Answer Me This! - AMT421: Camp Classics, Singing Washing Machines, and Muffins

Episode Date: August 27, 2026

In AMT421, questioneers want to know about orchestra conductors falling off their plinths, why their washing machine plays a little tune, why humans got into riding horses, and what our favourite camp classic movies are (we recorded this the day before news broke of Tim Curry's death, so our inadvertent tribute to him is being somewhat critical of Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue. RIP, Tim!)  For more information about this episode, go to answermethispodcast.com/episode421. Support AMT at patreon.com/answermethis, and in return you get an ad-free version of the show, monthly bonus bits, our video livestream Petty Problems – and the highest tier gets access to our ENTIRE back catalogue, including all our paywalled episodes, our special albums, the full archive of Bonus Bits of Crapp on the AMT App and all the Retro AMT episodes. Got questions for an episode, trivial troubles for Petty Problems, or feedback about an AMT old or new? Send them in writing or as voice notes to [e-mail], or you can call 0208 123 5877 to leave us a message. AMT422 will be out 24 September 2026 and the next Answer Us Back will land in your podfeed on 10 September.  AMT is sponsored by:  • Cozy Earth, luxurious bedding, sleepwear, loungewear, and towels for bath and beach. Shop at cozyearth.com and get 20% off using our code ANSWER. • Squarespace, the all in one platform for creating and running your online realm. Go to squarespace.com/answer, play around with the two-week free trial, and when you're ready to launch, get a 10% discount on your first purchase of a website or domain with the code ANSWER. • Quooker, the the tap that does it all, from instant 100-degree boiling water to chilled, filtered, and sparkling water. Shop at quooker.co.uk and until the end of August, you can use our code ANSWER to get free installation and your free Quooker glassware set. • Taskrabbit, the online and mobile marketplace, available in the UK, that connects you with skilled, reliable local freelancers to help with everything from furniture assembly and home repairs to moving, gardening, and more. Get ahead of your to-do list with £10 off your first task at taskrabbit.co.uk or on the Taskrabbit app using our promo code ANSWER. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're richer than you think. Why'd you come in here looking like that? When folks with Pat rear tires, will he just be known as Pat? Us to be this. Heaven and Lonely, Usur be this. Well, thank you so much for sending us your holiday picks, specifically of Cuck chairs you've seen on holiday. Yeah.

And our last episode made you think, I know who'll appreciate these. It is a universal meme, as it turns out. Whether you're on a Jet 2 package holiday or a Shishi boutique hotel, cuck furniture is there for everybody. All your cooking needs. And also many of you. you recommended the October 2025 episode of decodering

all about cup chairs. I've not listened. I feel like already I know too much whilst knowing almost nothing at all. Yoris has written in to say, when you discussed cuck chairs, you went on to complain rightfully about hotels where you shower or shit with very little privacy.

Ugh. Yuck. Yeah, come on. Oh, yuck doesn't cover it like Hulk smash, that's how I feel. Dislike. Unsubscribe. I don't know if this is actually true, continues Yorris, but I heard that this design feature is intended to discourage colleagues from sharing a hotel room when they're at a conference. Or forcing them into uncomfortable proximity with each other's bodily realities.

Yeah. This way, says Yoris, the hotel can sell more rooms, yay for capitalism. Wow. Do you ever get a twin room with a colleague? I mean, you don't really have a colleague, but for me. I don't remember sharing a hotel room with you, Ollie, but I do remember I had a house party in like, 2003, where you fell asleep in my bed. And Martin and I had to just slot ourselves around either side of you. That doesn't sound very me.

What had I been doing? I think it was just, it was such a hassle for you to get back to wherever you lived from East Dulwich on a series of night buses that you were like, oh, fuck that. Wherever I lay my hat. My 20s. At least I didn't snore then. I now know that I snore. I mean, I don't know because I haven't heard the evidence, but I believe my wife, because she has to wear earplugs.

I now suspect that I snore as badly as my father did, and I remember what that was like. And I sort of feel like twin rooms have ended for me for that reason. Like I feel like if the opportunity to sleep in the same room as a colleague to save some money came up, I'd talk them out of it. I'd say, don't worry, I'll pay for my own room. Yeah. Because I know I snore.

Do you think that's the right call? I think with age, there are things that I want to, waste the money on and solitude is one, nocturnal solitude. Well, Charles K from Seattle has introduced us to the hotel comparison site, Bring Backdoors.com. Oh. It's unbelievable, he says, that this has to be a thing, but here we are. Good site to use before booking. Charles, thank you so much for this. It is basically just major Western cities, so it doesn't work if you're traveling outside Europe or the United States. Users can submit. So everybody, we need you to cooperate for the greater good by giving this info to bringbackdoors.com.

Thanks to whoever Sadie is who runs it, you're doing a valuable job. So it's just a blog of links through to hotels where you can be sure that the bathrooms have non-see-through doors. It reminds me of we want plates. Do you remember that? It was several years long Twitter campaign to stop food being served in shovels and slates and miniature shopping trolleys. I was on there once with a trifle in a half-pint glass.

Very proud. I do want plates, although I do make an exception for people like referencing ironically or paying tribute to the British tradition of wrapping up chips in newspaper, I think. That's okay. Fake newspaper? Yeah, but... Yeah, sure. That's quite a practical plate alternative, whereas Slate, pain to clean, pain for the servers,

I can't stand the sensation of cutlery interacting with it. And planks. I mean, I get that it sort of suggests sharing, but also it's like, you've got olive oil in there. It's seeping into the wood. Stop it. I've just stayed in a hotel actually, which had a frosted glass from the shower into the bedroom. Nope. No. Not a wall. So it was only a silhouette, but it was still the silhouette of someone else showering, boobs clearly visible. You know, shape identifiable. Yeah. Also, if you rub your bum on it, then you are mooning somebody. I mean, it's not that opaque, opaque glass. Well, I've got quite a hairy bum. So it's a bit like that

moment in the car wash where the spin is to send. I don't need to see that now. It's there in my head anyway. Did you need to before? Here's a question that Olli might strike a chord with you since you've been on your holiday to Wyoming and survived an experience that I wouldn't have put money on you coming out intact from. It's a question from Sirk near Seattle who says, Olli, answer me this. Which do you suppose came first? The invention of domesticated horseback or people jumping on horses just for the fuck of it.

I think what they mean is, was horse riding discovered by accident because people were messing around with horses? And the answer to that is, it became an obvious thing once you had herders and farmers who were using wild horses to pull things and also to milk. So if you're doing that, then obviously at some point you're going to just naturally say,

I wonder if I could save my legs by jumping on the back of that thing. I would assume that they had given that a go before they were even doing the farming and the milking. But I suppose the point I'm making is doing the milking and the herding and the pulling is in itself a process of domestication, isn't it? So it's hard to say where the point was that they thought, well, let's tame it to ride it. They were breeding horses to tame them essentially throughout human history. The longest ago they found is a skeleton of a man in his 30s from 3,500 BC who has a telltale signs of regular horseback riding on his spine. It's called Horseman Syndrome.

