00:00:01.10
Talal K
106 bring it bring the noise bring the pain bring the energy let's go

00:00:08.03
alexei sayle
All right.

00:00:10.69
Talal K
rolling

00:00:13.53
alexei sayle
Everybody, welcome to episode 106 of the Alexi Selle podcast. We had, um I think, one of our most popular popular podcasts in a while with the Paul Holden interview, the author of The Fraud, the rise about all the rise of Keir Starmer and his actions.

00:00:36.16
alexei sayle
Uh, I think I'm going to be doing a live event with Paul and, um, Andrew Feinstein on the 10th of, uh, in Birmingham.

00:00:37.27
Talal K
e

00:00:51.13
alexei sayle
They often, they often, yeah, I haven't, haven't confirmed it yet.

00:00:51.15
Talal K
okay. I'll put a link to that in the in the show notes in the description.

00:00:56.43
alexei sayle
should email them back. Um, uh, they did offer me the ninth, uh, in Liverpool, which would have been nice, but that's the BBC. That day is the BBC. the bbc but BBC Studios Audio Comedy Christmas Party.

00:01:20.45
alexei sayle
What used to be years ago, the BBC Radio 4 Christmas Party comedy.

00:01:20.79
Talal K
Oof.

00:01:26.26
alexei sayle
But I am now, you know, they used to get these grandees like... um Nicholas Parsons and my and you know Alan Corrin and that's me now. i'm So I will go to the BBC Studios Audio Radio 4 Christmas Party and sit in a chair and have young comedians come up and kiss my hand.

00:01:50.69
Talal K
Yes.

00:01:51.26
alexei sayle
am But i am i think I am the...

00:01:54.30
Talal K
And is it true that if any of them ask you for a favor on that particular day, you have to oblige?

00:01:54.46
alexei sayle
um matt doesn't

00:02:01.72
alexei sayle
um Yes, well, yeah, yeah but, you know yeah. um Up to a point, yeah. Yeah, but but that's, of course, some time, in that but you know, i would that I may come to them and ask them for a favour. But, um yeah, i am it's um I mean, in terms of, I mean, I'm not on Radio 4. mean, obviously, people like Paul Merton stuff, Mark Steele,

00:02:31.41
alexei sayle
A lot are all on um the the radio, Radio 4, more than I am, but I am the oldest, really. So I am now Nicholas Parsons or Barry Cryer.

00:02:45.69
alexei sayle
I mean, that whole generation is more or less completely gone. It's

00:02:50.94
Talal K
is it it Where do they hold it? What's the venue?

00:02:53.53
alexei sayle
it's just a theatre club, arts theatre club in central London.

00:02:57.88
Talal K
Don't give the exact details.

00:02:58.89
alexei sayle
and yeah Yeah, give the exact location away.

00:03:00.31
Talal K
I remember going to the Strictly Christmas party when I worked on Strictly all those years ago.

00:03:05.05
alexei sayle
All right.

00:03:06.03
Talal K
And I was just a runner slash logger on the show. and But we got invited to the party nonetheless. And we got to mingle with some of the celebs.

00:03:18.25
alexei sayle
It's very democratic, yeah?

00:03:19.16
Talal K
For some reason, a couple of the in-betweeners were there. Is that what it was called?

00:03:23.15
alexei sayle
All right.

00:03:23.75
Talal K
Those teenagers? Yeah.

00:03:26.01
alexei sayle
Was it in between us? I don't know.

00:03:28.22
Talal K
I think it was called that. God, was so long ago. And and Brucey, Bruce Forsyth, was very surprised that he held court for a moment, gave a nice toast to everyone and made sure

00:03:33.66
alexei sayle
All right.

00:03:41.88
alexei sayle
Yeah. and Andrew Marshall, of one of my ex, I used to write stuff with. They're very very fond of Bruce.

00:03:49.56
Talal K
he was so nice.

00:03:50.58
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:03:51.19
Talal K
And he made a point to thank everyone from like on every level. like you know He looked us in the eye when he thanked the loggers.

00:03:54.39
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:03:57.91
Talal K
um and he gave, and he like, come now when I'm done, come over and I've got a little treat for everyone, and everyone would like queue up, and he gave us little mirror ball key rings that said strictly come dancing on it, and it was a nice end to that gig, yeah, free booze and everything, it was in television center as well, you know, back when everything was,

00:04:09.68
alexei sayle
Huh.

00:04:12.22
alexei sayle
Very thoughtful. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course, the um the BBC TV Light Ends Christmas Party in there in the 80s used to be in in Jim Royer's office, or kind kind of conjoined offices, and then when David Lidderman took over, he had it in TC8, Studio 8, and that was very...

00:04:26.81
Talal K
bet that was big.

00:04:40.95
alexei sayle
was very zhuzhy, very fancy.

00:04:44.31
Talal K
Jim Moyer.

00:04:45.85
alexei sayle
Jim Boyer, not that one, the other one. The Jim Boyer was head of common.

00:04:47.36
Talal K
Yeah, isn't that also Reeves' real name?

00:04:49.88
alexei sayle
Yes, it is, yeah, yeah.

00:04:51.62
Talal K
Such a strange name and for two people to have it. um

00:04:57.43
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:04:58.11
Talal K
but And Vic Reeves probably got invited to his parties.

00:05:01.34
alexei sayle
I'm sure he did, yeah, yeah.

00:05:02.39
Talal K
Yeah.

00:05:02.50
alexei sayle
There was much, much debauchery. Um...

00:05:06.25
Talal K
Are those the parties where you said who was it from the young ones was like stealing the cutlery and the silverware and stuff?

00:05:13.02
alexei sayle
I think Adrian, I don't know, Adrian Stoller-Painton and Roland, I was saying, no, I don't know.

00:05:17.69
Talal K
painting oh come on who's mrs valdunican

00:05:19.18
alexei sayle
but Roland Rivron showed his knob to Mrs. Valdunican in the lift.

00:05:28.82
alexei sayle
You know, Valdunican, is that before you after your time, Valdunican? Val Doonican was an a kind of Irish entertainer. and used to wear chunky jumpers and sit in a rocking show, talk, sing and talk stuff.

00:05:42.06
Talal K
oh valdunican's a man

00:05:44.69
alexei sayle
Yeah, it was his wife. I don't know now.

00:05:46.93
Talal K
Oh, Mrs. Valdunican.

00:05:48.21
alexei sayle
Mrs. Val Doonican.

00:05:50.76
Talal K
Valdunican, Irish singer.

00:05:52.86
alexei sayle
Yeah, had his own series on BBC One for a long time.

00:05:55.49
Talal K
Big teeth.

00:05:57.30
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:05:57.50
Talal K
Michael Valentine Valdunican was an Irish singer of traditional pop, easy listening and novelty songs. Warm, relaxed vocal styles. And what he had is like, he had like a variety show or something.

00:06:08.12
alexei sayle
Yes, I did i show would have thought on BBC One.

00:06:08.44
Talal K
Bloody hell. Never heard of this person.

00:06:17.40
alexei sayle
Well...

00:06:20.73
alexei sayle
pray yeah the word of sowa and I don't know what you... I mean, you know, your parents probably would have had different tastes. anyway he was He was big with mainstream audiences when you would have been a teenager, I would have thought still.

00:06:35.19
alexei sayle
Never met a gentleman myself, but...

00:06:35.63
Talal K
It looks like he was in the seventh. Don't make assumptions about my parents' taste.

00:06:40.79
alexei sayle
Well, I just think they're... I'm not saying they've got superior taste. well they wouldn't I don't know. that they did that Were they big on mainstream TV shit?

00:06:52.25
Talal K
Well, my my... Well, yeah, my dad will always sat me down to watch Two Ronnies and...

00:07:03.75
Talal K
Dave, we've spoken about them so many times. Dave Allen and

00:07:10.52
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's slightly different.

00:07:11.25
Talal K
Fawlty Towers and

00:07:11.80
alexei sayle
that was a Yeah. Ronnie B and Ronnie C would always be at the late end Christmas party. robby so Ronnie C, there was an incident, which we but which was true, really. were i think I don't know whether it was quite when I was... there was these I used to live in this tower block, which has been a council tower block for 10 years on Dawes Road in Fulham.

