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00:29Hi there, Peter.
00:30Hello, Steve. Nice to see you all. Where am I sitting?
00:32I thought so. Hello. Hello.
00:35Nice to see you. Nice to see you.
00:36Nice to see you. Caroline. Caroline. Hello.
00:38Hello there. Good to see you all.
00:40I heard you went to Buckingham Palace and do drugs,
00:45sneaking drugs and cocaine.
00:48I didn't go in order to do that.
00:50So why did you go in to Buckingham Palace?
00:55I mean, I'm not going to justify it.
00:59Right.
01:02Do you not do that anymore?
01:03No. I'm a good boy now.
01:05Good.
01:10It's going to be hard.
01:11Oh, I know. I've seen it. I've seen you guys.
01:14Smiling assassins.
01:23Chardonnay, would you like to introduce us?
01:27Welcome to the Assembly, our collective of autistic, neurodiversion and non-disabled interviews.
01:34We are delighted to have you today.
01:37Our rules are no subject is out of bounds, no question is off the table and all might happen.
01:44Please tell us who you are.
01:45Hello.
01:46Hello, I'm Stephen Fry.
01:48I'm an actor and a writer.
01:49Busy myself around the world in different things, but mostly an actor and a writer.
01:54Thank you, Stephen Fry.
01:56That was the easy bit.
01:57Oh dear.
01:59Now we have Cameron.
02:01First question.
02:02Hello.
02:02Hello, Cameron.
02:05My first question is a very serious one, so just prepare yourself.
02:09OK.
02:11You tried to kill yourself a couple of times.
02:13Are you happy to be alive now?
02:16I am Cameron.
02:17I am happy to be alive.
02:19But it was a pretty terrible experience.
02:22Wow.
02:22I was in agony in my mind and didn't want to live, but I can't bring back that feeling.
02:29So it's a kind of alien.
02:31It's like looking at myself as another person.
02:34I compare it to if you've ever broken a leg or had a really painful injury.
02:39You know that you screamed in agony, but you can't make that pain come back to you now, can you?
02:45You can't make your leg hurt again.
02:47And it's a bit the same with the mind.
02:49So you're happy now?
02:50I think so.
02:52Like a lot of people, I almost don't dare say I'm happy.
02:55But that's stupid.
02:56Because if you are happy, you should enjoy it.
03:01Thank you very much, Cameron.
03:03And do you know that your name is an anagram of romance?
03:06Oh, wow.
03:08No, I didn't know that, actually.
03:11Isn't that nice?
03:11There you go.
03:12Yeah.
03:15Right, we're coming to Thomislav now.
03:21My first question is, can you help me meet my idol and icon and legend, the amazing human being, the
03:31Queen of Pop, Dame Céline Marie Claudette Dion?
03:41I wish I could help you there.
03:43I'm afraid I don't know Celine Dion.
03:46I think I was once in the same room as her, but I didn't speak to her.
03:50But she is a marvellous talent.
03:52And your admiration is focused on a very worthy, worthy idol.
03:56I'm London.
03:58That means I'm gay and pride LGBT.
04:00What is your advice on finding a husband, question mark?
04:04Well, I mean, it's a different world now because so many spouses are found online.
04:11Yeah.
04:12But I guess put yourself out there in a safe and happy kind of environment.
04:18But I'm afraid I'm out of that game and have been for 11 years since I found my husband.
04:23Because I want to find a boyfriend and be a dad one day and have a son and daughter.
04:27Oh, well, you deserve to be happy as everyone does.
04:30I'm sure you will.
04:32My last question, final question is, are you a top or a bottom?
04:39Another London question and another LGBT's pride question.
04:43Wow.
04:44That is as direct as it gets.
04:50I'm going to leave that a mystery for people to guess.
04:52Yeah.
04:53I think that's best.
04:54Thank you for raising at a very important point.
04:57There is V in the middle, of course.
04:59Versatile, is there not?
05:01Amazing.
05:02Thank you, Thomas.
05:03That was a great moment.
05:05Nicola will be next.
05:09Hello, Stephen.
05:10Hello, Nicola.
05:13What order do you wash your body parts?
05:18In what order do I wash my body parts?
05:21Yeah.
05:23In a shower, I don't use shampoo.
05:26Shampoo?
05:27No.
05:28You can't use shampoo.
05:29Just water.
05:30With the hair?
05:32Yeah.
05:33When I shampooed, I'd do my hair first.
05:35I would do my intimate areas with a sponge or, you know, one of those little...
05:41What do you call them?
05:42A scruncher.
05:43A scruncher.
05:44A scruncher.
05:45So, I think, downstairs and then upstairs.
05:49How much have you spent on cocaine?
05:53Oh, my goodness.
