Answer Me This! - AMT278: Action Man, RomComs and Marmite

Episode Date: November 14, 2013

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is twitter's fail whale now richer than shamu can i get a help to buy loan on any glue sorry listeners sorry for the fact there wasn't an episode last week sorry it's all your fault you should be sorry it is my fault if we'd done the episode, Ollie, it would have sounded like this. A question from Alex. Because I have bronchitis. So I'd lost my voice and I was coughing all the time

and I wanted to die. That wasn't very well, I think. And Martin the Sandman wasn't very well. Which, of course, is more important than me not being here.

You know, half of the main answer me this duo. That's right. You'd just be shouting into a vacuum when I found you. A couple of you

did tweet us, actually, to say that, uh you know why didn't you do an episode which was just you and martin i don't want to be arrogant and say that i'm indispensable but i think in this case you have yeah and others of you have suggested that you replace me with siri although although there's the cough proof that you're real i'm gonna do that as often as possible throughout the show Thanks for your mockery Ollie I was coughing up blood thank you I coughed so hard I threw up my dinner thank you

Sick note Well in Answer Me This Episode 277 Pre-Bronchitis era Yes as it will forever now be known We asked you for your Anecdote of when you have urinated in the vicinity of a celebrity. Here's a celebrapist from Phil from London who says,

a couple of years ago I was working in the O2 arena. I went to the toilet and found myself having a piss between Michael McIntyre and the short one out of JLS. A doubler. A double Celebrapist requires a lot of technique. You can't look anywhere in the room apart from dead ahead without seeing a Celebrity Wang.

I talked to them a bit throughout the evening having served them but as the rules of the men's toilets go no conversation happened urinal to urinal. Correct Celebrapist etiquette. Well, that's pretty starry but not as starry as this Celebrapist from Adam from California,

who says, while eating in a posh celebrity-owned eatery, I ran into the celebrity that owned the eatery whilst taking a leak. Okay, so that's one you're probably kind of expecting, but thinking, I bet that guy's not actually here. Was it Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro? Wait, Ollie, wait. As I was doing my business at the Urinal, you're not supposed to do a poo at the Urinal,

none other than the Clint Eastwood, not a Clint Eastwood, the Clint Eastwood, sidled up next to me to let his dirty Harry out. Even if Clint Eastwood was standing next to me at the urinal looking down at my penis, I'd feel safe because his eyesight's probably gone now, hasn't it? He's not going to be able to recall any detail. If he was talking to a chair, maybe he would

start talking to the Rhino. Hi Helen and Ollie, it's Lucy from Sheffield in Winchester. Helen and Ollie, answer me this. Is it true that Americans don't have Kinder Eggs? And why? Because they're illegal. They are. Contraband. In fact, you can get

fined thousands, I heard. Yeah. For bringing them in For smuggling them in In condoms in your stomach I haven't seen any evidence That people have been fined these huge amounts That Customs and Border Protection Claim they will charge

But certainly as recently as July last year US Customs and Border Protection agents Seized six of them During a two-hour detention of two men flying from Vancouver to Seattle with Kinder Eggs. That's six. That is for personal use.

Exactly. I mean, I fly home with more bags of Cheetos than that and those are surely illegal here because those things are wrong. Yeah, and they make you buzz for a week. Yeah, wrong and amazing. They turn you orange. Well, that's my excuse.

Yeah. But they said in the article relating to this by the way if you come in with these kinder eggs you will be charged two and a half thousand dollars per egg but i haven't seen the evidence that they actually charge those men two and a half thousand dollars i wonder if they've actually ever really done it the eggs are only really worth probably 80 cents if if they were allowed to sell them yeah do you know they seized apparently more than 60 000 kinder eggs uh from baggage and international mail in the financial year of 2011 it's such a waste of everyone's life isn't it so anyway yes this is illegal and it's illegal

because of the risk of choking oh well it's because of a very specific 1938 federal food drug and cosmetic act which outlaws candy with any object embedded that doesn't serve a function. So a lollipop stick is functional, but the plastic toy is not functional. That's entertainment. 1938. It's incredible to think what the Americans were fiddling around with in legislature whilst we were preparing to kill the Nazis, isn't it? And also Kinder Eggs, they were a long way off then.

