Table Talk: Gyles Brandreth
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Broadcaster, writer, actor – and former MP – Gyles Brandreth joins Lara Prendergast on this episode of Table Talk to discuss his memories of food, from hating dates and loving 'bread sandwiches' to his signature dish of fish fingers and his love of eating baked beans cold from a can.
Gyles also tells Lara about getting permission to eat swan, his encounter with Raymond Blanc and his friendship with a former editor of The Spectator. Plus – Gyles bemoans the lack of freebies that come with recording a Spectator food podcast (sorry Gyles!).
Gyles's new biography of A.A. Milne, Somewhere, a Boy and a Bear, is out now.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Subscribe to The Spectator and get 12 weeks of Britain's most incisive politics coverage, |
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| 0:20.6 | including quite right, the new podcast |
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| 0:37.9 | We're all so busy. |
| 0:40.2 | Buzzing about like bumblebees. |
| 0:42.7 | It can be easy to forget the simple things in life. |
| 0:45.7 | Like just how good nature can taste. |
| 0:49.2 | Eat Natural combines nature's most delicious ingredients |
| 0:52.3 | to create irresistible snack bars that keep you fuller for longer. |
| 0:56.6 | Full of flavour and perfect for an on-the-go bite or a mid-morning snack. |
| 1:01.3 | When nature tastes this good, why overcomplicate it? |
| 1:05.2 | Savour moments in nature with Eat Natural. |
| 1:07.7 | Thank you. with Eat Natural. |
| 1:20.7 | Hello and welcome to Table Talk, the Spectators' Food and Drink podcast. |
| 1:25.2 | I'm Lara Prendergast, and today I'm delighted to be joined by Charles Brandreth, |
| 1:30.9 | the broadcaster, writer, actor, former MP, and one of Britain's most beloved storytellers. |
| 1:36.9 | Giles has been a regular on TV and radio, served in Parliament and written many best-selling books. |
| 1:46.2 | His most recent book turns his attention to another cherished literary figure in his new biography of A.A. Milne, somewhere, a boy and a bear. |
... |
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