Do Go On - 560 - The Munich Air Disaster (and the Manchester United Busby Babes)

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

In 1958, Manchester United were one of the best football teams on the planet. Managed by Matt Busby and nicknamed 'The Busby Babes' because of the team's youth, in February 1958 the team took an ill fated flight from Munich Airport that would change the club forever. For this episode we are joined by our dear friend Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall (host of the newly launched Bobby Logs Stories podcast and Two In The Think Tank)This is a comedy/history podcast, the report begins at approximately 12:24 (though as always, we go off on tangents throughout the report).For all our important links: https://linktr.ee/dogoonpod Check out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Who Knew It with Matt Stewart: https://play.acast.com/s/who-knew-it-with-matt-stewart/Jess Writes A Rom-Com: https://shows.acast.com/jess-writes-a-rom-comOur awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasDo Go On acknowledges the traditional owners of the land we record on, the Wurundjeri people, in the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders, past and present. REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:Mayday Air Disasterhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWofAhLSRYg https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5226781/2024/02/06/munich-air-disaster-james-thain-scapegoat/ https://www.manutd.com/en/club/history/munich-rememberedhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2008/01/17/060208_munich_timeline_feature.shtml https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3csvty9http://www.thebusbybabes.com/victims/victims.htmhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-06/manchester-united-munich-air-disaster-1958/106183032https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_European_Cup_final Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's 2026. It's June and I'm excited because who knew it with Matt Stewart is celebrating 200 episodes with a big live show here in Melbourne, Matt. Yeah, at the basement comedy club here in Melbourne and it's a full 75 minute show. Oh, wow. Wow. We're the longest we've done with guest Dave Warnackie. That's me. Jess Perkins. That's me.

Mish. Big Wet Whitrip and one more to be announced. Who could it be? Whoa. And we are also coming with Dugo on to Canada. Oh, Canada, etc. I still don't fully believe this is real. I'm so excited.

You'll believe it when we touch down. David is like, if this is like one of your fucking pranks. No, I'm not going to punk you. I swear we are going to Canada in September, 26. We're going to be hitting up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. And if you want tickets to the Who Knewet or the Canada tour, visit our website, do go onpod.com. And if you sign up at patreon.com slash dogo on pod, you can get discount codes for all. all those shows. I mean,

you know what I mean. And welcome to another episode of Doogone. My name is DeV Wonki and as always I'm here with Jess Perkins. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. You're done now?

Yes. And this week we are joined by our dear friend joining us via satellite. Yes. Oh my goodness. We hook this up. Can't believe it. We've got the one. Powers of technology.

The only. Alistair Trumbly, Bertschild's back. Woo! Good day, mate. How are you? God, you left Australia, what, two years ago? I know. And you've gone full Canadian.

I know. Well, no, couldn't you hear the Australian influence in what I was saying? Good day, mates. Yeah. You've changed, man. Mattes. You've changed. Yeah, no, I've been North Americanized a fair bit.

Don't you dare slip into French at any point during this podcast. I mean, I might do try to do some bilingual puns. Just for other French. speakers, they'll enjoy it. We'll have no idea. Well, actually, Dave's done, what, a thousand days on Duolingo? A thousand and sixty days on Duolingo. So he'll understand. And what language are you learning? The language of love. Oh, fuck, yeah. I heard that they were expanding the languages they were doing. It's 160 days of the Kama Sutra on Juolingo. That's cool. So many positions memorized. There's a new one every day. I'm like, is that possible? I don't,

how could you even? What do you mean? I'm not a gymnast. It's nice. But I have become a gym, It's nice to be able to do the kama sutra positions off book, you know, not have to keep breaking, breaking sort of the romance. Give a sec, I'm just going to go look at it. Yep, yeah, yeah, all right, I've got it. Lime on your finger. Yeah, yeah. And then flipping through pages, you know, that's not what you want. No, you just, you want a flow. Yeah, for sure. You want to, I, I've got it down to, I've got a set list on the wall now. Yeah, that's good. So you just have a glance over, but it's not, like, it's not distracting. I'll just write it on my hand. the back of their hand.

Doggy, wheelbarrow. But sometimes I'm obviously using my hands so I also ride on the back of my foot. I want this conversation to stop. Something about Dave's saying, obviously I'm using my hands. Just made me feel gross. And I don't know why.

And I just want it to stop. I'm using my hands for apologies. I'm so sorry. Begging for forgiveness. So sorry about this. Sorry, I forgot what we were doing. Well, I want to say before we crack on because I was obviously just having a go at Al for going full Canadian.

And we're very excited that we're going to be able to catch up with Al when we go full Canadian. That's right. I'm going to be saying good day, mates, two Canadian people. That's right, Jess was saying, in September this year, 26, we're coming over and we're going to see you ATB. And whilst we're there, obviously, we'll do some shows, but really it's mainly to catch up with our dear friend.

Yeah. Yeah. And all the people here in Canada are looking forward to seeing that, iconic anti-North American hate that you've just brought onto this podcast over right here in North America. So thank you. We're looking forward to it. I really, I accept all other North Americans, but not you. So Americans, just Americans.

Yeah. And North Polians? I don't know. Santa and Santa. I accept Santa. We've got a soft spot for Santa. Yeah. He did it wrong.

He's got a fair few soft spots himself. You move to Australia as a teen And then you've gone back to Canada as a man And I'm like Pick aside, dude You know what I'm on man I have a feeling I will be back You can play with your accent however you like to

You can go full Australian if you need to And I just think like Who are you, Al? Yeah, it's you don't you don't like a vocal A vocal chameleon Yeah, because I just don't feel like I really know the real you Yeah, she hates like

Our comedians that do accents or impressions, she hates an impressionist. I'm like, what are you? Wait, I was just connecting with you. Oh my God, who are you? Yeah. Are you you, you're you, Jeff Goldblum? I don't know. What's happening?

Ben Russell, can't get a read on that guy. Yeah, I know. Are you Ben Russell? Are you Husey? Are you Michael Kane? Are you Jabba the Hut? I don't know. Fantastic Jabba.

It's kind of like a pussy spy, you know, like a spy committee. He's got a license to kill, but on the stage. That's right. That's right. I am excited. Last time Al was in town here, we were getting very silly together and he said that I bring out the sillies in him, which is the biggest compliment I could ever receive. So I'm very excited to get the sillies again. We started yelling spaghetti a lot. Spaghetti! Spaghetti! There was context at some point. I don't even remember if there was. I don't think there was. No. Before we jump to the report, we should say a very exciting thing that we've just found out. out off air. Yes. Jess and I, and that is, as well as doing some live podcasts,

Dugan podcasts, in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto. Sorry, we've rebranded Calgary as Calgary. I hope you're okay with that. Oh, I love that.

Calgary. Kind of wait to get to Calgary. But a few people have been messaging saying you're going to do any other shows where you're going to be doing any stand-up while you're in town. And, Al, you and Matt are actually organizing

to do some stand-up shows that I might jump up on as well in all of those places. Yeah, I am currently organizing venues in each place and getting stand-up rooms so that we can be doing a show either before or after the podcast. The Do Go On podcast, if you're not familiar with it. Oh, I do know that one. That's very, very exciting.

So watch this space. Will, of course, be putting out links and that kind of thing if you want to see us to stand-up as well. Yes. It's going to – I'm almost too excited. I can't keep it in. All right. Just calm down. Spaghetti.

Obviously at the Montreal gig, I will be putting, it'll be close to 11, 150 days of dueling her to the test by then. Yeah. So we'll be doing a few karma super positions live on stage. Oh, that's amazing. I can't wait to see that. We will not be doing that. It's me solo. Me solo.

Honestly, there's not that many solo positions, so. But give me three or four minutes on the stage. I mean, a kama sutra for wanking is a very cool idea. And I think more people should be putting in the table. time and effort to make wanking a more elevated experience. You know, you deserve it. He deserve a little treat. It's his you time.

Again, I want to end this conversation. So I'm going to explain how the show works to get us onto track, because this is getting ridiculous. So how this show works is one of the three of us. Matt's usually here. He's fine, by the way. He's fine. Don't message us about it.

He's fine. Don't ask about him. Shut up. We research topics usually suggested to us by our. our fabulous listeners. We go away, we do the research, we do the reading, we write a little report. It's usually about a year 9, 10 level,

and we bring it back to the other two who listen politely and definitely don't interrupt with dog shit riffs. And Dave, it's your turn to do a report this week. And we always start with a question. Yes, we do. Have you purposely not opened that this whole time because I can see your computer? Yes, because we're sitting...

I was wondering before. I was like, why hasn't he opened his computer? We're sitting in an unusual configuration. We're side by side so we can look at Al, who's on the TV via satellite, as I said. But I know Jess is a real cheater. Yes. She will look at it with the screen, and I want this to be...

It's absolutely true. A genuine competition between two great minds, Jess Perkins and Alison Trommily Virtual. My question for you is, which famous... He still hasn't even opened the computer. He doesn't trust me. I'm remembering. I mean, I don't trust you. But I've put up blinkers.

I know. Like a horse. Yeah. Go on, Dave. Which famous football or soccer team play their home games at Old Trafford? Um, the, the old Traffords. Oh, the Old Trafford boys. Oh, let's see.

Um, is it, uh, is it, it's not the one at Crystal Palace from Ted Lassau. Um, is it... And it's not Crystal Palace. Okay, it's not Crystal Palace. Oh, that's right. Is it Argentina? No, they don't play their home games at Old Traffat. It's, which is in the UK.

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. Can I get a clue of some kind? I don't know. of the teams. It's like,

what about the hot spurs? In the world. Oh, not Tottenham Hotspurs. Okay. Manchester United. It is Manchester United.

Oh my gosh. Surely not, right? They'd probably be at Manchester something. Okay. All traffic is in Manchester. Today we are talking about a specific period of the Manchester United football club's history because, let's be honest,

the whole world we've caught football or soccer fever at the moment. Yeah. The world comes on. Yes. I'm sweating. I've got the shakes I'm bedridden with soccer fever

Well of course you're probably feeling it more than most people are because Canada is one of the host nations Is any football coming anywhere near you in Montreal I have not heard Surely it is Any look world cup Coming to Montreal We're live googling

No official World Cup matches are ticking police in Montreal. Not official ones. There could be like a side show. A side show. See? He slipped. Could be a bloody side show.

They're doing a, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Argentina and Uruguay are having an alley match. One of Montreal's famous back alley. Behind a bagel place in Montreal. Whoa. So this topic's been suggested by a bunch of people.

And thank you to Lee Banks from whirling. Oh, I should say anyone can suggest a topic. in any time. There's a link in the show notes. Lee Banks from Wallingham in Suffolk in England, Niall Edwards from the UK, Sam Ensure from Singapore, Daniel Goldstone from Gatley, Antonia from Lofton in Essex, William Young from Hull in England, Ross from Christchurch, New Zealand, Megan or Megan from Oklahoma, Martin Drabic Hampshire from Sandusky, Ohio, and Michael Woodcock from Burnley and Lancashire. They have all recommended this topic?

Yes. They absolutely have. Was it like up there for being voted on or everybody independently thought of this particular story? Independently. Over the years, over the last eight or nine years, we've had this same suggestion hat. These people have suggested this topic. Truly miraculous. This will be one of the miracles that the Catholic Church

will investigate in order to probably give one of you sainthood. And we'll say, we're good, thanks. I'm good. I'm all right. My little statues of you, everybody would want them. Be great merch. People could just, someone could just make them, I reckon. Yeah, right.

The church doesn't have to do it. Okay. All right. I'd be a good saint, I reckon. Yeah. On a motorbike. It would be like a bit of a badass saint. Yeah.

She was honestly, for a saint, she had a pretty good saint. bad attitude and swore quite a lot. Yeah. She was quite unpleasant actually, yeah, for a saint, you'd think she'd be quite nice, but no, she was actually a bit of, she was a hard person, a hard pill to swallow. Oh, but the only, the only saint who's written a rom-coms. That's true. That's true.

Could you be the saint of rom-coms? Oh, my God. That's honestly too much of a, that's too much of a weight to bear. So is that Richard Curtis? That's Richard Curtis. Yeah, okay. But, you know, you can have a go. I think you'll be two Saints of Rom Kong.

Yeah, I could help you out. I could be a Vice Saint. Yeah. A Saintette. A Saintette. Oh, saints must have assistance. Surely. You got to.

You got these days. Because you also got to do social media. That's a whole other job. It's a second job. Yeah. It's a lot. It's a lot. Full time.

So let me tell you about this story. Now, Manchester United are one of the most famous and successful sporting clubs on Earth. And little disclaimer at the start here. If you're a fan of Manchester United or football in general, you've probably heard of this topic. I'm not a massive football or soccer fan. There was a brief period in 2002 when I was in grade 6 and the World Cup was on. And every kid at school got given a different nation to follow.

And mine was England. And that was the era of David Beckham. Yeah, okay. I've heard of him. Michael Owen, David, so I was into it for about three weeks there. Yeah. Really into it, though. Yeah.

Very invested. Wayne Rooney? No, there's nothing. Might be pre Rooney. think just. Oh, pre-Runy. We hadn't gone way to Rooney just yet, but that's fun. But I also had a soccer game at the time, I-W-S Pro Evolution Soccer 2, and I always

played as England. So I know that there was Gary Neville, Skulls, Campbell was the defend, anyway. But apart from that, I'm not very big on soccer or football. So I'm talking about one of the most revered clubs. in the history of the game. So I hope to not offend if this is your thing that you love. Yeah, I would say these kind of topics are a good reminder that this podcast is to like fill in the gaps

for people who don't know about these topics. Does that make sense? Like sometimes if there's something you're an expert on, this probably isn't the podcast for you. We're not giving you any new information. But for people who are like, like me who have no information about this. Yeah. Yeah, I know who David Beckham is.

end of list. Like I don't know any other football. It's not my sport. So for me, I go, yeah, cool, tell me a little bit about it. That's just a good reminder because sometimes there are topics. Like people, so many people have suggested we do the troubles. And it's like, that's a very big topic. And if you have grown up in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland,

Ireland in general, you know a lot about it and know all the nuance around it. Whereas we'd be telling the story to like Australians and Americans essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so anyway, that's what that's what that is. So basically what Dave is saying is that if you're a soccer person or a football person and Dave accidentally takes a wrong step, don't fall to the ground and grab your leg pretending like you're hurt.

Yeah. You know, Dave's doing his best. Carry on. Exactly, yes. That's right. Okay. Give me the benefit of the doubt. No yellow or red cards on this topic, please. Yeah. I hope at some point we'll understand what that means. You know what they should do?

In soccer, they should introduce a green card, right? So yellow card, you know, that's half of a red card. Red card, that you're off the field straight away. Green card, if the ref gives you a green card, you get to work in the United States. All right. That's not bad. That's not bad. It should be like a, there should be, because it's only punishment, the card system.

What if someone does something really good? Give them a green card. And let them work in the United States. And let them work in the United States. Even if you are one of the greatest soccer players on earth at the moment, there's some people who are having trouble getting the green card to work there. But still, if you're doing good stuff on the field. Yeah.

Or what about in your field? Yeah. Oh, that's right. So if you score like a neat goal, you should get to become a janitor in Idaho. I couldn't agree more. Yes. A perfect system. It's like, give up your multi-million pound contract with top.

and go to Idaho. Exactly. That's beautiful. Perfect system. All right. We've fixed it. We've fixed it already. So let me tell you about Manchester United.

A little bit of early history, nicknamed the Red Devils. They were founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed the name to Manchester United in 1902. United had been league champions in 1908 and 1911, as well as winning the FA Cup, which I'll talk a bit more about. later on in 1909, but after that, the interwar years were less successful. The 1930s was certainly not a high point for the club being relegated to the second division of football multiple times.

I'm not sure if you were of how football, like it's now called the Premier League, but it's like, anyway, the league back then, there's a first division, and I think it's the bottom three now, but it could have been different back then. But if you finish at the bottom, you get relegated to the league below, but if you finish in the top of the second league, then you go up. So people are constantly going up and down. I do know this because of Ted Lasso. Oh, great.

And just to show how badly things were going for Manchester United, like I said, one of the most famous clubs ever, they finished as low as 20th place in the second division in 1934. So they're so far off the top that they're in the second division and then they're being smashed there as well. Wow. Affected greatly by the Great Depression, the club was on the verge of bankruptcy

when it was saved by local businessman James W. Gibson, who bought and invested in the club. And then the Second World War broke out and football was put on hold, but the club itself didn't escape direct attack in 1941. The Luftwaffe Nazi Germany's Air Force bombed Old Trafford, leaving United to play their home games at Main Road, which is the ground of local rivals Manchester City. Oh, embarrassing.

Oh, very disappointing. Yeah. Can we come over and play our games here, please? Oh, I've kicked my ball over the fence of the stadium. Can I come in? The Nazis have bombed our ground. So wait, so these guys, Manu did bad during wartime, but they were like one of the only teams that did bad or were all teams doing bad? Was it just like that soccer players don't do well when there's war around?

Well, I mean, they actually shut down the league for the wars because so many of the young men went off to fight. Sure. But leading up between into war, so between World War I and World War II, because there's the Great Depression, the clubs running out of money, they're doing badly. They were saved by this local businessman. So it started getting back on track, but then World War II broke out, and they stopped the league for five or six years. Five or six years off, you'll get a bit rusty. You get a bit rusty. And a lot of these guys, they're like missing their prime era.

