Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Morris dancers give me the willies

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

Jane's been attempting to understand the British cultural institution of terrible Saturday night telly, and Fi's pitching an Olympics for the third age. They're joined by actor Jack O'Connell to talk about his role of Amy Winehouse’s husband Blake Fielder-Civil in the new film ‘Back to Black’.You can book your tickets to see Jane and Fi live at the new Crossed Wires festival here: https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/book/instance/663601Our next book club pick has been announced - A Dutiful Boy by Mohsin Zaidi.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: Kate Lee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

But I don't think in Olympics for the Third Age gymnastics category, I don't think there's vaulting. I don't think there's... Forward roll. I don't think there's the floor show. Floor show. Please. Pete, before we do anything else,

you and I, we love a live show, don't we? We do. We live for it. We do. Darling, we live to tread the boards. And we've trodden on quite a few. And, incredibly, we've now got another opportunity to do exactly this at a fantastic venue in a truly brilliant place, Sheffield. It's all part of a new podcast festival, Crossed Wires, which takes place from

the 31st of May to the 2nd of June. So we will be able to tell our children and grandchildren that we appeared at the Crucible, at the Crucible, Jane. And we're there on the Friday evening with some very special guests. That means we don't know who we've booked yet. But we'd love it. They'll be so special. They'll be so very special. We'd love it if you could join us. Honestly, it will be fantastic and we'd love your company. I've been talking to podcaster Alice Levine. She's one of the founders of the festival

about what you can expect from the whole shebang. Yes, so Crossed Wires is a brand new podcast festival. It's coming to Sheffield from the 31st of May to the 2nd of June. And basically, we've got

everybody's favourite podcasts all in one place for one weekend and I don't really think it's been done like this in quite this way before so you'll be able to come get a ticket for a show that you really love so it might be Ramesh Ranganathan and Tom Davis doing Wolf and Owl or Catherine Ryan or some other great names that we might talk about in a minute and then then you can enjoy the Free Fringe, which will also be on around the city. And basically, we'll be taking over some incredible venues. Some might say the most iconic venues in Sheffield. We've got the Crucible, which might be familiar to you, the City Hall, the Lyceum.

And then we're going to be dotted around some smaller venues as well, popping up with some surprise events. Okay. Now you mentioned some of the great names, the other great names. Great names. Great names. Yeah. Keep that up, Alice. Who else is appearing? I don't know if you know of a little lady called Jane Garvey and a little lady called Fee Glover. Here's the thing. We hosting you you are can i say you're playing yeah that sounds like it's a real that's a show um i don't know uh when you're live

if you have pyros if it is a stage spectacular um but i'm looking forward to um the dancing sequence that i've heard about um yeah i'm actually intrigued to know, what are you like live? Well, I mean, you should see the rider. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. Well, we've done a bit of live. In fact, during the pandemic, we did do two nights at the Royal Festival Hall. And I can honestly say I have never been more terrified in my life than I was. I find that so hard to believe because I know that it's not the same. I used to do live radio as well. I know it's not the same as being on stage, but you're so used to talking. You're so used to. Are you just saying that I'm very old,

Alice? I mean, just get off the bloody fence and just say it. What I was suggesting was that I can't imagine you're ever tongue-tied and that would always be what would make me nervous, that I would just sort of dry up. No, it's not that. It's just when you can see the whites of the eyes of the people who've been brave and, let's's be honest good enough to turn up it's a very very different ball game to just sitting in the cozy comfort of a radio studio we're both really looking forward to it and sheffield is just a fantastic city genuinely vibrant full of bustle

and with incredible people so it's a fantastic choice of venue and you're really lucky because you're playing the friday night at the crucible which is such a gorgeous space and I think that goes a long way to making it feel like a really special night because some people might just come to one show they might come to a couple of shows but we want it to really feel like people can hang around afterwards stay around for a drink get some food yeah, we're trying to keep everything nice and close so you can walk to everywhere. And there'll be a real mix as well. There'll be a mix of comedy things, sports things, politics. So something for everyone, we hope.

Alice Levine, one of the founders of the Crossed Wires Festival. If you'd like to join us, tickets are available at crosswires.live and fee, they are? They're £32 and we promise it'll be worth it. Yeah, honestly, we do love doing it. It's fantastic to be live in the room. It's such a great theatre. You know how much we love this sort of thing.