Back then it was probably, what, an apple with a wooden toy stuck in it. Sure, OK, but the reason, and this is a serious thing, I'm not going to make light of this, the reason they keep reaffirming their commitment to this is because of the risk of choking. And actually, apparently, three kids have died in the UK from Kinder Eggs and two in Europe. So actually, it's a potential choking hazard it's choking

on the casing of the toy right but that's weird because you would think that there are things like gobstoppers that you're so much more likely to choke on because they're supposed to be in your mouth i know and they will choke your whim and i wonder actually like how many children a year choke eating grass like how many choke on a bucket and spade like kids put things in their mouths anyway i nearly choke on a throat lozenge the other day and also the stupid thing is that someone has managed to get around this ban by manufacturing something that's very similar to kinder eggs but you can see a little rim of plastic in between the two chocolate halves so you know there's plastic within except that could easily be yellow chocolate and you could still choke on what's within it's just the fact that you can see it when you unwrap

the egg that's not fun either is it because that's not a surprise. The point of Kinder is that it's a surprise. How would it be a surprise if you can see there's a surprise in it? There's no surprise there, even though the word surprise is written on the packet of Kinder Surprise. But the child suspects. Kinder suspicions would be the adult version. With like little play handcuffs in there. Actually, there probably are adult Kinder eggs somewhere.

I mean, someone in Europe must have manufactured those. It's such a clever design when you think about it the fact that the casing looks like yolk it never really occurred to me as a child but it's yellow colored isn't it can't bloody open them though can you maybe that's why people choke because you try and chew them open yes you do and actually i think they've they've changed the design for that reason i didn't realize this because i haven't bought a kinder surprise for 20 years what why are you punishing yourself well when was the last time you bought one probably a couple of years ago apparently they've changed the design since the one you're thinking of so the casing we're thinking of is two halves stuck together, right?

Impenetrable. Really, really hard to open. Yeah, really hard to open. The surprise is you can't open the surprise what-what. Wah-wah. Bit of obcom there. But they now have one that's on a single hinge. So it's just one whole moulded piece of plastic with a single hinge.

So you just open it like a coffin and that's the surprise. So where's the danger then? Where's the danger? The choking is part of the fun. Here is another question about plastic toys from duffy from northwood who says ollie answer me this how did action man get his scar well never mind the scar how did he get the string in his back what's the point he's had a lot of damage in action because he has no genitals so the scar really it's on his face isn't it it is on his face yeah that It's a very tragic story, isn't it? It is on his face, yes.

That is just a badge of honour, really, isn't it? Showing that he's been in combat. The story of Action Man is, yes, that he got his scar through... Action. Yes, through action. He was in a bitch fight with G.I. Joe. He was wounded in action, is what he was.

No, he can't be in a bitch fight with G.I. Joe, Helen, because he is one and the same. Action Man and G.I. Joe don't share territories. No, but a lot of people are self-hating.'s the ultimate jackal of my story it's like fight club possibly um so yes yeah americans who don't know we have gi joe in this country we call him action man he's otherwise identical because gi just didn't mean anything not a thing market that's right action however yeah we're all about the action we are so much. The reason he has a scar is because if he has a scar, you can copyright the doll.

Without the scar, he's just human male form, which is much harder to copyright. Now, I take issue with that. Why doesn't Barbie have a scar then? Well... Why don't they move to lay Barbie's face? Well, maybe Barbie carries emotional scars. From all the plastic surgery probably trying

to pump herself up in various different outfits to appeal to ken um well you're never gonna get him barbie because he's not interested in women well okay i actually agree i think um probably when it came down to it especially a company like hasbro or mattel or whatever you know if they took it to court if another company came along and came up with war man you would be able to say actually we came up first in the market with the idea of a doll that is based on a man that's wearing military clothes that appeals to boys and we came up with the action man concept and you've stolen it and actually probably you could copyright that but it just makes it much easier if you put the scar on, because then it's a clear copyright issue. If he's got a scar, it's Action Man.

