More Rosebud - Gyles's Diary episode 48

It's another cracking episode of Gyles's diaries for you today, and Gyles is reading choice extracts from the year 1979. In which he: lets go of the family's live-in nanny and puts their pony, Tonka, out to grass; is mortified by a critical article in the Daily Mirror; and finally takes his driving test. Enjoy this, diary-lovers! Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoZLtkZi4v5b2WzerOf0ACA. Join The Rosebud Family here https://open.acast.com/networks/682f0de710ca442d5f244250/shows/6835e960944c948b9a623f10/episodes/www.patreon.com/rosebud. And visit our website here https://www.rosebudpodcast.co.uk/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Welcome to 215 Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Love the crown molding.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, 100% fiber internet.

• 0:16Speaker 00

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  No FiOS? Yeah, no thank you.

• 0:22Speaker 00

  Don't you want to see the rest? Okay, bye-bye.

• 0:25Speaker 02

  Get Verizon FiOS, because when you're moving, it's 100% or nothing.

• 0:53Speaker 03

  Hello and welcome to an episode of More Rosemary. I'm Gyles Brandreth and I'm, as ever, with my producer, who always joins me on a Tuesday. She's Harriet Jane. How are you today, Harriet?

• 1:03Speaker 04

  I'm fine, thank you.

• 1:04Speaker 03

  We are still in Edinburgh, because if you're listening to this in real time, on the day it drops into the world, it is Tuesday, the 25th of August 2026, which means we're in Edinburgh, because we are in our last week of presenting a show, which we've been doing every day, well, since the beginning of August, and we've been so blessed, we've been doing it at the Gordon Aitman Theatre in George Square, it's part of the Edinburgh Fringe, and touch wood, so far, we have sold out every day. But that's because a lot of the tickets are bought on the day. So if you're in Edinburgh, come along, because we're only there until next Sunday. How are you bearing up?

• 1:46Speaker 03

  I've done the Fringe a lot of times, but this is your first Fringe as a performer, Harriet. How are you physically bearing up, do you think?

• 1:54Speaker 04

  Well, my right hip's giving me jits. I think I've probably got a cold sore. I've got a sore throat. And what else?

• 2:04Speaker 03

  I think your hip's going, because you're doing this-

• 2:06Speaker 04

  The high kick.

• 2:07Speaker 03

  High kick.

• 2:07Speaker 04

  And someone said to me, "Well, do you warm up before you do the high kick?" I said, "No, of course I don't. I just pop out on stage and do your high kick."

• 2:16Speaker 03

  Whereas in the green room, next door to our dressing room, we see young, fit young men, every day, who are doing a dance show in their underwear, doing amazing warm-ups. They're stretching, they're doing pilates, they're doing-

• 2:29Speaker 04

  Yeah, they're doing pilates, yeah.

• 2:30Speaker 03

  For about half an hour before every show.

• 2:32Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I don't know what they're doing on stage, because I haven't seen their show, but yeah, anyone sensible would be doing something. I mean, I have been going to the gym, so it's not as if I've been inactive.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Have you been swimming as well, haven't you?

• 2:45Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, I think the swimming was responsible for some of the hip problems.

• 2:49Speaker 03

  But you've also been out whining and dining. I take a snooze every day for an hour before the show, and I'm leading quite a dull life on the whole, trying to go to bed reasonably early and having a supper and then having a proper breakfast, whereas you are leading a crazy social life.

• 3:06Speaker 04

  I don't think I am, but, I mean, I have had some people here, but not that many. So I can't have a snooze before the show, because I have to do my makeup and my hair, which takes an hour.

• 3:19Speaker 03

  Goodness.

• 3:20Speaker 04

  So you can't just kind of roll out of bed and walk to the theatre, unfortunately, if you're a woman, you have to. I mean, I don't enjoy that sort of thing at all, but you have to spend some time around in the mirror, your hair has to look as if it hasn't just been sort of dragged through a hedge backward, which takes time.

• 3:38Speaker 03

  Yes, and you have the advantage of having hair and the disadvantage of having hair.

• 3:42Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, I mean, I'm not great at doing hair at all. I don't know what I'm doing, but I have this heated brush and I spend a bit of time faffing with it, and then you walk to the theatre and inevitably it's raining or drizzling and you're worrying about what that's doing to your hair, making it all fuzzy, and, oh, women will know that the perils and the nightmare, it's not fuzz, it's called frizz. And it's what happens when moisture interferes with your hair and it makes your hair look frizzy, and it's not attractive. And if you're under lights and your hair's frizzy, which I'm sure mine is a lot, because it often is, it doesn't look good, so yeah.

• 4:19Speaker 03

  And what pre-show routine have you developed? I've been in lots of shows over the last 50 or 60 years, and I've seen lots of very different pre-show routines. What has evolved as your pre-appearing on stage? We are doing it like a daily matinee. We're at four o'clock, which, believe it or not, in Edinburgh is a very hot time to have a show. A lot of the big shows are on at four o'clock.

• 4:41Speaker 04

  Great time for a snooze.

• 4:42Speaker 03

  And, well, indeed, for the audience's point of view, they can come to have a, feel really comfortable, a little dozette with Harriet and Giles. But what do you do once you've arrived at the theatre? What is your, what's evolved as your pre-show routine before you walk onto the stage?

• 5:01Speaker 04

  Oh, God, nothing elaborate. I mean, I get changed into my clothes, which is my stage clothes, which you sensibly said, "Do not wear these outside this theatre." We do actually wear them out on the street afterwards for a meet and greet, but I have followed your advice and I haven't eaten in them or been anywhere else in them, and I've washed them quite a few times during the run. Oh, I did make the mistake one day of eating a chocolate biscuit in the dressing room, which was so silly.

• 5:32Speaker 03

  But it was so delicious. Those Rington biscuits you were giving me.

• 5:35Speaker 04

  Yeah, and as I was standing backstage before I went on, I looked down at myself. I had about five minutes before I had to go on stage, and I had two blobs of chocolate on the front of my outfit. And again, if you're under lights, all that's visible, so then I rushed up to the bathroom, dabbed the chocolate with water, which made it look much worse, because then I had, it hadn't really got rid of the chocolate, and I had a wet pad, two wet patches-

• 6:04Speaker 03

  Oh, God.

