Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Is there a sex kitten in your cul-de-sac?

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

Happy Monday! It's another week and Jane and Fi are here to tackle the big questions... Are frozen shoulders contagious? Is there a sex kitten in your cul-de-sac? Can you trust a weather forecast in Scotland? You can listen to the playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3qIjhtS9sprg864IXC96he?si=uOzz4UYZRc2nFOP8FV_1jg&pi=BGoacntaS_ukiIf you want to come and see us at Fringe by the Sea, you can buy tickets here: www.fringebythesea.com/fi-jane-and-judy-murray/And if you fancy sending us a postcard, the address is:Jane and FiTimes Radio, News UK1 London Bridge StreetLondonSE1 9GFIf you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] next book club pick has been announced! We’ll be reading Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession.Follow us on Instagram! @janeandfiPodcast Producer: Eve SalusburyExecutive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

when she moved into the neighbourhood with her two children and probably started wrecking marriages. Oh, a marriage wrecker. So typical. A marriage wrecker and her bosoms. Hello and welcome to another bubbly week, bubbly week on Off Air. Your favourite podcast? Possibly. Certainly mine. Thank you very much for all your emails. Should we do some parish notices? Because we are, we did record an interview last week, didn't we, with an HRT specialist? We did. So we hope that your questions will be answered in a podcast we are going to put out on Friday. I'm looking to Eve,

she's back from her holidays. So that will be your Friday podcast this week. So to everybody who's emailed on that subject, I really hope. She was really good actually, wasn't she the specialist we talked to? She was very good. But I think by the end of it, I realized how lacking in definitive answers we are going to be for some time. So the reason why we don't know whether or not we should stay on HRT for the rest of our lives is because no generation has lived on HRT for 30 or 40 years. So the research just isn't there. It just isn't there yet. But she was very reassuring on lots of other things. And certainly if you if you popped an email question in, we did try and get as many of your points

to her as was humanly possible in the time allowed. In other parish notices we are journeying to the very far north of our United Kingdom. Well, for now. No, we're not. We're going to North Berwick on, well we're travelling on Thursday which means that there will be Book Club. Thank you Eve, Eve's back. So there'll be a Book Club podcast emitting from your podcast platform at about six o'clock on Thursday evening, which is our discussion of Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hessian. And then we will put out our North Berwick show sometime in the firmament of time, who knows? When we're desperate. When one of us is off or

the other one's off or we just can't find one. August bank holiday. August bank holiday. What a good idea. It's not wonderful. And if you're coming to see us in North Berwick then we're looking forward to it enormously. Judy Murray's our guest. We start at 11.30 in a big tent somewhere in North Berwick at Fringe by the Sea. Some tickets are still available. Limited tickets. It's quite a big tent. It is and a thousand of you are already coming. Which we're so chuffed about by the way. We're so so chuffed about that.

Thank you. Have you checked the weather? I, no I haven't. Well, it's a little bracing. I don't ever dare to check the weather in Scotland. There's no point. You just have to come prepared for absolutely blooming everything. Just pack your Mac everybody.

Well I love, I mean to be honest, it wouldn't be a trip to Scotland without a bit of a blow and we're going to get one. But yeah. And there's a storm coming today. Today. Which will definitely still be a bit of a shock. Yeah. But yeah.

It's a bit of a shock. It's a bit of a shock. It's a bit of a shock. It's a bit of a shock. It's a bit of a trip to Scotland without a bit of a blow and we're going to get on. Yeah, and there's a storm coming today which will definitely still have ramifications by Friday, I'm sure. So I think that's everything covered. This one comes in from Sue Baxter, Laura Mason's mum. What a sign off. It'll make sense in a moment. Second time emailer and hopefully second time shout out. My daughter and I are long time fans from the first podcast at The Other Place to now. They came to our evening in Chester, we really loved Chester didn't we? And they got lost on the ring road too. That was the night you had a frozen shoulder. Yes.

And then I got one. Yes, weird and who knew that was contagious. Well it is. Very strange. But it was, can I just say that they were so funny, the audience in Chester, they were really up for it. Yeah. Do you think it was a proper frozen shoulder? Because it didn't, yours definitely passed through quite quickly. It's the worst pain I've had since I had kidney stones. But you had yours for longer.

