Dig It with Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball - Topshop Returns and Jo’s Strictly Come Dancing Ban

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Jellyfish stings,multi-generational holiday mishaps, and a crash course in the latest slang (“huzz,” anyone?). Got something to ask Jo and Zoe? Or a tip to share? Get in touch! 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/447477038795 GET EARLY AND AD-FREE EPISODES Become a member of The Potting Shed for early and ad-free episodes and bonus content 👉 https://digit.supportingcast.fm/ GARDENING EXPERT: JO THOMPSON Garden designer Jo Thompson shares her wisdom on how creating smaller gardens can open up new ways to connect with nature and make the most of every space. 🌱 https://www.instagram.com/jothompsongarden/?hl=en  🌱 https://jothompson.substack.com/p/small-garden-design-how-to-create  SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS This episode is brought to you by Ancient + Brave and Airbnb. 💪 Ancient + Brave — Discover the power of creatine, supporting energy, focus, strength, and even brain health. Perfect for midlife wellness as well as fitness, this tasteless powder blends effortlessly into your daily routine. Get 20% off your first order with code DIGIT at ancientandbrave.earth 🌍 Airbnb — Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at https://www.airbnb.co.uk/host/  CREDITS Exec Producer: Jonathan O’Sullivan Assistant Producer: Eve Jones Technical Producers: Will Gibson and Oliver Geraghty Video Editors: Danny Pape and Connor Berry Dig It is a Persephonica production

Coming up on Dig It. I would never do strictly in a million years. No, no, no, not for all the money they could ever possibly offer. And you can dance. You can dance. I can't. You're going to final show up. At the venue when we got married, there was a swimming pool that Steve Coogan jumped in and broke his nose.

No. I thought I'd been attacked by a shark, but in fact, I had been stung by a jelly. Jellyfish. No. Oh. All of that right after this. Hey, Zoe. How you doing?

Hi, love. How are you? See, now I'm home and you're away. In the same place, thankfully. In the same place. Yeah, yes. We both went to Abitha this year. Thank goodness because my holiday didn't get off to the best start because imagine my horror. What did you forget? When I was at the airport and I got a message from the production team going, you have got your recording equipment with you, haven't you?

And I went, no, I've definitely got my kids. I've got my father-in-law. I definitely haven't got the recording equipment. Got your pod kit. I know. So, yeah, luckily you were on. the island and we managed to meet up and we handed over the recording equipment so now i am able to do this podcast we handed over the goods in a car park of a very posh hotel where it was quite funny i was

my car which i thought was quite a nice car actually the guy came out was like you can't part there for very long and then i looked along the line of cars that were parts outside to dolche and gabana hotel yes the clap house oh right yes okay yeah yeah i pretty probably want me to move on with my old banger we went to have a coffee there and we drove down in our car and when we got out and they were like valley parking and we went no no it's fine well we're right we'll leave the car here and you went no no valley parking and again same thing we're not in a Ferrari we're not in a mazirati we'll we'll you can part the car for us that's fine oh god it's hilarious oh dear it's nice to your face though is it okay

being back oh i've got the blues i've definitely got the blues are coming back it's an interesting one because this time of year i'm always ready i quite like the turn of the season because i love I know it's a bit weird, but I really love the autumn because I was born in the autumn. And I think that's why. And I love the back to school feels. I quite like coming back and doing spring clean, an autumn clean, you know, starting to look forward to changing my wardrobe, all that sort of stuff. But it's only August and I think the warmer weather is sticking around for a while.

So I might just have to put the brakes on that kind of feeling at the moment. But I'm missing all my friends and my lovely family because we were all out there together. But very happy memories. It's been absolutely brilliant. And you've got to see all the kids. kids in the end. I got to see all the kids. Woody made it in the end. I think booking my son a flight to come out and see us straight after Boomtown was a mistake. So he didn't make it out the first day he was supposed to fly or the second day he was supposed to fly. But he finally

made it out the third day he was supposed to fly. Yeah, he stayed for I think it was 36 hours but it was well worth it for us to get some time with him. It was yeah, it was lovely. And he flew from Bristol for 33 quid on jet2.com. Wow. How brilliant is that? That's amazing. That's amazing. 33 quid for a flight to Ibiza.