• 6:04Speaker 04

  -where I put the water on. Then I think, "Oh, well, there must be a dryer in here, because then I can dry it with a hand dryer." No dryer. All there were were paper towels, so I then dabbed the wet patch and the chocolate with the paper towel, which obviously makes it look even worse. I then stand there thinking, "I'm going on stage in three minutes, whatever it is," and I look like I've got to places I've handily tried to remove some chocolate from my jumpsuit. Then I realise I had this tie around my waist, which is like a sort of sash that you knot and you can put it wherever you like, and I just put it rather cleverly over the two

• 6:46Speaker 04

  marks, and luckily it could hang down over them, and I think I got away with it on stage. I checked a couple of times while I was on stage what was going on, and I took it home and washed it that evening. But that's the kind of pre-show drama I have. I mean, I've got no pre-show ritual. I get changed, I might do a five-minute vocal warm-up, which sometimes you do with me.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Which you find on your phone.

• 7:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 7:12Speaker 03

  It's an app, is it called Vocal Warmups?

• 7:13Speaker 04

  It's just in Spotify, I just search vocal warm-up and it pops up.

• 7:17Speaker 03

  And we sit there together and we do an arpeggio, which means going up and going down?

• 7:21Speaker 04

  Yes, an arpeggio is basically a scale, but you're singing every other note.

• 7:27Speaker 03

  I never knew that.

• 7:28Speaker 04

  Well, that doesn't surprise you, Giles. You don't know anything about music. Why would you know that?

• 7:33Speaker 03

  I know nothing about music, but actually, but I'm ready to learn, because one of the things that I have been doing, I hope you've noticed, you, quite rightly, we give each other notes. Well, I encourage Harriet to give me notes, and one of the very helpful ones, right at the beginning, was to try and listen to the music. Whereas, well, I was, no, no, there's a difference. I was listening to the rhythm of the words, and I was trying to say the words roughly in time to the music, alongside the music, telling the story in the words. But you said to me, "Actually, probably the words in the music were written to work together, and maybe try and sing the words on the note that is expected, you may find it works better."

• 8:15Speaker 04

  I mean, this is the rough idea of singing.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  But believe it or not, I've reached the ripe old age I'm at and didn't really appreciate that. Nobody's ever stopped to explain that to me. And I've been in, you know, pantomimes and half a dozen musicals over the years, and nobody's actually told me that. So I've just been coming at a line and thinking, "I'll speak it," you know? "New York, New York, it's my kind of town." That's what I would do, however I felt emotionally about it. Whereas in fact, it works better if you hit the word and the note to the right moment. So I'm now conscious, in the early days I was very conscious when you told me to do this, of actually doing that, of trying to hit it. So I'm enjoying doing the little warm-up with you. It's, we basically hum, we go, "Mmm," that sort of thing.

• 9:02Speaker 04

  Exactly, yeah.

• 9:02Speaker 03

  But I never knew it was a half a, in fact, it always in my head sounds as if we're doing the same note eight times, but we're actually going up-

• 9:08Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're going up and down, yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 03

  Without realising it, it's quite interesting that. Anyway, so you basically, you get changed, you're there, you're primping your hair, you go to the loo, you do a bit of an arpeggio, we then go and set our props on the stage, we do a sound check.

• 9:23Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 9:25Speaker 03

  Do you feel, do you feel apprehensive? Do you then stand, I mean, I'm describing to me what happens. We have a time in the dressing room, we then go onto the stage, we do the sound check, and we have had a few issues with the mics being either too close to our face or, you know, something can go wrong, but we're comfortable about that.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  We've been pretty lucky, haven't we? We haven't had a mic fail or-

• 9:46Speaker 03

  No, we have had one performance where somebody from the, had to come down onto the stage to adjust your mic.

• 9:51Speaker 04

  Yes, it was too loud.

• 9:52Speaker 03

  It was too loud, that we sorted. But then we go behind the scenes, the house is open, and we wait as they arrive. We can actually watch them out of the window, so 500 people, we see them all lined up, we watch them coming in, and then we wait. And what is going- In the, it's been interesting for me observing you over three weeks so far. We are behind the main tabs, the main curtains. And, uh, Harriet, at first was just sort of standing there. And now you do dance about a bit.

• 10:23Speaker 04

  Hmm, yeah, yeah, sometimes dance around to the music that's playing while the audience come in. Uh, but yeah, I'm not feeling particularly nervous or anything. I'm just waiting to go on.

• 10:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's quite interesting.

• 10:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 10:36Speaker 03

  I mean, the range of people I've worked with over the years goes from people, uh, if you're in a musical, traditionally, it's been going on now for, I'd say about thirty years and it's still done. You have, before the show begins, a group hug. And everybody in the cast gets together in a circle and we all hug one another and you think, err. And then chatty people do chat.

• 10:56Speaker 04

  Yeah. And what's in. I don't think I want a big, long chat.

• 10:58Speaker 03

  No, it's clear. I've absorbed that.

• 11:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, because I, the other day I was backstage and, and I was having a chat with Greta, the stage manager, and it was actually developing into a conversation. You know, about relationships and, and I was thinking, I'm going on stage in three minutes. I don't think that's a good idea to have a proper conversation with someone. I think just burbling is fine.

• 11:22Speaker 03

  I mean, I'm a, I'm a burbler, as you know. What some theatre people do, and I, I think I belong to that school, is after the group hug, whoever you're going on with that moment, you stand at the wings and you probably are chatting, but it is, as you say, burbling. It's an anemis. You're saying, how you feeling today? How's it, tell me? Oh, God. Do you think, ah, when we get to that first bit where I, it's left, I go left, I know I go left. Um, we know we go left, we always go left. We've been in this show for two months. Why are we saying you go left? You're just actually saying it to fill the air with sound, to make yourself feel more easy. That's one way of doing it. The complete contrast of that, and this has always stuck in my mind, I may even have written about it in my diaries, which we're going to come to in a moment, because this is a diaries Tuesday.

