Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Baby Bumps, Revenge Songs & Cosmic Moments

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

As Anne Hathaway and Vogue Williams bare their bumps, Jo and Zoe celebrate pregnancy in all its glory, including Jo’s own risqué photoshoot. They also reveal their favourite revenge songs of all time. And Jo opens up about her dad’s perfectly ‘unconventional’ funeral: cheerful clothes, a packed out church and karaoke, of course!GET IN TOUCH📧 Email us: [e-mail]📱 Text or Voice Note: 07477 038795💬 Or tap here to send a voice note or message on WhatsApp:⁠ ⁠https://wa.me/447477038795SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORSThis episode is brought to you by Starling, Panda London and L'Oréal Paris True Match Hyaluron Tinted Balm:📱 Starling: the bank that helps you organise your money, build great habits and stay in control of your spending. Do life together with a joint account - find out more at starlingbank.com/current-account/joint-bank-account 🐼 Panda London — Make hot nights more comfortable with Panda London’s beautifully soft, breathable and thermoregulating bamboo bedding. Head to pandalondon.com and spend over £50 to receive a free Bamboo Eye Mask with your order using code DIGIT.💄L'Oréal Paris True Match Hyaluron Tinted Balm - Ready for a new era of foundation? Discover your perfect shade of the New L'Oréal Paris True Match Hyaluron Tinted Balm online or at your nearest Boots or Superdrug counter.CREDITSExec Producer: Jonathan O’SullivanProducer: Harriet Thurley Assistant Producer: Eve JonesTechnical Producer: Oliver GeraghtyVideo Editors: Cameron Laird and Jack Whiteside  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming up on Digit. No bra, that's my wish. Please do not put a bra on me. The final release, isn't it? It's the final release. I do not need this anymore, thank God. The energy, when it happened, was just sort of palpable. I mean, everyone was full of emotion, and there were tears and screaming and whooping.

It was phenomenal. India did a photo shoot with me when I was pregnant with Coco, so got lipstick written all over my stomach and, like, just in a little pair of leopard print pants, I think. I've got that at home. Wow. All of that right after this. Hello, Diggers and welcome back, Joe.

Hello, Joe, darling girl. How are you? We've really missed you. Oh, it's been so weird. It's been weird being away, and it's really nice to see your face and to be back talking to all the diggers. Although I do keep meeting Diggers everywhere,

so it feels like, you know, the family are around me at all times, but it's lovely to see you again. And I'm good. I'm good. Yeah. This time last week, it was the funeral, of course.

And it was amazing. Brilliant. It was really good. Oh, bless you. Yeah. Sorry, as soon as I say, it's a week ago, I'm like, oh, God. Well, you know, it's so fresh, isn't it? And it's such an interesting time during, you know, when you lose someone, because

straight after you're organising and you're doing a funeral and then there's that strange moment after that's happened. And then you're sort of living with that feeling day to day. and some days are good and some days you're really wobbly. And like you say, it's so, so fresh. But tell us how was the funeral? You were saying it was amazing. I know you had some incredible plans to celebrate your dad's life.

Yeah, we did. So it was an amazing send-off because he was, you know, as we've said over the past few weeks or so, he was a character. He was a legend. So many people knew my dad. And I think a lot of this came from him with my mum running the village shop and the post office and living next door to the pub. So he was larger than life, like, he was, he was a small man, but a massive heart and such a huge reputation.

So so many people came to the church. There wasn't room. They were standing outside. Everyone was standing, just crammed in the pews, which was just such a wonderful testament to what he meant to people. And we had so many lovely stories, so many lovely memories. And it was never going to be conventional. It was never going to be conventional because of my dad and because of Francis. And I just think, you know, we're quite, we're like you.

and like many people these days, that we're quite relaxed. And it was so lovely just to be normal in the church. So it wasn't stuffy. Dad, or mum wanted it to be cheerful. So everyone was wearing cheerful clothes. And that was lovely. There were lots of flowers and clashing patterns.

So the church was full of colour, which was great. And then on the flowers done by lovely Carol, they were sunflowers because it was really important that they were bright and again cheerful. So sunflowers and I think Dolphinium, lots of blue, because he loves spurs. So Coco really wanted him to have some spurs represent. And when they bought the coffin in, it was to Elbow.

And one day like this. And we were all going, oh my God, what a song to start the thing off with. We're just going to be flawed by it. We're all going to be crying. But actually, there's this amazing DJ on Radio Northampton. He did a lovely tribute. It's called Bernie Keith, wonderful DJ. And he played Elbow for my dad.

