EP263: SAM NIXON – Singer, presenter, AND cookbook author!

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:05 Ah, welcome to Life with Nat on this lovely autumnal morning, and I've got the best person to talk to today. I have got the amazing Mr. Nixon. Lovely Sam, how are you?

Speaker H 0:02:33 Hello, I'm all right, how are you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:35 I'm very good. I was trying to remember the last time I saw you in person.

Sam Nixon 0:02:40 I know exactly the last time, Natalie.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:42 Go on.

Sam Nixon 0:02:42 It was when you voted me out of a celebrity version of The Weakest Link.

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:48 Fuck's sake.

Sam Nixon 0:02:49 It was a Christmas special, like a panto special. Do you remember?

Natalie Cassidy 0:02:56 I do. I do remember.

Sam Nixon 0:02:57 I was, I was terrible, to be fair though, Natalie. I'm, I'm not surprised you voted me out.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:02 I don't know about you, Sam, but I'll tell you what, you say yes to those things, don't you? Those quizzes. And they're lovely, they're a couple of quids, you think, I'll go and do it.

Sam Nixon 0:03:09 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:09 As soon as I get there, I shit myself.

Sam Nixon 0:03:11 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:12 I don't know anything.

Sam Nixon 0:03:13 Yeah, absolutely. It's terrible. It is like they always say, you know, it's easy when you're sat on your sofa answering questions, but then as soon as you're in there, it's like, yeah, I was terrible. I was terrible. How are you?

Natalie Cassidy 0:03:24 I'm good. I'm really, really well. Everything's going super well. Kids are all all good, back to school. Oh, family's good, Mark's good. How's your family? All good?

Sam Nixon 0:03:34 Yeah, good. Yeah, really good. Just like you say, it's, uh, yeah, back, back to the routine of kids back in school. And which I must admit, I do like. I love— I do love the routine of sort of family life.

Sam Nixon 0:03:45 Um, although the 6-week holidays seem to have gone very fast this year. They went really fast. Did they? Yeah, they felt they did. They did from my point of view, like, which sometimes is a good thing, but this year it was like, oh, that's gone really quick.

Sam Nixon 0:03:57 Uh, my daughter started secondary school, uh, so which is a big old change. Um, so I spend most of my days now, Natalie, just looking at emails from my daughter's brand new school.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:07 I tell you what, it is a job in itself, isn't it?

Sam Nixon 0:04:10 It's ridiculous. It's insane.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:12 Yeah, I did it the other day, you know, the school letters, and then you're filling in calendars and diaries with it. You know, I'm not going to get to half of it, I think. And then you feel guilty. Yeah, you know, you're not going to get to it all. So, so she's gone in, so she's 11, is she?

Sam Nixon 0:04:28 Yes, she's gonna be 12, uh, in October. So yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:31 That's nice, one of the oldest. That's good.

Sam Nixon 0:04:33 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So yeah, but she's so far so good. She's, she's loving it. It's a very big school. It's like one of those kind of super schools.

Natalie Cassidy 0:04:41 Did she come from a village primary school?

Sam Nixon 0:04:44 Yes, yes. So she went to the primary school that I went to, which is just up the road from us. So it's been, it's been such a big change because obviously every— I've been able to walk the kids to school every day. So now it's just me and my son walk because my son's 8, so he's still going to the primary school. So it's a really odd change. Like, she leaves like an hour earlier now to get the school bus. And then me and my son have a little walk to school, just us two now, which is, it's odd. It is an odd change.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:08 I think we talk all the time about babies and the not sleeping and the terrible twos and all of those things. But I really found it quite difficult. My daughter's gonna be 16 in a couple of weeks.

Sam Nixon 0:05:21 Wow.

Natalie Cassidy 0:05:22 And then I've got a 10-year-old, so two girls. Wow. I really struggled with the, the secondary school change, sorry to tell you, but I just felt that she changed, you know, within a month. She was so independent and such her own person. I really grieved that, you know, mothering her. Absolutely, yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:05:39 And I think it's, it's, you know, like you say, it's not something you talk about.

Sam Nixon 0:05:42 And especially when you, like, I'm sure it's the same for you now, but like, because the job that we're in, I'm very lucky that a lot of the time I get to be at home and I get to be with the kids. There are times when I'm away, but there are times when I am at home. So I have done a lot of the school runs. So when that'll stop, when my son goes to secondary school and that'll stop, that will hit me, that definitely, 'cause I love it. I love that feeling needed and having to take him to school.

Sam Nixon 0:06:09 So yeah, yeah, there's not much chat about that actually.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:12 That's true. I'm sure there'll be a few frosty mornings up north where you'll have to drive him.

Sam Nixon 0:06:17 Yeah, oh God, yeah, absolutely, yeah. It's already happened this week. We've ended up going in the car. But yeah, thankfully, it is walkable. But yeah, there's the odd morning when we jump in the car.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:30 It really made me reminisce this morning, thinking of seeing you today and what have you. And I remember doing a show with you. I came along as a guest with my daughter, Eliza, and I think she must have been about 7 at the time.

Sam Nixon 0:06:41 Wow.

Natalie Cassidy 0:06:42 And she absolutely loved you pair, you know. Aw. She watched you all the time. And I remember, I've got the photo somewhere, and she's absolutely thrilled to meet Sam and Mark and be, you know, be with you. How does it feel now that you're, You know, what are you up to at the moment? We're gonna talk so much about the book. I've bought the book. I love the book.

Sam Nixon 0:07:01 Oh, mate, bless you. I love the book.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:03 I wanna talk to you about my favourites in there. I love these pieces. Nice, lovely.

Sam Nixon 0:07:07 Bless you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:07 But yeah, I just wanna go back, if you don't mind, because you've done so much. You've done so much.

Sam Nixon 0:07:14 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:07:14 You know, how do you feel now being at home a bit more and doing all your cooking and, you know, change of direction, but also you're still out and touring and, you know, doing lots of bits and pieces with, you know, your Masked Singer stuff and your stuff. pantos. Just tell me, like, how it's all happened.

Sam Nixon 0:07:32 It's mad, you know. I've had a very, very lovely career so far, do you know what I mean? I, I started out when I was 17 on Pop Idol, and me and Mark met each other on that show, and we just bonded straight away.

Sam Nixon 0:07:47 So when we came out of the show, we were put together as a duo, and we just had the best time. We had the best, best part of the past 20 years, just us 2 mates dicking about in front of a camera, do you know what I mean? And that is genuinely what it was. We loved it. We were so lucky, the shows that we did.

Sam Nixon 0:08:02 We did so many different shows. We travelled all over to film different things, um, and we genuinely just had the best time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:08:11 And Sam, it always came over. I'm not just saying that, do you know what I mean? I genuinely— yeah, for me, I, I felt that you were always— you were sort of the next Ant and Dec. For me.

Sam Nixon 0:08:23 Oh, that's lovely. Well, that's always been such a huge compliment. You know, we got that quite a lot when we were doing our things, and I always found it such a compliment. If you're gonna be compared to someone, you know, be compared to the best, you know what I mean? And that's the thing, we always tried to do that.

Sam Nixon 0:08:38 We always try, and I think you see it in TV shows now. Like, when you see that the team who are working in front of the camera get on, that shines through massively. Like, shows like Ted Lasso, even though it's like a comedy drama, you can see that all that crew get on. You can absolutely see it, and it shines through. And we always used to do that on our shows, like the camera crew used to really get involved with it and, and just used to love it.

Sam Nixon 0:09:06 And it was, it was an amazing, amazing time. And to be honest, always feels a little bit like sort of unfinished business with me and Mark, really. Yeah. COVID kind of got in the way of mine and Mark's career, which it did for a lot of people in any job, but especially in the entertainment industry. You know, our work just fell off the edge of a cliff overnight, really, and it struggled to come back, which was so— such a shame, because that year, 2020, we started off our year, we'd just re— we'd just filmed a rerun of, uh, Crackerjack, which obviously was a show that was massive for kids for generations.

Sam Nixon 0:09:45 Mm-hmm. And we brought it back, and it came back with a bang, and it, like, got a 5-star review in The Guardian, which children's shows don't tend to get. And we were like, oh my God, this is gonna be a big old year. And then COVID hit, um, and we ended up doing a second series in the October of that year without an audience, which was weird. Mm-hmm.