• 12:06Speaker 03

  Uh, I remember working with one of my favourite actresses, in fact, if not my favourite stage actress of that era, Celia Johnson.

• 12:16Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 12:16Speaker 03

  Became Dame Celia Johnson, best known for being in the film Brief Encounter in the mid nineteen forties. A film star, wonderful actress, with a great emotional presence, rather like Judi Dench. And I produced a play that she was in called The Dame of Sarg, uh, which was a very successful play that we opened in Oxford and then it played in the West End and around the world. And she, before the performance, would be in her dressing room until the very last minute. She would be in the dressing room and would be alone and would expect to be left alone. And she'd be sitting at her dressing table, playing pelmanism. And she would just have the cards all laid out. And she'd arrive, because the rule is you have to arrive by the half, which is thirty five minutes before the play begins.

• 13:00Speaker 03

  She'd be there, thirty five minutes before, she'd go into her dressing room, people would say, hello, Miss Johnson. And she'd go into her room, she'd close the door, she'd get herself ready, makeup, frock, et cetera. She'd then sit down and lay out the cards. And she'd stay there totally quietly until the moment came when she was called to the stage. Uh, somebody would knock on the door in those days, before tannoy's and say, Miss Johnson, you're called, please come to the stage. And she'd go down to the stage, no one would speak to her. She'd stand completely quietly in the wings, having just taken off her glasses, left the cards where they were. And then on whatever the queue was on stage, she would walk on. And in the wings, you just see a late middle aged lady standing there totally quietly, as if nothing was happening.

• 13:45Speaker 03

  The moment she hit the lights on the stage, but not until the lights, you could actually see, if she was in darkness looking up to the stage, as soon as the lights happened, she suddenly was transformed. So if she were the play where she was coming on laughing, suddenly the laugh would come from nowhere, or if it was emotionally charged, it would be, or if it was new, whatever it was, she just came on and immediately did it. And a tinkling laughing scene could end the first act. Laughter and applause. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Out into the wings, and let's say there'd been two men in the scene, they'd go, well, that went well today, they'd nudge each other, ha, ha, ha, didn't we do well? She would walk away, immediately quiet again, go upstairs, back to the dressing room, and

• 14:26Speaker 03

  either more pelmanism throughout the interval, or the Daily Telegraph crossword. That was her, totally quiet and settled.

• 14:33Speaker 04

  Yeah, that, I can relate to that.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. So, uh, different, different styles.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:38Speaker 03

  The big surprise of this whole experience for me has been, apart from, uh, the, the joy of working with you and watching you work and watching what you do develop, the big surprise for me has been enjoying the meet and greet.

• 14:50Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Because our producer wanted there to be a meet and greet afterwards.

• 14:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  And there's a reason within the show, a special reason for doing it, which I won't give away, in case people are still planning to come, or if we have a life beyond Edinburgh, come to see us. But we meet and greet people afterwards. And I thought, oh, it's a bit of a duty, we've already done an hour long show or more. Oh, I'm exhausted. But in fact, we're quite high at the end of the show. And so we run down the stairs, get outside, and it's been lovely, isn't it?

• 15:17Speaker 04

  Oh, I've loved it. Yeah, I love, I love, um, meeting people. It's really fun.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 15:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, we've had some great groups. Yesterday, we had a huge group from Jersey. And, uh, I mean, there were about fif- thirteen of them or something.

• 15:29Speaker 03

  There were in all thirty two.

• 15:31Speaker 04

  Oh, thirty two.

• 15:32Speaker 03

  Thirty two, they came as a party from Jersey. No, thirteen took part in that sort of photograph thing. We did, uh.

• 15:37Speaker 04

  Oh, the husbands were there too, yeah. Yeah, it was really fun. So, um, there'd been, we've met so many nice people, some Rosebud listeners, some not. Um, lots of people we've been able to say, oh, you must listen to Rosebud. So I think we've got quite a few new listeners from doing this show. Um, and taken loads of photos, it's been great. I've even signed an autograph or two, which is very eighties.

• 16:00Speaker 03

  It, it's rather, it's rather fun, actually. And I've got used to, because I'm, I mean, I'm used to people coming up and saying, hello, Giles. I've had to get used to people coming up and saying, oh, hello, Harriet, hello, Harriet. Oh, Giles is here too, yes, yes, Giles, you can be in the selfie as well. But I've taken that, I haven't been that strong.

• 16:15Speaker 04

  I mean, that's not true, by the way, everyone, but, but whatever. Yeah.

• 16:17Speaker 03

  Ah, it is occasionally true.

• 16:29Speaker 00

  Welcome to two fifteen Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  Love the crown molding.

• 16:37Speaker 00

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, one hundred percent fibre internet.

• 16:44Speaker 00

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  No FiOS? Yeah, no, thank you.

• 16:51Speaker 00

  Don't you want to see the rest? Okay, bye bye.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  Get Verizon FiOS, because when you're moving, it's one hundred percent or nothing.

• 17:01Speaker 03

  Anything else to share with anybody before we go into the diaries?

• 17:04Speaker 04

  Uh, I don't think so, no.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  And we've reached the, uh, nineteen seventy nine. It's my diary and, well, I'm going to read it to you and see what we make of it. Monday, the first of January nineteen seventy nine. So how old am I now? Have I reached thirty? Am I already thirty? Gosh, I must be, yeah. Anyway, yeah, I'm thirty. The flight back from Barbados was a nightmare. Three weeks in heaven, followed by thirteen hours of hell. The plane was packed and late, and Nina, the nanny, sulked from Kingston to Heathrow, deliberately breaking her glasses mid-flight so that we might focus on her and pity her the more. The day will come when we don't need a live-in nanny. I look forward to it.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  Not that we want to dance naked in the hallway, but it would be nice to feel that we could. We saw in the New Year, stuffed in a taxi, travelling from the airport to Camden Hill. We got the children sorted and into bed. We collapsed and slept the sweetest sleep we've known in years, until the doorbell went at seven AM. It was the car to take me to start the week, a New Year special, live from the Savoy Hotel. Michelle was appalled. Why? Why? Why did you say you'd do it? What do you make of that, Harriet? Things don't seem to have changed much, do they, since nineteen seventy nine?

