00:00:04.05
alexei sayle
Hello everybody, welcome to episode 96 of the Alexi Sale podcast. And this is the first, ah sadly the first post-Wilf podcast we went and actually got his ashes today, which is a surprisingly small box.

00:00:25.00
Talal K
Oh.

00:00:26.35
alexei sayle
But, um it you know, we will be forever...

00:00:33.74
alexei sayle
ah deprived of his intervention.

00:00:36.07
Talal K
Yeah.

00:00:36.98
alexei sayle
But thank you. thank everybody for all their all then kind messages. and

00:00:44.15
Talal K
Yeah.

00:00:44.95
alexei sayle
He was a good boy.

00:00:46.93
Talal K
He was. um Always. And like to think the amount of people that would have met him.

00:00:54.74
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:00:55.43
Talal K
coming around your house and and the limited times I was there with people, so like, you know, Andrew Feinstein, but then the Jeremy Corbyn interaction was very sweet, and I've been remembering that one because it sprung up a conversation about Elgato, who also passed away earlier this year, I think.

00:00:56.95
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:01:05.54
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:01:12.59
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

00:01:20.43
Talal K
So that's a poignant memory, but...

00:01:22.25
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:01:24.96
alexei sayle
It's terribly sad. Yeah.

00:01:29.09
Talal K
Pets have such a cruel way of of gripping onto your soul, don't they? And they're so unlike human friends.

00:01:32.91
alexei sayle
Yeah. yeah

00:01:37.77
Talal K
There's very little they can do to really piss you off.

00:01:39.99
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:01:40.05
Talal K
and And when they do piss you off, it's... You always have so much more understanding.

00:01:46.04
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:01:46.16
Talal K
but

00:01:47.84
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, it's a much a less complicated relationship than with humans, you know. It's just

00:01:55.28
alexei sayle
very pure, I think.

00:01:56.84
Talal K
Yeah. I'm terribly sorry for your for your loss and for all of our loss.

00:02:00.10
alexei sayle
ah Thank you. Thank you. Well, yeah, that's pretty shitty. Anyway, ah so yeah, thank you, everybody, again, for your comments.

00:02:06.70
Talal K
Yeah.

00:02:13.96
Talal K
Yeah, all the Instagram comments, I told Alexi about them and it means a lot.

00:02:16.93
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, onward and downward. um but

00:02:25.80
Talal K
ah I've not heard that before.

00:02:27.53
alexei sayle
ah i Last night, I did ah i did a ah proper podcast. I did Pod Save the UK with Nish Kumar and Coco, somebody or other.

00:02:40.26
alexei sayle
It was a special it it was for Amnesty International, really.

00:02:46.53
Talal K
Was that the live one?

00:02:47.93
alexei sayle
Yeah, it was a live one at King's Place. And the the guest was, the first guest, the first half the show was ah Al Jazeera journalist called Wail. I've forgotten his second name.

00:03:01.62
alexei sayle
It's Wail. Who had had his entire family murdered, his son murdered, and had himself survived a murder attempt by the Israelis.

00:03:14.89
alexei sayle
You know, a man obviously suffering tremendous trauma, really. So it was... a it was and That's right, yeah.

00:03:19.50
Talal K
And all the time, that's Wa'il al-Dahdooh. ah The whole time he was going through trauma after trauma, he kept very professionally doing his work and reporting.

00:03:31.03
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah.

00:03:32.78
Talal K
And it was very clear that I think staying in Gaza any longer was, you know, stupidly dangerous.

00:03:37.30
alexei sayle
Yeah, that they were kept trying to kill him, yeah.

00:03:40.91
Talal K
I wonder how he got out of there and how anyone gets out there.

00:03:44.39
alexei sayle
I don't know, really. I mean, Al Jazeera, I guess, does still have, you know, resources, yeah, backed by the Qatari.

00:03:48.84
Talal K
pooled their resources yeah i think he'd given enough i suppose right

00:03:53.70
alexei sayle
Yeah, but a poor man, you know, it was so moving to be in his presence. And it's just the nobility of that man compared to the utter... depravity of Israel and its armed forces and those who speak.

00:04:10.25
Talal K
um

00:04:11.08
alexei sayle
The cynical cruelty of Israel and its supporters is, you know, a constant. Every day we're reminded of the depths of of human barbarity, really. But also, occasionally with with that guy, with the the very pinnacle of self-sacrifice and nobility. It shouldn't be like that, but...

00:04:34.58
alexei sayle
yeah i so You just are, every day, that did the kind of do I mean, depravity, was able to think of disgusting, depraved behavior of Israel and people who support it.

00:04:45.96
alexei sayle
It's just a constant reminder of of how awful, if people are allowed to be awful, how awful they can be, really.

00:04:56.03
Talal K
Yeah.

00:04:56.89
alexei sayle
and Yeah, so, I mean, it's it's moving, but also...

00:04:59.14
Talal K
It makes you...

00:05:01.99
alexei sayle
um

00:05:06.15
Talal K
It's exposing the darker side of this life.

00:05:07.25
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's that this, yeah, this, but also, you know, that this just one shining pinnacle of a human being, you know, so. Anyway, it's a nicecy it's a nice evening. Nish is very nice, and Jen Bristow was the other.

00:05:22.26
alexei sayle
the other guest i mean somebody who was also i mean very practically involved in you know the struggle to try and save palestinian lives and to represent uh palestinian cause uh so it's nice to see jen again i noticed there's there's a big superstar

00:05:23.45
Talal K
Hmm.

00:05:39.53
Talal K
Yes.

00:05:44.87
alexei sayle
um where have you been the last two years uh palestine benefit organized by brian you know at the ovo wembley alina arena i think which is ah sold out um yeah apparently i my phone says it did benedict um brian you know port his head yeah yeah um

00:05:54.57
Talal K
Yeah. Did it sell out? Gone.

00:06:03.76
Talal K
It's the artists for Palestine thing, yeah. That's the tickets were not cheap either. So I'm impressed it's sold out.

00:06:13.86
Talal K
That's cool. Are you going to be taking part?

00:06:15.93
alexei sayle
No, I have not been invited, but it's not.

00:06:17.90
Talal K
It's mainly musicians.

00:06:20.71
alexei sayle
I can't really. It's mostly music. Well, there's lot of actors as well, but ah I can't complain.

00:06:24.24
Talal K
Oh my God.

00:06:25.56
alexei sayle
Our friend Stephen.

00:06:25.89
Talal K
Let's get you in there doing Hello John Got A New Motor at the ah Wembley Arena.

00:06:27.82
alexei sayle
Well, I think we should really. Yeah.

00:06:32.29
Talal K
Come on, man.

00:06:35.62
alexei sayle
It's not about my ego, but it's also about my ego. that is no

00:06:38.60
Talal K
No.

00:06:39.62
alexei sayle
it's also about my Our friend Stephen Kapos, the 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, hes he's going to do a tight 10.

00:06:41.08
Talal K
For the cause.

00:06:47.78
alexei sayle
He's on the bill. He's been just been added to the bill, according to my phone, ah which is great. I means it's ah i mean, it's again, it's a weird, know, the side effects of this terrible, terrible thing. But Stephen in his...

00:07:01.88
alexei sayle
his later years, he's going on tour, I think, and he's constantly jetting off to places. to be I mean, because, you know, he's a voice of, you know, a unique voice with tremendous authority, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who is, you know, profoundly anti-Zionist.

00:07:07.86
Talal K
Bloody hell.

00:07:18.13
Talal K
Yes.

00:07:19.02
alexei sayle
ah You know, he is, um you know, he is worth being fated, really. but he's a very He's a very nice man.

00:07:24.09
Talal K
Yeah.

00:07:25.61
alexei sayle
He also embodies all that, you know, what is what was great about the sort of

00:07:33.19
alexei sayle
pre-war Jewish and suppose post-war Jewish intellectual, the best of the Jewish intellectuals, or middle European intellectuals. Again, whose memory and whose example the Zionists constantly betray with their racism and bigotry, you know, but he's he's the best of of that generation of European Jews, you know.

00:07:57.96
alexei sayle
um

00:07:59.94
Talal K
the

00:08:00.26
alexei sayle
So, yeah.

00:08:01.13
Talal K
yeah The Jewish people have contributed so much and so much culture and an intellectual ah in input into our world.

00:08:07.61
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:08:11.82
Talal K
And is Israel is trying to like steal that steal that away from them, you know by trying to claim that their existence is intertwined with what Jews have given us and what wonderful people.

00:08:13.95
alexei sayle
Yeah, counteract. Yeah.

00:08:22.15
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:08:24.21
Talal K
you know

00:08:26.41
alexei sayle
Yeah. What?

00:08:26.48
Talal K
and

00:08:26.67
alexei sayle
Yeah, their culture. Just disgusting. Just the worst of humanity, you know.

00:08:32.35
Talal K
it's the least Jewy type of people who go to Israel. If I can say that, you know, like when I think of Jewish people, I think of like really smart, witty, cultured, ah in tune with the earth, not needing the identity of Jewishness is like, okay, not going to speak too much on this, but ah it doesn't go hand in hand with, sorry.

00:08:40.79
alexei sayle
But what you think of it, yeah.