What if he was just like shagging a lot? No, it's particularly like the way the different discs sort of interact with each other and it removes bits of the jelly or whatever in between. And you can tell, you can be like, oh, that guy, that guy rode a lot of horses. What part of the world was that? I think he was in Russia or Kazakhstan. And then also into China. So there are like Tang Dynasty sculptures of people on horseback from four and a half thousand years ago.

So it's that kind of era. And obviously it was a pretty huge and foundational development for human history, which you can see reflected even in the. 20th century in the sense that when people first bought cars from Ford or whatever they were being measured in horsepower because that's what for centuries people had grown to understand. Well he famously said if you ask people what they want, they say they want a faster horse. Had you ever been on one before? Well, funny you should say that.

That's exactly the question that the rancher in his western shirt and cowboy hat asked me as I mounted pale face, the name of my horse. He said, you ever been our horse? and I said the truth which was I said well I did last go when I was when I was seven and he said horses ain't changed

I was at fair point yeah and nor have you when I went when I was seven I fell off and that was one of the reasons that I never wanted to get on horse again plus my sort of general sort of physical incompetence and every time I try and do anything remotely challenging

I injure myself in some important way it was great we went riding through Yellowstone in a group formation and I chose the right country to try horse riding again because they're used to people my size I mean that was the thing like American style riding anyway is big saddles like armchairs

and these huge horses are used to 17, 20 stone men sitting on them so it was no big deal for the horse lovely and yellow stone how spectacular incredible the sound as well that you get of being on a horse and looking around compared to being in a car the horse radio is much cracklier than a car radio You just hear nothing but the nature

and the nature thinks you're the nature as well I think it doesn't see you as a human but it sees you as a horse You are the nature We're just animals, are they? So it was just very serene and beautiful Aside from occasionally, you know

The woman next to me pulling up and being like You guys from London, we're from Virginia But basically the same You don't get that in a car But it was funny I posted the image to Facebook Of me on the horse And Helen you commented

That you were genuinely concerned that I hadn't followed up reporting my safety. Yeah, of course. I mean, given what happened that one time you tried skiing and dislocated your shoulder before even starting. I bought a pair of wranglers, especially for the ride. Did you? 90s advertising still works. What it was is all I brought with me was linen trousers.

And I just thought my penis would have been crushed over the course of that two hours. So I thought, I'll do what the cowboys do. And it was a good call. Did you get chaps? No. although we did get to get a souvenir horseshoe afterwards. That's very different to chaps.

I know. I think this is your opportunity to wear chaps. Hi, Helen and Olly. This is Joseph from London. I got married just over a year ago and due to various organisational things and work and stresses, never actually had a stag do.

I feel like I'm overdue for one, but Helen and Ollie, answer me this. How long after the wedding is too late to do what is essentially a posthumous stag do. And what can I do when the group of us don't particularly like going out for a mad one drinking, but I don't want to do something kind of dull just like having a dinner that doesn't feel special enough.

What can I do? Can I just have a sort of proud parent moment about Joseph from London because he's been listening to this show since he was like 12 and he's now in his 30s. He's married. He came to stay with us with his now husband last year because they were doing a show in Vancouver. Yes. And they do very funny shows under awkward productions.

And I'm like, oh, look at this little answer me, this Ling, all grown up. Joe's never been to stay with me, but I have met him. And he did invite me to watch him once in a production for children in my local library. And so I also feel biased in the answer to be saying, oh, it's never too late. I agree. Why not? Celebrate things. But I don't feel that. That's not what I feel. Oh, okay. I feel I have to say that because I now feel like I know him.

I feel like you'd say to a friend, oh, don't worry, it's fine. If you really feel like you missed a stag, do, fine. Invite everyone five years later. But actually, there is a statute of limitations. Honestly, my feeling is you've just missed it. Oh. My feeling is honestly, on the one-year anniversary of the wedding, you could say, let's all get together and celebrate the anniversary.

I never had a stag do. But I do think after that, honestly, just have a nice time with your friends. Stop trying to be the centre of attention. Not everyone needs to celebrate your relationship. Just have a party anyway. But it's not your stag do. It's over a year since you could have had a stag do. You've missed it.

Sorry, that's why I feel. Don't you think this would be a really funny theme for a party, though? Make it stag themed even though you're already married. I mean, would your husband go, Joseph? like would it be weird to have him there or not to have in there? I think a stag themed party for everybody, more multi-generational, more multi-gender than a standard stag do. That might be quite fun, yeah.

Exactly. But I think doing the stag do, I just feel the moment's gone. I was feeling quite inspired actually for this question because a few days ago, Martin and I had a hankering for evening dim sum, which is a food stuff that's quite hard to obtain after about 2.30pm. It's not an evening food. So we went to one of the places in Vancouver that does it and a small stag party came in

maybe like six or seven people mixed genders. One of them had a groom sash and the other ones had like similar sashes indicating whoever the fuck they were in the wedding party and they had this very civilised time. I wanted to catch their eye and congratulate them

on what a great choice of stag do it was to go for evening dimson but they weren't eye catchers, you know, they were keeping themselves to themselves and I respect that but I really wanted to know what else they had done for the rest of the stag day because they didn't seem blasted. In general terms, I mean, as you said, Joseph is a theatrical type. You know, if you wanted to do a different kind of stag do,

if it were acceptable to do one at this stage, which I think it categorically isn't. And I say, yes. So just pick which one of us. Which of your parents do you love the best, Joseph? What about like some sort of trendy, immersive theatre thing? Can you all get tickets for that? Well, that is kind of what Joseph does for a living.

Oh, right. So, yeah, Busman's holiday. Yeah. Or maybe like hire a country house for a week. end and do a murder mystery? I mean, that's the kind of thing that makes me want to die, actually. Oh yeah, I can't stand it. But people like that. I went to a drag show recently, which was themed after both the film Ratatooie and the album Bratatooie. So you could find a sort of weird show like that to go to. Can't help feeling they started with the title and worked backwards

on that one. Absolutely. But a lot of people were wearing rat costumes, which I think would be quite an interesting sort of dress up for an occasion like this. So maybe something a bit off piece like that. I mean, when it comes to pleasant and slightly emasculated stagdews... Are you looking at Martin? I always think back to yours, Martin. I had a lovely time. We've talked about it on the show before. But Martin Stagdew, as I recall, tell me if I'm missing something,

was basically go for a nice walk and then have afternoon tea. Yeah, that's right. And there was a Chinese meal in the evening on a floating restaurant. And also, tell them what happened when you were having the tea. Oh, yeah, because we were having the tea. What was the name of the place, the Cavendish? off Piccadilly. And there was a sort of full-on kind of up-the-worker's demonstration

happening outside, wasn't there? It was the uncooked protests. It was the anti-austerity protests. We literally watched as, like, people were getting kettled outside the window as we look down. We're on the first floor. We're looking down onto the street and seeing the cops like cettling the protesters. And I was like, I've really picked the wrong side of the class war. Yeah.