So we listened to that early in the morning. So we got it out of our system. So when he came into the church and that song was playing, and he was put right at the front of the church. And I knew it's the same church where Steve and I got married. I knew that Francis wouldn't sit in her pew that Francis would want to go and be involved in this. And sure enough, she just kind of push past me,

push past my mum, and she went and plonked herself right at the foot of the coffin. And there's a picture of dad's there as well. So you've got the flowers, sunflowers, then gorgeous picture of my dad who's actually watching Elbow on stage. So there's this photograph of him, and he is beaming because it's his favorite band in the world.

And Francis just kind of straightened up the picture and she looked at her dad and she just lends on the end of the coffin for such a long time while the vicar was talking, Andrew was talking, and she was just talking and looking at Dad while the whole service went on. And after a little while, she went and sat on a chair, again, right in front.

And it just kind of set the tone of this unconventional funeral. And her comic timing, my dad was a comic, and Francis has inherited that from him. So there was this really good friend of my dad called John Billiam who did a lovely tribute talking all about the village life, and about pub life and telling these great stories. And as he was talking, he took a pause. And as he took a pause, Francis just went,

finish yet? Really loudly. And the whole church just fell about laughing. And then again, a little bit later on, she did like the loudest yawed, like literally comedy. Oh, I'm so tired. I'm bored. And that happened throughout the whole service.

So she made people laugh. And at one point, like we all spoke. I managed to speak. I had lots of messages from people. And absolutely, when it's, it's a funeral. You don't know whether you're going to have the strength to speak. You don't know where you're going to be in your head, how you're going to feel about it. And I managed to speak. Steve did a really funny speech about some funny stuff my dad did throughout our lives. And I asked,

said, Francis, do you want to say anything? And she went, Daddy said my name. And that's because one of the last things he said was her name. And it was really wonderful that she was able to tell everybody there, that very, very, very important thing that happened that he did for Francis. And then the kids all Well, Jude spoke for him and for Cass. They all wrote their own words. India spoke. Coco's godmother read out her words. That's Georgia.

So it was a proper family and friends event. And I apologize if I'm going on about this, but I just wanted to sum up the whole day, if that's okay. We then had the burial. And I've only really recently been to cremation, so we weren't sure how we'd feel about the burial. And lots of people had said that it's quite traumatic burials. But it was beautiful.

It was really beautiful. He chose that plot God decades ago. And so as the coffin was there, and we all said words, we threw flowers. And the view was gorgeous. I was like, oh, Dad, you've chosen really, really well. Like, you know, the hills behind you, the church just there, surrounded by friends that we've known that have died

that are buried alongside him. And it was very, very touching. And then we all went to his beloved pub where he lived most of his life. And I lived a lot of my life. And we had food and we had drink and people cried and they laughed. But they mostly laughed. And then we, John said, oh, should we, dude, we've got karaoke set up.

How would you feel about karaoke? I know it's a funeral. And I was like, oh my God, my dad lived for karaoke. Let's do, let's celebrate him with karaoke. So Jude, India, Cass and Coco all got up there and they all sang. We did elbow one day like this. They did sweet Caroline, which was my dad's favorite song to sing. And there were some beautiful photographs.

And it was a massive celebration of what he was about when he was on, you know, his, when he was on his best form, it completely summed up what dad was about. And it was an amazing day. And then we all just went back to my mum's house and we just chatted into the night. It was lovely. It sounds absolutely perfect. Anyone who can see the podcast, you'll have seen the amazing pictures of France is looking at, you know, her dad's picture. When you sent those pictures to me, Joe, my heart just went, boom, exploded because it just, oh, it's. It's so wonderful.

And to sing karaoke. And also there's, I can see right now, is that a board of photographs? Yeah. In the pub. Yeah. Across the years. Yeah. One of my very special friends, Adele did all the photographs.

She filmed the whole thing as well because it's really important to capture who was there. You know, these people will never be together again. And she did photographs of my dad throughout his life, put it on a massive board in the pub. And then everyone came and they shared their memories, wrote in a memory book. It was lovely to show photographs of my dad from when Francis and I, were tiny and what he used to be like. And then, yeah, throughout the ages, it was, it was great to have been represented there. It was really lovely.

It's a funny thing, isn't it? It's one of the things I love at funerals when people do collections from across the years. You just get to see what, you know, an enormous life someone had lived and very much with your dad, you know, and you guys little and the kids growing up and it was so important in your kids' lives. It's just, yeah, I'm so pleased for you all. Thank you. you. I mean, you know, everyone's been on this journey with us, which is, feels so bizarre. It's not

something I ever imagined sharing with people. But I'm really happy that more people know about my dad now and what he meant to people. And the ultimate thing was that he just made people laugh. He made people feel good about themselves. And that's what he lived for. So to get that across to people, what life, what life to have led? It made me so proud of him. I was so proud of everybody. And my mum as well, you know, my mum has been unbelievable. She's been so proud and so stoic and so kept everybody going, you know, in the way that mums do. How is she doing now? Because this is great.