00:08:52.79
alexei sayle
No, think saying Jewy might be.

00:08:56.83
alexei sayle
Jewy might be, I don't know.

00:08:58.11
Talal K
That was, yeah. I meant that in a, in a,

00:09:01.95
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, Jewish.

00:09:02.77
Talal K
in a very ah loving way. um You know, it's not, it's never but this yearning, this need to have a land for a people and a people without a land and all.

00:09:10.94
alexei sayle
good i push it Yeah.

00:09:12.58
Talal K
It's just like, that's never been part of the fucking story until,

00:09:13.73
alexei sayle
Yeah. yeah Need to have an apartheid state that made us children.

00:09:20.20
Talal K
This cruelty, yeah, it's not not necessary for your Jewish identity.

00:09:21.59
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:09:24.79
Talal K
And if that is what you need to consider yourself, have a Jewish purpose and identity, then you're not a very ah strong character and person. and

00:09:33.70
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:09:35.40
Talal K
If your requirement is to crush a whole fucking people.

00:09:39.66
alexei sayle
Yeah, but to punch. It's not just punching down, is it? It's bombing down and shooting down and flamethrowing down, really. Anyways, that's what I did last night. Also, was I on the news last night? Did anybody notice? i I recorded a piece for the ITV News last night.

00:10:00.09
Talal K
Oh, that happened then, did it?

00:10:00.16
alexei sayle
Nobody watches. no Yeah, nobody watches linear telly anymore, including me.

00:10:04.73
Talal K
I certainly don't, yeah.

00:10:05.21
alexei sayle
So I don't know if I was on, really. But... the I also did the BBC Radio 4 Tonight programme, I think. I recorded a piece for them over the phone.

00:10:16.14
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:10:16.45
Talal K
Let's see if anyone knows.

00:10:19.84
Talal K
Carry on, just going to see if anyone...

00:10:20.57
alexei sayle
Because some yes some survey from a marketing company had said that, I think of the you know the working comedians in Britain, that the the largest group came from Liverpool, and so they wanted me to speak to that, really.

00:10:31.81
Talal K
Yes. Represent.

00:10:35.39
alexei sayle
So I was able to speak from the Olympian Heights of my my seniority as the ah senior working Liverpool comedian.

00:10:45.73
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:10:48.22
Talal K
I can't imagine much discussion of Gaza and the podcast.

00:10:53.34
alexei sayle
No, you can't really. I mean, they just cut it out if you force it in, so there's no point really. Even going there, but, ah you know, I mean, it was fine. i mean i'd I mean, I'd like to think they used it, but then you're also, these days, you're also... mean, did I tell that story where, the you know, me and...

00:11:12.86
alexei sayle
Jenny Manson from ju Jewish Voice for Labour were interviewed by, we're supposed to be going on the Today programme or something, and then talk about the Palestine Action Ban, I think. And then we were interviewed by this camera crew from ah Daily Politics or something. So then, as they often do, Radio 4 said, well, they couldn't have a song because we'd already been interviewed. And it turned out Daily Politics wasn't,

00:11:41.64
alexei sayle
on at that time because it was, um it was, Parliament was in recess, so I don't know the it was who was interviewing us.

00:11:48.89
Talal K
Right.

00:11:53.31
Talal K
Huh.

00:11:53.78
alexei sayle
That was all, it was a very strange interlude anyway. I don't know whether it was interviewed, it's never used whatever it was, whatever an interview it was that they filmed, so.

00:12:02.63
Talal K
Sounds a bit fishy if you ask me.

00:12:04.00
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, it was all very, um

00:12:06.89
Talal K
bit

00:12:08.28
alexei sayle
yeah, it was all very annoying.

00:12:12.85
alexei sayle
So you found out whether I was on yet?

00:12:15.17
Talal K
Not seeing any evidence, no?

00:12:16.51
alexei sayle
No. Maybe I wasn't then.

00:12:19.78
Talal K
but I'll keep an eye out if any listeners at home watched that ITN broadcast ITV News send us clips

00:12:22.78
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:12:26.77
alexei sayle
Yeah. I think I was on the radio. yeah I think they they must used the radio a bit. Yeah. a I thought, well, I'm relevant again.

00:12:38.66
alexei sayle
No, it turns out I'm not.

00:12:40.80
Talal K
no you are to me

00:12:42.32
alexei sayle
um i Am I relevant? Yeah, it's you.

00:12:46.61
Talal K
I think you are. ah Look, you notice these ah these live events you keep getting invited to over and over again is is as testament to testament in itself.

00:12:52.23
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:12:56.82
Talal K
And i think I think it's a good, you were almost, I thought you were gonna say it earlier, but like, one i guess one of the positives to take out of the current global situation is that you're really seeing,

00:12:57.37
alexei sayle
Am I relevant?

00:13:13.87
Talal K
who the good people are and you're getting, you know, which events to go to and where to put your money.

00:13:15.37
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:13:18.71
Talal K
And, you know, it's so much easier now to choose what events to go to.

00:13:19.83
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:13:22.17
Talal K
I just see like, who is involved?

00:13:25.40
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:13:25.47
Talal K
Are they good people? And it's it's more often than not, the talented, funny, witty, interesting people are the ones who are actually on side. Surprise, the surprise.

00:13:32.54
alexei sayle
yeah yeah and also you know as i said last night because there's a sort of closing comments really that you know demonstrations are fine i mean they they're act of solidarity and they i guess maybe they um the size of the demonstrations makes the stops the government from being even worse than they are anyway if that's possible i'm not entirely sure that's possible but uh

00:13:34.93
Talal K
So,

00:14:00.17
alexei sayle
Yeah, maybe they have restrained the favoritizer. I said last night the only real yeah the only real possibility of change is to seize ses political power. And that process continues.

00:14:12.27
alexei sayle
and I noticed Nish said that they've got Zahra Sultana on their podcast on Sunday, so I'm hoping to go along to that and maybe speak to her.

00:14:13.46
Talal K
yeah

00:14:23.99
alexei sayle
um I think what what she her pronouncements.

00:14:25.85
Talal K
Wait, so were you acting as a co-host or as a guest?

00:14:28.42
alexei sayle
i was a guest. was just a guest.

00:14:30.43
Talal K
ah Okay. Did Nish mention, cause I've been talking to him about coming on on here at some point.

00:14:35.05
alexei sayle
All right. No, he was very complimentary to me, obviously.

00:14:35.94
Talal K
Hmm.

00:14:38.28
alexei sayle
He seems very nice.

00:14:41.20
Talal K
He's keen. I think sometime this month we should have him on.

00:14:43.07
alexei sayle
Okay, cool. Yeah.

00:14:44.82
Talal K
um But um you mentioned that protests might have some sort of effect, but it it makes me a bit sick to see how much the government is going along with these anti-asylum seeker protests and how Keir Starmer is just bending over backwards to make people believe he's a bigot as well.

00:14:57.27
alexei sayle
Yeah, you think how bad? Yeah. Oh, my God. It's fuck.

00:15:07.52
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:15:08.22
Talal K
ah When

00:15:08.44
alexei sayle
mean, it just enables. i mean, I don't know whether it's stupidity or deliberate. I don't know whether that he's such a fucking idiot. mean, they are all fucking idiots and they're arrogant and they're stupid.

00:15:20.89
alexei sayle
So maybe that's just you know what they are. I'd be kind of yeah maybe more impressed if it was some Machiavellian plot, but I suspect all of it is just their stupidity, really.

00:15:36.87
Talal K
I think Keir Starmer is showing his cowardice here. Like, I think it would be impressive if he went on national TV and made a fucking announcement and said,

00:15:39.93
alexei sayle
Yes, cowardly little man.

00:15:45.97
Talal K
and du stood up to these people and said, youre you're barking up the wrong tree, you have to stop the you know stop scapegoating these people and like give them a scolding to all these racist people who are attacking ah poor migrants, you know

00:15:51.00
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:15:54.90
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:16:00.92
alexei sayle
Yeah. I suppose that, yeah.

00:16:01.31
Talal K
ah

00:16:02.28
alexei sayle
I mean, I suppose.

00:16:02.66
Talal K
you'd show some backbone and be like, all right, yeah, tell them off. like We need a leader who's willing to fucking tell people off when they act out line.

00:16:07.81
alexei sayle
Hmm.

00:16:10.64
alexei sayle
But he would also have to admit that these people are acting partly out of disillusionment and it's disillusionment with him and his fucking stupid policies, you know, so, and he can't admit that really.

00:16:17.43
Talal K
his claw yeah Instead he says things like,

00:16:20.72
alexei sayle
So he's kind of in a, in a bind, isn't he? Because he can't admit that, you know, that all this is happening because of Labour's um failure.

00:16:32.89
Talal K
He said most recently he he wants more than anything to shut down these asylum seeker hotels. ah He did it in an interview. He said he that he always sits in front of a Union Jack um when he's home.

00:16:46.33
Talal K
ah He's very encouraging of of... He says, I'm very encouraging of flags. I think they're patriotic and a great symbol of our nature.

00:16:53.88
alexei sayle
ah

00:16:54.78
Talal K
He's very encouraging of people putting up national flags. Yeah. Asked whether people putting up the union or the St. George's cross flag in the wake of the hotel protests.

