The Good Listening To Show: Stories of Distinction & Genius

'Hi-Diddly-Dee-an-Actor's-Life-for-Me': Behind the Moustache of Actor Michael Maloney. On his Journey to becoming a Director's Dream as Hercule Poirot. Words, Music & Murder on the Orient Express!

• Chris Grimes - Facilitator. Coach. Motivational Comedian

Share episode

Send us a text

From boarding school trauma to embodying one of fiction's greatest detectives, Michael Maloney's theatrical journey reveals how life's most difficult experiences often forge our greatest strengths. The acclaimed British Actor joins us from his dressing room in Birmingham—fresh from celebrating his 100th performance as Hercule Poirot in the touring production of Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express"

With disarming honesty, Michael explores how being sent away from home at age 7 permanently altered his sense of belonging. "You cease to become a member of a family immediately," he reflects, describing how this early separation forced him into premature self-sufficiency while creating emotional wounds he would later need to address. This experience, along with his Roman Catholic upbringing, established complex foundations that would eventually serve his acting career in unexpected ways.

The conversation shifts to his transformative years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Michael found himself amidst theatrical royalty—Derek Jacobi, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, and a young Mark Rylance. Their anarchic creativity, set against the backdrop of early 80s punk and new wave, shaped his understanding of classical discipline and theatrical expression. "We were all over the shop," he laughs, "and enjoying ourselves."

Michael's reflections on the power of the spoken word reveal his deep appreciation for poetry and heightened language. He shares how sports provides a perfect metaphor for performance: some nights you win, some you lose, some you draw—but you always return to play again. This philosophy has helped him navigate the highs and lows of theatrical reviews throughout his career.

Now at 67, finding himself unexpectedly cast as Poirot, Michael approaches each performance with the discipline earned through decades of classical training. When asked about his legacy, his answer is characteristically straightforward: "A proper actor... of significance and stature." Join us for this intimate conversation with a performer who has continuously found new ways to transform life's challenges into art.

Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website.

Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :)

Thanks for listening!

Chris Grimes:

Welcome to another episode of the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, the storytelling show that features the Clearing, where all good questions come to get asked and all good stories come to be told, and where all my guests have two things in common they're all creative individuals and all with an interesting story to tell. There are some lovely storytelling metaphors a clearing, a tree, a juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, some alchemy, some gold, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare and a cake. So it's all to play for. So, yes, welcome to the Good Listening To Show your life and times with me, chris Grimes, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin. Welcome to the Good Listening To Show Stories of Distinction and Genius. It is my absolute joy to welcome a trophy cabinet guest, good lord, good lord, gorgeous, lovely actor, michael maloney. Michael, you've been preparing your entire life for the fact that you are now playing unwittingly.

Chris Grimes:

Absolutely right, yes and you have been described by the director, lucy bailey. She says at last I found my perfect poirot. That's pretty good. You're following in the illustrious pencil moustached, treading the board steps. See what I'm doing there. I do Peter Yusnoff, david Soucier, sir Kenneth Branagh, to name but three. I also I'm going to let you speak in a minute, but I adore you from back in the day because of Truly, madly, deeply.

Michael Maloney:

Very good Filmed in Bristol.

Chris Grimes:

Ah, yes, and another sort of six degrees of separation. I know Alan Rickman was in that with Juliet Stevenson and I played a young Alan Rickman in something called Song of Lunch in a sort of montage. Excellent With Emma Thompson back in the day, but anyway, what a life. Yes, indeed. Anyway, michael Maloney, british iconic actor, welcome to the show thank you so much. Hello there, good afternoon and we may as well tell the world old people and technology. It's taken us about half an hour to get yes no, it's taken me half an hour.

Michael Maloney:

It would have taken you half a second.

Chris Grimes:

But there we are, we're here and you're on tour with murder on the orient express. I'm going to do a very exciting section at the end, which is show us your qr code please where I'm going to invite the audience to go and buy tickets. Gosh, thank you, you're welcome and you've been very kind and I'll just get you to say it out loud, publicly you invited me to come to bath to see it. Thank you very good, good, good.

Michael Maloney:

I'm looking forward to seeing you there, thank you wonderful.

Chris Grimes:

So, um, it's really really wonderful to have you here. Michael, how's morale and what's your story of the day, please?

Michael Maloney:

okay, so morale is pretty good. Uh, we're in birmingham. We've just finished three days. We turn up on a tuesday, we dress, rehearse it all over again on a tuesday afternoon at the new venue, do an evening show, show Next day, two shows, next day, two more shows. So we've had five shows in three days. We've completed that. We capped it with a famous Balti meal in the Balti Triangle last night at Shababs in Ladypool Road. We've had a fantastic evening and now I've got the day free. I'm going to be talking to you and then I'm going to go and see the pre-Rathalites, the Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery.

Chris Grimes:

How about that? I love that. And what was the big shout out to where you went for a big balty curry last night?

Michael Maloney:

Shababs S-H-A-B-A-B-S.