Sam Nixon 0:10:06 Um, and then CBBC changed and they stopped putting money into big entertainment shows, and that's what me and Mark always did. So we made a really tough decision. I'll never forget, we were, we were touring our show, we were on a, a P&O cruise, and we were chatting constantly, and we said to each other, listen, let's, let's give it another year of playing the game, going out, having meetings, trying to get some gigs, and we'll know if the time has come for us to maybe call it a day. And unfortunately, that came. It was like the following summer after.

Sam Nixon 0:10:37 I think we were both just getting quite frustrated that things weren't happening, you know. We were both starting to feel maybe we should start doing our own things. Mm-hmm. I wanted to push the cooking a little bit more, um, and Matt wanted to do other things as well. So we, we had a really grown-up but hard conversation, and we were like, maybe we just call it a day whilst we still absolutely— Oh, that's so emotional.

Sam Nixon 0:10:59 I know, and it was, and I still get emotional now thinking about it because, um, I still get emotional now thinking about it because, um, it was, it was, it was hard because we, we never, we never fell out or anything like that. And we absolutely loved working together, but we didn't want to get to a point where, because we weren't getting any gigs anymore really, you know what it's like, you can, you could get very bitter in this industry.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:24 Absolutely.

Sam Nixon 0:11:24 That's the last thing we wanted to happen because I've seen it happen, and I've seen it happen to duos as well, where they're, they're suddenly, they're like, oh God, this is so frustrating. So they just end up hating each other. And me and Mark absolutely, and still do, completely and utterly love each other. Um, and Didn't want that because exactly what you just said, it shows on camera how much we got on and how much fun we were having. That may have stopped happening, do you know what I mean? Um, so it was a really difficult decision. But yeah, back in— it was 2022 in the end, I think, when we called it a day.

Natalie Cassidy 0:11:57 Called it a day. But as you say, listen, you're still mates. You never, you never say never, do you know what I mean? It's just because you've put a line under it for the moment, something might come up.

Sam Nixon 0:12:07 Yeah, well, funnily enough, so, um, earlier this year, um, the lovely Andy Day from, uh—

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:14 Oh, yes, yes.

Sam Nixon 0:12:15 We're good friends with Andy, and he, and he called me and he said, I'm about to film a new series of this show that is called Andy and the Band, uh, and there's a part in it for you and Mark. Would you come and do it? And we were like, yeah, let's do it. And it's just— I think it's airing now this week.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:30 Oh, okay. And it's so—

Sam Nixon 0:12:31 so little things like that, we still will— we'll get together and do things and stuff, um, which is lovely. And it's nice that we still have that relationship.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:39 Very much so. Very much so. You mentioned Christmas panto in your book. You talk a lot about Christmas at the end, which I love. I did an autobiography in March, it came out last year, and I did mine set in seasons.

Sam Nixon 0:12:55 Oh, lovely.

Natalie Cassidy 0:12:56 So you really reminded me, the love and passion you have for Halloween, for Christmas, for, you know, Bonfire Night, and I loved it.

Sam Nixon 0:13:05 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:05 But I wanted to just talk about Christmas for a minute.

Sam Nixon 0:13:08 Okay.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:08 You doing panto again?

Sam Nixon 0:13:11 I am indeed, yes. Wakefield, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:13 Lovely. I am doing panto for the first time in 13 years.

Sam Nixon 0:13:18 Oh, wow. Okay, how does that feel?

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:21 Well, I want your advice because I'm, I'm really— I love— I'm a Christmas nut. So the reason I haven't done it is because I wanted to be at home with the children and be around.

Sam Nixon 0:13:32 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:33 But it's coming to that time, they're growing up, you know, and I thought actually it'll be nice to change it up this year and make panto, you know, the Christmas bubble, if you like.

Sam Nixon 0:13:41 Yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:13:42 But I'm just worried about it, and I'm worried about playing a character like the Wicked Queen. Am I gonna be all right? I haven't been on stage for ages. And you, you, you're seasoned at pantos, aren't you? You do 'em all the time.

Sam Nixon 0:13:54 Well, do you know what? It is a proper skill, panto, I think, if I'm being totally honest now. So I never used to do panto.

Sam Nixon 0:13:59 Like, me and Mark, God, me and Mark could've probably made a fortune in the past doing panto over the years, doing it when we were doing children's TV. But we were— I was never bothered about doing panto, and that's because I love Christmas, so I never wanted to be away from home at Christmas. I'm very lucky, the panto that I do, it's an in-house one, so it's a very intimate but beautifully put together panto. Again, we all completely love each other. We've now become a little ensemble, and we go back every year, and it's just in Wakefield, which is about 20 minutes away from me, so I get to come home every single night.

Sam Nixon 0:14:30 Um, I don't think I could do panto personally, being away from home, 'cause it is hard.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:35 I can drive as well, just so you know. Good, good.

Sam Nixon 0:14:38 Well, that makes it even easier.

Natalie Cassidy 0:14:39 I chose one, yeah, I said, no, no, no, I'm the same as you, I couldn't do it if I wasn't coming home.

Sam Nixon 0:14:44 Well, I think you've done the right thing. If you love Christmas that much, first of all, I think that is absolutely, you've done absolutely the right thing, because being able to come home every night, and even though it's hard, because you are working hard, and you're working a long time, and you miss kind of that sort of build-up to Christmas maybe, and going to certain like markets and things like that, but you're still at home with the kids when you need to be at home with them. And that for me is just massively important. But I think something I've realised about panto is that you become part of people's Christmas traditions. And like I said, our panto is, it's a very intimate one.

Sam Nixon 0:15:19 It's a beautiful theatre, Theatre Royal Wakefield. It's a Frank Matcham theatre, so it's the guy who sort of created the London Palladium. It's like a little— Yes, like a little chocolate box. Yeah, it's just gorgeous.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:30 Did he do Bath as well, Theatre Royal? He may have done.

Sam Nixon 0:15:33 Oh, he may have done, actually, yeah, yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:15:35 I saw that, beautiful.

Sam Nixon 0:15:36 Yeah, it's beautiful, like what you would picture an old theatre to look like. And you just see it every night when you're on stage, especially that week sort of leading up to Christmas. People just love it, and they come, it's part of their tradition, and that for me is what Christmas is about. It's about tradition, whatever that is, whether it's you going to your local pantomime, whether it's you going for drinks that you do every year with your friends. You know, me and my best mates, we've been best mates since school, and every Christmas Eve Eve, to the 23rd of December, without fail, we always meet up and go for breakfast.

Natalie Cassidy 0:16:10 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:16:10 And thankfully, my panto schedule allows me to do that still, which is amazing, 'cause on the 23rd, we don't ever show till like half 2 in the afternoon, so I can still do that. And that's what Christmas is about. And I think you realise when you're on stage, even though you're away from your family, you, you're making people so happy, and it's part of their Christmas, and that really helps. And I get quite emotional every Christmas Eve, when we finish the shows, we always sing Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Natalie Cassidy 0:16:38 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:16:39 Without fail, Nat, every year that I have done it, and this will be my 6th or 7th year doing it, I well up.

Natalie Cassidy 0:16:45 Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:16:45 Singing it. And I don't know what it is. I think it must be something to do with that memory of singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas at school, and the excitement that I used to get because it was Christmas. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it now.

Natalie Cassidy 0:16:55 Yeah, I am.

Sam Nixon 0:16:56 It's like, it's a real, I don't know, it's just a real emotional family thing. And you see these lovely smiling faces, and again, you know, Theatre, everybody says this, but theatre is, sorry, panto is a lot of kids' first experience of theatre.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:12 So important, innit?

Sam Nixon 0:17:13 It's so important, 'cause it's what keeps them coming back, hopefully, if they love it. And it's a special thing, it really is. And I'm really, I've become weirdly passionate about panto as well. Like, I'll go and watch certain pantos, and I'm like, I'm quite critical of them.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:28 Yes, well, I think you're right. And I hate panto snobs.

Sam Nixon 0:17:32 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:32 Because as you say, it's a real craft. It is. It's a craft, and it's, as you say, a tradition that's been going on for such a long time.

