Gabby Logan

Did that decision, when he told you, I've got to leave, or was it inevitable that he was going to have to leave because of... I think it was sort of inevitable.

He'd picked up an agent, quite a big agent by then.

I think Michael realised that

this was not the same as an acting career because you can generate your own work because you're writing your own work and there's clubs everywhere etc and i had said to him when he um got his a-level results he tried for cambridge

because he was interested in footlights, of course, by then.

I think they smelt that there was no work going to be done and he was only really going for the footlights.

Quite smart there, aren't they?

They are quite smart.

They picked that one up, yeah.

So I said to him, because he had the choice of King's London or Manchester, I said, Jack, if you really want to be a comedian, go north.

Because I spent my very early career touring.

So you name the theatre, I've probably played it.

And because I did about three years.

So I said, go north because there's a whole world up there that you should know about, because if you want to do comedy, that's your training.

And he said, OK, I'll go to Manchester then.

And he spent his year in Manchester when all his mates were going out to get lit.

He would say, I'll join you later.

I'm just going to go to Liverpool or Bolton or do a quick gig and then I'll come back.

So he, I mean, that posh voice in Liverpool on a Saturday night, if you can survive that, where everyone thinks they're a better comic than you are, you can survive anything.

But what he's done by going north as well, which was great advice, as well as learning about a whole world that he wouldn't have been exposed to because his life was predominantly in the south.