Pod Insights Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth More Rosebud - Gyles's Diaries episode 42 About this episode We're entering the long, hot summer of 1976, and Gyles is moving into a big, new house with his young family and still forging ahead in his life and career. He is embarking on a second Oxford Theatre Festival, with his friend Noel Davis (who likes the start and end the working day with a stiff drink, and have a couple more over lunch); he is celebrating Michele's birthday in style at the Ritz, and he is attempting to break the record for the longest after-dinner speech. It's another action-packed year, diary fans! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript 10,480 words · 3 speakers
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1:01 Speaker 01 Give me an M, give me an O, give me an R, give me an E, give me more, give me more Rosebud.
1:29 Speaker 01 Hello, this is Giles Brandreth and I'm full of joy because it's June. I'm also full of joy because I'm joined, as ever on a Tuesday, by my friend and colleague, the producer of Rosebud, Harriet Jane.
1:41 Speaker 02 Hello.
1:42 Speaker 01 Hello, Harriet. Is June a good month for you?
1:45 Speaker 02 It is. It's my birthday month.
1:47 Speaker 01 It is. This coming Saturday will be the birthday of Harriet Jane. And I'm not seeing her on her birthday, but you've got lots of family people, because it's a Saturday. You're seeing lots of family people, I think, over the weekend?
1:59 Speaker 02 Seeing my sister, both my daughters for separate things, and a friend.
2:04 Speaker 01 Very good. Because we're seeing each other quite a lot at the moment because we're rehearsing. For our Edinburgh show. And I was hoping to have a birthday lunch with uh Harriet to celebrate her birthday. But I have to had to put this on the back burner because she's not really wanting to have any celebration at all until we've learnt the lines.
2:26 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's true.
2:27 Speaker 01 Learned the songs, we've got the moves right. We can't quite believe that we're doing some informal tryouts. In only a couple of weeks' time. I think it's two weeks today or two weeks tomorrow. I know.
2:39 Speaker 02 Are you allowed to read off a script?
2:41 Speaker 01 No, well, I think at the first we could, at the first read through. But the truth is, we ought, two weeks from now, we ought to have dropped the books. We're doing a couple of sort of private shows and then we are at the Bedford Park Festival. Where there are maybe a few seats left, I don't know. Then we are at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, this is all in London, England. Then we're at the old Sorting Office, which is in Barnes, South West London, where they've sold quite a few tickets for both of those shows. And then we go.
3:13 Speaker 02 There are two shows there, two shows.
3:15 Speaker 01 There are two shows there, yeah.
3:16 Speaker 02 I don't think I've got both of those in my diary dials.
3:18 Speaker 01 Oh, you better be there. Please be here.
3:20 Speaker 02 I'll be at one.
3:21 Speaker 01 I'll give you, I'll, I'll tell you what the dates are now in case people want to book, because the first one, I think, is almost booked up. And the second one, I mean, it is, it is all a bit, it is all a bit frightening, you know. I just on Sunday, I finished, finished my last tour, my last show, uh Jazz Brand with Can't Stop Talking, it was in Watford. And so this is quite soon, we are going to be, oh lord, I'm just flicking through the diary here. We are going to be doing um end of July, where are we? Yes, we're doing the old Sorting Office on the second of August, that's the last one we're doing. And then we're doing one a few weeks before on the nineteenth of July.
4:01 Speaker 02 Oh, I have got that.
4:02 Speaker 01 Nineteenth of July, three thirty, and the second of July, three thirty, these are still tryouts. Where if we, we'll listen to the audience. If they don't like things, we cut them. If they do like things, we can do more of that. The following week, we are up in Edinburgh. At the Gordon Aitman Theatre, Assembly George Square, we have sold lots of tickets. Four figures worth of tickets, fastest selling show in that venue. People are coming literally from Australia, from India, from North America so far, have booked to come and see us.
4:37 Speaker 02 Wow.
4:38 Speaker 01 We're learning a lot, aren't we?
4:39 Speaker 02 We are, we are. Giles, can you sit, wait, can you, sorry. Can you make sure you're not rocking backwards and forwards, towards and away from the mic? And you're just a sort of steady distance from the mic, possibly not as close as you are. No, just have the mic where it is, but just move back a bit yourself.
4:57 Speaker 01 Is that better?
4:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, but stop rocking. I'm always having to tell you, you know, when you're on a microphone, you want the same distance to remain between you and the microphone at all times.
5:10 Speaker 01 Do include this.
5:11 Speaker 02 I'm not including this.
5:13 Speaker 01 People, please include this, because people will be surprised to know that I first appeared in front of a BBC microphone. I think it was in nineteen sixty-six or sixty-seven. So I've been doing this for quite a long while, but the young Harriet Jane, who's having a birthday, she's getting older at the end of this week, is telling me that my microphone technique is hopeless. In fact, she says this to me on a regular basis. I'm rocking with excitement because here we are.
5:38 Speaker 01 And we're going to do some diaries. Also, I am a little bit high because, I'll be honest with you, I've had some highs and I've had some lows in recent days. Three good friends of mine have died recently and I know.
5:54 Speaker 02 I'm sorry to hear that, Giles.
5:55 Speaker 01 You are still at the going to weddings stage, aren't you? Do you ever go to christenings? Do you ever go to, maybe you're going to divorce showers straight, people have these divorce parties now. Um, but you're not yet going regularly to funerals, whereas I've reached the stage in age where I am. A man I knew well called Peter Ridsdale Scott died quite recently. He was a television producer. And with him in the nineteen eighties, I did a whole series of shows, including all the ones I did with Hinge and Brackett. Dave Hildebracket, Dr. Evan Vadney Hinge, he was just a nice guy. And he brought out the best in people. And he introduced me to a whole range of people in the world of variety and entertainment. We did a series together called The Railway Carriage Game.
6:40 Speaker 01 And he had me working with people like Ken Dodd. One of the great entertainers of my lifetime and fun people like John Inman, lovely people. Um, and so I loved him. He was always good company. He always, it was always a joy to go and work with him. So that's, isn't that nice? I'm gonna, I mean, I don't wanna cry, but isn't it nice to be able to say someone was always a joy to work with? Always. I can't remember, we worked together for years. I cannot remember a bad day of going to work with this man.
7:10 Speaker 02 Oh, gosh, he sounds fantastic.
7:14 Speaker 01 So that's the first. Then, and I did tell you about this when it happened, my friend Jeremy Hanley died. Sir Jeremy Hanley, KCMG, formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament, Foreign Office Minister. In fact, I think for a while he was chairman of the Conservative Party. But he was a very middle of the road man. He was just a decent individual, a lovely man. And he again, he just made you laugh. He was a very witty speaker. Famously, he was at a dinner with Margaret Thatcher. After a general election at which he got back, a very small majority, but he got twenty thousand and sixty seven votes. Twenty thousand and sixty seven votes and he won the seat.
7:54 Speaker 01 And at this speech, when Margaret Thatcher was there, and he said, I must thank you, Margaret, Prime Minister, I must thank you. Because you came to support me and you secured me that sixty seven extra votes that won me the seat. Margaret Thatcher, thank you. Mrs. Thatcher got up and said, no, no, no, Jeremy, must explain to you. You got those sixty seven votes. I got you the twenty thousand.