Sam Nixon 0:17:39 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:17:39 You wanna uphold that, you wanna be upheld, you wanna feel like you're doing it justice, do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. That's what I'm worried about. I wanna make sure that I'm, you know, I wanna be funny enough, but I don't, you know, I just want it to be right, and I don't wanna be silly, but you know.

Sam Nixon 0:17:53 That's the thing, no, but you've got that, and that's the hard thing about being a villain in a panto, but I think you'll be brilliant.

Sam Nixon 0:17:58 You know, I've not seen you in panto, but you know, I've seen you act, and I think you'll be brilliant. And I've seen you do comedy as well, so I know you'll be brilliant. But the great thing The thing about, uh, the hard thing about being a villain is that you've got to tread that fine line of you want to be a little bit scary because you want to tell the story, because that's the bit that kids get involved with. They follow the story, which is why I hate pantos that throw away the story. I hate it.

Sam Nixon 0:18:22 Like, that's what kids follow. They follow the story. So you need to have that bit where they are a little bit scared of you, but then when you can add in the little funnies as well, warmth and the—

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:31 yeah, absolutely.

Sam Nixon 0:18:32 That's— it's a hard part, the villain, but I, I think you'll absolutely smash that. Absolutely. Oh, thank you. Who do you play then? So I'm usually classed as like the sort of the comedy character, the sort of—

Natalie Cassidy 0:18:42 Buttons.

Sam Nixon 0:18:43 Yeah, so yeah, I was Buttons when we did Cinderella. But again, so the Dame, a lovely guy called Chris Hannan, who writes the panto, he always writes it in such a beautiful way. So it tends to be, I mean, I'm not sure I've got many of these left in me, 'cause I'm not getting any younger, but like, so whenever it's something like Jack and the Beanstalk or Dick Whittington, I'll tend to play Jack or Dick, but he'll still write it as the sort of comedy character as well, which is lovely. So in those years, it's really nice, 'cause I get to, I get to do the kind of the ballads and things like that as well. And then this year's Beauty and the Beast.

Sam Nixon 0:19:15 So yeah, I'm back to like the comedy character and it's really good. So it alternates really through the years depending on which character I'm playing. But I tend to be the kind of comedy, the kind of heart of the panto really.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:27 But also you can, you can hold a tune and you can sing really well. So of course they wanna use you for the ballads, don't they?

Sam Nixon 0:19:33 Yeah, it helps. And it is nice, those years when I get to, when I get to show my voice off a little bit. I do, I do quite enjoy that a lot. Yeah. But yeah, oh, it's great. You'll love it. And it's so nice that you get to come home. I think that— I think you've made such a great decision doing that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:47 Yeah, I don't think I could have done it. I'm such a home person. I love being at home. Honestly, it takes me a lot to go out. You know, you get these invitations, you think, not really.

Sam Nixon 0:19:56 I'm with you. I am absolutely with you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:19:58 I'm happier at home.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:12 I was looking at your Insta 'cause I followed you for a while. I did, funnily enough, I did Giovanna Fletcher's pod. Yes. Happy Mum, Happy Baby.

Sam Nixon 0:22:18 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:19 And we were chatting and we got onto food and I said, oh, you know, I'm not very good at preparing beforehand and da da da. She said, you've gotta follow Sam.

Sam Nixon 0:22:28 Oh. And I said, oh, I thought—

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:30 she said, you must follow, he's amazing. I follow him, I do all of my Christmas through Sam.

Sam Nixon 0:22:36 That's great.

Natalie Cassidy 0:22:37 So tell us about how that all started, because I— people can follow you and do it. Are you doing it at the moment?

Sam Nixon 0:22:43 Yeah, so I'll actually be— I'll— I will be prepping in October.

Sam Nixon 0:22:48 Yeah, ready for Christmas, Christmas dinner, basically. So I, I love— I've always loved hosting Christmas. I love it. We have a— we have me mum, me dad, me brother, me sister-in-law. I've got my wife and my 2 kids at my house.

Sam Nixon 0:23:00 So what I used to do is that I used to spend pretty much all Christmas Eve in the kitchen And by the time it got to 5 o'clock in the evening when we were all trying to settle down, I was just knackered and exhausted and pissed off with seeing any bit of Christmas food. So I was like, I've got to change this in a sort of way. But I didn't wanna stop hosting 'cause I love it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:18 Mm-hmm.

Sam Nixon 0:23:19 And I love cooking my Christmas dinner. And my mum's always said, it's, it's the best Christmas present you can give me is me not having to do Christmas dinner. Do you know what I mean? So like, no, I wanna keep it. So I thought to myself, do you know what? There's like 80, maybe 90% of this Christmas dinner that I know I could probably pre-prep at least a month before Christmas, whack it in the freezer, because it's all those little bits, like when you're in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner and you're peeling—

Natalie Cassidy 0:23:46 Oh.

Sam Nixon 0:23:46 8 people's worth of potatoes for roast potatoes, you're parboiling them, you're chuffing them up, you've got all that washing to do. That's the stress, 'cause it's like, oh my God, the stress of this now, all this washing up, and then I've gotta go on to the next thing that I've gotta prepare. And it's horrible, it's not a nice feeling. And then you can't enjoy Christmas as well.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:05 How many kilos of potatoes do you do? Be honest now.

Sam Nixon 0:24:08 I usually do 2 kilos. I get 2 big bags normally because you want leftovers. One big bag would be enough, but I always do 2.

Natalie Cassidy 0:24:17 You're right, you need more.

Sam Nixon 0:24:19 You need loads of those. But that— it's a lot. It is a lot. And there are people who host for like 15 people, do you know what I mean?

Sam Nixon 0:24:26 I have people messaging me on Instagram saying this prep has helped so much because I have— I've got 15 people coming for Christmas, which is insane. I usually have 8 at the most. I was just like, there needs, there needs to be a way of doing this. So like I say, I realised you could prep about 80-90% of the dinner. Roast potatoes, pigs in blankets can all be prepped in the freezer.

Sam Nixon 0:24:48 Stuffing balls prepped in the freezer. Even carrot and swede mash, you can make that, put it in the freezer, and most of it you just defrost it. Roast potatoes you cook from frozen just like you would with Aunt Bess's, do you know what I mean? It's no different.

Natalie Cassidy 0:25:01 It scares me so much, the roast potato thing.

Sam Nixon 0:25:04 This is the thing that, that changed the game for me when I realised that you could prep roast potatoes. And I think, I genuinely believe, so long as you do it right, there are a few hacks to it, I think they're better. Yeah. I think there's something in the freezing of them that makes them crispier. Like, I don't know the science behind it, but I do think there is.

Sam Nixon 0:25:22 But basically, if you get roast potatoes, you parboil them like you normally would, you then let them drain a bit, they chuff them up, they get all that lovely rough edge, Cover them in whatever chosen fat. I've realised that duck fat on Christmas Day is beautiful. Duck fat is amazing. But if you're veggie, you know, just use vegetable fat, whatever. And then let them cool down and then stick them in the freezer on a tray.

Sam Nixon 0:25:44 Once they're fully frozen, you can then put them into freezer bags. Yes, they're nice and hard. Yeah, just keep them in the freezer. And then on Christmas Day, all you have to do is you put more fat in a roasting tray. Get that tray baking.

Sam Nixon 0:25:58 Get it really hot. Yeah. And then you just carefully put your frozen potatoes in there. They'll start sizzling. Stick them in the oven.

Sam Nixon 0:26:05 They will take about an hour. And make sure your tray's got plenty of room. So use a big tray. You might need to use 2 trays so that each potato's got room around them so they're not just steaming. You know, that'll not make them crispy.

Sam Nixon 0:26:17 Yeah. But if they've got enough room, they will be unbelievable. They are genuinely the best roast potatoes. And when I found out, when I realised that I could do that, That's what changed Christmas dinner for me because I was like, this is amazing.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:29 Carrot and swede mash?

Sam Nixon 0:26:30 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:31 Does it not go watery?

Sam Nixon 0:26:32 So it does a little bit. So what I do with that, the way I reheat it, is that I'll defrost it. So I get every— I get that out of the fridge on Christmas Eve morning before I go to panto, uh, stick it in the fridge, and then Christmas Day I kind of squeeze it out of the freezer bag into like a baking dish and I pop it in the oven. So then any residual water is kind of evaporated And then I might just stir another bit of knob of butter through it or something like that.

