Miss Me? - A Damsel In Distress

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver discuss the new Snow White remake, the golden era of Topshop, and the changing face of the Great British high street.This episode contains very strong language and adult themes. Credits: Producer: Flossie Barratt Technical Producer: Will Gibson Smith Assistant Producer: Caillin McDaid Production Coordinator: Hannah Bennett Executive Producers: Dino Sofos and Ellie Clifford Assistant Commissioner for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins Miss Me? is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. This episode of Miss Me contains very strong language, adult themes and the return of Lily and I. Hi, Makeda. This is weird. We're both in my house. But we're on the other side of the world from each other. And no, this isn't your jumper. Okay? No, I didn't go in your wardrobe. Hang on. What are you wearing? I was in a grey cardigan. Yes.

I can't get access to my clothes. And it was a bit of a shitty grey cardigan. And I thought, oh, this is probably not good enough for camera. I thought, oh, but this nice cashmere jumper from the row works better. Oh, my goodness. I gave Gracie strict instructions to not allow you anywhere near my wardrobe. And it's been broken on day one. Thank you so much for letting me be here.

Do you know what's the antidote to... I'm quite sorry to interrupt. What's the stuff on the table? What is going on? It seems a little bit messy. I know and I just thought this is all... It's good. No, look, this is tea water and then a little prop for later. And then

your messy laptop and your messy book and your messy mushroom thing. That's Bracey's laptop. Can I suggest maybe you take that throw off the end of the sofa? It's just confusing the picture a little bit. Is that the wrong energy of, yeah, you want your house to look right? Okay, I get it actually. Yeah, this is much better. Much, yes, much cleaner. Well, it was nice. It was nice when we were all together on Saturday for Theo's birthday. Wasn't it? Wasn't it just? Not a bit bloody nice.

It was nice, yeah. Unfortunately, I had my 12 year old with me who was like, I so remember that, like my mom dragging me to things and me not like the food being too spicy. I mean, can we just go home? Can we just go home? Yeah, but okay, this is literally referring to bringing her daughter Ethel to our cousin Theo's 40th dinner. Definitely not an inappropriate place for her to be.

And I think it was really lovely for her to be with all of us lot as we celebrated Theo. But the difference between you parenting and our parents, I was thinking about it when Ethel said, mom, I want to go for the fourth time. You're like, all right, babe, let's go. Our parents didn't leave. I would just beg. We never got in a cab and got taken home because we said we wanted to go. I was like, wow. And then Lily just takes her home. Okay, she doesn't have to just sit here and suffer the party. It was quite interesting.

I was like, break that pattern. Break that pattern babe. It was really lovely to spend some time with Ethel. She obviously, the girls came to miss me live and I was so like in it that I didn't really get to like be normal with them. I was just like running around like a maniac. So just to talk to her for a bit was really nice.

She's such a little sweetheart. Yeah. She's a good girl. She's a good one, my little munchkin. Yeah. And then you guys just got on a plane and went all the way back to New York. Yeah, well, cause she came down from the countryside

on her own on the train and she's 13 years old. That's quite, you know. Yeah, yeah. Quite big, she came, and she's 13 years old that's quite you know yeah yeah quite big she came and she had to change as well in crew oh god and i was very worried about her i did not like it but i picked her up from the station uh and then we came straight to you the reason she wanted to come to london without her sister because they were meant to come on sunday was because she wanted to be there for me for Mother's Day morning. Oh, is that why? I thought it was very sweet. Yeah.

Did you have it with her and Alison? No, just me and her and she wrote me the most beautiful card. It's like she's got to suddenly got to that age where like, you know, she's actually like, you know, communicating feelings and stuff. Like, I mean, they've always done that, but like, she hasn't been able to like put things down in words and in a card before. It's always been like, dear mama, I love you very much. Happy Mother's Day. You're the best mama in the world. But this one was very like, you know, it was long. It was meaningful. It made me cry for about two hours. Oh my God. Maybe that's the love you really need at the moment. The love of your child,

the love of your firstborn. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, thank you for housing me and just being back at home in West London. It's just lovely. Just looking at it is nice. Yeah, it is nice. Well done you getting a little spot here. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to take this to It's just lovely. Just looking at it is nice. Yeah, it is nice. Well done you. Getting a little spot here. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to take this to the British High Street. I was thinking I could do it through the Woolworths on Port Bella Road.