05:53You had spent on cocaine, yeah.
05:55That is embarrassing.
05:56Yeah, well, you've got me there.
05:57There was a period when I was an addict to the stuff and it was, in those days,
06:0460 pounds a gram and I probably wasted thousands.
06:10Where do you get the cocaine from?
06:12Where?
06:12You get a dealer.
06:13A dealer?
06:14A dealer, yeah.
06:15Wow.
06:15Where do you get that?
06:16Where do you get the dealer from?
06:17Where?
06:18A friend offers you some on one occasion when, you know, I can remember the first time I was
06:22offered the, they called it a line of cocaine, and you snort it up your nose.
06:28Like that?
06:28Up your nose?
06:29He said, oh, I got this guy so-and-so and he gives you the number of the guy and
06:32then
06:32you know the guy.
06:33Why have you been drinking on crack cocaine and putting it up your nose?
06:38Yeah, up your nose.
06:39Yeah, not crack cocaine.
06:40That's your smoke, I think.
06:41I've never had that.
06:42No, you haven't had that yet.
06:43I haven't.
06:44No, don't say yes.
06:46Honestly, I know it's terrible because-
06:48Did you inject it?
06:49No, I couldn't inject myself either.
06:51Cocaine, no?
06:51No.
06:52Maybe a weight loss drug, maybe.
06:55Okay.
06:55Not doing it no more?
06:56Oh no, no.
06:57And I wouldn't recommend anybody do it, obviously.
07:00No.
07:00But I'd also recommend, we're all very grown up about it, we understand why people seem to
07:05want to do it and maybe find a better answer than simply condemning everybody for doing
07:10it.
07:11Because in the world the most important thing is to be effective, not to be right, but
07:15to find a way to solve a problem.
07:18Thank you, Nicola.
07:19Yeah.
07:20Nice to meet you.
07:21You can't do this back in the palace.
07:24No, I know.
07:25It's different.
07:26You shouldn't do it anywhere.
07:27Oh, God.
07:28Right, we're coming to Harry now.
07:33Hello, sir Stephen.
07:34How are you?
07:35Very well, thank you.
07:38I read that you are bipolar.
07:40Yes.
07:41One of my family has that.
07:43Yeah.
07:43How can I help him, please?
07:45Oh, that's such a good question.
07:47It really is.
07:50The first thing to realise is that it's an illness.
07:53It's not something that can be wished away.
07:56It is a real thing.
07:59It's worth thinking of it as being like the weather.
08:02Now, the weather is real.
08:04You can't pretend it's not raining when it's raining.
08:07You can't say, no, it's not raining.
08:09It's ridiculous.
08:10You're getting wet.
08:11It's really raining.
08:12Yes.
08:12But on the other hand, it's also true that you didn't make it rain.
08:17The rain happens.
08:18You didn't...
08:19It's not your fault that it's raining.
08:21You shouldn't beat yourself up and say,
08:24why am I depressed?
08:24I shouldn't be.
08:25That's like saying it shouldn't be raining.
08:27It's not something in your control.
08:31It will eventually stop.
08:33It always has and it always will stop.
08:35And the sun will come out at some point.
08:37And so that's what it's like with a mood disorder like bipolar.
08:44And it's difficult, but it's worth remembering
08:49that it's not their personality.
08:51It's the weather inside them.
08:53And it will change.
08:56Yeah.
09:01We're going to come to Luca now.
09:02And he's got something he'd like to show you.
09:05Hey Luca.
09:08The world is too much with us.
09:10By William Wordsworth.
09:12My favourite poems.
09:13Please.
09:15The world is too much with us.
09:17Late and soon.
09:19Getting and spending.
09:21We lay waste our powers.
09:24Little we know of nature that is ours.
09:26We have given our hearts away.
09:28A sordid boon.
09:32This sea that bears her bosom to the moon.
09:35The winds that will be howling at all hours.
09:38And are up gathered now like sleeping flowers.
09:42For this.
09:43For everything.
09:44We are out of tune.
09:46It moves us not.
09:48Great God I'd rather be a pagan suckered in a creed outworn.
09:54So might I.
09:56Standing on this pleasant lee.
09:58Have glimpses that will make me less forlorn.
10:02Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea.
10:05Or hear old Triton blow his reefed horn.
10:11My dear fellow.
10:13That's absolutely wonderful.
10:16I love that.
10:17And you delivered it with such passion and power.
10:22We are out of tune.
10:23Don't you agree?
10:24Yes.
10:25It's getting and spending.
10:27It meant a huge amount to me.
10:29Look at it.
10:30And beautifully done as you can see.
10:31I'm very moved by it.
10:32I love poetry.
10:33And that is one of my favourite poems.
10:36Beautifully done.