I did see the doctor and was put on very high strength painkillers and it faded after a couple of days but I tell you what, I really well, you had yours for longer like I say so I feel genuine sympathy for anyone who has to battle one for any longer than I did. What the hell? And I can't remember, did you do any funny stretching things and hanging off door frames and stuff to try and help it? No, no I just took a lot of pain care. Anyway, sorry Sue Baxter, back with you.

Right. So, reason for this email. My first email was in 2022 when I asked that you send wedding greetings to her and Ron. So, this is Laura, short for Romilly, male, and you mistakenly called him Ron, thinking it was a typo. I'm so sorry about that, that's terrible, isn't it? We're just going to correct somebody's entire life. She heard your message on her wedding day and was absolutely overjoyed.

Now she lives in North Berwick and couldn't believe it when you announced that you were coming to the Fringe by the Sea. Tickets were bought on the first day of release for us both. She's been married three years and I now have a two and a half year old granddaughter, Maya, the joy of my retirement. It would be amazing if you could give her a quick shout out next Friday as long time listener and avid fan, here's hoping. I'm putting it in there now because there is every chance that we wouldn't fit everything into our show on Friday, so we're

going to do our very very damnedest, but look you're getting in on the Monday and then we'll give you a great big wave if we manage to. Sometimes, would it be fair to say we're not the most organised when we arrive on the stage, Jane? I mean, it's Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, really. I mean, it's extraordinarily slick. And on that note, I just want to say hello to Laura, who's in Edinburgh, who's written us the most thoughtful and moving email about her great friend Catherine and we're both really sorry to hear about Catherine. She's ill and won't be able to come on Friday but look, lots of love to you both and testament in this email to the power of friendship and Laura, I'm really impressed by everything

you're doing for your friend Catherine, but we can't really do any more than just say we're sending lots of love to you both. Yeah, we are. Definitely, definitely. This one comes in from Liz and it refers to a topic that has really taken off because so many people do have an experience of parents who do something daft with money. The title of Liz's email is my dad died with three hundred and forty thousand pounds on credit cards. On credit cards? Bloody hell. Hello Jane and Fee says Liz. I was so sad to hear about your correspondence circumstances. I'm a few podcasts behind, sorry no need to

apologize, we quite often are too, but I felt I had to reach out. Thank you for shining a light on when people die in debilitating debt. My mum and dad were also great parents, put me through a public school education, amazing holidays, nice cars on the driveway, BMW not Lamborghini, my dad was a spender. Back in 2006 at 56 years old my father died, that's very young so I'm so sad for you on that count. And that's when we found out he had huge debts, and I mean huge, £345,000 on 23 different cards and an £85,000 loan which my mum had also signed for. We had to pay off the £85,000.

He did ought to have a pension with £120,000 in the, but he hadn't signed an in-trust form. 19 years later, I still get a yearly letter from the pension provider, but I can't gain access to the money. I can't do probate because his debts are so much bigger than his assets. Make sure you sign the trust paperwork on your pensions. Much love, kind regards. Well, there's what a horrendous, horrendous situation to have found yourself in. Just the sheer amount of money that your dad was able to borrow on 23 different credit cards tells a dreadful story about the credit card industry and their financial checks and their due diligence on debt. So that is dreadful. But also, I confess I don't understand the thing that

you're referring to with the pension part. So is that that he hadn't said to his beneficiaries of his pension work? Yeah, why would that override a will? Don't understand. So what would be very helpful to know, and we will find this out from somebody who's got absolute top end knowledge on the subject what the relationship is between your will and who you name in your will and the beneficiaries named in a pension and what would happen if you hadn't named specific people in your pension that's what we need to find out is that that's absolutely right and I suppose I might have made the assumption that if

you've let's say you've got a couple of kids and you've left basically everything to your two children, you would assume that just would include everything that happened to be in your pension at the time of your death. So do you have to have named the beneficiaries of your pension separate to your will? Yeah, so we need to find that out. Right, let's find out. But Liz, I'm so, so sad that this has happened to you. That is just such an enormous, enormous amount of money. And also to have ended up with a debt that's larger than any assets

and to not be able to do pro vote, which is just such a nightmare in this country anyway. What a horrible pickle. So thank you very much indeed for telling us your story. I hope there is some comfort. I don't know whether there would be in hearing that other people have had similar problems. I don't think in this case that a problem shared is a problem halved at all. But it's amazing just how many people have found that a lack of transparency about money with their parents has just left them a hellish experience