Yes, the Woolworths on Port Bella Road. What is it now? I think it's a pound shop, isn't it? Yes, it's just some faceless pound shop. The Woolworths on Port Bellarow was indicative to my upbringing. It clothed me and it fed me. The Pick & Mix was a huge highlight, but also Lady Bird was the kids clothing brand in Woolworths

and my mum solely bought my clothes there and they were really cheap and really well made. Woolworths is like a, you know, old school, British family independent business that turned into like this behemoth of the British High Street. And when it went, I was a bit bereft. I really was. I remember when the one on Portobello went, it was really upsetting. And that was happening again with W.H. Smith. When will the madness end, Lily? When will the madness end? I can't remember why, but we were talking on the way back from Theo's birthday the other night,

me and my mom and Ethel were in a taxi and we got onto the subject of shoplifting. Yeah. And my mom had had a couple of drinks and she was, I was getting quite cross with her because she was basically like, I was getting quite cross with her because she was basically, like, you know, being a little bit boasty about her shoplifting abilities when she was Ethel's age. And I'm like, Mom, can you not please? It's a different world that we live in. Like, you know, there wasn't, she doesn't have like CCTV to contend with. And my mom was like, well, I was very good at shoplifting when I was her age. And I was like, and Ethel was like, what kind of things did you shoplift, Nanny Ali? And she was like, you know, nail varnish, lip balms, tops,

like, stacked tops. Right, for what, from like the sort of, from the innocent supermarkets of Portsmouth? Cause that would probably be quite easy. I guess so. I mean, Portsmouth in the 70s. Well, back then, yeah, you know, they probably didn't even have like, you know, the metal detector-y things. It was just like, no, be

a sweet little security guard that Alison probably charmed with her wily ways. Well, she did get caught once. She was telling us about when she got caught. Well, she didn't get caught. Her friend got caught and she turned herself in because she didn't want her friend to have to go down alone. And then she said that like, when they got, I don't think they got arrested, but I think that they got like taken into the security room by the security guards or whatever. And then the other girl's dad came to pick them up and was like really, really cross with them. And when he got them home, he was like, you know, I'm so disappointed in you, you know, but something about shoplifting and not like, you know, I'm so disappointed in you, you know, but something about shoplifting and not only, you know, are you doing something completely illegal,

you're not even any good at it. My mom was like, it's furious because she was like, not only am I good at it, I handed myself in to save your daughter, but also you should see all the other shit that I've got at home. Yeah, how do you know how good I have? She's like, I remember she really remembered not being able to say that at the time, but like her inner voice then, you have no idea. You have no idea about the hole I have in the background. Okay, well I was quite shit. I didn't get any lessons. She missed it. She skipped a generation with giving shoplifting lessons too, because the only shoplifting idea was Body Shop, Port Bellarode, which I thought was quite innocent.

The odd eyeliner. I don't remember us being very sticky-fingered. We had better things to do. We had bigger fish to fry. I didn't really shoplift. I'm scared of shoplifting, but I do remember being at Glastonbury once and it being a particularly muddy year. And I was definitely liking it. It was a playing with fire kind of like period of my remember being at Gassetbury, everything being so expensive, but my parents, my dad not giving me any money for anything. I was always trying to find ways of making money. Anyway, I figured out that there's crappy, you know, those crappy like jewelry stores. And so I would just like go and take a few like silver rings or whatever and just drop them on my Wellington boots, because there was so much mud on the boots. So they get stuck in the mud and then I just walk out. Oh, oh. And then I'd like go and sell them in the stone circle. That was how

you stole them. Drop them and then they sort of sit in the clay like mud and then walk straight out of there. Lily, that's fucked up. Genius. That's brilliant. My fucked upness knows no ends, even at the ripe old age of 12. So maybe that was more genetic. Maybe it just genetically came through, Alison, how good she was. Because that I would never even think to do that. It's quite ballsy. Anyway, this isn't about shoplifting. No, I know. It recently came to this because those high street shops of your, of our early days, they were like prime shoplifting joints, weren't they? Like Woolworths, WH Smiths,

Body Shop. Oh, yeah. I definitely stole Pick & Mix. Yeah, Pick & Mix I would steal. Yeah. Yeah. It's just so mix. I would steal. Yeah. It's just so easy. It's just so easy. So easy. So easy. And delightful. Why do stolen sweets taste better? They do though, because you can't quite believe you've got away with it. And it's already been digested, but you can't take them back. That is, isn't it? But anyway, Woolworths was a great place. WH Smith, I probably will miss less, but what they're doing, I think is deeply confusing. It's been bought by a bigger company with lots of money, I think for 76 million.

