00:00:00.11
Talal K
Alexa sale podcast. We're live.

00:00:04.63
Talal K
but but ah but but

00:00:06.81
alexei sayle
Hello everybody, welcome to Alexia Pop.

00:00:08.89
Talal K
do Again, get the frog out your throat.

00:00:11.16
alexei sayle
and

00:00:11.54
Talal K
Have you got some water with you?

00:00:13.78
alexei sayle
No.

00:00:15.19
Talal K
Please, if you cough, please, it's okay.

00:00:15.45
alexei sayle
ah Yeah, hit the button, I know, I know.

00:00:17.59
Talal K
But not the button even. Just leave leave it.

00:00:20.14
alexei sayle
Oh.

00:00:22.28
Talal K
Don't cough and instantly, like, your coughs blend into your dialogue and it's it's a real ball ache to edit.

00:00:29.06
alexei sayle
Alright.

00:00:30.10
Talal K
because so just leave a little pause you know and restart the sentence if possible if you can remember to that all right love you thank you

00:00:33.16
alexei sayle
Hi.

00:00:42.71
alexei sayle
Hello everybody, welcome to episode 111 of the Electro-Shell Podcast. um You're making noises there.

00:00:52.06
Talal K
ah just agreed with you that it's uh one one one

00:00:53.65
alexei sayle
Oh right, i thought you were, right.

00:00:55.77
Talal K
ah

00:00:55.96
alexei sayle
Carrying on the, uh, the German fighter theme, the HE-111 was a a contestant, a contestant in the, uh, in the competition, which finally saw the contract awarded to the, uh, the BF-109, of course.

00:01:01.39
Talal K
Oh, God.

00:01:11.43
alexei sayle
But, um, although some said it was a a superior aircraft, um, I think there was somebody and commented, would love to talk to me about, uh, German fighter aircraft.

00:01:24.04
alexei sayle
we'll leave that there for now. Um,

00:01:26.39
Talal K
Did you know 111 is an angel number?

00:01:29.94
alexei sayle
Is it? What does that mean?

00:01:31.86
Talal K
So certain numbers have very ah significant ah ah magical powers.

00:01:35.73
alexei sayle
Of course they do. oh yeah.

00:01:38.27
Talal K
And are causing according to the Cosmopolitan magazine, 111 signifies that things in your life are coming to divine alignment.

00:01:48.18
alexei sayle
Okay.

00:01:48.28
Talal K
The process of everything lining up for the best is underway and you're meant to have faith and stand strong in the midst of the process.

00:01:56.66
alexei sayle
Okay.

00:01:57.05
Talal K
um So...

00:01:57.98
alexei sayle
Cosmopolitan's still going.

00:02:00.76
Talal K
ah ah

00:02:02.63
alexei sayle
That's a remarkable thing in itself. Anyway, anyway, to um we should, I, this week I thought we'd be a bit more after last week's talk of of of kittens and ceiling wax and magical things. I thought we'd drill down to grim left-wing politics this week.

00:02:25.88
Talal K
Oh, I've got, if and if that gets dry, I've got 20 tips to spice up your love life here.

00:02:28.31
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:31.54
alexei sayle
but

00:02:33.14
Talal K
Just in case we need it.

00:02:35.86
alexei sayle
Yeah, that's very on brand for this podcast.

00:02:39.51
Talal K
A lot of things about nipples. Maybe not.

00:02:41.69
alexei sayle
Oh.

00:02:42.51
Talal K
Let's carry on. What were you saying?

00:02:45.50
alexei sayle
I think I need a pause now. I just had ah an email steering me through the blog of my personal friend and a friend of the podcast, Karn Ross, former high-flying British diplomat, whistleblower over the fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And since then I managed to He's an advocate for, we had him on talking about Rojava in northeast Syria, the the enclave, the feminist anarchist enclave in north Syria.

00:03:17.75
Talal K
Mm-hmm.

00:03:18.01
alexei sayle
And but also Khan himself is somebody who is... you know, ah politically, i very very articulate about anarchist philosophy. But anyway, he was just, I had noticed kind of at the corner of my eye a news item somewhere saying that they'd been fighting between government forces and what they termed the Kurds in Aleppo and that large numbers of Kurdish civilians have been expelled from Aleppo. And what a car with the substance of Khan's blog is that this is, in fact, the um the government forces under Al-Sharah, we call him now. to call him Jolani, didn't we? We called him the artist formerly known as Jolani.

00:04:03.64
alexei sayle
Um...

00:04:04.15
Talal K
The arsonist formerly known as.

00:04:05.37
alexei sayle
ah that this is an attack by his the government what the government forces on the pkk on the kurdish um on kurdish forces that i think they have driven them out of successfully driven them out of uh aleppo and their next target will be rojava he says that they can only have done this with the permission of the Turks, and of course, Erdogan hate hates Kurdistan and would like to obliterate your Java, and probably the um the Israelis as well.

00:04:38.54
alexei sayle
I mean, the the Syrian government is obviously being forced or there's a lot of pressure on the Kurds government to accept the Israeli invasions in Kershans onto their land and so forth.

00:04:54.56
Talal K
Syrian government.

00:04:55.71
alexei sayle
Syrian governments, right? yeah Yeah. You know, to accept the status quo.

00:04:59.29
Talal K
They're very keen to get Western acceptance and, you know, get the um get all their um sanctions taken off and like bit by bit.

00:05:02.90
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:05:09.46
Talal K
America has been taking sanctions off of Syria and that's that's been a big

00:05:12.41
alexei sayle
Yeah, in all fairness, actually, Khan says that the the United States is actually trying to broker peace talks between the government forces and the Turkish forces in opposing those in Rojava, that the the Kurdish forces have tried to, you know, have said that they would integrate their militias into the Syrian army, but the Al-Shabaab um so there's that government the syrian government's gone very quiet on this and you know we what we all feared really i don't know how you feel about this now that what the likely trajectory was that yo al-shara as a as a former islamist that he hasn't really changed his

00:06:04.60
alexei sayle
his stripes and certainly there are a lot of people in his um his coalition who are just straight out ISIS, Al-Qaeda, whatever, Daesh, and that what you are going to get eventually is a, um that certainly the core of Syria being controlled by an Islamist government.

00:06:28.66
Talal K
Yeah, well, he wasn't with Daesh.

00:06:29.11
alexei sayle
And no.

00:06:31.10
Talal K
He was Al-Qaeda, formerly.

00:06:33.53
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:06:34.07
Talal K
Yeah, he's definitely got... Fucking hell. Yeah, he's... He tried his best to clean up and be a presentable figure. And early on in his, you know, ruler ruling, rulership, he did...

00:06:44.00
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:06:51.32
alexei sayle
yeah

00:06:52.44
Talal K
you know lots of it was very It seemed positive because he was going around Syria shaking hands with all the different factions and promising peace and coexistence with the Kurds, with the Christians, with all that. So um um we started seeing ah you know nasty signs when there were clashes and some massacres of Alawite communities in Latakia,

00:07:17.40
alexei sayle
Yes, there's been, a yeah, in Latakia, yeah.

00:07:20.41
Talal K
And that was quite, they did a pretty good press, what do you call it, a publicity job on that because there was some evidence of it being the result of ambushes.

00:07:31.51
Talal K
You know, their soldiers were being ambushed and also the the other tactic, the other excuse they had were that just, it was just the the actions of of small groups of people who were very bitter and angry with the Alawites and they were now finding themselves in a powerful position

00:07:46.62
alexei sayle
Because you have to say that, yeah, that the the Assad clan were Alawites themselves and that presumably the...

00:07:51.03
Talal K
Yes, Bashar al-Assad was an Alawite who were a very small minority um sect of Islam in Syria. But, you know, he did not represent all Alawite people.