Natalie Cassidy 0:26:57 See, I think I'm gonna have to follow you fully this year. Do it, mate. Because of the panto.

Sam Nixon 0:27:03 Yeah, well, this is the thing, and especially now I do panto, I have to do this now. You know, I, I did it before. I was doing it for years before I even started doing panto, just because it helped and it meant that I could have a bit more of a nicer Christmas Eve. But now I, I work on Christmas Eve, I absolutely have to do it this way, and it's just brilliant. And I do it every year. So from the 1st of December, I post pretty much one recipe every single day, and then my lovely followers just follow it when they want to follow it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:32 Sorry, 1st of October you said?

Sam Nixon 0:27:34 Sorry, so the 1st of December is the day, is the— when is when I'll post it. I'll start filming in October myself at home, right? I'll get it all done in October personally for me because I have to film it all in prep, in preparation, because then in November I go into pantoland.

Natalie Cassidy 0:27:48 That's no good, is it? I'm gonna be in panto, you're going to be posting on the 1st of December? It's too late for me, it's too late for me.

Sam Nixon 0:27:55 That's a good point, actually. I didn't think about that. You know, I'll say, I'll send you the previews personally. Oh, bless you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:01 Please, honestly, I'd love that. And I'll say, so I'm doing all Sam's stuff, I promise.

Sam Nixon 0:28:06 Yeah, do it, do it. It really helps, it does.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:08 Yeah. Oh, it's fantastic. I was watching your Instagram earlier. You are funny. I love, I love your Instagram. It is very funny. But I saw a video, I come across a video of you talking about your, um, agent who's from London. Spitting feathers does mean you're angry.

Sam Nixon 0:28:25 Does mean or doesn't?

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:27 It does.

Sam Nixon 0:28:27 No, it doesn't, Nat.

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:29 It does down here.

Sam Nixon 0:28:30 No, God. Do you know what was so frustrating about that as well? For context, so, yeah, my agent talked about spitting feathers. And in Barnsley, up north, spitting feathers means that you're thirsty. You know, your mouth's dry, you're spitting feathers, you need a drink. Whereas my agent was like, no, no, it means that you're angry. I was like, absolutely not. So I put it on my Instagram. And I think I was outnumbered pretty much. More— most people were like, no, it means that you're angry. I was like, no!

Natalie Cassidy 0:28:58 I understand though, I get it with the old feathers in the mouth. I would say something like, oh my God, my mouth is like Gandhi's flip-flop.

Sam Nixon 0:29:05 Yes, yeah, fair, fair. You know what I mean?

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:09 Yeah. So, but the spitting feathers has always meant that you're annoyed, you know.

Sam Nixon 0:29:13 I see. I'm never— I have never heard it being used in that way until my agent said it, and then I was like, oh, wow.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:20 See you Northerners.

Sam Nixon 0:29:21 I know, I know, we've got our own language.

Natalie Cassidy 0:29:24 Oh, it's lovely though, it's brilliant. Do you know what Mark's got into? My Mark at home, he keeps putting on Fred Dibnah on the telly, old YouTube videos of Fred Dibnah. The, uh, you know, he does all the steeplechasing chimneys and all that, and he sounds really— I was looking, I was actually looking at your book and I thought, is Paddy McGuinness on the telly? not to be stereotypical. And I looked up and it was Fred Dibnah. But there's just something about— I know that's Bolton, but it's just something so warm, isn't there, about the North, the accent? Obviously you might not know that, but it's so comforting.

Sam Nixon 0:29:59 Yeah, well, I mean, I, I often think that. It was, it was funny, um, it was funny again, funny. I went to go see a production of Scrooge. Yes, last and they'd set it in the north.

Natalie Cassidy 0:30:14 Mm.

Sam Nixon 0:30:15 And I was a bit like, oh, it's too— it's too kind. The Yorkshire accent's too kind for Scrooge. Not, not saying that the southern accent is horrible, but it's like, it, it did— it does make you go, yeah, no, no, he shouldn't be northern, Scrooge. He needs— he needs to be, you know, proper angry.

Sam Nixon 0:30:33 And I like that. Uh, but no, it is, it is a kind accent. It is. And it's, um, you know, I think the thing is with up north is that is that it's so— what's weird about it is that there are so many towns that are so close together, but they're different towns, you know, different parts of Yorkshire, you know. And I think because everything's so small, everybody kind of knows each other, do you know what I mean?

Sam Nixon 0:30:56 So it's, it, it's always been a— that's why I moved. I lived in London for years, and I love London.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:00 Where did you live in London?

Sam Nixon 0:31:02 So I started out in Battersea, uh, which I love. I loved Battersea Park.

Sam Nixon 0:31:06 back. And then I ended up in— I moved over a little while, went to Wandsworth at one point, but I ended up in Ealing. And I loved Ealing and it was lovely. And, and, you know, I met my wife. My wife is from the north, but we met in London and it was lovely.

Sam Nixon 0:31:19 But Barnsley was always home, so I ended up moving back here. And it's, it's just, it's just lovely because I now get to go down to London and I still get to see it and visit it. I've still got friends who live in London. But yeah, I think, I think the thing is with, with up here is just it, it is a lot, so much smaller. Like, I now, even though I lived, even though I lived in London for like 9 years, I now go and I'm that typical northern tourist.

Sam Nixon 0:31:43 I'm like, oh, it's massive, it is massive, this place. And it really is huge.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:47 But listen, you talk about Ealing.

Sam Nixon 0:31:49 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:50 Battersea. Yeah. I might as well go to Paris.

Sam Nixon 0:31:53 Oh yeah, exactly.

Natalie Cassidy 0:31:55 Honestly. Yeah, yeah. You say you know everyone. I mean, south of the Rip, forget it for Yeah, I'm not— I ain't going over there, genuinely. I'm North London, I'm from Islington, so it's all north for me. Yeah, yeah. And I, I'm, I'm in Hertfordshire, I'm, I'm in the country now and I love it. It's really quiet, I'm in a little village.

Sam Nixon 0:32:13 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:14 And again, a bit like you, I like going in and I'll get the train and yeah, when you've got bits to do or go to a nice art gallery and, you know, I enjoy it, but I love the peace and quiet of the village and the local pub and Yeah, yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:32:28 Do you think that changes with age?

Natalie Cassidy 0:32:30 Yeah, I do, I do. And also, yeah, just the pace of life and for the children. The one thing I'd say is once your children do get a little bit older is you are a taxi, you're a cab. Yes. Because they can't walk out and jump on a bus or, you know, well, they can actually, but not to many places. So you're always sort of on standby for pickups and drop-offs, which I don't mind, but it also sort of blocks out them just wanting to go out all the time. So, you know, swings and roundabouts.

Sam Nixon 0:33:03 Yeah, yeah, true. Yeah. But it's so true though, London. Like, I'll never forget sometimes like driving across London to somewhere and it— because of the traffic, it took like 2 hours.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:16 It's ridiculous.

Sam Nixon 0:33:17 And it's like, oh my goodness, I could have almost driven back home to Barnsley in that time, do you know what I mean? And it is— it's wild. It is.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:24 I do a lot of— if I get into London and say I've got 2 things to do, I'll just put Google Maps on and walk it. You're just better off walking now. You really are. I mean, I don't ride a bike, so unfortunately I can't ride a bike, never have been able to, but my legs I'm good at. So yeah, I'm just, I like to walk, walk around London or walk down the river. It's just easier.

Sam Nixon 0:33:45 Do you know what, me and me wife did it recently. So we went down to watch Sam Ryder in Jesus Christ Superstar.

Natalie Cassidy 0:33:49 Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:33:50 And she planned it all. We got into St. Pancras and we walked to our hotel, which was a good like half an hour, 45-minute walk. And then we walked from the hotel to the Palladium, and we walked back, and we did— we just walked it all. And it was, you know, if you're saying it to your kids, we're gonna be walking, it's gonna be 45 minutes, they'll be like, what? But it was lovely, and it was great. It was a great way of seeing London, do you know what I mean? It was— I really enjoyed doing that. I'll do that more often, I think. It's good.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:15 I love the Palladium. That's one of my favourites.

Sam Nixon 0:34:18 It's amazing. Have you seen Sam Ryder in that yet?

