Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Breastfeeding Dramas & Airport Antics

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Zoe celebrates 30 years since she first presented Live & Kicking with Jamie Theakston, Jo shares her post-Brexit airport experience and they both settle a Digger’s decades-old, hair-raising debate. Plus, as Little Mix’s Leigh-Anne Pinnock shocks London Fashion Week goers with her fountain of ‘breast milk’, Jo and Zoe open up about the highs and lows of breastfeeding their own children. GET IN TOUCH📧 Email us: [e-mail]📱 Text or Voice Note: 07477 038795💬 Tap here to send a voice note or message on WhatsApp:⁠ ⁠https://wa.me/447477038795📱Or send us a DM on Instagram @DigItPod SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORSThis episode is brought to you by Ancient + Brave, Costa Coffee At Home, Bloom & Wild and Starling. 🌿 Ancient + Brave — Support your skin, joints, bones and overall wellbeing with Ancient + Brave's responsibly sourced collagen. Their Wild Collagen is neutral tasting, dissolves easily into your morning coffee and is designed for optimal absorption. Ancient + Brave is a certified B Corp, with marine collagen sourced from MSC-certified wild-caught fish. Head to ancientandbrave.earth/planet and use code DIGIT for 20% off your order.☕ Costa Coffee at Home — Start your morning with the same great Costa taste you know and love, now in your own mug at home. Costa's new Everyday Instant Coffee is inspired by their iconic Mocha Italia blend and comes in three varieties: Smooth, Intense and Decaf. Available in selected large format supermarkets across the UK, subject to availability.💐 Bloom & Wild — Looking for a thoughtful gift? Bloom & Wild has so much more than beautiful flowers, with carefully curated hampers, candles, brownies and books for every occasion. Enjoy 15% off your order at bloomandwild.com with the code DIGIT15 at checkout. Care wildly with Bloom & Wild.📱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. T&Cs and eligibility apply for Joint, Personal and Easy Saver accounts. Individual Personal accounts are required. The U16s debit card is connected to a PCA or Joint Account.CREDITSExec Producer: Sam MichellProducer: Harriet ThurleyAssistant Producer: Eve JonesTechnical Producer: Dan Moss Video Editors: Dan Moss, Cameron Laird & Jack Whiteside Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming up on Digit. Jamie being battered to the floor by Mr. Blobby every week. You know, I got to dress up as Princess Leia. I got to wrestle a WWF wrestler. I think possibly the happiest time for me in Tel E. There's just stuff squirting out of me all over the place. It's quite bonkers how far it can squirt. Yeah, you see, hit Steve in the eye.

I occasionally was invited to sit on the front row at the fashion shows or, you know. And I just always felt really self-conscious. We are not those people, Zoe. I'm very happily not those people. All of that right after this. Hello Diggers, happy Thursday. And hello, my lovely friend, Joe, how are you, darling? Yeah, I'm good, thank you. How are you?

I'm sort of quite shocked that it's already starting to be late September already, although the summer has continued, which is quite lovely, although I'm desperate to get into my winter wardrobe. How was the wedding in Portugal? It was beautiful. It was really lovely. So congratulations to Owen and Ziggy, who we've known for ages. Owen has helped to put together. my 90s anthem shows, so I've known him for a really long time. And it was just really nice to go to

an event where people are just, two people are so in love. And that's really evident. And they were just so into each other, there were three days of activities. So it was a proper, it was like a mini festival. Did you have to have a different outfit for each day? Well, kind of, it was boiling. It was so hot in Portugal. It was unreal. So everyone just kind of melted. But there was a pool party and then there was the actual wedding and it was really nice. Was there dancing? There was dancing and they did a choreograph dance. They did that thing where they'd been to dance lessons and I nearly cried when I was watching Owen concentrate so fiercely on getting his feet in the right place when they were doing the dance. There's just something so unbelievably endearing when you watch someone do that.