at a time which is pretty hellish anyway. Yeah, it's really difficult isn't it? Did you notice that the book that Alison Phillips wrote about Fiona Phillips is now number one in the bestsellers? I did. And I'm chuffed for Alison, even more chuffed for Fiona and for her partner Martin because, and also isn't it testament to how much this book is needed? I think that's really what it tells us. This is an account by the former editor of the Daily Mirror, Alison Phillips, about her

colleague, not relative, her colleague Fiona Phillips' experience of Alzheimer's and Fiona has contributed to the book, so has her partner Martin, but Alison has kind of brought the whole thing together and I think it really is a very moving and very helpful guide to what the experience of Alzheimer's can be like and I should say that Joy sent us a lovely email last week about her experience of her husband's Alzheimer's. Joy we've both read that and and send you love and it was a very powerful account of just how tough it can be. But Owen has emailed to say,

I had the privilege of working with Fiona for many years at GMTV. She's a fantastic journalist, getting straight to the heart of stories. Flipping from a devastated family to a guest from Coronation Street to the Home Secretary takes a particular talent. That versatility and

competence is a tricky combination, particularly when things can change around you rapidly, as you both know well. Well, we weren't doing it on the telly, it's much trickier. She was underestimated by many, but not by the people who worked with her, who knew of her great strengths and were delighted to learn from them. I would smile as another politician lowered themselves onto the sofa with a grin which suggested that this was going to be the fun part of their morning round. That false sense of security undid so many day in day out. Fiona knew her stuff." Owen, thank you very much for that because that's when when colleagues who were sort of if you like part of the production team saw you at your worst sometimes if you are a presenter

when they write in and say you know what she was brilliant that that really counts for something doesn't it? Well it does and those squishy sofas don't always host the buttocks of people who are nice to production or who... No they don't. No they don't. I'll just leave it there. Oh. I'll just leave it there. Oh no don't darling, say a bit more. I don't want to.

Right, this is just a very quick one from Sophie Watson who says, I love your program, I've listened for years and sent a couple of emails, but please, please, please stop your jingle. It was fun at first, but now it's getting really, really irritating. It's almost as bad as see it, say it, sort it. Here's hoping you take notice. That is annoying. Look the jingle's gone on holiday so you're okay. It took advantage of a last minute offer and has gone off to Tenerife. But it will come back. As winter, we put our winter draws on, I think the jingle will come back. And on Friday, so I dug out my kids glockenspiel, so I'm going to bring it to North Beryl. I can't

wait. And you can do the jingles live yourself on a bing bong bing. Well it would be like in Heidi High. Yes exactly. They will recreate that. Gladys, what, no that was Gladys Emanuel, that was the very peculiar open all hours, what was that? Didn't like that programme. Who played Ruth Maddock? If you say so. Yeah, Ruth Maddock in ID.R. Yeah, that's going to be you or me or possibly both. Well I think we'll just give it to a member of the audience as well, somebody with a musical talent. Can I just say though, I think we should book Professor Sophie Watson of the Open University Milton Keynes UK, Eve,

because her recent publications, City Water Matters, Cultures, Practices and Entanglements of Urban Water, Spatial Justice in the City and Urban Transformation, Regeneration and Migration. Do you love an urban planning discussion? I'm fascinated by cities and how they're built and why they don't work and which bits do and cities that have got it right and cities that haven't. Haven't and how cities came about in the first place. Yes. How they used to be and why they grew and flourished and then all of a sudden why they didn't.

And some cities have put so much work and thought and Professor Watson will know all about this into how to lessen crime, keep women safe, do all kinds of things that sometimes I think in our major cities we haven't quite got there, we haven't quite, I don't know what it is, have the imagination or the funds or the money or the will or whatever it is, but maybe there are lots of urban planners in this country who are now rising up in their seats and saying we have tried. But anyway, I think it might be quite an interesting discussion. Well, the way cities look, everybody complains, we just complained, well I do. I mean, I'm a sort of carper, but I'm not somebody with any answers. So I'm interested in the people who are trying to find solutions to the way cities work and how they look.