00:08:03.11
Talal K
You know, he was just he had his own little clan.

00:08:03.29
alexei sayle
No.

00:08:06.09
Talal K
And, you know, the Alawites weren't even the Alawites who were being attacked and killed weren't running around with Bashar flags and doing protests or anything. They were just living their lives. um But yeah, another excuse was that some of the soldiers were just taking it upon themselves to go out there and cause this violence. And Al-Shara was um very much like, we are going to discipline these people. ah They went against my orders and we are doing an investigation and all that. And it seemed to all just be ah covered up and and pushed aside. And so for the last few months, it seemed to be pretty stable.

00:08:44.02
Talal K
In Syria, you know, Western sanctions have been slowly getting peeled off. um Hopefully over time to reveal some semblance of normality and and even some prosperity and progress in Syria, because that place has just, the economy has just been stagnant for so long and no industry, no no growth at all. And now if this really goes much further,

00:09:13.43
Talal K
He's just really fucking it. he's He's fucking the Syrians and he's showing a, you know, i people wanted to believe that there was a positive side to this guy and that he was actually a changed man.

00:09:23.90
Talal K
And I just, yeah, this is all this is all new to me.

00:09:26.58
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:09:28.73
Talal K
You know, I'm just reading it now about it and you told me about it before we started recording and it's, I can't say I'm that shocked, but I am pissed off.

00:09:36.60
alexei sayle
so

00:09:37.08
Talal K
you know, I'm fucking pissed.

00:09:38.62
alexei sayle
Yeah, yeah.

00:09:39.67
Talal K
um

00:09:40.34
alexei sayle
Well, you look at it, as i say, yeah Turkey is an extremely maligned force in Syria. Obviously, Israel is a malign force. across the world um and you know they their interests align with the new government of al-shara ah and i think it's um ah think the future really doesn't look you the near future anyway doesn't look ah you know, it's what I think a lot of us on the left predicted, really. It doesn't look too rosy. But it's, you know, i mean, i think it's important that if people are interested that they do what they can to find out more about Rojava.

00:10:22.49
alexei sayle
And, um you know, I mean, it is, i mean, it is one of the kind of contradictions. There was ah there was a a highly hypocritical kind of intervention, both from J.K. Rowling, the...

00:10:39.88
alexei sayle
asshole,

00:10:40.76
Talal K
Notorious turf.

00:10:42.96
alexei sayle
and Sarah Vine saying, you know, over the left, silent on you know the killings in Iran. you know Why didn't you say anything about that? um Whereas, you know, you're very vocal on Palestine. Of course, neither Sarah Vine nor J.K. Rowling have ever said anything about the genocide in in in Gaza or the West Bank, so, um you know, that it makes them for a start, hypocritical.

00:11:08.75
alexei sayle
But sometimes we are, i mean, the reason we're also, the reason that we campaign, ah yeah and this is when people say to me, you know, why are you going about Palestine? Why didn't you mention, you know, East Timor or, you know, the Uyghurs?

00:11:25.82
Talal K
The Uyghurs.

00:11:28.11
alexei sayle
It's because the thing about Israel is, Israel is us. We are not, carrying out The bri the ah RAF is not carrying out surveillance flights for the Uyghurs or for the Indonesians, oppressing the people of East Timor. you know the the you know There is not friends of... ah Labour friends of China.

00:11:51.49
alexei sayle
There is not Conservative friends of China.

00:11:51.96
Talal K
Yeah.

00:11:53.73
alexei sayle
Israel and its interests infiltrates every aspect of our society and if much so and pollutes it and makes it, poisons our political discourse.

00:12:06.06
alexei sayle
You see, for instance, our Home Secretary this week, Far more putting a massive amount of interest and political capital into the issue of whether some racist football fans from a foreign country should be allowed to come to Britain. I mean, um presumably the... um the the Home Secretary has more pressing issues than whether, you know, Maccabee Tel Aviv fans can could come to watch them play Aston Villa.

00:12:32.61
Talal K
Birmingham.

00:12:34.26
alexei sayle
And yet the massive amount of political capital and political interest being expended on this parliamentary committee, staffed almost entirely by Labour and Conservative friends of Israel.

00:12:34.52
Talal K
Four months ago.

00:12:44.36
Talal K
Mm-hmm.

00:12:44.73
alexei sayle
And, you know, it just, it it really, and also, you know, they're the a threat to a... the chief constable of the West Midlands for not allowing, again, these racist thugs.

00:12:56.83
alexei sayle
to come to Britain, it's extraordinary. And that's why we protest about the actions of Israel, because Israel is us, and we can do something. We can affect the outcome, and I think we do.

00:13:08.15
alexei sayle
We do at least limit the... I think if we weren't protesting, how much worse things would be. We we can... It is our moral responsibility to um to fight against the interests of the actions of... you know the racist genocideal genocidal genocidal apartheid in the Israeli state because it is us.

00:13:31.43
Talal K
Hmm.

00:13:32.06
alexei sayle
And so it's hypocritical of J.K.

00:13:32.87
Talal K
What else?

00:13:34.50
alexei sayle
Rowland and fucking Zarev. I know incidentally I did Broadcasting House for years ago and seemed like the saddest woman I've ever met really.

00:13:40.92
Talal K
Which one?

00:13:41.02
alexei sayle
It's a kind of Sarah Vine, she was married to um ah Michael Gove, and obviously that that's that's more of a that's that's more of a penance than having your your liver pecked out by ravens, really, to be forced shackled and married to that terrible clown-faced creep.

00:13:57.75
Talal K
Hmm. Hmm.

00:14:02.23
Talal K
Uh-huh.

00:14:03.41
alexei sayle
Anyway, but, um you know, they're the hypocrites, really, for saying that um you know we are we remain silent on Iran. Nevertheless, it would be nice to have a country that, you know, you do find yourself in a way, i mean, you do find yourself, you know, in these kind of conflicts that the where the West acts against countries that fall outside its it's interest groups like Iran, like Russia, like China, you do...

00:14:37.01
alexei sayle
It'd be nice to have a country that you could admire wholeheartedly, really. You know, when you when you talk about Iran, you you have to condemn the mullahs, have to condemn the extraordinary violence and corruption of the IRGC and the Khomeini.

00:14:53.74
alexei sayle
Of course, who came when he after he came to power... with the help of, you know, with the 50-50 help of the socialists and communists then turned around and killed them all. So we've got a we've got more reason to hate Khomeini in a way than and is there as Khamenei than

00:15:08.57
Talal K
Well, Uruguay, Uruguay. I've always said Uruguay.

00:15:13.98
alexei sayle
to ah to admire.

00:15:14.10
Talal K
You can, yes. Yes.

00:15:18.68
alexei sayle
But let's circle back to that. um But ah yeah it's quite interesting Uruguay, isn't it? Because its two official languages are Spanish, but also Guarani, which is the native indigenous population's language. And it does it's a place where people say they're happier than anywhere else. and

00:15:39.65
Talal K
yep and it's a stable country uh progressive politics cultural sophistication i'm just reading the uh overview here on google um

00:15:41.30
alexei sayle
Don't know that much. Yeah. Yeah.

00:15:54.39
Talal K
but um it's got strong agricultural industry. But yeah, the the leadership there just seems to be totally like on the level, man.

00:16:06.50
Talal K
They've legalized cannabis and the same sex marriage was legalized years and years ago.

00:16:06.55
alexei sayle
In Uruguay.

00:16:11.61
Talal K
um Human rights champions.

00:16:15.96
alexei sayle
So it's amazing that they've managed to stay out the sites of the US s then, really.