As you lifted, daintily lifted your gold cup to your lips. Another scone! Yes. So that just goes to show Joseph that soft boy stagdos are a thing. But I think just ask yourself why you're considering this. Like, what is it that you feel like you missed out on? Is it getting special attention for you just you? Is it having a celebration of your relationship that isn't a wedding?

Did you want to have a lot of bawdy jokes and like decorations with penises on? Follow that thread. I do find as I get older that all I am really looking, looking for is a date that my friends can agree we should meet up. Right. It doesn't matter what it's for and it actually doesn't matter anymore where we go. It's just being together. Just being together, yeah. I mean, I've sat in some shit hotel lobbies with my friends and for the, you know,

one or second time a year that that happens, it doesn't matter where we are. Do that sit in a shit hotel lobby. Woo! If you've got a question. Email your question To answer me this podcast at Googlemail.com Answer me this podcast at Google Mail. This episode of Answer me this podcast at Google Mail.

This episode of Answer Me This is sponsored by Cooker, the original inventors of the boiling water tap. But they've not just sat on their tapping. lorals, the same tap does it all, not just boiling water, but also chilled water, filter water and sparkling water. And you know what I want in this life, Ollie? Sparkling water literally on tap, and they have made that a possible dream. It's like a theme park resort hotel when you get a cooker tap. What do I want? Hot or fizzy or a disgusting warm spritzer of both because I don't want to have to decide. You can have it all. A hundred degree boiling water straight from the tap,

the very same tap that is also doing the job of a filter jug and a sparkling water machine. That's a lot of counterspace this thing is saving. Yes, it's being your kettle as well. And that's the thing that I really like about it. You know how much I love a gadget, Helen, but I don't love to have needless gadgets when I can have one that does it all. One needful gadget for Oli Man to rule them all. Gadget of gadgets, king of kings. Look a virtual demonstration today at cooker.com.uk.ukkah.uk.

to find the right cooker for you. And until the end of August, you can use the code, answer for free installation and your free cooker glassware set. That's cooker, Q-U-O-O-K-E-R dot co.uk. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business

and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at Dejardin.com slash business coverage. Here's a question from Rick Ardito in Brighton, who says, I love camp movies. Anything by John Waters, he says, anything with Betty Davis, Cabaret, Mummy Dearest, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grey Gardens. But my best and campus movie ever is Carrie.

Huh. That's not what it says in the back of the DVD books. Is Kerry Camp or is it just Piper Laurie's performance that is Camp? Or is it just that this film is from 1976 and so it takes on an air of camp. He says, there is the theme of women dealing with adversity through their own strength of will without needing a man. So, Helen, answer me this. What are your favourite camp movies? And also what is it in a movie that makes it a Camp Classic?

Well, I also love Cabaret, Ricardito. It's amazing. And actually last year I saw it on a cinema screen for. the first time and I hadn't watched it in many years. Watching it in the mid-2020s really made it hit extra because it's depicting the slide into fascism. But that made the camp element seem less

camp and more just like sad and sinister. I don't remember being that camp. It's certainly a better choice than the Rocky Horror Picture show. I mean, I'd go as far to say that is not a good film. I've never seen it. I've only seen bits, but I feel like I've seen it because it's so quoted in other things. Yeah, yeah. Look,

it's an iconic and important stage musical and the movie is amazing considering it was made on such a tiny budget. They made it like three weeks using the off-Broadway cast. And the opening is incredible actually. Susan Sarandon is amazing and High Camp and actually like the first half an hour was really fun and tight and well put together. You're really talking it up. But then honestly I think what happened.

The whole business about the sort of audience participation, you know how it became like a lot of people's kind of every weekend movie or the only expression of queer culture in wherever the fuck they came from the middle of nowhere. in the Midwheres. And then they all went every weekend to go and watch it and do the participation and throw the sweets and wear the stupid things. Sorry, the participatian. I think that saved it because actually it glosses over how boring the last 40 minutes or so. Every time I watch that film, I'm like, is this still on? What's happening? After Meatloaf comes in the first time, it goes rapidly downhill and is almost not watchable and makes no sense whatsoever.

All of which is not to say it's not important and fun. I'm just saying it's not a great film, honestly, but it's listed as if it's a classic because it's a camp classic. But actually, like that can often mean, and I suppose this is the thing about the sort of knowingness of Rocky Horror, isn't it? It knows it's a bit shit and it's pastiching 50s B movies, so it can kind of get away with it.

But actually cabaret is better, I would say. Well, I mean, they're trying quite different things. I'd say Clue is similar in that it is less good than you want it to be. As a child, I sort of understood Camp to mean two different things, right? The kind of Dubla Entra wielding homosexual, played on screen by Kenneth Williams. Innuendo. Yeah. John Inman, that sort of thing.

But then also, this thing we're talking about, which might have a gay theme or might not, but is basically flamboyant and committed and slightly silly and often about female empowerment and then picks up a queer audience. that thing is also camp, right? Both things are camp. Yeah, I think that the queerness is important because it doesn't necessarily have to be by or about queer people, but it does sort of invite them in. And also I think camp needs this element of subversion, which might be part of the queer appeal as well, particularly historically.

But I think everything needs to be a little bit extra, like the emotions have to be a bit bigger, the costumes have to be, you know, a bit more than real life. You can't have everyone turning up looking like they work at the gap. Like they need to have bold costuming. Often cartoonish, yes. In the US, they also use the word campy, which has a slightly different definition to camp, but I don't think we use that term as much in British English.

I think camp is hard to define in a direct way, and that became very evident in 2019 when the Met Gala theme was camp and a lot of celebs and designers didn't get it. Oh, no, did they do that? I don't think camp is that hard to define. I'm not saying I know how to define it, but I think there are definitions of it.

like it's been extensively studied. I just think a lot of celebrities don't get it or they don't want to look silly. Or they're too rich. I do think there is a point where it's too high end to be camp anymore. Yeah. Because I guess the subversion

can't survive a certain wealth level. Well, no, but hold on. A gold toilet is camp. Exactly. Julian Fellows is camp. Lloyd Weber is camp. Yeah, but they're not billionaire rich. The Kardashians aren't camp.