Don't say it like that. Playhouse. Kickstart. A beautiful late May weekend You know the temperature in Sheffield will be Getting on for 12 or 13 Celsius And you can be a part of it with us at Crossed Wires Enough

Welcome Welcome to another week I don't know whether we think of this podcast as being in weeks, do we? Because people listen as and when Could be any time Yeah, I think we should just burble into it yeah okay well consider it started anyway i'm still in recovery because i watched my very first episode genuinely of midsummer murders last night and this is because of anthony horowitz

because he was our guest last week i was going to mention that because um anthony horowitz used to not be quite so forthcoming about Midsomer Murders. And I remember doing an interview with him back in the day where he very much didn't associate with the greatness that is Midsomer Murders. So I wonder what's changed. I don't know. Maybe he's just... I mean, we all make mistakes in our youth, don't we?

And then we... Come to realise that it wasn't that bad. Yeah, we re-evaluate. That's interesting, don't we? And then we... Come to realise that it wasn't that bad. Yeah, we re-evaluate. That's interesting, isn't it? No, he wrote... Did he say he'd written the first couple of episodes? Yeah, exactly. So it's ages ago.

I couldn't believe it. This is the 23rd series of Midsomer Writers and I'd never seen it. So I thought, well, you're missing something. That's just my beer. She cracks open just a couple of lagers before the show because it's lunchtime here in rather... What is it today?

Jane, it's something of a broadcaster's tradition. What, drinking? It is, hasn't it? Well, I think if you were going to do a breath test before going into the studio, a few people would fail. We should say, not us. Not us. It's sparkling water.

Anyway, look, I'm sorry, you did Midsommar Murders. It had an all-star cast last night, didn't it? And it was about a weirdness in the woods. Well, honestly, I didn't know what to expect, but I assumed that a show that has been so popular and has run for so long must be really, really good. Anyway, Carol Midgley has written a very funny review of it in The Times today, which more or less,

I couldn't disagree with a word, frankly. If I'd been able to write it, I would have done, but she is able to write it and she did. It was just appalling. It was crazy. Well, I would challenge you actually. Did you see it? Well, I did do about 10 minutes of it

because I'd properly run out of anything to watch on television. So I thought, OK, I'll do 10 minutes of it. But I had to leave because it had a very odd plot, didn't it? About preppers. About preppers, but also about an adopted child not being adopted and therefore fancying his sister. And I just found it really distasteful. It was that bit that really, I thought at that point, OK.

And also, there were endless victims. I lost track. There would be another victim, and the lady in the all-in-one boiler suit came back into play. And she's got some good lines, the actress who plays the forensic person who clocks on every single time as a corpse. And she barely leaves the village before she's called back,

because there's another one. There must have been six or seven deaths in the course of that i have to say slightly stretched out two hour midsummer murders because you got the ads um no it was i'm never again i'm afraid no fair enough also the chief like detective guy um he had there was some gag and it just was i don't know whether it was just an ironic thing he was worried about his mother-in-law coming to stay it was it was like the plot of bless this house in 1973 or something well i would all about i would press you though on the premise that for something to be incredibly long running uh it has to be good because i think britain to be incredibly long-running, it has to be good.

Because I think Britain specialises in the long-running, especially Saturday night entertainment shows, comedy dramas, sitcoms, whatever they are, that are dire. What was that one with Sam, no, Zoe Wanamaker and was it Robert Lindsay that went on and on and on and on? Oh, Our Family, well, My Family, My Family. There you go, that one I thought was a shocker. I think we watched about ten minutes of Not Going Out once. On and on and on and on. Oh, our family. Well, my family. There you go. That one I thought was a shocker. I think we watched about ten minutes of Not Going Out once.

Oh, I couldn't stand that. Jaw-dropping. Yeah, jaw-dropping with saliva just falling out of us. I mean, it was just so bad. It was just like, what? What? So those have been going on forever and ever and ever. So what is it? Is it habit? Is it habit?

Is it habit? And just because you know it's a captive audience, you know that people just don't want to be doing anything else, so you don't have to provide very much for them to be watching. Maybe it is that. I mean, no wonder there are so many Channel 5 air fryer shows. There was another one. In fact, it was done by Times Radio's very own Alexis Conran.

So it'll be good. That one will be good. The other four, rubbish. That one, good. If Channel 5 aren't showing the Duchess of Gloucester and her hats since 1973, they are showing something. But why don't you get stuck into Ripley?