00:16:23.20
Talal K
Well, yes, I guess then natural resources aren't a big kind of honey trap.

00:16:28.79
alexei sayle
And they're not explicitly socialist, but just kind of sensible.

00:16:33.38
Talal K
Let's see. um But ah yeah, they've got a blend of cultures there and everyone seems to get along really well. I might fucking move there, to be fair.

00:16:42.36
alexei sayle
Yeah, so go there.

00:16:44.37
Talal K
If they don't nuke South America.

00:16:45.53
alexei sayle
Quedo hablar español muy bien.

00:16:48.70
Talal K
The first ever World Cup was held there.

00:16:54.92
Talal K
It just looks like a beautiful fucking country and there are flights for as little as £700 to

00:17:03.14
Talal K
I'm going to

00:17:04.89
alexei sayle
Maybe we could get somebody else to talk about Uruguay.

00:17:07.26
Talal K
ah

00:17:09.40
alexei sayle
700 pounds, you say, why, Talal? That's a bargain. Which airline is this?

00:17:14.25
Talal K
I've gone off that page.

00:17:14.46
alexei sayle
Is that, is that, what's, what does extra right.

00:17:16.28
Talal K
It's quite a well-off, quite an affluent country. um ah central, centre-left government.

00:17:30.94
Talal K
But the old guy, yeah, Jose Mujica was the was the long-serving president who's the guy who who got me into Uruguay because he used to, even while he was president, would would travel around the country on his no security and he'd drive a little VW Beetle like an old banger.

00:17:52.10
alexei sayle
Made in Mexico, presumably.

00:17:53.46
Talal K
and he'd just drive it around and make state visits and stuff and would dress very casually and was just super cool and, and,

00:18:01.24
alexei sayle
Sounds good. well you add Anyway, if we can just circle back to Java.

00:18:06.26
Talal K
I wanted to make two points on what you were saying about another reason why so many people, I guess, are so much more vocal about Palestine as well as it being our problem.

00:18:06.49
alexei sayle
ah Yes?

00:18:16.43
Talal K
is that that It's just a very clear cut. It's very hard.

00:18:19.07
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:18:19.71
Talal K
to you know There's not much nuance. it's It's an apartheid state. There's a genocide going on. there's if you If you're denying it, you're clearly delusional. you know that's It's very clear cut. And I know that Iran is just...

00:18:32.98
Talal K
ah even it's not the most nuanced or messy topic, but for some people it's too much, you know, it's just, just it's got more nuance to it and people are scared of talking about it.

00:18:41.38
alexei sayle
Well, it has. You have to. Yeah.

00:18:44.95
Talal K
um Because, you know, and you said there's no Western involvement, but you know, some people are are claiming that the the riots were was started, instigated by Western or Israeli or Mossad agents

00:18:57.83
alexei sayle
Oh, yeah. Well, Mossad were bragging that they were in the crowd.

00:19:03.01
Talal K
or at least they are in there kind of inflaming it, making it worse or or making, you know, there are some things that in the protests, you know, I've seen footage of like mosques being burnt or like shrines being ah burnt and like, you know, tourist things that there's no reason to attack if you're a protester.

00:19:22.55
alexei sayle
yeah

00:19:22.94
Talal K
um So, but you have to think that, i don't know, you have to remember that the majority of people have been protesting this government for a very long time, with or without Mossad's help.

00:19:33.62
alexei sayle
Yes, it's a terrible government. Yeah.

00:19:36.73
Talal K
And the majority of these protesters must be, can't all be Mossad, you know? They're there trying to fight for their liberation and they' it's gone to breaking point.

00:19:42.58
alexei sayle
No, true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we shouldn't. You know, we shouldn't.

00:19:49.75
Talal K
I don't think we should be scared of talking about it.

00:19:50.26
alexei sayle
It's corrupt, yeah, violent, rep yeah repressive state, yeah.

00:19:52.92
Talal K
It is...

00:19:57.09
alexei sayle
Because we also have to add, you know, that yeah they wouldn't be there if we hadn't deposed Musadegh in 1953 and installed the Shah.

00:19:57.30
Talal K
Yeah. They're horrible. that

00:20:06.52
alexei sayle
So we always have to add that health warning.

00:20:06.68
Talal K
Indeed.

00:20:10.78
Talal K
And was it in 1979, the revolution against them, against the Shah? Was it 79 or 78 when the Ayatollah first came in?

00:20:18.26
alexei sayle
thanks I 79.

00:20:20.92
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:20:20.95
Talal K
and And I think there wasn't, there what must have been some Western involvement in that as well, right? Or, well, no, they were

00:20:30.99
alexei sayle
don't know he was living in Paris. I think it was largely, as far as I know, it was largely, you know, indigenous, really. It it came from, I don't know, maybe some of our listeners know better than we do, but I think, you know, it was largely...

00:20:44.12
alexei sayle
It was so, you know, it was so broad that it managed to be, it managed to achieve its aims without any Western interference.

00:20:57.71
alexei sayle
Well, I don't know. I mean, obviously, I mean, Khomeini was living in Paris and was, you know, may well obviously with the complicity of of the West. I don't know. I don't know.

00:21:07.16
Talal K
Well, I do know that the Palestine crowd is split on it because a lot of them view Iran as allies because they are they are enemy.

00:21:07.99
alexei sayle
Listeners...

00:21:15.32
Talal K
I'm talking of the Islamic regime. ah They are enemies of Israel and very vocal, very, um you know, they're one of the few enemies of Israel that actually has any power against them.

00:21:20.57
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:21:29.22
Talal K
um so they consider Iran, therefore we should protect the regime and all that, and they must be our friend because they're the enemy of our enemy. And i completely do not go along with that.

00:21:40.31
alexei sayle
Now I would agree with you.

00:21:41.20
Talal K
It's too simplistic to just say enemy of my enemy is such a stupid argument.

00:21:41.43
alexei sayle
that Yeah. Yeah.

00:21:46.17
alexei sayle
Absolutely.

00:21:46.80
Talal K
There's more nuance to it than that. And they are bad to their people. So whether they are bad to Israel or not, and that's even questionable, you know, they must be in cahoots at times with Israel.

00:21:57.56
alexei sayle
Probably on some level, yeah.

00:21:59.64
Talal K
You know, it's it's too suspicious some of the things that happen, even the the the missiles back and forth between Iran and Israel. It seems sometimes a bit convenient, fishy, and they're too powerful to be.

00:22:10.78
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:22:15.58
Talal K
Anyone that powerful is not a good guy, full stop. you know I don't trust anyone with that much power.

00:22:20.58
alexei sayle
No.

00:22:21.18
Talal K
um

00:22:23.20
alexei sayle
It's Salal saying all this stuff, by the way, not me.

00:22:25.93
Talal K
Good. But I think we can both agree to send solidarity to to the freedom fighters and anyone looking for freedom and peace in their life.

00:22:27.83
alexei sayle
send you a poisonous emails no i agree yes yes yes and it would be wonderful to see a kind of peaceful transition to uh a democratic or you know more democratic government in iran i don't know how that's going to be achieved frankly i think you may be you know, you're going to get, you maybe get, I mean, Iran is obviously very different to Syria, but, uh, you know, you, you wonder really what, if, what the good outcome can be in the short term, it would be amazing to see, um, you know, the, the Mullahs and the revolutionary guard toppled and, uh, a genuine government and national unity that still opposed Israel to, um,

00:23:14.62
alexei sayle
to be elected but whether you know whether all the various forces at play will ever allow that to happen I think is uh is moot really it's um

00:23:19.03
Talal K
We'll allow that.

00:23:23.00
Talal K
it's It's really... To be extremely clichéd, I think we're at a precipice here and a crossroads. And it could go either fucking way.

