Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Ladies' fluff (with Eddi Reader)

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Jane and Fi are pondering why beavers have such good PR, whether they would consent to being micro-chipped and if Jane should put the heating on. They're also joined by singer-songwriter Eddi Reader about her new project, a stage version of Brokeback Mountain. Follow us on Instagram! @janeandfiIf you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail].  Assistant Producers: Tom Vigar and Melanie FormosaTimes Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I think we could probably do it in eight and a half minutes. Actually, I tell you what, we could ask a favour, couldn't we, of our podcast audience. Just play it on the special slow one. Yeah, it'll last longer. Yeah. Because I've got to go out. I'm going out tonight. So if you turn it down to 0.5 or whatever. You'll get your money's worth yeah you will yeah and now um last night uh at about 10 past eight i

seriously considered putting the heating on you and me both i didn't i just went to get a jumper uh but it's it's i know it's in complete contrast to what's going on in the rest of the world it was weird wasn't it yeah it was gold oh Exactly about exactly the same time I was in textual conversation with somebody. And I said, I'm thinking about putting the heating on. And the reply came back, I won't tell anybody. And it's a very fruity exchange you were having. It's a little insight into my evening. And I thought it was it was that kind of you're being naughty type thing.

I thought, OK, well, I won't. So I reached down to the right-hand side of the sofa to where there's a duvet that's kept tightly wrapped in a basket for the winter months. I thought, oh, I'll just use that. Surely you launder it between the seasons. Well, Barbara had only peed in it. I know.

So I unleashed the duvet to the most god awful smell of kind of three month old wee little perisher. She is. She really is. She's not actually got over her, because she was doing that early doors and she's still having her little piddle is she? Yep. I dread to think where else she's

piddled. Whereas lovely Brian he's never wrong. Oh he's a saint our Brian isn't he? Our Brian certainly is. Let's hear it for Brian, the cat who never pees. Whereas Barbara... Right, yep. Well, that Barbara impersonation will live long in the memory. Welcome to Off Air.

Now, today's big guest is Eddie Reader, who was the lead singer of Fairground Attraction. Now, they were a band, of course, who had that phenomenal album that included the song Perfect, which I'm not going to hum or even reference particularly. It's in my head already. It never once heard, completely impossible to forget. Massive, massive hit. But they were sort of a troubled unit and they broke up within about 18 months, I think. So they didn't, they made a second album was kind of rushed out, but it was mainly B-sides and outtakes and stuff. So there were only ever

the two albums, but they are that band that you forever associate with a particular time in the, was it the late 80s or early 90s maybe it straddled the decade yeah but it's funny actually because eddie came in today didn't she and she she looked absolutely how i imagined the eddie reader of 2023 to look because she's got a verve and flair about her hasn't she she was always in color yes that's what i remember about her she was just a very very colorful artist when everybody might have been a bit more beige yes or black and white yeah monochrome yeah no she was you're absolutely right actually she had that kind of almost a balladeer type look about a middle-aged troubadour look gosh i've gone really intellectual you have i think she's got a

draw full of colorful scarves, I think she probably has. I mean, that's the mark of the middle-aged woman, though, isn't it? I was actually in my scarf drawer only the other day. You start lashing one round your neck and suddenly everybody thinks you're 25 again. It's marvellous. It can brighten any outfit. It really can. Anyway, Eddie Reader is going to be with us.

I mean, obviously, I've already done the interview a little later. In fact, we haven't got long today. We've got a lot to get through. We have. We need to get a wiggle on. Could we just, without mentioning his name, just relive the fantastic text that we got towards the end of the programme from a man in Basingstoke?

Because we've been talking about Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London's latest campaign to try and stop violence against women and misogyny. And it's basically a group of blokes who should be calling out their mate for making some really horrible comments and then really lewd suggestions and patronising things about women.

And it's not... Lots of people think it's a bit of a kind of icky iteration, but I don't think anybody really disputes the message, which is, you know, don't be a prat. But our correspondent said... Well, he said he was sick to death of the anti-male sentiments on our programme. I don't know whether he meant from us or what he considers to be the far too frequent, what he perceives as anti-male content,

which might simply be the news of the day, which more often than not features what we might describe as challenging behaviour by the male of the species. Yes, and it's the Mayor of London's campaign. It's not us. You and I haven't gone out and made a film. No, because I don't think that would have any impact on the behaviour of young men, I have to say, although we're more than willing to make a film, obviously. No, John, don't think that would have any impact on the behaviour of young men, I have to say.