Because I've done all of Ripley now and it's a beautiful, wonderful thing. So I would definitely, if like me, you felt a little bit that there might be an element of tension and sinister tension running all the way through it that would be not particularly enjoyable upsetting to me yep i would just stick with it because it is mesmerizing i think for all of the right reasons in the end and there's just something about the way it slows your brain down because it's black and white and it is very

slow paced i'm definitely gonna try and there isn't very much dialogue sometimes that is actually really it's really oh it's a it's a rewarding sensation which is quite an old-fashioned sensation isn't it changing the subject completely i saw your insta of nancy in victoria park oh yes and apparently proving your theory that it's the flattest park in the world well a lovely correspondent on the insta and she tapped him with knowledge that the london chest hospital is just on the other side of victoria park so it is quite possible that would make sense then wouldn't yeah but it was designed flat for all of those people who could barely breathe and and therefore couldn't walk up hills or landscape bits.

But it was a wonderful morning, Jane. It was glorious weather yesterday and on Saturday, actually. It's a little bit tempestuous today. Also, I just want to, thoughts and prayers, I want to send to the young ladies who got on my train to Liverpool on Friday, heading for the races at Aintree. They got on, I think at Runcorn, could have been Crewe. They were so beautifully dressed with fascinators, big hats,

beautiful dresses, stilettos. They looked incredible. But they were, I mean, I'm not, this sounds fearfully judgmental. They were swigging pinot from bottles. It was ten past ten in the morning, I need to emphasise that. And I just want to know that they're OK. Let me know if there's any way of this message reaching that group of young women.

I don't think they'll be up yet. It's possible that they won't be. But also there was something sort of glorious about their joie de vivre, I have to say. I don't want to be in any way snooty about the whole business. I just wish I'd had their energy. It looked like they were going to have a great day out. Well, of course, but not a great journey back. I wouldn't have thought.

But maybe they were only drinking until 11 and then they were just going to take it easy. That's perfectly plausible. Why is it that we slightly frown on drinking wine from a bottle but not drinking beer from a bottle? It's a very good point and I'm glad you've made it. I don't know. It's weird, though, isn't it? So I should have a word with myself. Honestly, I was partly scandalised,

but also there was a bigger part of me that just thought, oh, yeah, go and have a good day. Yeah, go and have a lovely time. You're in your late 20s. Responsibility of various descriptions may well descend in the next couple of years, but don't worry about that today. We once went to stay in Liverpool on exactly that weekend. Did you?

Because we were attending the international gymnastics championships there. And you just couldn't have had... Were you tumbling? I was very tumbling. I was doing the ribbons. I was in elderly ribbons. The geriatric ribbons. There should be one. I honestly think

the Olympics should do gymnastics for the over 50s. Well, they will do some because there's an Olympics for the third age, isn't there? Oh, is there? I didn't know that. How fantastic. But I don't think in Olympics for the third age gymnastics category, I don't think in olympics for the third age gymnastics category i don't think there's vaulting i don't think this forward roll i don't think this is the floor show

please i don't think there's any of that so you would i think you could do sitting ribbons you could um whether that would be a televisual spectacle i'm not i'm not sure oh i don't think the i don't think the old age olympics gets enough coverage i met some some competitors so it's a proper thing it's a proper proper thing and uh you know they're 70 80 year olds who are just astonishing and of course by that time of life they are entirely dedicated to their sports i met some triathletes and i think they were actually the british champions in the olympics right um and their their life just revolved around training and competing like they were professional athletes but of course they just

had a lifetime doing other things so their joy at still being able to do this i think accompanied by no stress at all i mean there wouldn't. You're just doing it for the proper enjoyment, to travel around the world, to meet like-minded people, beat them, and then come home. Yeah, and a level of competition, which is great.

Yeah, really astonishing. So you could end. What would your, so let's say in your, I mean, it's a long way off, Jane, retirement. Well, no, because we've got an email referring to, I'll kill that Kay Adams.

Veteran broadcaster. Referring to me as a veteran broadcaster because I've agreed to be on her podcast. How to be 60. We'll give that a proper plug in a moment. If you were going to take up a sport and you got to answer this seriously to pursue

in your dotage, what would it be? What actually appeals? I am seriously keen to restart the golf and actually do that properly. Okay. Yeah. That's good. Because I just think it is a great way of combining

a very light element of competition with a brisk walk in the countryside. You'd be able to go out and play a four ball with somebody else, Alice Arnold and Claire Balding. They play a lot of golf. I'm only mentioning Claire. That would be quite good. Has she popped up on the...

She's the face of Sainsbury's. Oh, yes, I saw that. She's the waitress girl if ever there was one. Well, I'm absolutely scandalised. She's left waitress behind. Yes, that was my first thought, actually. Have you pinged her about it?

Well, I don't like to. I'm not as close to her as you are. I think I'll give that responsibility to you. Yeah, well, I thought she looked absolutely glorious. And, I mean, if anyone can persuade me to get back into Sainsbury's, it is Claire. But she's got to sort out the tills.