Yeah, but then you could make War Man with a blemish-free face, but a bad knee. Yeah, and that's fine. Right. Give him some shrapnel. But it means that Action Man can be distinguished from the rip-off ones. But I think kids can tell. I think kids are incredibly picky and brand loyal.

If you bought a kid who wants an Action Man, a War Man, they'd be furious. They would. Well, allow me, Ollie, to blow your mind even further with a little tidbit of information about another way in which Hasbro attempted to prevent potential design infringement. G.I. Joe's thumbnail was on the wrong side of his thumb.

It was on the side where the thumbprint would be. This was just a mistake in early samples. Pretty big mistake, isn't it? But they decided to keep it because that sorted out the fakes from the real i've got another fact about scars great in this context right which is that it might go to help explain why they've retained the scar over the years and that's that women apparently find scars sexy yes but do they find 12 inch plastic dolls sexy well yes where are they find 12 inch plastic dolls sexy um well yes where are they putting these very different dolls um this is a study from the universities of liverpool and

sterling working together on this important research and who'd have thought anything could bring those rivals together they did a study asking 100 or so i think it was 112 or something not big enough not very many no but enough for a silly press release ask over 100 women to rank in order of attractiveness, pictures of different men. Apparently, the men that had slight facial scarring were ranked as men they would be more likely and interested to have a brief fling with than the men who didn't. But when it came to long-term relationships, they ranked equally. That, to me, does not seem to be influential in the Action Man sales pitch.

Because they're not asking these women to rank whether you find a man with scarring or a plastic doll with fuzzy hair and a swivelly neck i'm certainly not saying that the merchandise designers consider this fact when marketing to children but i'm talking in terms of cause and effect here isn't it interesting that a generation of women who perhaps grew up seeing the action man doll and perhaps james bond as well often has a scar on his face might be programmed to think a man like that he's a bit reckless you wouldn't settle down with him but he'd be a good shag i don't think women find scars attractive because of action man i think they find scars attractive and action man has one it's because it shows that someone has had

a bit of life had a bit of a life yeah perfection on a man is it can seem a bit weird like zach effron doesn't seem masculine in his High School Musical incarnation. Yeah, I know what you mean, yes. Like that kind of boyish look often. It's the young girls and the gay men that go for it. Apparently it's different at rarest times of month because another study has been done. I don't have the exact figures.

Another really important piece of work. Scientific work. So I think they showed women pictures of girly-faced celebrities. This was the 90s. They showed them Leonardo DiCaprio. And around the time they were ovulating, women found girly face celebrities this was the 90s they showed them leonardo dicaprio and around the time they were ovulating women found girly looking men more attractive because they associated

them with men that if they procreated with them they were more likely to stick around whereas the rugged ones were the ones you know they would chag at other times of the month okay but then those are the ones who are the typical hunter-gatherer i suppose exactly like in a way they might feel tied down by a baby, and yet the boyish-looking men, they're going to be the ones that have got teenage girls flinging themselves at them. Like, actually, more of a risk. I'm not sure that in cave times that was such a problem.

You know, pinning up on your cave wall. What would you even use to attach sap to that poster? That's a good point. I've got a question. Then email your question. To answer me, this podcast at googlemail.com. Answer me this podcast at googlemail.com. Answer me this podcast at googlemail.com.

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ollie answer me this who came up with self-tanning lotion why are you asking me hilda why indeed ollie's ollie's never touched any i've never touched the fake tan natural glow that's right natural glow every time i walk in the salon they're like whoa winton how did you get like that all on your own one of the uh dancers in Strictly Come Dancing a couple of weeks ago had two doses of fake tan, so it looked like he was trying to black up to match his celebrity partner. Maybe he was, subliminally. Oh, it was awkward.