8:20 Speaker 01 He was an amusing man and he again was somebody who it was just fun to be with. He was all on the day I became a member of parliament. And when you do new things, you are apprehensive. I mean, I know, for example, you are apprehensive about doing our show in Edinburgh because it's new. When I turned up at the House of Commons, my I didn't look it. My stomach was churning. I was so anxious. I'd hardly ever been into the building before. Waiting on the steps outside the building was this man Jeremy Hanley outside the building. Because he remembered how nerve wracking it was to go through the gates for the first time. To go through security when you actually were a member and you didn't need to have things checked. You could just walk in and he just showed me around.
9:06 Speaker 01 He showed me where the eating places were, where the tea room was. He showed me, you know, the rules were finding your place. Because to get a seat, when people usually sit in the same place, you have to go in and place a prayer card on the seat where you want to sit. And then you have to turn up for prayers at the beginning of the day. Uh, and it's these sort of things that you wouldn't know unless there was somebody there to tell you. That still happens to this day. Because there are not, if all the MPs turned up, there wouldn't be room for everyone to sit down. So if you want to bag a place, be sure of getting a seat, you have to go in and you uh, before proceedings begin and you place a prayer, it's known as a prayer card in a little,
9:48 Speaker 01 on the back of the seat, this little little thing, ticket holder that you can put your name in. And then to, that's to book a seat, but to confirm your booking, you must be there for prayers, which is not shown on television. It it's a private moment of prayer uh before the the the speaker's chaplain comes and conducts, uh, says a few, you know, says a prayer.
10:11 Speaker 02 How lovely.
10:12 Speaker 01 And it is lovely, rather charming when saying prayers, you um turn your back. You face backwards, so you're not gazing into the eyes of the opposition. So you're not thinking bad thoughts about the people opposite you. You're actually focusing on praying and that confirms your place for the day.
10:31 Speaker 01 And that takes me to the third bit of sadness, a funeral that I've only just been to, Harriet, which is the funeral of somebody who also was in Parliament, because he was in the House of Lords, a man called Lord Harris of Pentagrath. And listeners certainly in the UK may be familiar with his voice if ever they listen to Radio Four on the Today Programme, because for more than fifty years he presented Thought for the Day, frequently and regularly, on the Today Programme. He had a lovely voice, a lovely mind, a lovely heart, and he was a lovely man. I sat with Chris Patton, former governor of Hong Kong, former MP, Lord Patton of Barnes,
11:13 Speaker 01 who's been a guest on Rosebud, and he said to me, I think, Richard, whose funeral we are at today is probably the nearest person to a saint that I've ever likely to meet. Oh, gosh. So, it was a very moving occasion. There was a wonderful sermon preached by a guy who had been chaplain to Richard Harris, Lord Harris, when he was the Bishop of Oxford. Richard Harris had been the Bishop of Oxford. He then retired and moved in about twenty years ago to live near us in South West London. That's how we got to know him, and we became very good friends. And this chaplain was now, you know, a middle-aged man, but had been a young man when he first worked with Richard Harris when he was the Bishop of Oxford, said two interesting things
11:58 Speaker 01 that stuck in my head, that he had learnt from Richard Harris. One was, when you're with someone, or in fact, through life, as often as possible, to be in the, be in the now. And that's more than just being in the moment. People will say, you know, carpe diem, live in the moment, but be in the now, meaning this very moment, and not just your own now, but the now of the person you're with.
12:27 Speaker 01 And that's something that struck home with me because, as you've told me, as my wife Michelle tells me, I talk too much. And for me, the great joy of Rosebud has been learning to listen.
12:40 Speaker 02 Um, I don't tell you you talk too much.
12:42 Speaker 01 No, you don't. Actually, you don't, but sometimes you do.
12:46 Speaker 02 It'd be hopeless if I kept telling you to talk too much because we wouldn't have a podcast.
12:50 Speaker 01 What I think he meant by being aware of them now is there's some times when it's fun for me to come into the room, bouncing off all the walls, being Tigalike, and, you know, telling my amusing stories. But then other times, when it can still be me, I can come in the room, but being in the now, I listen to you. And your now might be slightly different from my now. And I think what I was being told by the chaplain about what he'd been told by the man whose funeral we were at was the now isn't just your now. It's the now of the people you're with and around. So I learnt that.
13:29 Speaker 01 And the other thing I learnt from him is that this chaplain had been to see him and with some problems in his parish, maybe his family, I don't know. But anyway, a lot of problems. He unburdened himself to Richard, who then said to him, hold on. Because this man was saying, you've got to change this, you've got to change that. And Richard went forward and said, I must tell you something. There's only one thing you can change, and that is yourself. The only thing over which you have control ultimately is yourself. So I just share those two aperçus. So that was a very moving, very moving occasion. This was an important moment, funnily enough, in different ways for all of us.
14:14 Speaker 01 And people took away from it different things. And it was interesting watching the people, some who were snuffling, some who were crying openly. Many weren't crying at all. And it reminded me again what I've learnt through doing Rosebud and through being with you, Harriet.
14:35 Speaker 01 Is that everybody's different. There isn't a right way or a wrong way to do anything, isn't a right way to mourn, there isn't a a right way to make your marriage work, there isn't a right way to be a friend or a wrong way. There's just a lot of different ways. Uh, so Harriet, what's been the best thing to happen to you this week, my most memorable thing. What sort of a friend am I, you ask me what's been happening to you and I tell you about three people who have died. I met with things dying, thou with things new born, one of my favourite lines from Shakespeare. Tell me about somebody young. Somebody amusing, somebody beautiful that you have encountered. Be a contrast to me, what's the best? Person you've met since we last spoke.
15:18 Speaker 02 We've um, we've been hanging around with Olivia who works for you, haven't we, and she made a really delicious lunch for us, didn't she? She's got this amazing technique of slicing avocados really thin. And then sort of fanning them out so they look like the petals of a rose, she's made these really, yeah, amazing salad and then yesterday she made an onion tart and a cheesecake, I mean, we had an amazing lunch, didn't we? In the garden.
15:45 Speaker 01 Do you know it was only, yes, was it only yesterday?
15:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
15:48 Speaker 01 Honestly, I've lost sight of time, Olivia is the girlfriend of my grandson Rory. But I have to tell you, Olivia was so thrilled that you noticed. She said to me, oh, um, Harriet noticed that I tried to make a rosebud out of the avocado.
16:05 Speaker 02 Oh, no, it was really beautiful, that salad that she did, I don't know how she slices it so thin, but she's really clever.
16:11 Speaker 01 She's eighteen, she's going to go to Edinburgh University, she's as bright as a button.
16:16 Speaker 02 You know, she's fluent in Polish.
16:18 Speaker 01 I do.
16:18 Speaker 02 Bilingual, it's quite impressive.
16:19 Speaker 01 I do know that, she got Polish, it does help if you have two Polish parents, of course. Um.