00:17:07.68
Talal K
He said, I'm a supporter of flags. that's

00:17:11.47
alexei sayle
that mean we can put up Palestine flags everywhere?

00:17:14.26
Talal K
I am the leader of the Labour.

00:17:15.28
alexei sayle
Or will UK liars for Israel stop us?

00:17:16.00
Talal K
Yeah, exactly. I'm the leader of the Labour Party who put the Union Jack on our Labour Party membership cards. I always sit in front of the Union Jack.

00:17:24.57
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:17:26.45
Talal K
I've been doing it for years. And it attracted a lot of comments when I started doing it. I was on holiday last week in Wales. And on the on the drive back, it was I've been seeing them seen them gradually increasing. But I was shocked to see how many St. George flags...

00:17:46.38
Talal K
are just like posted on lampposts and on bridges on the motorway.

00:17:49.33
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:17:51.41
Talal K
And, you know, I know it's a real vocal minority who are doing it, but I guess they're...

00:17:56.07
alexei sayle
Yeah, only needs like 10 dickheads putting up 10 flags each, doesn't it, a night?

00:18:00.83
Talal K
But it has an effect because on a motorway, there's so many hundreds of thousands of people passing it every day.

00:18:00.99
alexei sayle
button Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:18:05.59
Talal K
You're just like...

00:18:06.33
alexei sayle
yeah

00:18:06.69
Talal K
And you're passing like 10, 20 of them and you're just like, boom, boom, boom. England, England, England. I don't belong here. I don't belong it you know? And it's just...

00:18:12.25
alexei sayle
yeah

00:18:14.06
Talal K
It is intimidating.

00:18:15.41
alexei sayle
yeah

00:18:16.08
Talal K
and it's It brings up bad memories of of experiences I had when I was younger and stuff you know as well.

00:18:21.52
alexei sayle
yeah

00:18:21.76
Talal K
and it is ah I don't feel as you know well done to them because they're doing well. I don't feel i can move as freely. or I feel safe in London, but like there's something in the back of my head if I'm traveling in you know more rural areas or or less urban

00:18:42.28
alexei sayle
Yeah, I guess, yeah.

00:18:42.83
Talal K
i I don't feel like, especially looking at how I do, it's it's it's worrying and intimidating to me, man.

00:18:48.43
alexei sayle
Yeah, I guess, yeah. Yeah.

00:18:51.41
Talal K
It's really, it's... it's

00:18:52.77
alexei sayle
They were all up, they were all Union Jacks up Amwell Street in issington Islington. Islington, forgot to say. I thought at first I was cycling up there to, you know. martial arts class and oh this is colorful and I thought fuck it's that scene in tomorrow yeah from cabaret isn't it tomorrow belong the scene tomorrow belongs to me where you sort pull back from the angelic kid singing to see all the nazi flags which is was written by candor and ebb that song it's not a real nazi anthem was actually written by candor and ebb

00:19:18.63
Talal K
Yeah. the

00:19:28.75
Talal K
um

00:19:28.86
alexei sayle
yeah

00:19:29.41
Talal K
The irony is St. George is Syrian.

00:19:31.83
alexei sayle
Yeah, I just need the patron state of Palestine as well.

00:19:35.00
Talal K
Yeah.

00:19:36.30
alexei sayle
So maybe they're all pro-Palestinian.

00:19:41.12
alexei sayle
Have we got anything else to talk about, Dan? This is not really... Have we have we reached 10,000 subscribers or how many? Yeah, we've got 10 subscribers.

00:19:49.50
Talal K
On what?

00:19:50.71
alexei sayle
How many subscribers do we have to this podcast now?

00:19:53.75
Talal K
Well, there's different places where people subscribe.

00:19:56.47
alexei sayle
All right.

00:19:57.98
Talal K
I can do a quick...

00:20:01.50
alexei sayle
We still haven't worked out how to get any more.

00:20:02.11
Talal K
We got 20,000 on YouTube.

00:20:04.62
alexei sayle
All right.

00:20:05.95
Talal K
And then on Audioboom, it's hard to say how many subscribers, to be honest.

00:20:16.07
Talal K
But we get an average... about 10,000 listens, 10 to 15,000 listens an episode of the podcast plus the YouTube and however else it divides stuff out.

00:20:22.61
alexei sayle
All right.

00:20:30.70
alexei sayle
I always think about 20,000 listens. this And the and the yeah the dance videos proceed a pace.

00:20:35.11
Talal K
Probably if you add it all up.

00:20:37.67
alexei sayle
They haven't dropped off at all. They're still...

00:20:39.55
Talal K
To be honest, i've not I've not looked for a while. um

00:20:42.19
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:20:42.90
Talal K
Let me see the current stat, seeing as you're asking. Here we go. How many views in the last 30 days? 1.1 million views on our Instagram.

00:20:53.55
alexei sayle
Fuck.

00:20:54.74
Talal K
So that's not letting down, letting off, is it?

00:20:55.58
alexei sayle
That's not... Yeah, that's... And if you spread that, there's other platforms. That's going up, if anything, isn't it?

00:21:01.58
Talal K
o But also, yeah, you know, there's other content that we're putting up there that's doing doing well and that's contributing to it, including those folks at the um Royal Albert Hall last week who interrupted the proms recently.

00:21:06.55
alexei sayle
um Yeah.

00:21:17.37
alexei sayle
What, we're there plugging our podcast.

00:21:17.66
Talal K
i i helped I helped share that their bloody action that they did.

00:21:20.31
alexei sayle
All right.

00:21:22.99
alexei sayle
All right.

00:21:23.73
Talal K
um because it was my friends at um Jewish artists for Palestine. I assumed you wouldn't have had a problem with me sharing that stuff.

00:21:27.73
alexei sayle
Right, yeah.

00:21:30.65
alexei sayle
No, no, not at all.

00:21:31.46
Talal K
um And we helped kind of spread the word of their action because the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra were playing on the final day of the proms and they funded by one of Netanyahu's top donors.

00:21:46.00
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:21:46.41
Talal K
And they canceled a pianist because he dedicated a song to Gaza.

00:21:48.42
alexei sayle
Yeah, I remember that quite early on, yeah, yeah.

00:21:52.02
Talal K
So they interrupted their performance and lowered some banners and.

00:21:53.52
alexei sayle
Good for them. Actually today, apparently, this is today, Wednesday, that, um, protesters every day since welta wellta ah ispania the the Spanish classical classic bike race, you know has gone has gone into Spain.

00:22:11.20
Talal K
Hmm.

00:22:13.32
alexei sayle
From Italy, there's been protests every day against ah Israel Premier Tech, and the race was actually stopped today. And um the other teams are saying that Israel Premier Tech has to withdraw from the tour.

00:22:26.12
alexei sayle
Because they're putting other people's, you know, putting other people at risk, really, the protests are. So ah let's hear more about that fucking Israel Premier attack. They ruined the bloody Tour de France. At least they never won a stage, never won.

00:22:39.38
alexei sayle
and think And I know it's just one of their leading riders, Derek G, has broken his contract. I think not for you you know not for moral reasons, but he's certainly weaseled out of his contract with them.

00:22:50.54
alexei sayle
And I know another of their riders whose name I can't remember also said he was glad to have left. So we're fucking Israel, promise.

00:22:58.02
Talal K
I think it does.

00:22:58.63
alexei sayle
but

00:22:59.81
Talal K
Go on, sorry.

00:23:00.59
alexei sayle
No, somebody my mate, Steve, was also saying that Aston Villa are due to play Maccabee Tel Aviv in the Champions League, I guess.

00:23:08.98
Talal K
No.

00:23:11.36
alexei sayle
So,

00:23:12.80
Talal K
They're not coming to England, are they?

00:23:13.14
alexei sayle
um well, they will do, presumably, if to come to Birmingham. I would have thought, because, of course, there was that absolute lie. you remember when, i think it was Maccabee Tel Aviv or Maccabee... Heifert played in in Amsterdam and there was this shit about there was a pogrom in Amsterdam just because people had fought back because they'd been tearing down Palestinian flags and running through the streets beating people up, people of colour.

00:23:26.67
Talal K
Mm-hmm.

00:23:29.23
Talal K
Mm-hmm.

00:23:31.66
Talal K
No.

00:23:36.01
Talal K
Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:37.90
alexei sayle
And that's never that. I mean, the the mayor i think the mayor of Amsterdam actually issued a statement saying that she'd been she'd made a mistake typifying it as a pogrom. But ah most of the other press outfits, you know, never resiled from that story. So, you know, that it still sits there that, you know, Jewish fans were attacked, whereas in fact it was the racist Jewish fans were attacking people.

00:24:01.33
Talal K
yeah

00:24:01.94
alexei sayle
um So, but I don't know. I would have thought they'd get a a warm reception if Maccabee, Tel Aviv fans try and kick off in Birmingham.

00:24:12.60
Talal K
They might try and join in with these asylum seeker protests.

00:24:15.97
alexei sayle
Yeah, well...

00:24:16.42
Talal K
ah They'll find their friends there. you know um

00:24:18.65
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:20.59
Talal K
I think any all these global demonstrations against Israel are showing us that governments aren't really listening to any of it.