No. And they're richer than Julian fellows. Donald Trump is a bit camp, though. Sorry to bring him up on our show. We've tried to keep him out of it. Trump is pretty camp. Yeah. One of the things that characterises camp to me is things are either so sincere they come round to kind of tongue in cheek and campness like Celine Dion and vice versa.

Like some things are so over the top they come around to sincere again. Whereas not all sincerity does that. Like Limamuel Miranda's sincerity doesn't really... He's too much of a nerd. I think some actors get it like Parker Posey and Olivia Coleman. And I'd say Jason Statham as well. Less in the John Inman way. I mean very specifically Jason Statham in Spy, which is where I think you get the archetypal doing something with such commitment that it comes around to camp, even though I think he's quite tongue-in-cheat.

And same with Michael Kane in the Muppet Christmas Carol. I think that's kind of camp because he's playing it like he's in the Royal Shakespeare Company. Yes, it's Pento element as well. Meatloaf, would you agree, is camp? Yeah. But weirdly, it's camp because it's Gothic. Like, that's the thing it is first. It's gothic, but it's so over the top gothic that it then becomes camp.

I think there's a little edge of humour in it, even though it feels very self-serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a knowingness. It's an almost pastiche. Like when you're watching the John Waters things, we went to see polyester last year in O'Darama. And I felt like some real emotion watching Divine play this housewife where like everything in life is going wrong and everyone around her sucks. But still, like the costumes, the setting, the fact that you've got this scratch and sniff thing.

really take the edge off. So if I'm going to pick one, it's Little Shop of Horrors. Yes, I was thinking about that. They had to famously re-film the ending to that movie because test audiences hated the ending, which is the same as in the West End of Broadway musical, everyone dies. Yes, and it's like an anti-capitalism message.

Yeah, don't feed the plants. But the point is, in the theatre, everyone knew that it was a silly camp joke the whole way through and it's arch, and then they all come on covered in vines and blood, and it's the same cast. Whereas in the film, the audience get really attached. So even though it's cartoonish and silly and heightened,

you can still have real emotion for those characters. They wanted Seymour and Audrey to get together. They didn't want them to die. Yeah. I also think some directors are trying too hard. Like Emerald Fennell is trying too hard to be camp and to make a camp classic, but there's not enough else there.

We watched teenage sex and death at Camp My Asthma the other day and Gillian Anderson was delivering camp, but maybe so much that it sort of made the camp mirage fade for me. But I think Boots Riley has quite an element of camp, even though that's not the like main stick. I'd say magic realist with a side order of camp. Yeah, he's got a sense of fun.

I think some things aren't camp at the time and then become camp afterwards as well. I feel this watching reruns of Wogan. Oh, yeah. There was nothing ostensibly camp about Wogan in the 80s. Like in the 80s, that was just mainstream television. And Terry Wogan was like a heteron. tro's slab of he's everyone's dad, right?

And he's interviewing big names. But you watch it now, and it's like this softly spoken jocular man with his legs folded, talking to Sophia Loren in a pink set. And so things that didn't feel camp at the time then become camp. I feel like the one show is camp, even when it doesn't think it's being camp, right? I suppose conversely, so a lot of the definition of camp that people were working with for decades was from Susan Sontag's essay notes on camp, which I think was from 1968. but the things she lists as examples now

I don't think really resonate today because it was nearly 60 years ago and so we're not really thinking about things from the 1890s or the 1920s in such a way so maybe Wogan is like right at the perfect point for you to find him camp now and then another 30 years you'd be like

this just looks like antiques I'm thinking now what on BBC 4 isn't camp I'll name a couple of my favourite camp movies Rick Cardito strictly ballroom and I don't really like any other Bazelerman film and I think in some of them he was really trying for camp like Elvis and I couldn't stand it but strictly ballroom is like perfectly.

I think it goes far to say achieving camp in Moulon Rouge. Yeah, but I didn't like it. I've not seen it. It may not be to your taste. Since it came up, but it just really didn't gel for me. Fucking love Moulon Rouge. Strong disagree with you on that. And the other one I thought was the Peter Oustinoff version of Evil Under the Sun.

Oh yes. A lot of the credit for that goes to Maggie Smith who looks absolutely amazing in these looks that are meant to be 1930s but are made in the 1980s. And then most of it is because of Hercul Poirot's swim outfit. He's got this like orange beret. He's got this amazing print robe. He's got shoes that lace all the way up the calf, like ballet shoes. And he's got a swimsuit which has like this huge monogram on the chest pocket pocket square. Come on. You sent me a clip of this on YouTube just before we started recording. I was interested just to see Peter Eustinoff being a lead actor. I didn't realize he actually played the main part in things.

Oh yeah, he did six Poirot films. Right. I just thought he was someone who was like famous in the 60s and turned up in cameos, basically. No, he did the best version of Death on the Nile. He's not my favourite Poirot, but that is the best Death on the Nile. However, even though Death on the Nile, like Evil Under the Sun, has Peter Oustinoff in it, wearing a lot of the same costumes, and it has Maggie Smith in it, and it has Angela Lansbury, and it has Betty Davis, as cited by Rick Ardito.

Right. Death on the Nile does not achieve the same campus, and why is that? Couldn't work it up. Why is that? death on the aisle, no, maybe because the hats are so huge and evil under the sun. And I do love camp where there's a highly specific outfit for something. All right. So you're choosing Evil Under the Sun?

Martin. Calamity Jane. Oh, lovely choice. Great songs. Two women living together and loving together and learning together. Calamity Jane and Evil Under the Sun, a very good Saturday afternoon, don't really want to have to get up and do anything watches. And maybe that is another criterion for camp things.

Possibly, yes. brings joy into dismal afternoons. Or just slobbing afternoons. This summer I'm getting wed to my sweetheart. We've got the cake that dress the band, it's Captain Beefheart. And we'll both drive down the aisle in a pair of matching go-carts. The photos will be epic. We use Squarespace.com to build our wedding website.

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On top of all the other things they do. Yeah, and sponsoring this show, which is quite possibly the most important thing they do. I think so. Head to Squarespace.com slash answer for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, you can save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using our code. Answer.

Hi, Helen, Ollie and Martin. This is Craig in Toronto. I'm an opera guy and was listening to just random recordings the other day. Came across a Marian Anderson song called DiForelli. And the lyrics are in German, which I don't speak. But the melody was, I don't know if in the U.K. I don't know if in the UK it's the same thing, but here, that's the sound that my washer and dryer makes at the end of a cycle.