Yeah, you're aging out. Yeah. Yeah. And I suppose if you have better guys, more guys are more likely to spend more time at war. And so then you probably lose more guys. Yeah. You know? They fit, healthy young men.

Yeah, it's a vicious cycle. Like, wow, you're really fast. We need you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we could use a striker like you at the song. Kicking grenades. Yeah. Did they think of that?

A grenade kicker. That's really good. Yeah, a grenade you can kick. You take the pin out with your toe. Oh, you don't have to touch it with you. Obviously, you don't want to handball the grenade. Well, it's perfect for guys who've had their arms blown off from a grenade. They can keep kicking, you know.

So I'm so sorry. Okay. So in October 1945, the impending resumption of football after the war led to the managerial appointment of Matt Busby, who demanded an unprecedented level of control over team selection, player transfers and training sessions. Let me guess. Virgo. Control freak! Do you want me to look him up to see? Yeah, actually, that'd be so funny.

Imagine if I'm right. I guarantee I'm not. May 26. Yeah, no. No. What's that? He's not one of ours. Okay.

Let me see. May 26 star sign. Gemini. Gemini. Oh, stay less. I don't know anything about Gemino. Is Gemini the one that like you people? Like two personalities.

Don't people say like if you're dating someone on? No, not a Gemini. Isn't that a classic trope? Yeah, my dad's a Gemini. I don't want to date your dad. Sorry. All right. That's why none of us date your dad.

He'll be heartbroken, but okay. That's the only reason. I hear he's clever though. He's pretty clever. Yeah. But undatable. Oh, undatable. But clever, yeah.

Yeah. So the Manchester United website writes of this part of their club's history about Matt Busby. It said Matt Busby had a glittering vision. He saw beauty in that bombed out stadium and the chance to create a phoenix from those flames. You know what? You need people like that who can go into a fixer-upper and see its potential. Yeah. I'd go into a bummed-out stadium and think, well, this is stuffed.

Yeah. But he goes, oh, you could redo the toilets there. Yeah. And he's saying all that to me and I'm going, I can't be fucked. What do you mean? When I was 12, my parents bought a new house and we moved quite far away from where we were living, but much closer to my school. So I couldn't complain, but also like, it was moving from the only house I'd ever lived in and I was devastated. Yeah, that's hard. And the house we were moving to was a bit shit. And we were sitting around the dining table the first night in our new house and my brother and I were both sulky. And my dad's like, so, what do you think of the new house? house and we're like looking at each other because we don't want to say anything and dad goes because I reckon it's a bit shit and we're like why did you buy it why do we move all this way and dad's like because I can see what it will become that's this guy that's that's that he's going look at this bombed wreckage what can I make of it that's beautiful and did it become Geminize yes classic Gemini yes that's did the house turn into what your dad's vision yeah you know what

I'm starting to think that way about your dad he's not datable now But if I invest a bit of elbow grease. Oh, yeah, he's a fixer upper for sure. I could make him very daintable. You can teach an old dog new tricks. And he's a very old dog. With this masturbation carmaturedra. I'm so sorry.

Yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. So Matt Busby's a big part of this report. So let me tell you about him. He was born in Scotland in 1909 before going into management. Busby was actually a player for two of Manchester United's greatest rivals,

Manchester City and Liverpool. Liverpool. Thanks for translating. He was only 36 at the time of his managerial appointment. So young. We all agree that is so unbelievably young. That's the perfect age, I would say. 36, so, yeah.

Perfect age for a new career. Yeah. Should we? Go from being a podcast to being a podcast manager. In a lot of ways, sometimes I feel like I am. I'm going, oh, come here. Managing our bullshit. And you guys manage me, I suppose.

So his own WikiPage writes, Busby's appointment was notable for his insistence that he had the authority to appoint his own staff and overall control of all matters related to the playing of the game. Responsibilities usually held by club directors or chairman. He's like, I'm a one-stop shop. I'll do it all. I'll do it.

Rather than like coaching who you, give me, I want to pick who I get. And I want to do training. I want to pick who goes into the academy, the local kids who are going to be the next crop. I want to be in control of everything. Wow. And they went, you got it.

He might be unorthodox, but he gets results. Has he already got results? Well, he's about to get some. Okay. Oh, that would be great. He led the team to second place league finishes, which is much improvement. From 20th? Yeah, that's pretty good.

In 1947, 48 and 49. Nice. Seconds pretty good. He 10 division signed their position. You know how people say 10x? 10 division sign. 22. Forget it.

You could not have said that in a clearer or cool away. I knew exactly what you were saying, even without the hand movement. So did everyone. Everyone went, got it. Got it. God, he's good. He's just doing a lot of poses. Yeah, this is worth paying for Patreon for the video of this.

This is real. Oh my, who is shaking that head? Giving it a bit of two. He's rolling around. Love that. So, second's pretty good. He also led the team to F.A. Cup victory. That's winning the whole competition in 1948,

which is the club's first major trophy for 37 years. Whoa. And the F.A. Cup. That's in two years? Yeah, he'd just taken over. Yeah, in a couple of years later, they're gone from not winning anything for 37 years. They've won the FA Cup, which is the annual knockout football competition in domestic English football. Right.

Oh, my goodness. To try and explain, there's three different things we're going to talk about. There's the league, which is now Premier League, which is the top teams. And at the end of the year, whoever's got the most points wins the league. Then there's the FA Cup. That's a knockout competition. And I'm also going to talk about the European. and Cup, but that's a little bit later.

Okay. And that's against other countries. Yeah, that's against all of Europe. And is it still those local teams, or are they forming an England team for those? No, everyone still plays for their club. So like Manchester United is, they play Real Madrid or Paris Saint-Germain. Yeah. Ah, Germain.

From flight of the concords. Yeah. I wonder when he would appear in this year. story. He's got such a good career. He's had such a great career. He's in the soccer world. Oh man.

He's doing it all. Music, soccer, acting. So, Manchester United was second in the league again in 1951. However, the next year in 1952, after a 41-year-weight league title success finally came, with United being second-placed Arsenal 6-1 on the final day of the season to finish four points ahead of both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur. So they'd won the league. Huge. Oh, my goodness.

It's the big time. But the team were getting older and Busby wanted a younger talent. How young are we talking ahead? How young are we talking here? Yeah. It's starting to sound inappropriate. We need toddlers. Get them on the field.

Get them out there. Get them out of the mines and onto the field. That would draw a crowd. They're so cute. Yeah. Look how big their heads are You know what? If there was like a toddler, no, I'm now realizing it would, it's like child labour.

You know what I'm saying? If there's like a toddler league or a kid league of footy, I'd be going for that. Yeah. But then that's, yeah, no, that's, adults are creepy. Never mind. I also have, I have a five-year-old trying to get him to play soccer. And he's mostly looking at his fingers and then pretending to be a motorbike and then running around the field. So, you know, I think to go even younger.

than that, it's hard to get them to focus on the rules of the game or care. I have a 34-year-old husband, and that's how he plays soccer. Yeah. For the times I go as well to watch. He's constantly revving his engine. When he's running around. I'm like, good job. Good job, babe.

He's having fun. I say to the other wives. He's having fun. He's having fun out there. He's having a bit of fun. No, I definitely don't come every week. No, no, no. I'm thinking about Bowen in my real mighty ball.

So you ask how young. So again from the United website, love this dramatic and also slightly weird language to describe this part of the history. Okay. It said, Busby wanted to shape the future. He dreamed of younger,

fresher legs, players to mould in his image. He knew youth held the key, not only to United's success, but the future of the game. Okay. Moulding in his image and fresher younger legs. I want some fresh young legs.

Young legs, yeah. Look, it's fine. That's just how. people talk about other people's bodies when they're sports people, they're an asset to the club, right? Yes. We don't see the whole – we don't see – we don't see torsos when we're in sports. We just see legs and heads for heading. We definitely don't see arms.

Unless you're a goalkeeper, we'll make a small. Yeah, we'll look at your arms if you're a gold keeper. Yeah. We'll have a look. Put the gloves on. Keep the gloves on. Yeah. I want you to wear sleeves, though.

Yeah, I don't want to see any forearms. I do they wear sleeves. You've got to protect those forearms. Right, yeah, that makes sense to me. So, Busby had enacted a successful youth program where local talent had been fostered and it was time to bring some of them into the senior squad. Okay.

These were some of the new players. 22-year-old Roger Byrne. Okay, so an adult. Yeah, they're not that young. That's fine. But he's honestly the youngest, oldest one I'm going to talk about. Oh, shit. He had excelled in the later stages of the 51, 52.

season on the wing and he soon became a regular at fullback. No questions on what that means. 18-year-old Jackie Blanche Flower. Faw! Okay. Great name. Joined more. How old? 18.

Oh, come on now. Jackie Blanch Flower. Yeah. Yeah. What nickname would we, like Australians would, like he'd have a nickname that's some kind of flower. Like he'd be called tulip or something. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Kangaroo Paul. Yeah, probably that. That's too long. It's too long. Pansy. Petal. Petal. Petal.

Petal. Yeah. Poppy. Daisy. Stymond. Oh, Daisy's good. What did you say? Stamen.

That's the, I think, the, stamen. You know, the part that sticks out in the middle of the flower that I think has the, like, either the female or the male kind of sperm or whatever. You're thinking too much about it. We call him Stamen. Well, because his name's Blanche flower. Anyway, sorry, Jackie Blatch Flower. He was joined more regularly by centre half Mark Jones. Okay, now there's a boring name.

Yeah, Mark, that's classic English name. He'd made a few appearances for 1952's title winners. Next came Eddie Coleman. Described on the Man United website as, quote, A boy in a man's body. Okay. Okay. Like, he couldn't speak, but by God.

But for the grown body. Yeah, this... Chest hair and everything. This baby's got muscles. He's got abs. Now, also added to the squad was Duncan Edwards, a freak of the game who had only 17, was the youngest player to play in the Football League First Division at the time. Many of his contemporaries have described him as one of the best, if not the best player they ever played with.

Wow. And he was only 17. Freak of the game. Freak of the game. I've been called that. Which game? Monopoly. Yeah, because you flip the board.

It's like so early. so early in the game. Some people play for hours before they flip the board. Not me. Yeah, you land on free parking and you've had... I'm like, fuck it! Fuck it. That's too big of an advantage for me.

I don't want to buy property. I want ice cream. Let's go. Renting is actually more profitable overall. If I invest at the same time. Outside talent was also recruited in March 1953. center forward, Tommy Taylor from Barnsley was brought to the squad. Tommy Tyler.

He was to form a formidable partnership with Dennis Violet, especially in, I mean, they might say Violet, but it's got the double L, which that's French VOL. Is that correct? Oh, yeah, it means purple. That's purple. So I'm going to call him Dennis Viala. I apologize if he's called a violet, but double L. Now, especially in the 55, 56 year they had this crazy partnership when at least one of the

them scored in 21 of the 27 games I played together. Wow. Which if you know soccer, they almost never get goals. It's a low-scoring game. It's the lot, yeah, you said it all. Hey, what you said was also well-said. Thank you so much. No, I'm, it's the, yeah.

I'm trying to not have too good of a run today. I think that's wise, yeah, because you are replacing Matt. Exactly. And he takes a lot of swings. And that's what I'm trying to do. Taking swings, but sometimes the ball hasn't even been thrown at me. That's right. That was a practice swing, you say.

I'm warming up, you say. You can't strike when the pitcher hasn't pitched. So the team, he's put together as new team, new young players, but they're also talented. They run away with the league championship for the 55, 56 season. And only two players remained that it also won in 1952. So it's almost over three years, almost. a completely new squad, but they're still winning. Yeah, cool.

Wow. And astonishingly, the average age of the team was just 22. That is young. That is young, but... Like, frontal lobe isn't fully formed, you know? Yeah, but it turns out it doesn't need to be for soccer. No, especially if you're using that frontal lobe to, like, head the ball. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's going to be squishy, you know, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you don't want to have it too developed because then you'll just destroy. all that development with headers. Exactly. Yeah. You know, leave it moosh. Leave it moosh. And then there's nothing, there's less to lose.

That's right. That's science. Yeah. So they won't even though the United website quotes, coach or managers, they say, Matt Busby is saying, the marks of the nursery cradle were on them that they did not show. Stop talking about how young they are.

Yeah, they're so young. They are young, but they're like, they're late teens early. 20s. But it's such a big deal how young I are. Because of the young age, an obvious influence of the coach, they were nicknamed in the media as the Busby Babes. I actually love that.

Do you love that? The Busby Babes. I'm glad because that name is stuck and this era's team is still called, known as the Busby Babes. Not Babes. Babes. Yeah. Also, they were incredibly hot.

Yeah. I'd take that. Were they all hot? Oh, yeah. Every single one of them, wow. But have you looked at all their families? They're like some of the old-timey hot, like 50s hot, you know what I mean? Yeah.

It's different. It's a different hot, isn't it? Yeah. It's different. They're like, this guy's 18 and you're like, that guy's 45. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing.

Is that what, like, is that, is that they were 22, but they all looked 39? Yeah. You agree to them all. Because he thought, you look old enough to play. You look older than me. Yeah. But they're children. Maybe they're playing with like, you know, like, it's putting the other teams off.

because they look like they've got the, you know, 25 years of experience of playing or whatever like that. And so they're like, oh, these decisions they're my king, it must be, you know, I don't know, it must be cycle. I guess all the other teams are also old-looking because it's the 1950s for them too. Yeah. They keep trying to find older and older-looking people, people that have never, like, have never even touched the ball before. Doesn't matter. He looks old. He looks old.

Get him in there. Put him in a kit. Yeah. This guy's 18. He looks 71. There was always one guy like at high school who, you know, matured before everyone else and looked like, like 40. And everyone else was like, oh, hello, just kick it to him.

Yeah. When do you think you'll look 40? When will I look for? Oh, gosh. I mean, the grey hair's doing a lot of the lifting. Yeah, but I think it's actually quite deceptive because you have such like perfect skin and a boyish face that I think it's, I think you're probably quite confusing to people. I'm confused.

That's the most beautiful thing you've ever said to me. Yeah. That's sad, isn't it? Do you have a boyish chest? Yeah, the strangest thing is I'm starting for the first time on my life to get a few chest hairs at 35. Like, it's unbelievable. Yeah. And to the point where it's annoying, like, I would have killed for this at 14.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I'm like, I can't have that. I can't have six chest hairs. Yeah. So you're plucking them? Shave them? Yeah, the same thing for the face. Just got a little.

Yep. Oh, yeah, right. But, yeah, I could name them. There's that few. What would be a good name for a hair? What would have been, Matt Busby? Yeah, that's fun. Oh, yeah.

These are my Busby babes, actually. Then I've got six of these gestures. So, wait, I thought we were talking about a guy called Gibson, but it's Busby. Busby, I don't know. Wait. Oh, no, Gibson was the guy who gave money, right? Oh, yeah, he's one of the owner in the 30s, yeah. But Matt Busby's the main guy.

And it spelled Busby, but everyone, I watched a couple of documentaries. They're all calling them Buzzby, so I'm hoping I'm saying that right. Yeah, cool. Busby, Y. Sweet. So, they won the league championship, and then they backed it up and won it again the following year, debuting another new player. And in this report, there are two names that are famous enough from this era that even I know them.

And that included this guy, Bobby Charlton. You heard that name before? From the dance. The Charlton. The Bobby Charlton. It was him versus the Charleston, and unfortunately, the Charleston would slightly want it, but honestly, it's the second best dance of that era. Yeah. Yeah.

It was sort of like a, like Blu-ray against, you know, HD DVD or whatever like that. You know, one has to win, and Charleston won, but the Charlton was pretty good. It was pretty good. It was a pretty good dance. Yeah. So Bobby Charlton, just 18 on debut. He scored twice in his first match. Wow.

And was promptly dropped. Such was the quality of the players at Busby's disposal. Imagine that. You scored two goals, first ever match, and they're like, we won't need you next week, man. Wow. Because everyone else he scores goals as well. It's so good.

Yeah, wow. What are they looking for? What are you guys looking for in a player? It's two not enough. Yeah. A debut game at 18. Two goals. Fantastic.

Yeah, good game, mate. Take a week off. Yeah, in a sport where there's often one goal. scored. Yeah. He's like, I did too. That's amazing. But don't worry about him because Charlton would go on to be one of the all-time greats of the sport,

winning the Ballandeyore, basically the award for best soccer player in the world in 1966, a year that nothing else happened except England winning the 1966 Football World Cup on home soil with Bobby Charlton starring. Oh, my goodness. So he's a big deal. Charlton, he scored 10 goals that season. Remember his Davy season 18. Tommy Taylor

He netted 22 And absolutely smashing it Was the Irish player Liam Whelan Who scored 26 goals in the season Wow So they score a lot Yeah

Yeah they do Yeah Yeah Busby Babes get a few babes Yeah Yeah So like you would almost think The Busby Babes

Are like the groupies Of that team You know Yeah Like the wags of the year We're the Busby Babes But they weren't that was the boyfriends were called the babes at the time.

Yeah. And they called the wives the football players. Very confusing era. Yeah. I'm sitting up here with the other football players. Are you playing? Oh no, I'm just one of the football players. I'm just one of the football players.

Thank you though. That's really nice of you. The team also came close to winning the FA Cup, which is remember the knockout thing for English teams, but went down 2-1 in the final against Astero. and Villa. They would have been the first team of the modern age to win both the league and FA Cup in one season. So they're one game away from doing the double. Wow. Which is at the time unheard of. But back-to-back championships wasn't enough for manager

Matt Busby who had his eye on another prize. The European Cup. Oh my goodness. The big one. It sounds like you're peeing in a cup. Yeah. European Cup. Yeah, European Cup. Or it's a cup peeing on you. European cup. That's you're telling the cup that you piss in what its purpose is. Yeah. Or the cup has a hole in it. No.