00:23:32.96
alexei sayle
a bus station a bus stop

00:23:34.42
Talal K
We're at a bus station and whichever bus we get on,

00:23:37.43
alexei sayle
Transport interchange. We can get the met we can get the metro or the a bus to the outer suburbs or a tram.

00:23:43.71
Talal K
Yeah,

00:23:46.46
alexei sayle
I'm sorry, what was was your point?

00:23:47.29
Talal K
yeah and deciding which which which whichever choice we make will lead us to drastically different future for our planet.

00:23:51.04
alexei sayle
Which tram we're going to get on? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:56.66
Talal K
um I obviously hope there's no Western intervention. I hope the people of vi Iran will are completely in power and choose their own future and don't have anything imposed upon them.

00:24:08.44
Talal K
But looking at the way Trump is behaving, pretending he's the leader of the world, don't ah i don't know. We could be inching closer to World War III.

00:24:23.49
Talal K
I said it.

00:24:25.00
alexei sayle
Oh my God. Yeah, I think

00:24:25.88
Talal K
yeah Or just just in Iraq 2.0 or whatever. It's fucked. you know

00:24:32.23
alexei sayle
Iraq 2.0 is perhaps lightlier Likely, yeah. Actually, I'd be interested to know what's going on in Iraq. ris I was also assumed because Iraq is a sheer majority nation that they would naturally as align them, the government would align itself with Iran, really. But that doesn't really seem to be happening.

00:24:56.25
alexei sayle
I don't know what's going on in ah in Iraq at all, really. And I'd like to know if anybody's got any insights.

00:25:09.26
alexei sayle
I think we've exhausted that topic and we're not but know I mean J.K. Rowling and Sarah Vine are screaming hypocrites

00:25:13.09
Talal K
Well, no, wait, hold on, hold on. There's Kurdish groups in Iraq ah seeking to cross into Iran.

00:25:22.94
Talal K
Kurdish separatist groups, they're trying to cross the border into Iran, possibly to help with the clashes there. What side do you think they would be on? Sure.

00:25:34.65
alexei sayle
well obviously anti-government but not anti-Islamist as well I would guess which is a good thing I guess

00:25:46.58
Talal K
Yeah, well Kurdish Islamists are less, not as... Hopefully they could be, you know, um communist, feminist Kurds.

00:25:56.73
alexei sayle
yes could be our people SDF sdf

00:26:03.42
Talal K
a I thought there'd be more. No, that's all I got for Iraq. um

00:26:14.39
Talal K
yeah that's all i've got for iraq that is we have reached the end of the khali sat there officially um well no this khan ross um blog is is very interesting it's really real really well written well thought out he's obviously an expert on the region i trust him more than i trust uh and all that crew you know

00:26:17.53
alexei sayle
Okay.

00:26:21.75
alexei sayle
Yeah, I thought this might keep us going longer, but I don't know. feel like I've... If I read his blog, he's very good. Yeah. Yeah, he Yeah.

00:26:38.30
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah. And if you feel, you know, you want to find, you know, ah apart from joining Labour Friends of u Uruguay, um if you're interested, if you want to try and promote a better world, I would encourage you to get involved in Rojava.

00:26:55.05
Talal K
I haven't made any notes so far, but that's the note I'm making. Labour friends of Uruguay.

00:26:58.94
alexei sayle
Labour Friends of Uruguay. Yeah.

00:27:00.76
Talal K
um Go to karnross.com or just search Karn Ross blog and you'll find it. um

00:27:06.14
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:27:07.77
Talal K
I don't know why I've not been subscribed to that since earlier on.

00:27:14.41
Talal K
Shall I read a bit of it or sure have we moved too far from that topic?

00:27:16.47
alexei sayle
Yeah, we could. i don't know if you want. Yeah, I've got nothing else. I thought... I thought... thought I'd... I seem to... I feel like I've ground to a halt, right?

00:27:26.87
Talal K
No, you haven't. You're great. You're in your fucking prime.

00:27:28.34
alexei sayle
Oh. but

00:27:31.96
Talal K
You're doing great.

00:27:33.16
alexei sayle
I just meant now. I didn't mean in my life.

00:27:35.30
Talal K
No, yeah, but I also mean now. um All right, let's do an improv scene based on all that that we've just talked about.

00:27:42.53
alexei sayle
That's not... um How many people say to me, whatever you do, never do Dungeons & Dragons ever again?

00:27:45.72
Talal K
ah

00:27:50.36
Talal K
Well, I get the opposite.

00:27:53.78
Talal K
So fuck them. Being divisive is good.

00:27:56.28
alexei sayle
ah

00:27:57.27
Talal K
I do get the opposite.

00:27:59.48
alexei sayle
ah

00:27:59.61
Talal K
but

00:28:02.71
Talal K
What would you like if we did it again? What would you like?

00:28:04.95
alexei sayle
yeah I don't know. I didn't. i was I was emotionally checked out for the whole...

00:28:08.95
Talal K
I know, but I did like a horror story, very cliched horror, but involving lots of different intellectual properties that you've been involved with over the years.

00:28:12.28
alexei sayle
Yeah, maybe we should... Yeah.

00:28:19.00
Talal K
And it had a Jeremy Corbyn, your party,

00:28:21.88
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:28:22.66
Talal K
a spin on it. So we've we've covered all that. And so if there was, you were being forced to do another kind of role playing game, what would your dream setting be?

00:28:33.92
Talal K
Would you like, like, do you want it to be Cowboys?

00:28:34.37
alexei sayle
I don't know what what's what's possible. it Does it like anything?

00:28:38.25
Talal K
you want it to be in space? Do you want it to all be in the Indiana Jones universe? Like what, what let's start there. What world would you like to be ah injected into?

00:28:49.59
Talal K
If you could choose any kind of your favorite genre or whatever, you know?

00:28:51.16
alexei sayle
oh um

00:28:58.04
alexei sayle
kind of Austro-Hungarian empire, right about the start of the First World War.

00:29:04.16
Talal K
Okay. Okay. What, you want to, like, be one of Franz Ferdinand's bodyguards or something?

00:29:11.86
alexei sayle
Yeah, some, you know, well I don't know, it just gets, yeah, it's just an interesting, just a fascinating, you know, having recently been in Budapest and Vienna and so and Linz, I, am but you know, it's ah it's ah it's ah it's an interesting, extraordinary crossroads, a hodgepodge of ideas, you know, where you got, always said, I remember I did a,

00:29:13.43
Talal K
Okay, Austro-Hungarian Empire.

00:29:24.34
Talal K
Okay.

00:29:35.29
alexei sayle
um

00:29:39.03
alexei sayle
a bit on sandwich bar think about every good or bad idea of this that was affected the 20th and 21st century has come out of Vienna you know I mean obviously Zionism was invented in Vienna it was Freudianism was invented in Vienna you know Einstein and the atomic bomb was invented in Vienna Marxism wasn't really invented in Vienna but you could say you know

00:29:55.38
Talal K
Oh, yeah.

00:30:00.22
Talal K
Oh, my God.

00:30:05.24
alexei sayle
pretend it was um

00:30:07.86
Talal K
And those, um like, shutters, right? this

00:30:12.59
alexei sayle
what shows oh i don't know it sounds venetian blinds i think you're here

00:30:13.27
Talal K
Like, viennics vie Viennese sho shutters, isn't that a thing? Viennese windows? What am I thinking of?

00:30:25.06
Talal K
Venetian blinds, that's what I'm thinking flaty Yeah, they're there there's a scourge on this planet.

00:30:29.82
alexei sayle
Yes, that's... Somebody said, yeah, Birmingham has more miles of canals than Vienna. um Venetian blinds, yes. Viennese blinds. ah Play the vaults.