00:07:36.70
alexei sayle
And opposite, it was a show business tailor called Major, where a lot of their stars get their clothes made.

00:07:45.31
Talal K
Oh.

00:07:45.61
alexei sayle
And I remember that...

00:07:46.00
Talal K
o

00:07:46.62
alexei sayle
um ah So I've been moved out in 84, so I probably wasn't. So i remember I was on my bicycle in Dawes Road and Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie C was in his purple Jaguar XJS and nearly hit me or, you know, we somehow just, I don't know. He was on his way to major, the tailor.

00:08:07.35
alexei sayle
And we had a, I remember he he just missed me or some, but we both remembered that and he would always, uh, apologize for I thought it was quite a good, you know, it kind of metaphor really.

00:08:21.37
alexei sayle
Also, you know, was on my kind of shitty bicycle and he was on his, in his purple XJS. um And, you know, I resolved one day that I i would be in in a purple XJS and I would drive into some young.

00:08:29.69
Talal K
Wow. Me.

00:08:37.43
alexei sayle
So now we have a, there's a ritual tradition now where I, drew In the 90s, I drove into Stuart Lee in a Purple XJS, and now Stuart drives into...

00:08:51.38
alexei sayle
Give me a younger comedian.

00:08:52.45
Talal K
me

00:08:53.72
alexei sayle
dr Yeah, Stuart drives into Talal Kokuti in a Purple XJS. It's become a tradition now. Every year, a senior comedian drives into a... a young comedian in Purple XJS.

00:09:06.26
alexei sayle
It's, you know, you have to, you all tradition is invented, isn't it, really?

00:09:07.84
Talal K
Wow.

00:09:11.21
alexei sayle
It's not, you know, it's just, you know, it's not not real.

00:09:12.23
Talal K
Yes.

00:09:14.67
alexei sayle
So, um yeah, but he used to apologise. We both thought it was, we both thought it was hilarious.

00:09:20.71
Talal K
Tell that to the

00:09:24.71
Talal K
the... Did you... Go on, you got any more Two Ronnie stories?

00:09:29.62
alexei sayle
No, not really. i was, um...

00:09:30.97
Talal K
No.

00:09:32.60
alexei sayle
I went to my publishers, I had showcase and I was chatting to a very nice woman afterwards. I can't remember her name, she's written a novel written a novel, working class woman. But I got a bit carried away with ah you that idea that yeah this that my proletarian roots, it's all an act really.

00:09:54.70
alexei sayle
then somehow I got on to Cilla Black and I told her about I was once in the Ivy and Scylla Black, actually with David Liddermont, came over and said hello.

00:10:07.13
alexei sayle
And i think I got a bit carried away really with that. And, you know, so yes yeah, that's really my life. This Marxism is all this, you know, pro-Palestinianism misssola is all the front.

00:10:18.87
Talal K
oh that's the act oh I thought being a part of the bourgeois was the act having a novel being a novelist and all that what's the syllabic but is there a syllabic anecdote

00:10:20.28
alexei sayle
Yeah, that's the act. Yeah.

00:10:25.59
alexei sayle
Well, that's i was I got a bit carried away with this improvisation, really. and i just

00:10:33.59
alexei sayle
Well, I just, I did. can't remember. how The reason she came over and said hello was because I'd done a show with her and I've got no, I know I did a show with her.

00:10:46.65
alexei sayle
But like a Christmas special or something. i've got no I can't imagine I did stand up on it. But don't know what the fuck it was that I did with her. I did so i thought i think I did something. Anyway, I'd met her somewhere.

00:10:59.54
alexei sayle
And I did show with her.

00:11:00.15
Talal K
No, you're both Scousers.

00:11:02.07
alexei sayle
Yeah, there's that as well. Yeah, but she was very right wing. i But she seemed very nice, you know. I can't remember what I'd done with her. It's bizarre...

00:11:13.50
Talal K
Was it Scylla's Goodbye to the eightyies TV movie, 1989.

00:11:13.59
alexei sayle
Oh, me, yeah.

00:11:17.78
alexei sayle
Yeah, it might have been, yeah.

00:11:19.92
Talal K
You're listed in the

00:11:23.20
Talal K
you're listed in the car in the car

00:11:26.01
alexei sayle
must be that then, yeah.

00:11:29.70
Talal K
Scylla's goodbye to the 80s, hard to see any real info about it. Meryl Streep's in it as well.

00:11:35.94
alexei sayle
I sort because I was the, you know, the first person to do what I do, I think, yeah, you can't see like Stuart Lee doing anything like that, really. Although, of course, we did talk about him hosting Top of the Pops back in. Did we get any response about that?

00:11:53.50
Talal K
About what, sorry?

00:11:54.77
alexei sayle
Where's Louise, you know, Stuart and Richard Herring hosting?

00:11:57.75
Talal K
No, it didn't. It didn't take off. i wanted Where's Louise to be the slogan of the left wing revolutionary thinkers.

00:12:00.22
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:12:04.65
Talal K
But I haven't heard it in the streets just yet.

00:12:07.47
alexei sayle
Didn't land.

00:12:07.53
Talal K
And also I've been I've been homebound for a week and a half. um um I'm getting better.

00:12:12.09
alexei sayle
There with

00:12:14.16
Talal K
Thanks for your messages. Yeah, I wasn't in the podcast last week because I'm not. I'm not well, but I'm getting better. um

00:12:21.49
alexei sayle
Don't get a river where it's sciatica, it's not.

00:12:21.52
Talal K
But no. Sciatica. Yeah. Very frustrating. and boring ailment and very painful. But where's Louise?

00:12:33.50
Talal K
I really thought that would take off. It was sounded fun in the moment.

00:12:35.13
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, i was...

00:12:37.02
Talal K
You know, sometimes it's just something that's big in the moment and then actually, why don't I check in?

00:12:37.59
alexei sayle
Yeah? Yeah. Anyway, that's some of the some of the random shit I did. I kind of...

00:12:46.85
Talal K
If anyone at home, any listeners know where Alexi and Scylla overlapped, please send us a message. We'll discuss it on a future episode.

00:12:56.60
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:12:58.29
Talal K
Um, cause I'd love to dig into that.

00:12:59.35
alexei sayle
Anyway, i got I don't know what the...

00:13:01.05
Talal K
Cause, uh, on Strictly, one of the production assistants or coordinators or someone higher up than me was Cilla Black's son.

00:13:09.92
alexei sayle
All right.

00:13:10.62
Talal K
On Strictly. And he, I would take orders from him. He had very red hair and he was very, very nice.

00:13:17.67
alexei sayle
That's good. That's good. Well, she did something right then.

00:13:20.99
Talal K
Yes. Um,

00:13:25.60
Talal K
I'm now reading the comments from the Where's Louise episode.

00:13:28.92
alexei sayle
Oh, yeah, go on. sure We could we could tip go to...

00:13:32.99
Talal K
Lots of people hate leaf blowers as much as us.

00:13:37.23
alexei sayle
Good.

00:13:40.05
Talal K
ah Why do people think that you and David Baddiel are besties?

00:13:45.83
alexei sayle
I don't know.

00:13:45.95
Talal K
Just because you took a photo on a train.

00:13:48.47
alexei sayle
Yeah. yeah i mean, in terms of the slagging me off because of him or...

00:13:51.00
Talal K
um

00:13:55.50
Talal K
Yeah, someone someone's slagging you off because they they think that you kiss his arse or something.

00:13:56.44
alexei sayle
ah

00:14:01.13
alexei sayle
I endorse what he says.

00:14:04.91
Talal K
um It's funny to see the ripples of D&D still going through the comments. like like even today

00:14:11.48
alexei sayle
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:14:12.78
Talal K
Even today, I'm getting comments about it.

00:14:15.32
alexei sayle
I did, it I did, um I did, did, a Palestine Gaza benefit in Stroud on Sunday. and um,

00:14:28.53
alexei sayle
Mitch Ben was one performers, and because they cancelled the fucking train back to London, I came back in the car with Mitch Ben and his wife, and she's a Patreon subscriber, so a big shout-out to her.

00:14:39.63
alexei sayle
But she particularly enjoyed the

00:14:40.52
Talal K
Hello.