Fantastic. It's weird because we've done a two-week holiday and we had the first week and all the kids were here and my father-in-law. He lives in Thailand and Kifo, this is. And he came on a holiday with us for one week. And now they've all gone. So it's just me, Steve and Coco. And we're in a bedroom together, the three of us last night.

I was thinking, I must report on the pod about this. So we're sharing a bed, Disco, Steve, Coco and myself just for this one holiday, because they've given us a sofa bed and it's not very comfortable. So I was like, Coco, please come and get into bed here. It's much more comfortable. However, the huffing and the puffing, it just took me straight back to my message about sleeping alone and how great that is. Yes. Because last night, I was like, oh.

And the response to that has been quite something. Yeah, so many people kind of feeding back what it's like for them when it comes to getting good night's sleep. So Emma texted us and she said, me and my partner have had separate rooms for the last 18 years. The only time we sleep in the same bed is on holidays. Good luck. Although I have been known to relocate to a bathtub due to his snoring issues. Emma, right, I nearly did. For us, this setup is just perfect.

And morning snuggles are the best. I hear you, Emma. I know what you mean. It's been a long time since I've slept in a bath, I have to say. I probably would sleep on the floor. Also, people were loving the Ibitha memories from the show. last week, Paul emailed. It says, hi, Zoe and Joe. I came across camcorder footage of Zoe. Oh, no, doing her show at Cafe Mambo. And I'm wondering, I remember it well. I'm wondering if you could

let me know who is the guy smoking next to Zoe. My wife thinks it's ooh Gary Davis. Also, I too suffer from social anxiety. Was it tough being in front of an audience like that? Well, let's have a look at the video. Let's see if we can fucking. can work out by a process of elimination. So that is actually producer Will. It is Will. That is Will. He fell in the stream at our house once when we had a party.

He had to, oh no, was it your wedding. No, it was my wedding. It was a fishing out of the lake, yes. And yeah, your Steve really looked after him. Somehow at the venue where we got married, there was a swimming pool that Steve Coogan jumped in broke his nose and also never swim when you've been drinking people that is the lesson here and then will somehow had managed to walk into the lake yeah and appeared in the bar just covered in pondweed yeah and Steve had to look after him i remember that and he got him a change of clothes and

will was very tall and so all the clothes that he'd given him were really really short if you're loving dig it make sure you hit follow on apple or spotify it means means you'll never miss an episode. They'll download to your phone as soon as they're out. So we also got an email from Miriam. So Miriam said, I've been going through my mum's attic and I found a box of stuff from her old bedroom. And one of the treasures there was Zoe Ball's soccer studs on VHS. And she says, we had very few videos in the 90s. And I remember watching this repeatedly as I really fancy Jamie Rednap. My two main memories are, I think, Robbie Fowler doing an awful, awful oasis cover and Zoe being really rubbish at football.

Oh, yeah. I think we've managed to find both of those clips. Okay. And others enter the worlds of pop music. Slip inside the eye of your mind. Don't you know you might find a better place to play? My God, Robbie. An amazing footballer, Robbie Fowler,

one of the best there ever was for Liverpool, but Lordy, the singing was shocking. Okay, and here's Zoe trying her hand at football. Oh, good grief. Football isn't just for men anymore. It's for people who love football. Oh, look at you. Want to be great if I could remember my words.

I think it was one of those great marketing ideas. Let's get Zoe, because it was, you know, Ladet, let's get Zoe to talk about footballers and about football. The thing is, is that I grew up in a family who love football, they're all Liverpool supporters. I worked in Manchester for a long time and my friends were all United. Fans, they used to take me to the game.

So I got really into United, much to the chagrin of my father and everyone else and a lot of other football fans who would give me a really hard time about being a Man United fan. But also to repeat how bad I was at football, we then went with Radio One out to the Euros.