• 18:33Speaker 03

  What an idiot I was, booking myself in for start the week on the radio, literally within hours of us getting back from a holiday. You're not commenting.

• 18:44Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 18:45Speaker 04

  No, no, I will come.

• 18:46Speaker 03

  No wry laughter from.

• 18:48Speaker 04

  Oh. Oh, poor Michelle Giles. What were you thinking?

• 18:54Speaker 03

  I can't.

• 18:54Speaker 04

  Who does that?

• 18:55Speaker 03

  I wasn't thinking. Who does that? But don't you agree I've changed remarkably in the intervening years?

• 19:01Speaker 04

  Yes. Yeah, straight from Jamaica to start the week at seven AM. I mean, you're unbelievable.

• 19:09Speaker 03

  But it was a very big show on the radio in those days.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:12Speaker 03

  It really was. I'll go on.

• 19:14Speaker 04

  Did Michelle have to go with you?

• 19:15Speaker 03

  No, she didn't go with me.

• 19:16Speaker 04

  Oh, that's okay then.

• 19:17Speaker 03

  She turned over in bed cursing. But nonetheless, the doorbell ringing, me getting up, getting into my clothes, going downstairs. She was then left. Of course, she had the nanny, but with the children.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 19:26Speaker 03

  Anyway, why, why, why did you say you'd do it? Because I thought it would be fun to start the new year at the Savoy Hotel on national radio with Richard Baker and Co. And it was, it was fun. The usual crowd, Kenneth Robinson, Sheridan Morley, Esther Ranson, Mavis Nicholson, Lance Percival, with special guests Bernard Miles, her rumpfing like an old turnip, and Elaine Stritch fizzing with energy and Noel Coward stories. Miss Stritch lives at the Savoy Hotel. Perhaps that's the way ahead. Coward attended the first night of Titus Andronicus at Stratford in 1955 with Laurence Olivier in the title role and Vivian Lee as Lavinia.

• 20:09Speaker 03

  At the climax of the play, Lavinia enters, having been cruelly ravished, her hands cut off and her tongue cut out, so she cannot name her attackers. She comes on, holding a stick between her wrists to scrawl the names of her assailants in the sand. Unfortunately, as she enters, the stick slips and clatters noisily onto the stage. After the performance, Noel Coward sweeps into Vivian's dressing room, finger wagging. Tut, tut, butterstumps. Sunday, the 21st of January, 1979. Domestic news. We are going to have to send Tonka, Bennett's pony, to the home of rest.

• 20:48Speaker 03

  According to the vet, the radiographs show the presence of sidebone formation in both forefeet. Tonka's London days are over. No more hard surfaces, a little light hacking at best. Hester is offering to find a replacement for her, but we can't afford two ponies. We can't really afford one. Evening with our friend Noel Davis. We picked him up at John Slesinger's house, where he is now lodger and friend in residence. There is no physical relationship. John has a boyfriend. Noel is simply there to keep an eye on the house when John is away and to be funny when he isn't. Besides, Noel claims to have the lowest libido in London.

• 21:30Speaker 03

  We had a white lady cocktail at the Royal Garden Hotel and then went to Nick's, Lord Avon's restaurant. His lordship was at the door to greet us, tall, willowy, handsome, charming, and, according to Noel, queer as a coot. Noel was on song and told the story of the elderly queen in Rep, who was appalled to learn that there wasn't to be a part for him in the forthcoming production of King Lear. The young director tried to explain that there simply wasn't a role in the piece that would suit his style and temperament, his limp wrist and mincing gait. But there is, there is, screeched the old poof, flourishing his copy of the new ardent Shakespeare in front of the director triumphantly. Look, look at the list of characters. What does it say at the bottom? A camp near Dover.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  Those are the sort of stories, period stories, you couldn't tell probably anymore, but Noel loved them.

• 22:20Speaker 04

  No, that's fun.

• 22:20Speaker 03

  And told them so well. Friday, the 9th of February, 1979. The country is grinding to a halt, but we are carrying on regardless. Things are truly terrible out there. In Liverpool, land of my forefathers, the municipal gravediggers have at last called off their strike. The dead can again be buried, but the streets are still piled high with uncollected rubbish. The strikes, and even more so, the working to rule and other forms of industrial action are affecting everything. Schools, hospitals, prisons, petrol stations, supermarkets, they can't get the supplies to the shops. It's grim, but on Camden Hill, we're rising above it. We've just bought ourselves an Elizabethan four-poster bed.

• 23:05Speaker 03

  Three thousand pounds. Ridiculous, I know, but wonderful. And, Harriet, all these years later, I'm still sleeping in it.

• 23:14Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  And so is Michelle. Here's a Beetham bed.

• 23:16Speaker 04

  I should hope so. You're not going to send that to the dump, are you?

• 23:19Speaker 03

  No, you are, but three thousand pounds seemed a stupid amount of money to pay in 1979. You're probably buying a house.

• 23:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  But the point is, forty or more years later, we're still in the same bed.

• 23:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, good. I'm glad to hear it. My last bed cost about a hundred and twenty-four pounds.

• 23:35Speaker 03

  Well, I hope you are still sleeping in it.

• 23:37Speaker 04

  I don't know if it's gonna last.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  Forty or fifty years from now.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  This morning, Paul Callan from the Daily Mirror came to interview me. He looks like a junior version of Mr. Toad, but he was amiable and I tried not to be too garrulous. It's difficult. They come to interview you, so you talk. You talk, so they say you talk too much. You can't win. Anyway, I think we got on well. He has a child at Norland Place too, which helps. That was the school that our children were at. For our Collins V VIP diary, Anthony Burgess sent me an amusing thought for St. Valentine's Day. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone.

• 24:23Speaker 04

  Oh, I love that.

• 24:24Speaker 03

  Good line.

• 24:25Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:26Speaker 03

  Anthony Burgess. I'm dropping the names there.

• 24:28Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:28Speaker 03

  I met Anthony Burgess on one of those Start the Week programmes. That's the fun of doing some of these shows. You get to meet people.