Chris Grimes:

Shababs, shababs, shababs Fantastic. Also I know this week because I was watching you on Facebook you of having had 100 shows this week of your current tour.

Michael Maloney:

Most certainly have, Most certainly have. It's 100. We've got at least 80 more to go. We're about 15 weeks, coming up to completing 15 weeks now with a further 11. And I believe the show may go on after that.

Chris Grimes:

The show must go on. The show will go on Absolutely. And, yes, do you want to tell us anything else about the show that you're in at the moment? Then we'll backtrack on the illustrious career and the wonderful time you've had to get to this point. Thank you so much.

Michael Maloney:

I think it's an inspired show, and that's down to Lucy Bailey and the designer, mike Britton, who've done a tremendous job, and also Mike Poole, who is a sound designer, which is now so crucial. You throw that in the mix, you've got a perfect adaptation by ken ludwig for the stage, and then you've got a fantastic ensemble cast um, headed by someone who's got a really big part yes and well, your tash is majestic, may I say?

Chris Grimes:

and of course it is thank you.

Michael Maloney:

They love me in the bullring here.

Chris Grimes:

I can tell you they are lovely and and have you always been able to grow a tash? Because I'd probably have to stand in a bucket of peat for many days.

Michael Maloney:

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing that. But in fact, yes, I have been able to do that and it's a major, major asset, because I've only had to wait 47 years to have some kind of facial hair required.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and I did say you prepared your entire life for this moment. I've already said that your director, lucy Bailey, has described you as being I found my perfect Poirot. So do you feel as a sort of career high that you have arrived at that majestic point?

Michael Maloney:

Career height. Look, here's the. Here's the thing. We're banging it out every night. We've done a hundred, we've done 103 now since since you last saw that post, it's just every day. You've got to maintain a proper balance for the show, a proper, a proper offering for a thousand people a night, which is what we've got here. Um so um. I wouldn't say it's the pinnacle of my career, but it might well be when I look back in a little while. But right now it's a job of work that's got to be done every day. But it's a great thing to come to and it was an unexpected offer, I must say. It did not occur to me that this would come up, and what a great gift it's been.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and I know, would you say hello to Beth Tuckey for me Because she's in the year beneath. I was the year to know her at the Bristol Old Vic theatre.

Michael Maloney:

I would love to do that. Know her at the bristol old vic movie theater, I would love to do that. And she's terrific. She's off sick this week and she's torn a ligament, um, uh, and she's putting her feet up, thank goodness. We wish her a speedy recovery. So all very good. And my daughter just graduated from bristol old theater, martha in July. Martha Maloney, what a great actress. And here's the other thing her first job, um, was to make a short film in Bristol playing David Suchet's daughter. How about that?

Chris Grimes:

It's a small world, but we wouldn't want to cover it, as they say Exactly.

Michael Maloney:

Very good.

Chris Grimes:

This is the show, just a tiny bit of context for those watching the show, in which I invite movers, makers, shakers, mavericks, influencers and also, here you come, personal heroes, into a clearing or serious happy place of my guests, choosing as they all share with us their stories of distinction and genius, and it is my absolute delight to be able to curate you through the particular story scape of what we're going to be doing together.

Michael Maloney:

Yes, yes.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. So the invitation will be to go as deep as you like, when you like, how you like, when you like, as I curate you through a clearing a tree, a lovely juicy storytelling exercise called 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. There'll be some alchemy, some gold, a couple of random squirrels, a cheeky bit of Shakespeare, a golden baton.

Michael Maloney:

I say Well, good luck everyone. Good luck everyone. Good luck number one.

Chris Grimes:

Just before. I just need to blow a bit more happy smoke at you. You have been a historic, oftentimes foil of Othello Poirot, because I know you were in the original iconic film version of Henry V. That's right, You're playing the Dauphin Also, you've been in Belfast, which another complete um banger of a gorgeous film, absolutely absolutely also, um, othello.

Michael Maloney:

I played rodrigo to his iago, who played iago to lawrence fishburne's othello, and also I played laertes in his film of hamlet. Um as well, I think it's just just the four. I think, yeah, yeah, so it's a oh also. No, uh, another black and white film we made, which was in Bleak Midwinter, which is about a group of actors trying to put on Hamlet in a church hall.

Chris Grimes:

Ah, yes, yeah, yes, yes, yes.

Michael Maloney:

Yeah, yeah, very good fun, which he wrote and directed and I played Joe Harper, the lead guy. It's good.

Chris Grimes:

Wonderful. So yes, I'm delighted that you've been a longtime foil of his too.

Michael Maloney:

Yes, longtime foil of his too. Yes, so you've played um edward heath in the crown the netflix series as well. I did, I did, I did, I did and that was uh, that was pretty good. I was there for a few days, uh, on and off, um, uh, and it's one of those big budget productions you know. What you see is is that you know they give you a significant budget and they pay for, for significant um locations, and if our unit has to go and film in Spain, they go to Spain. They don't do green screen or blue screen, they go to Spain and that's an entire unit. That rarely happens anymore, but you see the difference in production values as a result.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, yeah, and I've really really enjoyed researching you again to get you off this point. And I re-watched the YouTube official trailer of Truly Madly Deeply. And then I asked somebody. A really good friend said oh, do you remember Truly Madly Deeply? And then, ironically, they said barely. So if we make the sequel, we'll call it Truly Madly, deeply, barely. Truly Madly, deeply, barely.