She's all right. She's all right at the moment. Yeah. Yeah, she is. You know, life was difficult with my dad over the past couple of months, past couple of years. He was, as I've said before, he was suffering with Parkinson's and with whatever was going on. We don't really know what was going on. So when we were at the graveside, I just heard her say, be at peace.

And I think that's what she wanted for him just to be a peace. Yeah. And also she's having so many visitors, I cannot tell you, how many people are there with her every moment of the day. The church have been amazing. All her friends in the village have been amazing. So as long as that sustains, as long as people keep on supporting her and we all keep in touch with her,

I think she's going to be good. She's going to be good. She's an amazing woman. Yeah. What an incredible lady. We were talking about how humor can get you through some of the hard times because, you know, when people are poorly and when you lose people, you know, it is devastating and heartbreaking. But obviously there are moments of humour in all of this, gallows humour.

And one of our diggers, Kathleen, has sent us this voice note. You asked for funny funeral stories. Well, this is a pre-funeral story, but also ties in with the digger who said how much she hates people saying over 100%. And I'm totally with her. So we were at the funeral directors and my dad has been cremated. And my mum said, is it definitely going to be him that we get back? And the funeral director said 150% him. And mum said, well, I only weren't 100%.

Funeral director didn't quite a lot to say to that. But it made us laugh. He also asked about what to bury your loved one in. Well, my dad was a Morris dancer, which absolutely mortified me as a teenager and adult. I didn't tell anybody. I kept it big secret. He kind of blew it by them surprising us at our wedding and dancing. But it was amazing, so it was good fun.

And it brought him such joy. And he was at the pub every Friday night getting free beer, which might have been part of the appeal. So we buried him in his Morris dancing outfit. And awfully Morris men danced at his funeral. And I have never been more proud and more happy that he had that in his life. So hopefully they're all somewhere together. And my dad is entertaining them with his embarrassing dancing.

And thinking of you all sending lots of love. Oh, Kathleen, that's so gorgeous, isn't it? 150%? Only 100% of him. I can imagine the embarrassment of being a teenager with a dad, who Morris danced. Because obviously my dad was, you know, he was just being himself, but I was humiliated by him constantly in my teenage years. Years later, I'm like, I love you so much.

But yeah, and that's, I love a Morris dancer, by the way. Oh, I do too. I do too. I love folk festivals and all that. folk festivals, anything pagan, anything like, you know, Celtic. I just love all that stuff. So you can, I can hear the bells right now. The idea of him being dressed in his Morris outfit, is just so on point, so lovely. It's such a lovely, lovely image. Kathleen, thank you for that. We had this story in from Nikki. I was 16 when my dad died. My stepmom asked me what clothes we should

bury him in. And I said, he's jeans and a shirt because this is what he always wore. I thought, no more of it. I went to see my dad in the chapel of rest before his funeral. I saw him lying in the coffin, I kissed his forehead, and then realized he was wearing a shirt and a tie. In the run-up to Christmas, I've been out with friends and ended up snogging one of the boys from six-form, who I were called James. For some reason, I ended up taking his tie home with me. On seeing my dad up close in the chapel, the first thing that came into my head was, shit, he's wearing James tie. I didn't have the heart or balls to say anything to my step-mom about it. it and I just left it. I still don't know how on earth this tie ended up on my dad. I did tell my best

friend at the time, we both found it absolutely hilarious when James continued to ask me at school for his tie back. I never did tell him it was six foot under with my dad. And that is from Nikki. That's amazing. Do you have my tie? Well, kind of. Do you know where it is? Really sort of. It's on my dad. Six feet under. These are genius. Brilliant. Listener Joe. has her own plans. No bra, that's my wish. Please do not put a bra on me. It's fantastic. I don't get what you put me in. I am never wearing a bra again. The final release, isn't it? It's the final release. I do not need this anymore, thank God. That's the only thing I have on my, and my will and testament, no bras. Thank you. That's excellent. Oh, thank you for sharing diggers. You're so brilliant.