We had to battle with, you know, the joys of Brexit and all that when you go into another country and you see how many days you can actually spend in that country and then you, it just takes so long. Everything takes so long. There's so many procedures. And I don't know if other people do much travelling, but when you go, all the machinery you have to go through now as technology kind of improves with travel,

but you have to stand there and you have to get your face in the right position. And it's just hilarious watching everybody do it wrong. And you can see, like, everyone's really nervous. You step up to the plate and then you have to put your face here. And like, Coco was too short. It just kept like just, eh, eh, giving you. at this big cross and she was trying to book out what was wrong. And then she stood on tiptoes and then she was in the right space and they let her through. But you have to do the thing where

you put your four fingers down. Yeah, fingerprints. I can't do that because I've got my wonky arthritic fingers. They just go in all different directions. I'm literally bending my fingers, holding them down, trying to make the fingerprints work. Oh no. And then eventually they let me through. But it's just the joy of foreign travel and getting through all the different barriers that they put and all the technology is very, very funny. you can see the state of panic that many people are in. And as we were queuing, and you do that endless kind of walk to this end, and then you walk to that end, and then you walk to the other end,

and you're just kind of doing this huge loop. And there was this elderly couple who obviously were quite confused. They were from another country. They didn't quite know what was going on. And they just walked straight past everybody, obviously not meaning to cut a line or anything like that. And then this guy who was working at the airport, who was very much like Cam from modern family,

just walked up to them. And he was like, do you? you cut the line? And they were like, sorry, what, what? Did you cut the line? Uh-uh, uh-uh. And they just walks and they had to do this walk of shame past everybody. Oh my God. It was so funny and so heartbreaking for them. They look really confused. And he was just shaking and said, uh-huh, ha, ha. Did you cut the line back to the back of the queue? Very funny. Because I've noticed that there are some fantastic older people who just do that. And I think you just got to own it. I'm like, when I get to a certain age, I'm going to do that.

Oh, sorry, I thought this is just cutting. Yeah. Cut in traffic. Cut in the line in the post office. You know, and maybe when you get to a certain age, you've earned the right to do that. You just plead ignorance and get away with murder. Or we do love to get angry, don't we? You know, it's like, I put it in.

And do you say something or you don't say something or do you just sit there, you know, stand there snarling going, I mean, it depends how bad your day has been, doesn't it? It does make me laugh because I'm never the person who'll say anything. I'm like, no, I'd seriously go in front of me. I hate you. Yes, I'll let you in, but you didn't say thank you, you bastard. I love airports for people watching. I love people watching and I just really enjoy trying to work out people's relationships

and who's traveling with who and is someone having an affair and what's his story and what job does this person do and by trying to look at their luggage and stuff like that. You know, when you've got to spend hours in an airport, Rather than reading my book, I'd much rather just people watch. I love it. Going back to the wedding, yeah, did you and Steve do a choreographed dance routine on your wedding day?

No, we didn't even do a dance. You know, don't forget, we got married many, many, many, many decades ago. No, we didn't even do a dance. I mean, I can't dance, so I would avoid that like anything. But no, we didn't. I can't remember very much of it at all. I think I was too busy just running around trying to make sure everything was going well. It just wasn't a thing that happened that long ago.

Loads of us went for ballroom dancing classes because we had, I think it was my 40th. The BBC big band came and played and they were so fantastic. And so loads of us went for ballroom dancing classes together so that we could all do the proper dancing. But of course, the classic thing that happens is you sort of learn it all. It's not that easy. If you've not got a strictly person teaching you, because obviously when Ian taught me, or if I was in Ian's arms,

he can make me do anything. He's amazing because they'll move you around. But when you're learning with someone who's like you who doesn't really know what they're doing, we got on the dance floor, and then the minute the music strike is struck up, we just, all ended up, just doing our usual dancing.

And I was laughing at everyone going, all those classes, we didn't do any of it. It was like, just being absolute idiot. It was really fun. If you're loving Dig It so far, hit follow or subscribe, and that way you'll get brand new episodes as soon as they're out. Talking to milestones, and you've got a big milestone,

and that is Live and Kicking. So how long has it been? It's the 30th anniversary this week of Jamie and I's first ever appearance on Live and Kicking with Mr. Blobby, Trevon Simon and the Leprocons, and our amazing crew. we're having a get-together tonight. I mean, I haven't seen Jamie for years, because you know, it's that thing.

You work together and you're such great buddies, but then your lives just go different ways. And then he was doing breakfast radio, and I was doing breakfast radio, and I've just not seen him. And we've not seen the crew. I've not seen Chris Bellinger, who is our editor,

he was our boss on Live and Kicking. He really changed my life. You know, there were two amazing chaps in television who gave me a break. One was called Paul Smith, Paul, actually, you also used to be Gordon the Gopher as well as being in charge of Children's BBC. And Paul and Chris both took me on. And, you know, I was probably a bit of a risk and a bit of a punt at that point.

And they both are just amazing chaps. How old were you when you got the job? Children's BBC, I was probably about 22, 23. And then live and kicking, I was 25. Yeah, 25. And it was the best job I ever had. I loved it so much. Because Jamie was so much fun, the team were amazing.