That doesn't seem like that much, to be honest, considering how many outposts. Wait no I wrote this down. It's, well it just says stores. 480 stores. Well yes. That doesn't quite add up does it really? No but it does because what we're talking about is how the Dover-Ewitt Smith has failed over the years. It started in like 1792 again like so many things, so many behemoths of the Great British High Street are, you know, started as independent family businesses. I don't think many, I guess the same in America, like Walmart and shit.

But, you know, maybe that's the origins of business in general, just that independence and then becoming these huge global brands, Sainsbury's, that was family, wasn't it? I don't know about Tesco's, but Sainsbury's that was family, wasn't it? I don't know about Tesco's but Sainsbury's was definitely family. But the thing that they're doing is that's confusing little. Is that changing the name of it to TJ Jones but only in the ones that aren't in airports and stations So if you're in an airport a station will be like'd be like, oh, W.H. Smith. But everywhere else, they'll be called T.J. Jones. Isn't it T.G.J. Jones? So I thought T.J. Jones probably sounds a bit like T.J. Maxx.

Sorry, T.J. Jones. T.G. Jones. Oh my God, T.G. Jones. See, no one's getting it right. This isn't a good name. I mean, what even is a WH Smiths anymore? Because I know the ones in the airports and the train stations are like, you know, a bit of food, like snackage, some books, magazines and tobacco products. Yeah, it's essentials.

The dying essentials shop. Like it's hard enough to find a newsagents these days. I really actually struggle with that. And W.A. Smith is apparently fallen victim to online. I'm going to try and give you a challenge today to not blame anything on the internet. So we're not going to blame this on the internet. It's also about people's kind of preferences for how they shop, which is the internet. But anyway. Okay. if you're gonna challenge me

not to talk about the internet, I'm gonna challenge you not to talk about the history of anything. Oh no, that won't work today. Okay, there we go. I'm not gonna not blame the internet for things. It is responsible for everything bad in the world, so that's unavoidable.

Even the layoff of W.H. Smith. Yeah. Because I wouldn't buy magazines magazine sweets and snacks online. I would go into a shop to buy the things that are available in WH Smith. I wouldn't go online to get a magazine. Yeah, but the reason WH Smith is failing is because the magazine industry is failing and the magazine industry is failing because of the internet. So really what we should do is play six degrees of separation, how you could take everything

back to the internet, but probably it would be like two degrees of separation. I don't think that's two degrees. I think magazines and news for a newsagent is probably, you know, more like 85% of their business. No, I mean, how do you take it back to the internet being the problem? I'll just say it, the internet is the problem. No, I mean in steps. If we were playing six degrees of getting to the internet as the problem, you could probably play that game with two degrees in any subjects I bring up today. But let's see. Okay, let's give it a go.

Let's give it a go. Wait, I should say a little bit more about the high street. Now, Autumn that works with me is in her early 20s. I asked her if the High Street meant anything to her and she remembers Topshop being cool. So Topshop haven't been obsolete for as long as we may believe. They sort of just disappeared and then they really disappeared.

You know that they're like the loser cousin line at ASOS now, like that's upsetting. Topshop is. Mm-hmm. Instead of just scrapping it, it's like they have a few things sold like at the back of the ASOS bus. So upsetting to such a powerful brand. Like if you look into it, it really, it's hard to distinguish whether it was the fall of Philip Green that took Topshop down or what's the other thing it can be? Lill? I don't know.