Although we're more than willing to make a film, obviously. No, John, he was very... Oh, I've just mentioned his name. Anyway, he just doesn't really matter because there are probably quite a few Johns in Basingstoke. But he didn't like that. But he did like the interview with Eddie Reader. I thought it was very balanced text. I can't stand the programme, but I did enjoy that interview and I shan't be listening again. Well, not until tomorrow anyway, at three o'clock,

when I probably will tune in. It just made me laugh. Against my better judgement. To hear, by the way, tomorrow, Carol Kirkwood. More ladies, John. Brace yourself, John. There might be a bit of climate change chat there as well, what with Carol being a meteorologist and a novelist.

Best-selling novelist. Secrets from the Villa Amore is her offering for this summer, and I think it'll satisfy many an eager beaver reader. Blimey. Well, that's a recommendation. Put that

on the back, Carol. Hello both, says Martha and David in brackets. Just a very quick email to let you know that my partner and I got engaged on Thursday as prompted by your podcast. We were sat on a bench listening to the podcast when an email mentioned a partnership proposal. My now fiancé turned to say that talking of partnership proposals, he had a ring in his pocket and wanted to ask me to marry him. I am proud to have your podcast as part of my personal history. Thank you for your part. Well, Martha, I mean, don't be shy with the invitation.

We've both got hats, as previously mentioned. We've got scarves. And we can be at any gathering of your choosing. I think, well, maybe not the Channel Islands. No, not the UK. Or the Isle of Man. Or the Is gathering of your choosing. I think, maybe not the Channel Islands. No, no. That would be difficult. Or the Isle of Man.

Or the Isle of Wight. Or anywhere more than 10 miles from my home in East West Kensington. And if you want us to read a lesson, that will be extra. You can consult our agent who is ever willing to deal with offers. But huge congratulations. Yes, and that as well.

And obviously, if he's a male listener to this ladies' fluff, then he's a keeper. So we wish you well. Yeah. Oh, somehow, you said fluff, ladies' fluff. I then thought bum fluff. I don't know why.

Okay. Well, I'm telling. Why do you tell me? Anyway, that made me think about... Why have you told us? I don't made me think about... But also, why have you told us? I don't know. I've forgotten where I am. But then that reminded me of bowel cancer.

And that reminded me of the incredibly good person we had, the chief executive of Bowel Cancer Research UK today. Yes. On the Times Radio programme. You can listen back on the Times Radio app. It's free. And I thought she gave the clearest explanation I've ever heard of what you need to watch out for in terms of bowel cancer symptoms. You're right. And we were talking really because of George Alagaya's death and he had bowel cancer.

But I think by the time he was diagnosed, it was in advanced stages, wasn't it? And Genevieve Edwards' message was just so clear. There's a test available that you can do at the first sign of trouble or even before trouble starts which is available to anybody It's just a real shame that a third of the people who get sent that test in the post do not do it. And you've just got to scoop out a bit of poo We talk about the logistics and what

she just said, you know that whole business of changing bowel habits and I must confess I'd wondered, well what does that mean? And she couldn't have made it clearer if what normal well if what is normal for you changes then you really do that's when you need to just bear it in mind yeah and also it's just so treatable if you catch it really early so she talks all about you know what happens when you go for a colonoscopy and stuff so yeah do it do it do it download the app it's free and stuff. So yeah, do it, do it, do it. Download the app.

It's free. And if you want a pointer, it was about half past four, wasn't it? Yeah. Now, incredibly, I've made a mistake. So I'm just going to correct it. Hi, Fee and Jane. I just wanted to start by saying how much I love your podcast. I'm going to include this kind of thing now because I'm on this anti-self-deprecation drive. Go, go. Thanks. Yeah. I'm probably in the younger demographic of your loyal listeners, but I do find you both a comfort. Well, thank you. It's much appreciated. And this is from Aoife. So I hope I've pronounced that right because Jane has now, as she tells me, twice incorrectly mentioned that Dr. Katrina O'Sullivan is a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin. Now, despite going through formal education there she is actually a senior