Michael Maloney:

Yeah, truly Madly, deeply Barely.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, but I remember Cloud watching you know as being a thing within that film. Yeah, also, I remember you bouncing down the South Bank just being, you know, the next romantic.

Michael Maloney:

Very good, yeah, very interesting, wasn't it? In fact, originally that film was going to be called Cello, maybe after the instrument, and indeed the play on words was when you were looking at the clouds. They would be cielo, cielo, yeah, or I think in Italian it would be cielo. It sounded better, but of course we're talking to a Spanish character, an American character in the film, so it would be cielo, so it would be very, very different. Anyway, america decided that wasn't such a catchy title and so it became Truly Madly TP, which was a word game within the show.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and what do the Americans know? I love the way you said Shielo, that was lovely. Yes, good, wasn't it? Yeah, and you know, whatever you do if you're listening, watching it is a classic, beautiful, gorgeous film. It's very, very moving, particularly now because the irony is Alan Rickman is playing a deceased ghost.

Michael Maloney:

Not a bit of a spoiler but now he's no longer with us. That's a great tragedy too. Yes, it is. Yes, it is yes.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, he was extraordinary yeah, yeah, let's get you on the open road of the good. Listening to Cheryl. Come on now first of all. Then Michael, uh, what is? Where is a clearing for you? What's your serious happy place, would you say? Physical?

Michael Maloney:

happy space. I was thinking of two places. I'm going to choose the one. In the end, the. The one I'm not going to choose anymore is a beach in Suffolk called Albra Thoughtness Beach. It's actually very near Sizewell Power Station, which is not such a great thing, but you're looking out at the North Sea. No, you're not. You're looking out across a channel leading to Belgium and it's just a very, very stark place good for pebble throwing, imbuing various thoughts and prayers into pebbles and throwing them out to sea. But in fact, my regular place is Epping Forest, and that's because it's 15 minutes walk from where I live. Me and the dog go there. We disappear for hours on end Because you can. It's a 19-mile forest, four miles wide at some points.

Chris Grimes:

It's so extraordinary In my circa 250 episodes last episode nobody said epping forest. So I wonder if you ever bump into john altman, who wrote all the music for monty python in the forest isn't that funny.

Michael Maloney:

We probably have passed each other. I've met artistic directors in there of various theaters, forest, so it's all good, it's all good coming back to your suffolk beach, I the irony there various theatres.

Chris Grimes:

I love that the little one in the forest.

Michael Maloney:

So it's all good, it's all good.

Chris Grimes:

Coming back to your Suffolk beach.

Michael Maloney:

The irony there of you saying you can see Belgium that's where Hercule Poivot is from, and that's probably why I went. Someone was trying to tell me something and it's taken me all this while to realise it. Thank you for that. Yes, you're welcome.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, yeah yeah, so lovely. We're in Epping Forest and now I'm going to arrive with a tree within your forest. I know there's lots around anyway, but I'm bringing in an extra tree now, thank you. And this is waiting for Godot-esque. Deliberately, I'm going to shake you to see which storytelling apples fall out. Oh okay, come on, then Come on. And so you've been kind enough to have thought about four things that have shaped you, actor Michael Maloney, three things that inspire you, two things that never fail to grab your attention, and borrowed from the film Up, that's a bit, oh squirrels, you know what never fails to grab your attention? Indeed, indeed, indeed. And then one is the quirky or unusual fact about you we couldn't possibly know until you tell us that's not a memory test, thank you. Over to you to interpret the shaking of the canopy of your tree.

Michael Maloney:

Thank you very much indeed, and I took your advice at its word, which was don't overthink it. And so here we are. I've got four things that shaped me, and the first one the first two in fact are out of your control. You're expected to agree to these things before you realize there's a choice, and so you find yourself in the situation Unfortunately for me, or fortunately boarding school was the first thing. My dad was in the armed forces. They pay for two thirds at that point of the schooling. It's a no brainer for people who are moving around every 18 months. Put them in a school. You cease to become a member of a family immediately.

Michael Maloney:

From the age of seven onwards, I'm 36 weeks away from home and 16 at home, and it's a seriously, uh, heartbreaking time, uh, and something actually which you can't articulate at the age of seven, except to feel incredibly unhappy. Um, so you can express that um, and that went on. However, it also made me. It gave me, uh, self-sufficiency. It had, in the end, to force me, coerce me into getting on with life. Um, then you have to pick up the pieces later on. So that's an enormous shaper, I would say.