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:20 No. Is it amazing?

Sam Nixon 0:34:22 My God, I— when I watched it, because I love Sam Ryder, obviously, his voice is just unbelievable.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:28 He's amazing.

Sam Nixon 0:34:29 amazing.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:30 And he also seems like just the nicest, most grateful, lovely bloke.

Sam Nixon 0:34:35 Absolutely. But, you know, I was like, I was like, is he gonna be any good at it? Because can he act? You know, I know, I know it's like acting through song, but it's— that's still— that's a hard thing to do. Yeah, he's unbelievable. I felt like I was watching something really special, like, like a bit of history. I almost feel like him in that role will be remembered forever.

Natalie Cassidy 0:34:55 Really? Yeah, honestly.

Sam Nixon 0:34:56 If you get a chance to see him, I mean, he's going on tour next year, so anybody watching this podcast or listening this podcast and they want— they can't get to London, try and get tickets for it. He, he was absolutely sensational. He blew my mind. And the, the— what he can do with his voice in that show is insane. It's absolutely insane.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:16 You've sold it to me.

Sam Nixon 0:35:18 It honestly, man, you— it's, it's a real special thing. And I didn't think the show itself— I saw Jesus Christ Superstar on a school trip years ago when I was a kid, and I didn't mind the show. It's not one of my favourite shows, but I really wanted to see him in And it, it's, it's even turned my way around to thinking for the show. I just think, I thought it was an amazing show. I thought the music was unbelievable. But yeah, it was very, very special thing to see him playing that part.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:41 Oh, that's so lovely. He'll love that. We'll clip that up and we'll him in it. Yeah, do it. Oh, that's fantastic. No, I shall look it up. I shall look it up.

Sam Nixon 0:35:49 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:35:50 Right, let's get on to cooking now. I know we've got a little bit of Christmas prep. You, what show was it you did? did your cooking show and you got to the final. Was that MasterChef?

Sam Nixon 0:36:00 It was, yes. Celebrity MasterChef in 2015. Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:36:03 Right. Were you cooking before that? Did you enjoy your cooking before that?

Sam Nixon 0:36:07 Yes, I was training to be a chef. So when I left school, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a chef. So I left school at 16 and I enrolled in a catering and hospitality course.

Natalie Cassidy 0:36:17 Right.

Sam Nixon 0:36:18 But in between leaving school and starting college, I'd auditioned for Pop Idol So that was kind of happening in the background whilst I was at college. So I did my whole first year, it was a 3-year course, I did my whole first year. But then, you know, as we know with talent shows, overnight, you, if you get through, you have to move to London. And that's literally what happened. I got to the live finals, and overnight, I ended up moving to London at the age of 17. So I had to stop doing my catering course, and my life took a completely different direction.

Natalie Cassidy 0:36:48 That's a massive thing to do, innit? I'm just trying to think about that. Sort of 17, you're on the path, you're really enjoying your course, And then that comes up. What did your parents say?

Sam Nixon 0:36:58 Well, my mum always describes it as— she always says, like, the, the apron strings didn't have time to fray, they were just cut. And that thing of being a parent— I mean, as you said, your daughter's about to be 16, so, so that'd be next year. Oh, moving somewhere completely different and, you know, starting this mad career where lots of people know who you are as well. It's, um, It was, it was, it was wild. It was, it was, it's, it's been odd because I don't think I've ever had time to properly process it. I've never had to, I don't think.

Natalie Cassidy 0:37:33 And also, Sam, what people listening to this now— there will be a lot of listeners, a lot of my ladies who are sort of my age who will remember and know when we're talking about Pop Idol, it's not like The Voice now. No disrespect to the programmes that are on now that get 1.5, 2 million views. We are talking about Over 20 million people. It was huge, wasn't it? It was huge.

Sam Nixon 0:37:55 It was, it was huge. We were really well looked after as well in that show. Like, it was before social media. It was like— and it was very innocent as well. Like, if you watch clips of Pop Idol back now, it's just these— you know what I find now a little frustrating sometimes with talent shows is that they're almost ready-made pop stars.

Sam Nixon 0:38:16 And the beauty with those shows, which is why I don't think they work as much anymore, The thing that was beautiful about those shows back in the day is that you were picking young people who didn't have a chance of getting a record deal. Like, I literally, 2 weeks before I was live on a Saturday night, was in my college course in Barnsley.

Natalie Cassidy 0:38:34 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:38:35 You know, training to be a chef. And then I was live on Saturday night telly in front of millions of people. And it was that thing of just picking someone and seeing how they did. And obviously, my series was the second series of Pop Idol, so we'd all watched what had happened to Will Young and Gareth Gates in the first series. Which is why I auditioned, 'cause I, you know, applied for it, 'cause I sat at home watching that with my mum and dad, and it was huge telly. It was a huge moment. It was so big.

Natalie Cassidy 0:39:00 I remember that final. I spoke about it, actually, and weirdly, I spoke about it last night in a pod with a niece. Oh, really? I remember being in a nightclub, and I remember them turning everything off so we could hear if David Garruff had won. It was massive.

Sam Nixon 0:39:14 Can you imagine that happening now? Like, it just wouldn't. It wouldn't at all. People would be like, turn the music back on, what are you doing? But it was huge, and it was a big moment.

Sam Nixon 0:39:22 Yeah. It was a massive show. And yeah, it's mad to think about it. Like, when I think about my kids, like, my daughter's about to be 12, and to think at 17 her just moving down to London. And, and I think you only realise that when you become a parent yourself, about how hard that must have been for my mum and dad.

Sam Nixon 0:39:39 Because I think— because also I've got an older brother, so he was, he was off doing his own thing, so he wasn't in the house as much. So suddenly this house that was with friends knocking on the door and us, you know, getting ready for school and college and things like that, suddenly— Nothing. That stopped and it was quiet. And even, I think my mum once described something about, you know, at the top of our stairs, we had like a bannister, and our clothes for the next day would always be on there, what we were ever wearing. And I still do it now with my kids.

Sam Nixon 0:40:08 I said, right, take your clothes off, put them on the bannister, you can wear them tomorrow. You know, that's— those rows of clothes were gone. Do you know what I mean? And it's just sort of—

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:15 It's really heartbreaking.

Sam Nixon 0:40:16 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:17 You can't feel— I think, as you say, as you have your children, Yeah, it's— you only know, you only know at the different ages and stages, and you go, oh yeah. And I think back to being Eliza's age.

Sam Nixon 0:40:31 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:31 And I can moan and groan, and then I stop myself and I think, she's such a good girl.

Sam Nixon 0:40:35 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:40:35 She's so good. She has her moments and she wants to do a few things that I think, oh. And then I think about my— what I was doing at her age, and I think, give her a break. She's a really good girl, you know?

Sam Nixon 0:40:47 Yeah, yeah. It's wild, isn't it? You do— yeah, and almost like, I, uh, not that I have anything to forgive my mum and dad for, but I had a lovely childhood growing up. But you do almost— I forgive them for stressing and worrying, do you know what I mean? Because I get it now.

Sam Nixon 0:41:03 Yes. I absolutely get it. In fact, I remember me and my mum having a raging argument just before I was about to do my first Pop Idol audition, and it was because they just started letting me sort of go out with friends, um, and And she was— we had a massive argument about the fact that she didn't want me to go out because she didn't want me drinking out of a glass and maybe get a cold, and then I couldn't do it. It was a massive argument because I wanted to go out with my friends. Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:41:29 Um, but I kind of get that now. I was like, if my daughter had a massive audition that could potentially change her life now, I'd be like, you're not going out. Staying in tonight. Yeah, next week. Yeah, have a good night's sleep, you know, get some rest for your voice, you know what I mean?

Sam Nixon 0:41:43 But, you know.

Natalie Cassidy 0:41:45 Yeah. Um, do your kids, um, what do you think they're into? I mean, they're young and no one needs to know, but do they like music, anything, you know, that you're up to? Do they like the acting, the cooking, the music?

Sam Nixon 0:41:55 So my daughter absolutely loves performing. What's, what's great about— so the, my— the theatre where I do panto, Theatre Royal Wakefield, it's, it's a really— it's a charity as well. So they, they put a lot of money into the community through the arts, and they do a thing called Performance Academy, which is essentially like a drama club. Yes, yes. Um, so she, she signed up to that, which is lovely. So Wakefield has really become a second home to me now. I'm there all the time, and that theatre particularly. Um, so she loves it. She gets like proper, almost professional-style training.