16:24 Speaker 02 Oh, it does, but there are quite a lot of people that don't manage to bring their children up bilingual. Even if they are um not English speaking. Because I've got a few friends that have sort of not quite managed to do it. Because you have to be quite persistent when your children are really little to get them to take to it.
16:45 Speaker 01 I mean, because because you've got daughters the same sort of age as Olivia.
16:50 Speaker 02 Yeah.
16:51 Speaker 01 Harriet, what do you get from being with, she's eighteen, what do you get from being with people of that age?
16:59 Speaker 02 Well, you get a lot of um new language, like riz. Which I think I introduced you, oh maybe, no, I think you knew about the word riz.
17:09 Speaker 01 Only because of knowing Susie Dent, uh you know, being the word of the year two or three years ago.
17:12 Speaker 02 Oh, it was the word of the year.
17:14 Speaker 01 A short for charisma, isn't it?
17:16 Speaker 02 Yes, but you know, you've either got riz. It's often in, I think we might have talked about this before, it's often in relation to the opposite sex, or that's the impression I get. So my youngest daughter announced to me a couple of years ago that she had riz with boys. And I'm afraid I said to her something which might sound a bit big headed. Which is, I said, I've got riz with boys as well, or I can have, you know, I can be good at that. Flirting, I guess. Yeah, anyway, Belle announced to me that she had that, and I said, oh, yeah, that doesn't surprise me, Belle.
17:55 Speaker 01 You got it from your mother. Or you haven't got riz.
18:00 Speaker 02 Haven't got riz, yeah, exactly. What else? Wait, I'm trying to think what else you get. Oh, you get get good makeup tips. From them, yeah.
18:11 Speaker 01 Oh, that's interesting.
18:12 Speaker 02 Um, yeah, I didn't really know anything about makeup until my kids told me I needed to raise my game. So I've tried to do that a bit. Uh, hair, hair and makeup, yeah. And other things, I mean, you know, Belle, my daughter, is a really good singer and a pianist. So all the time, there's lovely music in the house and lovely singing, which is so nice. When you come home and there's singing and music wafting out the windows.
18:37 Speaker 01 Oh, that's fantastic.
18:39 Speaker 02 Lovely, yeah.
18:40 Speaker 01 That's sensational. Is she going to be able to help you with the songs for our Edinburgh show? Could she?
18:45 Speaker 02 Yeah, possibly, yeah, I mean.
18:47 Speaker 01 You could practise them.
18:48 Speaker 02 She's a lot, do you know what, she's a, she's actually a lot better than me. She actually puts me off singing because she's so good. Then I hear my voice next to her, I think, oh, that sounds really.
19:01 Speaker 01 Look, this could be the answer to all our problems.
19:04 Speaker 02 I know.
19:04 Speaker 01 If we need an understudy, if we need an understudy.
19:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
19:07 Speaker 01 She's got riz.
19:08 Speaker 02 She's got riz.
19:09 Speaker 01 She knows she's got riz.
19:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
19:10 Speaker 01 And she's got a beautiful singing voice.
19:12 Speaker 02 Yeah.
19:12 Speaker 01 I mean, what's not to like? So, if you're planning to come to see our show, which is going to be in Edinburgh, it's called Up Memory Lane, with Gyles Brandreth, Harriet Jane and a Twist of Rosebud. It could be on certain days, it's with Gyles Brandreth, Belle Wilson and a Twist of Rosebud.
19:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, I'm gonna get her to record a backing track and I'll just, I'll just mime. That's what all the big stars do now, they're not singing Giles, they're just miming.
19:41 Speaker 01 As you know, Michael Ball is a neighbour of mine here in South West London. He's also, he really is very sweet about Rosebud, he's a regular listener. And he's been a guest with Alfie Bowe. I will get my voice dubbed by Michael Ball. You'll get yours dubbed by Belle, so it's Belle and Ball. You think you're coming to see Brandreth and Jane, but actually, it's Belle and Ball.
20:06 Speaker 02 You're actually a really good singer Giles.
20:08 Speaker 01 You are joking.
20:09 Speaker 02 You really are.
20:11 Speaker 01 You are so sweet.
20:12 Speaker 02 No, no, I was listening to the recording we did, I, I mean, I think you're brilliant.
20:19 Speaker 01 I'll tell you what I'm really enjoying, and then we must read the diaries. I'm really enjoying the rehearsal process. And I want you to enjoy it because as any actor will tell you, the rehearsal process is the most exciting and interesting part.
20:33 Speaker 02 Oh, is it? Oh, I was looking forward to it actually being on.
20:38 Speaker 01 That is good, but it only works if you've done the rehearsal process.
20:41 Speaker 02 Of course.
20:43 Speaker 01 When you get onto the stage, you think, oh, I wish I'd rehearsed more. Um, you've got a Michael Ball story, haven't you, Elliot?
20:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, I've got a funny Michael Ball story, which is that, um, a friend of mine used to get invited through her mother-in-law to Victoria Wood's Christmas party. Victoria Wood used to have these lovely Christmas parties at her house and they would always involve singing around the piano because Victoria Wood, as we know, was a brilliant pianist. And everyone there was brilliant and talented. And my friend, amazingly, used to be able to go along to these parties, which was really good. Um, they were all singing away around the piano carols or Christmas songs. And my friend was next to this man who, she said, had the most amazing singing voice. And there he was singing away and she just couldn't believe how good he was.
21:29 Speaker 02 And eventually at the end, she sort of turned to him and said, I mean, you really have the most wonderful voice. Have you ever thought of, you know, you should make something of this, you know, maybe join a choir or maybe take it up, you know, do a few open mic nights and see if you could make a career out of it. And then my friend's mother-in-law said to her, that's Michael Ball, you idiot. He's a professional, he's a West End star. Anyway, my friend had no idea who he was and had just recommended to Michael Ball that he make a go of singing professionally.
22:05 Speaker 01 But it shows how nice Michael Ball is that he just took it on the chin.
22:08 Speaker 02 He did, I think he said, yeah, you know, I might look into doing a few things.
22:14 Speaker 01 Well done.
22:15 Speaker 02 Oh, dear.
22:16 Speaker 01 Anyway, do please come and see us in Edinburgh. Whoever turns up on the stage, we hope it'll be a fun one. To book Edinburgh, you simply go to, well, uh, the Rosebud website and there's a link straight away there, isn't there?
22:28 Speaker 02 Oh, brilliant.
22:29 Speaker 01 And the Rosebud website is...
22:31 Speaker 02 It's rosebudpodcast.co.uk.
22:34 Speaker 01 Fine, you'll find us there. And right now, you'll find us doing some diaries.
22:39 Speaker 02 Yeah.
22:40 Speaker 01 And I hope people will find out what's been going on in my life as they hear the.
22:44 Speaker 02 In nineteen seventy six.
22:45 Speaker 01 We're nineteen seventy six. I'm still in my twenties, but a little bit, you know, well into my twenties now. It's Monday, the first of March nineteen seventy six.
22:54 Speaker 02 You're a dad now, aren't you?
22:56 Speaker 01 I am a dad. I'm married. I'm a dad.