Yeah. And also how they've changed over time and the barrier that that places on making a modern city work. Because so many tourists who come to London, they love the fact that we have some, you know, we have neighborhoods with winding streets. We have neighborhoods that have high-rise and low-rise living in them. We don't operate on a grid system. There are all kinds of things that we've had to manage because we have kept our historical buildings, haven't we? But I don't know whether that's actually an impediment really to how we all want to live now, which is to super zoom

at huge speed from one side of a city to another. I'd also like to know genuinely much more about sewage and sewers. I know you do. No, no, I just think the super sewer is now up and running in London and I'm feeling the benefit. Briefly, we've had, I was going to say we've had loads of emails about Notts Landing. That would be a lie. We've had one. We've had two. We've had two. C.J. Carroll says, Notts Landing is forever known to us in this house as the light bulb show and that's because viewed from the air,

the lander cul-de-sac of Notts Landing does indeed look like a light bulb. Thank you for that, Carroll. P.S. Love the show and thank you for your trenchant views on D. Trump. I think he's a truly dangerous man and one where I don't think universal appeasement can possibly be the answer for another three and a half years. Do you know what? I'm here to tell you, I'm not sure it will be another three and a half years of Donald Trump.

I don't think he's going to do three and a half years. Don't worry, Carol. Gary says CS, another lover of Nots Landing, says Gary was a member of the Ewing family. We did think that, didn't we? Yes. If memory serves me right, he was an alcoholic. Was he? Because that was... That was Sue Ellen's trait.

Sue Ellen. So they wouldn't have... Would they have two alcoholics in one soap opera? I don't want to doubt this gentleman's knowledge. Is it a gentleman who's written in? Do you know what, V? I'm not sure based on the name. So I'm just going based on the name. So I'm just gonna say a listener. If memory serves me right, he was an alcoholic and left Dallas and his family to make a fresh start. He was very much the black sheep and was often the victim of his brother JR's evil schemes.

The only family member who loved him was his mother, Miss Ellie. She of the tent shaped dresses. Yeah, Miss Ellie did she did favor a tent shaped dress. He was married to Donna Krebs, later divorced her and had the misfortune to marry a woman called Abby who was a scheming, money grabbing businesswoman. Terrible. It's very difficult isn't it because that undermines the knowledge that we put out there from celebrity listener Dr. Ian Dale who thought that Gary had married Valene. So Ian if you're listening and I think quite often you are on your way back on a late night train maybe you've got time to look it all up and give us some definitive what's it. Donna Krebs was surely married to Ray Krebs who sort of hung around at the Ewing

Ranch and I could never quite make out I think he was just a general worker bee. Okay, I have typed this into Google, do you want this? It's hilarious. Okay, here we go. Do you want to do the theme tune first? No, that's Dallas, not standing. Oh no, I can't. Right, I'm there. I-da-da-da-da-da. Right. Ta-da-da-da-da-da. I'm there in that lightbulb. The desperate housewives of Wisteria Lane have nothing on the characters in this Dallas spin-off which saw recovering alcoholic, Ding!

Gary Ewing and his wife, Valene, Ding! Ding! settling into a Southern California cul-de-sac to escape the dirty dealings back home in Texas. Gary worked for car dealer, Sid Fairgate, whose wife whose wife Karen became one of Aline's best friends. Sid's recently divorced sister Abby Cunningham stirred things up when she moved into the neighbourhood with her two children and probably started wrecking marriages. Oh, a marriage wrecker! So typical.

A marriage wrecker and her bosoms. Other characters who play prominent roles were Val's mother, Lily May Clements and powerful State Senator Gregory Sumner and sex kitten Paige Matheson. I'm going to go back and watch it. Do you have a sex kitten in your cul-de-sac? Let us know. I mean you probably do. What? Marriage wreckers?

Sex kittens? I'm sure it stood the test of time. I mean you probably do. Oh dear, marriage wreckers, sex kittens. I'm sure it stood the test of time. I'm sure it'll be absolutely fine. Do you think they could make that show now? It's not for today but I'd like to hear you air your thoughts about Bonnie Blue. Oh, do you know, Fie, I couldn't even finish reading an article in the Times about it, so I just don't have any thoughts. Well, okay, well we can do it now then.