I'm going to put in a personal plea. You want more humans, less self-checkout. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do because I've left my local Sainsbury's. I won't go there because they don't give you an option. There's nobody on the till. And I just, you know.

Well, she could do a couple of shifts herself. Well, I think it wouldn't you have a lovely, lovely chat if it was Claire's nobody on the till. And I just... Well, she could do a couple of shifts herself. Well, I think it... Wouldn't you have a lovely, lovely chat if it was Claire Balding on the tills? No, I wouldn't because I just want to get, you know, just get my shopping and go home. You're mardy. Of course. Yeah. Okay. Well, look, news to follow. Yeah.

News to follow. Let me know how you get on when you tackle her. Yeah. Okay. So, Jane is going to do golf in the University of the Third Age. No, that's the thing, isn't it? The Old Age Olympics. The Old Age Olympics. And what would you do? Well, I would probably swim.

I think that would be sensible. Oh, yeah, you could do that, yeah. Yep, but I'd really like to do something like that because I don't know. I just didn't excel at sport at all. I mean, that's even a polite way of putting it. I was so rubbish at sport. I was just like a comedy pupil in sport at all I mean that's even a polite way of putting it I was so rubbish at sport I was just like a comedy pupil in sport at school and it does leave its mark a bit actually so I'd quite

like to just really enjoy some sport in my lifetime did you have and I'm being serious here did you have that awful you know that business of picking teams and they wouldn't pick you oh never pick for a team and then I just really really kind of fell behind because I had to do all my music lessons in sport lessons. So I just never even played in a team. So, you know, I would arrive in a sports lesson and people would be like, what's she doing here? She doesn't come to sport. So you'd have your oboe with you.

She'd usually play the oboe. Is there a sport you could do while simultaneously practising the oboe? Well, I suppose that's Morris dancing, isn't it? They do a wind instrument. They have a whistle and a jump. I find it very sinister. I don't think either of us know anything about Morris dancing.

I think we've just proved that. No, they give me the willies, Morris dancers. I know it's a very essential part of the oldie Englandy and they're very well-meaning and all of that, but it's just the popping and jumping it's a strange thing I very strongly suspect there's been a Midsommar

murders about a Morris Dodson truth having said I'll never watch it again I'm now wondering about next week's episode and thinking well I won't be going out it's a Sunday night don't get involved do Ripley please Do Ripley. Please do Ripley.

But please can we put out an appeal for anyone who is perhaps the partner of a Morris dancer? Let us know what that's like, please. I want to know whether you have to polish their regalia, do something with their bells. I've no idea what the responsibilities of the partner are, because they are all men, aren't they? I believe so.

Yes, and I think that's another patriarchal load of tosh we need to challenge. So come on, ladies, if you're out there, happily wedded to a dancer of the Morris variety, tell us all about it. You've told us all about going to ladies' nights at the Masons. This is another thing we need to crack. A nut we need to crack.

So jadenfee at times.radio, thank you. I think if Morris Dancing could just evolve a tiny bit... Into what? Well, maybe if they could do a bit of a collab. Well, if they could Morris Dance and do the hoovering at the same time, then that would be absolutely fine. Yeah. Or maybe just have a syncopated rhythm.

Dua Lipa. Something like that. Yeah. If they could collaborate with diversity who's the chap who's the boss of i love the chap who's the boss of diversity stunning backflips halfway through yeah it's a little bit like when we compare the great architectural wonders of the world with our own stonehenge. Yes, I've said it before. You're in trouble for Central Park all over the place. Oh, why?

Yeah, well, I think the suggestion... What did you say you'd heard? It was inspired by Birkenhead Park. Because we were told this on the tour of the Liver Buildings. It's not come from me. I've had private messages about this, basically. From who? Well, on the Twitter.

I brought my phone in. I'll show you. People just laughing at it. I'm sorry about that, Jane. And it's good to say it wasn't you that said it. It wasn't like a fever dream. I was listening to the tour guide on the tour of the Liver Building. OK.

I thought it was on the ferry. No. OK. Just checking your story. You see, accuracy is everything in journalism. Checking your alibi. Fact check. Where were you on the night of the...

I must admit, when I'm watching these detective shows, I do always think, oh, God, I'd be hopeless. Unless, of course, I can consult my diary. Yeah. Then I might be OK. But I would panic and more or less just go bright red and say, all right, I did it. Just end my misery.

Charge me now. Anyway, bin collection. Yes. This is bin collection. Yes. This is from Kate. I just had to email in, she says, after hearing Fee complain about her bin collection changing to every two weeks. Is this true?

