Off Air... with Jane and Fi - In defence of artificial grass (LIVE at Afternoon Tea with Jane and Fi - Part 2)

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

In this live bonus episode, Jane and Fi host afternoon tea at Times Towers. With Jane Mulkerrins as their host, they answer audience questions.If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] us on Instagram! @janeandfiAssistant Producer: Eve SalusburyTimes Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

VoiceOver describes what's happening on your iPhone screen. VoiceOver on. Settings. So you can navigate it just by listening. Books. Contacts. Calendar. Double tap to open. Breakfast with Anna from 10 to 11. And get on with your day. Accessibility. There's more to iPhone. A couple of weeks ago, we had the chance to meet some of you at an event hosted by The Times.

A handful of Times subscribers, that's a very big hand, joined us here at Times Towers for a lovely afternoon of tea, cake and chat. Now, if you weren't able to join us, please don't worry, because guess what? We only went and recorded the whole thing. And we're now bringing it to you in a neat little two-part podcast episode. So grab a scone, make sure you've gone, pour yourself some tea and enjoy this bonus live episode of Off Air. Thank you for answering my questions. Thank you. And I think it's time to throw it open to you guys. So somebody will be coming round with microphones

and hopefully you've got some questions for Jane and Fee. Who'd like to start? Yes, both ladies in the front here. Thank you. Oh, if you'll stand on, we've got a microphone coming to you now. Is that okay? Yeah. What's your pet peeve about the other?

Oh, this is, that's a tough one. That's straight in there, madam, isn't it? Straight in. You go first, senior partner. Oh. I think well I'll tell you what it is feed genuinely works hard

my sister and I were talking about this the other day there is no doubt about it there is a garvey lazy gene I without question have that I've always had that oh I'll wing it it'll be alright I'll just wing it

and sometimes it works. Sometimes it pays off. But it doesn't... There are other times when I wish I didn't have it and I wish I could properly, properly work. So your peeve... And I would say that... You're lazy.

No, I would say that Phee's a much more... She genuinely puts the effort in. So let's talk about a book that we're both reading fee really will read it and i'll have had a really good look um and there's and there's a difference and um so i've done you know other jobs um and i've worked on my own in radio and in those days i could BBC, I could usually... Women's Hour, for example, where I worked, had a staff of 125,000 people, all of whom could read the book and then write me... They'd often been to Harvard and could write 400-page essays on the book.

I was then going to do a four-and-a-half-minute interview on. So there was huge amounts of help. And so that was that covered for my laziness i would say so that's the honest answer is that fee really really works hard and you would you would acknowledge that wouldn't you that's not that's not any that's not a criticism it's criticism of me actually that i i know i have the propensity to be to be as to do as little as I can possibly get away with. Yeah, I don't mind working hard. No, no. I can't stand the way Jane eats her apples.

Really. I mean, I probably just can't stand it. And she knows this in the office, because when she gets... Eve's laughing over there. She gets out and she brings in these apples. They're enormous. They're like mutated apples. They're pink ladies. Yeah, and she'll eat them.

And I actually, now I've got to the stage where like a child, sometimes I'm making faces behind her back. So that's my chief peeve. And I'm really sorry. And it's actually quite, I've found that quite cathartic to say. Right.

Would it help if I ate a banana? Yes, it would actually. It would, yeah. I'll try a banana next week. See how I get on. I have to say, though, you just did such a woman thing of being asked about a peeve about fee and making it

into a criticism of yourself. No, but I... That was an honest answer. I suppose what I'm saying is she makes me feel a bit guilty. Let's go there. You don't like spots? Well, well no I didn't say that but you see I hate the word swat really really hate it yeah that is it's not fair that word actually yeah because um so I and this

you know maybe this is a kind of Presbyterian guilt thing but I would just feel dreadful if I hadn't read somebody's book or hadn't read the brief and I hear other people doing interviews and actually Jane's doing herself down because you're not disrespectful to people who come in at all and you have always done the work on