22:59 Speaker 02 Quite a big change.
23:01 Speaker 01 Quite a big change.
23:02 Speaker 02 How old are you?
23:04 Speaker 01 Twenty seven.
23:06 Speaker 02 Okay, hmm, good.
23:09 Speaker 01 The diary begins, I think I've found a new play for this year's Oxford Theatre Festival. It's not completely new. It was commissioned by the Royal Court a couple of years ago, and they've sat on it. I think it's wonderful, wordy, witty, intelligent, emotionally gripping. It's called Dear Daddy. It's by Dennis Cannon. It's about an acerbic literary man in crisis and his relationship with his wives and children.
23:34 Speaker 02 Wives?
23:35 Speaker 01 Yeah, and I want us to do it. It's a modern Chekhov with the verbal flair of John Osborne. Yeah, it's that good. And when I read it in bed, have I ever reported that I always sleep on the right side of the bed? I said, yes, out loud, and I gave it to Michelle, and she said, yes. And Noel, who is my partner running the Oxford Theatre Festival, he said yes as well. And today I went down to Chichester to meet Alan Bedell, to talk to him about it, and he said no. He could have said no on the telephone, but he thought it more courteous to drag us down to Chichester so that he could say no in person.
24:16 Speaker 02 Oh, dear.
24:17 Speaker 01 Actually, I liked him. He is small and serious and a wonderful actor, intelligent, interesting, with a unique voice and that something extra that makes him both watchable and a star. But he seems to have reached the age and stage they seem to reach, compare him with Ian Carmichael, where they prefer to talk about plays and projects than actually take them on.
24:40 Speaker 02 Oh.
24:40 Speaker 01 Have you heard of Alan Bedell? He was hugely famous, Harriet, hugely famous in his day.
24:45 Speaker 02 Oh, dear. I'd probably know his picture maybe.
24:47 Speaker 01 You might know his picture. He was a stage star, but he was magnetic. Anyway, it would have been a big catch. Sunday, the fourteenth of March nineteen seventy six, Michelle's birthday dinner at the Ritz.
25:00 Speaker 01 Is it the prettiest room in London? Probably. Is it the best food in London? Probably not. Is it the most expensive? Certainly. We went with Simon Cadell, and he suggested that, as a starter, caviar might be rather fun. It's a special occasion. I opted for the smoked salmon at two pounds. Michelle and Simon went for the caviar, thirty five pounds a portion.
25:27 Speaker 02 Wow.
25:28 Speaker 01 Nineteen seventy six, Ariad, nineteen seventy six.
25:30 Speaker 02 That's probably about five hundred pounds in today's money, gosh.
25:34 Speaker 01 It was brought on a clanking trolley and served like a holy sacrament.
25:37 Speaker 02 I bet.
25:38 Speaker 01 Simon scoffed his in a matter of moments. Michelle managed to linger over hers a little longer. But when the trolley came rumbling past again, Simon called out, waiter. And turning to Michelle said, I think we could manage another portion each, darling, don't you? They did. I paid. It was ludicrously expensive, but unusually for Michelle, she did not resent the extravagance.
26:06 Speaker 02 I'm really surprised.
26:07 Speaker 01 Yeah. Wednesday, seventeenth, March nineteen seventy six. Harold Wilson has resigned as Prime Minister. No one seems to know why. I know why. We are fellow Pisians. Last week, he celebrated his sixtieth birthday. I imagine, years ago, he promised himself that he would hang up his boots at sixty.
26:31 Speaker 01 I'll throw this in, Ariad, I later got to know the family a bit better. And as you know, I'm now a friend of Robin Wilson, one of his sons. And what I speculated there was partly true. He had decided in his head that sixty was the time he wanted to step down. But also, he was concerned that his mental powers were no longer as acute as they had been. And over time, he developed dementia.
26:56 Speaker 01 I'm on the train to Oxford, going to see Barry Sheppard, Elizabeth Sweeting's successor at the Playhouse. He's a funny-looking creature. Tuesday, the 30th of March, 1976. Goodbye, 170 Clarence Gate Gardens, NW1. Hello, 1 Camden Hill Gardens, W8. We, and the Guardian Building Society, are now in proud possession of a fine late Victorian five-storey freehold family house in Kensington. Pickfords ran the removal well. Everything is chaos, but it's going to be good.
27:34 Speaker 01 The Vendors took the doorknobs from every decent door in the house, and they walked off with light fittings they were supposed to leave. We're getting them back, and eventually, it will all be wonderful. Lower ground floor, big family kitchen at the front, playroom opening onto the garden at the back, utility rooms. Ground floor, proper drawing room, fine fireplace at back, large dining room at front, into which the monkey is putting a wall of handcrafted bookshelves. The monkey was an actor, who had played the monkey in the production of The Little Hut, we'd done in the West End a couple of years before, so we just called him the monkey, we could never remember his name.
28:12 Speaker 02 But he was good at joinery as well.
28:14 Speaker 01 He was good at joinery, he was called Mike Ellis, lovely guy.
28:17 Speaker 02 Very useful person.
28:18 Speaker 01 Into which the monkey is putting a wall of handcrafted bookshelves. First floor, main bedroom, dressing room, bathroom, second bedroom, which I'm going to use as my study. Second floor, interconnecting children's rooms, bathroom, laundry room, et cetera. Then up a tiny flight of stairs to the two rooms in the attic, for the nanny. It's all very Mr. and Mrs. darling, and from Bennett's bedroom, you get a fine view right up the street to the church at the top of Camden Hill.
28:48 Speaker 02 Sounds lovely, Giles.
28:50 Speaker 01 It was lovely, it was, it was lucky. Gosh, I have been lucky in my life.
28:55 Speaker 02 You have.
28:56 Speaker 01 But, it comes at a price. Listen to this next paragraph. "We have stretched ourselves to capacity and beyond."
29:05 Speaker 01 We are selling Goodwood Court. That was a small flat we'd bought as an investment property. Irene Josephi, that's my agent, has advanced me two thousand pounds. And I've squeezed every penny I legitimately can out of Simon Clarke Productions. They were the people who were putting money into the new Oxford Theatre Festival. When we were looking for our first place five years ago, everything that we saw then and wanted was just one step higher up the ladder than we could afford. Same again. So, we're living beyond our means. But, with a bit of luck, our means will catch up. And this is a house for life.
29:47 Speaker 01 Tuesday, the sixth of April, nineteen seventy-six. James Callaghan has kissed hands with Her Majesty and is now the nation's new Prime Minister. In the final ballot of Labour MPs, he secured a hundred and seventy-six votes to my friend, Michael Foot's one hundred and thirty-seven. Callaghan is sixty-four. Harold is enjoying saying to the world that he decided to step aside to make way for an older man.
30:12 Speaker 01 I began the day at Goodwood Court supervising the Pickford's removal of all our stuff from the flat. I decided to leave the doorknobs. I'm sorry we have to sell our investment, but I'm not sorry to bid farewell to our ghastly tenant, Prince Ali. He took the flat so that he could have unspecified treatment in Harley Street. He is gross and graceless. When he arrived, he demanded that I do his shopping, walking backwards in front of him through the grocery department at Selfridge's, pulling the trolley and placing his selected items in the basket. He expected us to be at his constant beck and call. The kitchen floor is thick with grease and food droppings. The state of the bathroom is unspeakable.
