Michael Whitehall and his son Jack are the stars of Travels With My Father. Photo: BOHM
The loving banter between British comedian Jack Whitehall and his elderly dad Michael has been winning over Netflix audiences since 2017.
At their live shows in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland in January, Michael will surely dip into his "vast back-catalogue of anecdotes and stories and tall tales", Jack says, and there will also be plenty of spontaneity.
"It'll be a slightly chaotic, hopefully amusing evening of watching a father and son on stage," he tells RNZ's Jim Mora.
Jack Whitehall and his dad Michael are heading to New Zealand
Jack Whitehall says he has got a lot better at travelling in the seven years since he and his dad first shot Travels With My Father, but much of it has been "solitary".
In Aotearoa, he and Michael - a former theatrical agent to the stars - will enjoy some time off together.
"I'm normally pretty in and out of the locations that I go to and tend to see an airport and then a dressing room and maybe the back of a car. It'll be nice to be able to sort of actually spend some time in New Zealand and enjoy it."
While Jack concedes that he and Michael's lives are "quite privileged and whatnot", audiences seem to relate to their father-and-son dynamic and enjoy their shared sense of humour.
"We kind of banter with each other and undermine one another and push each other's buttons in a comedic way but it's all underpinned by a great love and affection.
"I think people recognise elements of that in their own relationships with their parents and they like seeing that reflected on screen. It's that double-act element that people seem to really connect to."
At 84, Michael says he is no longer very strong physically but is "mentally fine" and can get himself around.
"I'm very lucky to have a team of people who are all very concerned about my health because of my great age."
He refuses to believe that urinating just twice a day, as he does, is any cause for concern.
"The reason is I don't drink anything. I don't drink water all day whereas the modern youth drink water all the time.
"For me, water is for washing. I'll put water on my face when I shave in the morning and I may have a bath before I go to bed but drinking it - no, not really."
In the Whitehalls' new Netflix show Fatherhood with My Father, Michael shares a drink and pub meal with a robot, with which he became "completely bewitched".
"When I asked her a question she'd look slightly over to one side and then give me an answer and talk very intelligently ... At the end, I had to be sort of dragged away from there and back to the hotel in the driverless car we drove in Los Angeles."
Often Michael's unusual references fly over people's heads, Jack says, but not the robot's.
"It was the first time I have ever seen him have a conversation where someone knew everyone that he was referencing and was able to hold a conversation with him about all of his very niche interests."
Michael represented lots of successful actors, such as Colin Firth and Judy Dench, but says he is not posh himself.
"That's part of the problem with me because people see ex-clients of mine driving around in big motors and going on fancy holidays and all that and say 'Michael probably does that, too'. No. I'm just a humble man."
He says Jack, who had a daughter Elsie with his partner Roxy Horner in 2023, is a much better father than he was.
"I was an agent and I was running a business in London, working and trying to make money so that my family would be successful and happy and everything. I was at the coalface but I was never actually at home very much.
"Whereas Jack, actors basically tend to be at home a lot. When they're working they work and then when they're not working they come home."
Jack says it has been an "amazing ride" becoming a father himself and having a baby brought him and Roxy even closer.
"You're going through a very intense life experience together and you certainly feel like you're in the trenches with each other. It made us feel like even more of a team. It's been amazing to feel like more of a family and Elsie is the centre of my world."
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