The internet? The internet. Yes. But I think it was Philip Green this time. I mean, it's just Laysafe capitalism, isn't it? I think people just don't trust these big companies. I think, you know, when I go to Italy every year, one of the things that I really enjoy about consuming in Italy is that when you go into

the local town where we stay, there is a shop for everything. If you need underwear, there's a person that does the underwear and pajamas. And if you need a butcher, there's a butcher. You need a baker, there's a baker. A cutlery, there's a cut, you know, every, like a cutlery, there's like a cutlery store, like a kitchen. There's no such thing as like a big John Lewis or you know, department stores in these places. I mean, I'm sure there are like in the bigger towns or whatever, but for the most part, it feels like the communities trust the, you know, local experts in their given field. And they go there and they have repeat business. All of the chemists and the pharmacies are all run by families. But that's the way Britain used to look, Lil, not to be like the good old days. But yes,

the good old days of independent high streets thriving. Yeah, but you're right. So Britain looks like that, that used to look like that. Italy still looks like that. So why have we ruined everything? But the thing is, if you're talking about, because I'm thinking about all the things that Philip Green owned, right? That's BHS. Oh, like wonderful BHS. But this, all these things, Topshop was the big one. And let's just remember, okay, at the heady heights of Topshop's glory days, Philip Green was like Michael Jackson. He was like so famous, so powerful, but slightly mysterious, slightly suspicious.

But he was very clever. You know, he got, not you, no, you did new look. You did a line with new look, didn't you? I did new look, yeah. I think you're confusing me with Kate Moss. Sorry. Easily done. I think you are yet again confusing me with Kate Moss. Yeah, Kate Moss and her Topshop

line, God, I could tell you the pieces. There was a floral T dress that just nailed the time on the head and every bitch wanted this dress. I didn't get it. Someone else I knew did and I really wanted it. And they did this great unveiling of her line. It was like her as a mannequin. I mean, people have seen this, they know. And it was just such a powerful time and I have to be honest, that's probably when capitalism in this part of the industry was still quite exciting. Is that right to say? I was very excited by all this power, these two powerful people, Kate Moss and Philip

Green coming together to do this powerful thing and actually do it well. The clothes were good. And then of course you had Jane Shepherd, is it Shepardson, who sort of started in Top Shop in the early 90s and took it from like a £9 million company to like a £110 million company. And that was through really thinking about the way clothes were made. Like, don't you remember Topshop Unique? Topshop Unique was all right. Topshop Unique was good, yeah. I liked that stuff. I get quite a lot of my basics from there. In fact, I still have a few of my Topshop unique little vests upstairs in my drawer.

I guess they're like vintage now. Yeah. Do you remember I had that like little stripy vest with the hook and eyes, like white vest, blue stripes and the hook and eyes. I still have it. It's like- That's Topshop unique. Yeah. It's a very signature Lily Top. Yes, I know that top. I don't have any Top Shop left, but the stuff I bought was well made and Philip Green and Jane Sheperton fell out and he fired her. And that's when it started becoming a bit more like just duplicating stuff on the catwalk badly and that's when it started to fall out of grace. But really it left because of Philip Green. What was it he did? Hang on. He did something bad with the sale of House of Fraser,

I think, didn't he? Oh, here it is. He sold BHS to Dominic Chapel for a quid so he could avoid the retirement plan liability for BHS staff. I mean, what a guy. What a guy. What a guy.

What a guy. What a move. What a catch. Hey, it ain't show friends. Yeah, but that's just stupid because he then had to pay like 370 million to say sorry. So did you actually get away with that? And how can you sleep at night? I actually think that people like Philip Green probably lie in bed at night hatching these

plans and it helps them to get to sleep. They're like, I've got an idea. If I can just deny 1500 people of their retirement plans. Like a personal lullaby. No stop. Because I've always really thought that like that whole saying of how do they sleep at night and really it stays with me. How do you sleep at night? You're right. It might help them sleep to be evil. They're like, I've got an idea to make another billion tomorrow. Yeah, but where is he now? I think he's probably just chilling out on his yacht in Monaco with his wife. Didn't all go very well for him. Anyway, top sharp. We miss you. I think he's probably fine. He can't really show his face around like the social circuit anymore, can he?

He's certainly got a retirement plan. Absolutely. Grimmy did a Lime Top Shop. I totally forgot. When I was doing my research, I was like, oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. Had leopard print coats and some other stuff. I think he did a few That's why I was checking if you were friends with Phil Philip green. No, I'm not friends with Philip Green Okay, we can't find a segue. So we'll have a break like all the best in the business do we'll see you when it's over See you on the other side of this said break the side of this said break. Please write her a letter and share it with us. Your advice, your hopes, your fears and your jokes. I want to hear it all.

