Wirral Life Issue 76 | Page 25

WIRRAL LIFE TALK TO WILL AND RALF
W L INTERVIEW
WIRRAL LIFE TALK TO WILL AND RALF
For nearly 10 years , Will Mellor and Ralf Little were the voice of a generation – notorious for pushing the boundaries of acceptable humour on British TV . After multiple failed attempts to reunite them , the boys began their Two Pints with Will & Ralf podcast in 2020 . The duo are now back with the latest fourth series of the hit podcast .
Enjoying the kind of banter that only true friends can have , Will and Ralf chat nonsense to each other , to fellow celebs and to guests with fascinating stories to tell ... all over two pints and a hearty helping of bar snacks .
With this being the second time you ' re taking ‘ Two Pints with Will & Ralf ’ on the road , what were your highlights from the last tour ?
Will - Honestly , every venue brought something different to it . They laugh at different things , their humour is a little bit different and we have audience participation ( they send in their stories ), so everything was different every night .
I don ' t know whether there ' s a highlight … Newcastle , we could have sold out twice last time . Their humour seems to be very , very much on point with what our podcast is about . Leave your brain at the door , let ' s have a good laugh and have a few drinks and it went down a storm . I can ' t wait to go back there , everywhere up North is like that , it ' s our kind of humour .
Ralf - Every night felt pretty freeform , in so much as the audience interaction every day was different , which was fun for us and the audience . Some people came more than once and followed us around ( the UK )!
Will - Although , when we played London last time at the Shepherds Bush Empire , it was great . I thought they would just sit there and say , " Go on , entertain us ", but they didn ' t , they all got involved . It was also after Covid , and it was just like , ' We ' ve had enough of all the bad news , let ' s forget about all that and have a good laugh for a couple of hours , have a few beers , and see what happens , with a few surprises along the way ". I can ' t wait to do it again .
So , are you counting down the days when the boys can go back on tour , leaving any family life and commitments behind for those few weeks ?
Ralf - That ' s more of a question for Will because I don ' t have any family life . I just sit around playing the PlayStation , and that ' s why I look so young , and Will ' s hair is falling out !
Will - We will only do Fridays and Saturdays because Ralf can ' t spend more than four days away from his PlayStation . So the tour is shorter and for those that come , it will feel like a good night out , and that ' s what we want and what this podcast was designed for in Lockdown . It was for people who couldn ' t get out to the pub and were struggling , so they tuned in . It took off , and people enjoyed us two talking nonsense like we did in ' Two Pints …' as Gaz and Jonny .
Before you appeared in the TV series ' Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ', were you aware of or perhaps even knew one another ?
Ralf - I think we ' d met briefly several times , sort of out and about .
Will - You came to the … one of the Hollyoaks houses when we were doing the ' Men in Black ' dance in the living room .
Ralf - [ Laughs ] I did , yeah . So , here ' s the story : pre- ' Royal Family ' before I ' ve started my career , my good friend , that I grew up with and used to go to the same local drama group was in ' Hollyoaks ' with Will , Matt Littler , he played Max Cunningham . He told me that there was a big Halloween party at a Hollyoaks house because the boys all had a house , and the girls had one , too . So , me and Matt went as Batman and Robin , because it ' s fancy dress , and I think Will went as a vampire , and he was like , [ Speaks in a rubbish Manchester accent ] " Alright , mate . Sound ". You know , like he does ! [ Laughter ] And we all then went about our evening until ' Men in Black ' came on , and the dance started and I was like , " I know this dance ". As I started doing it , Will was doing it next to me . So , at least two or three years before we ever did ' Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ', Will Mellor and I , not really knowing each other , were there giving it large to Will Smith ! That sort of set the tone forever , really .
Ralf , when you got offered the lead role in ' Death in Paradise ', did you need to consider accepting it for more than two seconds with all those months spent away in the Caribbean ?
Ralf - No ! I got an email from my agent . I skimmed the email , and I am a little bit annoyed , I was thinking that they need to think about the emails they send me because I ' ve already been in ' Death in Paradise '. And they should know that I ' ve already been in it . I was about to call , and then I reread the email . It said for the ' Lead Detective '. I was like , " Oh , that ' s a slightly different email than I thought it was , maybe I ' m glad I didn ' t make that call ". So , I went and had a meeting , did a little reading , and then , like with all kinds of auditions and meetings , you forget about it and I thought , " Well , I ' ll never hear about that again " because that ' s usually how it works . Then I was on holiday on the west coast of Ireland , driving around
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