Welcome to Weird Street by Stephen Mangan with Stephen Mangan
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, I'm Sarah Pascoe. And I'm Cariad Lloyd. And we're weird about books. We love to read.
We read too much. We talk too much. About the too much that we've read. Which is why we created the Weirdos Book Club.
A space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated. Each week we're joined by amazing comedian guests and writer guests to discuss some wonderfully and crucially weird books, writing, reading and just generally being a weirdo.
You don't even need to have read the books to join in. It will be a really interesting, wide-ranging conversation and maybe you'll want to read the book afterwards.
We will share all the upcoming books we're going to be discussing on our Instagram, Sarah and Cariad's Weirdos Book Club.
Thank you for reading with us. We like reading with you.
This week's book guest is Welcome to Weird Street by Stephen Mangan, illustrated by Anita Mangan. What's it about? It's about a little girl called Sarah who finds a lost cat and visits each house on Weird Street to see who it belongs to. What qualifies it for the Weirdos Book Club? Well, it's set on Weird Street, you dig?
In this episode, we discuss... Treasure Island. Green Wing. Stephen Fry. And farts. And joining us this week is Stephen himself. Stephen is cool and sexy. Stephen Mangan. It's a first for the podcast because your book saved my life today. Today, just now. I was on an e-bike and a bumblebee landed on my jumper and I thought, just leave it. You know, those bikes go so fast. I don't even have ridden one. They're very unsafe. And then it was just moving around and I thought, I'm just going to run over. And in my basket, bumping up and down was your book. And I had to get it out and flick the bee off me. Oh, wow. Yeah. And then I nearly lost the book, but then I didn't.
So it wasn't because you read it and it changed something fundamentally deep within you? Oh, no. I should have maybe warned you.
Yeah, it sounded like it was going somewhere else.
What is the premise of 'Welcome to Weird Street'?
But it has made my life better. Also, it's so great for us that you called it Welcome to Weird Street because we have a weirdos podcast. We don't need to struggle about how to introduce why is it good for the weirdos book club.
We normally have to say, why is it a weirdo book? Easy.
It would have been upsetting if you'd gone, it's not really for us, actually. It's really for us.
It's so for us. This is your ninth kids' book?
Your ninth children's book? Eight and a half.
Eight and a half.
What qualifies 'Welcome to Weird Street' for the Weirdos Book Club?
I think, what, because it's short stories.
We did a World Book Day book.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So it's a sort of half a book.
And you're saying we because your amazing sister, Anita, does all the illustrations. It's quite like a team.
It is a team.
It's a team. And each book feels very distinctive. And she's done the illustrations from the beginning. So I feel like the characters have grown. You and Anita have created this world together. Yeah.
It's difficult for me because I don't know if you even remember this. No, go on. But I auditioned for a Victoria Pyle show, the one that she made after Green Wing.
Campus. Campus, yeah.
And when she next saw you, she held up my headshot and said, I look so much like Stephen, I could be your sister. Do you remember? And so when I saw your sister, I was like, that's me. Stephen's sister, Anita. Me.
Yeah.
That is so funny. I've forgotten all about that.
Of course you did. I had forgotten until I saw Anita and it's like looking in the mirror. You were like, oh, that's me.
Someone said to me the other day, someone said, we saw you on Gogglebox, your wife doesn't half look like you. I was like, we've literally got the same face. It's the same face with different hair. How could she be?
You should dye your hair pink, though, and really freak people out. I'm going to, that's next.
You look so alike.
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
But there's another sister as well, isn't there?
There is, Lisa. Lisa Marie.
Does she look as... I think she looks quite as similar as you and Anita do.
No, but you can tell we're from the same... Yes, yeah, yeah.
But you and Anita, I think, look very alike.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–1:46
2
What is the premise of 'Welcome to Weird Street'?
1:46–2:11
3
What qualifies 'Welcome to Weird Street' for the Weirdos Book Club?
2:11–4:37
4
How does Stephen Mangan's book relate to his other works?
4:37–4:57
5
What is the creative process behind the illustrations for the book?
4:57–6:21
6
How does Stephen Mangan balance acting and writing?
6:21–7:47
7
What challenges do children face in reading today?
7:47–10:34
8
How does humor play a role in children's literature?
10:34–51:14
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Sara & Cariad's Weirdos Book Club
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