Soccer AM fan favourite Tubes has described his worst experience on the much-loved TV show – and it involves an "absolutely horrendous" encounter with a well-known actor and comedian.
Tubes, real name Peter Dale, was a mainstay on the Sky Sports show before it was controversially axed at the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
In fact, after impressing on work experience at the age of 15, Dale went on to work in the Sky Sports library for two years before moving over to Soccer AM, where he was eventually given his own segment.
As well as the popular 'one question only' section of the show, Tubes would often go away and speak to celebrities, whether that be on the red carpet or at a press junket.
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For the most part, Hollywood's biggest names would appreciate his unique interviewing style. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, for example, was in hysterics at Tubes' antics.
But not everybody was enamoured by his approach. Steve Coogan, who is best known for creating and portraying Alan Partridge, was a difficult guest, to say the least.
Speaking on the Soccer A-Z podcast, Dale opened up on the meeting.
"My worst experience was meeting Steve Coogan," he said. "I did a film junket. It was absolutely horrendous because he hated me. I don't know, he just hated me. I walked in there and the cameraman was behind him – there's two cameras in a junket – and he was like, 'good luck'.
"So I asked him a question, I did a rap and he hated it. Then I was like, 'who's the funniest man in the world, Steve?' And he just went, 'not you'.
"I was like, 'I'm aware of that, but, you know, who is?' And he went, 'not you'. It was horrendous. So, I sort of went, 'well, I'll give this one up', went to shake his hand, and he wouldn't shake my hand, and it was absolutely horrendous."
After the show was axed at the end of the 2022/23 season, Dale responded to those who said it was "not what it used to be".
"It has changed. It's massively changed, but it's had to change," he said on an episode of Tubes and Ange Golf Life.
"I get fed up with people who say 'It's not what it used to be' - it can't be what it used to be. Because, the way the world has changed, you can't be doing the stuff we were doing back in the day! Some of the jokes [and] some of the innuendos - we can't do stuff like that!"
Jack Kenmare