Do we think? What do we think? Yeah. The cup's got a hole in it. You know, so we get a plastic cup, get a little crack. Yes. And then that's leaking out. That's when you would say it to the cup.

Yeah. European cup. European cup. I've got to remember. Why do I keep putting liquid in you? European cup. European. Now I feel like it was worth adding, yes.

Now, fuck yeah. Me, cooking. Oh, man, it's so good when you really put the work in and get the joke right. You know what I mean? And AJ will cut out all this stuff and then you'll just have that one good line. Get to the meat, mate, mate. Get to the good stuff. Get to that bison meat.

Do you just cut out the rest of the pot and just put out a 10 second thing of just saying, European cut? I think so. That's the whole air. That's the whole air. Nah, no need, they'll get it. So let me tell you about... Let me tell you about the other European Cup.

Oh, okay. As in the Football Cup. Oh, right. Founded in 1955 and now called the UEFA Champions League. It's an annual competition that sees the best teams of Europe go head to head. This is what I'm talking about where Barcelona takes on... Oh, geez, what's a... Like someone from the Bundesliga, a German team, for example.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So all the best ones of the world. So, yeah, it's not teams representing a country, it's the teams from within the country playing each other. Yeah, trying to prove that, hey, even though we're in different leagues, who's the best in Europe? Yeah, cool. The Football League had not allowed English club Chelsea to enter in 1955

and continued its stance on the European Cup as it being a distraction. Oh. So they're all part of this league managed the English Football League, and they were like, how you play our game, don't play that as well. Oh. However, against the wishes of the FA, who are the managers, Manchester United entered the competition as English champions,

because they'd won their league, meaning they got an invite, becoming the first English team to play in the European Cup. Oh. The team... So basically, they've gone against the orders of the league, so it's stuffy, we're going to play anyway. The team did great, making it to the semi-finals, where they lost to Powerhouse Real Madrid.

They've got 15 times. titles. Yeah, they've had 15. Oh, you're looking at it up. That's, wow. These are, this is champion league or European Cup? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Champions League is called now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they got, Real Madrid's got 15 titles all time. They got the record. They're big. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, they're the big dogs. It's interesting.

Wow, more people into it. They're like the, they're like the Manu of Spain. Is that where Madrid is? Yeah. A lot of the call them Mad You. That's what I call them Mad You. That's fine. Madrid United.

Oh, that's Mad U. Gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. Bay and Munich. That's a German team. I couldn't think of a single one before. Dortmund. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I was going to drive you nuts. Yeah, I couldn't think of one. So they lost two Real Madrid. However, earlier in the cup, Man United had beaten Belgian side RSC and Lecht, 10, 0. which is still a club record.

Wow. Wow. That's great. That's... Honestly, you get to 9 up and you go, do we go for an even 10 or is this a bit mean now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

What are you, like, injuring players or whatever? Like, are you just, like, how do you get to that high? Do you have to actually, like, knock out players with the ball so that you're just like, yeah. I don't know if there's a rule there where if you knock out players, they have to stay on the field lying there. And if you can just play where it lives. Play on. Play on.

I think that is a rule, yeah. Yeah, from my understanding. But if the ball knocks a player out, does the ball have to get red carded? And then you've got no ball. You're playing air soccer. You play an air soccer. And you go, I'm kicking it. Oh, it's in the back of the net.

It went in. You tried to get it, but you didn't. 9-0. That's 9-0. The other team's going, oh, they're so good at air soccer. The other team has a really terrible imagination. Oh. Yeah.

Gosh. So the next season, the team who are still incredibly young, looked at backing up and winning the league for a third year in a row. They were also hoping to go further in the European Cup. And the team looked stronger than ever when Busby made another big signing with 25-year-old Northern Irishman, a goalkeeper named Harry Gregg,

playing a then record goalkeeper fee of 23.5,000 pounds, which is over half a million pounds today. Wow. And I know, like, these... These days players make that every day of the year, but I reckon that is the best money the club will ever spend more on that later. Oh, okay, I'm going to remember the name Harry Greg. Harry Greg, he will be coming up in the story. I did have to glance at your screen to remember.

What year is it now? We're up to 1958. Okay. I thought like 15 years had gone by, but it's only like four years or something. Well, he took over in 1945. Okay. At the end, so the 1946 was the first season. that Buzzbee was in charge.

But it's like a whole new team because he gets new players in all the time and they're still smashing it. So they're back at the European Cup being one of the competition's favourites to win because on their first ever try, they'd made it to the semis. Domestic League matches,

which is like the league that they play in the English league, we're on Saturdays and European matches mid-week. Perfect. So to fulfil that. Great. This has worked out really well. Thanks a lot.

Wonderful. Thank you for that schedule. We'll be able to do both. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, thanks. That's actually very kind of you. Thank you so much. Thanks for thinking of us.

So to fulfil their engagements with the league, which remember didn't want them playing in the European Cup at all because they thought it was a distraction, they had to charter planes, which were of course less reliable than they are today. This was proven when in a previous match, plane delays meant they nearly missed a clash with Everton. On another occasion,

fog prevented them from flying directly back from Europe to Manchester, so they had to fly to Amsterdam, then take a ferry, then take a train, and the trip took its toll on the players, and they drew three all with Birmingham City at St Andrews three days later. And that was blamed. Like the fans were like, our boys are tired. Yeah, come on. Our beautiful boys have been on too many modes of transport.

It's confusing. You get your sea legs, and then you get your train legs. Oh, poor tired boys! Yeah. That's fair. Oh, fellas. What's the matter? Oh.

Sorry, I had nothing for that one either. What's the matter? What's the matter? Oh. Oh. I went on a ferry. Say no more. No, don't speak.

Save your energy. You've been on a ferry. You must be exhausted. You've been sitting down in different places. Oh, you poor darling. You're an entire book on that journey. Oh, must be awful. No, but genuinely, that does sound exhausting.

No, you were resting while moving. That's not restful. It's just not good for your recovery. Yes, absolutely right. And this is like in an era where I imagine they're all just smoking the whole time. Yeah, yeah. There's not a lot of sport science going on. Yeah.

On Monday the 3rd of February, 1958, the team charted a British European Airways, B.E.A. Plain from Manchester to Belgrade to play against Red Star Belgrade. This is for the European Cup. Okay. On the way, to and from Belgrade, the plane had to stop to refuel in Munich, in West Germany at the time. The BBC writes... I'm going to Munich. Are you going to Munich?

Yeah, I'm going to Munich soon. Oh, well, let me tell you that that is a very big part of the story. Okay. Just going to Munich. Yeah. I'm going to call this episode, Jess goes to Munich. Great. Yeah, perfect.

You love to be the main character. I wasn't listening up until now. now I'm in truan. You're in. Yeah, great, because you could be part of the story. What do I do again? Great. So the BBC writes of the flight over to Belgrade.

They arrived to find low cloud, poor visibility and snow. Conditions were at the minimum allowed by British European Airways, their flight operator, for pilots to land in. You love it. The minimum. Yeah, the bare minimum is what I want. The BBC continues, indeed, the weather was so bad that the airport engineer only realized the plane had landed when it taxied onto the parking apron. Cool. You're like, are we there?

Oh, God, we've landed. That's the engineer who's got a big part of the landing. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never gone. Oh, we've landed, have we? I'm always aware of landing. Yeah. As a passenger.

Oh, I assume the engineer would be somebody on the runway. Oh, no, so I believe. I don't know that much about planes, but I think at the time, a lot of planes would have a pilot, a co-pilot, an engineer operating. Yeah. Yeah, right. And now I think of modern technology that's usually on the pilot and a co-pilot, but they would be doing a lot of operating flaps of wings and things like that.

Oh, yeah. Again, I'm not an expert, but maybe putting down wheels and that kind of stuff. Or laying in the wing, pushing the flap up and down like that? Yeah, that would be the engineer. Yeah, left arm up, right arm down. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, they should have, they should know when they're going to land. and suddenly they're on the ground and he's like,

oh, would you look at that? Wow. Thank goodness we made it. That was smooth. So again, apologies to aviation experts. So Manchester United had beaten Red Star Belgrade at a home game at Old Trafford 2-1. Because the way the European Cup worked was

so you wouldn't get an advantage of playing in front of your home crowd. You'd play in front of your home game and also an away game at their stadium. And then they'd add up the goals and whoever had more of the two games on aggregate would be the winner. That's a silly system. Yeah, right.

Except for the final when they would fly somewhere, not your home game, and then it would be whoever wins that. That's a winner takes all. But like, if I beat you, Jess, your team, you come to my and I bet you two zero. I'm up two, but then if you beat me 5-1, then overall you're on 5 and I'm only on 3,

so you would go through the next round. Yeah, okay. And wait, and the final they have in like a third, place that isn't either home ground? As far as I'm aware, I remember looking into one, there's a home game coming up in London, which was no team's home, so I assume so. Or maybe they've just picked that because it's got the, Wembley's the biggest arena. I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I do know, on the, that the reason they play this team twice is it's so you don't get the home ground advantage. That's so funny. Yeah. So, Manchester United had beaten Red Star-Belgrade at their home game at Old Trafford 2-1, but on Red Star's home source. In Boyle, in Belgrade, the match was tied three all, Bobby Charlton scoring twice.

Nice. But the tie was enough to send United into the semifinals of the European Cup for the second year in a row, because overall, they've scored more goals. After the game, a cocktail party for the players was held at the British Embassy. Oh, that's nice. Oh, that's nice. Oh. Yeah.

I mean, they've got a lot of games to play coming up. This could be bad. This could be really bad. Is the pilot at the cocktail party? Yeah. Again, I think it's the era where they're smoking and drinking and having a bloody time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the next day, Thursday, the 6th of February, 1958, the team flew home.

They were currently fourth on the league table and had a home game against the Wolverhampton Wanderers, go Wals. That's Saturday. If they won, however, they'd be back on top of the league. Okay. So it feels like an important game for them. As well as Matt Busby and the players on board the plane were 10 journalists and three photographers that had travelled to cover the game, which just shows how big a deal Manchester United were even back then.

Ten journalists have gone to cover the game. Yeah. One of the journalists was Frank Swift, who was a recently retired goalkeeper who had played for Manchester City with Matt Busby. Oh, you're kidding. Can you believe that? What a chance? What is it?

Chronism? Yeah. Oh, yeah, great. Get your mates in. Yeah. Come on, mate. Oh, now you're going to write about football just because you're an expert who knows exactly how the game works. Oh, okay.

Oh, yeah. Not an expert at writing, mate. Hey? You've just spent 20 years not using your hands and then you focus only on using your hands. Oh, is he a goalkeeper? He's a goalkeeper. He's a goalkeeper. Yeah, I can keep a gun in your hand.

Yeah, that's right. Great question. Can you stop some ink, some bad ink from getting on the page? He doesn't imagine him in his gloves going, whoa, whoa. You've got to stop myself from writing swear words. He's writing an article in the goalie gloves. Yeah. It's really hard to grip.

This typewriter's not working. Also on board the plane with the club secretary, the chief coach, which is different to the manager, the trainer and a club supporter, Willie Satanov. I don't love that he's listing all the people that were on the plane. Yeah. I know. I was like, wait, what's happening? He's just told us about a few games, a few flights, and I'm like, what is this building to? Now we're really focusing on this flight and everyone on board. Really focusing on this flight, I'm afraid to say. Also on board was the travel agent arranging the trip. Jesus, they were hands on back then, were they?

Yeah. Honestly, not amazing. Also, his wife. The travel agent's wife? Yeah, the travel agent, his name was Bella Miclos. I didn't get her name, but they're traveling together. The Micklosses. That's incredible. Bosses. But that's like sort of white glove service, isn't it? Yeah. Don't worry, I'll book the plane, and I'll also get on board the plane. Yeah.

I'll have the holiday with you. While I'm on the plane, I could book other planes. Easy, easy, I can do that. I can do that. Whatever you need. Also on board was Vera Lukic, the wife of a Yugoslavian diplomat hitching a ride back to the UK. She was pregnant and traveling with her baby daughter, Vezna.

Why? If Wallon, you're on the plane, you think of any other planes, you want to book, I'll be just there. I did my best thing you can just turn to me. You don't have to write it down. What if we got another plane after this? No problem, I'd say. No, I'd just wait till I land and then I'll book it for you.

I'll be right there to book it. You don't have to worry about anything. I'll book it for you. No problem. I can come on all the flights and then that way, if you're on any flight and you want to book another flight, I can book the flight. My work could come. Yeah, it's really, it's different back then.

We've lost that personal touch now, haven't we? Yeah, but back then the flight center captain from the ads was actually your captain. He's actually the captain. That's right. He'd fly wherever you wanted to go. And there's a pregnant lady on board and a young child. And a young child. Yeah, great, great, great, great.

And they're both smoking. Feeling super positive about this. Because why else would we be listing everyone on board? Yeah, don't, okay, don't think about it too much. As well as the crew, we're looking at 44 people on board. Uh-huh. Because he hasn't said that about any other flights they've taken recently. Just this one.

Yeah, this one really stood out to me. Yeah. I wonder how their soccer matches going to go. Anyway, so the next day they're playing their game. Oh, okay. Okay. That's weird. He lifted the eye.

Was he padding? Yeah. At that point, do you think his report wasn't going to be very long? So he's like, and, um, And now everyone's weight in order. I was thinking that, like, you know, this, so far we've had a lot for the football buffs, you know, talking about scores and players. We haven't had much for the passenger buffs.

I'm a big passenger buff. And the pilot, yeah, he used to play cricket with Busby's wife. Dad. So there's 44 people on board. The Elizabethan class, Airspeed, AS 57, ambassador. Okay, he's telling us the fucking plain. Oh, my God. It's got a nickname.

Nicknamed the Lord Burley, named after the, one of the chief advisor, or the chief advisor to Elizabeth I first. Burley, isn't that a name for also being a bit fat? Yeah, I don't know.

It could be. Yeah, oh, this is the, the, oh, this is a, a Boeing,

fatso. I'm just looking up an image of Lord Burley. Oh, it's hard to tell because he's wearing. Is this the name of the plane? Is this the name of the plane? Yeah, but.

named after a person. Named after it. Because it's an Elizabethan class, so they've named it after Elizabeth I first, the Queen's advisor. Okay. And he... He looks relatively slim.

His horse is way too small for him. That's a donkey. That's a donkey. That's a donkey. That's too small for him, though. I couldn't agree more. That's the image on the Britannica. The richest man with the smallest horse.

This is the smallest horse I could buy. The smallest horse money can buy. That feels like something. I can imagine you saying that when we're like 60. I come over for a visit, check it in on you. That's the smallest horse money can buy. And I'm going,

that's great, Dave. A size of it. Barbie couldn't even ride that. Have a go. You can't try and get on. When you get on, when you get off. He's pointing to sort of empty space.

Yeah. Yeah, the guy at the farm said, this is the smallest horse money could be. Yeah, no, I'm glad you enjoyed your time at the apartment. Then I'm checking in with the nurses going, how's he going? Six Adams across. He seems worse. Changing the horseshoes is hard.

I've walked off. He's still muttering. So back to the plane. Which I will point out to the people at home. Jess and Al don't know what the topic is. You've probably seen the title of the episode, which may give it away. But they don't know. The plane was six years old.

At the controls It had recently had a birthday What was the plane's favorite color? Yeah But it's not that old No, six years is nothing That seems fine That's fine

Yeah I think this was before But what's that in plain years? I'm not sure But I Great question This could have been in an age Before we knew about fracture mechanics

Which is something you learn In engineering about how Metal that undergoes You know Stress from say going going into flights and then coming down, getting hot, getting cold, all that kind of stuff. They start to produce little cracks. And unless you're constantly looking at those cracks and, anyway, I don't know what's about

to happen in the rest of the story. But unless you're keeping track of those cracks, they get to a critical crack length and then they propagate really fast and then say things like planes fall out of the sky. Anyway, I don't know. I don't know. Al and Andy, say some of the dumbest shit on a regular basis. Yeah, weekly. Like weekly and like I'll hang out with them and some of the riffs you're just like, you guys are so dumb with love.

You know what I mean? Sure, dumb with love as another dumb person. But then every now and then, they reveal their past selves where they are actually very educated, very intelligent men. And every time I go, hi yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, oh, absolutely. And he drops some science fact. I'm like, the fuck.

Yeah, and Elle brings out the phrase like critical crackling. Yeah. And I go, oh my God. I forgot this guy secretly smart. Oh my God. My plumbers crack is at a critical length. And that's what listeners feel comforting with our podcast is that like, I'm never secretly smart. You know what I mean? What you see is what you get. She'll never surprise you. There was one time I knew what a box brownie camera was and that people blew, that people applauded.

I still think of you as a photography expert because of that fact. Because I knew of a box brownie. But she only liked it because she loves brownies. Yeah. And once she tried to eat one. Yeah, and it wasn't very nice. Yeah, she was talking about a dessert. I was just hungry.

She was accidentally right. So, back to the plane. Yes. Okay. At the controls of the aircraft was 36-year-old, another perfect age. Pilot Captain James Thane. I'd say too young to be a pilot. Yeah, too young.

I don't want a 36-year-old pilot. Do you think that's too young? Yeah. How old do you reckon? What's the minimum? 50. 50, okay. I want a 50-year-old pilot.