10:37Wonderful.
10:39Right we've got Jacob up now.
10:42Hi.
10:42You've done adverts for Heineken, Alliance and Leicester, Twinings Tea, Pioneer Hi-Fi, Walker's Crisps, Marks and Spencer's, Honda, Virgin
11:01Media, Extra Strong Mints, After Eight Mints, Sainsbury's, Heathrow Airport,
11:11Direct Line, EEE, and finally Whitbread.
11:16Is there anything you wouldn't do for money?
11:20LAUGHTER
11:22Oh my God.
11:24Wow, you pinned me there.
11:26Nice.
11:27I am a tart.
11:29You know.
11:31Thanks for reminding me.
11:36My next question is why did you go on Channel 4 in 2022 saying you were proud to be a
11:43Jew if you are an atheist?
11:47Um, because being a Jew and an atheist is not a contradiction.
11:52But plenty of Jews like me are atheists.
11:54Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein were Jews.
11:57Oh!
11:57And they, if they had stayed in Germany and Austria, they would have been gassed and killed like any other
12:03Jew.
12:04But I went on Channel 4 to give that alternative Christmas message because there had been a disturbing rise in
12:10anti-Semitism.
12:11And, you know, desecration of Jewish shops and, you know, swastikas on Jewish gravestones and all these sort of things.
12:17Yeah, it's terrible.
12:19I thought of my mother in particular.
12:20She said, I think you know she's still alive.
12:22And she always had, as her parents did, a faith in coming to Britain was a place of openness for
12:29Jews and that they would be as welcomed as all immigrants were.
12:34And they would be just horrified.
12:36All these, you know, terrible things happening in the world.
12:39But we've got to stop making them reduced to racial hatred because that's never going to solve anything.
12:47Yeah.
12:50Ben, you're up.
12:53All right.
12:54So, my first question is a bit of a touchy one.
12:59All right.
13:00So, you attended a funeral and you were sat next to Paul McCartney.
13:06Oh, yes.
13:08How did you feel when Paul McCartney said to you, shut up, you can't sing?
13:13I actually felt justified because I know I can't sing.
13:18We had this mutual friend, John Schlesinger, film director, and it was his funeral.
13:21And during the singing, I did what I always did.
13:24I mimed.
13:25Yeah.
13:28And Paul turned to me and said, Stephen, you're not singing.
13:31Why aren't you singing?
13:32You should be singing.
13:34I said, Paul, I can't sing.
13:35He said, everybody can sing.
13:36Sing.
13:37So, the next one, I started singing.
13:39And he said, you're right, you can't sing.
13:40Shut up.
13:43So, I wasn't in the least bit offended.
13:45I thought, yes, it's now official.
13:48Yeah.
13:48Do you know, I'll tell you a story.
13:50Yeah.
13:50I used to do this programme called Saturday Live and Hugh Laurie and I would do sketches together.
13:56And in one of them, we were doing this thing and I suddenly realised on, like, Thursday,
14:00Hugh, if we're doing the sketches the way we've written it, it means I've got to sing that song.
14:05I said, you know I can't.
14:06He said, no, I've heard you can sing if you're relaxed.
14:08Have you considered?
14:10Hypnotism.
14:11And I'd never considered it.
14:13And I found one, it was in central London and I called up his office and he was Hungarian,
14:17which somehow made it rather wonderfully, the thick Hungarian accent.
14:21So, he said, what is it you want of me?
14:24I want you to put your hands on your knees and now you feel I am lowering you down a
14:31well.
14:31All right, okay.
14:33So, it gets darker and darker and darker into the well.
14:37And you see the little, little disk of light at the top is getting smaller and smaller.
14:43Yes.
14:44And my voice is the rope that keeps you safe as you go down into the dark.
14:48And I was going down and it really worked.
14:50I was hypnotised.
14:51So, he said, now when you're doing this programme tomorrow, what is the line that your friend gives you before
14:59you have to sing?
15:00And I said, well actually, he says, hit it, bitch.
15:04Which is what he says.
15:06He said, hit it, bitch?
15:09He said, all right, all right, this is what he says.
15:13That is a good cue.
15:14When you hear the words, hit it, bitch, you will be completely relaxed and you will be able to sing
15:24as if alone in the shower.
15:26And now I pull on the rope and you come up the veil.
15:30Yeah.
15:30And we did the sketch.
15:31And I did sing.
15:32I was relaxed.
15:33I wonder if it would still work for like any future sketches.
15:36I don't know.
15:36I shall have to find out.
15:37All right.
15:39It was a pleasure chatting to you.
15:40Thank you very much, Ben.
15:41That was great.
15:42Can I come to Claire now?
15:45Hello, Stephen.
15:46I'm Claire.