Michael Maloney:

Here's the second one. It's roman catholicism. These two things are without my agreement, and yet I find myself agreeing to them. Roman Catholicism gave me a sense of faith. It also gave me a sense of fear of the future, a sense of guilt. But it also gave me this understanding that there may be a higher intelligence other than one's own thinking, and that's quite useful.

Michael Maloney:

I've gone pursuing other paths of religion since, or faithful spirituality. These were all very good. I'm what's known as a cradle Catholic, someone born into the religion, and I don't stray that, far from it. It had a very profound effect on me and a beneficial effect at times as well. I wouldn't say that this is an evil bugbear of a thing which is such a currency at the moment. For me that was not the case. For others it certainly was. It's professed to be that and it's proven to be that. So those two things are incredibly important to me. They shaped me. But then the thing then I coasted for a while and I grew up and I enjoyed life and I had a great time at drama school. I went to Lambda. Oh, I think we played you at football once.

Chris Grimes:

We, lambda, oh, I think we played you at football once we lost. We're never going to play you again. Goodbye, the iconic football match between Lambda and the Bristol Old Vic.

Michael Maloney:

Oh, yes, yes, Astonishing work. So four years into my career I was having a lovely career, lots of bits of telly work and stuff like that Lovely Joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. So this is the next thing that really shapes me. The first season I went in there was so anarchic, so talented, so extraordinary and I'll name drop quite a few people now but it had people. One actor is no longer with us, called Bob Peck, who was in this fantastic television series called the Edge of Darkness is what most people know for him. But he did 15 years in the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Michael Maloney:

Then we had Derek Jacoby soon to be, yet to be, sir Derek Jacoby, michael Gambon, anthony Sher. Anthony Sher, at this point, had just experienced a resurgence since his career where he was just reconsidering retraining as a voice therapist, a speech therapist, because work was so thin on the ground for him and it just taken off again. And here he came and we had Alan Armstrong and we had Sinead Cusack and we had Sarah Kesselman and Jenny Agata. We had extraordinary people. Helen Mirren suddenly turned up to play Cleopatra, michael Gambon turned up to play Anthony and I played Mark Anthony.

Michael Maloney:

Michael Gambon's slave called Eros, and he would refer to me every night as Ear Ross bring me my armour, and of course, I'm the only one on stage who's going to laugh, aren't I? Because I'm the youngest, so I'm a good, so I go off stage laughing. I come on stage laughing and I'm the red-nosed idiot for the whole season. And they are, so it was extraordinary. There was also an up-and-coming young actor called Mark Rylance I believe he just entered that was his first job for the Royal Shakespeare Company and, of course, a mentor of mine, pete Pothelsway.

Chris Grimes:

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Michael Maloney:

Pete Pothelsway, I think of Bristol very much, a Bristol Old Vic Theatre actor and a really extraordinary influence on me. And in this show there's an actress called Christine Kavanagh and she and I were beginners in this company. It was so insane so it was just so talented that they could do anything. And you had some people at the helm like Derek Jacoby, who very, very straightforwardly behaved and highly disciplined, and if you have two or three of those at the helm, the rest of us can do all sorts of stuff because you can rely on those people steering the ship. And we were all over the shop I mean it's all right, all over the shop and really enjoying ourselves. And and uh oh what, gisette Simon was in there, leslie Sharp was in there, went out with Leslie Sharp for five years after that, marvellous, and that was a fantastic influence.

Michael Maloney:

And I'm not going to choose this piece of music, incidentally, thinking of future down the line. But if there's one song from that anarchic time, it would have been no More Heroes by the Stranglers and that really sums it up. It was so insane and that song really captured the moment of it. 1982, this music is current, it's coming out. We've got Elvis Costello on the airwaves there's a lot of punk going on. We can't participate in it because we're in Shakespeareville, but out there this music is influencing us, so it's very good.

Chris Grimes:

I've just been going nom nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom nom throughout that whole monologue. So thank you very much.

Michael Maloney:

It's very good. So that was fantastic and of course I've been back a couple of times since and I really, really enjoyed my time there. I don't know if there's another time for me there, but what I had was extraordinary and that shaped me and it's given me extraordinary discipline to play something like Poirot. Everything I've learned classically I apply to Poirot and it's about theatre discipline and theatre expression and word emphasis, as we used to call it, or emphasis Anyway. And then, finally, my fourth piece is music, Music, which I think I've touched on there just now.

Michael Maloney:

Did you know I do it with lucy parham, concert pianist, extraordinary, a young musician of the year at one point, um, young musicians of the young musicians of the year, judge now, um, and we do the music of, of, of various composers, quite extraordinary. So music, music, music all the time, and even now. Oh, you know, we had, by the time we got to yesterday, we've got two matinee shows, you know, another two shows and no respite, and I last time I looked at the clock was at 4 30 am, so I had no sleep either, and I've got these two shows to do change the mood with music. So, out of the blue, I chose a gospel playlist yesterday Woof, it took me right through and it was fantastic. We had a great day. I had probably a better day than the previous day, when I was pacing myself.

