Jack Rooke

You wouldn't expect her to be as funny.

My grandad was sort of quite a play-by-the-rules kind of guy, whereas my nan was not.

She was always naughty, always cheeky, always slipping me a little bit of food when she shouldn't, always like...

encouraging like a little streak of imagination but yeah she she um well no she would have been involved in a lot of the lasagna so so and you know what it's interesting because i really think my whole career came from a poem i wrote about lasagnas i wrote a funny comedy poem when i was 18 about people keep on coming to the door to drop lasagnas off after my dad had died

And sometimes they would just drop it off on the doorstep and run back into their car as if it was like an unwanted, like an orphan that we were given.

And we had so many lasagnas.

Just everywhere.

We were kind of just going around with a fork going, try a bit of too much bechamel.

So you were rating them?

We were rating them.

We made a grid on the fridge.

And we were like, Tracy Brooks from Park Avenue, she's the best.

She's still the best.

She makes the best apple cakes.

Hers, I think, was good because it had a bit of kick to it.

You know, sometimes with a lasagna, I think, I don't know, I don't think I had the language at the time, I couldn't tell you, but it was just, it felt... You know, you were speaking about this with Lisa Kudrow, about how KFC is good, but not because really the chicken, it's because of all the herbs and spices.

A lasagna with herbs and spices, that really done well.

Liven it up, it had a kick.

oh okay but yeah and then some of them were really awful and really watery and you're like well my dad's just died and you're giving me a shit that's on you i'm sure they didn't intend to no of course it's funny when someone dies they you people won't use the word they've died they have to use like pass or passed on or yeah why can't they just say they've died it's a very british thing we have over 200 euphemisms in the english language for death

okay things like shuffle off this mortal coil oh things like brown bread like we cannot say it and for so long i remember that was a huge part of the first few performances i did of good grief were like talking about how we just can't say dead and i'd be like he's dead to me that felt comforting me that felt like concrete transparent the truth