00:24:27.98
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:28.75
Talal K
but what they are doing is increasing our solidarity movements and awareness.

00:24:32.57
alexei sayle
Yeah. And also they are just opening. They are opening and that's, you know, i mean, it's got up ah for your party. I mean, they've got to move soon to occupy that space before it's too late, you know.

00:24:45.21
Talal K
Someone messaged me to say they were leafleting outside Brixton station the other day.

00:24:50.29
alexei sayle
your party, the local branch or...

00:24:51.17
Talal K
Yeah. yeah

00:24:53.18
alexei sayle
Well, so I mean, branches of formed spontaneously, haven't they? see so

00:24:59.67
Talal K
Yeah.

00:25:00.77
alexei sayle
ah

00:25:01.17
Talal K
I getting increasingly worried that they're only going to be effective in in London and other big cities.

00:25:06.24
alexei sayle
I think, well, I mean, the big city, Newcastle, Liverpool, obviously, Preston,

00:25:11.57
Talal K
Yeah.

00:25:14.66
Talal K
No, but just, I mean, seeing the uprising in in these racist fucking groups.

00:25:19.41
alexei sayle
Yeah, ah there will be, yeah. I mean, I think that's fair. how I mean, I think, you know, as Andrew said when he was on this podcast, you know, we we shouldn't, the the people who live in those areas should set up a branch of your party and should actively campaign because, you know, there was that...

00:25:37.35
alexei sayle
poll that said a you gov poll i think that said something like i might be exaggerating the numbers but 40 percent of reform voters would also vote vote for a jeremy corbyn-led party because what motivates them is not being right-wing but what motivate necessarily being right-wing but what motivates them is profound disillusion with uh with uh our system really our political system and with our are representatives, you know. and I think we should, if there is a, you know, there is a core of lefties in Epping, then they should, you know, form a branch of your party or whatever the hell.

00:26:13.91
Talal K
I don't know, but ah there is also, not to not just be to stereotype, but there is, there are large number of people who grew up in households

00:26:13.91
alexei sayle
I think... Yeah.

00:26:25.78
Talal K
where saying the P word, the N word was just normal and celebrated, you know, and that's like, never trust the dirty whatever, this or that, you know, there are families that have this culture that it's not just to do with ah ah class, you know, there are families where that is just kind of the culture they grew up in.

00:26:30.23
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:33.26
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:26:43.63
Talal K
And when they find a place where they can be loud and proud with that, then that's what you end up seeing is what we see the Labour Party.

00:26:43.97
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:26:51.43
alexei sayle
Labour Party.

00:26:55.17
alexei sayle
I finally come home. I was an out-and-out racist who hated all foreigners, and I finally found my own, which is in the Labour Party.

00:27:05.62
Talal K
so

00:27:06.82
alexei sayle
I love Yvette Cooper. She really speaks to my innate racism and bigotry. And West Streeting. I had some... think Linda saw it. Somebody described West Streeting. They thought, as a you know prospect, they described his...

00:27:23.70
alexei sayle
His film star, they but they thought West Tracey might be a you know good candidate to be leader of the Labour Party because of his film star good looks. Yeah, have the fucking if the film is iRobot, or possibly alien Alien Intervention or whatever it's called, Alien Nation...

00:27:46.05
Talal K
alien apartheid ah fuck off absolutely fuck off

00:27:47.19
alexei sayle
Yeah. Fucking West Street in film style good looks. Fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

00:27:56.52
alexei sayle
That shows how deluded they are that they think West Street's got film style good looks.

00:28:02.75
Talal K
what was Rory Stewart talking about recently his disgust at something do you know

00:28:05.15
alexei sayle
Oh, Jesus.

00:28:08.20
alexei sayle
ah I know, he's not keen. He was going going off about Jeremy Corbyn, I think. I don't know. As I say, you shouldn't think he's all right just because he looks like a monkey. um i don't know.

00:28:22.22
alexei sayle
He was going on about some nonsense.

00:28:24.03
Talal K
Okay.

00:28:25.01
alexei sayle
He's pretty right-wing, you know. he'

00:28:27.78
Talal K
Yeah.

00:28:27.97
alexei sayle
And doing a podcast with fucking war criminal, Alistair Campbell.

00:28:30.74
Talal K
Yeah.

00:28:35.38
Talal K
Oh.

00:28:35.38
alexei sayle
Trying to rehabilitate his bloody...

00:28:37.86
Talal K
His daughter's very funny, apparently.

00:28:41.22
alexei sayle
You're being... She's not. She's pretty bad.

00:28:45.51
Talal K
Should she be held accountable for her dad?

00:28:48.29
alexei sayle
I know it's cruel, isn't it? But she hasn't...

00:28:49.55
Talal K
It is cruel.

00:28:50.41
alexei sayle
I think she has to renounce her dad. know, she shouldn't be... out But if you don't...

00:28:55.43
Talal K
That's a big ask though, isn't it

00:28:55.83
alexei sayle
No, she's and Grace Campbell. She's not very funny. in my experience. But yeah, should we ask her to, does she have to renounce her father and all his works or maybe she loves her?

00:29:03.43
Talal K
it? I've not.

00:29:12.27
alexei sayle
Yeah, that was, ah I talked, I don't think I talked before about, i about my friend Marco, who's dead now, who's a Ukrainian, a communist Ukrainian nationalist, but whose father was

00:29:26.55
alexei sayle
when he was young, because he was ordered by the Ukrainian Nationalists that he joined the SS and was in the SS Galicia division.

00:29:32.29
Talal K
Yes.

00:29:34.05
alexei sayle
And, you know, that Marco had somehow found a way to forgive his father's actions, I think.

00:29:34.13
Talal K
Yes.

00:29:40.36
alexei sayle
I don't know. never I mean, fortunately, died before I could really talk to him about it. um But ah I don't know how you... I don't know quite... I mean, if you're somebody like Grace Campbell, as far as I know, she doesn't...

00:29:55.46
alexei sayle
critique her father's you mean her father is a war criminal her father is partly responsible for the deaths of you know several million people in iraq because of the lies that he propagated the dodgy dossiers and stuff now he's managed to weasel his way out of any yeah and so now yes now we go to war criminal yeah so i don't know i mean it is

00:29:59.68
Talal K
Hmm.

00:30:07.59
Talal K
He's just, he's never received any punishment or anything for that. you They don't introduce him as that on the news or on his podcast. theyre like Maybe she's avoided.

00:30:22.46
Talal K
Assuming she's around my age, she would have been a child when all that was happening. and

00:30:26.80
alexei sayle
Yeah, and that's an interesting question.

00:30:27.03
Talal K
you know and I'm trying to do i'm trying to like empathize. I've never watched her comedy, but I'm just trying to empathize.

00:30:32.17
alexei sayle
It's not great.

00:30:33.25
Talal K
If you're in that position, like how, And your dad's still alive.

00:30:38.00
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:30:38.18
Talal K
and And he's probably the source of a lot of your income.

00:30:42.10
alexei sayle
Probably, yeah.

00:30:42.47
Talal K
ah How can you publicly do something like that?

00:30:44.75
alexei sayle
just go ahead that circle, yeah. I don't know. Maybe she'd like to email and tell us.

00:30:51.54
Talal K
right and if you're listening grace

00:30:53.30
alexei sayle
Yeah, Grace. Sorry I said you weren't very funny. I don't really know, in all fairness. I haven't really studied you ever.

00:30:59.63
Talal K
We throw these things around sometimes.

00:31:00.46
alexei sayle
You might be hilarious. Yeah, i'm very I'm a bitter and angry old man, so don't take any notice of what I say about younger comedians.

00:31:04.41
Talal K
Forgive him.

00:31:07.89
alexei sayle
But, you know, yeah, yeah, if you want to if you want to email in, Grace, and let us know.

00:31:08.94
Talal K
She'll very comfortably denounce you, I'm sure.

00:31:15.22
alexei sayle
Defend your dad and your mum, your frosty-faced mum

00:31:18.47
Talal K
what who is i don't know who the mum is.

00:31:19.02
alexei sayle
ah What's her, she's called Fiona Miller, I think. They're not married yet. She's a big advocate for state education, but she always seems like a very cold woman.

00:31:31.79
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:31:32.61
Talal K
Okay, help me then square this circle and I might cut this out. That was a good edit point.

00:31:37.29
alexei sayle
yeah

00:31:38.42
Talal K
But this thing, you might might have to help me with the names here, but ah the the leak that came out about your party that Jeremy's advisor or something, his wife works for Keir Starmer.

00:31:49.92
Talal K
Do you know who I'm talking about?

00:31:51.04
alexei sayle
James Schneider.

00:31:52.98
Talal K
James Schneider, not related to the B-52s singer, I'm assuming, Rob Schneider.

00:31:57.40
alexei sayle
No.

00:32:01.52
alexei sayle
I don't know.

00:32:01.54
Talal K
How, if you're in bed with the enemy, quite literally, like how does this work?

00:32:01.92
alexei sayle
Well, yeah, I mean, it's an interesting... Yeah. I think that... um I mean, it is its i mean it is it it is it does follow on from our debates about Grace Campbell.