Chris Grimes:

You have such a, such a natural ebullience. This is really exciting, because I'm just riding along on the sort of moment of the normal. That's very good, oh, cheers. Well, thank you so much. Well, look, there we are. Those are the four, and can I just ask you one question about um, childhood and and boarding school? Yes, um, if you have such a scorchingly negative experience which you elicited to yourself, does that mean you then didn't do that as a parent, yourself, your kids, your, they did not go to boarding school.

Michael Maloney:

I'm assuming not, they did not go to boarding school. Yeah, and of course only the one, martha. They did not go to boarding school. Yeah, and of course only the one, martha. They did not go to boarding school, they just went to everyday school and they wanted to go to boarding school.

Michael Maloney:

And I know, isn't that funny, isn't that funny? But I wouldn't let him, I wouldn't let him and, and indeed I think I would have been right, because, because she's very, very close to her mom and dad, yeah, it would have, it would have torn her heart in two, as it did mine. But you know, divorce also produces that which, of course, we all experience, and divorce recreates exactly that same syndrome of separation. So it's deep within you, subconsciously. Listen, I had a bad time at boarding school in the way I've described it, but I also, you know, out of that you also find victories and happiness on an everyday level. But the underscore is, you know, one of separation and that's, I suppose, to use a well-worn word, at the moment, traumatic. But you know you can continue, you know you can. These things happen, these things will always happen, and once you understand that this or something like this will happen, then you can equip yourself to deal with it.

Chris Grimes:

Beautifully put. And now we're on to three things that inspire you. Actor Michael Maloney, over to you Very good.

Michael Maloney:

Very good. Well now listen, see. Once, the second time I went to the Royal Shakespeare Company, I had some fantastic opportunities, oh my God, and I took advantage of a couple of them, but one thing did not go well for me, and that was playing Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. And shortly after that, I met someone who pointed out some very basics of speaking verse, and I busked two years of me speaking verse in the way I think it should be done, and he pointed out some very, very simple, formulaic things which you can rely on to use in speaking verse, and his name is Patrick Tucker of the original Shakespeare Company, with his partner, christine Ozan, and I owe them a great deal and I would say they're considered controversial. They use Shakespeare's first folio. This is all, by the way.

Michael Maloney:

What inspires me is the spoken word, and that can be due to my religious upbringing. That can be prayer, it can also be poetry, it can be narration and it can just be conversation, and the spoken word is highly inspiring and heightened speech will have to be poetry. Something happens to you when you turn to poetry. You can buy a local paper, which is quite difficult nowadays. If you bought a local paper and you looked at the obituaries, people would write poetry in memorial, in memoriam to their people. It would be simple, but it would be from the heart. I think that's what inspires me. Poetry, especially, really inspires me.

Michael Maloney:

Second thing, out of all that, out of the blue sport, sport can get you through all sorts of things. For me, it's watching sport. I don't like to play, thank you, but I love watching sport because it's a simple, simple equation you go against the odds and you win out over the odds, you win out over the circumstances. And team sports especially, I really enjoy and that's very, very inspiring, quite frankly. And even now, if I'm on a tour not this one if I'm on a tour or on a job which is not working out, then you can go win, lose or draw every night. Some nights you'll win, sometimes you'll lose and sometimes you'll draw. But you go on to the next night where you play yet another game and you play in again and see what the results are.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely metaphor for that.

Michael Maloney:

yes, In the end, you win more than you lose that way, and when you come under the overpowering crushing of negative reviews or, often worse than that, indifference, yes, well. Now then, using the sports analogy is really, really useful, because that was their snapshot for that night, and within 72 hours you've got yourself a different show. You've developed more. A week later, ironically, you'll be kicking yourself because the stuff you discovered seven to ten performances later could have been used on that press night, and now you've lost that opportunity. So you have to wear those like a terrible cloak.

Chris Grimes:

I like that. And you are talking of reviews your current paro. I'm really enjoying how you're. You're going and you're doing your mustache as we speak, but you're beautifully crafted, according to behind the aris I've got a beautifully crafted aris and that's the way it is, mate, and yeah, it's all beautifully crafted.

Michael Maloney:

I've had some fantastic reviews and I pretend not to read them as well, so you know, it's really great.

Chris Grimes:

Have you had some complete turkeys as well that you'd like to share?

Michael Maloney:

We've had. Yeah, and you just think, in this particular case, anyways, anybody, everybody's prerogative to say exactly what they want. I have no quarrel with this whatsoever. I totally support whatever people want to say, but I did think, hang on a minute, were you watching the same show that we were doing? You know, but you know, I mean the law of averages. Averages, we're getting a 90 odd percent score of positivity, and that is so rare. It's like an extraordinary convergence of everything going right, even on the night. Yeah, and, and you know I'm, I can't believe my luck. Yeah, you know, and so that's, that's all good, it's all I love the win, lose or draw.

Michael Maloney:

Uh, analogy of sporting prowess and and theatrical it's quite handy because it means you go right, shake it off, go back in again. We're going to play another 90 minutes now, go on.