If you have any more, by the way, any more of these funny stories to share with us, then please do. Show notes has got all the details. That's where you send in your rants, your stories, and you can either voice them or you can just write them down, whatever. We'll take them all and we love listening and sharing them with everybody else. If you're enjoying Digit, don't forget to hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you listen on Spotify, we would love your vote, please, in the British Podcast Awards listeners choice. Just open Spotify on your mobile, search British Podcast Awards and you can give Digit up to three votes. Thank you so much for your support.

might have spotted or heard that we're actually not back at base at HQ. We're both away at the moment with the family. Joe, where are you? And actually, what a wonderful thing to have done after everything you've been through. Just be with all your kids. Yeah. Now, we were all absolutely wiped out, I think. And so it was really good.

We just got in the car next morning after the funeral and just fled on this holiday. And it's been really nice. So we've got all the children and all the plus ones, our extended families. So the partners and then friends that we've known for a life. time. We've all been together and we're in Cornwall, which has been unreal because the weather has been phenomenal and we've just been playing in the sea, we've been on the beach, we've been on sea safaris, we've seen no dolphins, we've just been having a really lovely time playing lots of beach games. And I'm actually at the moment where I am, I'm in St. Enidoc, this is a new

hotel, which Paul Ainsworth, I don't know whether you know the chef Paul Ainsworth, he is incredible. He's got quite a few different places, but he makes really, really great food and it's super stylish and this is his new place and I, the Wi-Fi in my room was terrible. So I just contacted Paul because I've done work with him before and I was like, please can I come and do my podcast in your hotel. So he's been really kind and he's let us come here. And I can recommend his pizzas because I had a pizza the other night and it was sensational. So thank you, Paul, very much indeed. That's, that's where I am. We've been in fish and chips and we've been on the beach. But where are you? We are in Abisa. it's something we've done with kids for, you know, I mean, how old's we were 25?

So, yeah, 26, 27, maybe 28 years. There's a crew of us who've come out at the same time, and I'm with my best girlfriends, and the kids' dad has a villa with a load of the gang over that way. And we had a huge, it was our friend Bethanyan's 20th wedding anniversary, which was on the same day handy as the eclipse. So they had a cosmic party. So everybody dressed up and it was hilarious

because it was like 36 degrees and everyone's trying to put on these cosmic outfits which all sort of lasted for about an hour and then if I was like can I just take my sparkles off because I'm like in a sweat box

but we had totality Joe it was incredible I was like what's totality but isn't it amazing when you thought Woody was talking to me about it as it was happening it's like the maths the maths the maths

of planets orbiting and crossing each other so perfectly sort of blows your mind. How does that even happen? But it was so much more. So Beth had called this party, the cosmic party. And I'd got the theme slightly wrong and brought an astronaut outfit and an alien outfit. And then I was like, what? Oh, I'm just supposed to look cosmic. Right.

Okay. So I never put the astronaut outfit on. Oh, she has. But Kitty, Kitty Ray, my friend's last, she's 11. She's amazing. She wore the alien outfit for about 10 minutes. it inflated and it was so hot that she could barely breathe. But it was so much more cosmic than I could even imagine Joe. The energy and the buildup and we've got little, we've got Osley and Ellis

who are four, they're twins. So we're trying to, you know, snow and Tom, mom and dad trying to keep them to keep their glasses on and not look, not look without the glasses. But it was the energy when it happened was just sort of palpable and the cicadas went quiet and we all I mean everyone was full of emotion and there were tears and screaming and whooping and it went completely dark and silent and then the song came out again

and it was phenomenal and it couldn't have been more cosmic and have both my kids there and all my best friends it was just true magic loved it loved it And you could see that collection of people all over the place. Could you see it well in Cornwall? Yeah. I mean, what a thing to go through. It was all collectively. It was just so exciting the whole day building up to this point.

I tried about four days beforehand, because my head had been elsewhere, to try and get some glasses. And, of course, I was trying to get them down to Cornwall at £750. I was quoted for postage or to get into that. I was like, no, no, no, we don't go there. So we didn't have any glasses. So we were thinking of cereal packets and trying to. trying to work out what to do.

And we just all gathered on the beach in Poles-Eth. And it was absolutely round. And it was just crackling. The anticipation and the atmosphere was just crackling. Everyone was so excited. And we got her rattlers and we were, the fish and chips. And we all gather there. Amazing brought down the colander for the kitchen.

And we read about the colander and we just couldn't figure out how it was going to work. We just couldn't. And then she just sat there and she's, I love her so, so much. She just managed to show us with the colander how it was all moving. you could see the crescents and she was doing it onto football, she was doing it onto bits of paper and everyone was gathering around us going, oh, literally, ah, just as we saw what was going on. And then at the very, very end, this really sweet guy came over and he gave us his glasses.

And so we all tried them on. So we all got to put the glasses on. It was fantastic seeing every single person put the glasses on and just went, wow, it was like this whole sequence of, wow, it was honestly, it was a day to remember. and then we all went back to the house that we're staying in and we watched the meteor shower. And that was absolutely sensational.

