Miss Me? - Your Problematic Pod Faves

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver discuss the Ivor Novello awards, Hollywood movie stars and the anniversary of Grenfell. This episode contains very strong language, adult themes and a discussion about the Grenfell tower fire. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised, you can find support via the BBC Action Line: https://bbc.co.uk/actionline/ 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

BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. This episode of Miss Me contains very strong language, adult themes and a discussion about the Grenfell Tower fire. You alright love? Hello babe, how are you? I'm pretty good. You alright love? Hello babe, how are you? I'm pretty good. I always feel a bit weird after a bank holiday weekend, I guess you guys call that Memorial

Day weekend. We had Memorial Day weekend this weekend, yeah. And what does that mean? Same thing as a bank holiday means in England. You just have the day off work on a Monday. Yes, but our banks closed for this bank holiday thing. Like in the old days, that's when it meant the banks were closed. Same here.

But who was the memorial about? We don't have a memorial to anyone. I actually don't know, but I imagine veterans, people that have died for the cause of America. And how did you celebrate that this weekend? So you had some sushi with an anonymous person who I've never seen. What? On your stories it was like you and some guy having sushi. I was like, who is this guy? That's my friend Daniel from Los Angeles.

What, are you jealous? No. Jealous of a new friend that you don't know I do get that there is a slight energy I get just if it's a friend I've never seen I just think oh she's got this whole world I know nothing about you can you hold yourself the American world My American world I saw quite a lot of our old friends because it was, I went to South London. Finally. Why? Did I not tell you that that's my aim this summer? To get to South London, spend some time out of fucking East London and spend time with my other friends. Sorry to

everyone that I love in East London. And so I went to Peckham for dinner and then went to Nutty's 40th. How was South London? Yes, it was fantastic. We went to Peckham for dinner and then went to Nutty's 40th. How was South London? Yes, it was fantastic. We went to Brunswick to our friend Jackson Box's place, very special place, Brunswick House. And then I was home by 11.30, I was like, I am a saint. I'm actually a saint.

Just getting old, babe. But that's because they went to the box and I was not fucking interested. I went to the box last time I was in London for about 15 minutes. What were you looking for? Well, a friend of mine from here actually used to work at the box and I was at a book launch, his brother's book launch. His brother is an author called Leo Robson and he had a book launch a few weeks ago in

London when I was there and we went to his book launch and then Max was like, let's go and check out the box. They've opened up this new room. I want to have a look because he used to work there on the creative side. And I was like, okay. And then we went there and I was like, I hate clubs. What am I doing here? No, like I actually hate them. I don't even think I like them much then. It was like jazz was being played. The whole thing was just not for me. I was like, I have to go. Oh no, that's quite fun. A bit of jazz would be okay. No, it wasn't. It wasn't fun. It wasn't fun. Don't try and change my mind. I know what happened and it was not amazing.

I know what went down. I did not have a good time. Look at us talking about the box. Like everyone knows. Lily, how would you describe the box? It's not a super club. It's actually quite niche-y, but not really. The box is a fetid little sex club. It used to be a fetid little sex club. Yeah, pretty much. But now there's an array of offerings at the box, but usually you go to dance and get wasted. Yes. Yeah.

I mean, it's more, it's like, there used to be like sort of very kinky, you know, sort of sexy performers doing sort of acts. Mm. Guess what? I'm going to be having a great time tonight though, because I'm taking me and four 13-year-old girls, 12 and 13-year-old girls, to see Central Sea in Brooklyn. Shut up. Yeah.

So many things can happen. So many things can happen. So many things can happen. You need a babysitter, you need to take the kids, then they need to go home, then you go out for the after party with Sench and you know, all the crew. No, I can't imagine anything worse. I love Central Sea. Great guy, but I'm in my going to bed with a caramel tea and honey and reading a book era, not in my hanging out with Central Sea and his entourage in New York era. Well, you must be committed because even when he lays himself out on a plate for you naked

and covered in oil, he's still not interested. I actually went into my DMs like a few weeks ago to see if that DM from him was still there and I think he deleted it, deleted the chat. Were you worried that you made it up? Because I think I've screenshot it, don't worry. I think you sent it to me. Oh, it's still there. That's it. That's the first time I've been on Instagram in like two and a half weeks, three weeks. We just needed to quickly check that Central Sea did say, you about, no sorry, where you at? And Lily said, Terminal Five. It was huge. It was big. It was deep.