00:14:45.56
alexei sayle
the Dungeons & Dragons dynamic.

00:14:49.11
Talal K
Thank you. Oh, no. Yeah, it was ah the Marmite of all episodes. It was.

00:14:55.58
alexei sayle
this is this is you tell You tell me this is what podcasting is made for. it well people Making me do something i don't want to do

00:15:00.38
Talal K
Man, it's my favorite format of podcasting. um No, not that. just d I like listening to Dungeons Dragons podcasting because it's a very fun form of storytelling.

00:15:15.28
alexei sayle
do.

00:15:18.10
alexei sayle
I saw somewhere there was a a there's a dungeon du I saw in the Guardian on online. that there is a dungeons and dragons play somewhere that lasts for five hours

00:15:31.66
Talal K
he

00:15:32.55
alexei sayle
yeah assuming it changes every night

00:15:42.45
Talal K
I'm just looking it

00:15:57.29
Talal K
Well, it's not unheard of that, you know, Dungeons and Dragons podcasts do live shows.

00:15:58.55
alexei sayle
look up

00:16:03.64
alexei sayle
Right, is that what it was?

00:16:03.91
Talal K
I've been to a couple, but I don't, wouldn't call it a play.

00:16:04.92
alexei sayle
a

00:16:07.91
alexei sayle
No, never mind.

00:16:09.77
Talal K
um

00:16:10.09
alexei sayle
No,

00:16:11.23
Talal K
But yeah, uh, Yeah, go on.

00:16:14.46
alexei sayle
no it's just very nice. said Shout out to the people. Shout out to the organiser who fell ill. Gets better. Thank you to all the people who took over at the last minute. um it seems like a very nice town strad i was gonna originally it's typical we were gonna like yeah make a weekend of it and explore the countryside but in the end i just ended up getting a train up at half four would have got a train back at half nine but great western railways cancelled it um

00:16:46.73
Talal K
I do love that part of the world um on the border with Wales.

00:16:51.26
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, it's quite remote, but you can't, I mean, during the week, you can get there on the train in like an hour and a half. Because I know like doing Cheltenham Literary Festival, which is down there, if you drive it, it's like four hours or something. um But, you know, by train, it's actually very quick.

00:17:08.63
alexei sayle
I just feel, you know, it feels like a long way from London, you know.

00:17:14.81
alexei sayle
Obviously, Stroud is a friend of mine showed me a big... The town hall, I think, has got a gigantic, like, 20-foot-high Palestinian flag flying from it.

00:17:25.24
alexei sayle
And it's obviously one of those places like Totnes or Hebden Bridge or, you know, of those centres of kind of...

00:17:26.17
Talal K
Wonderful.

00:17:34.61
alexei sayle
One of those towns that's become a centre for kind of radicalism

00:17:41.83
alexei sayle
and alternative lifestyles.

00:17:48.46
Talal K
Isn't it just embarrassing seeing all these elderly or disabled or even mannequins getting arrested for holding holding those Palestine action signs?

00:17:57.53
alexei sayle
Yeah. You see the fuckers of there was quite a good judge, Judge Chamberlain, and they've taken him off the case.

00:18:05.30
Talal K
Yes. Okay, yeah, because...

00:18:06.26
alexei sayle
I mean, they they're so anti-democratic. i mean its And they want to get do away with jury charts because jury charts always ah don't, you know, set free Palestine action supporters, you know, as long as they're allowed to talk about their but that what they were doing it for their beliefs.

00:18:23.42
alexei sayle
I mean, this Labour government, the the evil of them, the perfidity. I've become vaguely, you know, we talked a bit about, with Paul Holden, about this guy, Maurice Glassman.

00:18:33.35
Talal K
Yes.

00:18:34.04
alexei sayle
It reminds me of,

00:18:38.26
alexei sayle
The Jack Nicholson character is the devil in Witches of Easterby.

00:18:42.88
Talal K
yes

00:18:43.13
alexei sayle
um And for some reason, my phone thinks that I'd like long articles from the out to Daily telegraph or the Telegraph. I also read an interview with him. And so and he's the guy, he's very much, as Paul Holden said, he's very much the guy behind.

00:18:57.72
alexei sayle
You're very close to Morgan McSweeney, who is this, you know, is this kind of evil sorcerer who is really, unravelling our democratic right to free speech at a rapid rate, you know. um i mean, somewhere I was reading, I mean, ah you know, and i mean you do I mean, you do feel that Keir Starmer's role along with Morgan McSby, that their purpose is to destroy the Labour Party, really, and then to kind of allow Farage to become Prime Minister.

00:19:31.64
Talal K
Right?

00:19:33.22
alexei sayle
Eh?

00:19:33.72
Talal K
and Right, yeah.

00:19:34.68
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah.

00:19:35.18
Talal K
it's It's all just short-term goals with these people. and They're just... No, you can... They're just keeping certain people happy. Their donors and their fucking interests in in Zionist Project and all that.

00:19:43.48
alexei sayle
yeah Yeah. Yeah. I don't know whether, I don't know what the plans.

00:19:47.53
Talal K
They're just keeping people...

00:19:47.60
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:19:48.38
Talal K
They don't give a fuck. like it And it was... I loved last week's episode with Paul Holden. I thought as much as we've discussed it and as much as a you know we we explore the topic, there's there's no end, there's no bottom to this barrel of just how pathetically um corrupt the Labour Party is, how thoughtless their deeds are and how they do not do anything for the benefit of the country.

00:20:10.30
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:20:17.88
Talal K
It's just all personal gain, careerist politics.

00:20:20.15
alexei sayle
Yeah, and to, yes, ways, as you say, their donors, big business, the arms lobby, the Israel lobby, and, you know.

00:20:27.03
Talal K
here and just anything to stop the left from having any sort of sway and even though that is what the people of the country want but at the very least a huge portion of them is just like no you're wrong you're insane supporting Palestine is wrong you're a terrorist for thinking a certain way

00:20:33.59
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:20:54.17
Talal K
and And it's it's like, who who are these fucking people? like we Who'd ever even fucking heard of Keir Starmer before the election?

00:21:06.71
alexei sayle
Yes, it's all, well, that's a mere preview.

00:21:07.77
Talal K
And he's suddenly prime minister. like Who the fuck is this guy?

00:21:10.87
alexei sayle
Yeah. I know, it's all very suspicious. Anyway, Maurice Glassman's behind her.

00:21:16.85
Talal K
This is from The Guardian. Concerns have been raised after the judge who was expected to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Palestine action was removed from the case at the last minute. So does that mean this this case is now ongoing, is happening now?

00:21:30.84
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:21:31.38
Talal K
Mr. Justice Chamberlain had granted permission for the judicial review and said that he would preside over the trial, but it has emerged that that a panel of three different judges will hear the case instead.

00:21:43.75
Talal K
It's due to start on Wednesday. That was yesterday as of this recording.

00:21:47.59
alexei sayle
touchy

00:21:49.18
Talal K
um

00:21:52.81
Talal K
it's It's unusual, yeah, for it to to happen so close to the case for a big change like this.

00:21:57.69
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's intended so

00:22:02.86
alexei sayle
dodgy.

00:22:03.61
Talal K
It also happened to him earlier this year in the legal challenge to the UK's sale of F-35 aircraft parts to Israel, which he also granted permission for.

00:22:11.16
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:22:14.43
Talal K
So what's the point of having these judges if you can just overrule them and take them off the case?

00:22:19.26
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, you know, it's it's an assault again it's a further assault on our democracy by the all these fucking lawyers, Lammy and Starmer. It's terrible.

00:22:30.21
Talal K
The...

00:22:30.48
alexei sayle
it's ah you know it's It's one more step along the road to fascism.

00:22:36.09
Talal K
And one of the judges is a huge Israel supporter, isn't he?

00:22:41.75
alexei sayle
Really, I did not know that.

00:22:44.02
Talal K
The three judges who will now hear the case are Dame Victoria Sharp, Mrs. Justice Stain, and Mr. Justice Swift. Weird, they both have the name Justice, and they're judges.

00:22:57.18
alexei sayle
not with a tip determinism

00:23:02.33
Talal K
So... Right, what can we do about this?