It was so magical. We lay on the grass, all of us, just looking up at the stars. And the way, the more you look, the more stars appear. And then the shooting stars start happening. And it was just such a night to remember, a day to remember, for the whole world. It was fantastic. Absolutely.

I think to have all of that for no one, especially for you guys with everything you've been through, I think that's such a beautiful cosmic moment to go through together. And it, yeah, it was really lovely this end as well, just being with some of the people I love most in the world. Have you seen that baby bumps are having their major fashion moment, which kind of comes around every now and again, doesn't it? I remember Demi Moore posing on the cover of Was It Vogue magazine

when she was pregnant with one of her kids? And Nena Cherry, do you remember when Mena Cherry performed on top of the pops when she was pretty much nine months pregnant? And it was like, oh my God, you just don't see that happening. Don't see a young woman dancing at nine months pregnant and looking sexy and hot and cool. It was quite something. I love seeing a pregnant belly.

I really do. I think it's wonderful. I think Anne Halfway, how amazing does she look? She looks fabulous, doesn't she? And her belly buttons pop, so it's kind. Can't be long. Can't be long. And Voie Williams, who I just love and adore.

In fact, we suggested both of us doing the podcast with glasses on this morning like Vogue and Joanne do all the time. I'm like, they do. I can't me. But she looks amazing. Did you display your belly with any of your pregnancies? No, not really. I did.

I was doing my TV show, I remember when I was pregnant with Jude. And there was a photograph that I love, I love, I love. And I've got, I'm with Jamir, Kui and Björk and Carl Hyde from Underworld. What a lineup. They're all on the TV show. I know it's my favorite lineup. And then I've got this blue T-shirt, which is cut, and then like a red satin, slip dress.

And so the bump is really sticking out. That's my favorite picture. And then also, India did a photo shoot with me when I was pregnant with Coco. So India was a photography student and she was like 17 years old because that's the age gap between the two girls. And it's just so lovely. And we've got that. I've got like, it's very Courtney love. So I've got lipstick written all over my stomach and like try it.

Just a little pair of leopard print pants, I think. I've got that at home. Wow. And the kids obviously hide it. Every time I put it out on display, they're like, okay, no, mum, nobody wants to see that now. But I really like it because I was, I was, what, 42, I think. And I had this big pregnant belly. And it was, it was lovely to think that Coco was the child inside.

But I never displayed that to anybody else. What about you? Me? Well, the thing was that because I, I mean, I'm quite a tall girl anyway. And, you know, I'm a fair weight. But with my pregnancies, with both of them, I did them very differently. I approached both pregnancies very differently because I was 10 years older when I was pregnant with Nelly.

Yeah. But with both pregnancies, I put on four stone. So I'm tall, heavy, big, and I put on four stones. So there was a lot more of me. And people used to come up to me in the supermarket and in Marks of Spencers and be like, do you know what's so good to see, you know, celebrity is really, really poor. Wait, and to be honest with you, it sounds offensive, but I was like, yeah, there's no choice. And it was interesting because with Woody, I don't think I ate particularly healthy

because I think 10 years later, I learned, you know, that you could do it in a much healthier way, because that's how we learned, don't we? We learned so much more about how to look after ourselves, you know, year on year. But with Nell, I ate so much better, but I was exactly the same. And I just, I didn't see my feet for such a long time. But with Nell, my own lovely friend, Em, did a little, did me a little, she'd take a picture every few weeks, and she did me a little book called Growing Nell. and I love it because it's just my belly.

And I haven't got it on display anywhere because the kids, you know what, they're just mortified by things like that, aren't they? I'm like, oh my God, is a picture of you in your pants. Put it away. But it is actually quite lovely. And I'm like, that's you. That's you in there.

And it is so lovely to see. So, yeah, I'm loving the girls getting their bellies out. It's so gorgeous. I remember the fuss when Diane was dancing on Strictly Come Dancing, you know, heavily pregnant. She's about to go back into the new series. Yeah. And, but most people are like, how fantastic that she's fit.

She's a dancer. Of course she should be dancing when she's pregnant. She knows how to look after herself. You know, it's up to mum, you know, what she does. And so I think it's gorgeous. She's being encouraged, you know. It's such a lovely moment in life. And whenever I see pregnant women, I'm like, oh, wow, they just look so amazing.