people but you hear it when other people haven't and it's not the most arduous of jobs our job, it really isn't know it's not the most arduous of jobs our job it really isn't and it's a you know the least you can do is to have some knowledge of the person sitting in front of you because it must be awful for them if they know that the person interviewing them hasn't got a bloody clue what they're talking about can we just acknowledge that we're not going to name names we really won't but we have interviewed writers and we have both read their book and they haven't they haven't no yeah they haven't written

it they haven't read it yeah and that's difficult that is difficult i was gonna say yeah that annoys us both yeah we know who those people are i do think that if someone's written a book the least i can do is read it yeah but if they haven't written it if they haven't written it what else read the press release it's fine yeah yeah but also i'm going written it if they haven't written it what else read the press release it's fine yeah yeah but also i'm going to do a womanly thing and say that i think jane's been too hard on herself because you do you do often uh you often have done more work on a guest than i have so so there that's one that's good yes thank you that was therapeutic around much That was a therapeutic or rather. Oh, yes, I feel much better. Who else has got a question? Yes, lady in the front here. A slightly similar question, but not quite the same.

I'd really like to know, I think we'd all really like to know, do you ever have a proper falling out? Would you be willing to tell us about one? There's only been one disagreement in the last how many years? Ten. Well, ten years since we did the radio thingy together. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, honestly, we did have a bit of a kerfuffle.

It was over very, very quickly. And also... And that's once in ten years. And, you know, you're not the first person to have asked that question. And I worked for many years with a male co-presenter, a lovely man, genuinely lovely man called Peter Allen on Five Live. Great, great broadcaster and a good friend of mine. And we really did argue. But do you know what?

No one ever asked if we argued. And I think that I've always remembered that because he used to really annoy me. I know I irritated the life out of him and we would sometimes do three hours together, often in incredibly stressful circumstances, covering news stories and we would not be speaking

because of a row that had gone over from the week before but we'd get through it but no one ever, ever suggested that we might fall out and I think it is interesting that people are interested in women falling out with each other in a way that we assume that male friendships are without rancor and without bickering and it's it's simply not true um well I don't know because I'm not a man, but I would assume that men do fall out or just cease to be friends. But I think I would say that our professional relationship is one thing. And when we stop working together, it would be really nice when we can see each

other socially again. But I mean, Fi does not, oddly enough, want to have a meal with me over the weekend. I can't think why not no but no but vice versa we're you know we're in quite a we are in quite an intense working relationship together and i think especially doing the podcast where some some of what we've ended up how we've ended up being in the podcast is is quite kind of sometimes quite spiky with each other some of that's a genuine release because at the end of doing a you know day's work together that's exactly how I think you'd be with anybody and that's what people hear um but we are falling out good do you mind me telling this no so the only time that we had a falling out was when we were doing the book tour together and we'd been doing loads and loads of publicity

and we'd gone on a huge show huge, huge radio show and Jane had been asked a really simple question about how we met and she said well of course when I met her I couldn't stand her and I just got a bit upset about that, it was kind of like but you didn't even

know me, that's just dreadful you can't say that you don't like someone when you haven't even met them. So I called her out on it, and we had a hug. And then it was all over, and it was absolutely fine. So that's the honest answer. And, you know, friendships benefit from being able to say stuff and do stuff. I mean, I can't stand her now, but I'd never say that. On Zoe Ball's breakfast show, I just wouldn't.

Right, do you know what? On Monday, I'm going to have four apples, one after each other, really noisily. Yeah, but the women falling out with women thing, I think we have to be really careful of, because it is the demise of loads and loads of, you know, friendships and businesses and of you know friendships and businesses and you know publishing imprints and magazines women start things up together

and women fall out with each other and I think the world rather delights in it and you know we are not going to go the way of Colleen Rooney and Rebecca Vardy but which one would you be if which one would you be well I'm I'm Colleen anyway. Yeah, she's Colleen. I'm actually a big admirer of Colleen. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's wonderful.

And she did play a blinder on that one. But gosh, I mean, the fallout's horrible, isn't it? It's really, really horrible. Anybody else? We'll come to you in a second. Sorry, one second. The microphone's there. Hold fire.