• 24:34Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 24:34Speaker 03

  Thursday, the 22nd of February, 1979. It was ridiculous and painful, but it's done. I have fired Nina the nanny. The relief is immense. I didn't fire her. I simply said, it isn't working anymore. And that's the truth. She is fine with one small baby to love. She was perfect with Cysdrith. She adored her. She loved her to bits. She bought her a little coat from Harrods. She let her sleep in her bedroom. She spoiled her, but always in a loving way. She couldn't cope with the new baby. It was too much for her. And we had had enough. It was ridiculous. Michelle sat up the road, hiding in the car at the top of Camden Hill,

• 25:16Speaker 03

  while I went back to the house and found Nina in the kitchen and did the deed. We both burst into tears and I hugged her and she said she'd go at once. Michelle has taken the children to Hith to her parents for the weekend. Anyway, it's done. The burden of Nina has gone. She had many strengths, but she wasn't right for us. And now she's gone, what on earth will we talk about? All we have done for months is discuss the problem of Nina.

• 25:47Speaker 04

  Oh, that's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, that can happen in couples.

• 25:50Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 25:51Speaker 04

  You develop a fixation, which is actually often rather fun, even though it's sometimes a problem.

• 25:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:59Speaker 04

  Leon and I became like this during the lockdown, the Covid lockdown, which we were convinced was an over... Not an overreaction, but things were happening which we felt were not conducive. For example, the closure of schools.

• 26:17Speaker 03

  Oh, things in the world.

• 26:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 26:18Speaker 03

  The reaction to Covid.

• 26:20Speaker 04

  We became sort of very engaged in this and talked about it a great deal together. And it was actually, while both of us were quite sort of furious about it, it was rather a fun and good time for us as a couple because we had this kind of mutual.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  A bit of bonding.

• 26:37Speaker 04

  Agreement on something which we were both a bit cross about, which is also a rather bonding thing. And that can then, you could translate that to anything. You could have a problem with your neighbours or you could have, yeah, someone working for you that you can't really stand, or a problem with one of your children. I mean, that's less, I think that's less pleasurable, actually, usually a problem with children. But they're bonding things. And then when the thing disappears, and I remember at the end of Covid, thinking to myself, what are Leon and I going to talk about? Because we just moaned on about lockdown for years.

• 27:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  And then suddenly it goes and no one really wants to talk about it anymore. And yeah, so Nina, Nina the nanny.

• 27:20Speaker 03

  The same with Nina the nanny.

• 27:21Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 27:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:31Speaker 00

  Welcome to 215 Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  Love the crown molding.

• 27:38Speaker 00

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 27:42Speaker 01

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, 100% fiber internet.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 27:49Speaker 01

  No FiOS? Yeah, no, thank you.

• 27:53Speaker 00

  Don't you want to see the rest? Okay, bye-bye.

• 27:56Speaker 02

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• 28:00Speaker 05

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• 28:30Speaker 06

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• 29:03Speaker 03

  Friday, the 23rd of February, 1979. Horrible. The Paul Callan piece has appeared in the Daily Mirror. A full page, and it is vile. Paul Callan meets the wonder author, lecturer, and former Monopoly champion, the biggest head in town. That's gentleman Giles of the Smug Squad. It's a horrible, horrible piece. I am very unhappy. The photograph is grotesque, too. Later the same day. I had a call at about 12 noon from Paul Callan. My stomach churned as soon as I heard his voice. I stood up at the desk. I will stand up during difficult calls. He was very fruity. Hello, old chap. Sorry about the piece.

• 29:48Speaker 03

  You know how it is. We have to spice these things up a bit, make them readable. Anyway, I am calling to apologize. Keith Waterhouse is standing at my elbow. He suggested I call you because I told him I liked you. And he said, "Well, it doesn't sound like it from the piece, so give him a call now to explain." So that's what I'm doing. No hard feelings, eh? I mumbled something like, "Of course not." "Let's have lunch," she said. We won't.

• 30:15Speaker 04

  Oh, that's not very nice, Giles.

• 30:17Speaker 03

  That, I think, was one of the worst mornings of my life. To open the newspaper, it was a full spread, huge, huge headline, ugly photograph. And also, I mean, obviously, you fear that there's some truth in it. But also, I felt betrayed because I'd got on well with him, you know? There is a kind of bond between people who are parents at the same school, isn't there? But well done, Keith Waterhouse. Because obviously, he'd gone back, Paul, and said, "Oh, I like the fellow," you know? And then this piece appeared. And Keith Waterhouse obviously stood at it and said, "You've got to phone this guy," and apologized, which he did.

• 30:59Speaker 04

  Was Keith Waterhouse the editor?

• 31:01Speaker 03

  No, Keith Waterhouse was a very brilliant columnist.

• 31:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, I remember the name.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  Absolutely. And he wrote plays with a man called Willis Hall. They were a double act, who wrote scripts, plays, TV. But he was, in his day, the funniest columnist of his day. The Craig Brown of the era. So a noted name, and a big name, and a bigger name than Paul Callan. It's awful to say. I don't know. Actually, I think I tried to be good. When Paul Callan died two or three years ago, I neutered it, and I deliberately in my head thought, "Feel neutral about this. Don't take any pleasure in this." Though that moment, that morning, has stayed in my life ever since,

• 31:49Speaker 03

  has made me apprehensive about every newspaper interview I ever give.

• 31:55Speaker 04

  Well, it's horrible, but it is a good lesson to learn because you have to be careful with journalists. Yeah, so I've only once been in a paper, the Evening Standard, and I was shocked that what they did was verbatim type what I had said. And I thought stupidly that they would put it into good-sounding, cogent sentences, but they didn't. They just, I sounded like, sort of, like an idiot. And I was kind of shocked by this and thought, "Oh, you really do need to be careful when you speak to journalists because they're taking notes, and they will write down exactly what you say, no matter how stupid it is." Anyway, it's a good lesson to learn.

• 32:40Speaker 04

  You have to be really, really, really careful.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  And part of that lesson is to remember that you're always being interviewed, even when you think the interview is over.

• 32:46Speaker 04

  Yeah, when you answer the door.

• 32:48Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 32:48Speaker 04

  When you make them a coffee.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  Yep, yep. And the mug you offer them the coffee in.