Chris Grimes:

And of course, the theatre show is a game of two halves as well.

Michael Maloney:

I should coagulate, don't? Yeah, very good, very good. Here's my third. A good teacher and I'm referring again not to the spoken word man, patrick tucker, but trevor nunn, peter hall, they all had john barton. All had things to say that I could pick up about shakespeare and verse. I may not be able to pick it up as well as they would like me to, but it's there on offer and that it's not their fault, it's's mine. Their teaching, their direction, has been exceptional and now you can get that by watching lectures on YouTube like a good old, good teacher. You can get it by hearing people talk. Some people will come up. You can hear people's life experiences in a taxi. You know someone talking to you about it. This sort of thing. It never stops. You never stop learning. You can draw your own conclusions and how other people have their, their perspectives on the world can really help you. From your limited perspective not yours, my limited perspective, yeah beautifully put, lovely, good, good.

Chris Grimes:

So now, um, I believe we're on to two oh squirrels. What are your monsters of distraction, sometimes called your shiny object syndrome? We all suffer from it. What are your oh squirrels? What never fails me.

Michael Maloney:

Do you know what it is? It's the phone, isn't it? It's the iPhone, which I'm talking to you on now. This is a particularly positive use of the iPhone, thank you. Obviously, what's coming out is gold from both sides, clearly. Um, but no, look I. I mean I will look at this phone.

Michael Maloney:

I think it really took a serious turn when I got the part of poirot and um, that people started posting things like here he is, it's a new poirot or it's the new poirot, it's the poirot for the stage, or like that. So I go great, this is a time to really market myself. Market myself must be one of the worst turns of phrase you could ever have, because then you then spend hours on a checking for approval, not marketing to yourself at all. Put a photograph up of me in a suit as Poirot or on the train as Poirot and see how many likes you get, how many loves you get, how many laughter faces you get and who edits out the negative bit. I mean it just drives you balmy. And then you forget about that and start looking at people shouting at each other on the video section, and the whole world, according to these video sections, is them and us, whatever you are, I'm them exactly.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, yeah, whatever I am, you're them and it's a sort of modern travesty of how quick, how early people are exposed to phones. I didn't get my first phone ever until I was 37. Forgive me, aging you, I know you're 67, so how old, how long have you had your own?

Michael Maloney:

well, I suppose I've had it since I was you know what yeah, one that you can really use, like this. When they came out within about two years, you know what I mean. Before that I just used the phone to text people, all right. But then, once, once you've got you know the, you know the, these, these video channels and whatsapp talking channels and streaming channels and I know I have to facetime everybody and I said that's really great, that is fantastic. Yeah, but it's the stuff that you allow into your brain, um, you know, and, and it's, and it's, it's twofold. First, you allow into your brain and it's twofold. First of all, that could be quite necessary just to stop you becoming rigid in your thinking, but secondly, overpowered by distorted imagery and manipulated information that tries to lead you to think in a certain way herd-like to really violence or extreme opposition or not being able to accept how other people exist.

Chris Grimes:

Yes.

Michael Maloney:

You know you've got to join a camp.

Chris Grimes:

So, as a squirrel, a sort of vortex of the slippery slope of social media, the abyss we can all plummet into is your squirrel.

Michael Maloney:

Yes, I would say it's my squirrel, and also I take a photograph of the squirrel and put it on social media to see if I get approval.

Chris Grimes:

That's a lovely interpretation. My second squirrel is a photograph.

Michael Maloney:

I took Exactly. It's a photograph I took and my sorrow at not getting enough likes. That's beautiful Sorrow, anger and the desire for for revenge. Not getting enough likes for my squirrel great, great interpretation of your two squirrels.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely, and now a quite unusual fact about you. Hector Michael Maloney is talking to myself.

Michael Maloney:

I've been. I've been an only child and I was sent away from home and I just had to talk to myself, and I had to process everything by talking to myself. And then that translates into prayer, because you ask god for help and god didn't listen for quite a few years, um and uh. And then you get hit with a broken billiard cue by way of punishment um, for the most trivial of things, and that's apparently a very, very good thing for the formation of a young human. And then so it's talking to myself, and I still talk to myself in the forest when I'm not on the phone.

Chris Grimes:

Ah, okay, unbelievable. And do you find you're listening when you're talking to?

Michael Maloney:

yourself. I do. Actually, it's very, very simple. What actually happens is you express talking to yourself, perhaps no one hears it, and it disappears. It's released and dissolved and that's very, very good and I have to have that. I suppose that's why it's a quirky thing. I have to have that someone's at the front. Someone did something cheeky at the front, but I'm. But they can't come in because I had a chain on ha ha ha ha.

Chris Grimes:

Go there, you are great this is a great radio play. Now we've shifted into my, exactly wondering who knows what's going on here in birmingham.

Michael Maloney:

I'm in birmingham.

Chris Grimes:

Did you need to answer that dear? Was that all right?

Michael Maloney:

no, I don't know. There was a. Someone tried to open the door. The chain was on and they went away. Again.