Saturday morning telly was, you know, having grown up watching Saturday morning telly, you know, and watching Sally James on Tiz Wars and Sarah Green on Saturday Superstore and watching Swapshop, you know, with Noel Ledman's and Posh Paws, it's to end up doing Saturday morning telly. But it's really funny, Joe, because you talk to our kids about it and they're like, what was Saturday morning telly? Yeah, no comprehension. It's all cooking shows or, you know, young kids watch cartoons or they watch Children's BBC, but there's, there aren't, I think there are a couple of Saturday morning shows actually for kids now. But it was a proper appointment to watch. It was just your routine. It kickstarted your weekend.

It was so much fun, wasn't it? And you all across the country, we're all going through the same thing, watching the same things happen. And laughing and speaking to our friends at school about it on Monday. Because it was that mix, wasn't it? Yeah. It was sort of something for the kids. and something for the grown-ups as well. There was that sort of double layer of humour that kind of went on.

It was all clean-cut fun, but there always was that slight kind of ha-ha, you know, sort of daftness and naughtiness as well. And then there were big movie stars and great bands and musicians would come on. And then you'd have the Rugrats and Will Smith would be in the studio. And I remember Mo Molem coming in. And the other great thing I love about Live and Kicking Joe was, I don't know if you ever remember, the kids would ask questions. It was called the hot seat on live and kicking. So the kids in the audience would ask questions. And Daniel Radcliffe asked a question. One of the in-betweeners was on Grab It Rabbit, I think. And there's all these really amazing stories of people going, I was on Live Kicking. Back in the day where I'm like, oh my God. And that also makes me feel really old because they were kids. So stand out memories. Stand Out memories. Stand Out. memories then, apart from those names, were there any things that went wrong or that you just

remember being absolutely brilliant? They would be corpseing because Trevor and Simon would make us like corpse laughing and the lepricorns, Jamie being battered to the floor by Mr. Blobby every week, you know, and kids on live television are always really funny because they just cut through the nonsense occasionally saying really rude things when everyone be like, oh, what did you? say, oh right, let's not return to that. But it was such a joy to work on because the team who put the show together was so much fun. All the crew would get involved. There were silly sketches. It was, you know, I got to dress up as Princess Leia. I got to wrestle a WWF wrestler. They were just silly, silly, happy times. I think possibly the happiest time for me in Telly ever.

I know. 30 years ago, Joe. Was it scary? Was it the element of being like? We loved it. I mean, it was scary. I remember our first show, I had shiny, white clean trousers from Joseph on, and I love those trousers. I wish I'd kept them. Not that they would fit me now. I remember my sort of, you know, lip sticking slightly to my tongue in our first couple of links. But it was so much fun. And the element of chaos was always part of that show. So it was, and there's nothing like live TV. And when you're that age as well, you're like, this is the best job ever. Hey, it's been fashion week going on. Oh, it has. I don't know about you, but our phones are just full of pictures and we're bombarded all the time. So I'm just getting loads of fashion week front rows and seeing people. And I always get a pang of envy. I'm like, oh, God, that must be amazing to be on the front row.

But actually, I think we've both done that. We've both been on occasion to a fashion show. And it's actually really unpleasant because it's terrifying. Because everyone looks at you and you just feel a state. Even if they dress you up, you're like, I don't look as good as people around me. and there's all eyes on you. And it's just the environment of a fashion show is really very terrifying that you can't move. You feel like you can't breathe sometimes as well. But there was one moment. It's the Deptzer show. Leanne Pinuck, who's in Little Mix, who is heavily pregnant. And she

walks down as part of the fashion show. And when she gets to the very front, she's surrounded, she's standing, pregnant belly is out on display, looking magnificent. And then she just presses a button and all this liquid, fluid, like breast milk just comes out of her boobs, sprays out of her breast. It's very sullander. It's very, very sullander, is what I thought. It's quite zoolander and it's sort of quite sort of, she's almost like an Aphrodite in a fountain. She's like a fountain of breast milk looking absolutely good. I wish I'd look like that when I was pregnant, as gorgeous as she is. I definitely did not. I looked like a bust. But she just looks fantastic. But it's obviously really sort of tugging cheek, quite funny, but also celebratory of how brilliant women's

boobs are that they can feed babies. I mean, how lucky are we to be able to do such incredible things with our bodies? Yeah, I remember the first time that breast milk squirted out of my boob and it happens. The first time it happened, I was like, what the hell is going on? I just didn't believe, I didn't know that that could happen. And then it's just really funny. And then it makes you just feel very animalistic, I think. He's just like, I literally can't control my body. There's just stuff squirting out of me all over the place. It's quite bonkers how