00:23:06.62
alexei sayle
well what we can do is a big announcement um no no it's a trumpet fanfare um the lexus help podcast is going to have a

00:23:11.45
Talal K
Call to action, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:23:22.17
alexei sayle
a voice at the Your Party founding conference this weekend.

00:23:26.36
Talal K
Oh, yes.

00:23:28.60
alexei sayle
As Linda Sale is going to be a delegate at the conference in Liverpool. I mean, Linda's, I think, a bit burnt out with politics after those five years in Holbrook and St. Pancras. I mean, she could end up leader if she really wanted to, but I don't know. be interested to see what she's got to say. Maybe we'll interview her.

00:23:53.18
alexei sayle
on the podcast as she reports back.

00:23:55.45
Talal K
Maybe when she comes back, we should interview Linda.

00:23:57.40
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:23:57.97
Talal K
Yeah.

00:23:58.36
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:00.57
Talal K
um

00:24:03.03
Talal K
that would That would be great. And, you know, I'm glad we have a delegate up there from the podcast.

00:24:08.08
alexei sayle
me too, man.

00:24:10.39
Talal K
um i I'm just so fatigued with your party. know i'm um I was a member from day one of your party.

00:24:16.92
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:17.33
Talal K
I was so excited to jump on the train.

00:24:19.19
alexei sayle
me two men yeah

00:24:21.08
Talal K
And it's... ah

00:24:23.83
alexei sayle
Entirely all being thrown away.

00:24:24.05
Talal K
It's weird because it's been so tiring having to kind of justify all the different

00:24:25.35
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:29.75
Talal K
a fiascos.

00:24:32.66
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:24:33.50
Talal K
And

00:24:33.69
alexei sayle
I mean, I will just say, it is a thing I say, and there's some truth to it, that all every other party in the world ever has been formed by a small group, as far as I know, has been formed more or less in private by yeah small groups of people, really. So this this process of having a, forming a party you know trying to form a party in the full glare of publicity with 50,000 members,

00:24:59.13
alexei sayle
fifty thousand members is a complicated task, really, you know.

00:25:03.77
Talal K
Yes. yes

00:25:04.73
alexei sayle
So I suppose the, um you know, and these are these these battles have always gone on. i mean, I read an article making the point that, I mean, the big split between the, the initial split between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks in Russian revolutionary politics came over a kind of a disagreement about the founding, you know,

00:25:32.70
alexei sayle
the founding of a conference. So this is not new really, that there various ideologies.

00:25:36.31
Talal K
Sure, and ah needless to say, there will be so many unseen forces who are trying to sabotage it as well, who I don't know how involved they are and what's happened, if they've needed to get involved.

00:25:41.82
alexei sayle
That as well, yeah. Yeah. Yes.

00:25:46.49
alexei sayle
yeah

00:25:48.50
Talal K
But you know but the the difficult thing is, while this is happening, parallel to this, or you're seeing a real shift in the Green Party's branding and they've elected their new leader, which is who has brought brand a new energy that you've never seen from the Green Party.

00:25:56.70
alexei sayle
yes

00:26:05.69
Talal K
And he's very capable and very charismatic and charming and funny and witty.

00:26:07.74
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:10.94
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:11.70
Talal K
And it's like, okay, so he's making it really easy to just jump ship, which I haven't done yet.

00:26:16.70
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:18.74
Talal K
But my partner,

00:26:18.81
alexei sayle
But you can see why a lot of people have, yeah. so you sir

00:26:20.79
Talal K
Oh, absolutely.

00:26:22.49
alexei sayle
Your partner.

00:26:22.58
Talal K
But my partner is is a Green Party member now, thanks to him, you know.

00:26:25.05
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:27.01
Talal K
And ah and we get hit that we get their letters in the post and they have, their I suppose they have years of experience of being a party, but their letters are so nicely branded and formatted and the editorial team is very good over there.

00:26:27.26
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:26:35.20
alexei sayle
Well, that's exactly true, yeah.

00:26:44.57
Talal K
So I'm holding out. I want to see the results of this conference. see how it lands how the land lies after that.

00:26:53.42
alexei sayle
Yeah, it is.

00:26:54.01
Talal K
Is that the phrase? And then I'll make a decision. It's just in a couple days, isn't it?

00:26:57.78
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, let's hope some you know there's some... Yeah, 29th and 30th, yeah.

00:27:03.42
Talal K
Is Linda going to stay with family up there?

00:27:04.28
alexei sayle
the I know, she's staying in the hotel. Her brother's meeting her off the train, and she's got C family. Yeah,

00:27:11.90
Talal K
That was another reason why i didn't I didn't sign up to go because, or sign up for this sortition.

00:27:17.59
alexei sayle
it's expensive. Yeah. it's expensive

00:27:18.49
Talal K
It's expensive and

00:27:19.54
alexei sayle
yeah

00:27:22.74
Talal K
hassle to figure out what to do, but good on Linda.

00:27:26.49
alexei sayle
Yeah, well done, Linda. she's ah taking a She's doing it for all of us. And let's hope some.

00:27:30.70
Talal K
I've invested some of the Patreon funds in some button cameras. We're gonna hook Linda up with some undercover cameras and microphones.

00:27:37.28
alexei sayle
All right.

00:27:39.96
alexei sayle
ah

00:27:42.55
Talal K
Send her in there recording the whole

00:27:47.77
alexei sayle
plenty of people will be doing that was ah anyway we'll see let's hope some clarity emerges some I know Jamie Druskal up in the north east has said he wants nothing to do with it i wonder whether Andrew Feinstein down here is he's going to stick with it but we will see anyway

00:27:54.18
Talal K
Oh, yeah.

00:28:09.72
Talal K
Well, the party hasn't actually been created yet.

00:28:09.91
alexei sayle
ah no no yeah yeah

00:28:12.36
Talal K
It's all just the founding the sit thing that's been created. So we'll see. like Maybe they'll finally like just go, all right, here's our leader.

00:28:17.43
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:28:20.41
Talal K
Here's some people that are going to represent certain constituencies. Let's fucking go

00:28:24.38
alexei sayle
Yeah, and there is a potential, you know, for, I mean, there is i think a majority of people in Britain who would support left-wing policies, you know.

00:28:24.71
Talal K
We'll see what the situation is.

00:28:32.43
alexei sayle
it's ah that And even, you know, there there was that there was a report there was a kind of poll that said, you know, the a lot of reform voters, the person they admire the most is Jeremy Corbyn.

00:28:44.47
alexei sayle
So it's, a it's ah it's they they vote reform because they are disenchanted correctly with the political system and, you know,

00:28:44.66
Talal K
he

00:28:53.65
Talal K
Well, one in ten New York Trump voters voted for Mamdani in the mayoral election.

00:28:58.49
alexei sayle
Right. Yeah.

00:29:00.56
Talal K
Yeah.

00:29:00.73
alexei sayle
Again, they just there just wanted a voice that comes from outside the corrupt mainstream. I mean, obviously, corrupt Trump is not that.

00:29:09.50
Talal K
Oh, yeah.

00:29:10.06
alexei sayle
but i mean, if he presents himself as that, you know. So, anyway, yeah, we will hear all that goes on at your party.

00:29:21.24
alexei sayle
um Slightly different convocation that I went to the Saturday Before last was Comic-Con, where was signing photos.

00:29:29.83
Talal K
Oh my

00:29:33.91
alexei sayle
You initially...

00:29:34.35
Talal K
God. Yeah. Walk us through that day, please. Alexis Aylat Comic Con.

00:29:37.77
alexei sayle
Okay, so Comic-Con.

00:29:38.90
Talal K
London Comic Con. Earl's

00:29:40.05
alexei sayle
So a car came to take me, picked me up at 8.20, 8.15, drove me to Olympia, which is, I mean, a kind of beautiful building, but it's not been...

00:29:51.06
Talal K
Earl's Court.

00:29:55.45
alexei sayle
ah sensitively restored really i mean it needs to um and then the so there's this it's a huge hall it's like a railway shed but without the railway tracks really it's a huge if anybody knows it um exhibition art deco exhibition center i think built in the 1930s um and then had coffee

00:30:05.07
Talal K
Oh,

00:30:16.89
alexei sayle
um and then add a cup of coffee Said a hello to Adrian Edmondson, who was also there. um and then you just, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:30:28.11
Talal K
ah you said hello, did you?