Natalie Cassidy 0:42:27 Oh, lovely.

Sam Nixon 0:42:28 And then they put, they put on shows and things like that every year and, and stuff. And then they have the opportunity to audition for the pantomime and things like that, to be in the chorus. So she loves that. My son absolutely adores does gaming. That is his thing.

Sam Nixon 0:42:42 Yeah. And as a parent, that's really difficult because you do, you know, you don't want them to be on screens too much. And we're quite good with it, me and my wife. We, especially when he's at school, we don't let him go on it in the week. And then at the weekend, we let him have his weekend and he plays with his friends.

Sam Nixon 0:42:58 Um, and he's good at it and he loves it and he's passionate about it. But it is a hard thing because you have that thing constantly like, God, you know, just get out and play, which he does do as well, don't get me wrong, he does do that. But, but he also has this real passion for it as well, like he loves it.

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:14 And he's good at it.

Sam Nixon 0:43:15 And he's really good at it, yeah. And he's playing games, like, we don't let him like go online and speak to his friends online, but what he does, he'll— my wife is not bothered about her phone, whereas me, I need my phone constantly. She lets him have his phone and he'll like FaceTime his friends. Yes. So he's chatting to them them, um, and they're all chatting whilst they're all playing a game, and it's lovely, and I love listening to him. So that, I mean, that's his thing. He absolutely adores it. You could talk to him about a game and that's it, he'll be, he'll be—

Natalie Cassidy 0:43:45 Lights up. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think we have to remember, you know, we all— I remember having a, a Game Boy and loving it. Yeah, I mean, I loved games. My, my lovely nephew Alfie, 7, and he's the same. He's just had a gaming party and he absolutely loves it. And I think, like you said, as long as there are other things, there's football, karate and they're getting out, or the Cubs, or, you know, whatever it is. I think it's just part of life now, and it is, it is a hobby that is a big one.

Sam Nixon 0:44:12 Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Natalie Cassidy 0:46:12 Right. We've gone off piste again because we don't stop talking. I know it's lovely. People like it. This is what the pod's about. We just have a chat. So you did that, and obviously then you had your really long career with Mark and everything, you know, that all went along. And then you got Celebrity MasterChef.

Sam Nixon 0:46:32 Yeah, so it was like, weirdly, so I actually, I got offered to do Celebrity MasterChef when I was about 19, so not long after doing Pop Idol, right? But I, I was, I found it a bit intense.

Sam Nixon 0:46:42 I was like, no, it's too early to do that. It's a very intense show. I'm only 19. I'm not bothered about doing that. So I turned it down, and then it was It was— so that must have been, what, 2005, maybe 2004, 2005, maybe.

Sam Nixon 0:46:58 Um, so then it wasn't until 2015 when it came back around again and I got asked, and I was like, yeah, do you know what, now's the time, I want to do it, it'd be great. Um, so I did it, I got to the final, and then ever since then, obviously that brought quite a few sort of foodie followers to my Instagram. Mm-hmm. So then I was like, do you know what, I'll start posting the odd recipe recipe, which I did with like— there was no re— I wasn't doing it for any particular reason. I was just doing it for, you know, I've got these sudden foodie followers who have watched me on MasterChef.

Sam Nixon 0:47:30 I'll start posting some recipes. A few people started doing it. And then I think the big thing that changed for my kind of Instagram thing was I started posting every year a Christmas cake. And I, I think, as we've already said, you know, we both love Christmas. And I've— I always have that— I always get itchy feet kind of this time of year, sort of September I'm like, it's almost Christmas, it's nearly time, how can I get excited about Christmas?

Sam Nixon 0:47:53 And I remember once being in London and I thought— I was having that feeling where I wanted to get excited about Christmas and it was early September.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:00 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:48:01 And I used to work in a bakery when I was a kid and I'll never forget— I talk about this in the book— I'll never forget the, the, my boss, he pulled out this tray and this was in the summer I think, he pulled out this tray and it was a big massive fruitcake and he was feeding it with booze, with brandy or sherry.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:17 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:48:17 And I was like, what are you doing?

Sam Nixon 0:48:18 And he's like, oh, I'm feeding the Christmas cakes ready to sell. There it is, there it is, there's the cake. And I've never forgot that because he was feeding it like months in advance. I was like, oh, how, how can you do that? You're selling that at Christmas?

Sam Nixon 0:48:30 And he was like, yeah, because you feed it with booze, it takes on the flavour and it preserves it, and then you get beautiful flavoured Christmas cake at Christmas. And I weren't a fan of Christmas cake either. I wanted— I didn't like fruitcake, but I thought this particular year I'm gonna have a go. And I started researching recipes and I thought, I know I want like a moist Christmas cake, and I looked to the queen, which was Delia. Delia was the queen of Christmas.

Natalie Cassidy 0:48:51 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:48:52 And she had a great Christmas cake recipe. So I thought, right, how can I look at all these different recipes, come up with my own version? And that's what I did. And I made this Christmas cake one night, and I, and I fed it then for like 2 months, iced it in December, and then we had it at Christmas.

Sam Nixon 0:49:07 And I loved it. And I thought, because I'd made it myself, I loved Christmas cake suddenly. I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. So then the, the following year after that, me and my wife got married, and we got married at Christmas. So I— the top tier of our wedding cake was my Christmas cake.

Sam Nixon 0:49:23 Oh. And then I started posting it, and I thought, you know what, I'll post it, see what happens. And every year, more and more people have just got involved with it, and it's just got bigger and bigger and bigger, and more people talk about it, and it's become this thing. And usually it's the first weekend in September when I will bake it, and loads of people on my Instagram bake it, and then you feed it for like 2 months, ice it in December, and you've got beautiful Christmas cake which will last for months as well. Like, I've had— Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:49:52 Christmas cake left in March, and it's still beautiful and amazing. And then, like, people like Giovanna Fletcher got on board with it, and which was amazing. She suddenly started following me one day, and I've known Tom for years because he used to come on all our kids shows all the time. So me and the McFly boys, we were around at the same time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:09 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 0:50:09 So it was lovely. And then she sent me— she's currently on the Great Wall of China doing a—

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:14 Oh, doing one of the Copperfield walks.

Sam Nixon 0:50:16 Yeah, and she missed— she sent me a voice note saying, Sam, we're just at the Great Wall of China, we're all talking about your Christmas cake, when do we need to do it? Amazing. Lovely. So obviously that really brought a lot of follow— when she mentioned it, it like brought a lot of people to my Instagram as well. And it's just become this really lovely thing where every year people get excited. And what's lovely is that everybody has a really amazing— their own thought about how to decorate it. So I get these pictures sent in December of people who've decorated their Christmas cakes, and they're just— they blow me away, some of them. They're unbelievable.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:52 Oh, it's brilliant, brilliant. I've got to talk to you about Delia.

Sam Nixon 0:50:55 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:50:55 So I've got the book, I've got the famous Christmas book. I made the Christmas cake.

Sam Nixon 0:51:01 What, my Christmas cake?

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:03 No, Delia's, right?

Sam Nixon 0:51:04 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:05 Dry as a bone.

Sam Nixon 0:51:08 Oh, interesting.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:10 I'm not— listen, I'm not even gonna go here, but if you look at— I showed my mother-in-law, right? I showed her, to be— which she may as well be my mum-in-law, I've been engaged for 9 years. Um, but I showed her the, the cooking and the oven and the hours, and she said, that is so long.

Sam Nixon 0:51:28 It is quite a long bake.

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:30 Well, that's interesting. I'm gonna do yours. I'm gonna do yours.

Sam Nixon 0:51:35 Right, well, mine's definitely not dry. It is very moist. I, um, you see, I never made delis. I just wanted to, because when When I first wanted to make a cake, I thought, I've got no idea really about quantities and what you put in it. So I was researching loads of different recipes. Delia's was kind of the first one that came up, 'cause I think a lot of people have cooked Delia's. But I never baked it myself, so I never knew. But that's interesting that it was—

Natalie Cassidy 0:51:59 It might be my— it could have been me. It could have been me. Yeah, I could have put in something wrong, or too much flour or something.