Chris Grimes:

All the joys of burglary, here we go my last guest told me a very funny story about Frank Sinatra having gone round to a friend's house and then the neighbours were at the door because they were having a party to say keep the noise down. Can you imagine opening up the door and Frank Sinatra standing there and you say keep the noise down?

Michael Maloney:

I know. It's really good, isn't it? Well, there's popular stories as well. That popular story where someone said do us a favor, frank, come over and say hello to me. I want to impress a girlfriend. And he does. And he goes go away. Frank. I said don't stop bothering me, frank, go away. We actually said it in stronger language, but I think that's quite good for that yeah yeah yeah, always elevate your own sense, exactly, exactly, yeah.

Chris Grimes:

Okay, we've shaken your tree, hurrah. Now we stay in the clearing which is still in epping forest. Now we're going to talk about alchemy and gold when you match purpose and inflow. Michael Maloney, what are you absolutely happiest doing in what you're here to reveal to the world?

Michael Maloney:

This is a very good point and I think it's gone and I think it used to exist a lot with my acting quite early on in my 20s and I think you know, people do their best acting in their 20s and it goes unacknowledged, um, and so no, here I am, at 67, being acknowledged.

Michael Maloney:

Okay, I'll take it, thanks very much. But, um, there are some, there are some very inspired in tune acting from, from people, uh, who've who've reached past the age of 21 and they're in the groove and there's an extraordinary type of commitment and I can't quite explain it, but there is some sort of balance and harmony within what someone is doing and I think that's terribly exciting. Now I don't have that. I'm constantly assessing and calculating what is going on, how other people are having to function and me having to interact with them on stage and in life. So I think finding a quiet place where you are happiest doing something is passing me by, but the very fact that I'm getting to do this part, and I'm getting to do this part every night, is the closest I'm going to get and it makes me very happy.

Chris Grimes:

So there's sort of a career alchemic bit of gold happening as we speak to you as we speak in four hours time.

Michael Maloney:

Lovely, very good.

Chris Grimes:

And now I'm going to award you with a cake, hurrah. So first of all, do you like cake, michael Maloney.

Michael Maloney:

Do I ever? Do I ever? Sugar Rush Central and in fact, we had our 100th performance, which was on Wednesday afternoon. I think we had a cake and my goodness, the speed with which we went through the afternoon and how sad we felt much later after we came down from the sugary cake. It's a wonderful cycle, a wonderful, wonderful cycle, and I do like cake and I like particularly now, after that, sugar-free cake.

Chris Grimes:

There's going to be an evolution soon within the show where I'll end up sending you the actual cake. So what's your favorite cake that you'd like me to metaphorically send you?

Michael Maloney:

Oh right, metaphorically, cake, okay, so, oh, that's very good. Listen, we'll have a. Thank you so much. We'll have a lemon drizzle cake.

Chris Grimes:

That shall be yours. Now you get to put a cherry on the cake. You'll see what I'm doing here. It's a laugh that's fused with storytelling metaphor. How about that? So you get to put the cherry on the cake with stuff like what's a favorite inspirational quote at Michael Maloney that's always given you a sucker and pulled you towards your future.

Michael Maloney:

I don't know who said this, but love is all there is. All the rest is illusion, and it's quite a good one to have you know, because that means that everything else has to fall away, because you have your North Star, and that is love. That's it.

Chris Grimes:

Love. How about that Perfect? What's the?

Michael Maloney:

best piece of advice you've ever been given. Yeah, that's very, very good and it's so ridiculously simple. It's just make it your own. Make it your own and be natural. That's it. And it's highly elusive, believe me, especially under pressure, when you start acting yes, you know and you start acting on top of your acting.

Chris Grimes:

But if I could do that, that's it, and I imagine that's given you great succor as we speak, because you've followed in the footsteps of David Suchet, sir Kenneth Branagh, peter Ustinov and now you're doing the iconic Poirot yourself. Exactly you keep it your own.

Michael Maloney:

Exactly you just make it your own own. Exactly, you just make it your own, but I'm informed by the fact that it's a stage version. This is the first touring stage show we've ever done Anybody's ever done of Murder on the Orange Express around the country. It's very theatrical, and these things make it different from the film versions. For a start, it means that everybody has to express themselves in a much more in much louder, more physical fashion.

Chris Grimes:

Will you be filming this for the sort of national I know it's not the national that are doing it, but are you filming it for streaming as well?

Michael Maloney:

Um, that's, I don't know. That's a very good point, and there has not been talk about that. There has been talk about future tours of this, one of which is going to China. Ah, okay, you, you know that's an option at the moment, so we'll see about that, but there may be. You know, there are all sorts of things happening about this and future productions of Poirot-centric Agatha Christie plays.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely Pickety-poo. Okay, now we're ramping up shortly to Shakespeare to talk about legacy, but just before we get there, if I may, this is the pass the golden baton moment, please. Oh, mr Manoring, before we get there, if I may, this is the pass the golden baton moment, please. Oh, I get up, and mr manoring. So who would like? Who would you like to pass the golden baton along to, now that you've experienced this from within, to be given a damn good listening to?

