A podcast by an American sitcom actor chatting to his celebrity friends probably wasn’t high on many peoples’ list in the Isle of Man.

But the Jesse Tyler Ferguson podcast, where he meets up with his guests at his favourite restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, has sparked interest on the Isle of Man thanks to one of his recent guests.

None other than former Ballakermeen and St Mary’s student Joe Locke appeared on a recent edition of the ‘Dinner’s on Me’ show.

Locke rose to fame in Netflix’s Heartstopper, in which he plays main character Charlie Spring.

The third season of Heartstopper is set to be released in October.

Tyler Ferguson is best known for portraying Mitchell on smash hit American TV comedy Modern Family.

On his podcast he talks about food, pop culture, mental health and more with guests such as Sex and the City and Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan and Hunger Games actress Elizabeth Banks.

He and Locke sat down at restaurant Jack’s Wife Freda in New York eating green shakshuka and grilled haloumi while discussing Locke’s fledgling but hugely successful acting career.

The Isle of Man is discussed at some length, from the decision to only legalise homosexuality in 1992 due to its Crown Dependency status.

But Locke talks about his home warmly for the most part.

But what about the rest of the podcast?

After listening to the podcast featuring Locke I decided to listen to another even though I found the background noise of the restaurant a little distracting.

There are almost 50 episodes in total, each lasting around 45 minutes long, with a couple of annoying advertising interludes.

There are some interesting ones, such as former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell-Horner and former US President Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea.

But as a bit of a Big Bang Theory fan, I chose to listen to the episode with Jim Parsons who played Sheldon Cooper in the long-running sitcom.

There was a slightly different feel to the one with Locke as Parsons and Tyler Ferguson go a long way back so the conversational feel was more natural.

Parsons was very open as the two talked about the challenges of coming out as gay while Parsons also explains the deeply personal reason for leaving The Big Bang Theory.

He also offered an interesting anecdote on how The Big Bang Theory progressed from its original pilot episode.

It becomes evident why Parsons hasn’t gone on to become some Hollywood superstar.

After earning shed loads (around $1m per episode) on The Big Bang Theory, he has chosen projects he cares deeply for which are more obscure films and productions which lie more on the fringes than in the mainstream.

The two also discuss the opportunities and challenges of being gay in the acting industry while Parsons also recounts a funny story of being ‘too stoned’ at a dinner party after taking THC for back pain.

Having listened to two episodes of Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, I will certainly consider more but I will not be religiously tuning in to each episode.

You can find the ‘Dinner’s On Me’ episodes on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.