Especially before you get to, the last bit can be quite uncomfortable. And especially if it's in the heat or you're not getting much sleep and preparation for the baby arriving. but that little bit just before, when you are positively glowing, it's, oh, I miss that. There is no more beautiful sight than a pregnant woman, I think. It's just lovely. It's really gorgeous. Now I've just, I look like I'm pregnant again now,

but it's just bread. It's just bread and ham, because I'm in Spain. Where did you get your, I mean, I don't know what you wore or whether you tailored your wardrobe when you were pregnant, but where did you go to? Can you remember? There wasn't a lot of choice back there. No, it was there.

I think maternity wear is so much better. I remember H was it H and M did maternity jeans? Because obviously, just lived in jeans. But then it would get to a point where I could only pull up, sort of slip on trousers and slip on shoes. But I think these days, there's probably loads more maternity. I don't know. JoJo Mamon baby or Blumen Marvelous.

They were kind of the standard catalogs that you look through. But no, there wasn't anything particularly cool when we were pregnant. Top shop then brought out a maternity range, didn't they? They had stretchy jeans. Stretchy jeans. than things like that. Now when I think about it, I'm like, why would you want to wear,

geez, pregnant? You just want to be comfortable. Caffanans. But yeah, caftans all the way. Well, yeah, summer is much more, you know, lending itself to sort of floatiness, isn't it? And, you know, having your lovely belly out. Whereas winter, you're just like big, long jumper dresses

and sort of comfy leggings and bits like that. But if any of our diggers are pregnant or have been pregnant recently or got pregnant kids and you want to share some great maternity wear ranges, please do and we'll spread the word. How about gardens? Because we're both away at the moment and I, it's just such a massive ask to get people to look after your garden, I think, the way that you would look after your garden. But we've got our garden expert, Claire Foster, and she's here with her tips on how to keep your garden thriving while you're away on holiday. So there are a few things you can do to get your garden ready

before you go away. I do always ask someone to come and water for me when I'm away because I've got lots of stuff in the greenhouse, but no one ever waters as well as you do. Certainly I know that my 20-something sun's water plants for about three seconds and that's that's that, whereas actually really you need to give everything a really deep water around the roots rather than just sprinkling water around. And that's something you can do before you go on holiday. For pot plants, I use these huge gravel trays, which you can fill up with water. And so that the the smaller pots don't have to be watered quite so often. It's fine for plants to sit in water for a few days, three or four days, but longer than that, it's not brilliant because then oxygen can't get to

the roots and then they won't grow properly. The hub of my garden is the greenhouse, and at this time of year, I always have tomatoes and cucumbers in here. And they, of course, need watering pretty much every day and if you don't water tomatoes every day they're susceptible to diseases like blossom end rot so what you can do before you go away to maximize the chances of them surviving is just to add a layer of compost at the top of the pots but just mulch each tomato with some compost this is just a normal good quality potting compost and I just put a thick layer of that around the base of plant after I've watered and just before I go away. The thing that you should do before you go away is to run around harvesting absolutely everything in your vegetable plot. If you don't harvest,

the plant starts thinking that it's basically going to seed and it will stop producing. The other bonus is that you can say to all your friends who are watering, please pick the vegetables and the flowers because it's the same principle with the flowers dead heading is really important to keep that plant flowering. Couple more tips before I sign off. If you've got lots of container plants like this, then it's a good idea to group them all together. So put them all around the back door,

so you're making it easy for whoever's coming around to water. You could also maybe group them in some shade, which will prolong those plants and just mean that they won't wilt in this intense heat that we've been having. And then finally, of course, it kind of goes without saying that you should keep on top of the weeds before you go and just make sure that every single little weed is gone and hold up. That tiny weed will be about five foot high when you come back. And then you will rest easy when you're away and you will enjoy your

holiday and you won't be worrying about your precious plants. Thank you, Clay. It's a full-time job, isn't it, really? Really good advice. Chaos. Yeah. When you're packing though for a holiday and you're trying to do all the stuff and not forget the dry shampoo and the tampons and God knows well. And then you're like, oh my God, and I need to bunch my flowers together. I need to do some weeding. It's just like too much for a small brain to do. I'm really lucky because Glow, my lovely friend Glow moves into her house to look after Wilbur whenever I go away. And she is fantastic.

She does weeding. She does grouping together. What I've been doing, I've been trying because obviously the weather has been so crazy. I've been trying not to water garden all the time because, you know, know, host pipe bands, we're running short of water, aren't me? And I've been using the water from my water butts that are now running low. But I have been doing, is it Amory Powell when she does her feeding Friday? It's not necessarily on Friday. It's when I remember. So it's not always on Friday, but I'd sometimes see her Instapost and think, yes, quick, feed the garden. So I've been trying

to, you know, do a big watering can with a good bit of feed, especially to the plants that are really struggling. And that I've really noticed has made a difference. And Joe, you changed my life with mulch because I think that mulch, especially this year, I think next year I might double layer up the mulch has kept some of those plants in my garden going. But I, yeah, I'm sort of wondering how when I get back, because there is talk of rain. There is talk of rain. I mean, I know in certain parts of the country, they have had rain, but there's such a huge part of the UK, it's still in drought at the moment. And you can see those aerial pictures of, you know, the ground cracking and forest fires everywhere.