Michael Maloney:

oh, uh, yes, that's very good listen. I would. I'm going to nominate michael fenton stevens, who has his own podcast, incidentally do you know what?

Chris Grimes:

I? I've already had him, if you'll pardon that particular expression.

Michael Maloney:

I wish you hadn't said that, and now I can't get that out of my mind. But there you are and it's a good thing.

Chris Grimes:

Isn't he good? He's gorgeous and, yes, he's got a great. It's called Time Capsule, isn't it?

Michael Maloney:

Yes, it is, yes it is Sorry, yes, it is.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, it is Sorry to press you because I've already had him. Let's have him.

Michael Maloney:

I'm going to take my fellow company member called Bob Barrett. I'd like him to be on it. He's well known for being in Holby City, in which he did 12 years, but he's extraordinarily interesting and he is so music orientated He'd make a very very interesting subject.

Chris Grimes:

Yeah, thank you very much. And now by shakespeare, um, and all the world's stage, and all the better women mini players, you don't have to do any shakespeare at this point. We're now going to talk about legacy and how, when all is said and done, michael maloney, british hector, you would most like to be a remembered a proper actor.

Michael Maloney:

That's what I'd like to remember. A proper actor. Let's not pretend I'm not going to be a literary giant, Much as I'd like to be a major poet, much as I'd like to be a major musician. A proper actor, but of significance and stature, but proper.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. Yeah, he was a proper actor. Love that he was a proper actor. Show us your QR code, please. So if you're watching this, you can scan this and go and find tickets and the website for Murder on the Orient Express, with Michael Maloney playing Hercule Poirot. As we speak, until I think it's May this year, isn't it? You're on tour.

Michael Maloney:

Yes, indeed, until May the 3rd, we close in Cheltenham. The preceding week is Brighton, which I always think is a good one, and we're going to play Bath.

Chris Grimes:

Yes, and I was going to just mention that. Don't forget my tickets, thank you.

Michael Maloney:

Exactly, we're going to see Chris Grimes at the Bath Theatre Royal.

Chris Grimes:

Lovely. That was a QR code of that, so that's good. Where else can we find out all about you on the old interweb, michael Mullaney?

Michael Maloney:

Well, that's very good. You can look at WikiWackipedia and then you can go. You can go. I tell you what I'm taking part in a podcast myself. It's a drama and it's called Night Games. Night Games it's very good. It's written by a fantastic writer called Craig Warner and I think it can be accessed, at least on YouTube. So if you want to listen to that, it's good. There are 10 episodes, Really really good. Great writing, quite eccentric.

Chris Grimes:

Just a two-hander. Good fun, lovely jubbly. And now, uh, as this has been your moment in the sunshine, in the good, listening to show stories of fiction and genius, is there anything else you'd like to say?

Michael Maloney:

michael maloney cucumbers no, I'm all right. Thank you so much. I'm absolutely all right. I feel replete and it was the cake and I now cannot eat another thing. Thank you very much indeed.

Chris Grimes:

So you're now going to play us out with your favourite favourite piece of music. What's your favourite piece of music, michael?

Michael Maloney:

Maloney, thank you so much. It is, ladies and gentlemen, hymn to Freedom by Oscar Peterson. You cannot ask for a definitive piece of music because there is so much and so many to fit all moods, but this is a masterclass in classical piano, in jazz form, by a consummate performer, and it is so brilliant and uplifting. You've got to listen.

Chris Grimes:

Ladies and gentlemen, you've been listening to the gorgeous Hector Michael Maloney. Just a quick plug If you'd like to have a conversation about being on the show too, the website for the show is agoodlisteningtoshowcom. Rather excitingly, there's a very poignant new series strand to the show, which is called legacy life reflections, which is to record the story of somebody near, dear or close to you for posterity, lest we forget before it's too late, using the same construct of this show. So do get in touch about that if you'd like to. And just another sort of slightly boring qr code. If you'd like to connect with me on linkedin, you can do that too good. But most importantly, back to michael maloney. Here is the qr code for his current tour murder on the orient express. Would you like to say anything else else, michael, at this point?

Michael Maloney:

no, thank you, else else I'm all right thank you so much for saying yes.

Chris Grimes:

thank you you for being here. I've been, chris Grimes. Thank you very much. Goodbye, I love you. Love you too, tiger. Here we go. You've been listening to the Good Listening To Show with me, chris Grimes. If you'd like to be in the show too, or indeed gift an episode to capture the story of someone else with me as your host, then you can find out how care of the series strands at the good listening to showcom website. If you'd like to connect with me on LinkedIn, please do so. And if you'd like to have some coaching with me care of my personal impact game changer program then you can contact me, and also about the show at chris at second curve dot UK on X and Instagram. It's at that, chris Grimes. Tune in next week for more stories from the clearing and don't forget to subscribe and review wherever you get your podcasts.