Who that you haven't yet interviewed would you most like to interview on the show and why? Thank you. Gosh, we get... Who do we... I mean, it's all this sort of... I mean, I actually had quite a bit of a hankering for Nadine Doré's.

Only because... I know it's I think we could get her I think we could get her yes but well I don't know because she was quite rude about the times I heard her on another radio station last night and um she was suggesting that stories about her have been leaked unhelpfully to the times uh although her book is published by Harper Collins who are in this building one floor down down. Yes, exactly. And obviously, I'm from Liverpool. It's not obvious, but I am from Liverpool, and Nadine is also from Liverpool. And we had a really interesting exchange about her the other day

with the political commentator, Isabel Hardman, who just said that although she is much mocked, Nadine, and there is a lot of snobbishness in that, there's no doubt about that, it probably won't surprise anyone in the room to know that i cannot stand boris johnson i cannot stand him and one of the most wonderful things about coming to this organization was that i finally could say that and when he gives evidence to the covid inquiry the week before christmas or whenever we think it's going to be you know i mean what's left

of his reputation will finally i imagine anyway let's, let's not go there, because my blood pressure is just going to go through the roof. No, I think you'll go down, because you'll see it all played out, actually. It'll be a good display. Yeah, well, hopefully. But sorry, to back to Nadine, she is such an admirer of his. I would just be fascinated to know why on earth she fell under his spell. But Isabel Hardman was saying that actually there are elements of, you know, not everything in her book can be too easily dismissed. And some people just want to mock her and mock the book,

but actually there might be some kernels of truth in there. I also think she's just an extraordinary, she's achieved an extraordinary amount. Yes. I mean, talk about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. She's just had multiple careers and she's looked after her family.

She's pretty extraordinary. Politically, I mean, she's not for me, but I can't help but admire where she's got to. She'd be a great interview. I think she'd be interesting. Everyone says they don't like the time. I'd really, really, really love to get any

of those enormous tech unicorns locked in a studio for an hour. I think they're so culpable for so much and the reverence with which they're treated is just mad. So when you see them being interviewed, you know, what a waste when Rishi Sunak

met Elon Musk, you know, they need to really, really be pushed into, I think they just need to better understand what they've done to the world, what they're doing to our kids, the way that we can't come back from it. You know, there are so, so many questions. But whenever you see, because they're so tightly controlled, whenever you see them being interviewed, it is so patsy, and it never boils down to proper, proper questions just about kids, and

how we can get them all back from stuff. So I'd love to do any of them. The chance of Elon Musk appearing on Off Air, I suspect a little limited. But you know, it's always worth a shout out. I'd like to get Nick Clegg on.

I'd really like to get Nick Clegg on. Because I think he, well, he used to be a man who would answer questions, but I don't know what's happened. Yeah, back in the Sheffield days. Yes. VoiceOver describes what's happening on your iphone screen voiceover on settings so you can navigate it just by listening books contacts calendar double tap to open breakfast with from 10 to 11 and get on with your day accessibility there's more to iphone anybody else oh yes ladies on the front

oh um this is specifically uh jane actually i wonder what your views on astro telephono now i love the left field. It's artificial grass. Yes, I do have... Well, don't you also have it? We've both got it. Now, there are good... I mean, honestly, there are good reasons why I have it. I didn't have grass. It didn't replace grass in my substantial acreage

over there in east-west Kensington. I mean, as you can imagine, it is tiny. We are talking about an extraordinarily small patch of land. There was evergrass there. I have covered it with the unforgivably terrible artificial grass, although mine is Mayfair, as I like to point out. You could choose Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Mayfair. What was the other one?

It was a really upmarket... I mean, it's a really idiotic, vivid green. And it was very reduced in price. I think because it's absurdly bright. But you know what? Every time I come downstairs in the morning and see it, it really cheers me up.

So I rather like it. I'm slightly defensive. I mean, I have got borders and I've filled them with all sorts of wonderful plants. Real things. Those other things. Bushes, yes. And bee-friendly products.