Hilda says, how did it catch on? And when did the colour go from a normal tan to the colour of an orange? Now, I'd actually argue that the predominant colour of fake tan nowadays has actually come back towards light brown again. I think it's less orange. I think in the very beginning of tanning they did not have the technology to make it an appropriate colour for a human being rather than a fruit. The technology

is innovating and improving all the time but like all these things actually I think this is more about fashion. I think it's more that it's celebrity led. If you think about how the Beckhams looked 10 years ago to how they look now, they are less orange now. And it's not just because... He's tattooed most of his visible skin.

No, it's because the fashion has moved to looking a bit more... And I think it's because you've got these paler women being very fashionable themselves. Film stars that seem to be sexy, even though they were very pale. Well, also it's like everything, isn't it? When it catches on with the commoners, then the trend reverses. Yes. So it so it was a posh trend wasn't it to be pale because it suggested you'd never have to go out in the sun like a poor person yes and then coco chanel decided that tanning was fashionable and then they invented fake tans it is often the case that people credit coco chanel

because they say that her sort of stepping off a yacht in antiv or whatever it was in 1925 everyone was like oh okay you can have money and have a tan. She must have had great PR because everyone's like, oh, she invented the little black dress. She cribbed it from servants' uniforms and then managed to get everyone who was rich to buy one. Well done her, I suppose.

And Chanel number five actually was just from the natural odor of servants as well. So if you know that. It's actually floor cleaner. But the point is, even though everyone talks about coco chanel inspiring this you can inspire the fashion for a tan but of course for about as far as i can work out three decades after that yeah people aspired to get that tan simply by

sitting in the sun yeah they would really frazzle themselves themselves didn't occur to them that there'd be a product to do this for you so it wasn't actually until the 1950s uh that we saw the beginnings of the first fake tan bottled product. It was called Man Tan. Yay! And it still is now because of its most faithful user. And like many fake tan lotions today, its active ingredient was dihydroxyacetone.

That's interesting because most active ingredients in pharmaceuticals have changed a bit in the last 60 odd years, you know, in cosmetics and stuff. Yeah, well, I guess this is a natural thing. It's derived from sugar cane. It causes a reaction in your skin's amino acids, the DHA. Oh, really? That cause them to go brown. I read that the reason why they discovered this

was because a nurse in the 1920s spilt some DHA on a diabetes patient she was trying to treat with it, because it's from sugar cane, and it turned them brown. And thought in the future in 30 years time man tan's gonna really think this is great I don't believe that story although I suppose these things have to be invented somehow don't they no but why the 30-year gap I know that there were some world wars to fight but just don't see that coming well actually in truth there's another 30-year gap between that product being invented in the 1950s and then actually fake tan lotion really beginning to sell in the 1980s is that because people suddenly became

aware of the aging and damaging effects of the sun no but very nearly it's because people suddenly became aware of the aging and very damaging effects of sun beds because in the 1980s sun beds were a huge growth industry by growth you mean melanomas and suddenly people in the UK were able to have a tan even if well not just the UK anywhere northern Europe or whatever able to have a tan even if they couldn't before it was only people who could afford to go on package holidays that had the tans and that grew and grew all the way through the 80s and then suddenly there was all this research saying oh but it gives you cancer um and so that's why suddenly at that point people who had become used to having orange skin turned to fake tan bottles and as you say at first they hadn't quite modified the solution down so

that it is quite as advanced and clever as it is now so you actually it used to stink a bit didn't it and it used to make you buy orange i didn't smell of biscuits or something that was its notorious stench yeah that's what people said i always thought it smelled a bit like stale tea bags but it's similar sort of thing that's interesting because apparently during the second world war people used to spare themselves with tea bags to get a kind of fake tan look why would you need that during the war you had other concerns you still want to look nice so you can have sex with all the gis don't you just look a bit like you've got dirt around your face martin they were painting their legs with gravy browning so they couldn't afford stocking so you know there