And Simon Mayo and our, were playing a game of five aside with a load of crew. And I was playing in a wedge. It was a Prada wedge, but it was a wedge all the same. And I went in and did a dirty tackle on Simon Mayo and he had to be carried from the pitch. I basically did his ankle in.

And I've always felt so guilty about it. Oh, to us, poor Simon. Oh, no. Yeah, never play football in a wedge. So, yeah, I am still terrible at football. And as you can hear, I am not like Joe. I'm not very fit. So when I do run around a bit, I'm always really, really breathy.

But yeah, you're a pro. You've played football, Les. I mean, you're so cute. Honestly, as a presenter, you look so cute. Stop. You're such a natural. Little baby then. Yeah, no, gorgeous.

And you never know, this is the whole thing, isn't it? We give ourselves such a hard time about how we look. I remember not being happy about how I looked then and I look back and think, wow. You look amazing. I was so sprightly and live and, you know, full of hope and not cynical like I am now. Like, just kidding. You'd be very proud of what you are now. Can I just tell you, you'd be very happy.

Aw. One of the things that I've been very, very excited about. And obviously, I think it's probably my age and my generation is the return of Topshop, because it's all on my Instagram feed at the moment. And it was just somewhere that when it closed down, I couldn't believe it. And it left a massive hole. I mean, literally, Milton Keynes doesn't have an amazing array of cool clothes shops, I don't think. And it had this huge superstore that was Topshop.

and it was the only place you could go to to get anything stylish and it's never been the same. So I'm looking forward to the return of Topshop, which is going to be happening. And I don't know whether it was Topshop big for you, though? Oh, huge for me. Do you know, the worst thing for me when Topshop closed was pants and jeans because they did long, they did tall jeans.

And I remember my friend Helen, because then I put on a bit of weight and I couldn't get in any of my top shop tall jeans anymore. And my mate, Helen would be as much skinny than me. She'd be like, darling, have you got any more of your... Because they were my step. I wore them on every TV show I ever did. And so I had stacks of them. And sure enough, I found another pair the other day.

And I look at them, I think, how did I ever get in those? But Topshop jeans were the best. And tights. Oh, they had tights. They were great. In fact, the Top Shop Superstore on Oxfrey is now an IKEA. And I remember when it closed down, I shed a tear. It was like, what are we going to do?

Because it was a great shop that, you know, it got to the point where I would find myself, in there thinking, am I allowed to still shop in here? You know, you could find quite unique things in there as well as... Yeah, because they really moved with the times, didn't they? They just diversified so much that they had a lot of vintage stuff. They had different collaborations with designers, which did appeal to you and me, but then also to our daughters, India in particular, was prime kind of Cape Moss era top shop. Well, the Cape Moss collection, do you remember, it would fly out? And also, it was a really good, the Cape Moss collection. It's going to be interesting. They've got to target like the younger age now, haven't they?

Because they've found where to get their clothes from. Kirk is amazing where she gets all her stuff from, whether it's Deepop and Vinted, not so much Vinty, but more Deepop, I think, and TikTok. It's got its own shopping channel. There are so many different ways in all these independent designers who've started making clothes. Amazingly cool clothes for young girls. And Top Shop have really got to try and nail that market or entice that market.

It'll be very, very interesting. Nail's still massively into urban outfiters. Is she? And I, she, when we go in there, she's like, mom, can you just go and sit on the bench or in the corner? Because otherwise I walk behind going, oh yeah, we wore that in the 90s. Oh yeah, they've got all that's back. And I'm thinking, why didn't I save all my stuff?

Because she would have been in all of it now. Good news, Zoe. Joni jeans, I think these are the jeans that you're talking about that were like massively successful for absolutely everybody because they fitted. Actually, people could wear them and they would fit. They're coming back. You're joking. Manifested. No, I'm not joking. Yeah, they're part of it. So you're okay. I don't know if I'll get my thighs in them anymore, but I will definitely try.