Yes, we talked about that last week. Here in Warwickshire, we have a smaller-than-normal black bin, and it's collected every three weeks. Not pleasant when stuffed with newborn nappies in the summer, and God forbid you should miss a bin day. I think you might just qualify for a full-size bin if you have two children. Also, perhaps I missed this, she says,

but did Jane ever ask for you what she got up to in a week off? I shouldn't think I did, Kate. No. What did you do in your week off? It's too late now. Oh, you're right, it is. But back to bins. I can't remember.

As you know, Jane Moore-Kerran's asked me. She's much more polite. Well, yes, that's right. I didn't ask because I wasn't, Jay Moore Keren's asked me. Much more polite. Well, yes, that's right. I didn't ask because I wasn't here. No, don't try and back out of it. It was a tight space. You know, you just got in there. Right.

Okay. Bin collections every three weeks when you've got nappies. Horrible. No, not good. I'm sorry about that, Kate. It must be really tough going. She says she listens to us on the many long walks she has trying to get her baby to sleep. Not good. I'm sorry about that, Kate. It must be really tough going. She says she listens to us on the many long walks she has trying to get her baby to sleep.

Kate, best of luck with that. And I just wish somebody had told me when I was trying to get kids to sleep that one day they'll have jobs you don't understand. And they'll wear strange clothes and they'll have the temerity to disagree with you. And it comes upon you so much so much more quickly than you think doesn't it yeah it does but nothing in those long moments of trying to settle a child can distract you from your own anxiety can it because it's just an insolvable problem sometimes and uh you know i really feel for you really feel for you. Really feel for you. Good luck with it, Kate. Yes. As Jane said, it does pass, but we're with you. We're with you, sister.

This is the last word on James Martin, and it comes from Margaret K. Bourne-Smith. Now, she's an actress, isn't she? Yes, she's very, very important. Of very, very high repute. Sorry this is late, but I need to get it off my chest. I cannot cope with James Martin after hearing Paul McKenna on Desert Island Discs saying that if either he or James ever did anything like sorry this is late but I need to get it off my chest I cannot cope with James Martin after hearing Paul McKenna on Desert Island Discs saying that if either he or James ever did anything like

hang out with models on a yacht they would each text each other LTD which stands for living the dream and then Margaret has included five vomit emojis and the word unacceptable. You are, of course, 100 billion trillion percent correct. Thank you. Hang out with models on a yacht. I mean, that's a thing, isn't it? Yeah. Would it be okay if it was you and me and a coterie of male models? Would we be desperate to tell our mates what we've been up to?

Living the drill, TD. I don't know. It would just be one of the peak moments in my life if I ever received from you a text and maybe a photograph of a nubile person, I'm not going to just say man. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Just a nubile person reclining in that very kind of suggestive way on the bow of the ship and LTD underneath it.

I would just, I would, yeah, I would cheer, but also I think I'd call your daughters. Yeah, I think that's all right. They would stage an intervention. Rachel, I love this opening line. Thank you, Rachel. On hearing your discussion about the bubonic plague outbreak in Sydney in 1900... You see, what other podcast on earth can actually boast that as a genuine thing that happened?

But also boast the junction between James Martin and the bubonic plague of 1900. Well, actually, it's not that much of a leap. Rachel says, on hearing your discussion about the bubonic plague outbreak in Sydney in 1900, I had to write in. My great-great-grandfather, George McCready, I think, was responsible for containing and eradicating the plague from Sydney. Well, what a great opportunity to give a shout out to a great-great-grandfather who did such important stuff. According to family folklore, he was successful in dealing with the outbreak, but was unpopular with many of the politicians of the time because of the high economic cost. One of his initiatives was a penny a rat, whereby anyone could bring in a dead rat in exchange for a penny.

The politicians didn't like it because they believed it would encourage the poor to breed rats for money. And the rat catchers who earned a good living from this were instrumental in reducing the spread. After he successfully contained the outbreak he got a commemorative plaque for his efforts which included a silver sculpture of his head as the victor of the plague and Rachel has shown us an image of exactly that. He also got a statuette from the people of Sydney commemorating his achievement. Well that I mean I love it when people are just able to contribute some really significant family history. And we all have skeletons in our family history, don't we? But also, there are just people who did incredible work at a time of crisis. And well done, George McCready.