was a lot of suspension of disbelief at the time uh have you ever been on a sunbed um my dad has a sunbed at home does he does he ever use it well he's got psoriasis so he uses it in bursts to try and cure that okay that's different then because that's stimulating has a medicinal purpose um but the really rank thing is when he uses it and then bits of his flaky skin are on the bed underneath and then we have a guest staying over and we forget to change the sheets it's happened a few times it's not like the ones which are a dodge form and grill that you can fit a human in it's a clamshell type yeah is it a more portable device no no it's not at all portable it's just a lamp so it doesn't have the bottom half you lie

on a bed and the lamp goes over your body and then you have to flip yourself over and then you have to flip yourself over halfway through but then if you do have guests around use the vacuum or change the sheet or change the sheets yeah it's not hard Or he could just lay a tanning sheet over the top of the bed, couldn't he? I guess anything like that would be seen by my father to be a bit puffy. So he'd rather have his flaky skin all over the bed than compromise his masculinity in such a way. He has a very perturbing values system.

He was born in 1945, Helen. I don't know as much we can do about it. He used to smear himself with tea bags. That's right. Every woman he ever saw was smeared in tea I always wanted my website To look pretty But with my rudimentary skills

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And that includes, by the way, as much storage space for music and stuff that you want to sell or display as you want, and the domain name. You get the URL free with Squarespace as well. That's a storage space. You could really go to town with that. Time for a question of drink now. It is from Emma and Tom, who say, Helen helen answer me this what is the difference between ginger ale and well what

they say is what's the difference between ginger ale and beer but i think we all know that they mean what's the difference in ginger ale and ginger beer right well the difference is ginger ale is rubbish and ginger beer is brilliant okay ginger ale is very weak tasting isn't it is it is it more diluted is thatuted Well ginger beer technically is fermented Whereas ginger ale is just ginger flavoured carbonated water Fine So can you get alcoholic ginger ale I guess that's the point

I think theoretically you could But it would be a mixer wouldn't it Someone would have taken ginger ale the soft drink And mixed it with a shot of something Weak piss Whiskey Possibly I'm saying this like I'm not interested I love ginger beer but I just don't think about it I like crabbies a lot It's a gem, isn't it? What do you have it with? Weak piss. Whiskey? Do you have whiskey and ginger? Probably. I'm saying this like I'm not interested.

I love ginger beer, but I just don't think about it. I like crabbies a lot. Alcoholic ginger beer. Alcoholic ginger beer is brilliant. But it's not... It's like fifth on the repertoire of drinks. I have it like once every couple of months, and I'll have one because it's really sugary. Old Jamaican ginger beer is the best.

Yeah, it's the right thought. Very gingery. Yeah, exactly. You want your ginger drink to be gingery, whereas ginger ale doesn't even taste of ginger. It just tastes like watered-down rubbish. You don't want to gingerly be drinking your ginger drink. God, no.

You want to be wincing slightly, like when you have a really hot wasabi pee. Yes. Hello, this is Anna from Bristol. Helen and Ollie asked me this. I am eating some Marmite on bread and I really like Marmite. I eat it all the time. And I was just wondering whether Marmite is actually good for you in any way,

like it says on the packet, or whether it is actually just like eating fortified salt yeast. Well, it is both those things. It is good for you because it is fortified salt yeast. But it has been fortified with folic acid which can help against anemia. It's full of B vitamins which are very useful for you. A lack of B vitamins can contribute to depression and things like vitamin B2 give you lovely hair and nails. It's high in vitamin B12 which elderly people are often short of but the most important thing scientists think but they are testing this at the moment on rodents is that it's high in niacin which is vitamin b3 and they think this helps boost the body's defenses against staphylococcus bacteria

which one of which is mrsa they say it could boost your defenses up to a thousand fold but on the other hand i reckon to really reap the nutritional benefit of any of these vitamins you would have to eat more marmite than the human body can stomach because it is so salty and usually you're eating it in a tiny quantity you know what uh marmite apparently is good for though repelling mosquitoes but i don't know whether it's good at that if you eat it or if you smear your body with it because if you're smeared with marmite then you're going to repel everything except for marmite lovers who are going to come and lick you, but they are perverts. I just don't think they would.