Joe, can I tell you something that happened? I went swimming. We stayed in a villa. You could walk down to the beach. It was so, so beautiful. And I went in the sea, and I'm not a brilliant swimmer, and I'm not that brave in the sea. I blame jaws. It came out at that particular time. But I was like, this water is so clear. And I'm going to swim. And my friends all swim. every day. So I thought, I'm going to do it. So I went down and I swam out and it was wonderful. It was really peaceful. Hardly anyone there. And then I'd come back up the beach, had a little line in the sun. I thought, I'm going to go back in. And I went back in and I was swimming really fast. I was doing really fast breaststroke. And I was like, this is the life. And suddenly, I screamed in pain as I thought I'd been attacked by a shark. But in fact, I had been stung by a jellyfish. I tell you what, because there's so many jellyfish. It'd be through. It's a real

problem. You've got scar because they last, don't they? This, it doesn't look as impressive anymore, but when it happened, it was, so can you see the markings there? And if you look around my arm, you can sort of see the tentacle marks.

It wrapped itself around my arm. And they've got, I think it's three or four different types of jellyfish in a beef I learned from my friend Ben Benson a few days later. And there's one, this sort of brown one that doesn't sting, it's completely harmless. There's these little orange ones

aren't so bad. But then there is Oh, I think it's called the Palagia Noctiluca, which sounds like a hotel in Las Vegas. But actually is this, it's the real Abitha final boss. Oh my God. It's the Abitha pink jellyfish. They're pink or purple. I've started to call it the Move Menace. And because I'm quite blind and I didn't have my glasses on and I noticed that a lot of my

friends swim with masks and I guess this is the reason because they're looking out for the jellyfish. I just haven't seen it. And I got in its way. Wow. And it absolutely killed. But I also learned it's not like friends, no piddling on stings. We know that now.

Okay. You don't do that. But what you do do apparently is if there's any spikes or little fibers in it, you scrape it, if you can bear it with a credit card to get those off. And then you just run it under warm water, warm water, not cold water for about half an hour. And actually, it's a little bit irritated, but it really put me off going back in. Oh, I'm not surprised. And then my lovely friend Ben, Ben Benson, he's a really brave.

He's a bit like you guys. He skis. He swims. He jumps out of helicopters. He does crazy stuff. He was doing backflips into the water. And he actually went in and he got a jellyfish in an ice bucket to show the kids. And he got it out to show us.

And he was like, come on. You've got to get back in the water, girl. Oh, wow. And I did it. I went back in the water. And I had all the kids with their masks on doing jellyfish. watch and they're like, right, there's brown ones. You're fine. You're fine. I was like swimming around. And then Betty said, there is a pink one down there. And I was literally like,

the fastest you never got up a ladder on a boat so fast. I was like, anyway, thank you. Yes, I've done it now. We had a holiday mishap. Maybe people will share with us their holiday mishaps. But yeah, so we've got Steve's dad at Keith staying with us. He's going to be 90 next year. And he's flown over from Thailand. And he's amazing, like very fit and healthy. And we parked up at a beach and I was put in charge of getting him from the car down onto the beach. And it was me and Maisie, who's Jude's girlfriend. And we were just holding onto his arm as we walked down. And he suddenly just disappeared from out of how we dropped him.

We dropped Grandpa. What? And honestly, it's, you know when you just relive something, when something happens and you just keep seeing it over and over again, he hit the floor so hard. We were, he was incredibly lucky not to break a hip, not to break anything at all. But it was just like concrete. and he just whacked the floor, banged his head, raised his arm. Oh, it was horrible. Did you feel sick?

You felt so bad. Yeah, no, I had to. He was flying. He flew home last night and I was like, sorry for dropping him. But genuinely, like, having being in charge of somebody who's nearly 90 and on holiday, I felt terrible, absolutely terrible. It's quite something going on holiday when it's multi-generational. Speaking of multi-generational, Joe, whilst I've been away with all the different age groups,

I have learnt some new slang. For example, do you know what a huss is? No idea. Do you know, the term huzz? Okay, so huzz is like hot boys. Hot boys. I think it could be girls too. I think, so I noticed lots of the teenage girls were talking about, oh, was it spas?