30:57 Speaker 01 I left poor Mrs. Rukuzo cleaning up. History needs to know, she is wonderful.
31:05 Speaker 01 Mrs. Rucuzzo was our cleaning lady. She came from Portugal and she was wonderful.
31:10 Speaker 02 Gosh.
31:11 Speaker 01 I'm just telling you that.
31:13 Speaker 02 That tenant sounds awful, Giles.
31:15 Speaker 01 He was a nightmare. He called himself, the agency found him. They said he's called himself Prince Ali, he was called him Prince Ali. And he treated us well, like servants. And he expected us, you know, he was, we were the landlords, to do his shopping. And I had to literally go with him to Selfridges and walk backwards in his presence at all times. Ludicrous. Anyway. New paragraph. I've just returned from meeting the gang at Action Research for the crippled child. They have had a novel idea. Get one hundred personalities to break one hundred records from the Guinness Book of Records, raising one thousand pounds in sponsorship each time. I'm to make an attempt on the world record for the longest after dinner speech.
31:58 Speaker 01 The current holder is a Victorian clergyman, the Reverend Henry Whitehead. He spoke at the Rainbow Tavern Fleet Street in January eighteen seventy four without pause or notes for just three hours. Beat that. I will. Friday the ninth of April nineteen seventy six. What a difference twenty four hours makes. Yesterday at noon, I was dressed as a dinosaur at the Magpie Toy Shop in Dartford. Today, dressed in the light grey suit in which I got married, I had lunch at the Ritz with Dennis Cannon and Nigel Patrick.
32:38 Speaker 01 Nigel Patrick Harriet was a very distinguished English film and stage actor, known as Patty Patrick. Patty Patrick, as we're to call him, is going to be our leading man. Of course, because he's a director and producer as well as an actor, he's already wanting to manage the entire enterprise. We'll cope. Dennis said to me afterwards, remember Larry Olivier produced my first play. I'm used to the ways of these charming monsters.
33:06 Speaker 02 Oh.
33:08 Speaker 01 We sat at one of the window tables overlooking the park. Reginald Maudling was at the next table, fast asleep. He looked very fat and old. And rumour is rife about the leader of the Liberal Party. That was Jeremy Thorpe, who'd been denying rumours. And he just resigned as the leader of the Liberal Party. And, well, we know what happened to him.
33:32 Speaker 02 Hmm.
33:32 Speaker 01 Did he or didn't he have an affair with a male model? Did he or didn't he threaten to kill the said male model if ever he spoke of it? Always believe the worst of people, said Dennis, then you won't be disappointed.
33:45 Speaker 02 Oh, I don't know if I do that, Giles. Do you do that?
33:48 Speaker 01 Believe the worst of people? No, but I do remember the great Alistair Bruce on our podcast, the advice his mother gave to him. Always remember, darling, everybody is a little bit disappointing. If you remember that, you'll never be disappointed.
34:03 Speaker 02 Yes, I suppose so, but I think I tend to think the best of people and then I get a shock when I find out people are dishonest or, yeah. It's a bit silly of me.
34:15 Speaker 01 Well, hope for the best.
34:17 Speaker 02 Change tack.
34:18 Speaker 01 Hope for the best, expect the worst.
34:20 Speaker 02 Ah, exactly. Good advice.
34:22 Speaker 01 That's the line to take.
34:23 Speaker 02 Unless you're listening to Rosebud, in which, hope for the best, expect the best.
34:29 Speaker 01 And we hope get the best.
34:30 Speaker 02 Get the best. That's our new motto.
34:33 Speaker 01 Get the best. Get the best with zest.
34:35 Speaker 02 Get the best with zest, yeah.
34:38 Speaker 01 With zest. Anyway. On Saturday, John Selwyn Gummer, prospective Tory candidate for the I division, Suffolk, broke the longest afternoon speaking record, speaking for four hours, one minute and fifty seconds. At the Mayfair Hotel, London, this evening, I established a new world record when I talked non-stop for four hours, nineteen minutes and thirty-four seconds. Those in attendance included Bob Birchfield, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, official adjudicator, Sydyl Fletcher, Nicholas Parsons, Gail Honeycutt, Simon Williams and sixty others. Good supportive friends, Kirsty MacLeod, David Graham, Noel Davis, Maan Pa.
35:20 Speaker 01 Simon Williams sent an amusing good luck telegram from the tallest actor to the longest speaker.
35:27 Speaker 01 I'm hopeful that with sponsorship and donations, Yudi Menewin and Elizabeth Beresford each sent ten pounds. Ditto Bob Monkhouse. Irene Josefi sent one hundred pounds. We shall comfortably exceed our target and that the record will stand long enough for me to feature in the Guinness Book of Records. Ah, I did. And there, in the 1977 edition. I'm just looking down the list of donors again. Terry Jones, Janet Sussman, Sinead Cusack, William Franklin, and the Marquess of London Dairy each sent ten pounds. Bernard Miles sent two pounds. Nicholas Parsons, Nicholas Parsons gave one pound.
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37:22 Speaker 01 Friday 11th June 1976. I returned from Chicago and the American Booksellers' Association and went straight to Shiki's for a catch-up lunch with Noel. Over Dover sole, off the bone, new potatoes and spinach, en branche, not à la crème, we reviewed the situation. Reviewing the situation is Noel's theme song. He sings it every morning as he arrives at our office. We're now in a small room, once a bedroom, on the top floor of the National Liberal Club in Whitehall Place. There's a cracked wash basin in the corner, cracked, according to Noel, by Maggie Courtney trying to pee in it. Maggie Courtney, Margaret Courtney, she was a wonderful actress, but quite an amply
38:05 Speaker 01 proportioned leading lady, a great human being. I usually get to the office before Noel, but I know when he's on his way because as he gets to the top of the stairs, before he starts singing, he hisses in a huge stage whisper: "Bunnies can and will go to Paris." Does that mean anything to you, Eric?
38:25 Speaker 02 No.
38:26 Speaker 01 That was the message sent by Jeremy Thorpe to his model lover. "Bunnies can and will go to Paris." The rumor mill was, you know, and we were in the National Liberal Club where we'd hired this office, so this was a naughty thing for Noel to be saying. Noel loved being naughty and amusing. Last time, when we ran the festival from Clansgate Gardens, he arrived singing to the music from Carmen: "Mrs. Rakuza polishing the door, dropping the dishes, scrubbing the floor." The festival news is all good. Sinead Cusack, John Stride, Peter Egan, Barbara Murray, Nigel Stock, all confirmed for arms in the man.
39:08 Speaker 01 And the Shaw estate, difficult buggers, are graciously allowing us to use two sets rather than three. Best news is that Patrick McGee will direct Waiting for Godot, the first major revival since the original, and now to be directed by an inner member of the Beckett Circle. I like Pat. He is impenetrably Irish, profoundly genial and permanently sloshed. And he is like Sam, as we now call the master, I mean Samuel Beckett. We know what he is saying is funny and intelligent, even though we don't really understand a word of it. Saturday the nineteenth of June nineteen seventy six. We said goodbye to Lope on Wednesday.