00:30:30.64
alexei sayle
you i' Very fun.

00:30:31.38
Talal K
Was he sat near you?

00:30:33.02
alexei sayle
No, he wasn't. He was some other. Don't where he was. I also at some point, I think later on, said hello to David Tennant. We had a nice chat.

00:30:43.62
Talal K
Huh.

00:30:44.15
alexei sayle
David Tennant was in his own room. And then you go out and there's like long rows of tables and behind the kind of, you know, boards with the big picture of you on. And people come up and you ask, i you've got a stack of photos.

00:31:00.25
alexei sayle
And you sign them and that's £25 pop. which goes to the person who's hired you to do this, obviously, they pay you a fee. um And I was next to Derek Jacoby on one side of me and Colin Baker, who was the Doctor Who in there and the episodes of Doctor Who that I did.

00:31:20.16
Talal K
Oh.

00:31:20.66
alexei sayle
On the other side, doesn't look like his is young, beautiful...

00:31:26.78
alexei sayle
was when he was Doctor Who and he had to go but he's's he's quite old and overweight and walks on with sticks but he had to go off because he was doing pans panto in somewhere like Bazings though Derek Jacoby didn't get until about half ten and then has a long lunch somewhere. way But he had, I mean, he had, you know, but yeah I mean, it's it's a very, I mean, it's, um and you you know, you feel, you know, your sense of self rises and falls by which of a cue you've got.

00:31:57.91
alexei sayle
But Derek Jacoby, and actually could see where, Adrian was across from me, yes he was. you know He had a ah permanently long cue and Derek Jacoby did. I had shorter queue.

00:32:11.51
alexei sayle
But, you know, I kind of kept signing throughout the day. Then me and Adrian went and did we had to do some photos together with partners who had paid, again, like £40 to have their photo taken with us. Then we did it singly again.

00:32:27.93
alexei sayle
lot more people had their photo, wanted to have their photo taken with Adrian rather than me. I'm fine with that. um And then I came home about... um About six. Quite a long day. i was nice I think I was nice to everybody, you know. um Yeah, and it was fine. I mean, I wouldn't.

00:32:50.07
alexei sayle
It's the only one. and ah i think the last one I did was like of those was about 20 years ago. i wouldn't i wouldn't want to do too many of them. But i didn't feel bad about myself, you know. Yeah,

00:33:05.05
Talal K
Yeah, good for you what it was what was the most what what What did most people want to talk to you about most of the fans who came up?

00:33:06.04
alexei sayle
yeah. yeah

00:33:10.84
alexei sayle
um Well, the photos that they wanted were either mostly Indiana Jones or Doctor Who, really, and all the young ones. I think the young ones was kind of third. quite Four or five, I've got the 12-inch single of Hello, John Got a New Motor, which they want this time.

00:33:27.51
alexei sayle
I mean, a lot of this is a lot of them are, I think, commercial. You know, they're people who get these signatures and then sell them on or trade them and stuff like that. So it's not, they're not all fans.

00:33:38.77
alexei sayle
Some of them are quite cynical kind of dealers in signatures and sign photos and stuff like that.

00:33:42.20
Talal K
Oh.

00:33:46.55
alexei sayle
um Yeah, what's people what do people want to, I mean, yeah, you know, I mean, just,

00:33:56.36
alexei sayle
I don't know what they wanted to talk about, really. I did so much questions. I can't remember now. Yeah,

00:34:05.47
alexei sayle
it was all...

00:34:08.41
alexei sayle
So, yeah, people were excited to see me. I'm a kind of mythical figure a bit, aren't You know, you I don't get out, you know. I'm not, I don't do stuff really much. so Some people have difficulty believing I exist.

00:34:28.21
alexei sayle
So they were excited to see that I was real. um And, yeah, that was it. So I've done like a Garza benefit Comic-Con.

00:34:40.59
Talal K
The Olympia was actually a completed in 1885. Yeah.

00:34:47.35
alexei sayle
Shit, really? Is that... Oh, my God. Surely the front is later then, isn't it?

00:34:52.82
Talal K
Certain bits of it, I'm sure.

00:34:54.17
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:34:55.11
Talal K
Oh, in 1930, the Empire Hall was added.

00:34:59.48
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:35:00.03
Talal K
national ah National Hall Annex was completed in 1923. Yeah.

00:35:06.05
Talal K
But it was built in the style of exhibition halls from the Great Exhibition in 1851.

00:35:12.38
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:35:14.23
Talal K
But ah yeah, Jimi Hendrix played there in 1967. Yeah.

00:35:17.85
alexei sayle
yeah olympia

00:35:19.30
Talal K
yeah

00:35:20.17
alexei sayle
Can't imagine the acoustics are very good.

00:35:22.82
Talal K
Chris Eubank boxed against someone called Holmes in 1993 there.

00:35:28.79
alexei sayle
Larry Holmes.

00:35:30.23
Talal K
Maybe.

00:35:33.12
Talal K
Procol Harum. isn that white a shade of pale?

00:35:37.05
alexei sayle
That's right. Yeah.

00:35:39.51
Talal K
And RuPaul's Drag Race. Dragcon happened there more recently in 2020. It's a and

00:35:49.51
alexei sayle
It's a funny way. I mean, there's a world also of...

00:35:51.21
Talal K
funny world.

00:35:53.38
alexei sayle
I was hired by some guy. I mean, he came to one of our podcast recordings, I don't know remember, and said, do you ever do signings?

00:36:02.15
Talal K
Oh yeah.

00:36:02.34
alexei sayle
So that's where David came. So they're another kind of subset of the entertainment business is people who put on, you know...

00:36:14.46
alexei sayle
and again i' mean, I guess they...

00:36:14.76
Talal K
Yeah.

00:36:16.34
alexei sayle
It's a kind of a... a gamble for them because they've they've got sell enough photo signings to compensate for how much they've paid the celebrity, really.

00:36:28.63
Talal K
Yes. They obviously, they probably book more than one person.

00:36:34.23
alexei sayle
Yeah, well, he was certainly, this guy was doing David, he did Derek Jacoby as well and other people, I think.

00:36:40.38
Talal K
hedging his bets.

00:36:41.69
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:36:43.07
Talal K
Funny kind of, you know, offense, but I wouldn't go to one of these and queue up for an autograph. I don't think that would be, but what I do like about it is like the dressing up and kind of paying homage to things you grew up with.

00:36:52.31
alexei sayle
No.

00:36:58.59
Talal K
There were these two guys who dressed up as bottom. I don't know if you saw them and they they came and approached aid and they were in character pretending to be the bottom guys.

00:37:02.26
alexei sayle
right, yeah. They were there, were they? Yeah, I can't remember. All

00:37:09.88
Talal K
and

00:37:10.13
alexei sayle
right.

00:37:11.38
Talal K
and

00:37:11.43
alexei sayle
How did they react to that?

00:37:14.07
Talal K
um I saw a clip of it. It was very, oh, yeah, just acting very nice about it, of course.

00:37:17.71
alexei sayle
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

00:37:19.96
Talal K
But they looked very convincing. But um yeah, that's a lot of fun.

00:37:23.38
alexei sayle
Yeah, that's slightly, all that stuff's slightly unsettling, but um it's fine. Shall we have some questions then? I think we've run out things I've been doing. Yeah.

00:37:33.01
Talal K
Well, some of the comments on Paul Holden's episode, Locus Corrupti from last week. Thanks, Alexi and Paul. Just ordered my copy.

00:37:44.17
Talal K
few people saying they've the copy. A couple of people saying they were in the middle of reading it when this episode came out. um alex Richard said, Alexei and Talal should definitely do the audio book for this. Talal can do the exposition parts and Alexei can do all the main character voices.

00:37:57.43
alexei sayle
I think I got a bit confused with my Latin there. I think what I was actually thinking of was corpus belli, which is um and and reason for war. When I said said locust belly, which is would be place of war, which I don't know if that's real.