So answer me this. Are there other chimes out in the wild that are just repurposed classical music songs? Craig, I really enjoyed your rendition of washing machine song. Our washing machine just makes a subtle click when it's finished, but our dryer goes, right. 10 minutes before finishing and then again, I wish it didn't.

It's truly unnecessary. It's like it's doing squats. It's like, I'll get the gist that you finish because you're no longer rumbling, all right? I think what we all want is something in between the two, right? You want a subtle... I want Craig setting on the dryer,

go, do, do, do, do. A subtle and pleasant, but clear, alert that the washing machine has finished its cycle so that you can hear it and the clothes don't get overly damp. But also what you do not want, and I know because I also have this Samsung washing machine, Greg. What you do not want is the entire rendition that Samsung preload of D. Farrell, the Trout, by Franz Schubert, in 8bit. Oh, I see. You have it too good. It's 28 seconds long, I timed it.

It's just too long. I guess that does feel long when your dryer is singing to you. So the bit that he sang on that phone call is half a few. of it. It then carries on. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And you're like, okay, finish. And it goes, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And you're like, finish. And there goes, duh-da-da-da-da. For God's sake, too much. It's like to the extent where I've had guests to my house openly laugh, because

it's like you're sitting having dinner. So in British houses, very often the washing machine is in the kitchen or in a utility room adjacent to the kitchen. I know you Americans don't have that. But it means that if people come over and they're sitting in your kitchen, they have to hear this 30 second long thing. It won't surprise you to know that the most popular Google search on this song after what is the song that a Samsung washing machine does is how do I stop the song that my Samsung washing machine does?

But can you just switch the machine off and that will stop it in its tracks? I don't think so. No, I've never stopped the song. Maybe I've never got there soon enough. I've not run over to it. But no, you can turn it off so it doesn't make a noise. But like I say, that's not what you want either because you want to have an alert. And I think the person who said this the best was Dieter Rams, the brawn designer who famously inspired Apple.

He said, quote, never forget that a good product should be like a good English butler. They're there for you when you need them, but in the background at all other times. I'm like, that is what they failed at with this. Your washing machine has main character syndrome. Exactly that. Now, as samples of relatively obscure Austrian classical music go, it's not a badly chosen snippet. Sure, that's not the point, is it? Samsung haven't said much about it, but a few years ago, in response to a press inquiry,

Shane Higby, the head of home appliance business for Samsung America, said, The incorporation of this melody comes from Samsung's belief that the home should be a place of comfort and that home appliances should blend naturally into consumers' lifestyles, whereas the traditional, more industrial-sounding alerts from appliances can be unpleasant and distracting, like you're saying. But some of my appliances make no noise. It's like my toaster doesn't start singing Handel, and that's fine. Well, I've been caught out by a toaster that's not turned itself off before. Nearly set fire to our countertop, actually.

So I would kind of like a ping. Do you think they've chosen such a long piece of music to give people time to rush from their cavernous dwellings to the washing machine side? And they're like, well, if you just cut that down to 10 seconds, people wouldn't have the time. They wouldn't hear it. I think more likely it's the opposite of what the representative of Samsung is saying. It's not true.

what you're saying that it's been. Of course. I think what it really is, is that Samsung want other people in your house to know you've got a Samsung. And that's often what lies behind these corporate chime sounds. Kia used to do one called the Rise of Surprise. I was interested in this because it would happen

every time you got in their car. No. It would play the Kia rise of surprise at you. And the idea was you'd hear the rise of surprise in their advertising, in their telephone hold music, everywhere you'd encounter Kia you'd hear the rise of surprise

so that then when you get in someone else's Kia you get the trigger of all those associations that they've spent time building up and you think oh Helen's got a Kia I better get a Kia it's kind of that I would think I'm never going to buy a fucking Kia because it's never going to stop selling me shit I think ultimately that might be why they stopped

using it I think they have to be very subtle these things for you to actually like again like another bad example of this but also good from a branding perspective would be the AOL you've got mail You remember that? You've got mail. Only from pop cultural citations rather than personal experience. I never used AOL.

The idea of telling you in a warm way that an email has come through, if it happened once a day, like the postman coming, would be quite cool. But the problem was they were the most popular internet service in the States. So you'd have an office full of computers. And emails come 20 times a day. It's constantly going, you've got mail, you've got mail, you've got mail. You've got mail. You've got mail.

So then you grow to hate it, which is the opposite of what it should do. And I think sometimes they just misjudge these things. When Sonic branding, that's what it's called, is done subtly, you don't notice it. That's the point, isn't it? It's only afterwards that you're like, oh yeah, those chimes do represent Microsoft or whatever, but I haven't consciously thought that. A new research for the key advice of surprise thing, Oli. Did you happen to go to their website and realise that they have it rendered in all sorts of different styles?

I didn't, but it doesn't surprise me. You can listen to the original version, but there's a reggae version, there's an Irish version, there's a Bosonova. Like our email jingles. Yeah, yeah. Oh, wow. Do you think they listen to answer me this? We've had those since 2007. I don't think this has been around that long.

So I didn't, but that doesn't surprise me because that is what this leads to, this nefarious practice. So I've noticed that like MasterCard, for example. So, like, okay, I think MasterCard have done this quite well in exactly what I was just saying, I've never really consciously noticed this, so it's probably quite good. apparently whenever you spend with a mastercard the machine the touchpoint makes their noise whatever it is right I've never noticed that but it's there but then they adapted this into their sonic branding template there is a mastercard album called priceless

which is artists singing to those chords in a variety of different styles no capitalism just has no chill exactly why make that available for public consumption I mean, by all means, internally, make a playlist of songs that the marketing people are happy to soundtrack adverts for MasterCard. But why would that be a thing that people would want to listen to? It's just so bizarre. I don't want to object to musicians getting paid, but I'm afraid in this case, I do.

You know what? A surprising outcome of this conversation is that it has warmed me to my dryers, obnoxious siren. Because at least it's not trying to be cool and not trying to sell me anything. it just is. Well, maybe that's what you think. I'll have you know that was actually written by Brian Eno and cost $10 million. Oh, I love it.

It's my favourite song now. To answer the question directly then, are there other classical songs which have been repurposed in modern appliances? Yes, Zogi Rushi's rice cookers use twinkle, twinkle little star when you start them up. Oh, adorable.

Is that classical song? Yes, it is. Yes, Mozart played it. And perhaps the most successful example is the Nokia ringtone, which is a section of the grand vowels by the Spanish guitarist Francisco Turinga. Oh, wow. I didn't know that.

That seems like the kind of thing we would have answered on this show in like 2011. 2007. When people were listening on their 3310s. It is a surprisingly beautiful piece of music, but it is just a tiny extract. A classical piece of Spanish guitar, yes. That's incredible. There you go. Oh, you weren't joking about twinkle-twin-twin-a-lid-a-wrange by Mozart.