Sam Nixon 0:52:06 Well, listen, I highly recommend doing my cake. It is really moist. And like I said, the more you feed it, obviously, the more flavour whatever it takes. And you know, there's, um, I talk about— again, I talk about it in the book because there's— that you can do a non-alcoholic version as well where you kind of soak the fruit in tea, like black tea, but then you don't feed it. So you, you wouldn't make that so far in advance, you'd make it in December and then— Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:52:31 But it's still lovely and moist even without all the feeding. Um, so I think it's just like the quantities that I've got right and the flavours and the, the fruit as well, depending on what fruit you use, and make sure it's plumped up properly and de— and rehydrated and stuff. But it's just become a really lovely thing, and it's why I couldn't— I couldn't— even though this is a book about autumn.

Natalie Cassidy 0:52:51 Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:52:51 But the thing about this book is that it's kind of— it leads you up to the last thing of autumn, which kind of essentially is Christmas, do you know what I mean? And I couldn't not— my debut cookbook couldn't not include the Christmas cake, because I think that there would have been uproar. Um, but it feels quite nice. Like I say, it takes you through autumn, and, you know, autumn usually ends around the 22nd of December when winter starts. That's the book, kind of ends with that last recipe. Yeah, it's absolutely amazing.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:21 And I wanted to talk to you because you've, you've been having an idea about a book, haven't you, for quite a while?

Sam Nixon 0:53:26 Yeah.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:26 And am I right in saying, because you're a huge fan, as am I, of the lovely Jamie Oliver?

Sam Nixon 0:53:31 Yes.

Natalie Cassidy 0:53:31 And he gave you some advice, didn't he?

Sam Nixon 0:53:34 Yeah, he did. So I was like, when, when me and Mark were, you know, talking about calling it a day and stuff like that, that was when I was really thinking about maybe doing a book because I'd I'd built up this following on Instagram and I was like, you know what, I really want to do a book. I really want to do it. It'd be just a dream for somebody, for me to hold a book of mine. So it was like over 4 years ago I actually sat down and started writing it, and this idea came to me about wanting it to be about autumn because I love autumn.

Sam Nixon 0:54:00 People always say about write about what you love, what about what you know, and I love autumn. My style of cooking lends itself to the colder months of the year, the sort of very hearty stews, puddings, pies. So I thought, right, if I write a book around my favourite season, I know I can make it beautiful. I can make it look lovely, beautiful imagery, all this kind of stuff. So we started pitching it to publishers and we just weren't getting anywhere with it.

Sam Nixon 0:54:24 Like, publishers were just— and I get it, you know, they were like, I think, I think, you know, they never said this to me, but I think, you know, even though I've got, you know, 130,000 followers on Instagram, I think that's probably not enough for a publisher to take a punt. And also, you know, they're probably like, why is Sam from Sam and Mark suddenly bringing out a cookbook? That's not sell. So I just weren't getting anywhere, and they were coming back to me and they were saying things like, you know, why don't you try, you know, you're a dad in the kitchen, so why don't you do that? But I was like, yeah, but that's not why my followers follow me.

Sam Nixon 0:54:55 They don't follow me for that. They follow me for the type of food that I cook. So I was getting very frustrated with it now. Like, I weren't getting anywhere, and I thought, this is not gonna happen. And then, so I've known Jamie Oliver a little while.

Sam Nixon 0:55:07 When I was on Popeye's, I was a massive fan of him, and he he, um, invited me down to his restaurant when I was 17, and I met him and he was lovely. And I met Jules, his wife, and she was lovely. And I think— I might be wrong, but I think Jules was a bit of a fan of me on Pop Idol at the time.

Natalie Cassidy 0:55:24 Yes.

Sam Nixon 0:55:25 So the year later, after Pop Idol, Jamie invited me to Jules's secret 30th birthday party and asked me to sing Happy Birthday to her, and she had no idea about it.

Sam Nixon 0:55:36 And so I went along along, and then he got up on stage and he was like, right, Jules, I've got a surprise for you, come on out. And I came out and she looked at me and there was like a split second I thought, oh God, she's got no idea who I am. Then she suddenly went, Sam Dixon! I was like, yes! So then I got on stage and sang Happy Birthday.

Sam Nixon 0:55:53 Um, ended up getting ridiculously drunk that night, sat in, sat in a toilet cubicle on the floor at Jamie Oliver's party. So embarrassing. Anyway, I died. That's amazing. digress.

Sam Nixon 0:56:04 So anyway, so I, I'd known him a little bit, and then one night he followed me on Instagram and he sent me the loveliest message saying, hey, it's been quite a few years since Jules's birthday, looks like you're still doing well, nice to speak to you. And we've just kept in contact.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:17 Lovely.

Sam Nixon 0:56:18 Through Instagram. And then he invited— whilst I was trying to get this book going and it wasn't happening, I got invited down to one of his book, uh, events, and we got chatting.

Sam Nixon 0:56:28 And I was saying, yeah, I'm getting frustrated, I really want to do a book. And he said to me, he says, why don't don't you— like, he was like saying how hard it is to get a book deal, which it is. And he's saying, why don't you go down the self-publishing route? He says, I've got friends who have done it and it's been brilliant for them. And I'll be honest, my wife's always said to me, why don't you self-publish?

Sam Nixon 0:56:49 But because Jamie said it to me, I was like, yeah, right.

Natalie Cassidy 0:56:51 I can imagine Anna at home going, oh yeah, listen to Jamie, not me.

Sam Nixon 0:56:55 Bless her. So my wife, she's always had this idea. Um, but I started looking into it then. I was like, okay, if Jamie's saying that, maybe I should properly look into this. And I had a friend called Mandy who some of your followers may follow her. I think she's called Simply Food by Mandy, I think.

Natalie Cassidy 0:57:15 Yes, I follow her.

Sam Nixon 0:57:16 Yeah, lovely. So, so Mandy's lovely. So she self-published her book, so I was asking her for loads of advice, and she was doing it through a company called Meze who were helping do it. So I looked into Meze and found out that their offices were literally down the road from where I am in Sheffield. So I was like, oh my God, that's a sign. I could literally go into their office and meet— I had a meeting, they were brilliant, they loved my idea. And it was so nice to finally have someone who works in publishing actually go, yeah, this idea is brilliant.

Natalie Cassidy 0:57:47 Mm.

Sam Nixon 0:57:48 You know, and they were— they, they liked it so much they offered to kind of half fund it. But I was like, you know what, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it on my own. And I spoke to my wife about it, and we talked about budget and how much money we had to use for it.

Sam Nixon 0:58:00 I was like, I'm gonna do it myself so that I have full control over it. So I— we went for it, and it's, it's been amazing. Like, we, we— me and my wife sat down and we budgeted. We're like, right, if we maybe write and print 3,000 copies of this book, um, that will hopefully maybe last us a year. And if we sell them within the year, I'll have made back my money and I'll have done a good job.

Natalie Cassidy 0:58:27 Yep.

Sam Nixon 0:58:28 I announced it February, wasn't it? February. So actually, no, it was actually November last year. So I announced it, I announced it on Amazon in February, but the initial presale, the first time I ever mentioned that I was doing this book, was November last year. And the 3,000 copies sold in a week. And I was like, oh my God, like, it was amazing. But this was like a year in advance. So then I was like, wow, we're gonna need to print more. And thankfully, because of the way Mezze, the company, the way they work, people pre-ordered it and they paid for it. So I had the money there to then reinvest.

Natalie Cassidy 0:59:04 Understood.

Sam Nixon 0:59:05 So I could print much more. But then again, Jamie was just brilliant because I was like, how many do you— how many do you print? No idea.

Sam Nixon 0:59:13 Got literally no idea how many to print. And like, going to Jamie is probably a stupid idea because he probably probably prints hundreds of thousands of books. And I was asking loads of different people and everybody had different answers for me. And Jamie was like, I think you should print this many. And I was like— he says, if you can afford to do it, print that many and then you've got them.

Sam Nixon 0:59:32 And, and I listened to him and again, it's been brilliant. And we're now— we've— I had a conversation yesterday about potentially having to reprint now because it's just gone so well. And it's, it's, it's— Well, the thing is, listen, it such a—

Natalie Cassidy 0:59:45 before we even get inside the book, it's such a beautiful book.