far it can squirt as well. That was, you know. Yeah, you used to hit Steve in the eye. In the eye, you'd be like, oh, thanks to that, love. You're like, I'm so sorry I can't help it. And how, yeah, because if you don't empty them, I'm actually holding my boobs just in memory of that thing of, I've got to empty these because if you're, and if

you're ever away from your baby and your body is still making loads of milk and you've got to get your breast pumps on. I mean, I think breast pumps have come a long way, haven't they, since our day. I had so much milk in my boobs, which neither of my babies particularly wanted. Nelly flatline refused it would not ever breastfeed. Woody did for a bit, but not for long. But I could do like squirt, squirt and literally fill a bottle.

It was unbelievable. I was just like a cow with others. It was like, but there was so much of it. But now there are these amazing systems that you can just wear like a harness and walk around and deal with your jobs while they're pumping away. I mean, our day was it was literally like a bottle with, I remember it was like a bottle and then it had a yellow suction pad which you just literally clamped onto your nipple. And then you had to manually squeeze it. I mean, it's so basic. So basic. And you'd get handache. You'd get bad handache. You really would. And if you didn't get the suction on right, it wouldn't work. And oh my God, it was so sore. And no, I do, I do appreciate there. Some people really struggle with breastfeeding as well. It can be so demoralizing when you're a new mom and the baby won't latch on. And everything gets bunged up. And it's, yeah, it's, you're so right. You do feel, it's the closest to being like an animal that I think you can get sometimes as a woman.

Yeah, mastitis. Did you ever get that? Mastitis, yeah, I did and it's horrific, isn't it? And you're just like, I remember my, I felt like my toes might break because I would crunch them up. So, be like, this is so painful. And I think cabbage leaves were one of the remedies for that. I don't know whether you ever did. I definitely lay in bed with cabbage leaves, like plastered all around my breasts. And then you smell like school dinners as well as, yeah, just because you're, because you're

body so warm so it would kind of slowly steam the cabbage. But you'd be like, get me a cabbage. Please get me a cabbage. I feel like for women now, please don't let us put you off because I think, you know, we've come a long way in understanding how to, you know, breast pump and how to soothe nipples and mastitis these days. So I hope we're not putting any young diggers off. I also felt really guilty because I fed all the kids all right and then it got to cocoa and I just didn't have enough milk. I was talking to her the other day and I was like, oh God, I remember feeling a failure. I felt like I'd really let her down. Yeah, you do. Yeah, I just literally did not have enough milk. I was, God knows why. And yeah, just remember Steve in the end going out and going,

I've got, I'm just going to get some formula milk. I'm going to get and let's see what happens because she was screaming, a screaming, and screaming and I couldn't do anything for her, couldn't calm her down. As soon as we gave her that bottle, she was happy. And she was from then on, you know, she still suckled occasionally, but she didn't need me as much. She just needed the food and nourishment that I couldn't give her. And it made me feel terrible. It really did. But then ultimately, you're like, no, I just need my baby to be healthy and happy. So I will do whatever it takes. That would be absolutely fun. You know, that's what you have to do. But if you haven't seen the photograph of Leanne from Little Mix, spurting milk all over the models below her,

then please do. She looks beautiful. She looks gorgeous. Her pregnant belly is amazing. yes, it really is. I love that you're saying about that sitting on the front row. I occasionally was invited to sit on the front row at various fashion shows or, you know, and I just always felt really self-conscious, like I didn't look very good in the outfits that people would give you to wear. Because they kind of give you, the designers give you outfits to wear. And also there would be incredible movie stars, rock stars and models on the front row. And I'd always be like, I am not supposed to be here.

I am not one of the beautiful people. And they are all so beautiful and extraordinary. Now I sit there thinking. Yeah, that they weren't your people. You can see the way they're sitting on their seats. Oh, yeah, you have to tuck your knees in a certain angle. Yeah. We are not those people, Zoe.

I'm very happily not those people. So talking of looking awkward, we were talking about family portraits and photographs from the 80s. And Diggers, you've been amazing with the photographs that you sent through. You have absolutely delivered. We asked for your weird and your wonderful retro family portraits. and they are stunning. You can see them if you go to YouTube. You won't regret it.

It's going to be 10 minutes of your life that you will be very happy that you spent with us. So should we talk through some of these images? Oh my goodness me. This is an incredible picture of Joanne, her brother and their parents. Are they sitting in chitty chitty, bong, bang, in boater hats, in fancy dress. This is incredible.