It was exciting. Where you at? Where you at? In London on route to New York. Oh, I just missed you then. Oh, you did. You did. But he's a very beautiful young man. I think the show will be great. How can I be homophobic? My bitch is gay. That's the only word I know of any Central Sea song. No, I know quite a bit more Central Sea. Ethel knows all the words to all the songs. She's actually quite irritated that Marnie is allowed to come and bring a friend because she doesn't know any of the songs.

Can I be honest? I did not think that was where Ethel was at musically because she's I know she loves Olivia, I know she loves Taylor Swift, but that's quite, that's very London. She big in America now as well, bloody hell. Oh my God, she's so spoiled with her musical offerings. We got to see in Central Sea this week, then next week I'm taking her to Govball

to see Tyler the Creator on Friday night. Yeah, yeah. And then again on Saturday to see Olivia again. Oh my God, it's official. The kids are cooler than us. You're taking Ethel to Tyler. Oh my God. I mean, I saw some of it over here last week

and I was like, Jesus, that looked like a show and a half. Like I think it will be quite an amazing spectacle of a show to watch. Really? Art direction wise, very much so. But I did actually want to talk about my scene but I didn't actually go. So I was like, I'm not going to talk about something I saw a lot of clips of. But you tell us what the real experience is like.

God, your life's so much cooler than mine. Highlight of my week, the podcast show with the team. Yeah, how was that? It's just like hundreds and hundreds of talks over a few days, ranging from like the evolving podcast industry in Finland, which I didn't know was growing, to how to get your podcast successful even without pod fame. Shit like that all over this place. And it was lovely. It was great. It was nice to be a team, talk about the work we've done. But what was interesting was like thinking about this, like, Behamoth.

Behamoth. What were you, what were you going to say about Behamoth? I love when you use that word, which is quite often now. But what, yes, the Behamoth of what the podcast has become because- Say it one more time. I'm obviously going to now find other words for be him off and throw those in. Bitch. And yeah, I mean, it's had quite a journey, the podcast.

Where did your relationship with the podcast start? What was your first ever situationship? I think my first podcast that I ever listened to was Serial. Oh yes, your Serial. All right, so stay there. Stay there. So before Serial, what it is, is it's actually the phrase, I guess it's a phrase, the phrase podcast is coined just by like a journalist in The Guardian. This guy, let's give him a shout out. What's his name? Ben Hammersley. I wonder if he got paid. Can you imagine seeing that word?

Obviously he didn't get paid. Yeah, but seeing that word globally. Someone, no one's being like, who came up with this word? We need to give him some money. Well, I mean, I'd rather podcast than pod. And there was quite a lot of people saying the word pod at the podcast show.

Oh my God. Just hate an abbreviation, I'm sorry. Language is too special. Love the pod. Love the pod. So this is in 2004, Ben Hammersley says in The Guardian, he's like, there is this new thing called the podcast. But really, it's, you know, we have radio. So we're talking about when radio and the podcast start to become different things. And the first massive podcast is that Ricky Gervais one. And it was exciting because it was like their radio show on XFM suddenly, you know, on demand. That's what changes, like how you can access it and when. But obviously the focus of the podcast is the conversation,

being the star and not the music, which as you said on episode one of Miss Me was essentially talk radio. And it is kind of crazy that this thing has become so powerful when really we've gone back to a very, very old, very simple idea. I think my theory behind this is that it's because the rest of the world has advanced so much technologically that it's one it's it's something that grounds people and it feels like connectedness in a way maybe because a lot of people listen to them with their headphones so it's very much like you in your head with you know spending time with you know your faves your your problematic faves your problematic faves. Yeah, and Ricky Gervais. Your problematic pod faves. Yes, that is the title of this episode. No, but it's older than that though, isn't it Lil? Like what's before Talk Radio? Dickens? I mean, everything, everything is, anything that came before podcasts, came before podcasts. Chik and Kiev.

