PODCAST: On the Marie Curie Couch with Andy Ryan

Andy was a contestant on 2024’s The Great British Bake Off. Since then, he has appeared across the media and at multiple live events, including the Foodies Festivals, The Cake & Bake Show and Good Housekeeping Live and has been named as one of Feedspot’s Top 40 UK Baking Influencers of 2025. He will return to the Bake Off tent for this year’s Great British Bake Off New Year Special. Andy lives in Essex with his partner and daughter.

In this conversation, Andy talks about the death of his father, Jim, when he was 13 years old, the pain of talking – or not talking – about it, and how Del Boy, Rodney and Only Fools and Horses helped ‘crack the nut’ of his and his brothers' grief.

I think [talking about Dad] would bring out a lot of emotion. A lot of emotion. And I think that’s what we’re all scared of. Because that emotion is too painful to deal with, because we’re all aware of having empathy with my brothers and mum, to not bring us back to that time again.

My dad would always watch Only Fools and Horses. We’d sit there and watch it and we used to laugh. Then up until and during his death, we didn’t. It was a little while after I remember my mum going up the shop and buying the video for the episode Jolly Boys Outing and said, "Come on, let’s watch. We used to like this one." We were all in fits of laughter. Without realising it, my mum had cracked the nut. She’d brought that smile back out in us. We watched that one video so much she had to buy another because we’d worn it out.

Listen to Jason's chat with Andy on the player at the top of the page. You can also listen or download the conversation via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can also watch a subtitled version of the conversation on YouTube.

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