00:30:42.86
alexei sayle
Oh, God, by the way, talking of sort of Austria, we watched that um Sky Amadeus. Did I talk about this last week?

00:30:50.87
Talal K
Yeah, you said it was awful.

00:30:52.23
alexei sayle
I seem obsessed. Yeah, it was awful. Yeah, I seem obsessed with it. So...

00:30:58.39
Talal K
And so my aim is, you know, if we're going to do it once a year or at least once again at Halloween this year and...

00:30:59.35
alexei sayle
soton

00:31:02.84
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:31:05.53
Talal K
For the haters, just skip the episode or hate listen to it. i know i know you are masochists who love to listen to things just so that you can hate it.

00:31:08.66
alexei sayle
ah

00:31:12.28
alexei sayle
and that

00:31:13.73
Talal K
That's fine too. I don't give a fuck. But ah my my personal mission is to create one that you will actually be engaged with and want to explore and talk to characters and then and you know actually enjoy it.

00:31:25.46
Talal K
So if we set it in the Austro... What did you call it? The Austro-Hungarian Empire...

00:31:29.21
alexei sayle
a strong gerian empire the habsburg empire 1914 close to collapse in the

00:31:34.70
Talal K
1914, who would you like to be playing in that in that world?

00:31:39.05
alexei sayle
Would I be the Serbian, well, that's just Sarajevo, obviously, but not Vienna, but the Serbian assassin, Prinship, using shield, yeah, his Browning 1910 pistol, of course.

00:31:50.04
Talal K
Oh, the guy who actually killed Franz Ferdinand.

00:31:52.35
alexei sayle
Favourite pistol of the anarchist.

00:31:52.49
Talal K
Oh.

00:31:54.21
alexei sayle
All right.

00:31:57.93
alexei sayle
pest of course

00:31:59.51
Talal K
Okay.

00:31:59.51
alexei sayle
um favorite pistol of the anarchist

00:32:02.97
Talal K
Okay, this is amazing. So you'll be the guy who kills French Ferdinand.

00:32:05.66
alexei sayle
i Yeah, maybe I'll be Brandy Princip, yeah, in Saliego. That's the First World War. Rob Newman had a great...

00:32:18.46
alexei sayle
yeah Rob Newman had that line about, you know, the First World War started because Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated.

00:32:20.61
Talal K
Oh my god.

00:32:27.10
alexei sayle
Nobody's that... was Sorry. a The First World War started because Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. Nobody's that popular.

00:32:38.94
alexei sayle
which i think is a great line um yeah all right yeah all right so next if we if there were alan carr what in in austro-ungarian empire all right

00:32:44.10
Talal K
Yep.

00:32:47.53
Talal K
Alan Carr is pretty popular.

00:32:55.26
Talal K
no Like now. um

00:33:03.62
alexei sayle
always think that was a story that was in right

00:33:08.38
Talal K
The joke that killed a podcast. Go on, carry on.

00:33:11.90
alexei sayle
um Oh, I say, you're... Why am I coughing so much? I don't understand. um

00:33:20.41
Talal K
you never bring water to the podcast.

00:33:21.94
alexei sayle
I know, I don't i don't know why it's it's a um you're mean you're You're advocating for the murder of Alan Carr by Serbian...

00:33:30.81
Talal K
No, just making a joke that he's as popular as he's so popular it would start a world war if you killed him.

00:33:37.43
alexei sayle
if Somebody who was... Serbian Nationalist killed him. Possibly. Certainly caused a lot of confusion.

00:33:43.56
Talal K
What is wrong with you?

00:33:45.09
alexei sayle
I don't know. I'm casting around now. Where were we anyway? This

00:33:54.68
Talal K
um Where were we?

00:33:55.85
alexei sayle
can't be. This can't be good.

00:33:58.14
Talal K
you played You played Dr.

00:33:58.26
alexei sayle
You can look, can't you?

00:34:00.42
Talal K
Maverick in Marple in 2009.

00:34:01.94
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:34:02.01
Talal K
Tell about that, Alexei.

00:34:03.26
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:34:03.90
Talal K
tell us about that alexi

00:34:06.07
alexei sayle
Well, it's um it was Marple. I think it was probably the last outing of that franchise. It was done by the same people that did Poirot, so they had a kind of log on.

00:34:21.46
alexei sayle
there Actually, I think I will get some water. you Hang on. ah

00:34:25.27
Talal K
Go for it.

00:34:46.71
alexei sayle
again

00:35:32.34
alexei sayle
back, where are you?

00:37:37.11
Talal K
Hello.

00:37:38.17
alexei sayle
Hello, where were we?

00:37:40.44
Talal K
You were telling us about Marple, your appearance on Marple.

00:37:44.25
alexei sayle
Oh, yes.

00:37:45.24
Talal K
who

00:37:45.50
alexei sayle
So um they treated you very well, the principles, i remember. um You got your own car, drive you up and down to the set, really, if you're in the yards.

00:37:56.92
alexei sayle
ah It was very nice cast. There was Maxine Peake.

00:38:03.74
Talal K
Joanna Lumley.

00:38:03.87
alexei sayle
Brian Cox, before he was, yeah, I didn't mean Brian Cox tried sell me his house in Camden.

00:38:09.70
Talal K
Oh.

00:38:10.36
alexei sayle
He apparently had a kind of a southwestern, kind of New Mexico, adobe-style house in Camden he was trying to get rid of. um i remember, for some reason, had me going on about er how um Fraser had gone off towards the end and him getting very grumpy and then realised, of course, that he was he was in it.

00:38:33.85
alexei sayle
when Frasier really went off when Daphne got married to Niles. you remember there was a Daphne's family, which was the father? Everybody was doing these extraordinary random accents. The the brother, one of the brothers was Anthony LaPaglia from Australia.

00:38:51.26
alexei sayle
Brian Cox was the father. Millicent Martin was the mother. Another brother was Robbie Coltrane, who talked in sort of cod nonsense, that you know that that know, and Richard E.

00:38:59.64
Talal K
Yeah.

00:39:01.72
alexei sayle
Grant, all doing... None of them do in accents anywhere near Manchester, really.

00:39:04.79
Talal K
Nothing consistent.

00:39:06.97
alexei sayle
But I'm Sean Hughes. um And, of course, Joan Collins. always say I had a scene. don't really have a scene with Joan Collins, but there's a seat there's a scene where... where um in a sort of lobby and a body is cast, a body is is is ah it's taken past us and we look at each other. And always say, i you know in the in the breaks I told her about Marxism.

00:39:39.42
alexei sayle
um Which I didn't really, but I couldn't actually think of anything say to it. But um ah yeah, it was I'm good in it, actually. I'm really, for once, I'm really, you know, was I like to dwell on my failures, but I'm actually rather good in that. it was yeah i was one I just used to randomly accept, you know, the odd kind of acting job, really.

00:39:59.16
alexei sayle
um

00:40:00.41
Talal K
Yeah, 2009.

00:40:00.86
alexei sayle
And Alex Jennings.

00:40:01.41
Talal K
Yeah, that was definitely you were doing you were doing lots of bit parts.

00:40:05.31
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:40:08.69
Talal K
Oh, Sean Hughes.

00:40:10.87
alexei sayle
I'm going to you on, yeah.

00:40:12.25
Talal K
Yeah.

00:40:13.69
alexei sayle
um But I did get some stand-up out of it because um the woman who was my driver, her son was something. was it was We shot it in 2008 just at the time of you know the collapse of Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs and all that.

00:40:28.95
Talal K
Hmm.