I don't think the taste of Marmite on skin is... You wouldn't want it near the bedsheets, would you? That's the thing. Even if you liked it temporarily in the moment, the shame afterwards of having a bed that smelled of Marmite. Unless you had black bedsheets, like kind of 80s sleaze. Yeah, I guess. But even then, you would smell yeasty. I wonder if Peter Stringfellow has ever smeared his penis with Marmite.

That's basically what we're speculating to, isn't it? I bet he has. He's done most things, hasn't he? And also, he is now one of the elderly, so he would benefit from the vitamin B12. He's probably just got confused one day. Probably thought it was toast. He likes a tan. Maybe he thought, I'll be a rich mahogany if I put the Marmite on.

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This is from Maz from London. She says, I've recently gone through a traumatic breakup. The kind where you lie in bed all day sobbing into one of his old t-shirts. Sometimes you just want the smell of the person. I am a lover of movies, says

Maz. I thought maybe i'd cheer myself up by watching some films um presumably not ones in which a spinster ends up alone um but i didn't fancy anything too heavy fair enough it's not the time to be watching bergman yeah no one wants 12 years a slave when they're trying to make themselves feel better although it is a heavy contender for the oscars isn't it it is yeah yeah i'm looking forward to it uh but at the same time says maz i don't want to watch anything too brain numbingly stupid fair enough that leaves a lot of films available to you that's right yeah rom-coms would be a perfect genre for my mood of heartbreak yeah of course brilliant well diagnosed i know what you know i know what she means she says being

light-hearted and funny with serious and heartfelt moments okay that's true isn't it you know the tone is essentially light-hearted it's digestible isn't it there'll be dramatic turns but nothing too serious in most of them it'll be colorful exactly uh however she says the idea of watching people ending up together and living happily ever after makes me feel physically ill uh so helen answer me. Are there any rom-coms where the couple don't get together at the end but everyone involved is still happy with themselves and their lives? She says

ironically, as a postscript I tried P.S. I love you because I read in the synopsis that the husband died. And so I was pretty confident that the ending wouldn't involve the inception of a new relationship so soon after the death of a spouse,

but I was wrong. Also, isn't that a Hilary Swank film? She's not made many good films, and the good films she has made are not rom-coms. My experience with rom-coms is limited since I was about 16. We were lucky, in a way, to...

To grow up in the golden era of rom-coms, the late 80s, early 90s. Exactly. I think I was... I'm old enough that I remember when Harry met Sally coming out at the cinema. Now, I didn't go and see it, obviously. You were not old enough to go. Yeah, exactly.

But I remember it coming out. And I remember Four Weddings and a Funeral coming out and hearing about that. And then when I went to the cinema, there were some decent things like Groundhog Day. Action films were starting to become the ascendant, though, weren't they, at the time? Yes. But it still meant that Comedy horror A good grounding I think In rom-coms

And the golden era Of Richard Curtis Before he went really terrible too Okay well that's like Half the film then isn't it I think that's harsh Tall Guy Four Weddings and a Funeral

Tall Guy And Notting Hill Are all perfectly watchable Good films Yes But they'll end up With the protagonist Getting together with his

They do So not good for this situation. So what can we suggest? Sliding doors. Do they not get together at the end of sliding doors? Well I don't want to spoiler it but things happen.

They kind of don't get together at the end of it. There's a frisson of graduate like potential. Well I tell you when Harry met Sally it's almost immaterial that they get together

because it's so near the end. You could just stop five minutes before the end. And it is about Something else. Well it's kind of about the dangers of them getting together so even if at the end it's sort of you're supposed to feel happy they get together it's still fraught with difficulties and you don't know it's going to work out yeah do you i'd say strictly ballroom as well it barely matters that they kind of get together at the end because it is about

other things celeste and jesse forever is a recent film that was about a couple who have already split up and it's about the friendship they have afterwards and that going wrong ish so there you don't have to worry about them that you know it's already happened they're already in your position okay and then um kissing jessica stein that's um a lesbian couple that don't end up together before midnight i haven't seen it but i understand it has a lot of marital arguments in it so maybe they don't end up together something like it i don I haven't seen it, but I understand it has a lot of marital arguments in it. So maybe they don't end up together. Some like it hot. I don't know if that quite counts

as a rom-com, but it's certainly a caper. It certainly involves love and they definitely don't get together at the end because one of them's a transvestite. What about Harold and Maud? The classic one,