And it's that someone who's retrained? I've done so much training. No, no, no, yeah, he's been, he's been, he's been, that, well, she, Jesus Christ, they've been flying for 30 years. Okay. And now they're finally in charge. Oh, right. That's what I want. They've been on their learners sort of permit for 30 years. Okay. How about this? He's already at 36, a former flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force.

Okay. The co-pilot was 37-year-old. Is that old enough? No. Captain Kenneth Raymond. Oh, actually people say Raymond, Captain Kenneth Raymond, who was also a former ARIA flight lieutenant and a Second World War flying ace. Okay, I do probably trust these two. Who had shot down five German fighters, one Italian plane,

and a V1 flying bomber being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Okay, they're probably pretty good pilots. And technically... I mean, maybe, but he sounds like he's really good at killing people in planes. In or around Germany. Remember, they haven't seen the title of the episode. Technically, Ramon was senior to Thane at the airline, but on that day, James Thane was the captain.

Okay. That sounds like we take turns being captain at the pod. That's right. It's not my turn today. Technically, I am senior to you, but sometimes you get a go. I'm two days older than you. Okay, technically. Two days!

Those two days matter. That's integral. There's two days of the year when you're older than me, and I love it. I hate it. But Dave is pulling rank today, and so you've got to fall in line, Jess. Yeah, yeah, sorry. You're the co-pilot today. Got it.

They took off in sunshine in Belgrade and landed in Munich to refuel where the airport was shrouded in low cloud, rain and snow. The descent into Munich required the pilot, Captain James Thain, to use the anti-icing equipment on the wings, because it's very cold there. On the ground, it's just above zero, so just above freezing. the BBC writes on the ground the Manchester Party disembarked for refreshments in the terminal building with some of the players taking the opportunity to snowball

the refueling team So they're lyricans They're young, they have fun They're throwing snowballs at the help Yeah exactly The people that are in freezing conditions Refueling your plane No, that's fun

They're babes They're babes They're just a couple of babes When a babe hits you with a snowball You go thank you Babes. Thanks, babe. Thanks, hotie.

I reckon it was all received in good fun. Bit of fun. A bit of fun. The BBC continues after completion of departure details. The party returned to the aircraft with the crew stopping to inspect the wings. As a precaution, de-icing fluid could be sprayed onto the wings or snowbrushed clear, but they decided that it was unnecessary under the circumstances. So de-icing, why don't they just get a blowtorch?

Yeah. That's really good. Why not put fire on the wings? It would look cool. They often paint a flame on the side of a plane. That's true. Why not actually put a real flame there? What's going to de-ice something quickest?

Nothing quicker than a blow-torch. Yeah, a bunch of candles. How do they think back then? The original blow-torch, a candle. Because you blow on the torch. So it had been snowing, but the temperature, like it was slightly above freezing. The two pilots agreed to switch seats. Yeah.

Co-pilot. Sorry, out of the life, found that really funny. You want to fucking, do you want to just try a bin on the left for them? Do you want to mix it up? Do you want to mix it out? Yeah. Just different view. Mix it up.

Just something, just, you know, I'm getting fucking bored, brother. I'm getting a bit bored over here, brother. I've looked out of this wind there for ages. Yeah, let's swap it up. Sick of all these mountains, man. It's like when you're on a road trip and you stop for petrol and snacks. and you're like, do you swap drivers. Yeah, that's right.

That's what they're doing. You throw a big handfuls of sand at the guy filling up your car. Oh, my God, it's so funny. He loves it every time. Oh, sand in my eyes. I'm laughing. We're having fun. Thank you for this, he says.

Co-pilot Ramon was actually used to sitting on the left because he's actually senior in the company. He's usually the pilot. So they swapped. This was against company policy, but something that apparently was pretty common in the industry. Okay. Because you can control from either side. They're like, no big deal. Kind of like being in a learner driver car where they have a set of pedals over on their side as well.

Yeah, they do have thrown pedals. Just in case. Because it was a more conservative time, you know, like these days, pilots probably wife swap. Back then it was just chair swap. Yeah, you've got to work your way up in the swapping game. Yeah. You say first that and then first we swap chairs and then we put our keys in a bowl. and take each other's beloved time.

You accidentally keep picking up your own key. Fuck. Oh, fuck. I've got to go home to my wife. And my Kama Sutra. Sorry. So in light snow, the plane prepared to take off. Everything was going as expected as they took off down the runway,

but then suddenly the engine suffered a boost surge, causing the thrust to open too fast. The pilots sensed this fluctuation and abandoned the takeoff, stopping quite suddenly, meaning the plane was slightly sired on on the runway. They're skidded to a halt and sort of, they're not facing quite forwards anymore. They radioed to the tower and asked if they could back it up and try again. They attempted another takeoff. The same problem happened, again slightly further down the runway,

and the pilots again abandoned the takeoff. Captain Thane jumped on the microphone to his famous. passengers. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Just to let you know, you may have noticed we have not taken off as we usually would. We are, in fact, still on the tarmac. And we've suffered a technical fault. We're going to be looking to that one any moment now.

So if you just have just come to prepare the captain four, disembarking. He basically said nothing to worry about. We'll look into it. it and then the passengers disembarked. Everyone went to the bar. Of course. Yep. To the players, after two failed takeoffs,

it seemed like they weren't going to make it. So star player Duncan Edwards, who remember a few years ago he was the 17-year-old, like freak of the game. He's a little bit older, but he's still very young. He sent a telegram to his landlady saying, quote, all flights cancelled, flying home tomorrow from Duncan.

That's quite cute. But like... Yeah. Because she's going to worry about him. Yeah. Yeah. I do that to my landlord all the time as well. Yeah.

Hey, landlord. Probably won't be home tonight. Everything's running late at this gig. Probably home. Probably 11.30. I know I said 11. Probably 11. Yeah.

No, I said I'd be home for late dinner, but don't worry about it. Just put in the fridge I'll have tomorrow. Thank you so much. I love you, love you, land. Anyway, I hope you're good landlord, guy who owns 17 properties. Yeah. I hope you're all right. This is my fifth tenant tonight to let me know they're not coming home.

What's going on? Everyone's got lives, do they? Not at the rate I'm charging. I don't know if lives I've just got money. I'm just spending all night checking my telegram machine. Stop. That would have been slow to read a message like that in telegram. I don't know how telegram works.

You're thinking Morsego, aren't you? I'm thinking Morseco. Is that how they did telegrams? Maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Did you order it? They sent it away on the other end via Morse code and they printed it out?

How are they delivered? I don't know. Now you just text your landlord and tell them you're going to be coming home late. Every day. Every day. I don't know how I'm going. My last property in Melbourne that we left, we gave to our friend. And then, and we had a nice landlord.

He was a kind of, you know, he was like, he was just like, he's a nice guy. But anyway, our friend took over the property and then one day, and she kind of had a few things in her decorations that were boob related, you know, like a neon sign that was shaped like boobs. Anyway, I guess he saw that at some point. And then one day, he brings her a gift. He'd, he'd 3D printed like a, like a, just like a busty anime character. What?

Like a busty anime character. And he was like, I thought you would like this. It's a gift from my landlord. That's incredible. I've noticed you love boobs. We have a mutual interest. Boobes. You like yours and neon.

I like to print mine. 3D. It's like such sweet intentions, but so weird. Yeah. That's incredible. Anyway, back to this incredibly normal... Just this flight. This normal flight that we're really harping on about.

Sports story. Yeah, this sports story about a team who's off to play a game. Who's doing really well and continue to do well. So they've got off the plane, the passengers. Meanwhile, the pilots consulted the airport station engineer who told them that at that altitude where Munich Airport sits, this boost surge problem was well known to happen to Elizabethan class aeroplanes. The engineer gave them instructions.

to deal with the surge, and it was apparently a pretty simple fix of taking down the power slightly if the problem happened again and then increasing slowly to full power. Okay. So if you get this boost, don't worry about it,

just back it off a bit and then slowly go up. And usually the problem goes away. So the passengers who, seconds ago, thought they weren't actually going to fly, were loaded back on after only five minutes off the airplane. Oh, wow.

So they're skull and their drinks at the bar, I imagine. Yeah, there's only time for two Roman Cokes or whatever. There's disappointing. But there would be more drinks on the plane, though. Oh, for sure, definitely. After two failed takeoffs, the Busby Babes, who were famous for laughing and joking, were now all uncharacteristically pretty quiet.

Two failed takeoffs, I'd be pretty scared to get back on a plane. Yeah. Got to tell you? But you know what? It makes me feel good that they know what they were like when they got back on the plane. Yes. That's good.

Feel pretty good about that. That's a good sign. True. We've actually got a direct quote here. Johnny Berry, one of the players, said, we're all going to get freaking killed here. And Billy Whirlin replied, this may be death, but I'm ready.

What are you? 26 at this point? And you're like, I'm ready for death. I'm ready for death. I think part of it was, you know, young man's bravado that they're all trying to be brave on the plane. Yeah, groups of young men are my favorite. I love big groups of them.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think, I'll see a big group, and I think to myself, Fantastic. Finally, an opportunity to feel comfortable. Oh, thank goodness. I was feeling so uncomfortable in the world.

Now I feel at ease. At ease and safe. So the pilots were eager to make the third takeoff as they knew the importance of getting their famous passengers home for the weekends game. Because they've charted this aeroplane. They have been told that this is like their last chance to take off. And if they miss the window, they'll have to spend the night in Munich.

and that will have a knock-on effect. So they're pretty keen to take off. So at 3.02 p.m., they radioed the tower who told them that their window to take off, the clearance would expire in two minutes. Great. So I'll put your C-Bels on. Let's bring it home.

A bit of pressure. A bit of pressure. With a new plan of a gradual acceleration, the take-off would take longer than usual, about 1,200 metres. But that wasn't a real worry, because Munich's runway was 1,900 metres long. Okay.

You've got a bit of wiggle room. Got a bit of wiggle room, but it is longer than usual. A couple hundred metres extra. So they hurtled down the runway again. The engine surge happened, but as instructed, the pilots backed off the throttle and then slowly accelerated mitigating the issue. Okay. So slowly push through it.

They hit V1, which is 117 knots or 217 kilometers an hour. The speed at which a takeoff cannot be safely aborted. Okay. The next stage is V2, which is 119 knots or 220. kilometers an hour. So only slightly faster. That's the minimum speed at which the aeroplane can become airborne. Yeah, okay. The co-pilot Ramon was waiting to hear the call that they'd hit 119 knots because, you know, oh, we're at V1, the captain's looking at the gauge, or at V2, you know, they go through, it's basically like a checklist as you're taking off.

But all of a sudden, something went wrong and the plane began to lose speed, suddenly dropping to 112 knots or 207K an hour, then 105, 194 kilometres an hour. Meaning they weren't traveling fast enough to take off, but they were traveling too fast to slow down with the amount of runway they had left. Okay, so it's not a great problem to have, is it? Not a great problem. And co-pilot Ramon shouted, Christ, we won't make it. As Captain Thane looked up to see what lay ahead,

the plane skidded off the end of the runway, crashed into the fence surrounding the airport, it went across a road, and eventually it crashed into a house. Oh, shit. They went like, they really overshot. A goalkeeper. Harry Gregg, the northern Irishman I spoke about before.

He recalled that there was no screaming or shouting. I was hoping he was going to catch the plane before it hit the house. He jumped through the air and stopped the plane. And that's when we found out that Harry Gregg was the Hulk. Well, we are going to talk about him in a second. So he said it was quiet in the cabin as it flashed between darkness, daylight and sparks. It was quiet. It was so quick and...

shocking to the players that no one even had time to like go oh my god wow as they ripped through the fence one of the wings was torn off as it caught a house like i said 300 meters beyond the runway the house was home to a family of six don't worry the father and eldest daughter away and the mother and the three children escaped as the house caught fire as did the house's fuel shed oh no not good they have a fuel shed they got a fuel shed It all went dark Goal keeper Harry Greg thought he was dead But he came to his senses

If you have to If you have I think I'm dead You're not dead But you know You might be going towards the light type thing Yeah Yeah yeah yeah yeah

You go out of a plane You think I'm gonna die Yeah And then you stop and you're like Oh Okay I'm not dead He felt blood on his face And he later said

He didn't dare put his hand up Because he thought the top of his head Had been taken off Quote like a hard boiled egg Oh my God I don't want to know what's going on at this. We didn't want to touch his head. You know what makes me think of? Have you ever been picked up by a wave and then just

smashed against the sand? I've done that. And you get, and you feel your neck click? Like you hear a... And you're under the water? Is that what you mean? When you're like... Yeah, and you're under water and you get thrown hitting the sand, then you're like, I might be paralyzed. You're like, oh my God, wait, I'll move my fingers. They're fine. I'll move my toes. They're fine. You're like, I'm good, baby! I got to get out of this water. I think. I think about this too often and I think I've talked about it on the podcast before but one of my biggest fears or worries is let's say we're on a plane as we often are together and there's like something goes wrong and for a bit it seems like we might go down right and you accidentally tell me

what you really think of me I'm more worried that because like you know when sometimes like the fight or flight sometimes your body like you'll piss yourself or shit yourself or shit yourself or something, right? Sure. But then the flight is fine. And they go, don't worry, ladies and gentlemen. We've got another eight hours, but we're going to make it to London. And then we're getting off the plane at some point later.

I'm covered in piss. Or I stick. Like, how are we recovering our friendship after that? I think that when that happens... When? Well, you know, when this happens on a plane, they definitely radio ahead and say, we're going to need some hardcore cleaning on this plane. Yeah, I'm not worried.

Obviously, I'm worried about the plane. and the cleaning service and everybody else on the plane. But I'm also worried about our relationship. Oh, but what I'm meaning to say is that I think everyone will have pissed themselves. So we're on an equal. And if I haven't, I'll go out in sympathy for you to make you feel less weird about it. Thank you so much. I will sit there and piss my pants whilst making direct eye contact with you.

And I'll say, this is for you. I love you. Do you think we'll be able to laugh about it in time? So much. Remember the time we pissed ourselves on the way. Okay, thank you. I'm glad we discussed that ahead. of time because otherwise it would be a real yeah it would weigh also you know I think into adulthood

when you have kids and stuff like that there is this thing where it's like shit like that no longer matters there's like a weird thing about like piss and shit and all that kind of stuff you're like just bring it at me baby all of it is like I'm ready to to have all bullshit melt away and you just have to deal with stuff like that so I would completely accept you I would probably think this is a great opportunity for us to be even sillier with each other. Yeah, true. Oh, it would be so funny later. Yes, probably not until, yeah, not for a little while, but later. I think I could find it pretty funny in the moment. I, um, threw up all over myself and Aden as we landed in San Francisco one time. It was fine through the landing, actually. We were

taxing and I threw up everywhere. And that's when I realized that United Airlines didn't have spew bags available. Yeah, wow. So I've thrown up all over both of us. I've thrown up in my own hands. He's only jumper that he packed, covered in vomit. And I'm sitting there as he's trying to kind of like wipe it up or make me feel better and I was ready to laugh immediately.

There you go. And he said not yet. He didn't want to laugh. He was like, hang on a sec. Let's get off the plane before we laugh about this. And we were, I think it's actually that that was the trip we were going on where we were getting married on that trip and I said, holding my own spew. Do you still want to get married?

That's a good test. That's so good. That's really good. So, yeah, I guess same thing. If I piss myself, Dave, will just love me even more. I think I'd be ready to laugh immediately. But if you weren't, I would hold it in. Yeah.

Not the piss. I'll let that go for you. Thank you, yes. Yeah. Okay, thank you. I'm actually really glad we had that conversation because it weighs on me a lot. Yeah. And now back to this horrific plane crash.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So we're with Harry Greg. He's bleeding. He guts out of his chair. Seconds early thought I'm going to die But he's like, all right, I'm alive I've got to get out of here He started to crawl uphill

That's the position of the plane's in Wow He found a hole in the side of what remained of the plane And kicked his way through Thinking he was the only survivor Oh my God, that'd be horrific But then pilot Captain Thain emerged And started yelling

Everyone out now, it's going to explode He told him And he saw Harry Greg He said, run you stupid bastard Because Harry's like Still standing there It's a bit rude That's a bit rude, but, you know, adrenaline's running out.

Yeah, and also, that's, you know, sometimes you've got to snap people out of it. That's right. He's in shop. He's like, run. And Harry's an athlete. Yeah, that's right. So it's like, give him a clear direction. He'll go.

Any opportunity you can to yell at hot babes, you know what I mean? You never get a chance. And so this is, you know, run, you dumb shit. You know, like, you never get to do it because he's, he's got such a high status. He's not. So, like, no. That's true. Here's your chance.

Here's my chance. he thought. Captain Thane, also a reason for his panic is, obviously, like he said, so much adrenaline, so much panic, but he knew that the recently fuelled aircraft held 2,300 litres just in the starboard wing, which now had a fire underneath it. Okay, yep. He's like, we've got to go. Co-pilot Raymond was trapped in his seat by the crumpled fuselage, and he told Thane to go

without him. Thane clambered out of the galley window, grabbing two tiny fire extinguishes on his way to do what he could. I'm stopping to tell Ramon, he'd come back with it for him when the fire was dealt with. And I should say he did end up going back with an axe to freeze. Wow. So there's some pilot aerobics going on. I'd go back into a plane for you, Dave.

Would you do that? Yeah, if I had an axe. Yeah, and if she wasn't covered in piss. Yeah, if I was covered in piss, I'd be too embarrassed. You've got to sort yourself out first. I'd have to, I'd be under the plane trying to find my bag. Wet wipes. I just need a change of hair.

