as a kid.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_04: And then every war film that came out, I watched it with my father.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, mm-hmm.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_04: Not knowing that at that time my biological father was a pretty big hero, like my English father.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: So you fan of me.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Mate, thank you.