Ahh, there’s nothing quite like a good Sunday roast. A nice plate of roast beef and veg, some mashed potatoes, and a good Yorkshire pud is truly one of the most satisfying family dinners ever. Unless, like Stranger Things actor David Harbour, you’re an American, and have never experienced the glorious tradition that is the Sunday roast.
James Corden’s Late Late Show has hopped across the pond to Corden’s native U.K. and Harbour, currently in London’s West End performing in the play Madhouse, appeared as a guest, alongside singer Billie Eilish. When asked his favorite part about being in the country during the summer, Harbour expressed his amazement and delight that folks in the commonwealth get a holiday spread with all the trimmings on a weekly basis.
“We have something in America called Thanksgiving and it’s one Thursday a year and we prepare for it for months and we recover from it for months and we talk about how much we ate and how fat we got and ‘I will never do that again’ and you guys do it every Sunday. In this country. It is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”
Although Christian Europeans have traditionally eaten a large meal following Sunday services, the tradition of the Sunday roast really began to take hold in the U.K. in the late 1700s and soon spread to the corners of the then globe-spanning British colonial empire. Unfortunately, the USA spent a good portion of the late 1700s actually becoming the USA, so the tradition never took hold in the States like it did in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Perhaps Harbour can lobby to bring the tradition back to his native shores.
Harbour will appear in the second half of season four of Stranger Things, which begins streaming on Netflix this Friday, July 1.