Just one second. I skirt it'd be fine, whatever. Just that thick, fresh undies if I can find them. Yeah, that'd be nice. Just to feel fresh. I just want to save my friend. I'm looking through my bag for my spare undies and a skirt and my axe. Honestly, I'd probably like to brush my teeth as well if that's possible.

I have found my toiletry bag, so I might, I will probably brush my teeth. Yeah. So at this point, it may be a 15 minute nap, just because I'm feeling a bit. I'm actually, like, the adrenaline of all that's actually really drained me. And it's quite triggering for my migraines, actually. So I might have to just go, do something for my nervous system, calm down a little. Have a little sleep. Yeah, have a little nap.

Have a kit. At this point, two of the flight attendants on board also ran out. Despite the pleas from the captain to run Harry Gregg, the Irish goalkeeper, the one that I said, that's the best money they've ever spent on anyone. He didn't because he heard a baby crying. So he shouted at the others to come back. He's like, no, we've got to come back. There's people alive in there as he went solo back into the flaming wreck and rescued the infant,

Fesner as well as her pregnant mother. Oh my God. So they're safe. Wow. That's good. He also found his boss, Matt Busby, who was outside the plane and had a cut behind his ear. He thought, okay, not so bad. Then he noticed that Busby's leg was facing the wrong way.

Oh. Done a full 180. Shit, that's not good. Oh, no. Oh, his coaching career is over. He'll never do the Bobby Charlton, never again. Oh, no. He'll never do the Charlton.

So Harry Greg, he popped him up with some debris, tried to make him comfortable, and he went back into the plane, which he did again and again and again. He pulled out survivors, but also bodies that he was finding. Oh, wow. He pulled out Bobby Charlton and Dennis Viali, who were alive and still, like, strapped to their seats, and he pulled them out. Wow. But unconscious or just, like...

They had head injuries, yeah, so I think they were struggling to work at what was going on. So he's like, just grabbing people in there. And Harry Greg, he's done lots of interviews over the years, and he seems like such a legend. He's got this softly spoken Northern Irish accent. And to sum up, saving multiple lives, he said, A man must do, what a man must do. And he also...

Oh, he's good. He also humbly acknowledged... But in Northern Irish, it would be like, I don't even know how they say do. Do. Do. Yeah. Do.

It's so beautiful. That's the best. A man must do. What a man must do. I don't know. I don't know how it goes either. It's pretty good. It's fun to have a try.

It's a beautiful accent. He also humbly acknowledged that on one day, he was going back into help, but then on another day, he might have run away like other people. He's like, you can't judge people. You never know how you're going to react in a situation like that. And he's like, on that day, I went in, but if it happened again the next day, I can't say that I would have, I might have run away too. Yeah, yeah.

You never know. He's super humble, but he is a hero. I'll tell you that. That's amazing. That's amazing that he's got like heroes guilt. Like, he actually did the right thing. But he's like, he almost feels guilty for the times that don't exist where he didn't do it. Yeah, exactly.

For the hypothetical of, I might not have. So let's not celebrate me too much. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, you really don't know how you'll react in a high stress situation. Well, we know, you'd find a change of clothes. I'd find a change of clothes.

And then possibly find a skirt. I always pack a skirt. I'd have a kip. I'd brush my teeth. I mean, at that point, I wouldn't mind a shower. Yeah. You know, actually a spa session wouldn't be bad. A massage because my shoulders are tent.

Massage. Oh. Yes. Coming, Dave. Once I'm rejuvenated. Just getting, getting out. Oh, so he's just got the hot rocks out. Oh, I love the hot rocks.

Oh, walking on my back one on. Then I'd call you, Dave. I'm on my way, Dave, yeah. Hang in there, little bud. Hang in there, Dave. I'll be there shortly. There's a fire under the wing, so be careful. Because I care.

Thank you. Harry Gregg, he's done this all super fast because within minutes of the disaster, help arrived from the airport and people who lived nearby. Tragically, it's an extremely tragic figure. 20 of the people on board had died on the scene, including seven players, eight journalists, the head coach, which is different from the manager, not Matt Busby, the trainer, the travel agent who organised the trip, one steward and the supporter. How are they going to get home? Oh, that's an agent.

Who's going to book their flight home? Oh, my gosh. Alastair. Oh, ATB. No, it was really funny. We're trying to find humor here in a very dark moment. Of course, of course. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. Also, passing on Sally was the supporter. Also listed sometimes as a friend of Matt Busby, Willie Santonov, who was traveling with the team. And I'll go through the other names in a moment. I'll name everyone, Southley, who died. According to the BBC, after two hours, the search for the survivors was called off,

only for a German journalist to discover 18-year-old Welsh player Kenny Morgan's amongst the wreckage some five hours after the crash. Wow. That's how like it's spread out over a distance, things are on fire, and it's like such chaos in the scene

they didn't even notice this man alive until five hours afterwards. Oh my God. They saved him. He lived to be 73 years old. Far out. He's only 18 at the time. Shit.

And many more. Still pretty young, though. You know, still pretty young to die. It's unfortunate. 73, yeah. Yeah. You want to get. 80, come on.

I would have been stoked to tell you that you lived to 102, but... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, better. What age do you reckon it's like, it's no longer tragic? Yeah, 80. Mid 80? Yeah. Once you hit 80, yeah.

85 maybe. Then you're like, all right. Now you're in, you probably want to die territory. And imagine, like back in the 50s, us saying that would sound insane. You know what I mean? Because nobody lived that long or, you know, but these days, yeah. I think some people did. live that long.

But... 73 is, you're right. That's pretty young. But in the future... But he could have died at 18. So... Yeah, that's right. And he was like outside in the snow,

probably horribly injured after a plane goes for five hours and thankfully he survived. So they've lost... Seven players died at the scene. Also, many more were horribly injured as well as people on board the plane. The survivors were taken to a hospital in Munich. Amongst them were Albert Scanlan, who would remain unconscious for... three weeks. And also Starstriker, the famous Bobby Charlton, who suffered slight head injuries. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanche Flower, the stamen, had injuries that meant they'd never play again.

Oh, no. So their careers were over. It's just absolutely tragic. Manager Matt Busby was also horribly hurt because as well as the leg that's the wrong way around, he had fractured ribs and a punctured lung. So he had internal stuff going on. His condition was so grave that he had the last rights administered twice. And a hospital statement was released saying, quote,

we do not have much hope of saving you. Fuck me. He's what in his 40s at this point? Yeah. So he's still, he's a young guy. And, well, youngish guy, I should say. I know now why you kept saying, Jess and Al have not seen the,

we do not know the title of this, because we were being very lighthearted. Yeah, of course. Wow. You're thinking I'm just talking about a story of Manchester United. They're going to take out the title. It's going to be fun. Woo-hoo.

No, it is the club's darkest days. Wow. Or the Munich Air disaster. Right. And we'd brought our lightest quips. Yeah. God, we were light and quippy, weren't we? That's right, but that's what the show is.

Oh, absolutely. That's right. And I don't think, hopefully we haven't offended anyone. But more on the devastation. Sadly, co-pilot, Kenneth. throw him on, died four weeks after the crash because he had hit injuries. They got him out of the plane, but he was sadly very injured. Star player, Duncan Edwards.

This is the guy who was 17 when he was recruited. Freak of the games, people say best ever they've played with. He was injured. He seemed to be making a recovery. I thought he was finally. He was up and talking in the hospital. But tragically, 15 days later, he was the 21st person who died. Wow.

And do I know what it was? Sorry, you don't have that written down. No, I don't know why he relapsed suddenly. He looked like he was coming good, but he was only 21 years old. Oh, that's awful. And he may have been one of the all-time great. Some people still say he's England's greatest ever player. Wow.

Definitely would have been. So other players killed in the crash. This is the full list with their ages. Roger Byrne, 28, Mark Jones, 24. A bunch of these people I mentioned earlier on as the recruits that when he rebuilt the team after thinking they're too old, these are a lot of the original. Osby babes. Tommy Taylor, 26.

Eddie Coleman, just 21. Liam Whelan, 22. David Pegg, which is a fantastic name, 22. And Jeff Bent, 25 years old. Jeff Bent's an incredible name. Oh, Jeff Bent. Jeff Bent. I don't think it's great.

Jeff Ben. Also, tragically dying was club secretary Walter Crickmere, trainer Tom Curry, and coach Bert Whaley. Eight journalists died. Which is, there was... I mean, having a male secretary at the time was very progressive. He still wore a skirt and heels, but it was. And he was sexually harassed daily on the reg.

Trying to find some light here. I'm so sorry. Eight journalists died, Elf Clark, Tom Jackson, Don Davies. And I think a tragic thing is that they actually opted to sit at the back of the plane because they thought it would be safer after the, they moved to the back after the two failed takeoffs. Obviously, it turned out to be not a great place to sit because 8 of the 10 died. Elf Clark, Tom Jackson, Don Davies, George Fellows, Archie Ledbrook, Eric Thompson, Henry Rose, and the aforementioned Frank Swift, who was a former Manchester City goalkeeper that had played and known Matt Busby forever.

As for manager, Matt Busby, who was thought beyond saving, had his last rights read twice. Miraculously, against all predictions, he eventually recovered, although he had to stay in hospital for more than two months. months. Wow. I mean, one of those injuries alone is awful. Yeah. You know, fractured ribs, really hurt. Yeah, and one went into his lung and was fully deflated. That's bad. And then his legs the wrong way. That's incredible, awful. You know what I reckon he would have done? He would have like seen the team around him, the medical team. And then he was like, not this, I'm going to build a medical team from scratch. Yeah. I did younger nurses. on younger with even younger stethoscopes.

Fresh stethoscopes. Isn't that story of Steve Jobs being in hospital and being dissatisfied by how one of the pieces of equipment works? So whilst he was there, he redesigned it. Something like that, yeah. Like an oxygen mask or something? This isn't working well enough. Let me do a little sketch.

Some people never stop working. Me? I always stop working. They've never worked a damn your life. I never start working. Right. That's my work ethic. None.

None. Yeah. Here we got nothing. Here we go. I've got nothing either. Oh, you got nothing? Because I'm not going to try as a tribute to Jess Perkins. Don't even try.

So it was a horrific event. Manchester, Britain and the world football community went into mourning. The tragedy rocked the nation. And apparently it took a few days. for all the information as to how bad it was to get home. They heard that there'd been a plane crash. They heard that some people were dead, but they didn't know who for a while.

So it took a few days. There was a massive story in the press in the UK, but it took a while. And of course, there were immediate questions as to why the plane had crashed. So an investigation was launched and because this was 1958 and only 13 years after the end of the Second World War,

being in Munich and involving the U.S. UK's most famous football team, it was a little bit tense and had geopolitical undertones. Right. Okay. The West German investigator Hans Reichel pointed the finger of blame at the surviving captain James Thame, arguing that the plane had malfunctioned due to ice on the wings, the thawing of, which is the responsibility of the English pilot, and not the German airport. Sure. Okay. He's saying, the pilot. And remember, he decided against putting any de-icing things on the wings because he thought there wasn't enough ice to worry about.

He had inspected the airplane. He said, let's not worry about it. The German court of inquiry made it official in March 1959, meaning the media were free to report that the deaths of 23 people rested squarely on Thane's shoulders as the individual with the responsibility to make sure the plane was safe to take off. So they went and said, Captain's fault. shit. And we can officially say that in the media.

Their evidence included a photo of the plane that purported to show ice on the wings. Like just to pass the by had taken a photo of the plane from the terminal. I reckon photos in the 50s would have been really clear too. Really clear. And ice, very easy to photograph. Yeah, of course. So no, that one, that checks out to me. Thane was also criticised in the inquiry for swapping seats with his co-pilot,

which is against company policy. and they said, like, in this situation, in an emergency, it would have been harder to tell who was in charge. You or your, you know, senior co-pilot. So I reckon that added to confusion, modern aviation crash investigators have said that whilst that was against company policy, that probably had no bearing on.

Yeah. It wouldn't have changed anything. Yeah. But Captain Thane was stripped of his job and his livelihood, but he continued to protest his innocence saying that he had checked the wings for ice and that his personal theory was that snow or slush on the runway was the cause of the plane's sudden slowdown.

And that would have been the responsibility of the airport and the Germans would be to plane. So he wasn't going down without a fight and dedicated years of his life to fight to clear his name. More on that later. Meanwhile, Manchester United was in mourning and some speculated that with eight of their players dead and many more injured that the club may not survive at all. It was decided, however, that the club would go on. And with Busby's assistant Jimmy Murphy standing in as manager, he was the manager of Wales at the time,

and he was away at a Welsh game, so that's why he wasn't on the plane. Right, okay. Otherwise, he would have been there too. So he's the second in command as a manager, so he stepped up, and they somehow put a team together to play the rescheduled fifth round FAA Cup tie with Sheffield Wednesday,

just 13 days after the crash. Tough on the rest of the team. Yeah, they drew a match. Oh, no. They had the game coming up. I'll tell you the result in just a second. United's chairman Harold Hardman. Great name.

I haven't said that aloud for. Harold Hardman. He put out a statement writing, although we mourn our dead and grief for our wounded, we believe that great days are not done for us. Manchester United will rise again. And Hero, this is 13 days after the crash. Hero goalkeeper Harry Greg was amazingly in the lineup.

Wow. With fellow survivor Bill Fulks, Harry Greg recalled in his autobiography, the players who were left and able to play needed to play again. He wrote, if playing football saved my life, it saved my sanity. I couldn't get to the ground quick enough for training. Those brief moments spent running, diving, kicking, arguing and fighting when I escape valve. Yeah.

So you might say a bit too soon, but for him, like, he needed the distraction. Yeah, it's a distraction on an outlet and something very familiar and comfortable to him. Yeah, of the work, because he's been through a traumatic event. Absolutely. I don't think I'd ever get on a plane again. I'm always amazed when people are like,

get back on the horse. You know, I don't think I would. He says there's, unsurprisingly, there's an air crash investigation or May Day, as it's known overseas, episode dedicated to this, which is, and they'll put a lot of the episodes on YouTube on their official channel, which I'll link to if you want to watch, but he's interviewed in that, and he talks about how at the, he says, at the time, thanks, hell, at the time, he says, after the, after the two

failed takeoffs, I wasn't that worried, because he says, quote, at the time, I wasn't a bad flyer. I'm like, I think you might be now, though, which I understand completely. Yes, I'm a bad flyer, and I've, nothing's happened. Yeah, you've been fine, and I've still like. I love that vomit, that vomit sitch. Oh, yeah, that's true. I will throw up anywhere. That was unfortunate.

Yeah, yeah. On our flight, sorry, this is a side tangent. Dave booked all of our internal flights within Canada, and he messages, said, I booked the flights, and I had a look in the emails, and I noticed I had the window seat every time, but I said, Dave, did you purposely give me the window seat? He said, yeah, of course,

because I prefer the window seat, because then if I vomit, somebody next to me can use their body as a human shield, and nobody else can watch me vomit. And we've got two bodies. I can shield while Matt says nothing to see here. Look away. How nice is that?

Yeah. I think that's a beautiful, you know, friendship that you can see you guys have. That's knowing each other. That's right. You can have to ask. He just did it. He just did it. I was like, great.

That's love. Two bloody vomit shields. Yeah, I can throw up in peace. Yeah. And I've put Matt actually in the middle of every life because I know he loves to sit next next to someone vomiting. That's his request. And just out of curiosity, do you bring your own vomit bags now?

Yes, genuinely, yes. Yeah, I assumed you must. Yeah, yeah, I absolutely do. You said you wouldn't get back on the plane, so I assume in this situation you wouldn't leave the house without a vomit bag. Yeah, I've got one with me at all times. Do you actually have one with you right now? No.

But if you started vomiting, I'll add shield her from your vision. So you couldn't see. Nothing to say here. There's bins here. Or if I could make it, a toilet. There's my hands. There's Dave Tens. You know what?

This wouldn't be something that I would have on me as a person most of the time right now. But do you reckon you could vomit in a condom? You know? We have to unroll it first? There's no vomit bags. Anyway, I'm about to, and you get one out of your wallet and you quickly unfurl it. And you go, blah, blah, blah. And then you just.

I think you could, because obviously they have the room to expand. Yeah. But my concern is the girth of the... Yeah. You have to get your full mouth in there. Exactly. And so, and I don't think they have quite enough stretch to, like, open it up so I can just vomit. Because I'm trying to vomit like, please.

You probably could open it with your fingers like that. I think seeing someone vomiting into a condom might be one of the most confronting things you could possibly see. Yeah, but with a double shield, she'll be fine. Oh, it's ribbed. That's weird. Absolutely no leaks. Oh, somebody's vomiting into that French tickler. And then there's.

The smell of the strawberry flavor makes you vomit even more. A horrific cycle. Very strong artificial strawberry. Thanks for that, Al. Loved that imagery. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me. So they're playing a game 13 days later.

Oh yeah, so they've got two of their players. It's only two of their starting squad. The remainder of the team was a mixture of juniors and reserves, including Shea Brennan, who would go on to be a United Mainstay. He scored two goals on debut and almost... unbelievably, the shell of a team rose to the toughest of occasions in front of their home crowd and beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0. Wow.

It was an emotional win, as you can imagine. Huge, yes. Of course. So people say, like, there was no way Sheffield Wednesday, they wouldn't even dare to try and win because, like, so awful. Yeah, exactly, yeah. But, yeah. So it was...