Visit our website at bbcworldservice.com slash dear daughter for more information on how to send us your letters. See you soon. Hello, welcome back, welcome back to what's our show called? Miss Me, Miss Me with Lily and I'm looking to roll over. You're going to hear the words Miss Me in your nightmares and your dreams till the day we die. Probably we'll hear that. We'll see that. Oh, never, never forget it. We were going to talk about Rachel Zegler. Yeah, I mean, it's a shit storm over, no, it's a, yes, it's a snow storm over at Snow White Towers.

Oh, I see what you did there. That was good. towers. Oh, I see what you did there. That was good. Yeah, people, people or bots. People are apparently allegedly blaming her and her wokeness. By the way, her wokeness is having shown her support for Palestine or for the people of Palestine. And it's apparently all her fault for the people of Palestine. And it's apparently all her fault for the absolutely atrocious first weekend figures for Snow White, which had a massive budget and nobody went to see it. And apparently it's all because of her, which I don't believe. No, let's actually quote, let's quote Jonah Platt, who is the son of the producer of said film. This is after Rachel has said a few bits about, thank you for the support of Snow White coming out and then she says, always remember Free Palestine.

Jonah Platt's response to this is, you really want to do this, yeah? My dad, the producer of an enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multimillion dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for. This is called adult responsibility and accountability. I mean, free speech does not mean you're allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Narcissism, he ends it with narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged. Interestingly, if you go to, because you know,

this is Jonah saying that political beliefs have no place here. And assuming her political beliefs have no place anywhere, and then it is narcissistic of her to even have them. And if you go on his page, he's very political, he's pro-Israel, and his political beliefs are all over the output that he puts in the world. So it's a very confusing situation, and incredible that they've managed to put the blame on this 20 year old girl. I know. Also, I just feel like in terms of like, um, you know, Disney films, it's always usually quite central to any one's character that they stand up for what they believe in, right? Well, very Disney. You're so right.

Isn't it that like, you know, the protagonist usually has like some sort of struggle where they have to, you know, stand up in adversity. And so he can go fuck himself, basically. Precisely. His dad had to leave his family and go and do his job. I mean, also, it is quite a confusing offering because a lot of people are angry about the wokeness nature of the film. And I imagine they're alluding to the fact that the narrative has been changed like so many recent Disney adaptations from the savior prince or male of any kind to females sort of saving themselves. I mean, I feel like this happened in Frozen.

I was always really, I was quite surprised and excited when Disney decided to make like the romantic lead in Frozen, the actual baddie, not just make him unnecessary, they made him the actual baddie and these sisters kind of saved themselves. So we're used to Disney doing this. I think they've done this a bit with Snow White.

They've also moved away from her skin as white as snow into the narrative being a snowstorm that she survived. So they're out here doing these things. They've then opted out of casting actors with dwarfism for the roles of the Seven Dwarfs and have used CGI, really bad CGI, really badly done. There's none of the technicolor glory of like the 1950s Disney offerings. It might just be a bit shit and not Rachel Ezekiel's font. Well, also, I actually just think it was a bad call. I think that like they, you know, it's a really old brand. It's not something that young children like resonate with particularly. Do you know

what I mean? Our generation, yes, because it was in the relatively recent past. Do you mean Disney in general? No, I mean Snow White. It's one of the older movies. So I don't think that it's like, I don't think that people were tromping at the bit for a new Snow White, to be quite frank. No. But I do think it's quite outrageous that this kid is like saying, you know, she is paid for a new Snow White, to be quite frank. No. But I do think it's quite outrageous that this kid is like saying, you know, she is paid for a job and has a responsibility. And it's like, yeah, just like your dad is paid for a job and has a responsibility. So when things happen, and you're a producer, you should expect to have to get on a