No, suss at some point, which is like Spanish huzz. So they are. Can you give me a sentence with it? Give me some context so I can understand how to use it. I guess, well, the thing is, I don't know if I'm doing this right, But I think it's why I'm asking you. Oh, he's, you know, he's such huzz or, hey, look at the huzz. Look at the huzz over there.

A lot of huss around here. And then if you've got Spanish huss, it would be suss. But, you know, as you can tell, this is still new to me. So I may be using it in the, you know, I think it was just anyone hot or anyone worth checking out is huss. I also learned the term law. If there's law there, there's a bit of history, L-O-R-E. Yeah. So I don't know whether these are words that will make it into the,

dictionary next year. There's been all sorts of words like DeLulu I think has made it into the dictionary. What's DeLulu? DeLuulu is delusional. Oh, right. Which I've definitely had some moments of being DeLu. And DeLu. But the kids would be talking, I'm like, what? Who? Huzz? And then of course, you try and use it in context and you could just see them all cringing at you across the. So anyway, don't do that. I don't know whether if there is an age limit on Huzz, as in, you know, can you be Huzz into your 90s, I'm not sure. Can you be classed as Huss? Or are you allowed to use that term? I'm not sure. But these were all new words to me. We're going to take a quick break for some ads. Don't forget if you're enjoying the podcast, you can become a subscriber to the potting shed.

You'll get longer episodes, bonus content and access to our members chat room where we can share tips. And when we eventually do live shows, you'll get early access to tickets. But most importantly, you'll be sporting the show to subscribe. Head to Dixotechurchase. Digitpod.com.uk or tap the link in the show notes. This episode of Digit is sponsored by Ancient and Brave. Joe, when I used to hear the word creatine, I'd picture a gym guy in a vest, lifting tires. I know same same, but it turns out it's brilliant for women too, especially since we naturally store much less of it than men.

And that's where true creotin plus from Ancient and Brave comes in. It's a neutral tasting powder you can take every day even if you're not lifting tires. It supports energy, strength, cognitive function, and it's got magnesium, taurine and vitamin D in there as well. Basically, it's not about bulking up. It's about feeling better in your body, full stop. Plus, there are B Corp, proud members of the 1% for the planet, meaning that 1% of all their sales, which they've now increased to 2% goes directly to environmental causes that protect our planet. So it's wellness for you and the planet. Go to ancient and brave.org earth slash planet and use code. Digit for 20% off your first one-off purchase. That's code Digit at ancient and brave. dot earth slash planet. This episode is brought to you by Airbnb. Two things you need to know about me.

I love a holiday and I love to spend time picking out the perfect place to stay. You've traveled quite a lot. What do you usually look for when you're booking for someone? I need tips here. Looking for comfort, a bit of home from home, but also personality and location. So, for example, I used Airbnb and stayed in a place in Colorado that was a tree house. It was magnificent. Well, like an actual tree house? Yeah, this fantastic man who owned it had built it across the years and had this beautiful staircase. Everything built onto the tree, everything made of wood.

A lot of stuff had been kind of reused. I had this fantastic bathtub. Had these fabulous balconies. Yeah, it was a really special place. Oh, my God, it sounds incredible. You know, I've actually got friends who've hosted their own place. is on Airbnb while they're away. So whether they're on tour or they're off visiting family,

and it just makes sense, really. Yeah, exactly. If your home's just going to be sitting empty while you're off adventuring or you're away for a long time with work, I just think why not let someone else enjoy it? Yeah, I mean, it's really flexible, and also it can work to your schedule. You can choose to host when it suits you

and pick up a bit of extra money along the way. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com.com.com. slash host I was so heartbroken to see Terence Stamp passed away

this week Terence Stamp who I first came across when he was in a film called Poor Cow which I was sort of

obsessed with back in the day and it was a real sort of kitchen sink drama from the 60s and then I

fell in love with him in far from the madding crowd with Judy Christy even though he played

an absolute rapscallian rascal But he was it, Billy Budd, he was in, and of course, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Wall Street. And he was odd in Superman too. But the most amazing thing happened. I was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. I think it was season three, I guess it would have been.