My eyes are really bad. Is this a real backdrop? drop or is it one of those sheets like a scene behind them. But a theatre. Yeah. And they are sitting in a car that looks like chitty shitty, shitty bang, bang.

Yeah. And I think the mother of the family has got like a truly scrumptious kind of hat on with a scarf tied under her chin as well. It's very, very funny. Fabulous. And does dad have a moustache there? He looks so great.

And look at the kids. Joanne, by the way. You look so cute. Yeah. Joanna, brother and parents, you look amazing. Thank you for that photograph. It's classic. Oh, yes.

Yeah, look at this. So this is a traditional wedding. The photographer said to everybody, right, let's all crouch down on the ground because they've got big dresses on. So everyone's wearing big dresses, the bride and the bridesmaids. And he's got them, or she has got them to crouch down on the floor. They look like they're doing squats and they've been doing squats for a really long time. And they're desperate to stand up. Clench those buttocks.

And so there's a slight grimace But then also a smile But yeah, more than anything It's just really There's a lot of material A lot of tafter going on there Emily, thank you for sharing I wore a bridesmaise dress

Very similar to that But mine was slightly more peachy But those puff sleeves I mean it really is like bow peep Isn't it? It's like bringing 80s bow peep vibes Finally we've got this one There's a lot going on here

I think this looks like Brighton Possibly Anyway, so Seaside And there's a family It's family portrait And again, it's the hair. Does that mean there's an awful lot going on here? And lots of stripes and court shoes.

Oh, court shoes, cowboy boots, kitten heels. We've got all the different shoes here. The stripy tops. Ugh, the jackets. Salance, who sent the picture in. She is the bumblebee in the picture. She's in the stripy top, which is really cute. But she does say, my mum is in the pink.

You might be able to set an argument for us. She said she never had a mullet and her hair was absolutely not a mullet. We beg to differ and she gets very shirty about it. Let's look at Sir Lance's mum again. That is most definitely a mullet. She's got shorter sides. She's got bigger hair at the top. Salance's mum totally mulleted out of her mind there.

I think she looks amazing. Not dissimilar to Mike Peters from the alarm. I don't know if anyone knows the band, The Alarm, but that hairstyle, it could be said that Mike Peters from The Alarm also had that hairstyle. I'm so, I'm really sorry, I'm so mean. And Joe, just one more little treat for us all that we could not resist. I shared this in confidence with the rest of the team. I found this late last night and I couldn't sleep and it's a photograph and it was my mum's friend, Marie, who I love so much. And she had a clothing range and she was selling these clothes.

And so she asked me to be a model. I think I was probably 13 or 14. And so I think it was Dino from the team said, I didn't know you were in the human league, Joe. I've literally, I've got no eyebrows whatsoever, but I've got black eyes, like properly black eyes. You can barely see the eyeballs. And I'm wearing a batwing leather top with matching skirt.

But it's so good. It looks straight. It looks like it's come off the pages of looking. It's so good. or a Jackie magazine, you would not have been out of place. Bring back the batwing, I say. So we're taking the Mickey out of all of us in the 80s and what we look like in the 80s.

Do 90s wedding photographs look ridiculous? And do 2000s wedding photos look ridiculous? Yeah, if you even look back to friends, like everyone had Jennifer Anderson's haircut. And the outfits, it was all little tops and little, you know, the jeans that they used to wear and stuff like that. And you look at that and that looks dated. So yeah, maybe we should do all the eras diggers.

Because we've got lots of younger diggers, haven't we? And then we should have a look at some 2000s and just see. Oh, yeah. And we were talking about your granny gristle. You mentioned your grandma, Granny Grissel. And you couldn't work out why she was called Granny Grissel. No, no idea. You are not alone.

Because Granny Sue has been in touch and says, I had a granny gristle too. it might be a Northamptonshire saying as my family is from Kettering and that's what your family are from. So maybe this is a thing. Were there any more granny gristles out there? I need to get to the bottom of this. I must ask my mum and my auntie. They might have the answer, but it could well be just a Northamptonshire saying because my grandma is very, very Northampton.

So that would make complete and utter sense. It's always really funny and really sweet, I think, hearing what you call your grandmas and granddads and what it's based on. Steve always had his nanny and they were all based on the dog that they had. So he had nanny pip because her dog was called Pipp. And he had no idea why he called a nanny Pipp until the penny dropped at some point in the future. And he was like, oh, it's because she had a dog called PIP. So, yeah, people base their grandmas and their nannies names on many different things. If any of our diggers are grandparents and your grandchildren have come up with quite unique names.