Sorry, that's not the right foliage. And there are foxes and squirrels, and everyone seems to enjoy it. So foxes, I don't know whether it's just our part of London, but we have had foxes on the roof. It's absolutely vile, the fox population of East West Kensington. They seem completely rampant and to be largely taking over. Anyway, I'll leave you with that thought.

How do you defend your artificial grass? Well, I can't really, but because Monty Don, he gave me absolution on my artificial grass. Oh, yeah, he did, yeah. Because we just had a bit down the bottom of the garden where it's a north-facing London garden with plane trees over it, which was just muddy and shit, and so the kids wouldn't go out there.

So I put the grass down and the kids, you know, they played football down there for years and Monty said that was alright so now all kinds of things were lifted from my spirit by him saying that and I'm sure he didn't believe it

but I know it's not a good thing and my lovely sister is a proper gardener and I know that she wrestles with my choices, not just on the grass, actually. But it just, it worked in a family way. So, yeah, I'm sorry about that. Are you appalled by artificial grass? I'm just bothered.

Because when I heard you talking about it many years ago on the Fortunate, it seemed very sensible. But now, with all the kind of green stuff around... Oh, I know, yeah. But you know that global warming is not our fault. So lots of things are. But, yes. But, I mean, you're right. I appeared on the Today programme for some reason.

They couldn't find anyone else except me to attempt to defend artificial grass. And it was one of the reasons I came off Twitter because the abuse was just astonishing. So I just thought, who needs this in their life? It's very painful. No, I know, it's very painful. Very painful. Does anyone else have a question

to trigger some difficult memories for Jane and Pete? You have, actually. You really have. People do get exercised by the most extraordinary things, don't they? Oh, it's incredible. Are you missing Twitter? Do you know, I'm absolutely not. In fact, until I mentioned it just then, it's gone from my life.

I mean, we all spend hours don't we mindlessly scrolling um so i have become a probably more invested in instagram than i ever intended to be um and it's just exhausting watching the targeted ads come my way and what do you get when if you're my age it's just all about elasticated waist trousers, some extraordinary new support garments. Stairlifts. And what, sorry? Stairlifts, yeah. Not quite funeral plans and stairlifts,

but I imagine after my freedom pass, then anything is possible. It's very, very likely. Nothing wrong with a saga holiday. You still tweet, don't you? Yes, I do, I do. But I left Twitter because I got really sick of it and then the coronation approached and I thought, oh, it'll be fun on Twitter for the coronation.

No, it was. It was. People were very, very good. They were very, very funny. People were at their Twitter best. And I've kind of stayed on it ever since because there are just a couple of things I want to have a bit of a rant about myself before going

and Instagram's not, you know, it's not ranty but it's definitely, it's changed beyond all recognition hasn't it? So yes, I won't be long I won't be long on it. On a coronation note, I can't believe that neither of you mentioned

in a highlight being sitting in a box above Westminster Abbey. Well, weirdly, it was going to be in my low light only because, no, there was a moment, do you remember that day? It was just, there was horizontal rain. And we had a really amazing vantage point where, which was either the other side of the the abbey across from the abbey but not where all of the other media people were we were slightly set back so you could very clearly see the king and the queen like that very clearly see the little figures all the way over

but when it started raining we were just in some kind of a rain uh a special gully of rain and there was a moment where actually I looked like I'd wet myself because the chair was so wet and I'd come in my dog walking coat and even that hadn't stopped it from going all the way down my back all that kind of stuff I felt like a proper subject you know I really did I felt like a surf yeah and because I'd made a Corrie Bob's quiche which had got very very damp and nobody really fancied it and in fact lovely Callum said just a small slice

which is the rudest thing you can ever say to someone who's just made a quiche made a quiche yeah Jane is by far the more monocly monocly monocly implied yesle monocle yes I feel a bit guilty about that

because I'd said oh I'd really love to do a coronation programme I think it'd be really good fun and Fee was dragged along in my Windsor family further I would just absolutely love to have watched it at home never mind next time did anybody else make the coronation quiche?

No. Yes. Okay, you did. Was yours lovely? No. Oh, good. Okay. Yes.