I hope I've got his name right. Who did such valiant stuff in 1900. Yeah. I hope I've got his name right, who did such valiant stuff in 1900. Yeah. And can we just say, we are talking on the week after the really horrendous attack at the Westfield and Bondi Junction in Australia at the weekend. And I know that we've got lots and lots of Australian listeners. And, you know, proper thoughts and prayers. And it's going to take a long time to get over something

yeah it was horrible like that isn't it and um just that that feeling that you're not safe in a place where you deliberately go because you think it's got security and we'll all be all right and whatever i just think is such a tough one. We hope you're all right. Obviously, some of you really aren't. This one comes in from Australia as well. It's from Rory. And we've had loads and loads of correspondence about moving abroad and how you feel maybe towards the end of your life

about that decision made so much earlier. This is somewhere in the middle, though. And Rory says, me and my wife had lived in London for a decade working in good well-paid professional jobs where my work offered me a role in Sydney. We were keen to experience a different way of living a more outdoor lifestyle and were mulling our decision when the Brexit result came in decision made. We've married, bought a house something that was never going to be achievable in London and have two young

children who are Australian. As the years go by and the children get older, so does the guilt that our parents are unable to experience much of it with us. But as a now dual national, I can see the UK a lot better for what it is, an increasingly insular society obsessed with a glorious past, run by a political class from a slither of society whose very existence relies from the perpetuation of that myth, and the appeasasement of richer older people who've never had my generation's best interests at heart i simply can't see how it will ever change in my lifetime and i'm not even 40 i'm grateful for what uk gave me and yes australia has its own problems but new technology helps significantly with our distance and our trips back to

the UK every two years will continue. I'm sorry for my parents, but it was their generation. And telegraph reading friends that created the circumstances that led to our departure. In truth, what did they expect? If you piss in the pool, don't be surprised if the people who are able to get out

don't want to swim in it. Okay. Well, that's our correspondent's very own perspective, obviously. Well, it is. It's just quite a lot there. Yeah. I think he probably won't be alone in having those feelings. But then, you see, I wonder what happens if, you know, things then change in the UK, whether the feeling that you leave a country with

is the one that always stays with you. No, because countries do change, don't they? Of course they do. And I think that's the huge thing that other people have talked about a bit further down the line is just that feeling of, A, what is it that I'm going back to?

And also that yearning for something that may or may not be there. But anyway, Roy, I hope you're doing all right. And I think lots of people would really really agree especially that point just about if you want to start a family and you want to buy a house that this just really doesn't seem to be a country that is enabling you to do that no i know that you can't deny that and that is a massive massive massive thing yeah i mean it's certainly true in the south of england i think if you did if you were a young family and you had the option of going to another country far far away because you could precisely because you could buy a decent

family house gosh it would be tough to deny you that opportunity wouldn't it um of course you can live to move to other parts of the uk we should say um south of england london particular incredibly expensive but it isn't expensive all over the uk no but it's still prohibitive yeah no i mean you need a deposit, and I don't know where you're supposed to get one from. This is another different perspective. We don't need to mention the name here, but it's from somebody who said that when they were 21,

I did what so many Australians did, she says, feeling freer than a bird. We decamped to England to make it our base to do Europe. I was 22, but reasonably mature, and he was a really lovely man of 29 when we met. As our romance progressed, we started to get an inkling that the path was going to be rocky, because one of the things we so loved about each other was our closeness to our respective families and friends.

Mine, of course, were in Australia, his in London, and he was the youngest of five with older parents who didn't even have passports. Due to the ill health of one of my parents I had to go home somewhat suddenly. We tried to make the long distance thing work but on a trip to Australia we had the heartbreaking conversation that I was never going to be happy living so far from my world and he felt the same. I was lucky enough to meet and marry my wonderful husband not too long after my heart was broken. He took many more years but did also find a new partner and we're still in contact.

He's one of my closest friends and we've been fortunate enough to catch up a few times in person with our respective families over the past few years. I adore his partner. And that's just from someone who nearly did it but just found that she couldn't. And I totally get that too. But how wonderful that she has kept up contact with the British man that she really fell for. But for various quite understandable reasons, they couldn't marry. They just couldn't do it. So our guest today is the actor Jack O'Connell.

Jack O'Connell. In Skins. He was in Skins and he's now playing the part of Amy Winehouse's boyfriend, Blake Fielder Civil, in the new movie that's out at the moment called Back to Black. And Blake is a very, very controversial figure.