• 32:53Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 32:54Speaker 03

  Make sure it's, you know, not with a chip in it, but not the best mug. You know, got to go so careful.

• 32:59Speaker 04

  I know.

• 33:00Speaker 03

  Get it right.

• 33:01Speaker 04

  I mean, I've never, ever been interviewed in that way, and I don't think I ever will be, thank goodness. But, I mean, is it just a bad idea to invite a journalist around to your house, full stop? Should you just do it on neutral territory somewhere?

• 33:14Speaker 03

  Yeah, you probably should. I do let them come to my house now. In a sense, I've become more carefree. But I always think about what, you've given me this advice often. I mean, you gave it to me in the run-up to our being in Edinburgh, doing interviews. You know, doesn't mean to say you have to give them, ask a question, answer it. Don't then do another paragraph, and then another paragraph, and that whole chapter. Giles, you can occasionally stop talking and let the other person speak.

• 33:40Speaker 04

  Yes, I mean, it's striking a balance, isn't it, between getting across what you want the interview to do? You know, you want the interview usually to publicize something, so you need to do that, but not over-talking.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  Yeah. Monday, the 5th of March, 1979. Day at the desk. I completed Famous Last Words and The Z to A of Total Nonsense and sent them both off to the US publishers, Sterling. The latter, I've had illustrated by Lucy, 18-year-old daughter of my Start the Week friend, Kenneth Robinson. He's obsessed with his girl completely. She is the love of his life. He thinks, breathes, talks only of Lucy. She finds it quite oppressive.

• 34:27Speaker 04

  Oh, the poor girl.

• 34:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, poor girl, poor girl. I think there'll be more of him later. Went tonight to the Vaudeville Theatre to see Margaret Rawlings in her one-woman show about the Empress Eugenie. Most entertaining, but inexplicably, no mention of the Brandreths, the Deans, the Dornanys, or even George R. Sims. This is because we had some family connection through George R. Sims with the Empress Eugenie, who was the wife of Napoleon III.

• 34:55Speaker 04

  Oh, I don't know who the Empress Eugenie was.

• 34:57Speaker 03

  What?

• 34:57Speaker 04

  No.

• 34:58Speaker 03

  The Empress Eugenie? The great Empress Eugenie, married to Napoleon III, Emperor of France? Oh my goodness. But she lived and died, of course, part of her life in England. My father, actually, I think, went to see her once in her retirement in Dorking.

• 35:11Speaker 04

  What, she was still alive?

• 35:13Speaker 03

  Oh, she was alive in the 1920s, yeah. He's a Victorian figure, Napoleon III. And we claim a relationship with this interesting European family, who are all buried in England. The most wonderful memorial stones and plaques to them. It really is in a monastery somewhere near Dorking. Anyway, that's by the by. It was near Chisorahurst and Kent, I think, that they lived in the end. Let's get back to this. Performance only marred by Miss Rawlings' slightly shaky acquaintanceship with her lines. Now, I'm off to bed with spiritual thoughts in mind. Tomorrow, I start preparing 13 epilogues for Anglia TV.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  Thursday, 29th, March, 1979. An historic 24 hours. Last night, at 10:20 PM, the government fell. The first government to be brought down by a no-confidence motion in 50 years. The government was defeated by just one vote. Chaotic scenes in the Commons, apparently. Neil Kinnock and friends started singing "The Red Flag." Mrs. Thatcher, trembling with contained excitement, demanded a dissolution and got one. Mr. Callahan, the Prime Minister, now that the House has declared itself, we shall take our case to the country. The election is expected on the 3rd of May. I'm not standing. I don't have a seat.

• 36:41Speaker 03

  Does that matter? Not really. I have time on my side. And I have cause for celebration. At 2 PM this afternoon in Mill Hill, I took my driving test. I cannot tell you how many lessons I've taken. Dozens, scores, I confess it. But I can report that I passed first time.

• 37:00Speaker 04

  Oh, that's brilliant.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  Yes. The man testing me told me he had bought one of my books for his children, but he only told me when the test was over.

• 37:10Speaker 04

  Oh, congratulations, Giles. That's a real achievement.

• 37:14Speaker 03

  Well, it's a real achievement.

• 37:14Speaker 04

  Passed first time.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  First time, but I was 30.

• 37:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, but that's not bad. I passed third time.

• 37:20Speaker 03

  No, but you were much younger.

• 37:22Speaker 04

  No.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 37:23Speaker 04

  Not really. I think I was 25.

• 37:24Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 37:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, and, yeah, it's easy to fail a driving test, doesn't take much.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  But I think maybe in your day, it was tougher for young people. I think they failed young people a bit more often.

• 37:35Speaker 04

  Hmm, I don't know. But anyway, I'm impressed.

• 37:38Speaker 03

  I was determined not to take the test. Because so averse to failure, am I. I thought, "I'm going to take lessons and lessons and lessons until I'm told, 'You really cannot fail now.'"

• 37:47Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  And so it proved. And clearly, possibly it did help that the test instructor had actually bought one of my books for his children. Anyway, and that day ends. I am now on the 450 train to Nottingham. Another day, another speech, another dollar. It's quite funny, Ariat. My life hasn't changed much, you know? After our show yesterday, I went somewhere in Edinburgh to make a speech. It's funny, doing the same sort of thing. Went quite well, incidentally, the speech. And I'm interested that after I'd made the speech, I was in the taxi going to meet up with Michelle and Becky Cadell, who you know, who is married to my friend Simon Cadell,

• 38:28Speaker 03

  who is the mother of Alec, who edits some of our Rosebud episodes. And I thought to myself, as I was going, "Oh, yes, I'm so glad the speech went well." Isn't it funny? How much we are the same after all these years.

• 38:42Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 38:43Speaker 03

  Do you think you've changed much?

• 38:45Speaker 04

  Have I changed? Oh, I don't think so, no. I don't think you change at all, do you?

• 38:50Speaker 03

  Oh, I had hopes. Anyway, let's go on.

• 38:52Speaker 04

  I don't know. Does one change?

• 38:54Speaker 03

  Well, I spoke to the psychiatrist, Anthony Clare, about this. And he said fundamentally, people don't change.