00:40:29.62
alexei sayle
And my driver said, her son was something in the city. And she said, over here, Bank of America have just bought Meryl Streep. um and so I got i got some stand-up out that

00:40:44.97
Talal K
Well, great. um ah

00:40:48.97
alexei sayle
it's I think you can watch it it's on ITV3 I like to talk about my great shame which is course Lovejoy and the Napoleonic Commode but also that my episode they do it with mirrors I think it's called is it?

00:40:49.14
Talal K
That was.

00:40:53.72
Talal K
What?

00:40:58.10
Talal K
Yes.

00:41:01.59
Talal K
Exactly. They do it with mirrors. Season four, episode three.

00:41:03.22
alexei sayle
to it m Yeah, it's already I'm good in it, really. so and then

00:41:09.44
Talal K
Who's Dr. Maverick?

00:41:11.47
alexei sayle
He's a sort of dodgy psychiatrist, I think. I can't really remember.

00:41:16.39
Talal K
See if I can find a picture of you. Oh, there you are. ah

00:41:19.64
alexei sayle
but look like Zygmunt Freud, don't I?

00:41:21.03
Talal K
you've got a little Freudian bow tie and glasses on, little tiny round glasses.

00:41:22.87
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:41:26.10
Talal K
Oh, you're pulling a nice face in that photo.

00:41:26.94
alexei sayle
yeah

00:41:30.83
Talal K
You're like, what's that?

00:41:30.84
alexei sayle
yeah yeah

00:41:33.62
Talal K
Listening. You're good at listening on on screen.

00:41:35.80
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:41:37.07
Talal K
Do you find that's ah the most important part of acting, is listening?

00:41:41.02
alexei sayle
It is, yeah. I mean, it's well, it's not the most important part. The most important part is acting. But, um yeah, I mean, actually listening to what yeah the other character is saying rather than, you know, waiting to speak is, yes, I would say to all my, if I had an acting workshop, definitely, that you should be listening.

00:41:47.48
Talal K
yeah

00:41:51.51
Talal K
Waiting to speak.

00:41:59.54
Talal K
Yes, in that stretch between 2008 and I'd say, yeah, saying yes to things.

00:42:00.02
alexei sayle
name

00:42:10.26
Talal K
you had a good stretch there of

00:42:12.98
alexei sayle
I was in New Tricks.

00:42:13.66
Talal K
of saying yes to things

00:42:15.32
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:42:16.66
Talal K
New tricks, oh, with my old drama teacher.

00:42:16.93
alexei sayle
Marple.

00:42:21.27
alexei sayle
Which one?

00:42:21.94
Talal K
Amanda Redmond, she' she's from Ealing where I'm from and she used to run, well, she still runs it, a drama school out there, a Saturday drama school called Artist Theatre School.

00:42:23.24
alexei sayle
Oh, right, yeah.

00:42:29.08
alexei sayle
Right.

00:42:34.49
Talal K
And um we would go every Saturday and learn the tricks of the trade. And we'd have special workshops. People would come in and do workshops.

00:42:44.63
Talal K
And what's his name? Ray Winston came in once and and to teach us.

00:42:50.56
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:42:52.44
Talal K
ah And now I'm doing it. yeah oh

00:43:01.78
Talal K
To teach us a scene from Scum. And it was my turn to play Ray Winston. You know, we'd all take turns playing the different parts in this scene.

00:43:10.81
alexei sayle
yeah

00:43:13.69
Talal K
And I remember doing the scene, it's when he's first being brought into a into the juvenile prison and the boar stall. And he'd be shown around. And I i was doing the scene, Ray Winston goes, stop, stop, everyone fucking stop.

00:43:28.98
Talal K
You, come here. And I come right up to and he looks me goes, do you understand how fucking terrified you'd be coming into this fucking ball stall? Any second some cunt could come up.

00:43:40.47
Talal K
I'm like 15 years old, by the way.

00:43:42.33
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:43:42.47
Talal K
Any cunt could come up and do you in. You get stabbed. You get fucking done in. You get your head bashed in. Like all these guys around you, these cunts around you, they're the most evil cunts in the world. They've been in here for murder and rape and this and blah, blah, blah. And you're just an innocent kid. You've been brought in. Do you understand? Oh, fuck. He's like screaming at me, looking at me dead in the eye until I start quivering and my lips start shaking. My eyes start filling with tears. And he goes, yeah, now you get it. Go again from the top. Action. And then I start the scene again.

00:44:15.96
Talal K
With the fear of God in me. and And he goes, that's better. That's more like it, son. That's what it's like. good Very good. Very So his method of acting was to just genuinely terrify terrified children until they look the part.

00:44:33.21
Talal K
That was fucking cool. I'll never forget the flecks of spit flying out of his mouth while he screamed at me. um Yes, ah you were in New Tricks.

00:44:46.39
Talal K
ah Who did you play in that?

00:44:48.81
alexei sayle
God knows I've got very little memory of it I know Dennis Waterman who I think I've said terrible things about lent me his Jaguar and his drivers take me home

00:44:52.41
Talal K
Anthony Marshall.

00:44:59.22
Talal K
Ooh.

00:45:02.87
Talal K
You were finished before before him, I'm presuming. So he's like, yeah, used my car.

00:45:08.25
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:45:09.53
Talal K
Love Means Nothing in Tennis was the title of the episode.

00:45:12.41
alexei sayle
Yeah, I was some kind of sports agent, I think.

00:45:15.42
Talal K
Series nine, episode six. It looks like the lady who plays Dot Cotton.

00:45:26.49
Talal K
But it's not her, just looks like her. Anyway, yeah, you played Anthony Marshall in that, someone called Anthony Marshall.

00:45:29.02
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:45:33.43
Talal K
um Okay.

00:45:36.60
alexei sayle
I remember, because Amanda Redman kind of basically bossed the set, really. i remember I had two scenes. My first two scenes were in a prison an interview room, I think. I was being interviewed by them or detectives. So somebody, they're quite long scenes. I thought, well, I'll learn the first one. And then in the break when they reposition, I'll learn the second one sort of thing or, you know.

00:46:01.62
alexei sayle
And so Amanda Edwin got and she just sort of tore the script off and said, let's just shoot all these at once, shall we, soon as well.

00:46:01.87
Talal K
Oh no.

00:46:08.89
alexei sayle
So, yikes.

00:46:11.95
Talal K
Shit.

00:46:12.66
alexei sayle
so was Especially when year you don't do much acting, learning lines. I hate learning lines, really. I mean, my tendency is always to not say them quite as they're written, really.

00:46:23.67
alexei sayle
But, you know, it's always once you... you get out of, you know, get out of practice, really. It's difficult. You know, the business of learning lines is something that you get better at the more you do, really.

00:46:35.53
Talal K
That's true.

00:46:36.44
alexei sayle
And ah so I was, so you know, was always kind of rusty, really. um Yeah, but she just said, yeah, we shoot all this as one, shall we? Oh, my God.

00:46:46.30
Talal K
Can I ask how you got around that?

00:46:48.73
alexei sayle
I think I just very quickly learned lines and... It wasn't, I think, I mean, it wasn't a show where, you know, I think you could get away with substituting, you know, the odd, wrong word. It wasn't, nobody was that, you know, reverential towards the script, really. So you could, you know, you could get it more or less right, and that was good enough for them kind of thing, really, fortunately. Yeah.

00:47:15.99
alexei sayle
yeah

00:47:18.42
Talal K
Now, we I think we have talked about it a bit before, but I've just come across this ah How to Build a Girl from 2019, where you played Karl Marx.

00:47:30.49
alexei sayle
yeah

00:47:31.86
Talal K
And the lead actor in that is, she's just she's brilliant. She's so good. I just watched Lady Bird the other day, and I think she's in she's in some other stuff.

00:47:38.68
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:47:43.54
Talal K
Bookworm, I think.