That's a real thing. Yeah. Jesus. I thought you were fucking with me. Blowing minds today, Ollie Man. Please send us an email. We love to keep in touch. If you send us an email, we'll like you very much.

It's... I'd serve me this podcast at Googlemail.com. That's... Arseigne me this podcast at Googlemail.com. So please send us an email, or we won't know you're there. And if we like your email, we'll read it out on it. Here's a question of food from A who says. Helen answered me this.

What are English muffins called in England? We call them muffins. And guess what? The other kind of muffins is also called muffins. Sometimes we call them American muffins. Yes. But I'd say English muffins are rarely served at a place where you have to order food. So confusion isn't that much of an issue when you're ordering.

Well, okay, I was in the States recently and went to numerous breakfast places and I saw English muffins on the menu and I had that disconnect of like, okay, that's named after my country but I can't visualize what that is. And of course, when it arrived, I was like, oh yeah, it's the thing you put on an egg hollandays, yes, one of them. Under an egg hollandahs. Well, you're sure? True.

It's an egg muffin, basically, right? Most British people relate to the English muffin, ironically, through the McDonald's bastardization of the egg muck muffin. Oh, do you think? I think so. Really, I don't agree with that. I've never had one, I don't think. I understand why you're saying it. I say that is globally how more people would relate to it.

Yes, that's fair. I think in Britain, I suspect more egg macmuffins are sold than any other kind of English muffin. I don't know, because sometimes muffins are like 50p a pack for a supermarket own brand. I mean, okay, maybe I've grown up in a muffinless world. It's like you never buy crumpets, Ollie, so I don't trust your opinion on toastables. Here's a bit from the Oxford Companion to Food, which is a really cool encyclopedia of food stuff. under muffin. They're talking about the English muffins specifically. Muffins were most popular during the 19th century when Muffin men traversed town streets at tea time, ringing their bells.

Like in the song, did you see the Muffin Man? Yeah. In the 1840s, the Muffin Man's bell was prohibited by Act of Parliament because many people objected to it. Nimbies. Anyway, the prohibition didn't work because people love muffins so much. I would love what is effectively a savory ice cream tune now. When you, you know when the ice cream van goes past and the kids get excited? I'd love there to be a savoury toast snack that came past like that now.

I'd be all over that. Maybe one that the washing machine's not using already. Save confusion. I would welcome a crumpet and muffin van for sure. But what have we got to do to get it? Well, I suppose it depends what kind of muffin they're retailing off the back of that thing. A couple of motels that we stayed at

when we were in the States had the sort of shrink-wrapped microwavable ones with the American cheese and the reconstituted omelette inside. No. That's more like a symbolic breakfast. than one that you should actually put into your mouth. Exactly.

You know, like those hamburgers that are made out of gummy sweets. Right. It's barely as muffin-y as that. It represents a muffin, but it has no business being called one. I would still prefer a shit English muffin to nearly all of the cakey kind of muffin. Those are so disappointing, nearly all the time. Well, I wonder if that's because you're not a coffee drinker. It's a very good accompaniment to a cup of coffee a muffin.

Okay. A cakey muffin, not an English muffin. I'll take your word for it, but they're often so dry. That was why it's a good accompaniment, you see, because the coffee is very much not dry, it's very wet. But the thing you don't want to do is you don't want to dip the muffin in the coffee because it breaks off in the coffee and that's a disaster. What you want is mouth mouth, mouthful of muffin and then as it's getting dry in your mouth, swig of coffee, that's... Oh, it's making me feel happy, just talking about it now. Well, I'm happy, you're happy.

Here's another question of breaded breakfast items on the phone line. Hello, Helen, Ollie, Martin the sound man. it's Douglas here from a little village called Calerne near Loch Lomond. I'm a long-time listener, first-time caller, and my question is regarding the most wonderful thing of toast. I've loved toast since I was a teenager. It's the first thing you learn to make, and God, it sees you through the hard times.

But my question regarding toast is about its uniqueness and the fact that you have to cook it in two different ways in order to get your end product. You've got to make the bread. That's one piece of cooking. You've got to bake your dough to get bread. But then you've got to take a slice out of it. You obviously don't cook the whole loaf again.

So you've got to slice it and then cook it again in the toaster to get toast. I've asked a few people about this and they've come back to things like twice-cooked chips. But you can make chips by cooking them once and even the second cook. You're starting with a chip and ending with a chip. You're not changing what it is.

whereas obviously you're going from bread to toast. So if you could answer me this, what else? If anything, do you have to cook twice in different ways to get your end product? So isn't the most famous example biscuits? Right, it's in the name biscuit, twice cooked. You cook them and then you cook them again to dry them out. Yeah, but hold on. When you twice cook the biscuit, after the first time, is it a usable ingredient?

Because that's what he's saying, the bread is. a product. A half-cooked biscuit is useless to anybody, so it's not the same. Things that are cooked and are cooked again, there's loads of examples like all of the sauces in lasagna, pie fillings, a rhubarb for a rubal crumble, bagels, they're boiled, then baked. Pard-boiled potatoes, and you then roast them. But you don't eat the par-boiled potato? You do, you can. You can eat a boiled potato. You can? People do. Hold on. The bolognaise in the lasagna that you referred to. Yes. That is a good answer. And the tomato sauce. Yes. And the bechamel. Yes. But are you transformed...

The point is you haven't really transformed what it is. The lasagna is made up of the constituent ingredients, of which one of them happens to be a cooked ingredient, Bollamase. But it doesn't change what it is. It's just an ingredient in lasagna. Oh, the toast, I think, is less transformed than a sauce being put in a lasagna is transformed. I disagree.

I think the toast has transformed the bread. I've thought of the one anyway. This is the one. Is it polenta cakes? Is that transforming a porridge into a crispy cake? No, but that is as good. I'll give you that. Thanks.

It's egg-fried rice. Because you cook the rice, don't you? And then you fry it. Or conji? Sure. Cooked rice, then it becomes runny. Come on. Anything where you're using up a lot of leftovers in a hot dish.

Bubble and squeak? Oh, yum. So anything where you couldn't take the raw rice and make those things. Whereas something like a hash brown, you can make with raw potatoes or you can make with cooked potatoes. It's different. But you can't take the raw rice and make the egg fried rice. So in that way it's like making bread and then toast Although that's a less good example

Because you're adding additional ingredients aren't you Like that's a less clean example than bagels Because it's like rice is only one ingredient It's like if you had a bunch of stuff to bread Then you know bread pudding is a transformation of bread But you also have fruit and milk and stuff Yeah yeah yeah Waguar, Lyndon Hudsfield

I see you guys are back Anyway I made some kimchi in 2023 I dated it And I've just found a jar of the back of my fridge. Don't ask how I've found it. Anyway, Helen Oli answered me this. I've had this since 2023.