• 39:00Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:01Speaker 03

  But you can train yourself to change behaviour traits, patterns of behaviour. You can, you know, you can change, you can modify your behaviour, but the fundamentals don't change.

• 39:12Speaker 04

  I think I've, so I've, there's certain things I have changed. Like, I never used to exercise. Now I exercise. That's good. Um, I think I'm more sensible and less thoughtless than I used to be when I was young. Um, and less irresponsible. Yeah. Yeah, so maybe. But no, I think, you know, that thing of, even as a child, I think your character is largely formed, isn't it? It's very interesting. You can see it even in four-year-olds, three-year-olds, five-year-olds. It's fascinating.

• 39:49Speaker 03

  It is fascinating. You go to a children's party and you see these little people lined up.

• 39:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:53Speaker 03

  And often you know exactly what they're going to be like.

• 39:55Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  And also almost the sort of people they're going to marry, the kind of look they're going to have when they're middle aged. You can see immediately in their faces and their bodies.

• 40:03Speaker 04

  But it's, I mean, how does that happen? It's, I mean, even as a baby, I think you could see elements of my daughter's characters when they were babies. I mean, it is absolutely fascinating. People come out of the womb with this stuff imprinted.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  We often remind people to go back to one of our favourite episodes with the actor Charles Dance.

• 40:25Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 40:25Speaker 03

  With him lying his first memory, lying in the cot of the pram, um, looking up at these adoring yummy mummies who are all looking down and loving the look of Charles Dance. Well, there you go.

• 40:36Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 40:36Speaker 03

  People don't change. Friday, the sixth of April, nineteen seventy-nine. I'm in Broadway in the Cotswolds, in a beautiful room in a beautiful hotel, having just come from a memorable dinner. My hosts were the security company Group Four. I spoke after dinner along with Jorgen Philip Solensson, the chairman of the company, Swedish, cool, early forties, frighteningly focused. Sir Eric Sinjan, police commissioner, and a strange American who sat on my right at dinner, saying very little and drinking quite a lot. I chatted away while he drank steadily, looking into the middle distance. Just before the speeches, I said to him, why are you here? What's your claim to fame? He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. My claim to fame?

• 41:22Speaker 03

  Walking on the moon, I suppose. After we'd both spoken, we talked. He's called David Scott. He was the seventh person to walk on the moon and the first to drive there. He described himself as a disgraced astronaut, though I did nothing wrong. He told a complicated story of taking a cache of postage stamps with him on his lunar mission. And then, when he was up there, producing his John Bull printing set and franking them, the moon. The plan was to bring the stamps back, keep some and sell some to benefit the families of the Apollo fifteen crew's children. He was the mission commander.

• 42:05Speaker 03

  We weren't well paid as astronauts. I just got my US Air Force basic. When the crew returned to Earth, the stamps were discovered by NASA and confiscated. Scott and his men, though they'd done nothing illegal, were put out to grass. He is full of resentment. He told me how he'd seen President Nixon presenting a piece of moon rock to the Pope, but that neither he nor any of his colleagues was allowed any souvenir of their lunar expeditions.

• 42:34Speaker 04

  How unfair.

• 42:35Speaker 03

  But isn't, I mean, you've not heard that story before, have you? I think it's true. In fact, I know it's true because I do remember that there were three hundred and ninety-eight stamps in all, and that one of the stamps was sold at auction. I remember reading about this and being amazed by it, was sold at auction, you know, two thousand and eight for eighteen thousand dollars, a stamp franked on the moon.

• 42:56Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 42:57Speaker 03

  But anyway, an intriguing encounter.

• 42:59Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I don't, I think it was fine for him to do that.

• 43:03Speaker 03

  Well, he did it without, you know, he didn't clear it with anybody. He took it up, a bit of free enterprise. Well, and we thought America was the home of free enterprise.

• 43:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, he's just showing a bit of initiative.

• 43:14Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 43:14Speaker 04

  I think it's cool.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  No, it's cool.

• 43:16Speaker 04

  Poor him.

• 43:17Speaker 03

  I think he ended up, you know, as the boyfriend or partner, even the husband of, um, Anna Ford. The beautiful and brilliant newsreader.

• 43:23Speaker 04

  She was tasty.

• 43:24Speaker 03

  She wa, we'll come into the diaries to my lunch with Anna Ford. Have we been there already?

• 43:29Speaker 04

  Actually, to tell you, talking about how, um, you know, even young children, their characters are formed. My sister had a crush on Anna Ford, the newsreader. When she was about two, my sister was a toddler and she would sit transfixed in front of the six o'clock news when Anna Ford was on with this look that I can only describe as complete loving devotion, like you would look at someone you'd fallen in love with. Yeah. It was so odd. And I don't know where this came from. And I've never seen this look on a toddler's face before, but she was completely transfixed by Anna Ford. Yeah. Who I think is one of the most beautiful

• 44:15Speaker 04

  people who was on TV at that point.

• 44:17Speaker 03

  I think she's one of the most beautiful people to stop.

• 44:19Speaker 04

  She was ravishing.

• 44:20Speaker 03

  She was ravishing, mesmerising.

• 44:22Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, my sister absolutely loved her.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  That's a fascinating story.

• 44:25Speaker 04

  Yeah, when she was so young. Yeah. So what, oh, tell us about your lunch with Anna Ford.

• 44:30Speaker 03

  Well, I think it probably features in the diaries.

• 44:32Speaker 04

  Oh, I think.

• 44:32Speaker 03

  If I haven't cut it out.

• 44:33Speaker 04

  Oh, you don't lunge at her, do you?

• 44:36Speaker 03

  Uh, we'll wait till the day comes. It's worse than that.

• 44:38Speaker 04

  Oh, oh.

• 44:39Speaker 03

  It's worse than that.

• 44:40Speaker 04

  Oh, I can't wait to hear this.

• 44:42Speaker 03

  My lunch with Anna Ford. The very fact of me contriving it is shaming enough.

• 44:47Speaker 04

  Well, no, I think that's, that's forgivable, Giles. She's one of the most beautiful women in the world. Why wouldn't you want to lunch with her?

• 44:54Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 44:55Speaker 03

  And I did. And you'll hear about it all here.