They needed that. They needed that. Yeah. And the crowd needed that. Yeah, because, you know, like, in England, like, a lot of football clubs, those people's live. Football is life. They love it.

Absolutely. So it's tragic, but then they've won that game. They made it all the way to the final, which is amazing. But their run was cut. No team was trying anymore. They go out man you and go, oh, hey. Yeah. Hey, you have it.

Oh, no, I've accidentally fumbled the ball right into you. Oh, no, he's got it. Oh, no. Oh, I'm chasing the game. So they made it all the way of the final where their run was cut short by losing 2-0, or 2-0, rather, to another Manchester team, the Bolton Wander. is with their still recovering manager Matt Busby watching on from the bench. Oh, that would have been big when he made his return.

So he wasn't managing. He was just a, you know, a big deal to be watching the team. And fortunately, they weren't able to win. But it's amazing that they made it to the final. Yeah. and they're rushing back to get home. So, of course, you have these moments where you blame yourself. But his wife, Gene, said to him, quote,

You know, Matt, the lads would have wanted you to carry on. And that snapped him out of his depression and led him to returning to the UK, watching his team before taking back over the reins as manager and vowing to rebuild the team. Wow. As for the European Cup, the last match they played just before the crash, the day before,

their two-league semi-final went ahead against Milan in May. So the crashes in February, so it's a few months later. Their home game, they won 2-1, with Munich disaster survivor Dennis VLA scoring a goal. Wow. Also, side note, when looking into him, his daughter, Rachel VLA, was Britain's number one-ranked tennis player in the 1990s. Oh, that's cool. Oh, so that's pretty cool. It's a sporting family.

That's really cool. So they won the first game. Sadly, they lost the away game to Milan, 4-0, knocking them out of the competition again. Real Madrid, who were on to win. who went on to win the trophy for the third year running, suggested that Manchester United be awarded the trophy for the year, a suggestion supported by their rivals Red Star Belgrade, but this didn't end up happening.

That's quite a nice gesture to say, hey. They may have gone on, we don't know, they may have gone on to win the whole thing if their whole team hadn't been basically wiped out in one day. That's good sportsmanship. Yeah. Busby resumed managerial duties the following season and began to rebuild the club,

signing on new players including Scottish player Dennis Law, nicknamed the King or The Lawman. The Lawman's pretty cool. Yeah. But so he was looking for even younger and fresher legs. Exactly. Starting again. Starting again.

Another signing was the other player I had heard of in this. That's George Best. Born in Belfast. Best began his club career in England with Manchester United with the scout who had spotted his talent at the age of 15, sending a telegram to Matt, manager Matt Busby, which read, I think I've found you a genius. He is also recognised as one of the all-time greatest players. He came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century Vote,

which I think Palais and Maradona were one or two. Part of the reason I know his name is when we flew to Belfast, we flew into the George Best Belfast City Airport. Just to show you how big a deal he is in Northern Ireland. I remember. You remember that? I was in charge of returning the higher car, so I knew that. I was busy trying not to throw up.

He led a very interesting life. His wiki rights, with his good looks, dark beetle mop-top hair and playboy lifestyle, Best became one of the first media celebrity footballers. Honestly, it could be worth a mini report one day. He is famous for the line, quote, I spent a lot of money on booze, girls and fast cars. The rest, I just squire.

A bit of fun. Yeah. I think people who drink are great at quips. Yeah. Yeah. Does make you quippy. Yeah. Sadly, it all caught up with him and he died very young.

But still, like an incredible player. But a trial of beautiful quips. Yeah. Exactly. What a legacy. So new recruits, George Best and Dennis Lawman, combined with the existing legend and Munich survivor, Bobby Charlton, to form what is known as the Holy Trinity or the United

Trinity. Wow. To show how hot their form was, throughout the 1960s, all three would be voted as the winner of the Bellin Dior. The Belland Dior. The trophy awarded to the world's best players. The Ballon d'Or. Oh, thank you so much.

Great to have you here. God, he's good. Ball, meaning ball, d'or of gold. Oh, yeah, as a ball. It's a ball. It's a ball of gold. That's absolutely the golden ball, they call it. The Ballinger has haunted me as a trivia writer because years ago when I was a trivia question writer,

instead of writing Bellendure, as it's because it's spelled B-A-A-L-O-N in the answers, I wrote Balloon Dior. And a few of the trivia hosts ribbed me for that one. You don't believe it. I should have got five for that one. Really, trivia hosts. Or the Bellin-Jure. Lots of really fun people, huh? At the time, I wrote New South Wales with Wales spelt with an H.

Whoops. Anyway, so they won the best player in the world trophy in the 60s. Law won in 64, Charlton in 66 and best in 1968. Wow. And they're all playing on the same team. The Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity. So they're all up there as the best player in the world on one team.

Wow. So Manchester United won the FA Cup in 1963. That's the knockout one. They also won the league title in 1965 and 1967. but the European Cup, the trophy they had been playing for when the playing in Creschen Munich still eluded Matt Busby

and the Manchester United team. So in 1968, they again made it to the semi-finals and this time they beat multi-Euro Cup champions Real Madrid to make it into their first ever final. Their opponents... My goodness.

...where Portuguese team... Benefica. It was their fifth European Cup final, two of which they'd already want. a seriously good team. Yes. I feel like you're about to say, but they had to take a flight to get there.

Well, they did. I mean, I'd be going by the train. Actually, that's not true, because this is the moment I was talking about before. Unlike previous matches, it wasn't a best of two scenario. It was a one game, winner takes all,

with a game being held at Wembley Stadium in London. Okay. So imagine they took the train. Okay. Or a bus. Yes. Both sides.

Or electric scooter. Or an electric scooter. A really long electric scooter ride. Dave, what? Did they take? What mode of transport was it? Well, it's like the president and the vice president. They all took different modes of transport just in case.

I think that's smart. So Bobby Charlton was on a skirt. I mean, imagine getting on a train from Manchester and the whole Manu team's on there. Like, they're busing. You know what I mean? Yeah, these days, definitely. They've got their own bus. They've got their own bus.

Yeah. Back then, they've got their own train. It's like King John or whatever. who's got a bulletproof train. They've got a bulletproof train. Like you never get, you never catching a train, get to Richmond Station and see a bunch of the footy players get off. They don't catch the train to the footy.

To Richmond. You know what I mean? Why not? Yeah. Why not? Here's the problem with trains is that where do you park it? You know what I mean? If you have your own train, you're like, oh, where do you park it?

I can't even put this in my yard. Yeah, you've got the driver just doing laps while you play. and then he's got to try and time it to get back to the station when you're ready. That's tricky. Because else you're clogging up the bloody tracks. So what we should build is an AFL-only track is what I'm hearing. I agree. Yeah.

I'm sure that would get used. There's trains, there's trams, and there should be traffles, which is the tracks for AFL players. Trifl. And when you've got to go play, try-fell. When Collingwood would have to play in Fremantle, it's a long train ride. But it's doable. But it's worth it.

How do they get there? Do they just drive themselves in their luxury cars and park at the G or something? Is there like special parking? They would all have drivers. They would all have drivers. Yeah. They would have drivers? I think the football players probably have people picking them up and taking them to.

Do you reckon? I don't reckon. I don't know. I reckon maybe some of the, these days the best footballers do. Though, no, you see videos of them like in the David Beckham documentary. They're all rocking up at training, Manchester United. any and there's a port there's a lambo Ferrari in the car park that's training was it the game different i don't know and i'm thinking like osie for let's say you're playing at the g i mean

you go to a game at the mcg and if if people have driven there the to get out of the car park takes forever yeah it's true so so are the players in a different car park where they just zip out by themselves or are they sitting in there in traffic yeah you look over i need to know Dusty's over there on his range rover. Yeah. Be, let me hear. Who can I ask?

I need to know. There probably is like a venue staff car park that's probably under the venue. There is someone I could ask. I'm going to ask. Who can ask, you know? I know someone who's... There might be somebody listening. Oh, true.

Yeah, actually, if you're listening to that, it'd be great. Yes, that would be great. Because it feels like a weird message to send to a friend who's dating an AFL captain. Oh, that's not a bad message. That's good. That's not weird. Yeah. Just say, hey, weird question. You let us know.

How does he get to the game? Yeah. Well, how do they, just say in general, we don't want to know him specifically because that sounds weird. How does you get to the game? What time does you get there? Yeah. What's his red Joe? And what's your address? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so they're in the final.

Yes, sorry. Okay. Both sides, it was super close. They were goalless in the first half. Before Manchester United took the lead from Bobby Charlton's header, eight minutes into the second. However, Jamie Graza's 79th minute equalizer meant the match had to go into extra time. Tense.

Manchester United then scored three times in seven minutes in the extra period. The first was a solo goal from George Best, followed by a header from Brian Kidd on his 19th birthday. Happy birthday, kid. Happy birthday, kid. Damn it. Charlton scored his second in the ninth. 99th minute as Manchester United triumphed 4-1 to become

the first English club to win the European Cup! Oh my God! Busby and his second generation of babes had done it in a fairytale ending to one of sport history's most tragic stories. Yes. Shortly afterwards, Matt Busby was knighted and known as Sir Matt Busby.

Wow. Sir Busby. Sir Busby. He retired as manager the following season, having been manager for almost a quarter of a century, I think it's 24 years. Wow. He remained at the club as a director, handing over official managerial duties to trainer and former player Wilf McGuinness.

That's an incredible name. Busby was director for 11 years and then became club president in 1980s. He was just with the club for decades. Wow. And he's the second longest tenured manager, second only to Sir Alex Ferguson. It was a Manchester United Legend, who I think is the most successful manager of football team ever.

Incredible. But Busby's up there. Yes, sweet. He was also the first person to ever be honored twice with episodes of This Is Your Life. First in 1958, just a month before the Munich tragedy, and then again in 1971. Wow. Yeah, you'd probably want to recap some stuff. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. You've had a second half to you. It's like putting out a memoir when you're in your 40s. It's like, okay, well, you're going to have to do another one. You're not done. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and serve. Matt Busby died at the age of 84 on the 20th of January, 1994 at the Alexander Hospital in Cheatel appropriately Greater Manchester.

That's nice. 84, you're happy with that, Al? Yeah, good innings. Just a year off of it not being tragic. Yeah. So I think it's good sometimes to get in. It's good. Get in while it's still tragic.

Yeah. And then, especially when you're beloved, that way, everyone's sad. And they go, oh, he was too soon. Too soon. Too young. Too soon. Yeah. Too young.

He survived 36 years after the horrific plane crash. Awful. That he had almost died in. And what about the pilot Captain James Thain? Remember, the West German inquiry found him to be at fault for the crash at Munich. Yeah. They argued it was his duty to check and deal with ice on the wings of the plane. He didn't, and that caused the crash.

He lost his job in pilot's license and started working on a farm, and he was under a lot of financial strain. Yeah, fair enough. It was a very tough time for Thane and his family who received hate mail and death threats. His daughter, Subuda, it's a great name, who was also, who was only seven at the time of the tragedy, was bullied at school. Not to mention Thane was probably dealing with some extreme trauma from the plane crash

where his friend and co-pilot had died along with multiple passengers. It must have been awful. But he never gave up on proving his innocence, convinced it was the melting snow on the runway rather than ice that had caused the plane to falter. Thane even launched his own investigation. This is in a time before, like BlackBalky, recorders and things like that. He was aided by his wife Ruby, who was a trained chemist.

She noted the use of fire extinguisher foam on the plane and ran test to prove that mixing foam with snow and water can cause ice, which could explain the presence of ice on some parts of the crash plane that was there on the remains of the crash, but may not have been on the plane before it took off. But why did only their plane crash, some were asking? Well, their theory was that the other aircraft at the airport didn't suffer the same problems as they took off on the first two-thirds of the runway, but because the Elizabethan aircraft had to take off slower to avoid that engine search problem,

they travelled further down the runway into deep slush, and this may have suddenly slowed the plane. In his own investigation, Thane discovered that a witness that it appeared on the scene of the crash who had climbed onto the wings to aid in the rescue, you made a statement saying there was no ice on the wings. So this person, he said, I was wearing rubber shoes, but I would have slipped over if it was icy, but I did it. I had plenty of traction. Yeah.

But his testimony was left out of the initial inquiry that had laid the blame on Captain Thain. Thane had his supporters, and at one stage, they sent a portfolio of evidence to every MP and newspaper editor in the country. Under pressure, in 1965, German authorities finally agreed to reopen the investigative. now that new evidence had come to light, including slush tests. Wow. That show that planes can be greatly affected by slush. Alan, your engineering days, did you ever come across the slush test? Look, we hadn't got that deep into slush mechanics, but, you know, I've been living near slush here, you know, over the winter and things like that,

and I've got to tell you, it's a difficult material to work with, you know, is it's not quite liquid, it's not quite solid, you know, it's kind of a hard liquid. It's the hardest liquid. And you know, water slows things down. I'm going to say it slowed the plane down. Slush is to blame. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so they've got this new evidence. Despite this, the German authorities doubled down in their investigation and continued to blame Captain Thane. And they also said, you know what? Also, you being on the wrong side of the plane, that contributed. They sort of made it even more, said like, you know, you, you acted badly. this is your fault. But Thane still had his supporters.

And in 1967, the most powerful man in Britain, the Prime Minister Harold Wilson, threw himself in the ex-captain's corner, saying after a Manchester United match, he said to the press that he believed Captain Thane was the victim of an injustice. This kick-started media interest, because it's been nine years since the crash at this point,

and pressure built until the UK held their own investigation in 1968, that exposed the West German investigations omissions. For example, the photo that a civilian had taken of the plane that purported to show ice was the biggest evidence they had. They said, look, we've got a photo of ice. But further analysis of the negatives proved that the white in the photo wasn't ice at all. Like you were saying, Jess, 50s photography, it's hard to show ice.

Yeah, it's kind of hard now. Yeah, they said, oh, that's just light reflecting. That white bit, that's light. So there's no photo of the ice. three separate experts testified that the amount of ice on the wings wouldn't have been enough to affect takeoff and they blamed slush on the runway, proving that Captain Thane was right all along

and in March 1969, the British government formally cleared him. For how many years after the incident? Eleven years. Fuck, what a tough slug. Two-year inquiry? Holy moly. Yeah, well, Daniel Taylor writing for the New York Times writes, it took him 11 years and four inquiries to German, two British, to clear his name,

and in his fight for justice, he had to contend with the British government being reluctant to support him for fear of damaging Anglo-German relations. So the Germans, actually, they still refuse to accept the findings, blaming him. Many have called Captain Thane a political scapegoat over the years, including Harry Greg, the hero goalkeeper. He's like, I don't blame him at all. they wanted someone to pin the blame on and they picked him and said it was all his fault.

Yeah. It just sort of also felt like, okay, if the ice on the wings had been somewhat to blame, it doesn't feel like it was entirely to blame. It just sort of feels like I'd be blaming him if there was a bunch of things that he'd neglected to do that resulted in a crash. But something like that,

where it's kind of up to his discretion anyway, I don't think I'd be like, yeah, it's 100% his fault. It just seems really harsh. 11 years, wow. It's a long time. Despite the finding, so he's been found innocent of the blame, British European Airways didn't give Thain his job back

and he never flew professionally again. Sadly, Thane died not long after in 1975 and he was only 54. His family, they blame the years of stress as a contributing factor. His daughter Sabuta was invited to the disaster's 50, anniversary commemorations at Old Trafford, which the New York Times

rights was gratefully received as confirmation that inside United, they see her father as another victim of the tragedy and not its cause. Yeah. So by extending that hand saying, you know,

you can come and mourn with us because you should be here too. You should be here too. Thane has also been hailed for pushing for investigations into the effective slush that potentially saved other lives by averting further disasters.

Because by blaming you and saying it was ice, well, that doesn't really change anything except for make sure that there's no ice on the wings, which they already have protocol to deal with. But by saying, no, you've got to check, now there's like depths of ice and slush that you have to avoid. And that has maybe made other people safer too. To this day, the Munich Air Disaster is acknowledged

as the darkest day in the long and storied history of Manchester United and an annual commemorative ceremony is held to mark the date of the crash, both in Manchester and at the side of the crash in Munich. The Manchester-based service is held at the Munich Memorial Clock at the East Stand at Old Trafford. The clock is permanently frozen at 304pm on February 6, 1958, a date that will never be forgotten. You know, you'd hate to be a part of a game that was considered, you know, a match, soccer match that was considered more tragic than that event, you know, because, you know, they say it's the most tragic event in their history. Yeah. Wouldn't we be part of a soccer game where you lost so bad where they're like,

this might actually talk. That tragedy, yeah. You'd have to live a thousand mill. Yeah, it'd have to be really bad. Yeah. What a story. And like, what a shift in tone once we realized it was a disaster story. We had a good hour and a bit of, ha, ha, ha, ha.

And then, oh my God. And you know what? I think that is actually reflective of how the. team felt they were like on top of the world they're the youngest players like one of the youngest teams they're probably the most famous football team in the world at that point yeah they're on the way up like everything is just going so well for them and then this absolute disaster comes out of nowhere affects the team uh changes lives forever and it's still like such a big deal at manchester united that they yeah commemorated every year yeah for some reason

i was feeling like even once the plane crashed into the into the house i was like they'll be fine, they'll be all right. Like I didn't, I just didn't expect there to be fatalities. That's awful. No, it's tragic. And it's also remembered, like, at the club for, like, a rebirth of the club that they did. It's amazing that they rebuilt, within 10 years, they achieved the thing that no other English team had ever done.