00:32:15.68
alexei sayle
Can James Schneider... I mean, James Schneider talks a great game. I mean, I've seen him on nova but on the TV talking about how the new party has to be democratic and... you know, from the bottom up and all that stuff.

00:32:29.52
alexei sayle
And I don't, in all fairness, know he was co-founder. and I don't know if he was one of the kind of apologize and move on faction or not, you know, the ones who said, who you know, and which was absolutely true in Zaira Sultana's critique of Corbynism that they'd made a terrible mistake by apologizing to the you know, the Jewish, the Israel lobby.

00:32:51.99
alexei sayle
And, you know, I mean, and Chris Williamson, as I said before, i think Chris Williamson said to me that Labour MP was it ultimately expelled by a big supporter of Jeremy. um I mean, it' expelled by Jeremy, by the Party under Jeremy.

00:33:07.64
alexei sayle
But he said that John MacDonald would constantly say to him, just make this one apologize, and then that will draw a line under it. Just make that one apology, and then that will draw a line on it we under it. Sorry, I'll do that again.

00:33:21.80
Talal K
i again and even the bit before it.

00:33:22.14
alexei sayle
just my Just make... just make i was just asked if it wanted to me asked if I do a five lines in Michael Fassbender movie. It's probably just as well that I didn't. I said no because I get it wrong.

00:33:43.01
Talal K
that would have sick.

00:33:43.27
alexei sayle
John MacDonald would say to Chris Williamson, just make this one apology and then that will draw a line under it And we can move on.

00:33:54.34
alexei sayle
And if he made that apology, of course, it didn't draw a line under it. It just inflamed the Israel lobby to demand more and more apologies.

00:33:59.64
Talal K
Yep.

00:34:02.73
alexei sayle
And, there were and you know, they would never.

00:34:03.04
Talal K
Yep.

00:34:05.64
alexei sayle
As we know, they will never take yes for an answer.

00:34:08.30
Talal K
Because we know what their mission was from the beginning, like...

00:34:10.42
alexei sayle
Yeah, and so if James Schneider is associated with that aspect of Corbynism, then I think that is very problematic. ah I mean, the fact that I think his wife works for Starmer, I don't know. i mean, what you talk about you know of a over dinner?

00:34:31.69
Talal K
Yeah.

00:34:31.72
alexei sayle
Hello, darling, your boss betrayed the working class and the Palestinian people again brilliantly this afternoon. I don't know. Again, James, if you're listening, well, he probably don't might listen to the show.

00:34:45.80
alexei sayle
and Email in. Come on. Talk about it. and but I mean, he's very i means a very um compelling performer when I've seen him on the TV. I mean, Momentum also, I mean, ah in the end, turned out to be problematic. I think he was co-founder of Momentum or co-leader of Momentum.

00:35:01.97
alexei sayle
Momentum was, you know, was led by John Lansman, who now is in the Jewish Labour movement, which is pro-settler, pro-apartheid, pro-ethnic cleansing, pro-genocide.

00:35:13.21
alexei sayle
And so but he was a kind of ah a viper at the heart of the... could be seen as a viper at the heart of Corbynism, really. Yeah.

00:35:23.92
Talal K
I just love how that was that list that there was a damning list of people working in the your party that was leaked by David Miller and

00:35:32.73
alexei sayle
Oh, right.

00:35:33.55
Talal K
and um I just love how ah you were there with me when we were at that studio in West London.

00:35:41.00
alexei sayle
Right.

00:35:41.14
Talal K
And there were these people trying to get you and and others to sign a petition on behalf of George Galloway and David Miller asking Corbyn and Sultana to allow them to be involved in your party.

00:35:46.69
alexei sayle
Yes. Yes.

00:35:50.21
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:35:56.66
Talal K
It was like, why haven't you invited us?

00:35:57.59
alexei sayle
and Wasn't it more that they were to condemn Jeremy for something or other? I can't remember what it was now.

00:36:01.73
Talal K
No, that first petition was, please invite us to the table. We want to get involved.

00:36:05.74
alexei sayle
Right. Okay.

00:36:07.81
Talal K
And after being ignored, a a month later, David Miller leaked to that list because they were obviously a bit butthurt about not being let into the party when they are they are like kind of the uglier voices on the left and

00:36:14.56
alexei sayle
Right, right. Well, yeah.

00:36:21.48
alexei sayle
People... so I mean, I... They can be... Yeah, i mean, people always... I supported David Miller. I mean, but and I don't, but people, even somebody like Tony Greenstein says that he's, he can be anti-Semitic really.

00:36:36.64
Talal K
He is. It's great he won the court case.

00:36:37.61
alexei sayle
He is, is he?

00:36:39.38
Talal K
that was ah That was nothing to do with antisemitism.

00:36:39.38
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:36:41.42
Talal K
That was to do with a conflation of Zionism and and Judaism.

00:36:41.86
alexei sayle
Yeah. ah checked it. Yeah.

00:36:45.73
Talal K
ah that That was a great court case that he won.

00:36:48.38
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:36:48.73
Talal K
ah But he has... I have on good authority that he has crossed the line.

00:36:50.96
alexei sayle
He's crossed the line since.

00:36:52.91
Talal K
He is antisemitic, full stop. And George Galloway, my opinion, homophobe, sexist, misogynist... ah

00:37:00.67
alexei sayle
Not anti-semite, though. Fair play. a lot of the people around him. He's always had a lot of Jews around him.

00:37:05.83
Talal K
Not vocally. Yeah, I've not seen that. But there's enough, you know, his Christian values ah lead his policy more than his humanity, you know.

00:37:12.83
alexei sayle
yes sir He's an odd fish. He's an odd fish.

00:37:16.26
Talal K
And it's very old-fashioned Christian values that he follows.

00:37:18.98
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:37:19.46
Talal K
and And he's not a nice fella.

00:37:22.02
alexei sayle
George Galloway, if you want to email into the program, them...

00:37:24.43
Talal K
I'm not having him on this show. I'm going to veto that.

00:37:29.32
alexei sayle
David Miller, if you want to email in.

00:37:32.22
Talal K
ah Ah.

00:37:32.90
alexei sayle
Tony Greenstein.

00:37:36.64
alexei sayle
ah

00:37:37.30
Talal K
honey, old love.

00:37:37.66
alexei sayle
Tiger Woods, if you want to email in.

00:37:42.78
alexei sayle
ah Alicia Keys, if you'd like to email into the show.

00:37:47.65
Talal K
Yeah.

00:37:48.16
alexei sayle
And come on.

00:37:48.97
Talal K
What do you mean where dreams are made from? That doesn't make sense, that sentence, Alicia Keys.

00:37:53.42
alexei sayle
No, great song. In New York.

00:37:58.07
Talal K
I have an email to read to you, Lex.

00:37:59.94
alexei sayle
Robert De Niro, if you want to email into the show, come on, tell us about your views. Cab Calloway, nineteen thirty is

00:38:08.72
Talal K
Oh.

00:38:10.21
alexei sayle
um

00:38:11.14
Talal K
I had a had a had a high.

00:38:11.99
alexei sayle
musical ah um music, ah you want to if you want to email in to the show. Napoleon III of France, if you want to email into the show.

00:38:21.38
Talal K
hmm.

00:38:22.17
alexei sayle
ah Queen of... don't know.

00:38:25.02
Talal K
Be good to get St George on to get the stories, get the story from him.

00:38:26.59
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, let's get St. George on.

00:38:30.00
Talal K
See where he stands on all this.

00:38:30.01
alexei sayle
H.G. Wells. H.G. Wells, I know, is a big fan of the show.

00:38:35.73
Talal K
Jules Verne.

00:38:37.19
alexei sayle
Jules Verne, Jules Holland.

00:38:39.25
Talal K
so Have them but the all the jewels.

00:38:40.78
alexei sayle
All the Juleses. Julie Driscoll. From the 60s or 70s. All the Juleses. Julian Schnabel.

00:38:51.30
Talal K
Get both Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali on.

00:38:51.33
alexei sayle
Julian Sands. I know he's dead, isn't he?

00:38:57.70
alexei sayle
Yeah, you never see them together, do you? I'm

00:38:59.92
Talal K
No, you don't.

00:39:03.16
alexei sayle
sorry, what were you going to say? i

00:39:04.52
Talal K
I have an email to read you.

00:39:06.45
alexei sayle
Yeah, okay.

00:39:07.39
Talal K
ah feel free to interrupt to any point when you have interjections. Hi Talal, great fan of the pod, please keep them coming. I'm a friend, this is from Robert, I'm a friend of the old school comic John Dowie and your young comic, older comic relationship with Alexei reminds me of ours sometimes.

00:39:23.19
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:39:31.27
Talal K
Always makes me laugh as well as being pals. I also published John Dowie's new memoir, Before I Go.

00:39:37.96
alexei sayle
All right.

00:39:39.95
Talal K
is often... but you got something to add?

00:39:42.07
alexei sayle
No, no, well, you can finish

00:39:45.00
Talal K
Okay, feel free to try. It's often claimed, not by Dowie himself, but by comedy historians, that Dowie was the first alternative comedian two years before Alexei.

00:39:56.91
Talal K
They are connected by Tony Allen. as well as Alexei's partner, Linda, I think.