I would say, in this genre, in fact, some would say the prototype for romantic comedies is Annie Hall. And of course, there must be a lot of Woody Allen pictures where the punchline is,

and I slept with her sister, and it went wrong. But particularly in Annie Hall, it's about them both feeling comfortable with the fact they split up at the end, isn't it? And also, it's not a relationship you envy, and I think maybe that's important. Maybe what you want out of the rom-com Maz, where it's kind of aspirational, but they don't end up together at the end, maybe you should be looking at friend relationships.

So something like Babette's Feast or watching Gilmore Girls, the TV series. Or you can even watch 30 Rock because it has the same kind of gloss as a rom-com. But Liz Lemon's love life is firstly not of primary importance and secondly pretty rubbish. Probably better to avoid love stories at all, isn't it? I'm not sure I agree with Masley's thinking. Isn't it better just to watch Knockabout Slapstick? I mean, wouldn't it be better watching laurel and hardy if you want to cheer yourself up yeah or or okay here are some suggestions not exactly rom-com but they they

seem to have the kind of vaguely romantic repartee you you want but don't want at the same time rear window that's about a sinister guy spying on people he's not sinister he is a bit i know it's directed sympathetically so you're not thinking he's sinister. Jimmy Stewart, how can he be sinister? But he is spying on people. Yeah, but it's a thriller with comic elements. And I'd also say The Graduate, because firstly, not a relationship you envy. Secondly, it is very funny, but in a kind of horrible way.

Cabaret, not a rom-com, and they're not together. They're not together, and that's what she wanted. It's not that happy either. It does end in the Holocaust. What about Planes, Trains and Automobiles? That's a good one. Excellent suggestion, Martin. In fact, most Johnes films for this sort of occasion of heartbreak i think are a good suggestion black widow where she kills all the guys so she can't end up with him that's a good movie well i think we've done all we can with this question we've offered many many titles there but it could be

listeners that as you're thinking you know exactly the right title that got you through your heartbreak yeah and maybe in fact a lot of listeners have a different genre that they preferred maybe they preferred watching things where everyone was blowing stuff up and punching each other maybe yeah let the aggression i think i would go for musicals i haven't really ever known heartbreak but i think as always in these occasions i would default to beauty and the beast which is a love story so it's really sweet just makes me feel good um or mary poppins anyway anyway if you have a suggestion that you would like to recommend to maz from london of a film that ends not with the couple getting together but is

uplifting and fun uh then please send them through and all the contact details for us are listed on our website answer me this podcast.com and you can also use those contact details to send us a question indeed and actually also on that website uh you can click through and get our love film trial so if this idea of watching lots of box sets of things appeals to you you can get a free month of love film and we get money from them if you do twin peaks they don't really end up together in that so you can try dawson's creeks on there he's always love lawn yes he is uh also i'll put a link on there to the other podcast that i make sound women uh which is a monthly podcast it's about the radio industry but this month i interviewed charlotte church briefly don't have to be interested in the radio industry, but this month I interviewed Charlotte Church briefly. Don't have to be interested in the radio industry to be interested in Charlotte Church,

do you? No, she was talking about the objectification of young women, so thanks for that, Ollie. How about that, boys? Nice reinforcement. You're a monster. No, it's good. It's a good podcast, I can say. Anyway, you can find it at soundcloud.com slash soundwomen. Anyone else got any side projects they want to plug?

Ollie? What have you been up to? You've got an empty life Just this The existential meltdown album is still out Oh yes, fundraising All the kids on the street are saying it Raising money for the arts emergency charity Available at

existentialmeltdown.bandcamp.com Gives you more than enough to do until next week's show Sure does And we'll see you then Bye!