plane and go and sort it out. That's what you're being paid multi-millions of dollars for too, buddy. Anyway, Well, I hope they all get through it. I hope they all get to the other side. And I hope everyone stops giving Rachel Ziegler just such a hard fucking time. Just young women that can't, you know, what the fuck is she supposed to do? You've not made a bad decision and poured millions and millions of dollars into something that no one gave a fuck about. Don't blame it on a 20-year-old girl for expressing her view that many people share. Like, it's, it's, yeah, it's just horrible. And also it's just, it just relies, they know that just by throwing

a few little things at her, the internet hates women, hates young women that do well. And so they just like, it's like throwing, you know, a little bit of like food into the sea of piranhas. And then it's just like, get her, get her. And then then that becomes the story. And it's really, it's really mean, I kind of identify with it, because I feel like it happened to me a lot around Brexit. And, you know, I didn't really have that much to say, but because I was a relatively young woman that expressed my opinions, I became like a lightning rod for it. And you know, and suddenly it gave, you know, politicians like old male politicians carte blanche to like come and attack me because they knew that the internet would just like

go wild with it and it was spread like wildfire. And so it's sort of relying on something that's so vicious and insidious to do a job for you and to, you know, take the attention and the blame away from the people that it actually should go on, which is not like 20 year old girls with an opinion. Paul or Rachel just trying to stick up for what she believes in. I know, which is like what they tell you to do in all the Disney films. So whatever. Anyway, let's move on. Yeah, it was actually just quite brave of her. Not brave. What is that Disney film called

with the lady with red hair? Yes, brave. It is called brave. It is called Brave. It is called Brave. It's called Brave. I know that we talked about, I was just thinking about all these like sort of young actors. I know that we talked about adolescence last week and I'd love to go, okay, that's all done, but I'm sorry. I felt like we talked about it and then it sort of sat in the well for even longer and you can't move for people talking about how brilliant this piece of television is, but also just the performance of this young boy. And I just actually found these videos of him auditioning for it.

Oh God, he's so good. He's so good even in the audition. Like you can imagine what that feeling is when they're like, oh shit, we found something incredibly special. But auditioning, you said doesn't really happen in the way that it used to. And actually everything is more like self tapes now.

That's how you go for parts. I mean, don't take my word for it, but as far as I'm aware, I think that, yeah, self taping has become like the norm. My cousin, Gracie, she works in casting. And one of the reasons that she went into it was because she loved the auditioning process and people coming in and performing for her and for the people that she worked for. And that doesn't happen since COVID, especially. That hasn't really been happening. People just send tapes in. Unless you're really famous already, in which case you never have to take, you just

get off at the park. But then you have a really nice moment of, it didn't Amy Lee Wood, because she was on a self tape, she did the Mancunian accent rather than be in a room and say, can I do a Mancunian accent for the White Lotus? And they sort of find, oh, this works better. This is what I read. This is what I read. I don't know, cause I wasn't there,

but yeah, I imagine she probably did both. Of course you weren't there. But I was remembering the auditions that I've been through. I actually weirdly think I've had more auditions than you from just like weird shit when I was a kid. The McDonald's advert that I was in as an extra, but I did have a close up in like a second four, which when you're eight and there's the

McDonald's ever that you're in comes on TV a lot, you're like, Oh my God, here comes that bit where I'm on TV. And I did that with Phoebe. Phoebe reminded me, we didn't audition for that. That was just a favor to a friend. Um, but I, Phoebe thinks I'm in, it's just some weird shit that we were in as kids. Uh, Naima was in a sugar puff sad ad, vert, that I forgot about. And then Phoebe thinks I'm in the Omar video for There's Nothing Like This. And I think I am too, but I have to double check with my mother. And then we did like two music videos for Dodge.

Yeah. Can't remember who the people were. But the auditions that I had to do, I don't know whether I told you when I was 22, I decided I wanted to be a bit of an actress. I mean, I remember at the time. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that was about. Anyway, and I went for one audition and decided I could never do this job, which was for Children of Men with Clive Owen. So I had to like have a pillow up my top and be a dystopian Caribbean girl, accent wise. I'm sorry. Can you do the accent for us now please? I'm desperate to hear that.