00:40:03.48
alexei sayle
um I don't know what Lin's got to do with it, but um yeah, no, I think that's the reason.

00:40:05.81
Talal K
Okay.

00:40:07.69
alexei sayle
I mean, I always, obviously, obviously, I always claimed to have invented everything myself, but yes, John Dowie. mean, i always felt sorry for John Dowie because he, you know, it's right place, right time.

00:40:20.30
alexei sayle
he was too i when i was with tripney theater the brechtian cabaret troop that spawned my stand-up me and cliff cocker the director and bill the other performer we went to see uh john dowie at the bush theater in shepherd's bush and yeah it had a tremendous effect on me i thought i thought i've never seen anybody doing what he does and he he um he uh he really It did it spark... it may I mean, you know, who knows? where yeah It did spark in me, possibly, the the impetus to to to to to do stand-up, really.

00:41:04.48
alexei sayle
um And so that show, yeah, which was yeah i mean, I think that's perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, he just he was kind of... He was two years too early, and I went for a drink with him. couldn There was a...

00:41:18.70
Talal K
Put yourself in the middle of the screen there, Alexei.

00:41:19.04
alexei sayle
ah there Sorry, I know, i thought it looks casual and relaxed. but um

00:41:22.99
Talal K
Very casual, relaxed, but your face would have been covered for by my little box there if you're a Patreon.

00:41:28.17
alexei sayle
All right, okay.

00:41:28.88
Talal K
If you're a Patreon viewer watching the video podcast.

00:41:31.30
alexei sayle
Being shortchanged.

00:41:32.89
Talal K
So he was two years too early, you think?

00:41:33.31
alexei sayle
ah Yeah, we went there was a review, I remember, there was review in New Musical Express of a John Dowie concert or something, and it said, you know, John Dowie's really funny, but in a world with Alexi Sale in it, he seems irrelevant and kind of pointless, really.

00:41:47.91
Talal K
Oh, shit.

00:41:49.10
alexei sayle
And so and just after that, he came to the comedy store, i think, and we went for a drink in this old actors' club called MacReady's in Covent Garden. And I said, you know, to him, you know, ah you were a tremendous inspiration to me. And he said, well, no, this sounds very vain. He said something like, yeah, but I can see what the what the review meant, really, because

00:42:14.91
alexei sayle
What he didn't really have was attack. You know, he didn't. That kind of... That first iteration of me was so striking, partly because of just the extraordinary aggression towards the audience, which nobody had ever done before, and, fit you know, fitted in with the but the zeitgeist, really, you know, perfectly. So he he understood...

00:42:37.44
alexei sayle
that, you know, he he didn't quite fit in. But, yeah, no, he was absolutely, I mean, when I, you know, when I claim to have started everything and invented everything, it's partly a joke, part partly true.

00:42:52.29
Talal K
Well, maybe not to belittle his his work, but he he was an ingredient to make what what you what you created there.

00:42:55.08
alexei sayle
Now,

00:42:58.17
alexei sayle
yeah, yeah, I don't know where Linda comes into it. I mean, I don't know, or Tony Allen, for that matter.

00:43:01.69
Talal K
Oh, I've got a delivery.

00:43:03.48
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:43:04.48
Talal K
One second. Maybe move your camera to make yourself more central, because I know you're trying to talk into the mic there. right back. hello.

00:43:14.43
Talal K
I'll be back.

00:44:33.90
alexei sayle
What is it? Wig.

00:44:36.73
Talal K
Sorry, she made me run downstairs.

00:44:40.29
alexei sayle
Fuck.

00:44:42.64
Talal K
She made me run downstairs. She had a lot of packages.

00:44:45.35
alexei sayle
She made me run down, sings, and she made me run down, says, new song from Guy Garvey and Elbow.

00:44:55.30
Talal K
She made me run downstairs just to say goodbye.

00:44:56.91
alexei sayle
Actually,

00:45:03.41
Talal K
ah

00:45:04.91
alexei sayle
ah i was I couldn't find it, but I know i got that the the bit I did on Sandwich Bar, which can't believe went out this year, when I did it talking about Radio 6 listeners. you know, um I'm making a vegetable sannion and then later on we're going to see the prostate cancers at the old leather dildo factory in Burton on the water.

00:45:15.96
Talal K
Cooking a vegetable lasagna.

00:45:27.52
alexei sayle
Um, I know he played an excerpt from that. Um, but they wouldn't let him say leather dildo, I think on six music. And so they had to come out before then, but I had to sort of vague listen to his shows.

00:45:38.52
alexei sayle
I mean, I like drag Harvey's show on six music. Um,

00:45:42.62
Talal K
Oh, he played an excerpt of it. Oh, wow.

00:45:44.19
alexei sayle
He played an excerpt of that, but I've looked been looking for it and haven't been able to find it really because I would like to. course, years ago, I worked with his missus, Rachel Sterling, on Diana Riggs' daughter on Tipping the Velvet when I played theatre impresario Charles Fatty Frobisher.

00:45:57.68
Talal K
Oh.

00:46:04.67
Talal K
Um. Can I, I'll continue this email, shall Uh. ah

00:46:09.85
alexei sayle
Oh, just to say, the other star of Tipping the Velvet, I think, Keely Hawes, she was in this thing which got a good review preview in there and The Guardian, but it horrible. It was that same fucking story, which, again, I satirised in...

00:46:24.87
alexei sayle
the series, the sandwich bar about, you know, she's a retired hit woman living in an island in Greece.

00:46:30.78
Talal K
Was it the assassin?

00:46:32.14
alexei sayle
Yeah, I think it was so, but it was horrible because they, I know they're not, it's not real, but if you kill, if you depict people being killed and theyre like everybody at a wedding more or less that she's at is killed, it's just kind of horrible. And,

00:46:48.60
alexei sayle
I know there was a series, I can't remember where it was, a recent series where they very much said, we're not going to do that because, um you know, that is it.

00:46:48.87
Talal K
Hmm.

00:46:57.02
alexei sayle
And it was it was vile. I mean, it was dull. I mean, it was a bad idea anyway. But, I mean, um ah with just all the killing that went on in it was just repulsive.

00:47:12.44
alexei sayle
Anyway, sorry.

00:47:12.46
Talal K
It can get a bit much sometimes, doesn't it?

00:47:13.06
alexei sayle
Well, definitely, yeah.

00:47:15.86
Talal K
It's a fine line when you're film making films about... you know Because obviously, you know assassins and hitmen and blah, blah. It's a very sexy kind of... and Spies and that. It can be very sexy and stylish.

00:47:28.72
Talal K
But the the dealing with killing...

00:47:33.65
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, it's having, yeah.

00:47:33.99
Talal K
you know it's it's It's got to be done. Either it's got to be like cartoony and unrealistic, which makes you...

00:47:39.66
alexei sayle
Even then, I find it obnoxious, but yeah.

00:47:40.42
Talal K
even Yeah, but I mean, historically speaking, like, let's say the difference between old school James Bond and the more modern James Bonds, when there's a bit more weight when Daniel Craig killed someone because, and then you see in his face, like, oh, this this is going to traumatize me, you know, that I had to kill this person.

00:47:48.18
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:47:52.93
alexei sayle
o

00:47:57.46
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah.

00:47:59.46
Talal K
Whereas, you know, in the old school ones, Roger Moore would like snap someone's neck and then make ah make a pun about it, you know.

00:48:02.31
alexei sayle
Just often, yeah. Yes.

00:48:06.19
Talal K
ah There was a... I think the delivery of the killings matters. So like how in the assassin, so like what everyone at this wedding gets killed and is it.

00:48:12.23
alexei sayle
Mmm.

00:48:14.97
alexei sayle
Yeah, just everybody, you know, there's all these innocent civilians, and are just it really was upsetting. It was horrible.

00:48:22.90
Talal K
And did they address it? And did they say this is upsetting or is did she brush it off?

00:48:25.74
alexei sayle
No, it's just right so I stopped watching it. you know I mean, that's one of the things about... you know You can get your revenge now, can't you, on the show business? Because they know the exact minute when you stop, the exact second when you stop watching series.

00:48:40.87
Talal K
Yeah.

00:48:42.40
alexei sayle
You know, when you got this one... well it was it was so it was all Australian actors or New Zealand actors playing Americans.

00:48:45.37
Talal K
Yeah.

00:48:50.02
alexei sayle
It was... Brian Banner and Sam Neill. And it was an interesting idea. He was a kind of a cop, but in Yellowstone Park. and kind of mate And it was like just some NAFO story about a mysterious death and blah, blah, blah, which turns out to be linked to some meth ring operating in Yellowstone Park.

00:49:11.55
Talal K
You mean Eric Banner?

00:49:13.06
alexei sayle
Eric Banner, sorry, yeah. What did I say?

00:49:15.97
Talal K
ah Brian Banner.

00:49:17.22
alexei sayle
don't know who the hell that is. Eric Banner.

00:49:18.56
Talal K
and Untamed. Untamed.

00:49:20.44
alexei sayle
Untamed, yeah. And I got really quite near the end with that, but Netflix will know at the precise moment when I went, oh, fuck, I can't be, you know. ah The explanation for this is going to... And he's troubled cop. He's got ex-wife.