Because I know lots of friends of mine who've become grandparents, they have not, necessarily wanted to be called grandma or granddad. So the kids have come up with different things to call them. So yeah, if you've got any good names or suggestions, we'd like to hear from you. Just to say, I spoke to a few people at the wedding that I went to

and I was like, what else do we need to talk about on Digit? What, you know, what do you really enjoy? And they just, they were like menopause. It really helps when you talk about menopause and what's going on because, you know,

we kind of talk about it one week and then we move on because obviously not everybody's going through menopause, but actually a lot of people are going through it. And sometimes you feel absolutely fine. You've got no symptoms whatsoever and you're coasting. And then the next week you're flawed by it and stuff's going on. So I just thought it was really interesting. They just said, it really helps.

It really helps to hear from you and from Zoe and from all the other diggers to know that we're not alone and that everybody else is going through the same kind of thing. And there's all kinds of madness going on in our lives. I've had that this week where the tears are here. They are right. there are these trapped tears underneath my eyes. And it's sort of, I mean, the lodger's sort of, I'm laughing with the lodger at like, I'm so sorry, it's going to come.

It's all here. And then the words and the people and remembering things. And when you're doing, you know, live radio or you're trying to make bookings or anything like that. And you're like, oh, God, what is that? Where is that word? Where's that word? Where is that name?

Why can I string a sentence together? Why do I just want to burst into tears? I'm so irritable and really, really, like everything. I'm just on edge at the moment and tearful. I don't know, Zoe. I don't know what the answer is, but I just know it comes and goes in waves. You know, there's like tests for, you want to find out what your hormone levels are when you're trying to have a baby. Well, apparently you can use one of those.

This is something we should look into. Maybe we should ask a lovely menopause doctor, somebody who specialise in this. is there a little test that you can do at home, just see what your levels are, maybe we're having too much HART or not enough. I don't know. I think that would be helpful if it is a thing. I'll look into it.

Oh my God, it would be. Yeah, please do. But yeah, I have been really bad with words and names recently, really bad. And it's not good when you do live radio. No, of course not. No, when you're interviewing Hugh Jackman or someone. Or I imagine lots of our diggers have got really high-powered jobs or loads, you know, if you've got to give a speech at work or you've got to, you know,

it's so frustrating sometimes. Or you're just home alone and you just feel really sad. That is just, yeah, it's a horrible place to be. It really is when you just can't make sense of the world or yourself. You just can't get to the grips with who you are. That's really tough. It's really tough. So we see you and we're with you and we're going through the same kind of thing and everybody

is as well. We always love to hear from you. So send your messages, your dilemmas or your answer to our Instagram. at DigitPod, or you can email or WhatsApp us. All the details are in the show notes. This episode is sponsored by Starling, the bank that helps you organise your money, build great habits and stay in control of your spending. Right, Zoe, what is the best financial lesson that your parents ever gave you? Oh, pay bills first and then enjoy what's left. I've tried to pass this on to Woody. He's got a knack for getting parking tickets until it's doubled in price.

I'm guilty of that one myself. It's amazing how much stress you're avoid just by getting the boring stuff out of the way first. Steve and I found that once we'd sorted out a simple system for all I shared household bills and shopping, those kind of little money frictions eased off. We have a joint account, all the usual household bills come out of there, and then we've still got our own money to enjoy outside of that. We've also asked our diggers on Instagram, and you've had some brilliant replies. First up, Linda said that her parents had something they called funny money.

Every month they each had a little bit they could spend on whatever hobby they liked. No questions asked. Mum would buy knitting wool, dad would buy vinyl, and neither was allowed to roll their eyes at the other's purchases. I like that. Sounds like a really good way to keep the piece. Starling actually has a tool in their joint account called Spaces, which is perfect for exactly this. And Kelly has a message too.