00:38:11.93
Talal K
know you said locus corrupti.

00:38:13.82
alexei sayle
But then I said it's locust, I mean, Croydon, as the cronks is locust corrupti. I think so. I think probably, and I'm surprised nobody remonstrated with me remonstrated with me about my,

00:38:27.71
alexei sayle
Right, wonky Latin.

00:38:31.67
Talal K
James says, as someone who's been in the military and whose dad was in the forces too when I was a kid, We really need to look at the manosphere that fetishizes weaponry and military crap and is also the food source of this far right surge.

00:38:49.17
Talal K
Socialism needs to explore why it doesn't appeal to the working man as it did historically. And then someone replied, what socialism? um that's interesting yeah people look at like leftism and socialism is quite soft don't they whereas back in the day it was like the workers they were tough and they held tools they fought for the workers rights and so

00:39:07.08
alexei sayle
guess. Yeah.

00:39:12.57
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:39:17.46
alexei sayle
Well, i' would say, i don't know if there is, I mean, there isn't a kind of industrial, what the you know, the proletariat, which is the term for the the laboring masses, those involved in, those members of the working class who are involved in manufacture, you know, and sort of, you quite like steelmaking or, you know, that kind of a building, I guess.

00:39:34.84
Talal K
Yeah.

00:39:39.38
alexei sayle
I mean, that that they, to a great extent, no longer exist, really, those in large.

00:39:44.38
Talal K
Well, yes, it doesn't help that they killed manufacturing in the UK.

00:39:47.18
alexei sayle
mining yeah um you know um so yeah the working class is different now but i mean they're still the work they are still a working in class if you're you know you work in it t or you know deliveroo ride or whatever you're still really a member of the working class and your interests align with um

00:39:48.63
Talal K
Yeah.

00:40:04.09
Talal K
Mm-hmm.

00:40:10.38
alexei sayle
other members the working class, even though the media lies to you about, you know, who you should align with. But, yeah, I mean, it's a, I guess there's that, I don't know, cause because, you know, I i mean, we I fetishize military to a degree, really, so I'm doing it on the left. um But, um yeah, I think it's, a I mean, he makes a good point, I think.

00:40:33.05
Talal K
And there I've seen this lovely series of videos on Instagram of to counter the right-wing flag-shagging protests of ah two guys who work in some sort of like depot or workshop or factory together.

00:40:49.51
Talal K
And one of them's white English and one of them's South Asian British. And they're both quite manly men. And the white guy is just saying like,

00:41:03.80
Talal K
this guy's my brother. We work together. I see him as my equal. Like, what the fuck are you guys doing? Like, we actually work hard and I couldn't do my job without him. And it's like, they do this series of videos that's trying to like,

00:41:15.59
Talal K
a go against, you know, these twats, you see.

00:41:19.51
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah.

00:41:20.14
Talal K
And I just, it's very effective to see it. And they're both quite butch, factory workers or whatever they work with their hands. I don't know what they do. But it's,

00:41:31.48
Talal K
There are people that does exist out there, you know.

00:41:33.66
alexei sayle
Yeah, mean and so I mean, you know, in that socialism appeals to, as I was saying before, the majority of voters, it must therefore appeal. you know, or have an appeal for the working class. So, you know, we shouldn't be, I don't know, you know, I mean, I think we certainly, we need, I don't know.

00:41:58.53
alexei sayle
I'm feeling very articulate today. I will, I will craft a reply to how the,

00:42:09.44
alexei sayle
how socialism should appeal to male members the working class. And I'll do it in Latin, in iambic pentameters.

00:42:18.73
Talal K
Please, please, it's the least you could do. Come on.

00:42:20.78
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:42:22.13
Talal K
Christian on the Patreon chat... Please, if you want to join the Patreon and support the show would mean a great deal, listeners. Wouldn't it, Alexi?

00:42:31.48
alexei sayle
Yeah, it would you mean mean everything.

00:42:34.22
Talal K
Um... It... helps keep the show going. It is the so sole source of any funding for this show. We don't want to ever have adverts on the show. Just go to patreon.com forward slash AlexiSale podcast and you can watch some exclusive content on there.

00:42:53.78
Talal K
What kind of exclusive content have we got on there, Alexi? Do you remember?

00:42:57.35
alexei sayle
We've got me at a shooting range.

00:42:59.32
Talal K
You at a shooting range, shooting guns?

00:43:00.75
alexei sayle
They've got me talking to you. um What else have we got?

00:43:04.34
Talal K
Yeah.

00:43:06.92
Talal K
We've got all the video versions of this podcast, all the video episodes.

00:43:09.24
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:43:10.51
Talal K
You've got you, Lisa and Nigel watching the young ones.

00:43:10.97
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:43:13.55
Talal K
There's two episodes of that.

00:43:14.10
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:43:15.78
Talal K
um Stuff like that. And there's also chat rooms where you can meet the community and everyone chats together and asks questions. And they are the first port of call when I want a question to ask Alexi.

00:43:29.65
Talal K
um So please go to patreon.com forward slash AlexiCellPodcast.

00:43:31.80
alexei sayle
Yeah, please. Please.

00:43:34.48
Talal K
um G asks, would Alexei agree that the earliest example of stunt casting was when they replaced the major from Forty Towers with the colonel from it Ain't Half Hot Mom on Lennon of the Rovers when the first actor passed?

00:43:55.63
Talal K
I was a regular in the audience and still think it's kind of strangely one of the funniest things ever.

00:44:02.33
alexei sayle
Yeah, don't, it was, I mean, people, I didn't write it or anything. It written by a guy called Marcus Berkman and I think partly secretly by the producer, the late ho Harry Thompson.

00:44:12.65
alexei sayle
um And ah I've got, it was big, I think it was I'd forgotten that, yeah.

00:44:17.05
Talal K
and i didn't I knew you you told me that the major was in it, but i didn't know the Colonel was in it.

00:44:24.06
alexei sayle
um i yeah Well, you know, they got the guy, So it was the major from Fawlty Towers was replaced by the Colonel from um the Ain't Half Hot Mum.

00:44:33.86
Talal K
a yeah

00:44:35.14
alexei sayle
I remember, it's in my memoir, when before long before I was in show business, i used to drink in a pub called the Queen's Elm in Chelsea.

00:44:40.78
Talal K
It's quite funny.

00:44:46.84
alexei sayle
And ah the one of the cast of it Ain't Half Hot Mum was in there.

00:44:47.32
Talal K
Yes.

00:44:53.14
alexei sayle
And I always chatted to him for hours, just fascinated him.

00:44:58.62
alexei sayle
His tails.

00:45:01.17
Talal K
Never seen it. I've seen images of it and this this kernel.

00:45:03.58
alexei sayle
It's tremendously racist.

00:45:05.46
Talal K
Oh, is it?

00:45:06.71
alexei sayle
Well, they've got a white guy playing the Indian, um

00:45:06.96
Talal K
Oh, wow. Yeah, look at that.

00:45:12.50
alexei sayle
the Indian punkawala, the guy that operates the fan.

00:45:16.61
Talal K
Right.

00:45:17.02
alexei sayle
And there's also a kind of, Mervyn Hayes plays a gay character, I think. It's... it's um

00:45:28.76
alexei sayle
There was also a film with, I think, John Cleese about a similar topic topic, which was at the same time, oddly, which is ah the story is about um an ENSA party, a kind of a party of a men who entertain the troops, in but they're in the Burma theatre, so they're fighting against Japanese.

00:45:51.84
Talal K
Yeah.

00:45:51.90
alexei sayle
And by accident, Windsor Davis, who was so was in Paris, Windsor Davis plays their sergeant major, who for some reason has accidentally been put in charge of this um squad of um kind of thespians. And and so, you know, there's a mismatch there. then they've got a very weak couple of officers, a colonel and I guess a lieutenant, um but posh kind of upper class.

00:46:20.60
alexei sayle
So it's, I don't, I mean, I know that the the the the there is one South Asian actor, I think, in it. um But it's, you know, it's kind of dodgy from that point of view. i know But it's ah it's an interesting...

00:46:36.28
Talal K
What is this John Cleese movie?