He certainly is. He was a drug addict who introduced Amy Winehouse to the very dark drugs and hard drugs that led her into a you know just a terrible terrible place and I always think it's quite important to say that it wasn't the drugs that caused her death she died of alcohol poisoning after a period of sobriety and I think sometimes those things become a little bit muddled up. And sometimes, as Blake has found in his life,

the finger goes straight to him for actually being the cause of Amy's death. Actually, I didn't know that, you know. I thought she died of a drug sober. No, it was alcohol poisoning. And she had been sober before, but her body had just been ravaged by booze and the drugs and her lifestyle and very, very long-standing bulimia as well. So you put all of

that into the mix but the character of Blake has always been I think you know people have not warmed him for incredibly obvious reasons he doesn't seem to have gone on to have a completely successful or happy life he's full of regret for what happened and he did have subsequent relationships and a child with somebody else but in the film he is very much portrayed as quite a Jack the Lad an amusing fella and somebody who was just a bit too young to be able to cope with being in the mix of Amy's

life anyway so Jack O'Connell plays the part, he does it very well I think if you go into the film just with a feeling about what you love about Amy and what was then taken away from Amy, it's hard to really warm to the character that Jack's playing. So I asked him to tell us a little bit more about his own memories of Amy Winehouse when she was alive. Yeah, I was a young man in the early noughties.

And so this whole era brings with it a massive amount of nostalgia for me, which was part of the joy of the job was stepping back into this period. I don't know, really. I think music has aged very well. And I think that's a sure indicator of just how class it is. I really liked music of this period. And I thought there was like a really vibrant music scene back then, an indie music scene the channels that are in place now didn't exist then so I feel like there was much more emphasis on going out and seeing bands and discovering music rather than it being delivered to you sort of to your pocket yeah and do you remember watching, you know, the tragic love story of Amy and Blake, you know, through the papers and through the gossip columns? It's where all of us actually were finding our information about her. I think they, yeah, they were both sort of on the wrong end of an absolute barrage of media attention.

And what strikes me now is that, you know these these guys were in their 20s you know Amy being a young 20 something when she kind of stepped into that spotlight and you know it is it is it morally right I don't think so and I think for where Amy was concerned it was never about that you know it seemed like music and her music was at the forefront of what what she wanted to do and I don't think she was interested really in courting celebrity status yeah I mean certainly in this movie it is a very sympathetic portrayal of two young people who fall in love across addiction really don't they and the tragic consequences of that but it is quite different I think to how we believe rightly or wrongly and of about the role that Blake

actually played in Amy's life so when you first saw the script I wonder what your reaction to it was uh yeah I guess it did kind of challenge that narrative I think the one that is well documented and the famous one and it's as you say rightly or wrongly you know I don't think I'm in a position to say either one of those perspectives are right or wrong so it was important for me to meet him and that along with the script and along along with Sam Taylor-Johnson kind of informed everything I wanted to do with this portrayal, you know, which was largely in part informed from the meeting I had with him and just feeling like I got on with him and feeling like I was able to relate to him, you know, being around at that period and being a bit older than myself, but, you know, I felt like we had one or two things in common. So that's what I wanted to draw on. But I think it was exciting to challenge those perspectives.

And you can only know so much from the certain coverage that they were getting. It's, you know, it's not going to give you every aspect. It's not going to be very dimensional. So, yeah, it was important to me. Yeah. Did you like him as a man? Yeah. Yeah, I found I got on with him, yeah. And he spoke in a very earnest way about Amy.

And I think you can tell. When it rings true, I just think you can tell. And that was my experience. And how's he doing now? I think he's all good. I think he's all good, yeah. Yeah, yeah. As far as I could tell, he's all good. I think he's all good. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. As far as I could tell,

he's all good. Do you know whether he's seen the film? I believe he was going to see it today because we have a little bit of contact backwards and forwards. So I think he was intending on seeing it today. Right. If he texts you later, Jack, and says, what the bloody hell have you done with me? What will your reply be? I'm just going to have to hold my hands up and say that's fair enough. But yeah, fingers crossed it's not that. Fingers crossed it's the opposite of that. You know, I understand that it's quite a strange process anyway. Sure.

To have somebody portray you for a film, I can't imagine what that's like. I thought some of the most telling scenes in the film, Jack, were actually where Amy was in front of her music executives at the record label. I thought those were very cleverly done because we seem to know quite a lot about that path down the road of fame and fortune and drugs and drink and addiction, and yet still it plays out. And I wonder whether you've seen it in real life. You've been in acting quite a long time. There are presumably the same type of people who are sitting right at the top of the pile. They're making the money. They're getting something out of you. Are they looking after you at the same time?