No, that's quite good. Chik and Kiev. No, what I mean is the sharing of stories. The sharing. Yes, well exactly, yeah. I mean, remember Dickens was serialized when he first came out. And so people were kind of on the edge of,

that means more the invention of the soap opera. But the idea of telling a story and people being connected to it and sharing what they learned from it with each other. But I mean, if you want to go out further, we're talking about the fire pit and cavemen. So I don't think it's that we don't have any new ideas. I think you're right. I think everyone just needed to be connected back to something very grounded and rooted and actually quite old old probably. Yes, familiar. But when is it too much? And when should, when does it feel like actually maybe not everyone should have a podcast?

I'm including me and you in this. I'm just saying like, how do you decide who should have a podcast and who shouldn't? Because that's the way TVs work for so long, who should be given that opportunity and who shouldn't and now that it's just doors wide open I do I do think that we are drowning and drowning in it and now there's the vodcast Lil I think that's what we are as well now are we vodcasters? Well one half of our show is vodcasted. You can watch our show on YouTube. Although if you ever call me a vodcaster, our friendship's over.

We're aware you're a broadcaster. Thank you. Great. Broad, not vod, broad. Across the board in a broad manner. In a broad sense. But I do think that it will take away from that kind of like art direction and like production value of like great television, especially when people are just replacing watching television with these so-called vodcasts. I'm not saying don't watch us on YouTube, gotta get those numbers up. I will miss Parky and you

know the great late night chat show and all those things that used to exist. Do you think the late night chat shows are dying a death? Is that happening? It's gone. It's done. It's not. Jimmy Kimmel happens and Jimmy whatever the other one's called. You guys are still good. Well you've still got Jonathan Ross no? Yes, Jonathan Ross. Oh no and then there was the Alan Carr chatty man. That was quite good. Oh yeah. I like chatty man. But I just don't think that when it comes to being a guest on something if you want to promote something I think you're more likely to go on

like diary of a CEO than you are on Jonathan Ross. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, you know, definitely in the pop music arena, it's that there's definitely like a sort of podcast tour that you do now rather than the TVs. I think also because, you know, you're Jules Hollands and things like that. It's actually, you know, it's, it's very expensive. It's a big cost for the record company to pay, you know, day rates for all of the musicians, you know, glam for everybody styling costs, it's, it's a big cost. And I think it's much more cost effective to just send someone to a podcast

studio and an Addison Lee. Yeah, but it feels like if you're a musician, I feel like you kind of have to do Jules because there's no other place to play your song unless you're like in the last bit of Sunday brunch and they sometimes cut your song halfway through. It's the only place to actually play your song live on telly. Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe people that still watch television might not be like your audience anymore

in terms of music buyers. Live Lounge is still growing strong. Hang on, can we just, but Live Lounge is like the vodcast of radio, right? So that's not TV and Jules Holland, yes, that is TV. Tiny Desk is not TV, that's internet, YouTube. Yeah, what is going on? Where is it?

Where is it all heading? Color, what's that thing called? Oh yeah, colors. It's funny, it is funny the speed at which it's all changing because I think that record companies are even quite hesitant to commission music videos now. No one watches music videos. Oh no, no no.

I think people, you're more likely to spend money on like those short form content like little clips for Spotify, you know, like those little thumbnails things that people do. Let's talk about the heady days of 2010 because we've just had the Ivan Avellos and self-esteem. What did self-esteem win? The visionary award. Wow. Yeah. God, that's amazing. Shall we play some of her speech? She said some cool shit, man. It's hard being a woman saying anything. That's a sentence I just wrote. And then I put, lol. People, but in all seriousness though, like people are foaming at the mouth to ridicule you and frighten you. Like it's still, we've made no, there's no change. Like people f***ing hate women. They really

do. And uh, it sometimes it gets in and it stays there. But I did want to take this opportunity to say that if you're in the industry and you're looking for the next bold female voice, cause women are now a thing, it's a whole thing now. Remember to protect them though. The toll that it takes to say your truth and in a patriarchal system that's still very obsessed with youth and relevance and whether or not you're fit. Like that it's really hard, it's horrible actually, but obviously I'm going to keep on doing it. Most of us are just trying to write songs and want to be able to do that for decades just like men get to. Keep getting told I'm too old to be on certain playlists or things, and then I get asked

if I want to guest on a song by a band that I used to go and see when I was 14, and they're relevant and I'm not. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, I'm almost done. Thank you George Michael, Madonna, and Lindsay Mendick for reminding me to choose legacy over a perceived idea of safety. Good fun. Good fucking fun. We love self-esteem. I really like her and I love that song that, if you beg, I will