00:47:43.58
alexei sayle
Very much a darling of the indie cinema crowd.

00:47:46.81
Talal K
Yes, big indie, Beanie Feldstein.

00:47:48.76
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:47:51.37
alexei sayle
Beanie Feldstein, indeed.

00:47:52.88
Talal K
Booksmart, yeah, Booksmart, I love that film as well.

00:47:54.55
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:56.33
Talal K
Driveway Dolls sucked, that's a terrible movie. But um you how did that film go? how was its reception? and and

00:48:08.54
alexei sayle
Well, it's interesting really because it's based on...

00:48:08.82
Talal K
What was it? You played Mark.

00:48:13.34
alexei sayle
a um Yeah, that Raised by Wolves, the woman who was the Times columnist who was brought up in a council estate.

00:48:20.13
Talal K
Caitlin Moran

00:48:21.89
alexei sayle
Caitlin Moran, yeah. It's based on a book of hers, a kind of memoir, really. I just did it because Alison Owen, the producer, is a friend of mine, and she just said, do you want to is so you can tell how good Alison is because she's never really asked me to be in in anything or ever said she'll make any scripts that I've ever done.

00:48:43.10
alexei sayle
written um but um she's mother of course of lily allen now fiannna um and she just said do you wanna will you come on the the characters on the wall

00:48:50.39
Talal K
Oh, right.

00:49:00.82
alexei sayle
ah talk to the Caitlin Moran character, as it were, and she has this wall of heroes, and I'm Karl Marx, and I only had, like, one line. I'm i'm painted grey, and I have one line, which i can't remember what it is, really, but various other people. Lily was... Lily Allen was there. She plays... Elizabeth Taylor or somebody.

00:49:23.83
Talal K
Cleopatra?

00:49:24.24
alexei sayle
Dawn was in it. and Yeah, there wass a load of people. We just... We knocked it off very quickly.

00:49:27.96
Talal K
Oh!

00:49:29.17
alexei sayle
I think, in all fairness... I think that... the I mean, it it really... Beanie Feldstein being...

00:49:39.89
alexei sayle
know where she's from in the States, but, you know... That her Wolverhampton accent was pretty perfect, but she was... She put in so much effort into maintaining that accent that she couldn't act, really.

00:49:57.54
Talal K
Oh no.

00:49:58.97
alexei sayle
So her performance was kind of... um

00:50:02.46
Talal K
I see.

00:50:03.26
alexei sayle
kind of lacking in any depth because everything was going into just you know it's too much of a stretch really to ask an American I think to ask an American to carry a film playing somebody who is very much has to be from Wolverhampton you know it's it's the casting was wrong really she'd never it she should never really have

00:50:20.73
Talal K
Hmm.

00:50:26.15
alexei sayle
being asked to do that, is it's too much, really.

00:50:30.51
Talal K
Oh yeah, the top comments.

00:50:30.52
alexei sayle
And it didn't. It didn't really work.

00:50:32.34
Talal K
Having a 27-year-old American play a Northern English teen is complete miscast. Very distracting.

00:50:37.72
alexei sayle
Yeah. It's not northern, of course, a middle, it's black country, but yeah. Yeah. Well, I would go along with that. It's it's impossible. And you can it's just...

00:50:48.84
Talal K
Well, they're saying it's distracting, but you're saying she was distracted the whole time, just focusing so much on the accent.

00:50:48.98
alexei sayle
It is like somebody trying to help...

00:50:54.94
alexei sayle
Well, I think all their energy was going into just getting that to getting the accent right.

00:50:57.38
Talal K
No...

00:50:58.90
alexei sayle
you know I suppose it was such a stretch for her that there was no room left for acting, in it for making the character real.

00:51:09.08
alexei sayle
It was absurd piece of casting.

00:51:15.80
Talal K
Just quickly checking to see if she's a Zionist or not.

00:51:18.52
alexei sayle
Yes, I think she may.

00:51:21.88
Talal K
Because I love her and it really... and Anytime i I... Like anyone, I have to just find out. um

00:51:31.34
alexei sayle
think she's married to a British woman, isn't she?

00:51:35.86
Talal K
Oh, yeah. um so You are, as of recording... You're going to be doing a nice event this evening.

00:51:47.00
alexei sayle
Yes. Too late for her.

00:51:48.12
Talal K
and

00:51:48.80
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:51:50.04
Talal K
But you're going to be, oh, thank God I brought that up because it just reminded me that you're also up for an award at the comedy British Comedy Guide.

00:51:50.42
alexei sayle
Sold out anyway.

00:51:56.44
alexei sayle
Oh, yes.

00:51:58.75
Talal K
All right, I put a call out on the social media, but I also need you guys listening to this to go to comedy.co.uk. It's a simple website, comedy.co.uk. It's the British Comedy Guide website.

00:52:11.06
Talal K
And they are doing their comedy awards 2025. And guess what? Alexi Sayles' imaginary sandwich bar is up.

00:52:19.86
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:52:20.24
Talal K
for award. I think it's the best entertainment radio show.

00:52:28.06
Talal K
And therefore, by default, it's also up for best show as well. um I'm going to...

00:52:35.96
alexei sayle
Yeah, I want to get me an award. I want an award.

00:52:39.43
Talal K
It's in the short list.

00:52:41.21
alexei sayle
haven't had awards for ages.

00:52:41.37
Talal K
And...

00:52:42.34
alexei sayle
I want an award.

00:52:44.49
Talal K
We're running software to detect vote rigging. Well, does it is it count as rigging if I just tell all your fans to go and vote?

00:52:49.68
alexei sayle
Oh.

00:52:50.60
Talal K
Please go to comedy.co.uk forward slash awards forward slash 2025 or just go to the main website click on the link and do the form.

00:52:51.54
alexei sayle
Oh.

00:52:55.92
alexei sayle
Look for Lexi.

00:53:01.66
Talal K
Vote for Alexi Sales Imaginary Sandwich Bar. Let's get him on the front page of everything, please.

00:53:09.97
alexei sayle
Definitely. Do you see the Golden Globes?

00:53:10.87
Talal K
Oh.

00:53:12.42
alexei sayle
Ricky Gervais' latest Netflix special got. It is so shit.

00:53:15.70
Talal K
I'm shocked at that.

00:53:17.73
alexei sayle
It so unbelievably shit. that um it's wait Yeah, because he used to host it.

00:53:21.53
Talal K
How could it win? Why did it win? Oh, they just because they feel like they owe him? Because he's hosted so many?

00:53:27.85
alexei sayle
Yeah, probably, yeah. Let's have an award for something good for a change rather than something diabolical.

00:53:35.66
Talal K
He's such an arrogant cock.

00:53:37.78
alexei sayle
He is very...

00:53:38.68
Talal K
Yeah, hate him. a It's such a shame because, yeah, we loved The Office, didn't we?

00:53:45.44
alexei sayle
We did.

00:53:46.03
Talal K
Everyone did.

00:53:46.24
alexei sayle
only met him once, I think. I was ah used to write for the Radio Times sometimes. It was Radio Times award, and he was there. I went and said hello to him, and he said, oh, you know, because he used to live around here, and he said, oh, you were our local celebrity, you know, so I was like, oh, yeah.

00:54:05.18
alexei sayle
But then I was back. I've never been... you know when people really barrel you out the way to get to him? I've never been... I think I was shoulder charged by Helen Mirren, I seem to remember.

00:54:17.52
alexei sayle
but Just people were so eager to talk to him that ah you know I didn't get much further than that really before I was kind of yoiked out the way by various other ages.

00:54:18.07
Talal K
Jesus.

00:54:23.83
Talal K
and

00:54:32.53
alexei sayle
i'm Ambitious celebrities.