00:49:35.74
alexei sayle
Kids died as well, which is another another bloody, empty, you know, meaningless, um you know, kind of piece of writing.

00:49:47.18
Talal K
I like Eric Banner.

00:49:48.91
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:49:49.41
Talal K
He was my favorite Hulk.

00:49:52.05
alexei sayle
And I wish to be, should like, who's the Hulk though who's is very good on Palestine, not James Franco. It's Mark Ruffalo.

00:49:58.96
Talal K
Oh, Mark Ruffalo. No, he's my favorite Hulk. Yes, of course.

00:50:00.83
alexei sayle
So we should like, he should just, just I think, you know, he should be your favourite Hulk because of Ruffalo.

00:50:02.32
Talal K
Yes, sorry.

00:50:05.18
Talal K
Fucking love him. I love him. He's my favorite Hulk. Mark Ruffalo all the way. He's actually my favorite.

00:50:10.24
alexei sayle
Hmm.

00:50:10.88
Talal K
I love him. He's one of my favorite actors.

00:50:13.06
alexei sayle
Hmm.

00:50:13.37
Talal K
um My brother, me and my brother often and debate. This is just me my brother often debate who's better, him or Benicio del Toro. And I'm team Ruffalo. and My brother likes del Toro.

00:50:24.88
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:50:26.53
Talal K
But yeah, I thought Ang Lee's Hulk was was quite underrated. um

00:50:30.68
alexei sayle
That's with Eric Banner, is it?

00:50:31.87
Talal K
Yeah. um He fights some hulk poodle hulks.

00:50:33.97
alexei sayle
I don't care.

00:50:37.32
Talal K
Three poodles turn into hulks and they fight him. um Can I finish this email?

00:50:41.55
alexei sayle
absolutely don't care. Yes, go on.

00:50:46.60
Talal K
right. My view is that Dowie inspired Tony Allen and Tony Allen inspired Alexei. This is Robert's view. But Alexei was probably the first true example. Dowie and Alexei are old friends, and I wonder if you'd have Dowie on the show to battle it out whilst plugging Dowie's new book.

00:51:03.77
alexei sayle
Yeah, I've got no objections to having John Dowry.

00:51:03.87
Talal K
They're very... Hmm.

00:51:05.97
alexei sayle
I mean, he's got the timeline wrong there because me and Tony were synchronous, really. we didn't ah Tony didn't influence me at all. we were We were appearing at the week evolved at the same time.

00:51:18.73
alexei sayle
mean, I was very fond of Tony. He was a difficult man, but, you know, I kind of loved Tony, but he didn't really have an effect on me as a performer.

00:51:29.56
Talal K
um robert's a very small publisher doesn't use social media or amazon because he's a moral idiot salute to you so they need boosts of publicity where possible so yeah maybe uh see what alexi thinks would he do an episode with john dowie and talk comedy history and a little bit of politics much love and justice to palestine from another lefty jew robert w um

00:51:43.90
alexei sayle
yeah Sure.

00:51:48.14
alexei sayle
Sure.

00:51:56.71
alexei sayle
Sure. Is

00:51:57.42
Talal K
Great. All right, Robert, you heard Alexi's answer. Let's make it happen. Send me the next steps. Let's make this happen. Right. That was my email portion of the show.

00:52:08.36
alexei sayle
that it?

00:52:09.62
Talal K
That was the email. Yeah.

00:52:12.62
alexei sayle
Um...

00:52:12.91
Talal K
Some fun interjections there. Yeah, go on.

00:52:15.50
alexei sayle
We've got nothing else to talk about then, haven't we?

00:52:17.34
Talal K
I've got, I've got, I've got, I've got stuff. Don't worry. I've got questions from, uh,

00:52:20.88
alexei sayle
Probably done. It's on nearly an hour.

00:52:23.64
Talal K
From the Patreon.

00:52:25.15
alexei sayle
Yeah, go on.

00:52:25.80
Talal K
loved If you want to support the show, please.

00:52:28.16
alexei sayle
Are we going to watch Battle of Algiers? All right.

00:52:29.91
Talal K
Yes, we'll come to that.

00:52:35.45
Talal K
Mark asks on the Patreon, ah speaking of terrible movies, does Alexei have any memories of a crap one he made? Oh, Mark, watch your tongue. Alexei can criticise his films, not you.

00:52:47.72
Talal K
A crap one he made in 20... A brilliant one he made 2017...

00:52:53.16
Talal K
entitls glo entitled gloves off

00:52:54.31
alexei sayle
Gloves off. Yes. No, Mark's right. It was crap. ah Yeah, no, that was... so I was thinking about that, just thinking about gloves off.

00:53:06.89
alexei sayle
Where do you start with gloves off, really? I don't know if I've got the time to...

00:53:13.39
Talal K
the fuck is gloves off Denise Van Alten

00:53:13.74
alexei sayle
Maybe we could devote her. We are doing Denise Van Outen, Ricky Tomlinson, Paul Barber...

00:53:24.17
Talal K
Brad Moore.

00:53:25.50
alexei sayle
Brad Moore, who, yes, financed the film, really.

00:53:27.50
Talal K
Matt Barber.

00:53:28.88
alexei sayle
No,

00:53:32.28
Talal K
5.3 out of 10. 71% on Google reviews. Doug, an ex-boxer, finds his life in a mess when he is burdened by debt. However, everything changes after he decides to train a gentle giant.

00:53:45.55
Talal K
Is that you? For a bare-knuckle championship.

00:53:47.53
alexei sayle
I can't remember who the hell that is.

00:53:51.26
alexei sayle
um There's my part. I'm an alcoholic accountant who miraculously... um have a drink and that sobers me up. Because famously, of course, alcoholics having another drink, that's what makes them sharpen up and get their act together.

00:54:11.54
alexei sayle
Particularly, i love the nice time.

00:54:12.80
Talal K
I suppose.

00:54:14.50
alexei sayle
was it was it was Yeah, it was, so it wasn't a great, I think that might have been the last film I ever did, actually, I think. We probably did it and we made it in Leeds, I think.

00:54:27.93
alexei sayle
As in Leeds.

00:54:28.23
Talal K
It's a red flag when they make it hard to find who the director is.

00:54:33.00
alexei sayle
Well, it was this guy, Brad, who was, he'd sort of, he'd been in a some of those sort of, you those films are about football hooligans. I don't know if they're still popular, really.

00:54:43.74
Talal K
Yeah.

00:54:44.14
alexei sayle
Or there's a whole film.

00:54:44.89
Talal K
No, directed by Stephen Nesbitt. Sorry to interrupt.

00:54:47.58
alexei sayle
I don't know who that was. You know, there's a whole slew of films. You know, those four guys who were found shot dead in a Range Rover in a field in Essex about 20 years ago.

00:54:57.85
Talal K
No.

00:54:57.88
alexei sayle
There's like about 500 cheaply shot on video films about Essex Boys or Revenge of the Essex Boys, Return of the Essex Boys.

00:55:05.96
Talal K
Yeah.

00:55:07.66
alexei sayle
I think he'd been in that sort of film or sub Guy Ritchie films and then he decided to finance he yet had been in a boxer i think he decided to finance this movie and it didn't he wasn't a good enough actor to be honest really he couldn't really carry it um

00:55:23.18
Talal K
Right. Oh, so he wrote it and starred in it.

00:55:28.10
alexei sayle
yeah which is always a mistake you know unless you would yell and even that turned out to be a mistake in the end but yes gloves off i've been thinking

00:55:32.09
Talal K
Oh, God.

00:55:38.68
Talal K
um Any fun memories on set? What's Denise Van Outen like?

00:55:43.62
alexei sayle
Ricky, she's very nice. I mean, I knew her partly from the old Big Breakfast days.

00:55:48.51
Talal K
Big breakfast?

00:55:50.37
alexei sayle
Yeah, so, you know, were and Ricky Tomlinson.

00:55:50.82
Talal K
Yeah.

00:55:54.16
alexei sayle
Ricky Tomlinson is always, you know, i mean, he always holds court, really. as You know, he's ah he's a chatty fellow, Ricky. But, you know, good value.

00:56:05.87
alexei sayle
Paul Barber's very nice, in fact. and And then I used him later in there. He starred in a radio play that I did for Radio 4.

00:56:15.13
alexei sayle
um

00:56:15.25
Talal K
and

00:56:16.05
alexei sayle
he Yeah. and Yeah, it was fine. Everybody's very nice and it was, you know.

00:56:23.49
Talal K
Well, Mark continues, not all your movies are bad. He has a lovely performance in the very sweet Sometimes, Always, Never in 2018. That's the year after Gloves Off.

00:56:32.91
alexei sayle
What the hell is that? What the fuck is that?

00:56:36.96
Talal K
A character who could be a live action version of Teddy the Handyman from Bob's Burgers. Sometimes, Always, Never. What, this isn't ringing a bell to you?

00:56:46.22
alexei sayle
No, that's somebody else. Maybe it's Ahmed.

00:56:51.40
Talal K
With Bill Nye.

00:56:53.60
alexei sayle
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah

00:56:55.71
Talal K
Tim McAnary. Yeah, you're in this.

00:56:57.02
alexei sayle
Yeah, I know. But it was written by my friend.

