Maria McErlane: The Fast Show, Eurotrash & Graham Norton

<p>She narrated Eurotrash, starred in The Fast Show, and has spent thirty years sitting at the next table to everyone - Nigella, Graham Norton, Cilla Black, Salman Rushdie. </p><p><br></p><p>But Maria McErlane didn’t come on to drop celebrity names; she came on to talk about how to actually live, and somehow we ended up discussing the two bottles of morphine in her fridge.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Episode Summary:</strong></p><p>Martin Deeson sits down with Maria McErlane - Fast Show star, the unmistakable voice of Eurotrash, actress, journalist, Agony Aunt, and Graham Norton’s comedy partner on Radio 2, Virgin Radio and their hit podcast Wanging On. </p><p><br></p><p>What starts as a tour through 90s comedy turns into one of the most quietly profound conversations of the series - on fame, mortality, ageing without bitterness, and finding the joy anyway.</p><p><br></p><p>Three things you’ll take from it: how to develop a thick skin in an age that’s lost the knack; why “death is not a life ended, it’s a life completed” might be the most useful thing you hear all year; and how the people who treat fame as a licence to be horrible (yes, that story) always end up the loneliest in the room.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>In this episode:</strong></p><ul><li><p>How Maria landed The Fast Show - replacing Caroline Aherne, recruited by Mark Williams</p></li><li><p>“I’m Not Pissed,” “Suits you sir,” and the secret-alcoholic sketch</p></li><li><p>The voice of Eurotrash - 16 seasons of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Antoine de Caunes and refusing to be cruel about Lolo Ferrari</p></li><li><p>Why the women of 90s comedy were genuinely frightened of Loaded and James Brown’s mob</p></li><li><p>Being a woman on the 90s circuit alongside Jenny Eclair, Jo Brand and Hattie Hayridge</p></li><li><p>Her book Bumps in the Road - and why it’s a book of philosophy disguised as a showbiz memoir</p></li><li><p>John Diamond, Nigella Lawson, and the vodka injected straight into the stomach</p></li><li><p>The Salman Rushdie moleskine-pad story - “fuck off, I’ve got cancer”</p></li><li><p>“Death is not a life ended, it’s a life completed” - and where the phrase came from</p></li><li><p>The two bottles of 25-year-old morphine still in her fridge</p></li><li><p>Meeting Graham Norton on Carnal Knowledge, and how he got famous overnight</p></li><li><p>The three types of fame - and why Cilla Black made her call her “Miss Black”</p></li><li><p>The Maureen Lipman “I’m sure you are” takedown</p></li><li><p>Martin’s day from hell with Vinnie Jones, GQ and a helicopter to the dogs</p></li><li><p>Howard Marks, the nicest man at Glastonbury</p></li><li><p>John Cleese’s stem cells, ageing, and doing it all with grace</p></li></ul>