Sam Nixon 0:59:49 Thank you.

Natalie Cassidy 0:59:50 And, you know, I look at this book and think, I want to buy this now for a Christmas present. It's so beautiful to have on the side, you know what I mean though? Thank you. I love the lettering. It's got a beautiful gold sort of— it's all— it's just gorgeous, isn't it? It's inlaid. I love the illustrations. Who did your pictures?

Sam Nixon 1:00:08 Yeah, so that's another thing, another beautiful thing about Instagram. So Ellie did the illustrations, and then a lovely lady called Ellie Grace did the photography.

Sam Nixon 1:00:17 But the illustrations— I always knew I wanted a book that had beautiful illustrations in it, because I always think cookbooks that have illustrations as well as photography just look lovely. And I've always loved her style of illustrations. Basically, she, she used to cook my Christmas cake. So she followed me on Instagram, and she would bake my Christmas cake every year. And I saw that her name was like Ellie Huey Illustration or something like that.

Sam Nixon 1:00:43 that. So I, I clicked on her page one day, and she just does the most beautiful, like, greetings cards, Christmas cards, all illustrated, all painted by her. So I started following her and then started buying her Christmas cards every year. And I always knew, I thought, if ever I get to a point where I'm making a book, I, I would love her to illustrate it. So I just messaged her when I knew I was doing it, and she was like, yeah, let's do it.

Sam Nixon 1:01:06 And they're just beautiful. Aww. And that's just a lovely story. We've— Jen, we've never— I've never met her, but she's so lovely.

Natalie Cassidy 1:01:12 And that is positive, isn't it? They're the positive things about, you know, sometimes I can, I can have a little moan and go on a bit because, you know, there are a lot of assholes out there, Sam. Yeah, of course there are. Yeah, it can be such a positive place to meet people. Yeah.

Sam Nixon 1:01:25 And you know what, I've been, I've been so lucky because my, my experience on Instagram— I'm only on Instagram, I'm not on anything else— my experience on it has been really lovely. Um, but I can absolutely see how how it can be horrible as well. But like, just things like that, that story is lovely. I love her work, I think she's fantastic, and I wanted her illustrations in my book. And it's just been a lovely kind of story really, because like I said, she's— it all started with her baking my Christmas cake, and now she's, you know, got the front cover of this.

Natalie Cassidy 1:01:59 It's absolutely beautiful. And I was worried, I wanted it to arrive— you were right, it arrived earlier than I was very pleased. But as I say, it's just filled with, again, we're very alike. I am autumn, hearty food. I love the summer in terms of cooking. Yeah. But after kind of the, you know, how many chickens can you do? How many bits of salmon can you do? It just bores me a little bit. Do you know what I mean? Whereas this, I've had to, I've picked out a couple of my favourites.

Sam Nixon 1:02:30 Oh, go on, make some recommendations. I'm excited. What are you thinking?

Natalie Cassidy 1:02:32 The ultimate cottage pie.

Sam Nixon 1:02:34 Good one, that.

Natalie Cassidy 1:02:36 Listeners, we're not just talking about a cottage pie, it's got a crust on it.

Sam Nixon 1:02:41 So what makes it ultimate now?

Natalie Cassidy 1:02:44 It's got a bloody crust on it.

Sam Nixon 1:02:47 Well, do you know, how do you, how do you like elevate a cottage pie? And I thought, do you know what, sometimes, and there's the same, there's a, there's an apple, there's an apple crumble pie in there, and it's a similar sort of thing.

Sam Nixon 1:03:01 So whenever I have a cottage pie, which is a beautiful thing, lovely like minced meat in the gravy and then mashed potatoes on top, but sometimes I miss the pastry. And it's same with an apple pie slash crumble. Whenever I have an apple pie, I love an apple pie, but you miss the crumble. And then whenever I have a crumble, I miss the pie. So I've put them together in the book, and that's a lovely recipe.

Sam Nixon 1:03:16 But I just— it's— yeah, the, the thing is, all the recipes in the book are recipes that I think lots of people want to cook. Yes. It's recipes that the ingredients that you can easily find in your local supermarket. You don't have to go trekking for it to a special market to find them. It's, it's weeknight that you can make for the family.

Sam Nixon 1:03:38 Yeah. That you properly want to eat, especially at this time of year, the colder months of the year, when you just wanna be comforted by a plate of food.

Natalie Cassidy 1:03:46 I completely agree. And what I love, as you say, is your story through it as well. Do you know what I mean? You've got your cookbook, but it's also a bit autobiographical. And for people that don't, they think, oh, pick up a great big thick book, haven't got time. You're getting a cookbook, you're getting all these wonderful recipes, but you've also got a little bit to read every day as well, which I love. Yeah.

Sam Nixon 1:04:07 Thank you.

Sam Nixon 1:04:07 Well, that's the other thing I wanted, like, you know, like, and you saying how beautiful the book is, is music to my ears, because that's what— and what that is, one of the huge bonuses of self-publishing is that I've been able to make the book that I always dreamed of. You know, when I, when I wanted— the reason I wanted a cookbook is because I wanted a beautiful feeling, smelling, looking cookbook. You know, a cookbook that if I saw in a bookshop, I'd be drawn to. You'd want to buy it. Yeah, I'd see it and I'd be like, wow, I want I want that.

Sam Nixon 1:04:36 Um, and that's the book that I've, I've got in the end, and, and it's just lovely. I love it. I love everything about it.

Natalie Cassidy 1:04:42 You should be very, very proud of yourself. Honestly, it's so, so lovely to see you. It's so lovely to catch up with you. Please, I'll pop— I'll have to just, um, pop my mobile number on so you can send me those. I'm not going to forget that.

Sam Nixon 1:04:55 Yeah, no, I will, I will send you—

Natalie Cassidy 1:04:56 Before December, I need the video.

Sam Nixon 1:04:58 I will.

Natalie Cassidy 1:04:59 Um, honestly, I urge everybody to go out and get this one because as I say, it's not, you've got all those wonderful recipes, but it's a book that you'll keep. I've got the, you know, The Cooking Year. Do you know that book? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's such an old book, isn't it? The Cooking Year. And it was my mum's book and I've got that. But I can see this being—

Sam Nixon 1:05:19 Oh wow.

Natalie Cassidy 1:05:20 A book that, do you know what I mean? A book that the kids go, oh, I remember that cover. Yeah. I remember that from—

Sam Nixon 1:05:27 Oh, that's lovely to hear. You know? And that's, you know what, some of the feedback I've had already is, is like people saying they've bought it and they're sitting down with their kids going through it, picking the recipes that they're gonna cook. And that's amazing. And also, when I first started doing this, in a weird way, it never occurred to me that people are actually gonna cook the recipes. Yeah. Even though I wanted them to. Of course I did. That's why I wrote it.

Natalie Cassidy 1:05:49 Yeah.

Sam Nixon 1:05:50 But now I'm getting— I'm starting to get people sending me pictures and, oh, we cooked the steak pie last night. We did this. It's like, oh my God, yeah, that's, that's the whole reason why I did that. And it's, it's lovely and it's been brilliant and it's It's been worth every bit of money, every bit of stress, every bit of worry. Uh, it's been totally worth it.

Natalie Cassidy 1:06:08 Brilliant. I don't— why are you not on This Morning cooking out of it? That's what I want to know.

Sam Nixon 1:06:12 Well, hopefully we're on it. We're, um, I'm doing Sunday brunch. That's definitely happening.

Natalie Cassidy 1:06:17 Excellent.

Sam Nixon 1:06:17 And yeah, we're in chats at the minute, so I'm hoping that will happen. Yes, definitely. That's what I want to see.

Natalie Cassidy 1:06:24 I want to see— I want a cup of tea and I want to see you on there. Thank you so, so much. I'll let you go, it's been an hour. Thank you so much.

Sam Nixon 1:06:31 No, thank you, and good luck with Pantour. You'll love it. You'll be brilliant. Just enjoy it.

Natalie Cassidy 1:06:36 I'll let you know how it goes. Keep in touch now.

Sam Nixon 1:06:38 Will do. You too.

Natalie Cassidy 1:06:39 All right, you take care. Cheers. See you then. Thank you. Bye.