And Dance with Ian, my gorgeous partner, loved it. We had so much fun and we got to the final and I think we came third. And Colin Jackson beat us and then Darren Gough went on to win because he was the People's Champion. He was amazing. But anyway, a couple of months after, I'd done it. I was sat at home on a Saturday morning watching Ben 10 with Woody, which was a favourite. And the post came. And in the post was this postcard from Switzerland. And it just said, Zoe, I hope this postcard finds you. My wife, Elizabeth and I loved watching you on Strictly Come Dancing.

And we particularly loved your tango and da-da-da-da. And it said some gorgeous things. and it was talking about, you know, what happened at the end and it was said, you was robbed, it was really, really cute. And then it was signed Terrence and Elizabeth Stamp. No. In Switzerland. And I looked at it and I thought, no way. It could know.

It's just a lovely person called Terence Stamp. So I ran to the computer and I looked it up and Terrence at the time was married to Elizabeth and they were living in Switzerland. Oh, my God. And it was the Terence stamp had sent me a postcard. Oh, my God. And I honestly, I could not believe it. And I framed it on the wall.

Because all my friends knew that I loved him. And I was obsessed with 60th cinema as well. And I framed it on the wall. But I lived by the sea and the sunlight coming in. And I had that. And I had a typed letter from your friend, John Peel. And there were these little moments that I'd kept on the wall. And it faded in the sun.

I looked at it one day and I was like, no, Terrence writing has faded. But what an amazing thing to receive? And I sadly never run into him because I would love to have thanked him in person for sending me that. Did he just say Zoe Ball Brighton? How did he know where you lived? Somehow he must have found it. It was our correct address. It was incredible.

But yeah, a postcard from Terence stamp. Doesn't get much cooler than that. He doesn't get much cooler than that. He was the hit to me of cool. And to take the effort. And have you seen the Strictly line-up this year? Yeah, well, that was filtering through. Coco's really big into it,

so we were waiting for the announcements for all the people who were coming through. George Clark, she's particularly excited about. We met him at Radio One's big weekend last year, and he was so nice. He was such a sweet guy. I'm really excited about Belvinder, who plays Suki and EastEnders,

Danny Dyer, the younger, Danny from Love Island. So hoping that Daddy Danny Dyer was going to be. Danny Dyer. Every day, I was like, please be Danny Dyer. Please be Danny Dyer, the older. who is so good at Mr. Big Stuff, which is on at the moment.

And also, who is the other person? Oh, Vicki Pattinson. I love Vicki. I actually really love her podcast that she does with Angela Scanlon. And she is such a brilliant laugh. She's had a real tough time at times and people, you know, can give her a rough ride. And she is really fighting the fight for women and speaking out and boys. And, yeah, she's great.

I think she's going to be fabulous on it. She's going to be fun. She is. Yeah. And Nitro from Gladiators, he's going to be great. So your kids have grown up. So you might not even realize that Gladiators has become such a huge show again now. Really?

Because it was huge when we were younger and kids were obsessed with it. And now all my friends with kids who are sort of seven to ten are now obsessed with the new gladiators. Joe, you could go on it. Because Rob Beckett went on it. Joel Domit's been on it. I think Ellie Taylor did it. You'd be brilliant. Yeah, but I think we'd discuss my rotator cuff before.

I'm not going to be able to hang in from anything at all like that. So maybe I'm not sure that I would do that really. What about Strictly? I would never do strictly in a million years. No, no, no, not for all the money they could ever possibly offer. There's nothing I don't think that I would do. What about race around the world? You could do that with Jude.

Oh. Or Disco Steve? No, I think I'd go with Cass. Cass would definitely get me there the fastest. probably would win. Jude and I would probably go in opposite directions. We would not be the couple that you would possibly win. But race across the world would be good, I think.

Yeah, that'd be a good one. Possibly. Yeah. I love that show. But strictly, I don't think I would do that. No matter, I know, Coco really would love me to do it so much. And I don't know, you were amazing on it. You had a good time, right, when you did it?

I had such, I was really lucky. Ian was the most fun. I loved the year, the group we did it with and they are, you know, and also the show went on to, I then got to do It Takes 2 with Ian and all the dancers for a long time. So I'm still, you know, somewhat obsessed. And you can dance. You can dance. You got in the final shut up.