39:52 Speaker 01 Oh, Lope was my nickname for Penelope Webb, who had been our boy Bennett's nanny since shortly after his birth in nineteen seventy five. She was a lovely girl. And today we went to Braintree for her wedding. It has been a brilliant summer, scorching hot, blue skies and dazzling sunshine, until today. On the day darling Lope got married to Charles Norris, nice accountant, the skies darkened, the heavens opened and the rain came torrenting down. I think she was sorry to leave us. I'm going to cry.
40:26 Speaker 02 Oh.
40:28 Speaker 01 I think she was sorry to leave us. I know we're sorry to lose her. As she got into the car to go away, Bennett, now fifteen months, tried frantically to cling on to her, and she wanted to hold on to him too. Lope, looking like lettuce leaf, the greenest girl in the school with her moon-like face and gold-rimmed granny glasses, has been part of us. The jury is still out on her successor, Lumpen Lara. Monday the fifth of July nineteen seventy six. The United States of America has been running riot, celebrating the nation's bicentennial. Gosh, this must be exactly fifty years ago, Harriet.
41:08 Speaker 02 Mm, it is.
41:09 Speaker 01 Because we're now celebrating two hundred and fifty years.
41:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
41:12 Speaker 01 Wow. The United States of America has been running riot, celebrating the nation's bicentennial. There has been much dancing in the streets. There's been dancing too in the bar of the Irish Club, Eaton Square SW one, where we are having the arms and the man rehearsals. Partly because we went to see the first run this morning and it's looking good. But chiefly because Noel was having his first open drink in days. He's just back from his visit with Robert Shaw. You've heard of Robert Shaw, haven't you?
41:44 Speaker 02 Yes.
41:44 Speaker 01 The stage actor, remembered for the sting, jaws, okay?
41:48 Speaker 02 Jaws, mhm, yeah.
41:49 Speaker 01 He is just back from his visit with Robert Shaw at his castle in Ireland. And because Shaw is off the booze, the rest of the house party was expected to be teetotal too. Noel was severely reprimanded when caught climbing the stairs to his bedroom, bottles clanking beneath his raincoat. Noel knows Shaw and the bottle is a serious issue. Shaw's father was an alcoholic who took his own life when Robert was twelve. Noel loves him, but Noel loved Mary Uer more. Mary Uer was the the second of Robert Shaw's uh three wives.
42:25 Speaker 02 Oh.
42:25 Speaker 01 And she was first married to the playwright John Osborne, and she'd started to look back in anger. Anyway, Noel was a real friend of hers.
42:32 Speaker 02 Oh.
42:33 Speaker 01 Um Noel loves him, but he loved Mary Uer more. She was an alcoholic too. Noel was with her on the night she died. She took an overdose after the opening of her play, The Exorcism. He was called back to the house by the police to identify the body. Noel blames John Osborne, such a monstrous first husband, she was driven to drink.
42:55 Speaker 02 Oh.
42:58 Speaker 01 Well, that's the interesting thing about a diary, isn't it? Written at the time. Noel knew these people. It's his record, doesn't mean to say any of this is true or accurate, it's just one person's impression of the characters involved.
43:11 Speaker 02 Hmm.
43:12 Speaker 01 Just keep you a couple more entries. Monday, the second of August nineteen seventy six. Michael Winner is a monster, an arrogant nobody.
43:21 Speaker 02 Oh.
43:23 Speaker 01 This is the famous film director.
43:24 Speaker 02 Calm down, dear.
43:26 Speaker 01 But exactly. But Noel regarded him as a catch. So we booked him for the second of our festival Sunday nights. And that's when the trouble started, the fuss, the bother, the phone calls from assistants with preposterous demands. For example, on the stage, Mr. Winner will require a side table, a large ashtray, and a new box of long swanvesta matches. The match heads must be checked and must all be in the box pointing in the same direction. We billed the evening as a man and his movies. The most spectacular film clips from the most amusing young man in a profession of awful people. Sunday Times, quote supplied by Winner. He came in a powder blue Rolls Royce with dark glasses and cigar.
44:11 Speaker 01 I introduced him from the stage. He did his stuff. He was not very funny and the films are self evidently not very good. That said, the small audience who turned out for him seemed happy enough.
44:25 Speaker 02 I went, I went to Michael Winner's house once.
44:28 Speaker 01 Ah, it's fabulous, wasn't it?
44:30 Speaker 02 It was, yeah.
44:31 Speaker 01 Inherited, I think, from his mother or his parents.
44:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, oh, really, yes. And it was because he came on that programme I used to do on Radio Four, My Teenage Diary. And most of my guests would either type up their diary and email them to me or lend me their diary. I mean, some people lent me their diary for months. It was very trusting of them. But Michael Winner refused to type it up and refused to let me have his diary. And instead made me go to his house and sit in his cinema in the lower ground floor, typing frantically his diary into my laptop because he gave me an hour or something. And I, and he made me sort of, I had to go down there and transcribe this diary as quickly as possible.
45:18 Speaker 02 While he said slightly condescending things to me, like, well done, dear. Aren't you doing a wonderful job? And yes, run along and that sort of thing.
45:27 Speaker 01 It could be a nightmare. I did a one show film with him at that house. And he was so patronizing to the young female director, telling her that she had the camera in the wrong position. And I said, rather have a row. I said, why don't you, I mean, he is a distinguished director, let him direct it. And he put the camera in a different position and maddeningly it did improve the shot no end. So I think technically didn't know what he was doing, which was annoying. But that was last night. This morning was altogether more civilized. We gathered for the first Dear Daddy rehearsal. And because Paddy Patrick is a gent of the old school, instinctively, it was all done as these things always were. I.e. the company manager and company were on parade at nine forty five a.m. laying out scripts, making coffee. The junior members of the cast arrived at ten a.m.
46:12 Speaker 01 The principals were in position at ten fifteen a.m. Mister Patrick arrived in a suit, always a suit for the first rehearsal, at ten twenty five a.m. And on the dot, at ten thirty a.m., Miss Phyllis Calvert walked through the door, summer frock, summer coat, summer hat. Always a hat for the first rehearsal. We call them Mister Patrick and Miss Calvert, unless invited to do otherwise.
46:38 Speaker 02 Oh, Giles, that's what we need to do for our rehearsals.
46:43 Speaker 01 Do you know? I think we do. Well, I think I told you some of this when we had our first rehearsal.
46:48 Speaker 02 Hmm.
46:49 Speaker 01 But as we go through the rehearsals, there is an advantage to this kind of formality in a way. You know, it makes you realise, this is a rehearsal, we've got to do it carefully.
46:59 Speaker 02 Should I wear a hat then to our next rehearsal, Giles, do you think? See what the effect is?
47:04 Speaker 01 Yeah. Well, that used to happen all the time. It's funny, isn't it?
47:09 Speaker 02 Yeah.