Because it had broad beans in it, didn't it? I put butter beans. Sorry, I put butter beans in. Oh, did you? Okay. That's very sensible. Yes, that probably is a better bet. No, the broad beans made it very claggy.

Very, very claggy. Yeah, they weren't. It wasn't nice. But, Fee, was it the day you were off this week when I interviewed the food historian? Yes, it was. So this fantastic woman, and I love fiction, but occasionally I really do enjoy talking to someone

who's just written quite a nerdy book of non-fiction. And this was a book called Stuffed, basically about the history of British food. And this woman is a food historian. She's called Penn Vogler. And I did not know that the broad bean was so significant in English history because it was one of the few things

that everyone could grow. And so everyone ate broad beans almost was one of the few things that everyone could grow. And so everyone ate broad beans almost every day of the week. Stewed broad beans, fricasseed broad beans, broad bean surprise, broad bean pie. Enough. All of these things. And it was just, I just did not know. And so that's the sort of thing that occasionally really grabs my attention,

that sort of nerdy thing. So I was slagging off broad beans when we were talking about it on the podcast the other day, but I remember I had a great broad bean dip recently, which was sort of like a guacamole, but made of broad beans. Yeah. So I take it back. Knock them at your peril. I take it back, but not the really sad, overboiled, wrinkly ones.

No, I don't think anybody would make the case for that. We've only got a few minutes left. Do we have any more questions? I'm sure there must be some out there. Yes, lady down the front. Who's been the hardest person to interview? That was who's been the hardest person to interview. And also, how do you meet your amigurumi?

I think just noisily. Very noisily. She does a double bite. I've studied it very closely. It's quite alarming, isn't it? I really am feeling very self-conscious about that now. Okay, who's been hired? In general, most people, if they're plugging something

that they are closely involved with, they understand it and they're part of the... I mean, they know it's part of their role to be interesting about the thing they want people to invest in. And you've got a bit of a cheek, in fact. If you've agreed to come on a radio programme and then on a podcast, obviously we take the live radio interview

and put it on off-air a bit later, and you can't be bothered playing the game. I do slightly despair of you. It isn't the same if you're interviewing somebody who's been the victim of a terrible experience or the victim of crime or someone who's been through an awful illness and they want to spread the word about it.

That's a very different kind of conversation, isn't it? Yeah, and also because we don't really do the very pushy, shovey political interviews where you are really trying to get somebody to admit something. Right up against the wall, that's not kind of our remit at the moment. So I'd agree that we haven't had any really difficult interviews. I think some of them might have been a bit difficult to listen to.

Are there any that you've thought those haven't really worked? And do be honest, we don't mind. Well, not every interview does work, does it? No. You want some people to be... I mean, it was actually Jane and I who interviewed Geoffrey Archer when Fee was on holiday. It's one of the most surreal days of my life.

He brought a replica crown into the studio. It just says it all, doesn't it? Well, yes. I mean, he was just very odd, wasn't he? He was. But actually, he wasn't being difficult to interview, but we were both pushing him to talk about prisons and about the decline in prisons and conditions in prisons.

And he just wouldn't. He just wouldn't admit that tories he was he was airbrushing from history the fact that he had actually been in prison yeah and indeed had written three books my prison diaries by jeffrey archer so i do think it's pretty legitimate to ask somebody and so um some people so it was actually during the ad break that he said to us no one's mentioned prison to me in 25 years or something. And I thought, well, they're idiots. Why haven't they? You know, it's just, so you do get little situations like that. But we probably normally wouldn't expose it.

We wouldn't say on air, well, we're interviewing somebody astonishingly difficult and uncooperative this afternoon. Fee, what do you want to ask them next? You know, we wouldn't do that. And you can't say that's bollocks on air. I mean, you were trying to get Anton de Beek to say whether, you know, keeping Angela Rippon in was, you know, they'd been sort of encouraged to do so in spite of her...

Just imagine if he'd said yes. The problem is they're on message, aren't they? Most celebrities are utterly on message. What they are really like, and we've both interviewed any number of them over the years, I'm probably none the wiser. No. I mean, if you really...

