National treasure and proud Bristolian Stephen Merchant struck gold when he collaborated with Ricky Gervais on a little comedy series called The Office in the early 2000s. Buoyed by their TV success, Stephen and Ricky branched out into a brand new medium and became one of the pioneers of podcasting. The Ricky Gervais Show became the most downloaded podcast in the world at the time, securing them a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Stephen has won three BAFTAs, two Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy for The Office and The US Office. He is here to talk about series three of his excellent BBC and Amazon Prime comedy The Outlaws, which is out now.

Stephen Merchant loves fine-dining and smoked food and so is very keen to sample Angela’s smoked mackerel with spinach baked eggs. The experts at Waitrose pair the meal with a delicious Le Bijou Rosé de Sophie Valrose Coteaux de Béziers, Languedoc

This episode of Dish is one of our funniest yet; Stephen has Nick, Angela and the crew laughing all the way through brunch. Listen out for hilarious anecdotes on family holidays, oysters and why his Order of the British Empire is overdue. 

Just so you know, our podcast might contain the occasional mild swear word or adult theme.

All recipes from this podcast can be found at waitrose.com/dishrecipes

A transcript for this episode can be found at waitrose.com/dish

We can’t all have a Michelin star chef in the kitchen, but you can ask Angela for help.

Send your dilemmas to [email protected] and she’ll try to answer in a future episode.

Dish is a S:E Creative Studio production for Waitrose