The fact that they could come back from the lowest of lows to get back to that, like, it's a credit to Matt Busby's managerial style, I guess. Absolutely. Wow, what a story. Yes. Well, thank you very much to all the people that suggested it. And hopefully if you're a Manchester United fan or a football fan, I did it enough justice.

I did not know that story. I think I'll go home and say, do you know the story of the Munich Air Disaster? And Aden will go, yes. Oh, probably, yeah, if you're a big football fan or a big football fan or a big sporting fan. And it's not the only horrible plane tragedy. I was reading about in the 90s, just yesterday I was reading about the entire Zambian football team that are on a plane traveling across Africa.

and it was a military aircraft that crashed into the ocean and they lost the entire national football team. Wow. Including some of their all-time greatest players. It's scary stuff. It is. Yeah. I think that's famously why some basketball teams don't travel all on the same plane and stuff.

Right. I mean, that would make sense. Yeah. Is it silly that we as a podcast do travel together? Yeah, well, someone's got to shield you vomiting. That's true. Yeah. I don't want anyone else to have to do.

I don't want anybody else to have to see that. The tragedies occur when you're not getting shielded. Yeah. When somebody else has to see me vomiting, awful. Yeah. I also think I'm a good luck charm because I've never had you vomit next to me. Yeah, I've been on a bit of a streak. Yeah, knocking the wood.

But I have been okay lately. So we'll see how we go. But it's nice to just put precautions in place, like having emisus bags on me. That's what they're called. Is it a motion sickness thing? Yeah. So Windows seat also helps for that because then I can see.

when the plane's like tilting when we're turning and I always have a headphones on. Yeah, it helps. What's that thing that you take for allergies there that not you specifically, but people take for, what are they called, antihistamines? I found out because when I go to, there's an amusement park near here and apparently I get, I get feel woozy from the, from the motion sickness. Apparently antihistamine helps with that, you know, because I do get queasy. If there was any more than one ride that spins, I'm just like, fucked for the day.

Yeah, that's why I'm the bag holder at amusement parks. I'm like, have fun. I'll be here watching. Will you take me on one of the rides when we were in Montreal? Yeah, we can go to La Ronde. Yeah, it's one of the six flags, if you know about six. Oh, I've heard of six flags. Yeah, and so it's, yeah, I guess they bought it.

And, yeah, it's fun. There's one really old, big wooden roller coaster that, Once you come out of it, you're like, that felt like whiplash. Like, I felt like I might have got whiplash in that one. They're like, that's historic whiplash. Yeah. You should be some luck to call the monster. That's going to give you people whiplash for hundreds of years.

This ride's killed more than any others. You're welcome. Dave, what an amazing report. Thank you so much for that story. Well, thank you very much for indulging me during this, when we've all gone football mad. We're crazy. We love it. Yes, and Alistair, of course, represent.

representing one of the host nations Canada. Thank you so much for joining us on this special. It's been the greatest joy of all the lives I will lead. This has. I can't think of a better moment. That's beautiful. This is the opposite of the greatest tragedy for my club to have experienced. It's the greatest success.

You've done so many things in your life. This is the best. This was it. This was it. Being on a Zoom call with my two buddies. Hey. It's got, it's quite late in Canada as well now, too.

It's late for you. But we can't wait to see you in September. We're going to hang out a bunch of, which is so, so fun. But between now and then, I believe, Elle,

you were launching a new project. Is that correct? Maybe like right now. Yeah. Well, yeah. I, as of,

I'm going to release it today, the day that this podcast comes out. And so I'm, I'm releasing, I tell, stories to my kids as they go to bed. And then there's a character who kind of came out of it called Bobby Logs, who's a turtle. And these stories have become kind of, I guess, very fun in my, and I've basically developed a narrative over the period where this turtle was a bit of a jerk in high

school, so he has all various creatures attacking him all the time. But then my kids told him that he should apologize to those people. And so then he kind of basically is fixing the world and his life. And it's just, it's just dumb, silly stories for kids. Love it. And you're releasing it in podcast form? In podcast form. And it's called Bobby Loggs Stories. Can Bobby like you would spell it and logs like you would spell it? Oh, perfect. Can adults with no children listen to it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you can. Yeah, you want to go on a list or anything if you were doing that. Yeah, that's fine. It's fine. I can listen to a podcast.

No, no, no, yeah, yeah. I encourage adults to listen to it. Although it's, you know, it is very silly. I'm looking forward to it. Can't wait. Sounds fantastic. Bobby Logs. But in the meantime, if you're waiting for some reason and you can't, I still do the Two in the Think Tank podcast with Andy Matthews.

And it's the second greatest joy of my life after doing this episode of this podcast. Again, you've got kids and a wife. Second greatest joy in my podcasting life. Okay. I'm fine with that. I'm okay with that. Yeah. I mean, I do, as a podcaster, still do have kids, but, you know.

Yeah. Yeah, I just, I needed, I needed there to be a separation. I just, I felt too bad for you. Sure, sure. When he's with these kids, he gets whiplash. But when he's with us, that's never happened. Not yet. We've never had a whiplash.

Not yet. I get the opportunity to maybe potentially shield your vomit. Yeah, we need a third person. The greatest gift. Yeah. You know? And I'm a loud vomitur and I cry. And if I do it one day, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if, if I, if, if, if, if I,

if I shield your vomiting one day, I'm not saying that any other day, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have just ran. That's right. You know. You chose a shield. You chose a shield.

A man must do. But we never know how we're going to. You never know. You just never know how we're going to react to a situation when a friend starts vomiting. You just don't know. Jess Perkins vomiting on a pline. Yeah.

I start yelling, yuck! Oh my God. Yuck! Yuck! This woman's vomiting! Can we get her off the play? You can probably smell it,

but if you also look, you can see it. Oh, I'm going to start describing it. All right, she looked like she's had a toast. That's full-off. Pasta? Yeah, she loves, I love a pasta on a plane, actually. Well, I used to. Plains greatest meal.

Yeah, fair enough. But, Al, thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you in September. And if anyone wants to come along and see the Duguan podcast live in Canada, head to dogo onpod.com. If we get the stand-up dates going soon, we'll put them on there as well. Put them in the bloody show notes, mate. And we'll put them in the show notes.

Check them in. You'll know about it, okay? Once we've got the dates, you'll know about it. Keep your eyes bloody peeled. But ATB, anything else to say before we say goodbye to you? Just check out Bobby Log stories. Check out to in the think tank. And check in on yourself because you are very important also.

That's good advice. Thanks, Al. Thank you so much, everybody. Much love. Much peace. I'm going to keep talking. No, I don't know. Goodbye.

Just keep chatting. Oh, that's beautiful. Well, as we say goodbye to the great man, Elastair Trumbly, virtual. We say hello to the great people at patreon.com slash do go on pod. People that make this show possible by signing up, pledging away their lives. I mean, some of their hard-earned money. And basically, supporting. us to be able to make the show every single week without them,

to jump the camera of humor there. I'm being serious when I look down the barrel of the camera of the video-only feed that you get on Patreon. When I say, without you, we actually couldn't do the show. No, absolutely not. So we really appreciate anyone who does, yeah, support the show. There are multiple different levels, and some of the things you can get include voting for topics.

You can be part of the Facebook group. You get bonus episodes. Nearly every week we do on every side. Sunday and I think I did episode 316 recently. So there's over 300 bonus episodes for people to enjoy including. So many episodes. Yeah, there's a bonus report once a month, which is very similar to this podcast, but there's also the movie club.

There's a back catalogue of phrasing the bar episodes. We watch Brendan Fraser movies. There is a D&D campaign that we've now, we're up to the fifth season that's coming out very, very soon, later this month. And, I mean, what else? What else? We're going to be like quizzes. Yeah.

Am I Dead Woman? Lots of games. Where who knew it with Matt Stewart started. Yeah. And yeah, you can also get discount tickets to all of our live shows, including the Canadian shows, which are still on sales. If you sign up, you get 10% off all tickets. And hopefully that's enough. Apart from, of course, the fact quote or question section, which is what we're going to do now.

And I believe that has a little jingle. It goes something like this. That's quite of questions. What'd you think of that? That was really good. He always remembers the... I always remember the song. Thank you.

And also you can get ad free listening, we should say, now. Yeah. The first thing that happens on the fact quota question section is people submit fact quotes or questions. We get them. We do three or four a week. Yep. Can be a brag. Can be a suggestion.

Can be a recipe. Can be a joke. We've had all sorts of... Tongue twister, a rap. Yes. Yep. Fuck, I hope someone's given a rap. We had like a Choose Your Own Adventure story recently.

Yeah, that was fun. Really, really fun stuff. So people are sort of... take the medium wherever they want. And this week we've got three. Yep. And each person gives to give themselves a title. And as Matt usually reads these out, I'm not reading them before.

I've read them out loud. Yeah. So if he fumbles, that's because he's human. Thank you. First up, we have got a... We've got a question coming in from Logan Husky, who's given themselves the title of Collector, but not builder of Lego. And then here we go.

He's a very long title. God, yep, I've just glanced over. That's a really long title. I swear, I'll start building one in a week or two. Yes, I know that I should start building any of the 70 plus sets before I buy any more. What's in the box that's just been delivered? Look, I don't have to stand here to listen to all these accusations. Please help me.

Also, just a reminder that you really do need to put a character limit on this field, like you said, you were going to a few episodes back. Otherwise, people could just go on and on and on, and who knows what they could say in here? In fact, what if I was to post the entirety of Moby Dick in here? Would Matt or Dave then be forced to read it out as, my full title, let's see, Chapter 1, Loomings. Call me Ishmael. Some years ago, never mind how long, precisely.

Dot, dot, dot. That's funny, Logan Husky. That's funny. I mean, I knew we did put a character limit on the actual suggestion part, or the brag, the quote, whatever, but I did not know that we'd even proposed putting a character limit on the title part. No, but we need to do that. We need to do that.

Let's get on. I think it's probably because. we keep doing it when Matt's not here, so he doesn't, he's very much in charge of this, where this information goes. So, Logan, thank you so much for that. I do need to read Moby Dick. It's one of those, I think there's probably three or four super long books that I swear I'll get to war and peace, Ulysses's crime and punishment, things like that one day on bookcheat. Mobie Dick is one of those. So you would have made me do it, so that's good, but thank you for also not making me do that.

Now, Logan's question is, what is a piece of practical information that's slash fact that you have absorbed and retained from a seemingly random source of pop culture, i.e. movie, TV show, music, etc. Now, we always encourage people to answer their own question. Yeah, I'd love an example. Logan's done that. Mine is, they write, that if I ever need to remember what direction the sun rises,

I remember the line from the titular track from Beauty and the Beast, rising in the East. I have no idea why this is stuck with me some 35-plus years later. It was never a particular favourite of mine, even in our house. And we didn't have the soundtrack to flog over and over like we did with the Lion King or the nightmare before Christmas. So who knows?

Having said that, I have also befriended an adorable talking warthog and meerkat and attempted to take over Christmas several times with varying levels of success. So who's to say? Also, do go D&D, that's the name of our Dogo Dungeons and Dragons bonus episode I was talking about before, continues to be a highlight of my listening month. I've said it once and I'll say it again. It is an absolute crime that we only get 12 of these a year. Have you considered putting the first series up once a month on the free feed so that coughs cheapskates?

I mean, non-patrions, can hear what they're missing out on? I know I'd be happy to pay for an additional tier to have an Fortunightly, but only if Jess promises to maintain her insatiable bloodlust, both in and out of character. What? Out of character? I don't have a bloodlust, you fuck. I continue to keep doing what you're doing. Always giving me something to look forward to on Wednesday and Sundays.

Well, thank you so much, Logan. That's so nice, Logan. At the time of recording just yesterday, our dungeon master slash editor of the program, Adam Carnivalet, has just emailed us to say that he's just finished the new season. Yeah. Which means... We should be coming at the end of this month. Yeah, and it's guaranteed now one until the end of December.

We've got seven more episodes. End of this month? Or it's already come out, maybe, by the time this comes out. Oh, yeah, maybe it came out at the end of June. Yeah. So excited. Yeah, we had it, it was, you know, it was an off-the-wall season. It's really fun.

Like, we really enjoy. It's like we use an entire day, basically, to record with Adam. And it's such a joy. I mean, yes, you're not the first and you probably shan't be the last to say you'd like it more frequently. I reckon we'd probably like it more frequently, too. It's just, it takes up a lot of beautiful Adam's time as well. Yeah, that's right. It's a bit of an undertaking, but it is, yeah, like you say, so much fun.

And, yeah, hopefully if people, people, More people sign up and they want more, do you go D&D, let us know. Yep. That's the kind of thing. We have got many, many responses over the years, but from people saying, I don't like D&D. It's not my thing. But then I listen to you do it. I thought, oh, I may as well give it a go and they've loved it.

So we appreciate that. Because we're also, we're from a similar camp. No background in it. Absolutely. I don't think you have to understand or go into it with an appreciation of D&D. It's, um, Adam's very gentle with us. Yes. We're just fucking around, really.

That's right. Sometimes, I think what it is. is because I love doing it, but I also feel bad for Adam every time because we're so annoying. Yes, but every time we remind him of that, he's like, I've done this with Jackson Bailey and Joel Dusha for like, you know, almost 15 years. And we say, you're right. We'll turn it up a notch. That makes us feel better. But the question was, a practical piece of information or a fact you've absorbed and retained from a seemingly random source of pop culture. There's probably a bit I remember from songs as well. I realize way too late in life that I do, retain information from music a lot.

Like I really wish I'd known that at school, for example. Yep. I could have retained things. Can I say one for you that I've absorbed from you? Yes. Hydrogen helium, blam-dam, barilium. Yeah, you've really absorbed it. Well, I associate that with you, but you know, that's worked on you, that song.

Absolutely. Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluoride, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminium. Woo-hoo! Then I'm done. And I reckon as well, I think this came up recently. You know how like Louis and Lewis are written the same? Yes.

I always come to like Robert Louis Stevenson and I know it's Louis because of a tripod song. That's good. Not weird. I was hoping you're about to tell me how I was meant to know the difference in future. Nah. Every time. Because it's St. Louis, right? Yeah.

That's the big city. But there is a St. Louis. But there isn't. I don't think. I don't know. It's skis. Very, man. And I think when Logan said, remembers the way the sun rises,

I think I remember it from Shakespeare. It is the East and Juliet is the sun. Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon. Right. You have to go through that to remember it. I think so. I think I just remember it now, but like that reminded me of, again, passages of Shakespeare I remember because I played where in time is Carmen

San Diego. Oh, that's great. So dumb. What about you? Can you think of anything you've learned? Any practice? I'm sure there's so much Simpson stuff. Oh, yeah.

Like, I can't even think of... It's hard when you put on the spot. Yeah, when Homer puts on... I mean, that's from the Wizard of Oz, too. When he puts on Henry Kissinger's glasses that he's dropped into the toilet at the nuclear power plant, and he does that. The Summerverse, on Isosceles Triangle,

I can't even remember the speech, but all I remember is, that's a right triangle, you idiot! Because the joke is that in the Wizard of Oz, they've said the wrong one. Oh. So I remember that the Wizard of Oz is wrong. And that's an important thing to take away.

Have you watched Wicked at all? No. Do you think I should? Hard to say. Two parts. It's a lot. Yeah. Yeah, just watch the first one.

Okay. I never know what happens. That's all. I'll tell you. Oh, thanks. I'll fill in the rest. Logan, I'm going to have a quick think about that. That's a really good question.

Over the rest of the episodes, see if I can come back to you or something, because I'm sure there's something I remember. But right now, I can't think of anything. And honestly, start making some Lego. Yeah, go, get in there, mate. I always buy, like, little mini Lego. Like, we bought one the other day that's like, it's a, it's a pot of flowers in a little,

it's got a wooden base and it's got a little dome around it. So when it's all built, it's going to be really cute and I want to put it on my desk. That's awesome. And we have built, like, this much of it. And then just put it away. Like little grass seedlings level. Yeah, it's like little ground covering. You put it away.

I know. I think you're like. Logan, next up we have Paul Meller, who I know as a football fan, who's written their title is The Bringer of Even More Oldham Facts. And Oldham is very close to Manchester. We've met Paul at the Manchester shows before, but I know that they are, he supports a different team. He supports Oldham. Yeah.

So there's probably some sort of deadly rivalry there, but... Please don't hurt us, Paul. This one is from Paul, who writes, and it's a fact. Did you know that the world's first, quote, test tube baby is from Oldham? In fact, the technique was developed right here in my hometown. In July 1978, Louise Brown was the first child successfully born after her mother received IVF treatment. Brown was born as a result of natural cycle IVF, where no stimulation was made. The procedure took place at Dr. Kirshaw's cottage hospital in Royton, Oldham, in England.

Robert Edwards, surviving member of the development team, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or Medicine in 2010. Wow. It's pretty wild that I didn't know that until I was in my 30s. They built a new library and it has giant test tubes on the front of the building. Oh, that's cool. That is cool. I felt I should share it here. I hope you are all doing well.