I don't know. That's interesting because it sort of raises the topic of duty of care is there one or you know are we just responsible for ourselves in that regard I don't really know the answer to that I just think part part of what I do is you are your tool you're your tool set so you know yeah you've got to take care of yourself you've got to kind of you know take a break and and and just look after yourself yeah and have you ever always there's not always a handbook on that and there's you know I don't think there is like that that's sometimes unclear sure and so at those points in your own life how have you managed to navigate those difficult times I mean you have been very successful I don't think you don't come

from some kind of an acting dynasty. You didn't go through RADA or whatever it was. You know, perhaps yours is an interesting story of a young man trying to deal with it on his own. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I had some great influences along the way. I was lucky where I trained in Nottingham was all about sort of, it was very improvisational based, you know, so it taught you instinct. And those tools have always stayed with me throughout. And I love bumping into fellow workshoppers along the way, you know,

people that have managed to carve out careers in this industry, because it is unconventional. There is a very conventional routine and mine hasn't been that. But I think in answer to the first part of the question anyway, is just do the things that have always excited you. You know, I think it is important to have a life outside of this industry. It can be very consuming. So just make time and enjoy the time,

just doing stuff that has no relevance at all to the industry and staying inspired what watch things go see art take yourself out on a date and just go look at you know and just stay inspired i think i think i think that's key and that that is that has been a learning curve for sure. I know that you said, Jack, that you believe that actually your pathway into acting would be incredibly difficult for a young person to achieve now. I think so. I think so. I think I've seen the channels available to me shot since becoming an actor and that's all to do with funding.

So if you were starting out now, do you think actually you simply wouldn't make it? I don't know the answer to that. I wouldn't know. I mean, without being purely hypothetical, I wouldn't know the answer to that. Yeah, but presumably there'd come a time, wouldn't there, where you were just skint

and you wouldn't be able to afford to take another chance to keep going on acting. It does certainly help to have a support fund behind you, a spare 10K, a spare 20K, and you'd be hard-pressed to find out where I'm from. Yeah. I know that you have had some really decent breaks in your acting career,

not least the phone call that you got from Angelina Jolie, who wanted to cast you, having seen you in Skins. And I wonder whether you can just indulge us. What does that phone call sound like? How does that phone call go? Does somebody else make it on her behalf or do you literally answer your phone and she goes, hello, it's Angelina here? I guess, yeah, it's astronomical. It's the feeling of, because there was an amount of work that I felt like I'd put in prior to that project. So it just felt deeply rewarding. But yeah, my initial introduction to her was a meeting.

I think she was just meeting a series of actors with this role in mind. And yeah, obviously it's everything you'd imagine it to be, just kind of starstruck and just trying to hold it together. Yeah. And so, do you know what? It always makes me laugh, though, when actors talk about that kind of vulnerability in the real world, because you think of all of the people, Jack,

you should be the ones who can call on something in order not to be nervous. You know, when people fall apart at award ceremonies and don't know what to say, you think, yeah, but you could just do some acting. It's very different when you're scripted. But another answer to that as well is like, I often look for connections in these things to my own life. So here's one. I mean, it is a slight stretch stretch but before I met Angelina she played

Lara Croft Tomb Raider and that was a game that was made in Derby a lot of things get made in Derby not a lot of video games you know to me that that just helps me humanize it and it makes it personal I look I look for these personal connections and things and yeah there was I don't think I've ever bored her with that anecdote but maybe I should. What is happening for you now Jack what are you working on what can we see you in next? I've just just started prepping the next one which I'm sort of not at liberty to say too much about and I've just finished directing something for Paul Weller, which was a music video for one of his tunes. So that was great. I loved that experience and I'm itching to do it again. Lovely. Well, we'll look forward

to that. And finally, what would you like people who go and see Back to Black to leave the cinema feeling after watching The Life of Amy Winehouse? I just hopefully reconnected, reconnected to her genius, reconnected to her amazing music. I think Marisa Albella gives a really true and wildly authentic performance and I hope they get lost in that. You know, enjoy the lighter moments,

enjoy the fun of it, enjoy the time. Them pub sequences, it only cost about a pound for a pint. You know, take some joy in that. You know, just, yeah, we all strive to do something very authentic and that's what I feel like we've pulled off with this. The actor Jack O'Connell. And if you want to see Back to Black, it is out now.

And just a quick heads up, I think tomorrow we're... Tomorrow we've got a guest, everybody. Yes, and that's as much as we can tell you uh right so thank you very much for listening thanks so much for the emails over the course of the weekend it really is lovely to come in on a monday and see them all there uh jane and fee at times dot radio your thoughts on anything and everything uh but we're still taking living abroad and foreigners this is one of our slickest episodes ever. Well done for getting to the end of another episode of Off Air with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover.

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