If I'm really honest, what do you think? So I think the amount of attention that this woman is being given is so irresponsible. I don't think she's well. I mean, I really don't think she's well. I don't know what Channel 4 thinks it's doing, putting out a documentary that apparently contains quite a lot of footage that, you know, she then puts up herself of the kind of sexual practices that she's getting up to. I did read a piece that said, you know, basically on it is under 18 you know I think it's it shows the leaky system we have around trying to keep children safe and

I think dressing up Bonnie Blue as some kind of total nipiterian of our time you know being all about you know the argument about that she would make about female empowerment. I don't believe that to be the case at all. I don't think people are watching anything that she does and coming out of it thinking, yeah, women are equal and valid and we need to admire them for their brains and the fact that they hold up half the sky. I don't think that's what people are thinking after they watch anything that she does and I hope at some point in her life she finds something a little bit more settling

to do actually. So sorry that's my little rant about it. No, no, no. It makes me very upset Jane. It's not a rant and I just feel something approaching despair. I mean, you're right, I can't disagree with anything you've said. I don't think she's empowered. I think she's a very sad young woman who needs help. And as for those, yeah, they were mainly young men, I understand. I honestly mean it when I say I couldn't finish that article because it was just making me feel so bleak that I just thought thought I'm just not sure I need to know any more about this.

But as I understand it, there were hundreds of young men've got mums, they've got sisters. What were they thinking? What was anybody thinking? And what on earth? You're right, we're Channel 4 thinking. Yeah, I don't like it, Jane. No, well, we don't. We don't like it.

And actually, if you don't know about this, keep it that way. Seriously, I mean it. I'm absolutely with you. So the only piece that I've managed to read, which I would point people in the direction of, was a fantastic comment piece by Hadley Freeman in The Times. I read that yesterday. Sunday Times. And I cheered for her because I think people have got a bit, they've got a bit funny about empowerment and pornography. And there is definitely, and this is Hadley Freeman's beautiful articulated argument, my apologies I'll be paraphrasing it badly, but her point is that it's quite often used as a bit

of a weapon against you if you don't want to talk openly about pornography or use pornography or there's some kind of free speech element and we're seeing that creeping into reforms criticisms of the online safety act that actually, you know, they're taking away people's freedoms because there will be heavy age verification involved for pornography sites. And I would like there to be a space in society where you can push back against that because without being labeled approved,ude or you know, fridges, somebody who just doesn't like that kind of stuff. I don't like that attitude because there's so much harm that's being done to children. The normalization of pornography is a bad thing, Jane. It's just a bad thing.

I couldn't agree more and but if anybody does want to tell us we're wrong, you can. And we will read out the emails that say you're just a pair of old baggages, I don't know what you're talking about. But we're not alone and I read Hadley's piece too, it's really powerful. Actually, my sister rang me first thing yesterday morning, she said, have you read Hadley Freeman? Did she? Yeah. Well, I'm glad it struck a chord. It absolutely, it does.

I think it does, it should. And we ought to be entirely free to say, I hate this. And I hate what we're becoming. And it doesn't matter to me at all what two adults get up to in their private life. But it's the normalisation of it. Because by normalising it, I don't think you're giving children enough choice to say no. The idea that our whole society and especially female empowerment has to be based on sex bollocks. Let's leave it there, can't do better than that. James and Fee at Times. Radio, it is such a serious topic this

and obviously that's the beauty of it. We're wide ranging on this podcast aren't we? We do the utterly trivial and we do the deadly serious and you can take issue with anything we say. Yeah. You absolutely can but it would be very interesting to hear some thoughts. No it would. Particularly if you have teenagers that you're wrangling at the moment, I was going to say rearing, wrangling, whatever it might be, it's a tough old world for them to navigate and they sort of need our help. Are we

equipped to give it to them? I don't know. Do let us know and if you're a teacher also really welcome your thoughts. Jane and Fiat Times.rode, we must leave it now because incredibly other people need to use this facility, they're just not as important as us. Goodbye. Goodbye. Congratulations, you've staggered somehow to the end of another Off Air with Jane and Fee. Thank you. If you'd like to hear us do this live, and we do do it live, every day, Monday to Thursday, 2 till 4 on Times Radio. The jeopardy is off the scale, and if you listen to this you'll understand exactly why that's the case. So you can get the radio online on DAB

or on the free Times Radio app. Off Air is produced by Eve Salisbury and the executive producer is Rosie Cutler. Music