lecturer in Maynooth University. Despite its international fame here in Ireland Trinity isn't ranked as a better university than any other at least by public perception. For example a science degree from Trinity is as valuable to you as a science degree from any is as valuable to you as a science degree from any of the other national universities when working in a multinational pharmaceutical company such as the one I work in. The prestige of Trinity comes from the time when we had British rule in Ireland and Catholics were not allowed to go to Trinity, therefore the attendees were of the gentrified class. Much of that has been

abolished as our admissions system here is anonymised and based on academic results. So I often think of a friend who did an exchange to Berkeley University, an Ivy League place in the States, and she was constantly asked was she a Trinity student upon then learning that she was Irish, when they learned that she was Irish. She could have accepted a place at Trinity just as easily, but chose a university closer to her family in a city where rent is much more affordable. So that is interesting. And thank you for making it clear that a lot of people I know think that Trinity is a more significant institution than other Irish universities. And it's good to be reminded of its origins as an Anglican,

a Church of England establishment or Church of Ireland establishment in what is now the Republic. So thank you for that. Yeah. And thank you for the help with your name as well. Yes. And if I have made any more cock-ups, you can always email again. Jane and Fee at Times Talk Radio. Good stuff. Dear Fee and Jane, just to say that things can take a positive swerve after 45.

So we set this little train in motion yesterday, just asking for your stories about when things had gone right after the age of 45. And our correspondent, Dr Janet Withall, says when my children were young and I had a reasonably successful marketing and PR career, midlife professional boredom and a mild obsession with what I was feeding my kids, led me to start a part time MSc in nutrition, physical activity and public health at the age of 46. One thing led to another. I completed a PhD at 42 and now at 63, I manage a large, randomised, controlled trial

researching ways to improve physical function in older adults. Top tip, move it or lose it. P.S. My friend recently completed a cycling lead jog. Do you know what that is? I don't, actually. What is it? It is the acronym for Land's End to Jono Grote's. Big achievement, but wind slightly taken out of sails when some bloke rocked up on you guessed it

i can't believe it yeah penny farthing but it's with the penny farthings i thought there were only about five left in the whole world but everywhere where people are just looking up from a normal cappuccino on a saturday morning or just your average cycling ride from one end of the country to the other there's a bloody bloody, bloody thing. Talking of repeat offenders, there's a lot of beaver news again in the newspapers today, wasn't there? They're never more than a couple of minutes away from building a dam, wrecking a farmer's

something or other, or generally causing mild, slightly salacious mirth across the nation. I think beavers have got the PR that sloths need. And kale once had. Yeah. They are PR'd to within an inch of their life, aren't they?

They really are. Are you doing PR for beavers? You've just come off Barbie and now you're back on beavers. By the way, I noticed you didn't mention the institution which Dr Janet Withall is associated. Oh, the University of Birmingham. Yes. I never know how to say the second part of this,

but I'm going in anyway. Alma Mater. Alma Matar, I'd prefer. Okay. Don't think it's correct. I knew Alma. She was a great gal. G'day, Jane and Fee.

Could we take a moment to celebrate the freedom that paying for stuff with your phone has given us women? I guess. Yeah, I agree. No, go on. All we need when we go out now is a pocket just like a man no more handicapping ourselves with a handbag or deforming our bodies by hitching one shoulder higher than the other just a phone in the pocket or in the pocket what pocket damn so close says pam who's listening to us in auckland new zealand well let's take that moment because I completely agree and I'd not thought of that before, but I can't leave the house with just my phone anymore. It makes me

nervous. Well, this is an interesting point because I do sometimes leave the house with just my phone. Did it this morning. And because I am used to the fabulous nature, the convenient nature of the smartphone, I forgot my key. Oh. Not ideal. So could you phone somebody to sort it? Well because I had my phone yeah I was able to alert my resident child who slightly reluctantly agreed to come to the door. Okay well that's good for you. That's not much of an anecdote is it? No but do you think there'll ever come a time where would you be happy to be... I can't wait for this. What are you building up to?

It's not a question I thought I would ever ask. Well, you've asked me quite a lot. Would you consent to be microchipped? Would I consent to be microchipped? Yes, I think I probably would. For sheer convenience, and as a pensioner, when I'm likely to become... Well, I'm not going to become more able to remember stuff, am I?

I think it would be ideal. Then what, you could just approach your front door, gently headbutt it. Yeah. Very gently, obviously. Well, I was thinking... Get in. Yeah, you could just do that...