She's taken some inspiration from her son. Ever since he got his first debit card, he's obsessed with checking it at the cash machine whenever they're at the supermarket. And it's inspired her to check her balance more too. Excellent that Kelly took a leaf out of her son's book. The habit of checking your balance regularly is a simple one, but often the first step to getting to grips with your money. And even more important when you're managing family finances. Thanks so much to everybody who's sent in their good with money habits. And if you'd like to discover more ways to put habits like these into practice and organise your family's finances,

then check out Starling's joint account. You can apply for an account together in just a few minutes while still keeping your own personal accounts, so you've got one place for all those shared costs to help you do life together. The app even breaks down those costs for you with insights into your shared spending habits. You also get instant payment notifications

and you can set up different spaces to ring fence money for joint costs like house or bills, family events, hobbies. And if you open a joint easy saver, you'll earn interest on your job. shared savings too. And if your household grows, the account can grow with you too. You can link a child's debit card directly to your account so everything sits together under one roof. Search Starling Bank to find out more. Good with money starts here. Oh Joe, did you see? You probably

haven't seen it. Gardner's World, Francis did an allotment special on Gardner's World last week. Oh my Lord. It was amazing. It was a good. They did films from incredible allotments all over the UK. a really lovely film about an older gentleman who'd met this really young last. She'd come to help him with his allotment because he was getting older and he wanted someone to help him. And he'd taught her all about the plants. They had this really unlikely friendship. And they were doing amazing things. There were allotments where you could have lessons and then you would learn and you'd all, like you'd have six small plots and each person who ran it. You'd all plant the same thing and then you'd learn how to run your plots. Because obviously I know a lot of people

who've taken on allotments and then found it quite overwhelming because it's such a huge thing. So you learnt so much from it. And then I've got to shout out Zoe Henry and Jeff Hordley, who play Rona and Kane in Emmerdale. Their story is so lovely. They're a couple. They met back in drama school years ago. Zoe's been in the soap. She's left.

She's gone and been in other soaps. Jeff's obviously played Kane for years. He's just won an NTA just for being brilliant. Their allotment, oh my lord, it was couples goals and allotment goals. They've, it's their special place. It's where they go, where it's their calm, get away from the world. What was it like? What did they grow?

Oh my gosh, they had a polytunnel. They had chilies. They had, you know, brassicas. They were so pro, potatoes, everything. And they obviously use all that food to cook. In fact, Jeff was eating some of his chili. to she was, Zoe was making him test the chili to see how hot they were. And obviously at one point he'd eaten one that was really very hot.

But you just got that overwhelming feeling from all of the films about how good those allotments are for people and how as a community you make other friends. You learn about gardening and what a great place is. And I immediately was like, I need to grow more veg. I've got potatoes. You've just reminded me. They're in the ground. I should dig those up. Oh, all that inspiration.

it's like, oh God, I want to grow potatoes. It does just make me hanker for the days that I can retire and have an allotment. That's what I'm aiming for one day. Now, we often talk about outdoor plants and all the gardening that we do outside and on the allotments with flowers. But with the weather turning a little bit colder, we are heading inside. Hi, I'm Rosanna Costello, the founder of Hilda. And we're here in the Hilda Houseplant Hospital to help you have happy, healthy, thriving houseplants. So, first things first, making sure your houseplants are potted into really nice, free-draining,

houseplant specific compost. Making sure there's some feed in there and some nutrients and some drainage items as well. Next up is feed. You want to give your houseplants a really good houseplant specific fertilizer to help them have the energy to put out new growth and even put out flowers. Now you might not like this one, but dusting and cleaning your houseplants is almost as important as watering. Making sure they can see to photosynthesize and breathe and transpire out of their pores and it also just helps them to look really good for you. And finally watering. Overwatering is one of the biggest problems that we see in the Hilda Houseplant Hospital.

So making sure to take your plants out of their decorative pot, This isn't a every Saturday morning put a bit in, hope for the best kind of thing. Take them out of their decorative pots, take them to the sink, give them a good drench with the tap, sit them on the draining board, and once they've finished draining, put them back in their decorative pots and back on their shelf. And whilst they're out the sink, you can give them a checkover, you can give them a clean, trim off any leaves, and they'll be much, much happier. So keep those tips in mind.

Try your best not to overwater as we come into autumn and the days get darker and shorter. And follow us at Hilda for more. Oh, thank you to Rosanna. And Hilda is Rosanna's husband's great granny's name. So that's why he calls the company that. Described as an all-round legend, Hilda. She lived to be 102, patented a gardening tool.

And they still have one of her Hoyers that's around 30 to 40 years old. So, oh. It's a good age for a plant. That's such a lovely thing, isn't it? You can find Hilda on Instagram at underscore hilda.com. Do you know what? I really loved those gloves she had. Yeah, I know what a good idea.

I tried to get mine if I can, and I remember my house plants got quite a few here. I just put them in the bath. Oh, do you? But then I let them sit in the water. Maybe I'm leaving it too long. But then you can drain it out and then I'll try and do that. I'll try and do that. Steve's got loads and loads of money plants.