The only thing is you kind of, I'm only good if I'm with Ian. If I'm with Ian, I don't think so. I'll go to Foxtra. I'll do a little samba, a little Argentine tango. But yeah, without him, I'm pretty hopeless. I'll do a little samba around the kitchen when no one's looking. But yeah. Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to watching.

that. I've been obsessed with The Biggest Loser. There's a program on Netflix, The Biggest Loser. It's like the behind-the-scenes story of what really went on with The Biggest Loser. And we've been riveted watching that for the past a couple of nights in our hotel bed. You're watching it and you're like, God, this is just literally visualised torture. I mean, the way the things that went on, the way they treat to those people, but just for the sake of television, I mean, it still goes on, but that was, it's pretty, pretty revelatory to watch. It's pretty grim. Anyway, best of luck to a strictly lot. I won't be doing any reality TV. is as close as it possibly gets.

Now we've had an email from Aman. Hi, Aman. He says, hey Joe and Zoe. I've recently had to downsize after a divorce. And in many ways, I feel like I'm starting again, not just in life, but in my garden too. My new outdoor space is about half the size of the one I had before. If I'm honest, I never really appreciated my old garden. I wasn't much of a gardener back then and took it for granted. but now with this smaller patch, I really want to make the most of it to nurture it and maybe let it nurture me a little in return. Do you have any tips for turning a small garden into a space that feels like home? Amen, thank you so much your message. I'm sorry to hear about your divorce, but I'm loving the sound of you with fresh beginnings, a new home, a new space, and gardening does just that.

You nurture the garden and the garden nurtures you in turn and it's such a beautiful relationship. Joe and I both get an awful lot from our gardens. Well, our mate, Joe Thompson, Joe, has been in touch with some tips on this. Amen, so you might want to have a listen to this. When you're designing a small garden space, the first thing to think about is what do you want to do? Where? So where are you going to eat? Where do you want to lounge?

Where do you want to have that little evening gin and tonic? Where do you want to play? Where is the dog going to hang out? And once you've worked out what's going to go where and how much space you need for each of those things, then start thinking about the view. What is there in a neighbor's garden that looks really good that you could borrow, for example, a tree?

And how about things that you need to block out as well? In this garden, when I first got here, you wouldn't believe it, but there was nothing. there was just a really ugly fence and a patch of lawn. And by creating this rose purgola behind me, I've created a kind of block before the fence, so you can't see the fence anymore. And then I've also created this vehicle, this way of carrying loads and loads of roses,

which are my favourite flower. And as well as that, I've created a level change, which means that you've got a change in height, which means that the garages. just feels a little bit more interesting. Any kind of level change will make your garden feel interesting whether it's just a few steps or perhaps a raised bed. Any of those ideas will make your garden feel multi-dimensional. Oh, she's great, isn't she? Joe is so wonderful. She has such great ideas and honestly, Amin, get one of Joe's books. Her books are wonderful and you can,

she does her own podcast. It's called The Gardening Mind and you can follow her on Instagram. as well because she has introduced me to so many beautiful plants. She's had such a huge influence. She did my old house garden. I had a similar thing, Aemann, had a really big, beautiful garden. And then I've moved to a smaller place and I've had to start again. But actually, having learnt lots from Jo and having seen what I loved, it's like taking the things you love, all the ideas.

And it's amazing what you can do in a tiny, tiny space. But that level thing is such a good idea, isn't it, Joe? Really, really good idea. And also, we're going to be coming to the time when you can start planting again, because the summer is not the time to start putting in new roses and new things. So you're actually coming to the best time where you get to autumn and we get some rain eventually. And then the ground will be softer, you'll be able to put things in. So you've actually got an exciting couple of months ahead of you in terms of getting your garden.