00:54:38.42
Talal K
Well, everyone wanted to get on his bloody extras show at that time.

00:54:41.67
alexei sayle
I suppose so, yeah, yeah.

00:54:41.74
Talal K
I'm guessing.

00:54:43.12
alexei sayle
Which I never really liked.

00:54:43.30
Talal K
I'm guessing it was during that time.

00:54:45.05
alexei sayle
Yeah. I remember, but yeah, Alan Mirren's got...

00:54:47.55
Talal K
He's a very insular guy now. Like no one really, he doesn't offer any opportunities to anyone. So I doubt he,

00:54:54.96
alexei sayle
That was popular.

00:54:56.44
Talal K
yeah, I doubt he's as popular.

00:54:58.46
alexei sayle
That, it makes, I mean, it's such a it's such a bad show, that immortality, in every way possible.

00:55:07.13
Talal K
Oh, it's not called mortality. So it's called something to do life, life.

00:55:11.93
alexei sayle
What's it called, Mortality?

00:55:13.78
Talal K
Oh, the standup show.

00:55:15.19
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:55:15.70
Talal K
Yes. I didn't i don't haven't watched Ricky Gervais special since.

00:55:19.32
alexei sayle
No, it was a bit of it. It's terrible.

00:55:25.10
Talal K
It's just that when I was young, when I was literally like in my mid-20s, I'd watch it and I'd i'd remember his first couple. What was it called? Science or Politics. Maybe those was that was the name of the first two.

00:55:37.66
Talal K
I'd watch it and laugh because it was so like, oh he's the only one who dares to say the fucking thing that no one dares to say. And that was just, that's why it was funny.

00:55:44.44
alexei sayle
Yeah. Yeah.

00:55:46.97
Talal K
um And it really takes, you grow older and you learn that's not what being funny is.

00:55:52.41
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:55:55.38
Talal K
Just what, hurting people's feelings.

00:55:56.92
alexei sayle
and I think Stuart feels, and now Robin Inters, he stole a lot of that from, or took a lot that, shall we say, from Stuart.

00:56:04.57
Talal K
I saw him fucking live and Robin Ince was supporting him.

00:56:07.77
alexei sayle
Yeah, Robin Inters turned against him now, though.

00:56:10.23
Talal K
I'm sure. And I'd love to ah ask Robin about that if he would talk about it.

00:56:14.36
alexei sayle
Let's get him on.

00:56:15.40
Talal K
He's well up for it. And with this and his recent...

00:56:17.10
alexei sayle
Let's do that, yeah. He's interviewing me. We should plug my the stuff, much neglected Lexis House stuff, which has been... There's a special a show and showing at the Bristol Slapstick Festival in February, me being interviewed by Robin Inns, trying to revive stuff, right get place it in and its true pantheon of...

00:56:42.61
Talal K
It does belong there, doesn't it?

00:56:43.61
alexei sayle
Yeah, it's fucking what it does. It's amazing show. Much disregarded. Needs to be.

00:56:49.07
Talal K
Bristol Slapstick Festival.

00:56:54.64
Talal K
I'm just getting the details here so people can book it. All right.

00:57:01.96
Talal K
It's on at the Bristol Beacon, Alexi Sales' stuff revisited as part of the Slapstick Festival 2026. It's on Saturday, the 7th of February.

00:57:14.14
Talal K
um at 4.30 in the Lantern Hall at the theyre in Bristol Beacon. All right? um Join Alexis Sale for a rare live discussion revisiting his groundbreaking 1980s television series. I imagine they'll be playing some clips and shit.

00:57:31.72
alexei sayle
Mmm.

00:57:32.10
Talal K
Let's get Robin on before that then to plug it.

00:57:34.26
alexei sayle
Alright, yeah.

00:57:35.83
Talal K
Let's try and get him on really soon. Maybe even next week. I'll talk to him.

00:57:38.39
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:57:39.00
Talal K
Okay? I've gotten quite friendly with him now. He's really, really nice. um Would you be interested in getting omit back on to talk about Iran?

00:57:48.65
alexei sayle
I don't know, really. it's a but I saw him on Newsnight and sort of... It was a bit disappointing, wasn't it, really? don't know.

00:58:01.28
alexei sayle
I don't want to be.

00:58:02.41
Talal K
No comment.

00:58:04.12
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:58:06.77
alexei sayle
Not sure.

00:58:11.03
Talal K
Yeah. But as a Baha'i, you know, I'm sure his...

00:58:15.16
alexei sayle
yeah I understand they, because they're, you know, their headquarters are in Haifa and, uh,

00:58:15.54
Talal K
hit

00:58:23.86
Talal K
His point of view is as valid as anyone's. You know, it's all part of the conversation.

00:58:26.77
alexei sayle
Hmm.

00:58:28.04
Talal K
um But just a thought. I'll probably edit that out. Okay, so fuck yeah. Another plug to do is to just let you know about the Patreon. Go to patreon.com forward slash Alexi Sale podcast. That's patreon.com.

00:58:43.64
Talal K
slash excel but and support the show please please keep the show going we never want to have adverts adverts on the show we have no budget keep spreading the word um please yeah vote for alexi on comedy.co.uk uh leave us a five-star review wherever you listen to the podcast even if you

00:58:56.98
alexei sayle
Vote for me.

00:59:03.70
alexei sayle
Yes.

00:59:06.45
Talal K
Don't think it's five stars. Don't leave a four star review. Leave a five star review and then write in the thing.

00:59:09.71
alexei sayle
No. How much? Yeah.

00:59:12.54
Talal K
Write in the thing. I want to give it three stars, but just because I want to support the show, here's five stars. I don't care.

00:59:16.95
alexei sayle
Yeah.

00:59:19.86
Talal K
um If you see either of us in the street, what was what's your dream? If someone sees you in the street, I get loads of messages from people saying, I saw Alexei in the Woldemstow shopping centre and ah he was eating ah a tin of baked beans cold with a spoon and I wasn't sure if it was him or not.

00:59:40.64
Talal K
So if someone sees you in the street, what do you want them to do?

00:59:41.37
alexei sayle
Yeah, no that wasn't me. don't know, you say hello if you want. I'm not, um you know, I don't mind. It's not like it happens all the time.

00:59:54.94
Talal K
Can they come up to you and say, ah you were shit in Keen Eddie? Is that what it was called?

00:59:59.80
alexei sayle
Um...

01:00:00.64
Talal K
Is it called Keen Eddie?

01:00:03.03
alexei sayle
Uh...

01:00:03.22
Talal K
Like a little code to let let you know that they listen to the podcast. You know what mean?

01:00:06.55
alexei sayle
Well, I shouldn't say that. It's a bit complicated to say I was shit in Keen Eddie.

01:00:11.51
Talal K
Okay, you were the best thing in Keen Eddie.

01:00:11.79
alexei sayle
I was good in Keen Eddie. I knew the best things in Keen Eddie.

01:00:13.63
Talal K
How about that?

01:00:15.22
alexei sayle
I don't know how they would possibly have seen it.

01:00:18.17
Talal K
if They wouldn't have, but it's like a code.

01:00:18.84
alexei sayle
But it was, yeah.

01:00:20.05
Talal K
And if someone comes up to says you and you were the best thing in Keen Eddie, you know they're a podcast fan.

01:00:23.06
alexei sayle
Yes, okay. All right. I'll know that they listen to the podcast then or...

01:00:27.32
Talal K
Yes.

01:00:28.86
alexei sayle
Why do you think the HE111 didn't win the Luftwaffe contract in good.

01:00:40.42
Talal K
That's too circular not to end the podcast there.

01:00:44.22
alexei sayle
Okay, bye-bye.