How long will this be safe for? Can I eat this now? Or is it too much? Is it a risk? Should I try it? I bet it's amazing. I've still not opened it yet. It smells pungent.

Do not open this in an open plan office would be my very clear advice here. Well, I was reading that after a few months kimchi can actually really level off in pungency and flavor. Oh, no. And old kimchi can be quite a different flavour profile,

so people tend to use it in soups and stews rather than as a tangy condiment. I think, though, Lyndon is committed to trying it. And, you know, the internet is inconclusive on this. It's like when you should throw the kimchi away, is six months to forever. You also want to check for mould, right? Absolutely.

That's the thing with kimchi at every stage of the process, apparently. As soon as there's any mould, back away. On the lacto bicellae, they generally out-compete food boiling bacteria right that's why that fermentation is so popular throughout history the stuff that does the fermentation kind of kills the bacteria by eating their food sources it depends whether other bacteria has polluted it though doesn't it like people say like because there's a whole thing about burping it when you're making it opening the jar or crack so if you've introduced other bacteria to it inadvertently then well apparently in very bad

situations i believe it can explode i think it also depends on how well you prepared the jar beforehand because if you just sort of like rinsed out a dirty jar and then put stuff in it, that can go very bad. So if you see mould, throw it away unopened. Even when you open it, you're advised not to sniff it in case there are spores that are going to mess you away. Oh, wow. So how are you supposed to tell then? One thing you can do that doesn't involve tasting it or smelling it is testing the texture,

because if it's really mushy, apparently that means it's no good and you should throw it away. But then if you do taste it cautiously, if it tastes really fizzy or if it tastes bitter, throw it away. Kimchi always says fizzy, doesn't it? It's a bit fizzy, but I think if it's really fizzy, people are like, Oh, okay. I think once you've tasted something that is a bit often fizzy, like when hummus is a bit fizzy, you're aware of what is wrong fizzy versus exciting kimchi fizzy.

Hello, I'm Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's It. When not abusing children or turning into a giant spider, I like to sit in my sewer listening to answer me this, This episode of Answer Me This is sponsored by Cooker, the original inventors of the boiling water tap. But they've not just sat on their tapy laurels. The same tap does it all. Not just boiling water, but also chilled water, filter water and sparkling water. And you know what I want in this life, Ollie?

Sparkling water literally on tap. And they have made that a possible dream. It's like a theme park resort hotel when you get a cooker tap. What do I want? Hot or fizzy or a disgusting warm spritzer of both because I don't want to. have to decide. You can have it all. A hundred degree boiling water straight from the tap, the very same tap that is also doing the job of a filter jug and a sparkling water machine. That's a lot of counter space this thing is saving. Yes, it's being your kettle as well. And that's the thing that I

really like about it. You know how much I love a gadget, Helen, but I don't love to have needless gadgets when I can have one that does it all. One needful gadget for Oli Man to rule them all. Gadget of gadgets, It's King of Kings. Book a virtual demonstration today at cooker.com. To find the right cooker for you. And until the end of August, you can use the code, answer for free installation and your free cooker glassware set. That's cooker,

q-u-o-o-k-e-r.com.uk. Here's a question from Joe, now in Watford, formerly in Luton. Joe says, I've just been channel hopping and found myself watching the proms on BBC 4. A little bit cam. See, everything on BBC 4, a little bit of cam. I've noticed that the conductor stands on a large plinth with a guardrail. Olly, answer me this.

Has the guardrail been a common feature for conductor's plints? Or is it as a result of a few too many getting over-excited and falling? If so, who was the last conductor to fall and cause the installation of the rails? On a side note, says Joe, I have previously had a question answered by you way back in approximately episode 105 to 114. I was just about to turn 14 and asked about red eyes in photos. I'm now 30 with a wife and two kids. Well, we've solved red eyes and photos just by being alive for long enough that it no longer matters. So maybe the same thing will happen with this.

That's how I deal with my emails. I'm like, if I leave it long enough, it's no longer relevant for me to answer it. Okay. So the history of conductors standing behind guard rails. Yeah. Thanks for asking about this because I'd never really thought about this. As much as I had, I suppose I thought this must be a visibility thing to like highlight the conductor somehow, you know, to centre stage them. But I've looked into it and it is for safety because if you try and buy a conductor's stand, which you can for £1,300.

The specification on the website states, quote, detachable safety rail provides extra security during rehearsals and performances. Makes sense. Because how big is the floor space of a conductor's plint? It's not usually going to be that huge, is it? So easy to topple. Easy to topple. And if you think about the amount of times that you've seen a big stadium performer, you know, Taylor Swift or Prince or something, go up in a crane to serenade an audience in the stadium,

they are strapped in. Oh, yeah, they have like a waist harness, yeah. Yes, because if they fell, that would kill them. And actually, conductors often are standing at quite a height from the audience. I mean, it might only be, say, 12 feet rather than 100, but nonetheless... That would fucking hurt to fall off. If you're in your 80s with a bad hip, not good, yeah. I wouldn't like to fall 12 feet at any age of my life.

The last conductor to famously do this, or at least the last renowned conductor to famously do this, was Kurt Massour, who was hospitalised after falling off a podium at the Theatre de Chancesalise in Paris. And it was about 2012, I think. Oh, recent. Recent. So it's probably on YouTube, for those of you who like to watch Human Pain for fun. It isn't, sadly. I looked, I am that person, but I couldn't find it. Oh, sorry.

Just took recourse in that one of Madonna with the Cape every time gets me. He was 84 years old at the time, fell from the podium into the front row of the audience. And they didn't crowd surf him. The National Orchestra of France. It's a failed stage dive. I mean, it's proper naked gun stuff, isn't it? Probably the most famous conductor ever to have done it is Leonard Bernstein. Oh.

Oh, wow. In 1984, performing with the New York Philharmonic, bruised his ribs but carried on with the show after plummeting into the audience. Now, I didn't watch that Bradley Cooper film where he plays Leonard Bernstein, but, Bradley Cooper seems like the kind of guy who doesn't welcome humiliation. So did he not have that happen in the film? I don't remember that moment in the film, but it's consistent with the character he plays in the film. There's an example of a film that is queer but not camp. Gosh, a rich vein this. I then started looking to like the history of conductors at all. Both things, their safety and their art form, are essentially about the transition of classical

music performances away from courts and small halls and stuff and into concert halls and theatres, because suddenly you're in dangerously high spaces, like I said, rather than level with your audience, like you would be, if you imagine Beethoven at the piano or something, his audience would be in front of him. But also, you have at the same time the Industrial Revolution. 19th century, you suddenly have the tuba, the saxophone, the celesta. Trumpets get bigger, French horns get bigger because they have piston valves. Fuck, how small were French horns before? There's so much going on in them.

