David Caffrey: ‘My dad had an eight-track in his car and he liked pipe bands’

Album

As a kid, when other people's parents were listening to the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, my dad had an eight-track in his car and he liked pipe bands. Just today I took him to see my grandparents' grave in Arklow, and I found The Best of the Band of the Scots Guards on Spotify. So that's what I was listening to do today. I don't care about my street cred now, but back in the day, cruising through town listening to that, I had to hide.

Play/musical

I'd already seen Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour in the National Theatre in London, but I took the kids to see it when it transferred to the West End. I'd recommend it, it was a lot of fun. It's about a bunch of girls who live on an island off Scotland who are let loose in Edinburgh. It's pretty coarse, and I think my kids were embarrassed because I was sitting next to them.

Film

I love esoteric films that might have won a Palme D'Or, like the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He did a film called Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and it's the wackiest thing you've seen. I got the kids to see that too. It's the type of film where you have to give something of yourself, you can't sit there and be entertained. It exercises the mind.

Podcast

Because I live in England, I always listen to Playback with Marian Richardson, which is a review of the week in Irish radio. It's a show rather than a podcast, but RTÉ makes it available to download. I like it because I can't listen to every radio show that comes out of Ireland, and I think Irish radio is fantastic. So that's what I listen to when I'm out on a Sunday morning walking the dog.

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Gadget

It’s pretty dull but I have to say the iPhone. I stay up in north London and I like to walk the five miles into Soho to do the editing. During that time I’d use it to listen to podcasts, make all the calls I need to make, and ring random people that I haven’t spoken to in two or three years. Sometimes they’re busy, but sometimes you catch them. I just spoke to a friend of mine who got his master’s degree in psychology, and I last saw him in the Red Rose Café in Wicklow Street before his interview in Trinity for it.

Restaurant

My favourite restaurant is St Clements, where I live in St Leonards-on-Sea. The town is a little bit rough and ready, and this restaurant right by the oldest pub in the town and it serves lovely dishes like Galway Bay Oysters. The owner is married to a Limerick woman. He’s a great guy who employs people that wouldn’t necessarily be employed, and he’s made them great chefs.

City

I went to Belgrade last year, as my school friend Jas Kaminski wanted to show a few episodes of Love/Hate at the Belgrade Irish Festival, which he runs. It reminded me of Dublin when I was growing up in the 1980s. It's a little bit down on itself, there's a bit of graffiti, but people are comfortable in their own skin. Places can be a little generic now, but it doesn't seem like it's trying to catch up with anything.

Art

I love Neon Rice Field by Vong Phaophanit. He did it in 1993. It was at that time when places like Thailand and Vietnam were going neon in parts, and I presume that the scene is supposed to be evocative of it. Either way, it's definitely stuck with me.

David Caffrey is among the nominees at the IFTA Film & Drama Awards on February 15th