peg. I just do not have the time for 69. Is that what she says? Yeah. I think that's a really good point that lovely Rebecca Self Esteem just made using George Michael as a wonderful example about the sort of choice you have as an artist or as a creative or just as a human being. It's like, do you want that instant gratification

or do you want legacy? Like, do you need things immediately or do you want to make work that outlives yourself? I think that it's definitely the second one for me. And Rebecca, we share that view. You won lots of Ivan Avelos. Did you win three in 2010, all in one night? I did, and I think I was the first artist

to have done so since The Beatles. Shut up, Lily! But then since then, I think Ed was the first artist to have done so since The Beatles. Shut up, Lily! But then since then, I think Ed Sheeran did the same and someone else as well. Yeah, yeah, you're a leader, not a follower. And what's it like to win three awards in a night? I really enjoy that, I think. It was a really, actually a really emotional day. I think because the IVE is really special because it's not televised, it is really all about writing, it's the Songwriters Awards.

So it takes all of the crap surface level performative stuff that is so prevalent in the music industry and it really rewards those people that are very, you know, committed to the craft of songwriting and so have been recognized for my songwriting abilities by, you know, my peers and also, you know, people that have been writing music for a very long time. You know, there's lots of much older people on the panel, or there was in my day anyway. It was, it was, every award I've ever accepted, I've always said it's an honor, but really and truly, it was a true honor. No, I bet it fucking was.

It was amazing. You little star. According to Sean Penn, there are no stars anymore, Lil. He said the last one was, I think this is a bit of a strange one to end the Hollywood star on, but he thinks the last one was Jennifer Lawrence and that they don't exist anymore. I wonder what his sort of like parameters are, why he's landed on her, but I think that what's happened, that has happened, is quite often that the unpredictability of an actor's choices may have been lost somewhat, and that's what, I mean, there are some people that are still doing it, and they're doing very well, and I think that's because they surprise us,

all surprise themselves, or keep themselves entertained. Like, I remember, like, I mean, I'm talking about the franchise, and the franchise can be a killer of an actor. And it can make your moves quite predictable and it's not quite as exciting where you go next. But if you go back to like Cameron Diaz, she starts in like a really big blockbuster of a film, The Mask, what a great, weird film that was with Jim Carrey.

And then later on does Being John Malkovich and it's a very different role and she's so brilliant in it. But then after that does Charlie's Angels. So, you know, she was keeping us on our toes. I was interested in what she would do next. And I think that's the real sign of a great actor and a great Hollywood American star

that you care about their next choices. Don't you remember when Leonardo DiCaprio made the beach after Titanic and it was like, okay, go to England and work with Danny Boyle. Like that was actually a really interesting move. I think it's probably why people like Timothee Chamoulet are doing so well because you are interested in their next moves.

Why do you call, is his name actually Timothee or is that just your name for him? I knew you were going to bring this up today. Can I get the official way to say his name because it's not Timothy is it? It's Timothee. Timothee. Oh Lily Allen you are correct. No sorry I'm incorrect. Basically, Timothee is called Timothee, but he is called Chalamet and I have been saying Timothee Chamoulet. Embarrassing. Wow. I didn't even notice that. I was so distracted by the Timothee that I never even listened to you saying Chalamet, Chamoulet. I'm going to call him Timothy. I'm going to call him Timothy from now on. I feel like

a bit of an asshole. That's probably good because I think that's his name. Nice of you to call him by his name. But do you understand what I'm saying? Like you need to be interested about what moves an actor is going to make next to make them feel like a real star and actually feel part of like an interesting trajectory and watch where they go and feel like you're going along with them. Yeah. I mean, I wonder, the thing is Jennifer Lawrence also just seems really like personable,

like she's funny and she seems quite sort of like uninhibited and that she's not scared to like be herself publicly. I would also go as far to say that Emma Stone is like that as well. Yes, absolutely. But yeah, I mean, I think in this age of the internet and cancel culture and, you know, things just spreading like wildfire on social media, people are scared to reveal themselves if they don't have like, you know, a good solid sense of self and Jennifer Lawrence seems like she does. I might be completely wrong. She might be completely mental in her spare time, but she seems like she knows who

she is and knows who she wants and everybody loves her for it. Can't you make her a New York friend? That's a good crowd actually. She's married to Cooke Moroney. She's an actor. She's safe. She hangs out with Adele sometimes. I feel like that would be quite a nice gang for you, the Jennifer Lawrence gang. But a franchise that refuses to quit is like the James Bond franchise. Like I really don't care about James Bond, but if you read any interview with any sort of actor between the ages of 30 and 50, it will come up, whether he's been asked or not, whether he'd be interested in it.