How did they shrink that down? Well, the engineering. The engineering got bigger. So everything got louder. The orchestra got bigger, which necessitated a person to be standing at the front waving the baton. Because in an orchestra of 100 people to fill a big theatre, not everyone can naturally sink like you can if you're in a quartet or something. You just look at each other.

So the two things kind of go hand in hand. I didn't realize quite how recent that was, because obviously classical music is hundreds of years old. But actually orchestras used to be led by the first violinist or the keyboardist, and they'd sort of mark time with their head or something. But once the technology changes and then you have a bigger space, you need a conductor, but once you have a conductor because of the bigger space, you need the guardrail because they're going to fall over.

So there you go. Oh, that was very interesting. Thank you. You're welcome. Did you order yourself a £1,300 £1,000 conductor plinth? There's a business expense. I didn't, but if someone wants to donate at patreon.com slash answer me this

so we can try one out, I'd be very willing to record the next episode standing up with a guardrail behind me. Heaven knows we could use some guardrails. And some standing up. This is a very sedentary profession. Well, that brings us to the end of this episode of Answer Me This, but please do supply your questions

for future episodes of Answer Me This and also your feedback on this episode or any of the previous 400 for our series Answer Us Back, which comes out halfway through the month, and our contact details to send us a question in written or voice form are on our website. Answermethispodcast.com. And do support us at patreon.com slash answer me this to ensure that we have new episodes coming out for you in the way that Helen describes.

Also, as well as supporting this show and helping this independent podcast survive, members of our top Patreon tier can access all the shows we've ever made together ad-free. It's so many things. That's all the bonus bits. That's all the retro episodes with our remorseful commentary on our past work. Yep. It's our special albums. Yep. All the bits of crap from the app, as was. Our first 200 episodes, everything. And they can listen to it on their podcast app of choice as well, so long as that is one of the main three. And all of our Patreon members at any tier can get an ad-free stream of the show, monthly bonus bits, and our live stream video series Petty problems. Patreon.com slash answer me this. Well, that's better than a kick in the box. I've tried both

and I agree. And of course, we have other work that you can amuse yourself with. Olly, what's happening in the Man Paso? No, it's very typically kind of you to defer to me on this one, Helen, but I must ask you first because I know the answer and it's exciting. Oh, okay. Tell us what show you've guessed it on recently. Oh yeah, but it's like such a tiny cameo. Doesn't matter. I haven't watched it. maximum 90 seconds, but maybe fewer seconds than that. One of the actually seven shows that I actually listen to and have done for years. So our lovely friends, Switched on Pop podcast, now have a Netflix version of said podcast. I make a cameo in it.

They're talking about song choruses, and I'm on there to talk about the etymology of the word chorus. I knew that you knew the guys from Switched on Pop, but the fact that you've actually been on Switched on Pop is just... I don't think I'd be able to control myself if I was on Switched on Pop. I'd be like, tell me that thing about it cheering again. Tell me how Rihanna works. So good. I've made a brief appearance on Switched on Pop before. Oh, yeah.

It was when Texas Holden by Beyonce came out and I was asking whether the use of the word Lexus in that song was spawn rather than just a convenient rhyme for Texas. Right, oh. This would make you shit yourself more. Like the first time Martin met Charlie Harding, Olly. Charlie lent Martin some shoes so that Martin could go to the magic castle. I'm impressed by that.

But I'm not someone who wants a parasocal. relationship with the people that I admire in audio form. I'm someone who wants to respect their work from a distance and never tell them. All right. But if people listening are the kind that want parasocial relationships with people on the podcast, the most recent episode, The Illusionist, which is called Vega, has several of those people that you might have parasocial relationships with, including Lauren Gorn of Lingthusiasm and Rishkehira and Samin Nasrat from Home Cooking.

Oh, wow, that's good guess as well. Oh, yeah. They're delightful. Listen to out of the Illusionist.org. Now you can ask me what I've been doing. All right, Ollie. What's been going on with you, I guess, as a secondary concern? So I do five podcasts.

You can discover them all atollyman.com. But one that I would urge to you at this arse end of the summer that we now find ourselves in is my show Rollercoaster. So over the summer, I made another four episodes of Roller Coaster, which is my BBC Sound series about the Universal Studios theme park that they're building in Bedfordshire. Now, the theme park doesn't open until 2031, but the idea is that every year we do three or four episodes and follow the story of them building this theme park. So this is year two. In this series, I meet a man whose house is in the middle of the theme park site. He's a renter as well. So his landlord has sold up to Universal.

He says he's going to be made homeless by the project, and they are ghosting him. And also, there's a kind of strand of general, what's it like working in a theme park stuff. and I speak to a guy who spent more than a decade in Disney character parades about the devotion of working in one of those and what happens when Mickey Mouse signs the wrong autograph. Would it be your dream to be in a Disney character parade, Olly? Not now I know the details. If that appeals to you, then you can follow the show on BBC Sounds.

You just need to search for roller coaster Universal's Bedfordshire Journey. But hopefully if you've just been Rollercoaster Rolly Man into BBC. sounds then it will come up. You would hope but those of us who've tried searching for things for sounds before know what disappointment feels like. Correct, yes. Publicly funded podcasting doesn't always go the way you want. Again, the full title, Rollercoaster, Universal's

Bedfordshire Journey, catchy. What's going on for the Martin the Sound fans, huh? I just produced a podcast mini series for Drould called The Propagandist which is about these dish bags infiltrating environmental protests at Standing Work in about 2016 and the weird propaganda they did to try and discredit it,

including cuts for truth, which is not as fun as it sounds. But it's cool. There's only three parts that I'll be out on Tuesday, go to the drilled feed, wherever you get your podcasts. That's a strong title, but douchebags is a better title, I feel. We should show just called Dushbags. I'd listen to that every week. There is a really good podcast called Behind the Bastards,

which is about like historical figures who, you know, are real assholes. It's only a matter of time before I'm on that one. Well, these douchebags will be back in your pod feed on the 10th of September with Answer Us Back and then 24th of September with Answer Me List 422. Bye! Going on vacation? We're here for it.

With kids who turned the backseat into a courtroom drama over whose tablet is louder, whose charger is faster, and while watching the same cartoon for the hundredth time is a human right? Yep, we totally have vehicles to handle that because whether it's a road trip

or a business trip, Where your flights delayed, your phone's at 2% and your dinner is, whatever is open? Yeah, here for that too. Enterprise, we're here for it.