You just kind of flick your wrist up and something would click. I'd like to be microchipped in my arm. I don't want to be microchipped in my head. I don't know why. I'm sure that's a huge difference. Your personality could be hugely enhanced by a microchip in your head. Thank you. Well, I mean, yes, smartphones are convenient.

The beauty of them, they are majestic instruments. It's just the addiction thing I can't get over. I just still continue to find it immensely depressing. Can I be really honest as well? I don't take my smartphone into the studio, so I have two hours every day it's not in my hand. And pathetically, and I think people will understand this, I feel a rush of adrenaline as I go back to it at about a minute past five.

Now, isn't that tragic? No, it's not tragic. I think it is. It's just you've just bought into the modern world. And, I mean, the hit is those people have contacted you and you're updated and, you know, you're safe in the knowledge that you can send something back to them, you know, we are attached, aren't we? We're just attached.

And it's the attachment that I both resent and also like. Yeah. I don't know. Anyway, we need to get on to Edurida because we've both got very hectic lives. But I did want to include this from Catherine who says, I'm writing on behalf of a dear friend and fellow listener currently unable to access her email as she is traipsing around North America on adventurous

field work for her supposedly four year but likely longer PhD. Last month she had the pleasure of looking after a cat who enjoyed being taken out on walks in a modified pram enclosed in mesh. The cat places herself in the pram until she's finally taken out. Then she sits upright, craning her neck out, looking out very alertly and clearly engaging with the world. Unfortunately, the only public green space near her residence is a cemetery, so my friend felt extremely eccentric pushing this little black cat through the graves. In the picture attached i rather think the cat looks like a widow whose rich husband died under suspicious circumstances it's quite a

love showing that to you i completely get what you mean the cat also has a harness and a leash so she can run around the garden but she doesn't go on the streets in said get up as an aside when i got my own cat Nora I did harness training as I hated the idea of her running around on her own killing birds but also didn't want to deprive her of stimulation. Well despite lots of assurances that cats can learn to walk on leashes if introduced as kittens Nora thoroughly rejected it by refusing to walk at all and is now a very happy, albeit bloodthirsty, independent outdoor cat. Thank you for that full-bodied email on the subject of cats, Catherine. Much appreciated.

Right, Eddie Reader. We will take more on cats. Probably not much more. None. Brokeback Mountain is a seminal film starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal and actually possibly because

of Heath Ledger's death there's a sort of sadness associated with Brokeback Mountain isn't there the film? And it was a very very sad film set in the 1960s in Wyoming in the States about two young cowboys who fell in love but just couldn't be together. It just wasn't something that could have been possible back then. It might still be pretty

tough now for all I know. It's now become a stage play. It's not a musical as such. It's a play with songs and it's on at the Soho Place Theatre in London until the 12th of August. The songs are performed by a great band with vocals from Eddie Reader. Now, I was really surprised. It's over 30 years since her band Fairground Attraction broke up. And she told me that Brokeback Mountain is pretty different stuff for her. And she assured everybody listening it isn't a musical in the traditional sense. Yes, it's not so much that it's certainly not a musical. It's not ging-ging-gooly and everybody gets up and does a dance.

The music was supposed to be part of the characters in the company. So the band plays the role of emotional ballast. And also it's very gestalt because we're watching it with the audience. We're watching the scenes unfold. And so is one of the characters is older Ennis, played by Paul Hickey. And basically, this is all directly from Annie Proulx's book, the 58-page short story that she wrote.

A novella, they call it, yes. And it was in The New Yorker, I think. Yes, and it was in The New Yorker, I think. And I think she was approached by Ashley Robertson, the writer, and she totally approved of the idea and then she loved what he'd done with it. And to take it from the book, it means that there's less of a this isn't a story about a certain genre or type or cliche or niche area of our humanity it's about human beings dealing with fear at all times

like we all deal with fear it's universal isn't it actually absolutely I mean we've got the wife and her fear and shame and guilt and you've got the wife and her fear and shame and guilt, and you've got the boss and his fear and shame and guilt. You've got the character himself, Ennis. It's all based around Ennis. So older Ennis is in the bed,

and then his kind of ghost of his memories come back, and we see how his life played out from the age of 18. Now, I've got to say, having seen the film, which is obviously the most famous, Brokeback Mountain came out, to my surprise, 2006. Wow. A long time ago. Annie Proulx's short story was even older than that, obviously.