It just feels like, does anyone give a shit about who the next Bond is? And it's still this like prevalent burning question often. I can't believe that that franchise is still so strong after all these years. It's funny actually, because I went to this luncheon, this casting director's luncheon, when I was last in London, I was sitting opposite this actor called James Nelson Joyce, I think his name is. Is he in the new Beatles film? No, but he's in that, The City is Ours. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we went outside to have a sneaky vape and he was telling me that they were, he had a job coming

up and he was a bit annoyed because it had got in front of another really good opportunity and he was a bit annoyed because it got in front of, you know, another really good opportunity. And I was like, what James Bond is it? And he kind of like, made of sort of like, he was like, laughed lol. And then a couple of days later, I was like on the internet and saw that he actually was in the running for the James Bond. I was like, awkward. I probably just thought I had been like reading the Daily Mail and being like, lol, you're gonna be James Bond. What do you think makes a good bond? I don't care. Yes, neither do I. Thank you.

Also, things I don't care about are Mission Impossible, which I went to go and see this weekend with the girls. They were so bored. It was so hard to follow. It was so crammed full of information and words that don't exist, like pod over. Okay. like crammed full of like information and words that don't exist like pod over. Okay. That basically looks like a sort of like a hard drive that he had to like get from the bottom of the ocean from inside a submarine that had sunken, you know, a few years ago.

And to be fair, I watched Simon Pegg on the one show talking about this film the other day, I thought you can't even be bothered to pretend this wasn't about the money. Yeah, Simon Pegg has been doing Mission Impossible for as long as podcasts have been around 20 years. I know. He's not running from that franchise anytime soon. Obviously. Yeah, and their kids were so bored. It was so long. And Ethel, when we came out, she was like, I thought we were going to see Top Gun. I was like, no, wrong film, sorry, babes. Would she have been more interested in Top Gun?

I think so, I think she enjoyed Top Gun the last time. Right, so I think that's interesting because that's fucking old as well. But it's funny, Top Gun's funny, Mission Impossible and not an ounce of humor in the whole thing. Actually a little bit with Simon Pegg, obviously. No, but it takes itself far too seriously.

This is my list of the last great film stars. Cameron Diaz, did I really write Red Azel? Like, I must have. Must have been drunk. Must have been it at the time. But when I was looking into it, in the north, I was thinking about like, who were film stars in our time? And I realized that we really didn't have any black

or brown film stars. We had a handful, a handful, which actually are some of the actors that are still famous now, like Denzel, Washington, Viola Davis. Will Smith. And I actually felt really excited by the Hollywood, well, basically when we were younger,

there was Black Hollywood and then there was Hollywood. And now the two have actually merged more than I have ever seen in my lifetime. If you think about all the young black, brown, Asian actors that are like, you know, like Gretchen Lee, Letitia Wright, Kiki Palmer, Zendaya. Michael Ward. Love Michael Ward. Michael Ward. It's actually really beautiful to see.

Kano. Kano. Ashley. What's his face? Ashley Waters. He's doing so well. Ashley Waters. He's so brilliant in adolescence and he was so brilliant at the BAFTAs and all proud and like, you know, fucking feeling this moment for himself. We're talking Asher D. This man's been about in this industry for a long time. And he's doing beautiful work. And I heard him talking about his sobriety the other day. I thought it was really interesting. But yeah, I felt I just wanted to give, I just wanted to give Hollywood a little well done you because things look very different from when we were

young. And you can't really say that about every industry at all. So well done for trying Hollywood. I feel like movie stars like for me, it's like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams and Steve Martin, you know, just, just your average middle aged white guys. We got so lucky. They're the real stars, let's be honest. That's right. We'll leave it there. We're gonna have a little breaky and we're gonna have a little cup of tea-tea and then we'll see you right after for some more Miss Me. Welcome back to Miss Me. I wanted to talk about Grenfell, Lil, because it's coming up

to the eighth year anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster in June next month. And they're going to demolish the building at some point. They're going to demolish Grenfell. Oh, are they? I knew that there was conversations ongoing about that. I didn't know a decision had been made. Yeah, no, I didn't know a decision had been made. I didn't really know how I felt about it, but it did make me think about the day of the disaster because I was in Tottenham the night before. So I didn't know anything had happened until the next day when I saw it on the cover of the papers.