00:56:59.00
Talal K
Maybe it's Omid. You even confused yourself for Omid.

00:57:03.02
alexei sayle
it It was it just, it was ah ah me being, a it's written by my friend, Frank Cottrell Boyce. And I think I said to him in the end, yeah, if you can get me a part that I can do in a day.

00:57:09.53
Talal K
Yep.

00:57:15.17
alexei sayle
I'll do it, really.

00:57:15.49
Talal K
Ugh.

00:57:16.46
alexei sayle
and ah yeah, no, it's an i mean it's a lovely film. And actually, Tim McInerney gives really great performance in it, a performance of great depth.

00:57:25.36
Talal K
I love him.

00:57:26.37
alexei sayle
and And Tim was so annoyed because, you know, like yeah you know like a single a card, you know, like a single card. I think it's called a card, which is at the opening and credits, your name just appears on the screen by itself.

00:57:38.85
Talal K
Oh, yeah.

00:57:40.08
alexei sayle
And so I'd got, for my one day, Tim had been on this film for weeks. turning in a ah performance. And I, we both got like a single card. So it goes I mean, who else is in it? I can't remember. Bill Nighy.

00:57:54.27
alexei sayle
It's Sam Riley, isn't it?

00:57:55.44
Talal K
Jenny Agata Lut.

00:57:56.65
alexei sayle
Jenny Agata. So we all, our names come up like Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Jenny Agata, Tim McInerney, Alexi Saylor. Tim was going fucking mad. He said, you're only on the film for a fucking day.

00:58:08.37
alexei sayle
And you get a card.

00:58:09.87
Talal K
Yeah, fair.

00:58:10.67
alexei sayle
I said, well, you change your agent, mate.

00:58:14.77
Talal K
Good point.

00:58:14.82
alexei sayle
I said,

00:58:18.46
Talal K
And like the...

00:58:18.56
alexei sayle
ah But yes, it's a it's a very nice film. It's about the sort of um the the healing qualities of Scrabble.

00:58:26.04
Talal K
Yeah, I was about to say the logo is made out of Scrabble tiles.

00:58:28.65
alexei sayle
Yeah, no, it's a really nice film. and Very sweet, very very frank, really. um Yeah, no, I am good in that, really, but it's only...

00:58:38.46
Talal K
Oh, that's one to watch then.

00:58:39.85
alexei sayle
was only on it for a day, yeah.

00:58:41.62
Talal K
Directed by Carl Hunter, released in 2019, 14th of June in the UK.

00:58:46.47
alexei sayle
Carl Hunter, also a friend of mine.

00:58:49.04
Talal K
Do you play Scrabble? You're good at Scrabble?

00:58:51.82
alexei sayle
No.

00:58:52.74
Talal K
Okay. Alright, so Alexei hinted at it. We're going to watch Battle for Algiers 1966 movie.

00:59:05.90
Talal K
Oh, it's a documentary.

00:59:08.03
alexei sayle
It's not a documentary. short its kind of it's It's a is it is it director, Ponte Corvo. It's filmed in a kind of Italian new wave style.

00:59:16.44
Talal K
Yes. Oh yeah, it's an Italian neorealism style.

00:59:19.98
alexei sayle
near Neorealism, yeah.

00:59:21.77
Talal K
um

00:59:22.77
alexei sayle
But it's not it's very much not a documentary, although it is very realistic.

00:59:23.03
Talal K
It's

00:59:25.83
Talal K
yeah Yeah, Google described it as a documentary. it's definitely not that. um

00:59:29.77
alexei sayle
No, Google.

00:59:30.52
Talal K
Looks fucking sick. There is a YouTube. You can watch it on YouTube, folks. It's an hour and 11 minutes long. ah And it's completely free to watch with the with English subtitles on YouTube.

00:59:42.82
alexei sayle
It's not long, is it?

00:59:47.80
Talal K
That's great.

00:59:48.15
alexei sayle
Hmm.

00:59:48.99
Talal K
ah We're going to watch it for next week's episode and we're going chat about it.

00:59:51.97
alexei sayle
Yalla, yes?

00:59:55.04
Talal K
and Any pre-thoughts, any predictions, any anything you want people to look out for or think about?

01:00:01.55
alexei sayle
What? No, it's a long time since I've seen it, really. I mean, but it's... I mean, it's about... Well, I mean, I don't know if people will need historical context, but it's obviously about the attempts of the FNL...

01:00:19.98
alexei sayle
and to the Algerians, the Algerian nationalists to free themselves from the yoke of French colonialism and the bloody um kind of French fight back really.

01:00:21.99
Talal K
The French.

01:00:35.99
Talal K
Hmm. What does FNL sound for?

01:00:38.54
alexei sayle
yeah I think it's FNL, or in French, yeah, Front National SNL.

01:00:40.99
Talal K
Faturday Night Live. Oh, Front National, yeah.

01:00:45.51
alexei sayle
n NFL, you know, National Front Liberation. FNL, Front National Liberation, I think.

01:00:52.27
Talal K
um this is about Algerian uprising. I, interestingly enough, my cousin just had her film.

01:00:56.78
alexei sayle
Hmm.

01:01:00.11
Talal K
She made a documentary ah premiered at the Venice film festival and it's called my father and Gaddafi. And it's a bit about the Libyan, Libyan history of, of colonialization and dictatorship, but also her father, my uncle,

01:01:14.73
alexei sayle
Yeah.

01:01:17.52
Talal K
was kidnapped and eventually murdered by uh gaddafi and she spent yeah nine years making this documentary telling that story through the lens of libyan history and how it affects a family and trauma and stuff like that and uh

01:01:26.40
alexei sayle
Meh.

01:01:34.97
alexei sayle
I mean, is it is a, I mean, is it is a great, I mean, history goes on, I suppose, but is it is a tremendous, you know, disappointment the way, you know, those initial leaders of liberation struggles, you know, across the Middle East, particularly turned, and Africa as well, turned into despots themselves, really.

01:01:47.68
Talal K
Oh, yes.

01:01:53.71
Talal K
Yes.

01:01:54.90
alexei sayle
I mean, and it's, you know, we really need to book that trend, I think, you know,

01:01:59.01
Talal K
Yes.

01:02:00.83
alexei sayle
ah and I mean, and Algeria is i mean it's a very repressive country now. Partly, I would say, because the collective trauma of the liberation struggle would be my guess. but

01:02:15.63
alexei sayle
but know i mean I mean, some people are kind of like, at least Gaddafi spread the oil wealth around and he was very good on women's empowerment and what have you.

01:02:28.40
Talal K
That's just so he could justify having a harem. um No.

01:02:32.53
alexei sayle
Yes, probably.

01:02:33.93
Talal K
ah Yeah, but...

01:02:36.18
alexei sayle
better than um mean I guess he was better than who's there now, but then on the other hand, you know that his failures are what leads to the chaos of who's there.

01:02:43.67
Talal K
Well, yes.

01:02:45.63
alexei sayle
You can't keep a lid on those tensions, I think, by repression and force.

01:02:47.96
Talal K
Even...

01:02:51.03
Talal K
Even Gaddafi's opposition are now yearning for the days when they had Gaddafi. What do they say? Because back then we had one tyrant and now we have a thousand because Libya is just split into these gang lands, you know.

01:03:02.79
alexei sayle
Yeah, as per. Yeah, ah which is what Israel wants, of course.

01:03:08.54
Talal K
Yes.

01:03:09.82
alexei sayle
And the United States.

01:03:10.22
Talal K
um And yes, you can blame a lot of outside ah influence for for these outcomes in the Middle East and Africa. you know All eyes on ah Burkina Faso president, Ibrahim Traore.

01:03:29.72
Talal K
Traore.

01:03:30.83
alexei sayle
Ibrahim Traore. Yeah, although I saw in the Guardians there, if it's true, that they they've outlawed homosexuality in Kina Faso, which is ah kind of put paid to that hero worship.

01:03:33.06
Talal K
praori

01:03:38.03
Talal K
Oh, well, there goes That's just the sign. That is this this fucking world in a goddamn nutshell right there, man.

01:03:53.90
Talal K
Jesus Christ.

01:03:57.74
alexei sayle
Assuming on what the Guardian says is true, of course.

01:04:02.65
alexei sayle
All right. All right. We're going to end it there.

01:04:07.42
Talal K
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going to dig up that clip of Jeremy meeting Wilf. And I might whack it on at the end of this episode.

01:04:11.78
alexei sayle
Ah, yeah.

01:04:13.97
Talal K
What do you think of that?

01:04:14.14
alexei sayle
ah yeah we were You were going to do all the times we've interrupted me, wait but that's probably quite a big job, really.

01:04:19.17
Talal K
I'll see how far I get with that.

01:04:20.38
alexei sayle
Yeah. All right. Thank you. That's a lovely thought.

01:04:22.48
Talal K
So let's throw to Wilf and much love to him and all of our furry friends who are no longer with us.

01:04:24.76
alexei sayle
Yeah. Bye-bye, Will.

01:04:28.87
alexei sayle
Yeah.

01:04:30.13
Talal K
um

01:04:32.14
alexei sayle
maal

01:04:34.58
Talal K
Bye bye.

01:04:35.60
alexei sayle
Bye. Bye.