Yeah. And I think she based it on an evening she spent where she saw an older man in a bar appearing to look perhaps, might say too closely at younger men playing pool i think it was and she envisaged his life as a man who'd never been able to find the love he really wanted fulfillment i mean we all have the the men that got away as as Judy Garland once sang. But there is that. There's those regrets that you think, what if it could have been?

But I think in their situation with the Brokeback Mountain characters, Jack and Ennis, played amazingly by Lucas Hedges and Mike Feist, there's this real genuine, authentic love that they have for one another. Playful. It's fraternal, but it moves into a drunken night.

But then they have to deal with what does that mean and who are we? And they also love other things. They love their wives. They love their children. They love their parents. They love their parents. Ennis's parents got killed in a car crash. So from very early on,

we get the story that this is a damaged human being. And then we find out that their love relationships, i.e. their natal parental relationships, was where the rot would begin, you know. So the masculinity of the father being a threat and also the... both of them were abused, definitely. Yeah, and that comes out, which is something I must admit I'd either forgotten about the film or it wasn't in the film.

So I learnt something about these characters from the play. I think it's a deeper dive into what triggers fear in human beings and why it can completely devastate a life if you allow it. And you haven't got the emotional capacity to get your head round the back of it, really. I did wonder how on stage in Soho in London you were going to be able to recreate the big open spaces of Wyoming. How is it done, do you think?

The tech is outstanding. I had to learn how to, you know, the lovely Sean Green is the MD. Musical director. Musical director. Musical director, yes. And he's in charge of making sure we all play at the right time. And he's dealing with me and BJ Cole, who are both touring musicians.

Now, BJ Cole is a noted, what's his instrument? BJ Cole is a pedal steel player. He played on Kiki D records in 1968 all the way through. He's played on Tiny Dancer. He played on Scott Walker's Make It Easy On Yourself. Right. He's the real thing. He's the real deal.

And in fact, that was a massive hook for me to get involved. And of course, the sound that he creates with Greg Miller on harmonica and Mealy Trail. Mealy Trail on harmonica and Millie Trail. Millie Trail on bass, that's her name. And Millie and Sean are the most experienced, I think, in the theatre world. So there was times when he had to direct us and I'd be like, I'll count myself in. You don't need anybody to count me in. And he's going, I have to do it. It's my job.

I had to, you know, he had to deal with diva me for the beginning. You know, I have to do it because the bed comes up there and the table goes down there and the light goes on then. So this has been a real learning curve. Real learning for me.

Not as natural as I thought I would. I wanted to be much more natural with it, but then I found my naturalness came out once the structure was in place. And it was a resistant thing for me. I was very much, this should flow where it wants to, you know, this should go where it wants to. But it's difficult in theatre to do that because everything's relying on the speech and the lines.

And the songs have been created for this show by a man actually who's in a band I really love called The Feeling. This is Dan... Dan Gillespie-Sells. And Dan, he often says, I was raised by two lesbian parents and we went to Galway in Ireland

or south of Ireland for our holidays every year and the two cassette tapes they had in the car was Women of Country 1 and Women of Country 2 Right, we had no choice really So he fell in love with that genre and then of course when this opportunity came, the music

actually is supposed to represent the mountain and the universal love of life and the universal love of life and the kind of all-encompassing acceptance that the world can have for every human being except when our minds get in the way. Yeah, and we should say, I didn't realise this either, Brokeback Mountain was set in 1963, which i think was four years before homosexuality was decriminalized in

england and wales wow so you know back in in wyoming their relationship would have been completely impossible well legally illegal yes but more that, you had marauding animals of emotionally dull and non-intelligent human beings who would murder you if you came across as a gay person or if they suspected you. And one boy in 1991 in Wyoming was left for dead on a fence. He was 21. And I think his parents activated some law after that. You know, their only son was just...