And it was quite strange being so far from home. Obviously Grenfell was just a horrific tragedy. But I suppose Lily and I are from the area that this building was on fire in. So just hit me in a very deep, dark, difficult way when it's a building that you're so familiar with. I was quite scared to come back to the area, but were you there when it had happened? Yeah. Gosh, it was such a horrible night. My children were staying at their dad's house that

night. At Grenfell, it was sort of like equidistant between where my house was at the time and where Sam's house was. And it was quite late at night. I think maybe me and my boyfriend at the time, Dan, had been somewhere and got a sort of like, like a neighborhood text from police, from the police saying that there was an incident, you

know, on the road to where Grenfell is. And I don't know, I just in my head, had a, you know, sort of paranoid thought that it was like a terrorist attack or something. I feel like we were like in the midst of like Brexit stuff. I don't know, politically, just things seemed quite fraught. And anyway, I panicked and I thought, you know, that that could be close to Sam's and if there's some sort of incident, and they're going to cordon off the area or whatever, I don't want to be in a situation where I can't get to my kids. So I just got in the car and drove to Sam's house. And obviously, you know, while we were on the way, we could see what was happening because it was completely unavoidable. It was, you know, this huge building completely up in flames. And so, you know, we pulled over and walked down towards the building and it must have been, you know, one, 13, two o'clock in the morning or something. towards the building and it must have been, you know, one 30 and two o'clock in the morning or something. And oh my gosh, it was just such a horrific site. They were just. Yeah. What did you find there?

Well, obviously it was a horrific site in itself, just the building being in flames. And then, you know, the reality of what could be going on. And then, you know, as we got closer to the building, we could see people sort of leaning out of their windows and waving towels. And, you know, we were obviously not close enough to be able to, you know, we weren't getting in the way of the fire rescue effort or whatever. So, you know, we weren't across, you know, didn't quite know how serious the situation was. But I do remember there being just a massive row of ambulances with the back doors open waiting to put people in. And I was there for hours, and I just didn't see one leave. And so, you know, that was when it became, you know, sort of terrifying prospect that there were people in this building that were not making it out and were not being taken to hospital.

What felt strange was being there and, you know, having a sort of vague idea about what was happening and what people were going through. And then it not feeling appropriate to leave. Because what do you, when do you just go like, okay, yeah, you know, I've, I've seen enough now I'm just gonna go home, get into bed, watch TV. It felt so disrespectful to walk away from it, in a way. And so we didn't. We just sat in the car for hours, thinking that it was gonna go out and it didn't go out.

It kept going for well into the next day. Yes, and then I remember writing an email to the girls' school, asking other parents, or maybe it was a WhatsApp group or something of the girls, saying that people should, very quickly, even like in the early hours of the morning, you could sense that there was a real sense of the community coming together and a real powerlessness and people not knowing what to do. And so, it was immediate that thing of donations, you know, water, food, bedding, clothes, anything that people could gather together to provide for the people that did make it out. And it felt like it was the only thing that people could think of to do, and you know, in order to help and to come together as a community.

And I remember I had, I think that's what I had said to the school. I was like, you know, there's been this terrible fire. Be great if all, you know, parents could bring any, you know, supplies that might be helpful for people that have been displaced. And then, I know, I think it was for a month afterwards that, you know, me and Dan were volunteering. I did some stuff for the Red Cross. I did some stuff for the, you know, at the Rugby Portobello Club. Yeah, my mum and Nana went down to Cook. I was very proud of the community. I mean, obviously, like everyone just fucking came out properly and did anything they could. But I think what was so hard is after the horror of the fire is all the other things unfolding and all these other things coming out.