I mean, Fee and I are probably much more... I'm much more impressed by people who've had lives of genuine public service. And actually, I can knock politicians till the cows come home, but, of course, some of them are terrible, but then who else will do it? You know, if we get the politicians we deserve very often. And they're not all bad people by any stretch.

What did we do to deserve Boris, though? Seriously. I genuinely don't know what I did to deserve that man. I can't imagine. He and I were born in the same week. I know. What a... I mean, the June of 1964. Can I just say what a I mean the June of 1964 well look at him

he's got a frisky young partner and 19 children I know I mean some there's no justice is there it really isn't anyway you've got much better hair much better hair thank you Jane Thank you, Jane. Have you found anyone tricky? Well, I think Rory Stewart was tricky. But I think that was as much on us as it was on him, actually, with the benefit of hindsight. And he was in a funny... He was in quite a defensive position right from the get-go, and that was a bit weird actually because I don't think I don't think we asked him anything particularly unexpected and his whole book is

about not fitting into politics so questions about why he feels that I think were entirely relevant and he definitely he got just got, I think, actually more and more kind of upset as the interview went on. But I don't think it was our finest hour. I don't think it was the easiest listen. And he was very defensive by the end of the interview. So that one just didn't work, really? No.

Sometimes people... I actually really... I was interested to meet him and I wanted to like him. And sometimes people... I mean, if he's right, it probably was more... as much our fault as his, if you like. But, yes, he was a strange one. Do you think some interviewees are intimidated by being in a room with two very smart women

occasionally i think sometimes uh yes i think sometimes it might feel a bit novel just to have two interviewers apart from anything else and i think that is sometimes a bit strange and and i'm sure it's not entirely comfortable because you build up a rhythm in a conversation with one person and with two it's definitely it definitely feels more like an interrogation you can see people you know in feeling that they're kind of in that position but at the same time I don't think it's ultimate interrogation. It's not a Commons inquiry. No, or select committee. Yeah. No.

But, I mean, a lot of them. Who did we have in the other day? He could not have been more at ease. Martin Kemp. Oh, yes. When Martin Kemp from Spandau Ballet came in and saw us, he was not intimidated, but he was perfectly charming, completely at ease with the whole thing,

knew what he was there to do, delivered a lovely, he was interested in do, delivered a lovely, interested, you know, he was interested in what we were saying, he sold his book and he went off twinkling into the afternoon, and why not? So lots of men are far from intimidated. But actually, just to go back to Rory

Stewart for a moment, he wrote such a lovely piece the following weekend after we'd interviewed him, and I don't think the two things are connected at all all but just about how he had felt actually um you know quite shy with women all of his life and and some of that's to do with you know being sent away to school and all that kind of stuff and it was a lovely interview with him and his wife and actually the question that we asked him that slightly kind of soured the tone of the interview was about being comfortable with women and so if we'd managed to elicit from him that lovely response it would have been a completely

different interview and you know for whatever reason we didn't the way that we asked the question or whatever it was or the fact it was two of us I don't know but there's loads to learn you know from our perspective on stuff like that because that's what we'd really like is for someone to be as comfortable in an interview to be able to just tell us the truth that's why you're listening that's why we're doing it so sometimes you can see the walls coming up and then it's really hard to get them back down absolutely i think we've got time for one more question if there is is one. Yes, over there. I just wondered, as I was coming here today,

I was very aware that this time last year or over a year ago, I was in this neck of the woods because I was going to the Lyman Estate. And I wondered if either of you, being Elizabethans as well, had felt impelled to go. And, you know, you were talking about the coronation a short time ago. I did think about going and I didn't go. I can't remember why I didn't go. A great friend of mine went and said... Was it the queue?

It might have been the queue that put me off. The friend of mine who went said she went with her daughter who suddenly decided she wanted to go and she didn't know why they were going. But then when they went, they were both really glad they'd gone, if any of that makes any sense. Was it the same for you? Oh, definitely.