• 44:57Speaker 04

  I can't wait for that.

• 44:59Speaker 03

  Well, this is why people stay tuned. Shall we leave them with a cliffhanger?

• 45:04Speaker 04

  Does Giles lunge at Anna Ford during a lunch date at an undisclosed time and location? When does this thing happen?

• 45:13Speaker 03

  This thing happens. I'm not sure.

• 45:14Speaker 04

  How long have we got to wait? How many episodes?

• 45:15Speaker 03

  I don't know. Let's, we may have to have more diaries episodes to get to it more quickly. It certainly happens, I mean, I'm, I'm now thirty. It certainly happens during my thirties. And I can tell you, the restaurant was in Baker Street. I can picture myself walking up to the restaurant. I can actually see myself in the street.

• 45:33Speaker 04

  Oh gosh, this sounds like it was quite dramatic.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  Walking up to the restaurant. I can see myself going through the door. I can see the table where she is sitting. She's already arrived. And I am going to have lunch with then, I would say, the most beautiful person in the country, in the view of many people, including your sister.

• 45:53Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 45:53Speaker 03

  As a toddler.

• 45:54Speaker 04

  Age two.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  Age two.

• 45:55Speaker 04

  We should maybe explain who Anna Ford is for anyone listening who's living in another country or is too young to remember her. She was a BBC newsreader, wasn't she?

• 46:06Speaker 03

  She was. I'm just checking, I'm just checking.

• 46:09Speaker 04

  You can Google her and see her lovely face. What did she look like, Giles? She had lovely dark, lustrous hair, no frizz for Anna Ford. And beautiful lips like a rosebud. And, uh, yeah, let's, let's look at a picture of her right now. Sorry, Anna Ford, if you're listening, I'm very sorry about this.

• 46:27Speaker 03

  She's, Anna Ford is now eighty-two. Retired journalist, television presenter and newsreader. First worked as a researcher for Granada Television, um, fought to help launch the breakfast television, TV AM, of course. And I worked at TVM, but this was before then that I met her. And she'd become on BBC Television, really famous as this newsreader. I mean, she was just incredible. Um, anyway, she was.

• 46:57Speaker 04

  She had a great aura. That's the thing with people, isn't it? It's not just the beauty, it's the.

• 47:02Speaker 03

  She was very cool to look at, wasn't she? It was a cool look.

• 47:05Speaker 04

  It's the aura, the energy. Yeah.

• 47:09Speaker 03

  Anyway, so, I mean, Anna Ford, very fantastic. I mean, do you want to meet her again? Do you want to invite her to be on Rosebud?

• 47:15Speaker 04

  I don't know. After this episode, I think you need to be a bit careful.

• 47:18Speaker 03

  Please. After our lunch, she won't want to, but maybe it was so long ago that she has forgotten.

• 47:24Speaker 04

  Sorry, Anna Ford.

• 47:24Speaker 03

  Sorry. Well, yes, yes and no. Anyway, that's something to look forward to. I think that's enough for today. The political situation, as you can see, in the UK is hotting up because this is nineteen seventy-nine. You know, James Callaghan falls as Prime Minister. Are we going to get Mrs Thatcher? Who knows what the future will hold? You'll discover on the next episode of More Rosebud, which features diaries.

• 47:44Speaker 04

  Yay.

• 47:45Speaker 03

  We've got something fantastic coming up this Friday.

• 47:47Speaker 04

  Have we?

• 47:48Speaker 03

  Which I do want to tease up possibly.

• 47:49Speaker 04

  Gosh, I don't know about that.

• 47:50Speaker 03

  Well, I'll just mention it. Um, it's something very exciting, I think, coming up this Friday. We're an international podcast. And we've got one of the most famous and successful Australian actors of our time as our special guest on Friday. Geoffrey Rush. You watched him again on television the other night when you saw Shakespeare in Love. And you were pretty much bowled over, weren't you, Harriet?

• 48:15Speaker 04

  He's brilliant in that film. Yes, yeah. He's got a sort of wild energy to him, a bit like Michael Palin in some of those Monty Python movies. And, uh, yeah, he's very, very fun to watch.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  And he was also wonderful in The King's Speech. I saw him appearing as Peter Sellers in a film about Peter Sellers. He's an extraordinary actor and there is this wild streak to him, which we discovered when we met him, because he's back in movies. Um, he's back in movies, having been involved in a sort of, uh, a, a case that eventually came to court and was resolved. He's now back making films. He's going to be at the Venice Film Festival, I think, at the beginning of September. So he thought this is a good time to meet and talk to a remarkable Australian actor, whose story I think you will find totally fascinating. So we have another international film star appearing on Rosebud this Friday, Geoffrey Rush.

• 49:10Speaker 03

  By the time we next speak to you on More Rosebud, well, we will be back in London. But Rosebud goes everywhere. And wherever you are listening to this, thank you for your company. This is me, Charles Brandreth, and my producer.

• 49:25Speaker 04

  Harriet Jane.

• 49:26Speaker 03

  Saying together in unison, cue the music.

• 50:28Speaker 00

  Welcome to two fifteen Maple Drive. We just put this property on the market.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Love the crown moulding.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  Oh, wait until you see the walk-in closets and the bathroom tile.

• 50:39Speaker 01

  Does it have Verizon FiOS? You know, one hundred percent fibre internet.

• 50:43Speaker 00

  No FiOS, but it looks like it's got cable. Let's check out the kitchen.

• 50:46Speaker 01

  No FiOS? Yeah, no, thank you.

• 50:49Speaker 00

  Don't you want to see the rest? Okay, bye-bye.

• 50:52Speaker 02

  Get Verizon FiOS because when you're moving, it's one hundred percent or nothing.

• 50:57Speaker 05

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• 51:27Speaker 06

  At Humana, our Medicare Advantage plans are easy to understand and easy on your wallet. Like offering more benefits than you'd get from original Medicare alone, and including dental, vision and hearing coverage in every plan. And the best part is, every plan has a zero dollar or low monthly plan premium, which makes it easier to save too. So this Medicare planning season, plan well with Humana. Learn more at gethumana.com. Humana is a Medicare Advantage, HMO and PPO organisation with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.