It was the worst. I was so shit. And someone was asking me like, was it like in a room with people behind a table for me? I was like, no, it's not like X Factor. A lot of film auditions in those days, I think, because I did too, you'd go to like a studio's offices in Soho and it would just be in like the upstairs office or something. So I've actually had quite a lot of audition history and it's, I would never ever want to audition for anything ever again. But I guess you have shit coming up, like not coming up, but you will audition a lot if you're going to keep acting. I haven't auditioned for anything really. Oh, I did do a self tape for Wide Lotus.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And obviously did not get it. But I'm a bit scared of doing self tapes. I think maybe now I would do them because I don't think people give as much of a shit about me anymore. But I like back in the day, I didn't like the idea of like people in casting offices like having the on tape of me,

like in case they would share it with other people and be like, hey, hey. Now I don't really subscribe to that fear so much. I don't I don't really care if some kid is like, look at me, I'm making a dig out of herself. It's like, just just listen to me. Every week, every week, I've made a real hit out of it. But hang on. What's going on with you in acting? Are you into it right now? Because you're about to go on the stage. Yeah, I am. I did a photo shoot last week for Heads Up for the play that I've got coming up. And I really, I loved it. I felt like, it's funny because I feel like when I did the Pillow Man,

which is a play that I did a couple of years ago in London, I was in quite a strange place emotionally and psychologically. The subject matter was so intense that I think I was quite disassociated anyway from it because it was so harrowing. This play is different. It's harrowing in its own way, but I feel a lot more connected to myself. And even just in, you know, doing this photo shoot, which was quite a sort of weird, sterile environment with a bunch of people that I didn't know. But, you know, I got there and in front of the camera and I did feel like sort of self-conscious for a minute.

And then I was just like, no, just you're not Lily, you're her, just be her. Oh my God. And I just, you know, started thinking about the script and like the important parts of the script, which I thought would be, you know, good for the poster. And I was just her for a bit. And it was great. I really enjoy it. I really enjoy it.

I'm really excited about getting into the rehearsal phase for this play. And yeah, I do hope that I get more opportunities. I wanna put myself out there a little bit more and be a bit braver with doing self-tapes and going up for auditions and stuff, because, um, it is something that I enjoy and it is something that I think I have the ability to be good at, you know, I mean, without wanting to like blow my own

trumpet, you know, people do find me like somewhat compelling to watch. So like, why not work on that and try and improve it as a skill, you know? See what it can give you. Yeah. I love hearing you talk like this about acting. I love it. I think we've got a really surprising year coming up. You put yourself out there, who knows, you might be in the Oscars by next year. I think that's probably pushing it. I did get a new agent though and I sat down in a meeting with her the other day and we were talking about, you know, staff and you know, what she should pitch her for and suddenly and I just smirked myself and she was like, what's that? What are you smiling at?

And I was just like, I don't know, I'm just imagining myself as a detective. Yeah, yeah. You can be a detective. I don't really know like if the Oscars is where I'm going for, but a nice UK detective series. Oh, what, like a bit Nicola Walker energy? Maybe, maybe. I hear you. All right. See, this is exciting. This is just a very new door. Also, I just love to be a policewoman.

Really? I mean, I guess it's a bit of a sort of like cliche genre. People love crime dramas, don't they? But I do. Yeah. I do think what was the one with James Norton and what's her face in? Oh, my God. Happy Valley. That's quite hardcore shit. Yeah. I mean, her take on a policewoman was fucking incredible. Excellent. You can really do some interesting things in that genre, I think.

It doesn't have to be, you know, it's black and white, is it? That's his black voice. Okay, well, it's been lovely to talk to you from your house to your house. From your house to your house. From your house to your house. All right, bye, Lily. I needed to talk to you today. Thank you for cheering me up. My pleasure. I will speak to you soon. I'll speak to you soon babe.

I'll speak to you on Listen Bitch about gardening. Yay! Well I've been to your house and it turns out you might be a bit more interested than you professed previously. Bye darling. I'll see you for ListenBitch. Goodbye. Thanks for listening to Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. This is a Persephoneka production for BBC Sounds. Do you ever feel like you're the only one navigating life's ups and downs? Well guess what? You're not alone. It's Anna Richardson here and my podcast It Can't

Just Be Me helps you realise that you're not the only one. Join me as I sit down with incredible celebrity guests and experts to dive into life's biggest topics and covering their very own It Can't Just Be Me moments. Expect revelations, honest anecdotes and a few laughs about the challenges and obstacles that life throws at us. Listen on BBC Sounds.