It's so weren't. One of my friends who's here, they've just had a field fire really near her house, which is quite scary anyway. Everything's okay and everybody is okay. But it is, it does make you wonder, doesn't it? You know, of changing, I'm definitely going to change some of the plants in my garden next year because I just don't think they're going to be able to tolerate another summer like we've had. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah. Rethinking so much in the borders, yeah. Definitely need to get away. If anyone in the Brighton-Hove area, Sussex area, can recommend a watering system or fancies coming around to doing a bit of gardening. I am sort of looking for someone to help me a little bit with garden at the moment to perhaps advise me because there's definitely some plants that have really suffered. And I'm thinking, right, I might need some local advice. You're going to be inundated. I'm going to be inundated now by Brighton gardeners.

Also, thinking about the house and, you know, I'm going to be inundated. And like, is it time to get shutters on the house like they do in Europe, shut up the house to keep the house cool? Is that the way we should be going? You know, what's a green way to keep your house cool? Anyway, to be discussed, I think. I've had issues in my irrigation system because I was very excited about it. But then it just feels quite complicated and quite daunting because you have to like disconnect the sprinkler and then just have the drip feed going. And it's quite, when you've got a big border, which we're very fortunate to have, it. It's just been quite overwhelming and bits have come undone.

And it's just like, oh, God, this has not worked out the way it was supposed to work. Come the autumn, it'll be a complete rethink of how the irrigation works and getting it all fixed and sorted. But yeah, yeah, definitely. It's a full-time job gardening, full-time job. It is full-time. And thank you very much, Globe, looking after my gardener. Do be sure to check out Claire's amazing substack. Bud to seed is a wealth of gardening knowledge.

Do give her a follow. We love Claire. Thank you very, very much, Claire. Have you got a crate digging? I've got a crate digging. Oh, go on. Well, just, the thing is, I haven't actually been and bought any records

because it'd be coming away, but I just saw an instiposed today that Jungle's new album is out. I think it's actually called Sunshine and I listened to it this morning and it's fantastic. So that would be a top recommend. But we have got a theme this week, haven't we?

We have, yeah, yeah. No, I've completely switched off when it comes to musical. Yeah. I think just, yeah, with the funeral of grief and all that, I've just not wanted to listen to anything at all. Yes, I understand that. Just wanted silence.

It's really, really strange. Bit of Yacht Rock thrown in there because, you know, Michael McDonald, it's very, very soothing. Oh, my gosh, we've been playing games. Sorry, if it comes to Craig Digging, I can bring in games to this. We've been playing various different games. So Cub is the game that I would recommend for a beach game, which is where you have these huge pins that you have to throw sticks at and you try and knock them all down.

So it's like a very sophisticated Skittles game. You have a kingpin in the middle, two teams either side, and it's really difficult and it's massively entertaining. The whole family can play. Honestly, it's kept us entertained for hours. So I would recommend Cub if you're going on a beach holiday somewhere. It's really heavy, so you have to make sure that someone can carry it. But then we also played Spikeball, which is quite funny, easier to carry around. Spikeball is good.

But we played Hittster last night. So this is one of those, it's Hitsster Bingo. So you have a bingo card and you have to identify different songs. So either it's the artist, what the song. is the exact year that it came out or within three years of when it came out. Not one year out. Stephen, no, he's very much like one year out. Disco and I was just so put to shame last night because all these songs were being played,

little clips of songs. And we were like, what the hell? I can't remember what decade it was out, let alone what year it was out. And the kids are just bang on it, on it, on it. They can remember all the songs. I remember the lyrics. They took us forever. But it's a really good game.

What's that called? HITST A HITTA. HITST A H-H-T-T-T-E. T-S-T-E-R, it's a bingo for a big round-the-table, all-generation games. So just little clips of songs. You identify the year, the artist, whatever, and you fill out your bingo card.

But it really, really does show how old you are because these songs come out. I'm like, well, what was I at Radio 1? Was I at Radio 2? What child did I have then? We've lived a long life and a lot of music has come out and it's very difficult to place when it actually came out. Oh, God, yeah.