I'm just going to read from the public inquiry. The public inquiry said that the fire was the culmination of decades of failure by central government and other bodies in positions of responsibility in the construction industry to look carefully into the danger of incorporating combustible materials into the external walls of high-rise residential buildings and to act on the information available to them. There are still hundreds, I've got the exact number, but hundreds of buildings with said cladding. And I think that was, you know, there was just systematic failures across the board and all around this horror. For me, it felt like this light had been shone on this divide in West London, and I'm sure

around all other parts of London and our country, but I will just talk about West London because that's where I'm from. There is a fucking line between affluence and poverty, and a lot of the people that are living in poverty are the forgotten people of West London. And there isn't, people don't think about them and they prefer to not think about them. And when this building was on fucking fire, you had to think about who else lives in this area and how are they looked after and how are they taken care of. And I think that they're that weak. Suddenly, no one could hide from that anymore. Yeah. And I think, you know, it's a conversation as well about social housing and something that

ultimately, you know, we should be proud of as a society that we can come together and take a percentage of people's tax contributions and provide safety and housing for people. But it becomes something the complete opposite, which is ultimately rooted in greed and power and profit. The two things shouldn't, it feels like they shouldn't really be mixing. Anywhere near each other. Yeah. Absolutely. Social housing grew us, Lily, looked after us and actually made us safe. I don't know where my family would have been without it. You're right, it's something that we want to feel proud of. Yeah. But the community did beautiful things in the aftermath of Grimfield.

There's a place called Hope Gardens now that was built for people to really go somewhere to try and reflect on what happened, um, and to heal. And that shit will take forever. Um, you know, I don't think you'll ever be healed from that. Yeah. It was truly one of the most shocking sites I've seen in my life and something that will be imprinted on my brain forever, I think.

God bless them all. Well, I thought it was very important to talk about eight years. Yes. Eight years. It seems like that's crazy, crazy amount of time, seems like yesterday. So, Lily Allen, I will leave you to it for the rest of your day. What plans have you

got for the rest of your day? I'm going to make myself some avocado on toast and a boiled egg in a minute. And then I'm going to go to the gym. And then I'm coming home. Actually, no, then I'm going to a meeting and then I'm going to take the girls to see Central Sea. Oh, yes, of course. We know what's happening with your day. Silly us. Text me everything later. Oh my God. Ethel is emailing me from school saying, do you think we'll get to meet Central

Sea tonight? And I said, probably not. Because remember, Marnie threw an absolute strop when I couldn't get them in to see Sabrina Carpenter. And now Ethel's emailing me from school. And by the way, not the first email of the day, in fact the seventh saying, why not we got to meet Pink Pantheress? Because it was at the same venue. It's like, we need to stop being so entitled.

Oh dear. Are you sort of, are they gig spoiled? I think they might be, yeah. Maybe. I think they might be. Maybe it's like, listen, you got a ticket. That's where we start. And if mommy feels like being a pushy bitch,

then maybe we'll go backstage. Oh, the eighth email of the day from Ethel is coming. Love you, miss you. Oh. Please get us into Central Sea. That's what that means. Oh, and that's why you should have kids. Love you, miss you. Oh! Please get us into Central Sea, that's what that means. Oh, and that's why you should have kids. Love you, miss you.

You saw her this morning. I did, I saw her three hours ago. Have a lovely time, Lil. I will see you on Monday for Listen, Bitch. The theme is teenagers. I don't have any teenagers, but I used to be one. So that's what I'll talk about. Lily will talk about actually having teenagers now.

Fucking hell. You know you got teenagers when you go and see the Central Sea Show later. We do. I'll see you on Monday for Listen Bitch. Bye. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. This is a Persephoneca

production for BBC Sounds. If you've been affected by anything raised in this episode, go to bbc.co.uk forward slash action line. Who done it? Crime conundrums. Murderous mayhem. Why are you doing that voice? I'm scared in the mood for our new podcast. Murder They Wrote. Hey, I'm Laura Whitmore.

And I'm Ian Sterling. Anyone who knows us knows we are obsessed with true crime. We're here with a new podcast exploring the dastardly deeds of history's most atrocious criminals. There'll be mystery, madness and moments of... Oh my god. Murder They Wrote with Laura Whitmore and Ian Sterling. Listen on BBC Sounds.