Was it? Yeah. Can you just explain for those of us who didn't go, what was so good about it? Well, I think I always felt very allied to the Queen. That doesn't sound too bizarre. I was born in Coronation Week. Right.

So I grew up with a set of teaspoons that meant something to me. And I don't know, I just felt an enormous affection for her and respect. And I felt it sort of bookended her life and mine. Yeah. And I'm so glad I went. And the queue was amazing. We queued for 12 hours. How long did it take you to get to the queue?

12 hours. 12 hours. I started in Southwark Park. and I had two attempts at doing it, and got to the Westminster Hall at about 8 o'clock at night, and hadn't sat down all day, really got on with the queue. It was an incredible experience, and one I shall never forget. And a lot of my friends who didn't feel so keen to go now say they wish they had.

And I just wonder, you know, the proximity and the fact that probably everyone in this room has been born during her reign. We could see the end of the queue quite a lot from the window. Yes, we could. And that was actually kind of a bit off-putting because you think, gosh, that's going to be nine hours. I got my first letters today with a child's stamp. And I said, what's wrong with this stamp?

Looked at it and thought, oh, actually, and it's so peculiar because I felt a real, oh. I mean, I don't know why particularly, but it suddenly sort of slightly got to me. I mean, we don't have time for the story of where we were on the day the Queen died. No, but all we need to say is we were at the People's Pet Awards. All we need to know.

Where else would you be? Well, it was quite something, actually. And I mean, it's in a way, we are being facetious about it, but what a way to remember Her Majesty. It's what she would have wanted. I honestly think that she would have wanted and it's not funny except it sort of is and I think she would have laughed they played the national anthem at the People's Pet Awards

when a wonderful actor, Peter Egan took to the stage and announced that she'd passed away and there's no doubt about it, some people cried sharp intakes of breath but there were pets in the room this is what you have to understand, people were allowed to bring their pets

and they played the national anthem but was that before or after the minute's silence? No, the minute's silence followed and during the minute's silence you could hear probably about 15 or 16 mostly small pets possibly dashens

being muzzled so the minute silence was accompanied by quite a lot of which everybody in a very dignified way pretended to ignore tried to ignore. Tried to ignore. But unfortunately, one of the All Saints who was on our table, it overwhelmed her and she had to leave. So she did. So we just cannot forget finding out about the passing of the late Queen. Yeah. I think that's a perfect note on which to end. I'm so sorry we've run out of time.

But thank you all so much for coming today from north of Hull and from Somerset and from people who just came on the bus. You can obviously get much more Jane and Fee from three to five live every Monday to Thursday and on the podcast

every evening or whenever you want to listen to it really. And hopefully we'll do this again every year for the next 30 years and thank you first of all thank you for coming because I appreciate that sometimes you apply to do things and then

the great day dawns and you think oh for God's sake I've got to go and do that bloody thing now but you have turned up and that's absolutely lovely and by the way you've obviously had your fill of all of these things, but I'd slip them into a bag. Yeah, that's what I think the bags are for, to tip the scones in. To tip everything in.

Yes, I think some of them will travel quite well, actually. They even taste a bit better on the train on the way home. Absolutely. Thank you all so much for coming. Thank you, Jane and Pete. Thank you. Thank you all so much for coming. Thank you, Jane O'Faith. Thank you. Thank you. You did it. Elite listener status for you for getting through another half hour or so

of our whimsical ramblings. Otherwise known as the hugely successful podcast Off Air with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover. We missed the modesty class. Our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler, the podcast executive producer. It's a man. It's Henry Tribe. Yeah, he's an executive.

Now, if you want even more, and let's face it, who wouldn't, then stick Times Radio on at three o'clock, Monday until Thursday, every week, and you can hear our take on the big news stories of the day, as well as a genuinely interesting mix of brilliant and entertaining guests on all sorts of subjects. Thank you for bearing with us, and we hope you can join us again on Off Air very soon. voiceover describes what's happening on your iphone screen voiceover on settings so you can

navigate it just by listening books contacts calendar double tap to open breakfast with from 10 to 11 and get on with your day accessibility there's more to iphone