I'll keep up the great work. The pot is on fire right now. All the best, Paul. Paul. I mean, IVF is already incredible, right? Can you imagine back the very first time how it would have felt like the future? Like it would have felt like sci-fi. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, we're going to make a baby right now. Yeah. We're implanted here. Don't look at me when you say we're going to make a baby. baby right now. That just made me feel weird. You're like my brother. We're going to make a baby right now. Thank you. Yes, that is a strange phrase, but like, it would have been weird for this to say. So we're just, we're going to implant it in you and then the baby will go. And at the time, you'd be like, I hope this works. It must have felt like something from a crazy sci-fi show. Like,

it would have, yeah. That's so cool. And the fact that Louise is, what, turning 50 soon. Yeah. Amazing. I'm not sure if I had to guess, how. How, like what year I would have guessed IVF came into. I probably would have guessed maybe 80s. I think I would have said 80s as well. Yeah, late 70s is really cool. There you go. That's a great fact.

Well, thank you, Paul. And thank you, Oldham, for everything that's happened there. Good on you, Oldham. And finally, we have one, a fact-quered question from Jason Westner. Thank you for spelling your name phonetically Jason, whose title is Master Thief of Questions. Okay. And the Master Thief has given us one of their questions.

Here we go. And they write, The Master Thief. I'm stealing this question from another podcast. What is the film that means the most to you? Not because of the film itself, but because of the memories you have of it. Okay, my answer is the latest Captain America movie, Brave New World.

This is because when I was younger, my dad and I went to see Iron Man on opening weekend together. For a while, Marvel movies were our thing together. My son is now six, and I took him to see this. the Brave New World when it first came out. The feeling I had seeing the Marvel logo come up while sitting next to my son and remembering starting this journey years ago with my dad,

made it the best movie theatre experience of my life. Even though the movie was just fine. That is beautiful, Jason. That is so nice. What a lovely thing. What a cute legacy to have. Mine, I think it would be, it's James Bond in general. Yeah.

Because since James Bond and I, what's that, 96? my dad and I have gone to see every one of them in the movies. It's such a nice, lovely thing to do. Yeah. And we've obviously watched a bunch of them on video over the years too. I remember going to the Vidoshop section of Eltham Video Shop, and there'd be all the James Bond ones lined up. That was so exciting and cool.

And it all came to a bit of a head. It reminds me slightly of it. It's not quite as beautiful as your moment, but when Skyfall came out. Yeah. And then I watched it with my dad. And then he turned to me at the end of the movie and said, wow, I think that might be the best James Bond film I've ever seen. And I said, I know, Dad, this is the third time I've seen it. And I didn't, I hadn't told him that I'd already seen it.

And I liked it so much the first time I saw it again like a few days later. And I'm, of course, I've got to get the Tristan seat with my dad. Yeah. So, yeah, there's something very special about James Bond. And, yeah, the memories I've seen it with my dad. That's really nice. I'm not sure. in terms of having memories associated to it.

Naturally, I sort of go to my childhood. Like, what movies did I watch a lot as a kid or watch with my brother? That would be Wayne's World. Love it. Watched a lot of Wayne's World together. Especially because we were seven years apart, still are actually. You're not gaining on him. No, I'm trying.

I'm as tall as him now, but not quite as old. It's, you know, it's hard to have a movie that we both can watch. watch and enjoy. Yeah. Yeah, that's a tricky one. It's nice. I mean, maybe also like some of the Marvel movies for me. I think in lockdown I watched all of them.

Like I did it in like a chronological order. So you start with like Captain America because that's the longest ago. Yeah. I don't know. That's a really nice question and a really beautiful answer. But I'm not sure I have a great answer like you guys do about bonding with your dad's. Yeah, thanks. Sorry.

Try watching a movie with your dad. Um, dad and I saw Shrek together when I was a kid. That's cool. And I still remember, mum and dad, I was sitting in the middle and dad, um, dad laughing so hard at, you know the bit where Fiona's singing and she like sings a really high note and the bird explodes? And your dad just really tickled him. He kissed himself laughing. And when my dad really laughs, it's like so infectious and joyful. I don't know anyone else like that.

And, um, yeah, so I do have that memory of Shrek. And then when I got my teeth taken out or braces put on, one of the two, very painful dentist trip, mum had bought me Shrek on VHS, and I got to lie on the couch and watch that. So maybe I'm not Shrek. I think yours is Shrek. I think mine's Shrek.

That's great. Well, thank you very much for taking us down memory land there. That's Jason, Paul Meller, and Logan Husky. We appreciate that. Thanks, guys. Next thing we'd like to shout out to a few of our Patreon supporters. These people have signed up a few months ago. like we said, on patreon.com slash do go on pod.

And Jess usually comes up with a game to sort of, to thank them. As we read out their name on the show, put them into podcast history. What if we gave them, I'd have to look it up, but what if we gave them a position on a soccer field? Okay, great. Random soccer position generator. I don't know. It's not that interesting, is it?

Should we give them a team? Yeah, okay. Because I'm sure you could expand that to be. some quite interesting ones. Soccer team generator. Yeah. Great. Because obviously it's the world game.

People play it all around the world. Great, okay. How about I do the names and you've got the teams? Okay, sure. Great, so prepare to have your team. And of course, this is legally binding. You will have to go for this team. If, like, Paul Mellar, you already go for Oldham.

I'm afraid you would have to give that membership up. Yes. And now you'll be supporting this new team. That's great. Off the hook. I've gone soccer, but I could I, I could open it up to any foot ball. Nah, I'm just going to keep on this.

You're happy with that? Yes, I'm a complicated. I'm going to get complicated. First up, I would like to thank from a location that is unknown to us. They're probably listening deep within the fortress of the malls right now. But your email starts with Brill. Just in case you don't know. You don't know who you are because your name is Rachel.

R-C-H-E-L. Rachel, what is Rachel's new team? Rachel's new team is, if I close this ad, Blackpool. Oh, Blackpool. Yep. And then you've got, is there any information on Blackpool? No. Town in England, obviously.

Blackpool FC. Yeah, great. Football League won. So they're not in the top tier? Not for now. Right now they're in the third tier of the English football. Oh, they're on their way. On their way up.

Thanks to you, Rachel. There was a guy I worked with Project Martin, who was a fantastic editor, and he followed Scunthorpe, which was a football team. And I was always, I was always like, how's Scunthorpe going in? be like, oh, we just got relegated to the fifth division. I think you're a volunteer club at that point. Let me see. Look up Scunthorpe.

It's such a great name. I think that's why he backed him too. Fifth in the National League. The fifth tier of the English football system. The fantastic, great work, Scunthorpe. Good on it. Next up, I would like to thank, that's for you, Rachel, Blackpool. Next up from location that's unknown to us.

Actually, no, the location is known to us. They've just come up on the system. The GPS has just located them. They're currently in Everett in Washington in the United States. Hello, thank you to Dallas Gage. What a name. Wow. And the latest follower of Lester City.

Oh, Lester City, they're a big one. See, here's the thing. Dave is such a fucking nerd, and he has such a thirst for knowledge that every club that I'm mentioning, he's then Googling. Because I don't want to know anything about these clubs. You don't care? No, something I don't care. I didn't say that. Just said, I don't want to know.

So Leicester City, they're the ones, so they're, unfortunately, they're back down to the third tier, but out of nowhere they won the Premier League 10 years ago. Right. Which I know was a big moment because, you know, they're not the multi-billion dollar clubs. So that's a good one to have. Where's your report about that then? God, you're a real piece of work. That was it. Next up from Windsor right here in Victoria in Melbourne.

It's Jess. J-E-E-D-E-E-Mal starts with the J-A-M to see you know who you are. Just spelled Jess. J E.E. I just did that for Rachel because there's, you know, maybe... There's not that many spelling variations on Jess. And yet, the cafe gave you J.E. Z.

The other day. To be fair. She said, can I have a name for the order? And I said, Jess. And she said, Jez. And I went, yep. But I didn't realize... Anyway, Jez.

And this new Jess... This Jess is going for this team, Dave. Feinud Roderdam. Oh, that sounds like a Dutch team for sure. I reckon I also said the first. part wrong. But... Looking up...

Feanor Nord Rotterdam. Dutch professional football club. Oh, they play in the top tier. Because they could be in the European Cup or the UEFA. Thanks, Jess. I hope you and your Rotterdam Feonauts are going well this season. Next up...

Again, apologies to actual football people. From London. In Great Britain, it's Caroline Nightingale. Who goes... for Olympic Marseille. That's a good French one. Do you reckon? Yeah.

I don't know. You better check. From the city of Olympic. You better check. Do you want me to check it up? No, I was being fantastic. I haven't. No, I've looked them all up so far.

Olympique de Marseille. They're in League one. Top flight of French football. Whoa. Wow, there you go. Thanks, Caroline Nightingale. Good luck in the wafer. Next up from Henderson in

NV USA. Now, where's that one again? NV. Nevada? Oh, it is Nevada. It is Nevada. My goodness. I don't know why that slipped my mind. It's Cassandra Cummings. Cassandra Cummings, the latest member of Nottingham Forest. Oh, Nottingham Forest. I think I read a book that was set in Nottingham Forest. Really? Was it Robin Hood? Yes. And that hot fox. Oh, what an absolute stonner. Is that where he's a fox comes from? Like, describing someone

as a fox came from the Disney Robin Hood? Absolute Fox. God, it was so fucking hot that fox. That fox changed a generation. Even though Marion was a bit of a hotty too. Of course. Notting and Forrest finished 16th in the Premier League this year. Hey, better than me.

That is better than you. I didn't even play a single game. Yeah, so technically you didn't lose one. Okay. Next up from Ireland from Malinga. It's Andy Dunn. Andy Dunn. I just sent you some stickers.

hope they've arrived by now. Oh yeah, thanks Andy. The newest member of Honved Budapesta. Oh, Honved Budapesta. I'm going to guess from Budapest. Let's look it up. Yes, they are in the Hungarian. They are in...

Honvade means the homeland defence. Ah. This is the wrong one. What's going on here? I want to know who this is. Honved Budapest F.C. I guess this is the same one. Do they play in the top?

one, league, are there an NB2? He's just having a moment to himself. Sorry everyone. Sorry everyone. Good on you, Andy Dunn. Good on, yeah. Let's, uh, up Honved. We've got a couple more to go.

Next up from location unknown to us, probably deep within the fortress of the malls. It's Shanjade. Shanjade going for Reading FC. This is a Reading FC. Reading. A football league one. I have a, um, a, um, a, um, a, um, a, um, a, um, um, a judge. jumper, a sweatshirt that says reading is my favorite sport.

And it's my favorite jumper. But that, you know, I could be like, yeah, I'm a big fan of... Oh, Reading FC. That's great. People say, oh, what's your favorite book? I don't read. I follow the clubs. Yeah.

The football clubs. Yeah. I'm sure people say that. I follow the clubs. Shanjade, well done. I'm sure we've done well this year. Second last year from New York State. From Ithaca, it's Katie Cowan.

Katie Cowan going for Huddersfield Town FC. Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. They're also in league once in the third tier. And it looks like they've finished ninth. Is that right? Top nine. Top nine.

Not bad. And finally. From Shelley Beach in Queensland. Now this will sound like a joke talking about the Jess pronunciation before J.A.S. But this is Jess Mick Jess face. Okay. Thank you, Jess. Miss Mick Jeff Face.

Thank you, Jess McGessface. Who goes for Rangers. Oh, Rangers. That's a Scottish one. To say it in a Scottish accent? Rangers. I will not be trying again. No, yeah, that was pretty good.

Top Division, often referred to as the Glasgow Rangers, the Wikipedia says. It's them and one other team that win it all the time. Cool. Well, there you go. We've got a bunch of new football fans. Celtic FC. Yeah. Thank you.

so much everyone who's supporting the show and supporting those beautiful football teams. It's Rachel, Delis Gage, Jess, Cassandra, Caroline, Andy, Shanjade, Katie and Jess. And next up, we like to induct people into the Trip Ditch Club, which is our Hall of Fame slash Memorial, like Living Memorial. It's almost like an art piece as well, as a living art piece. People come on in, once you're in, you can never leave. But why would you want to leave? Because you've been supporting the show on the shadow level or above for three consecutive

years and this is our way of thanking you and enshrining you. We bring you into this cool exclusive club where we have drinks and snacks and like a full kitchen, full bar, anything you could need. We've got toilets. Matt always has a go on me for always bringing up toilets, but, you know, sometimes when you go into a new place, you want to make sure there's a toilet. Yeah. We've got little sleep pods you can have if you want on that.

We've got air hockey. We've got ice hockey. We've got field hockey. we've been watching off-campus and so we're just really into hockey in general and we have everything you could possibly need I'm padding so Dave can check his emails to see who he was booked

because Dave always books a band Oh absolutely you're never going to believe I think I am I can see his screen booked this or you can see my emails Oh beautiful subscribe to so much born Yeah just okay just ignore those Yes I get updates being like new video

And you say thank you Thank you for letting me know. Cut out the middleman. We're just me locking on and hitting refresh. Oh my God, there's loads of new ones. Oh, great. Well, that's my weekend sorted. Anyway, who have you booked?

You're never going to believe it, Jess. That's why I'm just refreshing to make sure that there is fresh porn to watch when I get home, but also that this is definitely right. It's this week. Yes, they've said yes, they are able to come out. we have got Manchester Legends. And I've just looked it up. A lot of the band are Manchester United supporters.

I couldn't not believe it. Playing tonight, they want to be adored. It's the Stone Roses. Oh, wow. Can you believe that? That's amazing. Wow. And they might even do a couple of the Manchester City.

Sorry, Manchester, definitely not Manchester City. Manchester United Songs. Okay, yeah. Which I looked at one before. Manchester United Songs. Let me just make sure I'm going to see. making sure they'll play these ones. Not spelled a single word, right?

Has he's Googled that. Oh, Manchester. Manchester Runeited. Glory, glory, man, United. Take me home at United Road and the red flag. They'll be playing those tonight as well as she's waterfalls. Beautiful stuff. So, okay, so how this normally works is Matt will read out a name.

You hype them up. I hype you up. So I'll read out the names. You can hype them up. I'll hype you up. We'll get a beautiful flow going. Yeah. We've got only a couple this week.

Okay. So are you ready? Are you feeling hyped? Clear the mind. Absolutely hyped. So we're going to welcome these people into the Trip Ditch Club. First up from Griffith in New South Wales. It's Hannah Lonegan.

Lone time no call. So long time, long time no see. Or first time long time podcast listener, first time club enter or something like that. Woo! What about Hannah? I'm a faner. That's better. That's good too.

That's good as well. And from Port Melbourne here in Victoria, it's Pat Ron. You do Pat, Pat, Pat, you do Pat, Pat. Playing on, you do Ron, Ron. You do Ron, Ron. Yeah, I got it. But I'm saying Pat instead. No, that's the joke there.

That's good. That's good. I didn't get the chin. Yeah, great. No, that's good stuff. Give him a Ron on the back. It's Pat run, everyone. Thank you so much. Welcome in, Pat. Welcome in Hannah.

Take a seat. Take a load off Stone Roses, kicking off any minute. Can't wait. Looking forward to it. The last thing we just have to do is inducted someone. into the triple tripditch club, Dave. Oh my goodness. This is,

people who have been supporting the show on the shout-at level or above for nine consecutive years. Can you believe they have not fallen off? They've stayed true. I can't believe we've been here for nine years, let alone other people. Other people who have been here with us

for nine years and to enshrine them forever. We welcome them into a special section of the trip-ditch club because, of course, they're already in there. It's a gold section. It's roped off. And, of course, inside we've got Leonard de Caprio. We'll paint you in any art style you like.

Yep. Also, there's like a little ring you can put on. There's a ring you can put on. Yeah, like a little single ring. The way you did it like this made it seem like it was either a pool ring or like a cock ring. Honestly, it comes in multiple sizes and you can choose which way to put your ring on. I've chosen on my pinky finger. Okay.

So, but these people, we welcome them in. I give them a salute, give them the compliment. Yes. Jess gives them a little kiss. That's right. And then we give them an episode, a classic episode of Dugon, of which they are. The custodian. Yeah, so the official custodian of this episode.

So I'll read the name out so that you can be prepared to give them a compliment and a salute. Yes. So welcoming in to the Triple Trip-Trip Ditch Club, please welcome Scott McFarlane. Scott, if you call, I'll answer. Salute. Scott's from Scotland, can you believe? Scott from Scotland, that's perfect. Motherwell in Scotland.

Scott, excitingly, the episode that you are now the custodian. Stodian of is episode 31, Marie Curie. Really? The famous penicillin episode. How did she do it? How did she do it? Listen to the episode to find out. But that is now yours to take care of, to weed and to water.

Absolutely. And to hold and to love forever. And sickness and health. Yeah. I haven't checked on Mari for a while. She might be doing well. She might not be. We don't know.

That's up to you. That was a long time ago. We talked about it. We haven't checked. You have to. Check in on, Marie. That would just turn really aggressive. Sorry, Scott.

Thank you, Scott. You're an absolute legend. And I think that brings us to the end of the episode. That's everything we had to do. That's everything we had to do. It's hard when Matt's not here because, you know, he does a lot of this week-to-week for us. Yeah. He reads out these things.

So we try to step up without him. And this is what happens. And, of course, he's fine, if you're wondering. He's fine. He'll be back. If you would like to suggest the topic, you can. There's a link in the show notes. It's also on our website.

which is do go onpod.com. You can find us on social media at do go on pod or do go on podcast on TikTok where you'll find all information about our other podcasts and live shows and all other wonderful things. So go check that out. And Dave, who is this baby home? Hey, we'll be back next week with another episode.

But until then, I'll say thank you so much for being here, Jess. Thank you, Dave. And for everyone home, thank you for listening. Goodbye. Bye! Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there.

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and you'll also know that we're coming to you. Yeah, we'll come to you. You come to us. Very good. And we give you a spam-free guarantee.