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48:19 Speaker 01 Wednesday the 11th of August 1976. We live in Camden Hill Gardens, within five minutes of Notting Hill, where last night, the carnival ended in a riot. Bricks thrown, windows smashed, shops looted, 350 police injured, many with stab wounds. It all passed us by, partly because the trouble apparently never moves south of Holland Park Avenue, but chiefly because we were 70 miles away, having dinner at the Elizabeth here in Oxford. We had dinner there again tonight, celebrating the first night triumph of Dear Daddy. It was the civic night with the town hall reception, and all went well except that Noel was truly miffed
49:02 Speaker 01 that I failed to introduce him properly to the Lord Mayor. He, Noel, made a terrible scene in the Playhouse foyer, screaming that he did all the work while I took all the credit. Is that how you sometimes feel, A- Ariet?
49:17 Speaker 02 No, not at all.
49:18 Speaker 01 Good, excellent. So I learnt something from that experience. Michelle asked how much she had drunk so far today, and I did the calculation. We meet at the Mitre for Irish coffee at 10am, then it's Bloody Mary bracers at the Randolph at 11, followed by a gin before lunch, wine with lunch, and brandy doubles as the digestif. However, no champagne was taken before 6. Anyway, we made it up later over the Chateau Latour, truly, at the Elizabeth. The truth is, we are a very good double act, and we both know it.
49:57 Speaker 02 God, life's a bit boring now, isn't it Giles? No one's drinking like that all day. So fun!
50:03 Speaker 01 It is so fun, but that's, funnily enough, I think of you as a, as us being a very good double act.
50:10 Speaker 02 We are, but we're not drunk. I mean, actually, I couldn't work if I'd had-
50:14 Speaker 01 Nor could I.
50:15 Speaker 02 -a Bloody Mary, Irish coffee, a gin, wine, double of brandy. I mean, I'd be asleep.
50:20 Speaker 01 Unbelievable, isn't it? I mean, Irish coffee 10am, Bloody Marys, gin before lunch,
50:26 Speaker 02 It's incredible.
50:27 Speaker 01 Wine at lunch, double brandies after lunch. I mean, extraordinary.
50:30 Speaker 02 I know.
50:31 Speaker 01 Um, but then, you know, he had that terrible stand-up row. But he was marvelous. He was one of our greatest friends. He was the funniest man alive. And he was brilliant. We were a very good double act.
50:47 Speaker 02 Oh, that's great.
50:47 Speaker 01 And we knew it. Um, do you know, I now realize, you know, we often say this, how these diaries, nothing's been, this is fifty years ago. I now realize I'm, I'm trying to recreate all these things from my youth. You're, you're my new know. We don't drink at lunch, but I'm always saying to you, can we have lunch? Aren't I? I'm all, I am always saying that. And you say, no, we've got to rehearse. I'm always saying that.
51:12 Speaker 02 I'm gonna stop drinking more, I think, Giles. I think maybe that's where I'm going wrong.
51:16 Speaker 01 No.
51:16 Speaker 02 I'm gonna be drunk.
51:17 Speaker 01 No, because I don't think drink really suits you.
51:20 Speaker 02 Oh, why? What are you saying?
51:22 Speaker 01 No, only because we have occasionally, we have had a glass of wine. Then you almost immediately, you regretted it. You've said, oh, I wish I'd, I've never commented on your drinking, but since you brought it up just now. Um, I recall you saying, oh, I shouldn't have done that. Or, mm, um.
51:36 Speaker 02 Feel a bit funny.
51:37 Speaker 01 Yeah. I mean, you, you've never been a heavy drinker anyway, have you? And I don't drink at all. So there's no, I'm not encouraging you to drink particularly.
51:44 Speaker 02 No, I don't think you should encourage people to drink.
51:47 Speaker 01 But I love the idea of a six o'clock glass of wine.
51:50 Speaker 02 Mm, I might have one. It's, it's nearly six o'clock when we're doing this, isn't it?
51:53 Speaker 01 Yeah, it is. Six o'clock in the morning, everybody. We really do work hard.
51:58 Speaker 02 I'll get the Irish coffees on.
51:59 Speaker 01 Yeah. Friday the third of September nineteen seventy-six. Francis Crowder's sixtieth birthday. It isn't in Flood Street, at the wing of a stately home in Hampshire anymore. It's a compound ground floor flat of Earl's Court. Do you remember this gentleman?
52:16 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
52:16 Speaker 01 We had dinner with him the night he and his wife, um, revealed the truth to each other.
52:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
52:22 Speaker 01 But it's hardcore terrace and beautifully finished, a startling thick pile carpet, buttercup yellow, and a good time was had by all. A slightly too good time was had by Francis, when Robin Malm had proposed the toast. Francis, leaning up against the wall, slurred a sentimental response, closed his eyes and slid slowly to the ground. We made our excuses and left. P S, it rained today. This is news simply because this has been England's hottest summer for a century.
52:58 Speaker 02 The summer of seventy six.
53:00 Speaker 01 That's fifty years ago.
53:01 Speaker 02 Yeah.
53:02 Speaker 01 And here we are, this May, with there been hotter May days apparently than at any time in my lifetime. So that's going back a bit to the nineteen forties. And fifty years ago, it was hot as well.
53:15 Speaker 02 Yes, but it's it's hot much more often now, isn't it? Don't you think?
53:18 Speaker 01 Well, I don't. Well, this seemed to. No, if you read the diary, it says it was hot day after day after day.
53:22 Speaker 02 No, no, no, no, no. In nineteen seventy six, it was hot day after day after day.
53:26 Speaker 01 I see what you mean.
53:26 Speaker 02 But I would say now, we have a hot summer, almost every summer in London.
53:31 Speaker 01 Oh, do we?
53:31 Speaker 02 I mean, we had one last year. We had boiling hot weather. This year, we've already had boiling hot weather.
53:36 Speaker 01 This is why we are going to Edinburgh, Ari, because it rains in Edinburgh every day. In fact, in Edinburgh, most days, you can get all three seasons, all four seasons.
53:44 Speaker 02 Mm.
53:45 Speaker 01 You know, anyway. So, look, that's, is that the end of diaries for today? We get more diaries in two weeks' time?
53:51 Speaker 02 It is, yeah.
53:51 Speaker 01 Yeah. Are there any parish notices we should share with people? Can I say how much I enjoy sharing my diary with you? And how, you just print up the pages for me. I don't prepare for it. I don't read it beforehand. So when I come across somebody like Lope, our nanny, um, tears spring into my eyes because I haven't really thought about her for a while.
54:13 Speaker 02 Lovely. What's she doing? How's she doing?
54:16 Speaker 01 I'm going to get in touch.
54:17 Speaker 02 Oh.
54:18 Speaker 01 The only thing I bet you, it was fifty years ago, I bet you her marriage worked. I bet you she had children, and she was a great mum, and by now she'll be a great grandmother.
54:29 Speaker 02 Mm, I'm sure.
54:30 Speaker 01 I will see if we've got her address somewhere, and I'll send her an email. Or if you know, um, Penny, Norris, as I'm sure she became, um, yeah, there'll be Norris, if you can be in touch with us. What's the address they write to?
