Sheridan Smith: Comedy, Imposter Syndrome & Her Dream Role

The Romesh Ranganathan Show

Ranga Bee & Platform Media

Comedy, Society & Culture

4.6 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2026

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From comedy beginnings to renowned actor and West End star, Sheridan Smith joins Romesh for a wide-ranging chat about confidence, acting and carving out a career that spans stage and screen. They talk about imposter syndrome, developing characters and working together on the West End show Woman In Mind. Plus, a hip hop gift and a rather disappointing 50 Cent impression from Romesh. A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Listen. 00:00 Intro 00:32 Romesh Admits Being Jealous 02:30 The Audition for Take That 05:33 Gifts 08:50 Mark Owen's Dream Trip to Graceland 10:02 "Heimscheißer" 12:40 Take That's Circus Tour 20:00 Take That's Early Career Regrets 21:22 The Take That Annual Fact File 24:53 Gary Barlow's Star Trek Fandom 27:33 If Not Music, Then What? 32:03 Take That's Favourite Films 33:42 Netflix Documentary 37:17 The Pressures of Songwriting 40:04 Howard Donald on His Role in the Band 42:50 The Most Unusual Present from a Fan 44:37 The 90s 48:47 Misquoted: "Beards Can Get a Bit Sweaty" 53:32 "We Weren't a Boy Band" 57:10 Future Ambitions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time.
0:02.1	Did you?
0:03.3	Did you really? Oh, God, just so... What? With who? Oh, fuck. You know, Stranger Things, they play Dungeons and Dragons. This might not be for the episode, but... Anyway, so Dungeons and Dragons, they play in Stranger Things, don't they? Do you know what the game is? Do you know what it is? Um, remind me. Sounds cool, though, doesn't it?
0:22.0	Yeah.
0:22.4	I remember being very old school.
0:24.0	Yeah.
0:24.9	Another... in stranger things, don't know? Do you know what the game is? Do you know what it is? Um, it might be. Sounds cool, though, doesn't it? Yeah. I remember being very old school, no. Another alternative name for it is virgins and virgins. But basically, you have one person that's the dungeon master. Oh, God. Keep going, well, keep going. Come on, it's really sexy.
0:38.0	I think you need to explain that it's a tabletop RPG.
0:40.5	Yes, it's a tabletop RPG.
0:43.4	Fuck!
0:45.4	Okay, let me just, hold on.
0:46.5	I'm just going to get into the show at him,
0:49.4	but let's just get this out of the way
0:51.3	because this is a fucking nightmare.
0:53.0	Sometimes on a sunday
0:54.2	we'll play board games with the kids right the problem with board games is that you can only
0:59.9	play them a finite amount of times and then it starts to get old like you know often we'll be
1:03.7	playing and then one of the kids will go this is dead can we just can we just send this so then
1:08.3	i was watching stranger things which a lot of cool people watch and they play Dungeons of Dragons in that. So Dungeons Dragons, you have a dungeon master, and then you have the other people, and you can either be like a cleric or a wizard or a... I thought it was a computer game, so you're actually acting it out? It's an improv game in a lot of ways. It is. Hold on, hold on. You can be, yeah. No. So then. Who were you? I was the dungeon master. Oh, you was, okay. Yeah. Who do you think you're talking to? Sorry. Leave character vibe. Sorry. So it's like they're all sat around. they've chosen their characters and then I go you've
1:48.5	you've walked into a cave you've heard rumors that there's a dragon roaming around this cave what
1:57.7	do you do next and then I go I want to use my light spell.
2:02.4	And I go, roll the dice.
	...

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