Blank Podcast with Giles Paley-Phillips & Jim Daly

Natalie Anderson is an English actress, singer and model. She is best known for her roles as Alicia Metcalfe in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2010 to 2015 and Stella Davenport inThe Royal from 2005 to 2008. She also played the role of Nessarose in the West End production Wicked from May 2009 to March 2010.  She talks to Giles and Jim over Zoom (because that's how we all communicate these days) about her acting journey including Emmerdale and The Royal as well as how nerves became a part of her life later in her career rather than earlier. She also, very patiently, puts up with Jim having terrible connection issues with his wifi.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Louisa Connolly-Burnham is an actor who is best known for her performances as Shannon Kelly in Bafta-nominated Wolfblood, Willow Jenks in Bafta-nominated House of Anubis and Avril Fox in Bafta-nominated Call The Midwife. She has also appeared in the multi-award winning short film Beneath Water for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the Queens World Film Festival , ITV's Midsomer Murders, Sky1's Little Crackers, BBC's Holby City, Doctors and Outbumbered. She spoke to Giles and Jim about traumatic auditions, transitioning into writing and surviving the lockdown. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor David Wilson is a former prison governor, known for his work as a criminologist specialising in serial killers through his work with various British police forces, academic publications, books, and media appearances.  He is professor of criminology at Birmingham City University has published widely on the criminal justice system generally and prisons specifically, and was the Editor of the Howard Journal of Criminal Justice (2000–2015), and is the author of more than 15 books. Prof David spoke to Giles and Jim over Zoom about some of the darker aspects of his job and how to spot a psychopath (thankfully none of this podcast we can confirm!) He also talks about his love of rugby and pinpoints the exact moment he decided to pursue a life in criminology.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Sweeney is a British investigative journalist and author. During his time at the BBC he worked on shows such as Panorama and Newsnight where his combative and bold style have seen him doorstep Putin, go undercover in North Korea, challenge Trump on his association to the mob and most infamously the time he yelled at scientologists. We caught up with John on what was VE Day and started our conversation by discussing the new normal, what we miss and what things we like about lockdown in the UK. John tells us about his journey into journalism and his time working at The Observer, the subsequent move into broadcasting at the BBC and the darker moments he has experienced personally, since leaving the corporation after an investigation he was doing on Tommy Robinson saw him land in hot water. John is wonderful company, with so many amazing stories from what is an incredible career spanning several decades and we hope this won't be the last time we talk. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the Spring break, so we though we'd put together a little selection of clips from some of our favourite episodes from last year to keep you going till we return in a few weeks time with some amazing new episodes. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 full out from the coronavirus pandemic and how it will affect people's mental health in the longterm. Fiona tells us about her work with big business leaders and what goes into doing a successful psychological profile of potential employees. We discuss sleeping habits and the many themes we hear each week on the podcast from public failure to imposter syndrome. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 own Blank Podcast title music. Paul is based in Berlin and so meeting up to record had always been difficult to arrange so, a remote recording was always on the cards. We started our chat by talking about expensive microphones and how much of a difference they make to the fine margins in vocal recordings. Paul tells about his own creative process and how we often find it hard to be satisfied with what we've made. We discussed his time as a kid growing up in Northern Ireland during the troubles and his desire to eventually seek a career in music by moving away. Paul tells us about collaboration and what it is like to be in a band with your brother. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 the end of this episode. We'll resume normal transition next week when our guest is the amazing Paul Pilot Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 moment in his life this passion stems from. The chat moved on to mental health and how Marcus makes a gratitude list each morning to help him stay level. We thought we'd give you all a little extra this week and have put together a little Spotify playlist to accompany this episode, see if you can spot the songs from our first albums https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3icMfrPwid1Stu2l9DTUsI Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. He has recently taken up directing with his feature debut The Hustle starring Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway. With the ongoing difficulties due to the outbreak of coronavirus, we have had to adapt to how we do things a little. It has always been our intention with Blank to sit down in the real world with our guests, we feel that physical connection is truly key in making sure we have the most authentic, natural and relaxed conversations, however with social distancing now being imposed we had to decide whether to have a break from podding for a while or to try some different approaches, so we've gone with the latter, because most of all, we want to continue to bring you the show, and we hope that it might give all of our wonderful listeners a little respite from the very challenging situation we currently find all ourselves in. The Pod MUST go on So Jim and Giles sat down in our respective homes, in Amersham and Seaford, to record with the brilliant Chris Addison in London. We'd arranged to pod with Chris some time ago, but his work schedule had intervened, but with work going into shutdown, Chris messaged to say let's do a podcast. We started off by chatting about messy workspaces and how this might be a good time to address it, or not as the case may be. Chris talked about those difficult years directly after university and how people can often feel adrift and not know where their path will lead, for Chris it was dreams of theatre directing, but soon became a career in stand-up comedy. We talked to Chris about his move into directing and how much of it is down to the inspiration and mentorship of people like Armando Innaucci who took a chance on Chris whilst making The Thick of It. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/theblankpodcast.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices