Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
‘My dear lady wife is a big fan of a Sunday spread’: Greg Wise.
‘My dear lady wife is a big fan of a Sunday roast’: Greg Wise. Photograph: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
‘My dear lady wife is a big fan of a Sunday roast’: Greg Wise. Photograph: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Sunday with Greg Wise: ‘I prefer lunch to start at 4pm’

This article is more than 2 years old
Samantha Rea
The actor on cooking ossobuco, sipping a weissbier and watching films with his wife Emma Thompson

What time are you up? 5.30am. I’ve always risen early – it’s nice, you get lots done before you’re hassled by everyone else.

What were Sundays like growing up? My dad was from the north – where I grew up – but Mum was of Central European stock, so in the week we’d eat non-British things. On a Sunday, Dad claimed his heritage with roast beef and a Yorkshire. It was the only time I saw my parents drink – Dad would buy a bottle of wine. My sister and I might have apple juice – otherwise we’d drink water.

What’s on the box? I haven’t watched telly since the 80s, but if we’re knackered, we’ll stick a film on. Em [Wise’s wife Emma Thompson] has won an Oscar or two, so we’re sent DVDs from the Academy. It’s pot luck, because you don’t know what you’re watching, but often we’ll see stuff before it’s out in the cinema, which is lovely.

A Sunday tipple? I get confused with Sunday lunch and drinking. I think: ‘If I start now, do I keep drinking?’ I prefer lunch to start at 4pm, then we can put the fire on, and I can have my weissbier at normal beer time. Cocktail hour slipped when our daughter was tiny. It came forward by a couple of hours, but 5pm is my cut-off – any earlier and I’m in trouble.

A Sunday roast? My dear lady wife is a big fan of a Sunday spread. The last Sunday lunch I cooked was ossobuco – the bit of the cow from the knee down. It makes the butcher grumpy because he’s got to saw through the bone to make 2in slices. There’s a nice chunk of meat on it, and wonderful bone marrow in the middle. I sear it, then cook it for 4-5 hours in onion, celery and white wine, and garnish it with gremolata, which is parsley, lemon zest and raw garlic. If you’ve got it right, it just melts. Then you suck out the beautiful bone marrow. I’m thrilled if other people don’t want to, because then I can eat theirs.

Greg Wise supports the Good Grief Trust (thegoodgrieftrust.org)

Most viewed

Most viewed