John Bishop explains why Bradley Cooper's film about life is "like watching a memory"

With his first two films as director, Bradley Cooper took on some pretty major projects.

For his debut behind the camera, he helmed A Star Is Born – the latest remake of one of Hollywood's most beloved musical stories, starring alongside pop superstar Lady Gaga in a film that would go on to build a legion of devoted fans and receive a glut of awards nominations.

His follow-up was no less ambitious, this time a biopic exploring the life – and marriage – of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, with Cooper again taking on the lead role and the Oscars again rewarding it with a number of major nods.

But for his third film as director, Is This Thing On?, Cooper has gone in a slightly different, perhaps more lowkey, direction. This time around, the inspiration is none other than popular UK comedian and one-time Doctor Who star John Bishop, with Will Arnett playing a man who goes through loosely the same experiences as the Scouse comic.

The film – which is set in New York rather than Liverpool – follows Arnett's character after he stumbles into a comedy career while his marriage is collapsing, only for his newfound interest to rejuvenate his life and help put a spark back into his marriage.

" It's been a bit of a surreal experience seeing it," Bishop said of watching the film during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com ahead of release. "I think more so now we are doing these chats now.

"We just had a screening in Liverpool at the weekend with friends and family and so they were seeing this projection onto the cinema screen of a life that they'd seen happen in real!"

He added that because the film was inspired by what had happened between him and his wife, rather than being a more explicitly biographical film, he was able to take "a step back" – but he still found himself a little overawed by what he was seeing.

"The moments in it and the essences in it are so on point [that it was at times like watching a memory," he said. "And it's mad because it came about, through [me and Arnett] meeting on a barge in Amsterdam at a social event, eight years ago!"

When Arnett had first heard that story on the barge, he had instantly thought it would make a great movie.

Initially, what had grabbed him had been the enormity of Bishop's success from his comedy career's unusual beginnings, but after he reached out to Cooper – a friend of many years – they decided the film would be more compelling if the focus of the story shifted to the marriage.

"The heights that he's achieved now in comedy... that's pretty amazing. That's its own story," Arnett explained. "We didn't ultimately tell that version, that part of the story of all the great success that he's had as a stand up.

"I remember John said to me a while ago that having a career come out of that has been amazing. But that's the icing on the cake. The real meat of it is how much it transformed [his] life... and that's what spoke to us."

He continued: "There's something really relatable, even though it seems so improbable and such a crazy story. At the heart of it, it's about these people who are reconnecting with themselves and each other. It's just... that's a universal thing that I think that anybody can relate to. It's a good story, and it's a hopeful story, and I love that about it."

While Bishop is a household name on this side of the Atlantic, he's far less famous in the US. And indeed many of the film's other stars – including legendary Oscar-winner Laura Dern (who plays Arnett's character's wife, Tess) – were unfamiliar with his work and his story before signing on to the project.

"It was amazing to get to know him through the intimacy of how comedy came to him, and how he discovered it as a place to start talking about what was happening in his life," she explained.

"Fearing he was getting a divorce and falling in love with comedy as a place to communicate his feelings. And obviously, the rest is history on his incredible career, but also his marriage – that they found their way back to each other by sort of rediscovering their passions."

Oscar-nominee Andra Day – who plays a close friend of the central couple – was also immediately compelled by Bishop's story, explaining that she loved "that his story has a happy ending".

She added: "It was really nice to discover just his brand of comedy. I feel like the best comics are the people who are really authentic and who are smart and who are willing to share. And I think he represents that in the best way. So it's been nice to get to know him and his wife and their story!"

Thankfully, both Bishop and his wife Melanie were very happy with the finished product.

"I remember going home that weekend and saying, 'I met this guy, Will Arnett, he'd like to have a go at writing the movie,'" he recalled of the aftermath of that first encounter in Amsterdam.

"And then you kind of reach a point where you hand it over and you go, 'Well, it'll be what it'll be.' [But[ Melanie summed it up when we saw it. She said, you know, 'Eight years ago, if someone had [asked] me how would you want the film to be? That would've been it!'"

Is This Thing On? is released in UK cinemas on Friday 30th January 2026.

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