Mine's, you know, if I play along, with 10 to the top or Popmaster. Yeah. It's easy when you're not under pressure. Like when you're actually playing a game, your memory goes, doesn't it? Yeah, it completely goes. But we're talking a bit about revenge songs

because there's this story doing the rounds and I don't know whether this is just, you know, people reading too much into it or whether it really is a thing. That Phoebe Bridges, amazing new album that is out. Apparently there's reference to Gracie Abrams, who is, who I kept calling Gracie Abrams. And Ellie was like, it's Abrams mom. I'm like, oh, sorry.

On her new album, because, of course, Gracie is dating Paul Meskell, who is the actor, who's currently playing Paul McCartney in the Beatles film. And he used to date Phoebe Bridges. So apparently, I don't know what the exact lyrics are and whether this is, you know, I don't know if we've had this verified from Phoebe Bridges. But, you know, sometimes we love to read stuff into revenge songs, don't we about it? I mean, the amount of conversations I've had with people about, you're so vain, Carly Simon, was it written about James Taylor?

Was it written about Warren Beatty? Was it written about Sam Shepard? I interviewed her once. She was fantastic. She was fabulous. And she was really candid. But she said it can vary depending on the day. But yeah, she wasn't giving anything away.

Oh, really? She wasn't giving it. I think, I feel like it was about a collective. of all of them. Do you think she would refer to Gracie or would she? I think she'd take a swipe, yeah. No, I think she was, there was something to do with, I'm just trying to find out the specifics now, but it was something to do with it, was it a bed sheet that, which sounds really random. I had Cocoa fell in me in on this in India. So I'm mixed to do with a bed sheet that linked Phoebe and Paul Meskell that then Gracie Abrams took and had on stage, had the bed sheet on stage.

So there was some kind of like a crossover of who was with, who, when, what. I mean, this is total speculation, isn't it? Yeah. None of us really know. Yeah. So then Phoebe's new song references the bedsheet. Okay. It's all to do with a bed sheet, which...

There is beef. Yeah, there is definitely beef, yeah. Between the two ladies. I went down a Fleetwood Mac Vortex last night. I was just, you know, watching all the interviews of Lindsay Buckingham talking and Stevie Nick's talking and the clip of her singing to him and like the, oh my God, the intents. intensity of the revenge song. What's their key revenge song?

Silver Springs is the songs. Silver Springs, yeah, yeah, yeah. When she's, yeah, she's, but, you know, they both wrote really angry songs about each other and then they have to sing them to each other. To each other. You can still see, yeah, you could see the ferocity inside. I know, and we live for it as well.

Kelly Clarkson, since you've been gone, is one of my favorite revenge songs. Just to sing along and to feel like, like kind of that passion and that anger is really good. Alanis Morissette. To, yeah, you ought to know. Yes, doplicity. Oh, God, I love that song.

It's so good. And Cizor, Kill Bill. Yeah. I'd just kill my ex, which I won't try. Don't sing. God, my kids will kill me. And obviously, I sing all the lyrics wrong. And then they obviously have to explain to me what it's about.

And I'm like, oh, okay, right, okay, okay. David Gray had a song out or has a song called, Please Forgive Me. And I remember listening to it, and Steve and I had had a big argument or a fallout. We've been got really crossed with each other. And I remember listening to that song and singing it along at the top of my voice and I'm thinking, yeah, this is what Steve wants to say to me. This is exactly. Yeah, I know how he's feeling. Yeah, yeah, this is it.

And then I said to him something about David Grace, please forgive me. And he said, yeah, I was listening to that. And I just thought, this is what Joe's trying to say to me. And we both talked to each other and went, hang on a minute. Who's forgiving who here? It's forgiving who. I love that. It was such a classic miscommunication.

Oh, God. I always wondered about in relationships. When you have a fallout or when you have people good. it's sort of being the one to apologise or is the person who's like, well, actually, I always apologise and now it's your turn to apologise and how quickly you can get over that. But that's probably a conversation for another podcast. I've realised, Joe, to do this, to do this podcast when we're away, I was like, right, I'm going to bring myself an extra light to make myself look a bit better because the last time I was away, I was like, God, I'm terrible. Anyone, I've

realized I've done the whole podcast with a light actually, the extra light that I've brought. I haven't even put it on. This is like a fail. I'm so hopeless. Not that it would make any difference. Because we have faces for radio because that's what we started out in this. This is what we have. Yeah, we know nothing.

Faces for radio. Well, darling, listen, enjoy the rest of your holiday with the gang. Yeah, thank you. And you. And I'm really glad it's been good for the soul. Thank you so much. Yeah. Enjoy.

Have lots of fun. Exhausting holidays, aren't they? They are. They're full on. Like you say, you need a holiday to get over the holiday. Love you. That's love. Digit is a Persefonica production.