And they're like dinosaurs. They're really old now. We've had them for years. They're doing very well. Great digging time. Joe, have you got any music to recommend this week? I'm a bit out of touch. You know, I'm just, I'm really feeling quite out of touch. I went to see Sam Smith last week after my show who was doing a residency at the Coliseum and it was just fantastic. It was rammed. I went with Cocoa and Joe, her boyfriend, and it was just so wonderful to see Sam in their element on stage, looking amazing wearing these fantastic costumes, incredible voice, really, really happy. And this audience, just of all ages, adoring the music.

So Sam Smith was really great. Bibi Doobie's got an album out, which is called Pylon, which I think a lot of people might enjoy if they listen to that. But that's really all the music I've been consuming, apart from my obsession with William Shatner, who is 95 years old. And he's been ranting, he's been ranting about being 95, about how, you know, railing against death and what about wanting to live and make the most of his life. So very much like Dick Van Dyke, just refusing to go gently into the night. So he's joined a heavy metal band and he's been

doing performances at the age of 95 and wowing audiences. I just have so much time for him. I mean, obviously Captain Kirk from Star Trek, who I loved back in the day, but now I just think, what a way, what a way to live your life at the age of 95, being a heavy metal band. I interviewed Brian May the other day and he's performed on one of Williams' tracks on his new. album and he was just saying, you know, how fantastic William is. Yeah. Energy and making heavy rock music at the age of 95. That's how we should all live.

There's me wanging on about retiring. No. You can't retire. You've got to live your life, haven't you? I can still have an allotment and be like William Shatner. Yes, you can. You can be in a heavy metal band. One day we'll do that.

We'll do some massive hair like the 80s. We'll do the big hair and we'll both play and we'll sing tunelessly. I want to play bass. I mean, I have absolutely no musical skills whatsoever, but I'm thinking it's what I always wanted to be a cool girl who plays bass. Yeah, we're going to do that. When we get to 90, it's a date. I've got a book to recommend.

I've been so looking forward to this turning up in the post, and it came this week. Rachel Sterling, fabulous actress. You'll know her from The Detectorists. She is the daughter of Diana Rigg, and she has written this glorious book called All About My Mother. which it indeed is. It's also a play that Diana was in. And, you know, Diana Rigg, what an incredible actress she was. You know, Emma Peel, she was so hot. She was beloved, not only being a kickass actress, she was also so hot. And she just was so effortlessly cool. And she was the only ever

Mrs James Bond, of course, on Her Majesty's Secret Service, in which her character tragically is killed and explains a lot of, I think, James Bond's issues with women years later because he never gets over the death of his wife. And she was an incredible stage actress, and she worked with them all, like every great actor of all time. I think it's Larry, Lawrence Olivier, called her Tits Rig. There are so many fantastic stories.

in here that Rachel just, it's like these little potted moments from Diana's life, all about her family and how she came to acting, her favorite roles, funny, funny stories, when things went wrong when she got the giggles, and also about her later life, you know, and Rachel married Guy Garvey, who we love from Elbow, and they've got a son, and there's just some really beautiful stories about Diana living with them in the last couple of years of her life and it is just wonderful. It's a love letter from

a daughter to her mother and Rachel writes so brilliantly she's really funny and she's just captured her mom so brilliantly. I think anyone who loved Dame Diana Rigg, I saw her once. She was in the supermarket. It was quite a posh supermarket

in Knightsbridge and she was sort of a couple of people in front of me in the queue and you know that thing of wanting, so wanting to say something, but thinking, I don't know her. But I just loved watching everyone just come in and, double take. What a woman. What a woman. What a woman. Yeah. Also, Bake-Off's back. Yeah, Nigella. And Strickley's back. We're going to see them dance this weekend.

I cannot wait to see them all dance. See who's brilliant. And just well done to Emma and Josh and Jojo. They freaking owned it. They're so brilliant. I thought the styling was amazing. on Strictly. The colours that they chose, those autumnal, but fiery, red, orange, brown colours, all glittering and shining. I thought it was amazing. It was like a work of art. Whoever did the styling and the design, it was like a work of art. It was really good. Top production, top costumes. Yeah, but let's talk about that next week, shall we? We've got so much to talk about. Okay. All right. Thank you, Diggers. Have a lovely week. Don't forget to get in touch. If there's anything you'd like to recommend or you've got Anything to say on any of the subjects we've covered.

We love hearing. Yeah, don't be shy. Take care. Bye. Digit is a Persephonicar production.