Stephen Mangan: When Mum died, I knew I couldn’t waste life being a lawyer- I had to act

Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

Global

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before he became one of Britain’s most familiar faces, Stephen Mangan was a bookish North London boy from an Irish working-class family- the son of a builder and a barmaid- who won a scholarship to a boarding school his parents didn’t want him to attend. From there to Cambridge, to RADA, and to the West End, his path looks polished. But behind it lies grief, grit, and a fierce curiosity about the world that’s shaped every creative choice he’s made.

In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien sits down with the actor, writer and presenter to trace Stephen’s journey from a bullied schoolboy to star of Green Wing, Episodes and The Split. They talk about losing both parents young, finding refuge in acting, and why he now writes children’s books with his sister, Anita- stories that rekindle the magic of reading he discovered as a boy with a book wedged between him and his dad at the dinner table.

It’s a conversation about loss, love, and laughter- and how Stephen’s career, from Cambridge plays to Hollywood sitcoms, has been guided not by fame, but by joy, curiosity, and the determination to make work that he’d genuinely want to watch, read, or share with his own children.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	5am.
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1:05.4	This is a global player original podcast. Hello and welcome to full disclosure, a podcast project designed to let me spend more time with interesting people than I would ever get on the radio.
1:19.7	And Stephen Mangum, you are so interesting that you're one of those people with a portfolio job description, aren't you?
1:25.1	Actor, writer, presenter, model?
1:29.6	Swimware model. Yeah,
1:31.4	I mean, I don't know how that happened,
1:33.5	but it has happened.
1:34.5	It's latterly that you've added the extra accomplishments.
1:36.6	Yeah, because I was, wow, I was all in on acting and acting alone, and religiously,
1:41.7	you know, categorically turned down anything that wasn't to further, you know, my acting and making it better.
1:50.9	And here I am with all these other, you know, commas and bits after my name.
1:56.8	So, yeah.
1:57.0	Nice, though.
1:57.6	You clearly, I mean, there's an authenticity to everything you do, isn't it?
2:00.4	You do it, whether you're presenting the portrait program or writing your children's books you clearly
	...

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