And also, if you have been through something that's been quite tough, it's really good, as we talk about all the time, to help your state of mind. So you're going to have a lot of fun. And then the rewards next year, when you're sitting in your garden, you'll be able to look around and you'd be like, yeah, I did this. And as Zoe said, it'll nurture you as well. Yesterday I, because we dispatched the rest of the family, they all went home and they were all very sad to be there. And India, my daughter sent me a message and she said, oh, I've just walked out into the vegetable patch and it's completely overgrown. And that's true because I've not been there to do anything.

And a couple of hours later, she sent me a message and she went, I was so sad about grandpa going back to Thailand and really, really upset that I just stayed in the vegetable patch. I've now weeded everything. I've taken all the fruit. I've supported everything. She's never done any gardening like this before in her life. And my conclusion is that gardening really does help your mental health. And I was like, oh, finally, this is good. It was really nice to know.

And she said, and then the second point was, and my back is really hurting. Welcome to gardening. Welcome to gardening. Okay, it's time to go crate digging. Joe, you're not with your music collection there, but what have you been listening to on holiday? Lots and lots of yacht rock. So lots of Doobie Brothers and Billy Joel.

and some Joe Jackson, like proper vintage, nostalgic music. And because we had my father-in-law, who's 90 with us, we went back to musicals and some Frank Sinatra, listening to all that kind of stuff, and it was very lovely. And then in terms of new artists that come through, Audrey Hobart is a name to remember. She's written a lot of stuff for Gracie Abrams in the past, and I just think she's going to have an amazing year this year.

So we were listening to her new album, Audrey Hobart. And then there's a guy called Tyler Ballgame, and he is kind of bluesy. He's quite young, but got a really rich, deep voice. And his music sounds fantastic, really, really lovely. So Tyler Ballgame and Audrey Hobart, they're the new names to look out for over the next. Going into winter, I think they're going to have great albums. Lots of people will be talking about them.

And they just felt great in the Abithen Sunshine. What a name. I know it's good, isn't it? Tyler Ballgame. I mean, that's just fantastic. I'm sure it's the name he was born with and was given, and I don't want to know anything other than that. That's all I need to know.

Right. Okay, I will... Pluck something from your racks. Pull something from the shelves. Yeah. I'm going to go. Going high. Look at that.

What is that? This is an absolute classic. This is Nightmares on Wax. Smoker's Delight. And this album is what was playing when Woody was born in the hospital. It's such a cracker. I mean, this is like from, yeah, it's on Wart Records. And this was 95, I think.

But this got a head. Hell of a lot of play in our household. And I think he came out to Pipe's honour. I think it was like track three. Good memory. But he absolutely loves this album. So it's kind of quite dubby. It's kind of slow.

That is perfect holiday music. That's a really good soundtrack. Perfect birthing music. And I got to see Nightmo's and Wax playing down at the Concord in Brighton for years ago. And absolutely brilliant. And again, great mixed crowd. Yeah. Young and old.

And yeah, Woody is a massive fan, which is very fitting as he was born. He was born to Nightmares and Wax. Love him. In fact, I really want to go and see Underworld. I was listening to Underworld when I was away. There were some real moments where Underworld would just drop at the perfect moment as we were doing a long drive or something.

And I think the boys are playing. And I thought, right, I need to go see them. Because an Underworld gig is a classic example of all the generations going, absolutely mental. And you can be home in bed by 11. So good. So if Underworld are coming anywhere near you on tour, go see them. I bumped into Carl Cox a couple of days ago and we started talking about DJing and he was, we were both discussing the joys of DJing and being in bed by 12 o'clock. And he was saying, yeah, no, I'm much preferred doing gigs earlier in the daytime. These daytime gigs gigs are amazing. You can just be in bed by 12 o'clock. And I was like, check us out.

How times have changed. But it makes sense. Exactly. Right. I've got to go. I've got a pool to jump into, if that's okay, if you don't mind. Oh, your lucky thing. And some impatient family members wanted me to go and play with them. So I'll see you on Monday. Yes, of course. Back again on Monday to dig in

and hear what you've been saying. If you have any questions, tips or general thoughts to share, contact us. Our WhatsApp and our email address are in the show notes. Keep them coming. Take care.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday. Watch out for jellyfish. Oh, I will. Bye. Digit is a Persefonica production.