15:46Hello, Claire.
15:48You're 30 years older than your husband.
15:52Me and my girlfriend have an age gap.
15:55I'm 38 and she's 21.
15:57What do you say to people who don't like age gap relationships?
16:03I feel a bit sorry for them.
16:06I don't see why they should have such an opinion about things.
16:09But the only thing that matters in a relationship is love.
16:14And if you feel it and it's felt on both sides and it's not an exploitative relationship.
16:20I mean, I would say to people that in our relationship, Elliot has all the power really.
16:26He makes a lot of the decisions about things because I trust him too.
16:31It just, it works for us extremely well.
16:35And if people don't like it, well, sod them.
16:38I find age is just a number at the end of the day.
16:40It is just a number, isn't it?
16:40As long as you're happy, that's the main thing.
16:42You're right, Claire, absolutely right.
16:44Yeah.
16:45Yeah.
16:46Thank you very much.
16:47That was lovely.
16:48OK, next we're going to hear from Jin.
16:50Good job.
16:52Hi, Stephen.
16:53My name is Jin Like The Drink.
16:55Oh, wonderful.
16:57Who's your favourite world wrestling entertainment superstar?
17:01WWE!
17:03Let me know now, Stephen.
17:05Please.
17:06Well, this is all due to my husband.
17:08My husband, when he was a teenager, was very fond of WWE.
17:13WWE!
17:13WWE!
17:14His favourite was Shawn Michaels' The Heartbreak Kid.
17:17I like The Undertaker.
17:19And Roman Reigns is very fine.
17:21Brock, he's in Smashing Machine.
17:22Brock Lesnar's a stone-cold Steve Austin.
17:25Steve Austin!
17:26People think, Stephen, you can't like wrestling, but I actually do.
17:29So, I would say probably The Undertaker is my favourite.
17:32Thanks, Stephen.
17:34Thank you very much, Jin.
17:36We're going to hear from Huey now.
17:38Good morning.
17:39Huey, hi.
17:42As a humanist, do you think you'd believe in no life after death
17:45because you think God would hate you?
17:48Well, no, I just...
17:51I would call myself a humanist.
17:53I think it's a good word.
17:54That's to say, humanists put humans at the centre of our own destiny.
17:58We make our own lives.
18:00You know, we're not told what to think by a group that claims to have
18:05secret answers written in a book.
18:07Our holy text is experience.
18:09What we see in the world, what we understand from evidence.
18:14My belief is anybody who tells you they know what happens
18:16to a human being after they're dead is either a liar or a fool
18:20because nobody knows.
18:22You just don't.
18:24And, personally, I think if you believe there is no life,
18:27life after death, it means you value life so completely
18:31because this is it.
18:33And the idea that it's not enough is extraordinary to me.
18:37People say, oh, this can't be all there is.
18:38What?
18:39It isn't enough for you that there's Africa and Iceland
18:42and that there's waterfalls and fields and deserts
18:46and more animals than you can count, more species of beetle alone
18:50than can be catalogued.
18:52There is such richness, diversity, beauty and astonishing variety
18:56in this world that the idea of saying, oh, there's got to be more than this,
19:00it just seems to me so arrogant and stupid to embrace everything we have
19:04because this is it, our life, and it's precious.
19:10That was so nice.
19:18This is quite something, really.
19:20Yeah.
19:21Do you need a walk or anything?
19:23No, I'm fine.
19:23Thanks.
19:24Here we go.
19:28I wish I knew how it would feel to be free.
19:43I wish I could break all the chains holding me.
20:00Hit it, bitch.
20:01I wish I could take all the things that I should take.
20:09Say a loud, say a clear
20:13For the whole round world to hear
20:18I wish I could share
20:22All the love that's in my heart
20:26Remove all the thoughts
20:31That keep us apart
20:35Oh, I wish you could
20:38Know what it means to be free
20:43Then you'd see and agree
20:47That everyone should be free
21:08I wish I could give all I'm longing to give
21:16I wish I could live
21:20I wish I could live
21:22Like I'm longing to live
21:25Here we go
21:25Oh, I wish I could do
21:29All the things that I can do
21:32Well now
21:33Though I'm way overdue
21:37I'll be starting to love you
21:41Well, I wish I could be
21:45Like a bird in the sky
21:50Like a bird in the sky
21:51How sweet it would be
21:54If I found I could cry
21:58Oh, I thought to the sun
22:02And look down at the sea
22:07That I'd say
22:08Cause I know, yeah
22:11That I'd say
22:12Cause I know, yeah
22:15That I'd say
22:17Cause I know
22:24How it feels
22:28To be
22:34Free
22:46Gorgeous
22:47Thank you
22:49Thank you
22:49Thank you
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