54:44 Speaker 02 Hello at rosebudpodcast dot com. And I'm pleased to say the inbox is being dealt with right now, this week, um, with the help of a very brilliant woman called Marie, who is helping me to work through the backlog, and it's going very well. So lots of people will be getting nice replies.
55:05 Speaker 01 We hope our team is becoming ever more efficient. We have our social media, which we're being helped with by another brilliant person called Sinead.
55:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
55:14 Speaker 01 Don't we?
55:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
55:15 Speaker 01 Lisa is helping us with some of our bookings.
55:17 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
55:18 Speaker 01 Which is great. Alec is doing a wonderful job editing some of the shows and making sure they're on YouTube.
55:23 Speaker 02 Hmm.
55:24 Speaker 01 More Rosebud isn't on YouTube at the moment, but who knows what will be happening next year?
55:28 Speaker 02 Some will be, so Matt.
55:30 Speaker 01 Oh, some will be, yes. Yes, lots of people are talking about Matt Hague, saying we want Matt Hague.
55:36 Speaker 02 Yeah.
55:36 Speaker 01 People, people found him really interesting.
55:39 Speaker 02 I think it was a great discussion, wasn't it fascinating the way he spoke about his experience of depression?
55:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
55:46 Speaker 02 And I think that's so interesting, hearing people talk about that, because so many people experience that themselves.
55:53 Speaker 01 I loved the detail that he gave us.
55:55 Speaker 02 Hmm.
55:55 Speaker 01 I have to say, Harriet, and I do thank you for this, um, because, you know, we are the joint creators of this. I have learnt so much about other people's experience.
56:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
56:08 Speaker 01 Through doing Rosebud. And I now, I mean, I listen to the episodes, of course, but I now am watching them on YouTube. Because Michelle loves seeing them on YouTube.
56:19 Speaker 02 Hmm.
56:19 Speaker 01 And it's a slightly different experience.
56:21 Speaker 02 Mm hmm.
56:22 Speaker 01 And you hear slightly different things when the person, when you're watching the person.
56:25 Speaker 02 Hmm.
56:25 Speaker 01 But I'm finding them an education. As Ken Dodd used to say. Uh, ha ha, uh, this is an educational evening, but it's certainly taught me something.
56:39 Speaker 01 Anyway, we hope you found, um, me a bit of a caution, and I know you will have found, um, Harriet, um, engaging as she always is. Anything more you want to say, any parish notices? Do follow us on, um, Rosebud Reflections on Facebook. If you want to join the Rosebud family, you can do so. People go to patreon.com forward slash Rosebud. And you can get ad free listening and those extra episodes on Sunday. We're getting to the finale of my murder mystery. The candlelight murders, only a few more episodes to go.
57:14 Speaker 02 That's exciting.
57:15 Speaker 01 People have been enjoying it. I've been quite excited, by the way, people have been enjoying it, it's a, uh, actually, if you join, if you join, um, the Rosebud family, can you go back and hear all them from the beginning? Would that be available to you?
57:27 Speaker 02 Yes, yes, yes.
57:28 Speaker 01 So, if you want to hear me reading the murder mystery right from the beginning, join the, um. Ah, it would be cheaper probably than buying a book.
57:36 Speaker 02 Good thing to do on a summer holiday.
57:38 Speaker 01 Yeah.
57:39 Speaker 02 Yeah.
57:40 Speaker 01 Take, take Charles. By the pool. And your earphones. Anything more you want to say to our lovely people?
57:46 Speaker 02 No, I mean, keep cool. Maybe get a towel or a flannel and soak it in cold water and put it on your forehead as you um go to bed. That's a good suggestion, don't you think? Something like that. Or wrap it round your feet.
57:59 Speaker 01 Ludicrously suggested, in my view. You end up with a damp pillow, it falls off. I've done this sort of thing my part. In the past. And I remember doing it with my feet as you suggested, and Michelle accused me of uh weeing in bed. Well, she get out of there. And when there's any, if if there's even a moment, a little touch of perspiration on the bed, Michelle is so fussy. She will, in the middle of the night, three or four in the morning, a touch of perspiration. A moment of moisture on my pillow. Ah, she goes, all the lights are put on. All the lights. The room is half at light anyway because of the cat. All the lights are put on. She insists on emptying, clearing the whole bed.
58:40 Speaker 01 The undersheet, the sheet, the duvet cover, all the pillows. We have to remake the bed. Then you get back into the bed and you can't fall asleep.
58:48 Speaker 02 Oh, gosh.
58:49 Speaker 01 Nightmare.
58:50 Speaker 02 But I tell you what, Giles, there's nothing better than the feeling of clean sheets, is there? I think that's one of the best feelings ever.
58:59 Speaker 01 I agree.
59:00 Speaker 02 Yeah.
59:00 Speaker 01 It's one of the best feelings.
59:01 Speaker 02 That's worth it. Do that in the middle of the night. Brilliant.
59:05 Speaker 01 Who's telling you all? It's clearly you're on Michelle's side.
59:08 Speaker 02 I don't wanna be in a sweaty old bed either. I agree with her.
59:11 Speaker 01 It's never a sweaty old bed. It's only wet because I've been following the advice of Harriet and getting a damp flannel to put over my face and over my feet. And it falls off my big head quite quickly. Makes the pillow damp. Then Michelle registers as a damp pillow, says you've been sweating again. Kicks me out of bed. Oh, the whole thing's a nightmare. Oh.
59:32 Speaker 02 Oh.
59:32 Speaker 01 Oh, dearie me. We should have started these relate meetings years ago. Anyway.
59:37 Speaker 02 This is turning into an episode of grumpy old men.
59:39 Speaker 01 No, no, it isn't.
59:41 Speaker 02 It is.
59:42 Speaker 01 No, it isn't. I don't, I don't believe it. I was once mistaken for Richard Wilson in the street, you know.
59:51 Speaker 02 That's enough, that's enough.
59:52 Speaker 01 Um, okay.
59:53 Speaker 02 Okay.
59:53 Speaker 01 Is that it, everybody?
59:55 Speaker 02 That's it.
59:55 Speaker 01 Lovely. Stay, stay cool, stay calm. We'll be with you on Friday with another very, very special guest indeed. I think it's a woman this week, isn't it?
1:00:04 Speaker 02 It's the first in our New York season.
1:00:07 Speaker 01 Oh! We ought actually to tease this up just for a moment. We mentioned here nineteen seventy-six was the two-hundredth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. This is the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary. And therefore, leading up to the Fourth of July, we're going to have a month of American episodes of Rosebud, recorded by Harriet Jane and myself in New York recently. So it's a very exciting, with one of the best talkers, recognised as one of the best talkers in the world. She's been likened to Oscar Wilde, to James Baldwin, and to Dorothy Parker. And she will be on Rosebud this Friday.
1:00:52 Speaker 01 You're in for a real treat as we mark the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America with a month of Rosebud in New York.
1:01:03 Speaker 02 Yeah.
1:01:04 Speaker 01 Cue the music.
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