00:46:36.86
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's a good, day you know, it's ah it's an interesting story. I'm trying to think. There was a film, um which I think it was a stage player originally, that was made into a film called Private Tom Parade, which is about the same subject.

00:46:52.41
alexei sayle
And I remember seeing a bit of a, I think John Cleese was in it, and it was although it set in Malaysia or in Burma or somewhere, it was actually filmed all in... in funny the things that stick in your head isn't it? It was filmed in, it was all filmed in the UK I think.

00:47:09.30
alexei sayle
And ah probably in the Botanical Gardens. here But i remember John Cleese saying they were filming at night and in know It was so cold that their breath was, you know, turning into moisture. So in order for that not to show on camera, they had to suck ice cubes before the camera turned over so that they didn't... So that their breath, know, that it wasn't revealed to the audience that it was... Although supposed to be in Bermuda, it was actually being filmed in sub-zero temperatures at Elstree or somewhere. um

00:47:44.66
alexei sayle
I don't know whether...

00:47:44.82
Talal K
Was it privates on parade?

00:47:45.22
alexei sayle
i Yeah, but who wrote that? Is like Michael Frayne or somebody?

00:47:51.67
Talal K
Peter Nichols.

00:47:52.82
alexei sayle
Peter Nichols, okay.

00:47:54.67
Talal K
ah Directed by Michael Blakemore, 1984. Produced by George Harrison. So what what was the name of his ah handmade films?

00:48:01.36
alexei sayle
Handmade films.

00:48:03.21
Talal K
Yeah.

00:48:07.03
Talal K
John Cleese, Dennis Quilly, Michael Elphick.

00:48:11.63
alexei sayle
Oh, Michael Elton.

00:48:11.92
Talal K
Yeah, he's got a similar look to the Ain't Half Hot Mum.

00:48:14.26
alexei sayle
Yeah, it was the same storyline, effectively.

00:48:15.67
Talal K
Colonel.

00:48:19.80
alexei sayle
You often, people have the same idea at the same time, don't they?

00:48:24.51
Talal K
In post-World War II Singapore, a British Army captain recruits performers for a drag show.

00:48:31.45
alexei sayle
Okay, so it's slightly different, yeah.

00:48:31.61
Talal K
um The members of a song and dance unit, Southeast Asia, attempt to dodge mil Malayan communist bullets while falling in and out of love. What, is that what it ain't half hot, Mum, is about?

00:48:43.45
alexei sayle
No, A Fart Off was actually set, I think, in Burma during the war. But it's the same. It's not a drag show. It's a so that is a kind of variety show. Although, obviously, because there were no women there, the female parts were played by males.

00:48:58.71
Talal K
Right.

00:49:01.76
Talal K
John Cleese is a bit of a fucking prick, isn't he?

00:49:06.01
alexei sayle
He is, yeah. yeah i mean, it's it's, you know, it's why I always think, like I mean, you know he yeah he has obviously taken part in two works of absolute genius, which are Valti Towers and Monty Python.

00:49:19.98
Talal K
Of course, but...

00:49:21.14
alexei sayle
I don't know why you would then go down that road of just turning into the same kind of angry old cunt as everybody else, really.

00:49:27.69
Talal K
Yeah.

00:49:28.18
alexei sayle
But there you go. that He always was.

00:49:29.42
Talal K
And openly declares his love for Israel. And yeah, and he's just recently said he's going to go, he's going to go do a show there for free when it's, as soon as it's safe to do so.

00:49:33.62
alexei sayle
Does he? I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised.

00:49:39.24
alexei sayle
Oh, fuck him then.

00:49:40.86
Talal K
Yeah.

00:49:42.74
alexei sayle
Well, he's a... i mean it's it's ah it's I mean, it's like the banality of evil, you know, Hannah Arendt. It's also the but banality of genius in a way. It's how um how somebody...

00:49:58.68
alexei sayle
apparently so banal and dull can yet nevertheless come up with those extraordinary um powerful pieces of art you know it's a it's a conundrum of human nature really and i mean he was always i mean he was always a tremendous prick really uh it's pleased but on the other hand has you know you go acknowledge he's made these two or been a part of two extraordinary works of art

00:50:08.94
Talal K
I

00:50:17.94
Talal K
think he's just yeah

00:50:26.11
Talal K
Of course. Just brilliant physical presence, physical performer and a good writer.

00:50:30.71
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:50:32.71
Talal K
Certainly. Certainly. I think it's I think it's this free speech road that they go down.

00:50:35.29
alexei sayle
So why you would...

00:50:38.90
alexei sayle
Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:50:39.63
Talal K
They get so scared of or they become such big defenders of free speech that they it Just because you believe in free speech doesn't mean you have to be a prick.

00:50:51.07
Talal K
Him, Ricky Gervais, Rowan Atkinson almost veered into that territory. I think he dipped his toe dita toew in there.

00:50:55.96
alexei sayle
Yeah, he's... I think Rose, yeah.

00:50:58.98
Talal K
But it's like, yeah, free speech obviously is important, but so is people's well-being and people's feelings.

00:50:59.19
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:51:02.01
alexei sayle
Well, yeah.

00:51:04.67
Talal K
Like, that matters.

00:51:05.33
alexei sayle
I mean, yeah.

00:51:05.80
Talal K
Yeah.

00:51:07.26
alexei sayle
i mean, I'm a ah fairly free speech fundamentalist. I agree with, you know, like Chomsky, for instance, has got a lot of earache. I think we talked about this before for... siding with a lot of right-wing authors like Salman Rushdie and stuff, saying, you know, free speech you know means listening to stuff that you consider objectible.

00:51:27.06
alexei sayle
Mind you, there's just a lot of stuff turned out about Chomsky's friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, which is a bit weird.

00:51:27.15
Talal K
Of course.

00:51:33.65
Talal K
Yes, I was about to say, yeah.

00:51:35.45
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:51:37.34
Talal K
That is really weird, isn't it?

00:51:37.53
alexei sayle
don't know what that's all about. Yeah.

00:51:39.13
Talal K
It's upsetting.

00:51:41.56
alexei sayle
um But nevertheless, you know, he's

00:51:42.44
Talal K
We can't have anything, can we?

00:51:45.34
alexei sayle
An amazing man, an amazing thinker, a Nobel Prize winner, let's not forget.

00:51:50.39
Talal K
A couple of weeks ago, Alistair r asks, I don't know why when you mentioned this, but he said, so good to hear Samuel Beckett mentioned.

00:52:00.89
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:52:01.40
Talal K
Are there any roles from Beckett that Alexei would love to play?

00:52:06.84
Talal K
i I think he'd be, shall I continue? I think he'd be amazing as crap in crap's last tape.

00:52:09.21
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:52:12.88
Talal K
Or if he was to play ham in end game, that would be great. Also, who would you pair up with if you did Waiting for Godot?

00:52:21.85
alexei sayle
Yes, well, that's one of the celebrity kind of stunt castings is is talking about. stunt is is I remember having dinner with that Steve Martin just after he'd done Waiting for God on Broadway with Robin Williams, and he was, yeah, I'm going to talk about Profoundly traumatised because Robin Williams...

00:52:36.57
Talal K
No. The fuck?

00:52:42.58
alexei sayle
managed to keep it together for a couple of nights. And then he just started getting off the stage and going through women's handbags and that, and basically doing his standup act and poor old Steve had to sit there in character while, uh,

00:52:57.96
Talal K
Robin was just ad-libbing.

00:52:58.43
alexei sayle
Robin just fucking did stuff, yeah.

00:53:00.80
Talal K
Oh, no.

00:53:01.56
alexei sayle
And it was, it really, it really upset him.

00:53:01.59
Talal K
That's cocaine for you.

00:53:04.08
alexei sayle
So, and of course, Rick and Aid were, I don't know if they did Wait and Forgotta, but the the whole basis of their act is really, they did, they did a, um when they were at Manchester, they did a,

00:53:20.91
alexei sayle
a thing, um, what was it called? Life and Death or something on the toilet anyway, that was a a kind of Beckett parody. Um,

00:53:29.30
Talal K
Oh, yeah. And all those bottom live shows where they're stuck on a desert island is is very Godot, isn't it?

00:53:35.26
alexei sayle
yeah, yeah, yes yeah, yeah.