And I think those kind of moments in our history, which we have to come to terms with, you know, we have to realise that nothing's nothing happened in a vacuum we've got to this stage and yeah when people moan that they want it better you think yes of course you do of course you do but we have to be grateful that we're not stuck in that dark ages and you know the the kind of neanderthal times of of you can't love who you want to love you know. times of of you can't love who you want to love you know we are talking to eddie reader who is currently starring as the balladeer in brokeback mountain the play which is on in london right now and now before all the brit awards and the platinum records and her mbe for services to music

eddie's musical career had begun rather less glamorously by busking in Socky Hall Street in Glasgow Yes, yes, I mean I did a bit that kind of that was where I kind of got a lot of money for what I consider to be not very much work I just sung a song

to people and I enjoyed the process but more importantly I think when you're a child of music you're a musical child at the age dot really and I my family was full of records and you know people playing music the Beatles my my babysitting aunties were all in love with Paul McCartney and so we you know as five-year-olds and four-year-olds we were we're infused with all that 60s kind of beauty in music and for me my mother had a beautiful singing voice and she Jean Reader she Jean Hayes before she was married and she uh she's in she's 85 right now I know you don't want me to tell everybody, Mum, but you look great on it.

She's still singing. Still singing. She loves her music. And I actually think that as a child, she was a singing thing like I was. But she, of course, there was no access to that in Glasgow, in Anderson, in the kind of slums of Glasgow at that time. She just got on with it and became a wife and mother.

There's a lot of women in my background that seem to have had to put their dreams on the shelf to do that. Well, Wikipedia says your grandma was a successful footballer. Yes, Granny Reader was the captain of the Rutherglen Ladies in 1927 when it was all banned and no one knew. So when she got married and had my dad and my uncles and aunties, she put her football boots in the cupboard

and that was it. It was gone. But yes, a lot of my mother's singing infected me probably from the womb and I could gauge that if life was happy, my mother was singing. When life was not happy, my mother was singing. When life was not happy, my mother was not singing. So I came to associate singing with feeling good.

What was her happy song? Friendly Persuasion by Pat Boone. Okay. Thee I love, soft as a meadow on yonder hill. Give me your hat and your gloves. What is it? And come with me for thee I love. Very beautiful song.

I can't even sing it without getting a wound memory. No, I'm feeling quite... We don't hear much Pat Boone these days, let's be honest. Whenever my mother's feeling a little tetchy with something or other, maybe she's had a cold call and those nonsense people that try and annoy us with their selling us of things we don't need um i would put on natkin cole and she snapped right out of it she'll start talking about all the songs that she loved and and there's songs that she has in her head that i don't think anyone's ever heard for years. So, yeah, she's a mind of information.

And I think she actually had perfect pitch and didn't realise. Yeah. So she was a singing thing. So what did she make of it when you didn't have an overnight success, not by any stretch? I mean, you were doing backing vocals.

I didn't realise you'd been in the Gang of Four as well. I mean, all sorts of stuff. Did you do backing vocals on The Waterboys' Hole of the Moon? Yeah, that was me. I mean, that is... No you do backing vocals on the water boys whole of the moon yeah that was me I mean that is no no wait a minute yeah don't lie that wrong don't lie uh hang on I did I did backing vocals on there the big music right the big music which uh the whole of the moon I wish I'd got on that but that did uh I'd already I think I'd already gone into working with fairground attraction.

Then there was a whole time in the 80s where you could get singles and I don't even know how many things I've sung on. But certainly any not successful single in the 80s, if you found it in a charity shop, there'd be me screeching all over it. And, you know, I tended to use that whole 80s period as my learning curve, kind of like I'm doing with this Brokeback Mountain. I like to try things that might expand me.

So things, the album that everybody's got, I need to remind myself, The First of a Million Kisses, you got Brit Awards for that, for the single Perfect as well. Triple platinum in 27 different countries, yes. But the band didn't last that long, did it? No, it didn't.

Although, being in London, I did sing with Mark, who wrote those songs, apart from Whispers, which was mine. He was singing in Hampstead and I just went up there and we went on stage for the first time in 30 years and sung. So Brokeback Mountain has brought a lot of healing to me

and he's coming to see it next week. Roy and Simon have seen it a few weeks ago. Yeah, and we all went for brunch and where Stanley Baxter has his breakfast apparently. Good grief. I know. It just seemed very cyclic, the whole thing. It's 30 years ago, so...

Is it really? Okay. Almost. More than that, I'd say, but yeah. But 34, because my son is 34, Charlie. Yeah. And he... Make sure you do the dishes while I'm away, Charlie. He was in my womb

and he began his journey when I sung the last note of Hallelujah. We'll kiss the first of a million kisses. And I looked down at the pregnancy kit and it said positive. I don't believe that. Is that true?

That's a great story. That's exactly what happened. We were in Chippenorton And we did the whole album in about three weeks And I sung the last note of Hallelujah Which is the last song on the album And I went into the bathroom and looked at the pregnancy kit And there it was Do you still play that album?

Well, I mean, I play the songs I like the songs I'm terrible for records and things like that. I have masses, masses and masses and masses of CDs, records, 78s even. I'll buy wind up gramophones so that I can play, you know, the original 78 of Frank Sinatra singing some beautiful song because I want to hear how it was for him when he first heard it and the feeling in the room. Al Jolson

you know Louis Armstrong is my god so I'm kind of into into experiencing music in the moment so with those songs I try and incorporate them in my set. But you wouldn't listen to yourself particularly? No, no I wouldn't because I'd always want to yourself particularly? No, no, I wouldn't.

Because I'd always want to go back and do it again and I would always I would hear a different person. It's like looking at pictures of yourself when you were younger. You kind of go, oh, that wasn't that bad. But at the time it was full of angst and anxiety. And now as an older woman I'm kind of

I'm kind of young. As Dylan says, I'm younger than that now yeah well too right can we have a brief word I know you're quite passionate well perhaps you I think you still are about Scottish independence well yeah is that one a little bit um maybe not as likely as it might have been well I do I think that all um countries should be autonomous and their democracy should be theirs I don't think it's fair on England that we should be having your democracy. We should have ours. And I don't see there's a problem with that.

We will still be friends, lovers, dinner partners. You know, we'll still go on holiday with each other. I just think it seems really unfair that we've never voted for what you vote for, for 55. No, since 1955 Yeah but it might be different at the next election But even that, we're only getting it while you want it and until you don't want it we have to just

kowtow to that and I just think that's unfair, it's like living in a flat with somebody who's bigger than you and them deciding what's in the fridge That is the reason Eddie Reader continues to believe in Scottish independence. Yeah, it's a nice analogy. I like a good analogy.

I liked it. Well, that was absolutely lovely and I hope every man in Basingstoke thoroughly enjoyed that meeting of minds. And do you know if Brokeback Mountain, the musical, is going on tour or is it only going to stay in the London town? I don't know whether it's going on tour.

I think there might be a possibility of it going to, as we say, Broadway. Oh, my goodness. Yes, I'm not sure whether Eddie would go on that trip, but I think, because the actors in it, they're both American actors. One of them, I can't remember which, has been nominated for an Academy Award

for Best Supporting Actor for the film, very depressing film, Manchester by the Sea. Okay. Yeah, but they're great actors and i i i mean it's you know i shouldn't focus on the fact that it's 90 minutes straight through with no interval but for me that makes theater better and more enjoyable i know you don't agree but i know sometimes people think oh god i'm gonna go to the theater and and there have been times in my life when I've enjoyed my favourite part of the play has just been the end because it means I can go home and it wasn't the case with Brokeback Mountain.

So I do urge people to take a look. Okay, and I don't want to completely repeat our conversation that we had on air today but I like an interval. I just like to be able to see each end in sight, Jane and I find 90 minutes would be too much for me. to be able to see each end in sight jane and i find 90 minutes would be too much for me can i just say hello to lucy who describes herself as being in menopause or weatherstruck devon and to cassinia and i really hope i've pronounced your name uh properly and huge apologies if i haven't um but both of you have really enjoyed watching deadlock and i'm going to carry on banging on

about that because it's just so funny never seen anything like it uh it's deadlock with a ch at the end of it not a ck and it's available on the amazon prime and it's a kind of it's almost like a post-feminist crime drama but it is awful funny i don't think john and basing stone will like that no i don't think he will uh but um yeah we'll find something for him keep trying john have a good very well we better just finish i think good night Well done for getting to the end of another episode of Off Air with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover. Our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler and the podcast executive producer is Henry Tribe.

And don't forget, there is even more of us every afternoon on Times Radio. It's Monday to Thursday, three till five. You can pop us on when you're pottering around the house or heading out in the car on the school run

or running a bank. Thank you for joining us and we hope you can join us again on Off Air very soon. Don't be so silly. Running a bank? I know, ladies. A lady listener.

I know, sorry.