00:53:35.67
Talal K
They're just sat there, you know, talking, filling time, basically, isn't it? Yeah, it's great.

00:53:40.47
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:53:41.23
Talal K
Yeah.

00:53:41.66
alexei sayle
Um,

00:53:41.98
Talal K
I never thought of that. That's very interesting.

00:53:43.48
alexei sayle
No, I mean, Beckett is amazing, really. I mean, it's ah you know, it's very much a one-off. um I don't know who I would have. Who would I have?

00:53:54.67
alexei sayle
Of course, I did a sketch in the old New Alexi Sousha, I think, which we filmed down in Hastings, which is about Godot trying to get to his, trying to get to the meeting.

00:54:05.17
Talal K
oh yeah

00:54:08.47
alexei sayle
um and you know having various adventures along the way being picked up by a traveling salesman and uh uh you know and then when he gets there he's too late you know but uh i wrote that yeah um yeah yeah um

00:54:17.88
Talal K
That's brilliant.

00:54:20.98
Talal K
Who wrote that sketch? Oh, man. That's a very memorable one. That's a really good one.

00:54:31.03
Talal K
Come on, who would be your Godot partner? Who would be funny to see that? Does it tend to be so... Inform me. Do they tend to be two very opposing characters or are they quite similar?

00:54:41.90
alexei sayle
I mean, I've seen Waiting for Go, though. I'm not... I mean, I'm... I've seen Endgame. I think I've seen Endgame, or was it Crafts Last Tape, with Michael Gambon and Lee Evans.

00:54:54.26
Talal K
Okay.

00:54:54.39
alexei sayle
um ah

00:54:56.63
Talal K
Oh, where is he now?

00:54:58.92
alexei sayle
Where is Lee Evans? I think he's kind of retired. He's all got a bit much for him, I think. um

00:55:09.50
alexei sayle
Who would I have? I would have... my ah that well the Who are the two main characters who are waiting for God? I can't even remember that now.

00:55:19.07
Talal K
What are their names?

00:55:20.50
alexei sayle
Yeah, he's Vladimir and Estagon.

00:55:36.88
Talal K
Waiting for Goddard. Vladimir and Estragon. Yeah, you didn't need me to look that up at all.

00:55:39.66
alexei sayle
Yeah, so get that right, yeah.

00:55:41.26
Talal K
You got it.

00:55:42.22
alexei sayle
Yeah, so I would have as my...

00:55:42.78
Talal K
And Gal Gaddo. Sorry, carry on.

00:55:48.02
alexei sayle
I would have as my sidekick Jordan Pickford, the Everton and England goalkeeper. think that would be an interesting casting, me and Jordan Pickford, Everton goalkeeper.

00:55:59.21
Talal K
Perfect.

00:56:02.34
Talal K
Perfect.

00:56:02.58
alexei sayle
Um...

00:56:06.10
alexei sayle
But yes, I was talking about Adorno, wasn't i the philosopher, and he was a great admirer. And it is, yeah, I i said that, you know, i mean, it's it's it's existential. It's existential philosophy done as ah as a play, really.

00:56:21.04
alexei sayle
Had a good war as well, was in the resistance. Samuel Beckett in France, lived in France.

00:56:28.61
Talal K
Oh, and he was Irish, right?

00:56:31.06
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:56:36.31
alexei sayle
Wrote in French, I think.

00:56:38.42
Talal K
i Mark, one of our top patrons, Mark, has informed the chat on Patreon that, oh, no, not them, the American, never-before-seen American pilot of The Young Ones remake.

00:56:54.30
Talal K
Nigel Planer just dropped it on his Patreon.

00:56:57.01
alexei sayle
Oh, really? No.

00:56:58.17
Talal K
So in a rare turn, I'm going to promote someone else's Patreon.

00:57:00.66
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:57:01.01
Talal K
Go check out Nigel Planers.

00:57:02.89
alexei sayle
He's got a copy of it, has he?

00:57:04.40
Talal K
Yeah.

00:57:07.01
Talal K
That's wild.

00:57:07.16
alexei sayle
I mean, that's all they kept. They just kept Nigel. They didn't keep anybody else.

00:57:11.03
Talal K
Which is really weird, isn't it?

00:57:12.93
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's really stupid.

00:57:16.96
Talal K
We could have got Tommy Chong or something to be American hippie, you know.

00:57:19.77
alexei sayle
ah

00:57:21.88
Talal K
and That's exciting. I might sign up just to watch that. um Right, Alexi, love you.

00:57:30.90
alexei sayle
Yes. I love you too.

00:57:32.86
Talal K
ah Thank you everyone at home for the well wishes. I'm getting better. Siaska's a bastard.

00:57:41.57
Talal K
Lots of love for last week's episode.

00:57:45.97
Talal K
I'm just reading it now when we really should be ending the episode. So ah thanks for all the messages. Get on the Patreon.

00:57:53.50
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:57:53.88
Talal K
What have you got exciting coming up this week, Alexi?

00:57:56.57
alexei sayle
Me?

00:57:56.71
Talal K
What's coming up? Yeah.

00:57:58.42
alexei sayle
Nothing really. I'm just trying to finish this book, which I won't. I'll start heavily promoting it some point soon, presumably. Oh, was that a thing? and Brian Eno does these kind of soirees, really. I was chatting to a young woman. She said, are you an economist?

00:58:15.48
alexei sayle
And I said, no, why? She said, I think I've seen a video in which you explain. So she thought from...

00:58:23.38
Talal K
Your Marxist videos.

00:58:24.06
alexei sayle
The stupid Marxist video from my kind of stupid dancing, then an explainer and Marxist theory and then stupid dancing. The the idea she took from that was that I was an economist rather than a capering clown, which is charming.

00:58:39.32
Talal K
That's flattering, yeah.

00:58:40.15
alexei sayle
Yeah, sweet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, no, I'm not an economist. but ah I don't know. what I've got, I've got not got many. I don't think I've got any of those sort of things really.

00:58:51.74
alexei sayle
That's probably it now for the year. terms of big uh well i've got the paul alden andrew feinstein event in birmingham uh and that should be it really yeah yeah well actually i need to talk to most of my publishers about what they think the right strategy is with those things because obviously i want to start tying it into the book which i mean will not be launched until um um

00:59:02.38
Talal K
you've got lots of time to film more TikTok content maybe with me.

00:59:21.56
alexei sayle
uh or um kind of september next year i think but um actually if if the ble i mean the readers want to help me out they could i mean i feel like i'm i can't one of the things that's sort of holding me up with doing that is i can't really think of i don't know how to go about finding more pithy nuggets of marxism really if anybody's got any suggestions uh

00:59:46.19
Talal K
That's a good one. Yes. Alexis run out of Marxism nuggets. So send on your suggestions. I was suggesting that you could do some ah nuggets on ah applying Marxism to the modern world or modern Britain, you know, and like what it looks like.

01:00:00.38
alexei sayle
Sure, yeah. yeah Yeah, yeah, that's not a bad idea, yeah.

01:00:04.44
Talal K
um

01:00:07.21
Talal K
But...

01:00:07.34
alexei sayle
It's just I'm not, because I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm neither an economist nor a political theorist. So it's a, I have to really think hard to.

01:00:16.11
Talal K
Okay.

01:00:18.67
Talal K
All

01:00:18.70
alexei sayle
Those nuggets that ah that I did so far, all, you know, just come from my brain. I didn't research them or anything. um But, you know, to go further, I need to kind of have think about,

01:00:29.45
Talal K
right, people at home, send in your script suggestions.

01:00:31.26
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, idea.

01:00:32.86
Talal K
Okay, and while we're at it, if anyone has any marketing expertise and wants to help me widen the... the spread ah of this podcast, reach out. um And maybe Alexi, you know what? Maybe a nice winter bike ride could be on the books.

01:00:48.52
alexei sayle
Yeah, we could revive that, couldn't we, Rainey?

01:00:51.55
Talal K
We could even have you and a guest cycling side by side. do you have any cyclist friends and they could show you some of their favorite spots or something? um Have a think about that. Let's go.

01:01:02.05
Talal K
Time to go.

01:01:03.12
alexei sayle
right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.