Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Off to North Berwick with my trusty travel glockenspiel

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Fi and Jamal Kerrins find common ground in their (40-)love for tennis in this Wimbledon-mad email-only episode (Jamal even brings her visor). They also cover neck pillows, emoji growth, and banned words. If 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.

We might have to do ding-dong-ding instead if we've got any long time listener first time. Have you got a glockenspiel? I've got a little, well I've got a little kiddie one at home for you know. A travel glockenspiel as it's known. Of course. The Holt Renfrew Beauty Refresh offer starts soon. Enjoy up to 20% off select beauty and grooming so that you can shop brands you love and ones

you've always wanted to try. July 10-13, in-store and online. Terms and conditions apply. Don't miss it. I'm Will Kelleher. Join me and Alex Lowe for the Red Lions, a special three-part series on the history of the British and Irish Lions from 1950 to this year's Tour of Australia. With first-hand accounts from the players themselves,

it tracks the rancor and revival of rugby's greatest touring team, the Red Lions. Memories, music, match reports and more, available wherever you download the Ruck Rugby podcast from the Times. This episode of Off Air is brought to you by Washington DC. The city? times. free things to do. Why not take advantage of the city's green spaces like biking through America's oldest national park, Rock Creek Park. Or you could see a show in a living presidential memorial. Or try out your sea legs and go kayaking around the wharf. The

list goes on and on. There's only one place you can do all of these things. There's only one DC. And this month in a special episode of the podcast we're chatting to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch who looks after 17 museums in the city. Sounds like it's time to plan your DC getaway. Book your trip to DC by visiting dialaflight.com forward slash WDC. and down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down,

down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down Ficinardo too. So I felt that I could ping you at a relevant moment yesterday

knowing that you too would be locked onto a sofa watching Carlos. Well I think I also preempted it by texting you the night before or a couple of days before saying are you watching this? But you know when you do find out that somebody else has got a shared interest you're like oh small victories of life, this is great. So you've been to Wimbledon this summer and I am well chelled. Oh do you know what, I'd really like to go again but that's just greedy isn't it. I had the best day last Wednesday, I really

just had the best day. It was just epic tennis, the atmosphere was incredible. I was treated some hospitality so I also ate and drank my own body weight in extremely nice food and champagne. I had a lovely company. The sun shone in the afternoon, the Royal Box was packed with celebrities well dressed in sort of pale linens. It was just brilliant and I haven't been able to stop watching the tennis since actually. Well of course because you'd feel like it was your year wouldn't you? Yeah absolutely, well especially because I saw Sabalenka, Alcaraz and Radokanu on the same day and obviously one of them is no longer in the competition sadly but we're shipping for her in her alleged relationship aren't we?

Even if Emma Radokanu isn't in a relationship with the beautiful Carlos there is something so magical about the fact they're going to play together. So it's not at Wimbledon, it's at the US Open, they're going to do mixed doubles together. And nobody should ever credit the entire happiness of one person to simply having been paid attention to by another. But Emma Ratakana, she just looks so much happier this year and she looks like she really wants to be on the tennis court and I think we have all felt deeply sympathetic or if you're a bit nasty and you know you read a certain newspaper and you probably feel a little bit, oh I don't know, kind of prejudiced towards her. But now that whatever clouds have lifted, she,

I thought, played exceptional, exceptional tennis against the world number one. I mean, Sabalenka is just a powerhouse. Oh my god, her powerhouse. Forehand is a terrifying thing, but a beautiful thing to watch. And I thought, Radhikhani just like, she was enjoying it again. And even when she lost she looked so kind of, not just gracious in defeat, but kind of satisfied. She didn't look frustrated by going out as she did and when she did. She played magnificent tennis, I thought. And yeah, it just feels that she's on her way back to something.

Yeah, and I really hope that she is. And I think you'll understand this completely. There's a very churlish kind of narrative about Emma Raducanu which is well she won the US Open too young, she was team young, but imagine you're Emma Raducanu. So do you stop in maybe your semi-final match in the US Open and go I'm too young for this. I'm too young for this. I'm going to give it another five years. It's going to be very, very difficult for me when I cross over the other side. I'm just going to stand back from it. I mean, that just doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. So I think the fact that she's got through the US Open and she's pretty and

that is just a dreadful alchemy in sports. Totally it's poison chalice. Can I just point out that I put on a special visor for this edition of Offair slash Wimbledon commentary week in the Offair studio. It's transformed me into Sue Barker so I now am able to give you some political tennis analysis. Having interviewed Boris Becker this year, which we've talked about previously. Do we have to drag ourselves down? Well no, but I think it's relevant to this conversation about winning Wimbledon Young.

True, because he was 17. He was 17 when he won it for the first time and interestingly he says that when you're 17 you don't understand why you shouldn't be winning Wimbledon at 17. He says that it just was so extraordinary, he didn't even understand why it was so extraordinary and actually because you don't know that that's not meant to happen, you just sort of go with it. And he said it was actually only going back the next year and winning at 18, that he quite understood the magnitude of what had happened to him the year before. And he does say that he thinks he was also too young, that you just can't cope with it. The level of fame, the attention, the money,

the demands on you. He said, the ideal time to win Wimbledon, which sounds like a ridiculous statement, but it's sort of 24, 25. When you're a teenager, I mean you're 17. When I was 17, I was like trying to pass my driving test and snogging boys at pulp concerts, you know, and just sort of being an idiot and working on Saturdays in McDonald's. And winning Wimbledon, especially, and your point is relevant, he was also a heartthrob immediately.

Yes, he was also a heartthrob immediately yes and the kind of you're just so young for that level of exposure and you're doing a sport which is so isolating it's just you and your coach and your physios you know it's not like you're part of a team yep but i suppose the point that i was just trying to make about emma radicano is is other people's reaction to her which I think somehow has been more vicious than it has been towards other women and towards men. I mean, towards a young Boris Becker. It's not her fault that she was very young when she won. She was in the tennis world and it wants you to do well whatever age you are. And doesn't really as with so many sports it doesn't seem

to know when to stop with people and you know that is a very very well worn tread isn't it. How young is the youngest woman to have won Wimbledon? How old was Steffi Graf? I've got a good question. How old is Monica Salles? I feel like there's maybe been a 16 year old female winner of... Coco Goff was 14 wasn't she when she burst onto the scene but she didn't win. So I don't know, I mean they do tend to be extremely young people but isn't it interesting that Carlos Arcaraz, and don't worry kids we'll move off tennis in just a moment. Maybe. Or not. But Carlos Arcaraz must have won. I mean he's only 22 now. Not that I've checked out absolutely every detail about him.

He's given the length of his very brown shins. Easy tiger, calm down, take a breath. It's the divisor. You shouldn't go measuring sports stars. It's not what you're at Wimbledon to do. You shouldn't go measuring sports stars. That's not what you're at Wimbledon to do. He must have been in his late teens when he started. And he seems to be okay, but I think also his family around him is quite remarkable. Of course you've watched the Netflix series, frame by frame. The thing that touched me the most about that and I'd hugely recommend it especially if when you get to the end of Wimbledon you're left wanting more tennis and we always are because he's still, it opens with him

showing the camera people around his home and he's in his bedroom which still has a single bed in it and he's got his collection of trailers, Catholic family, which takes up more room than the trophies. And you just think, oh, you're lovely, you've kept your shape, you've kept your own shape. And that's what everybody says, that he is so kind of open and available to people. He's always taken pictures with everyone, he talks to everyone, he's incredibly well-mannered and just seems quite well adjusted for someone who has obviously done incredibly well, incredibly young. Let's just hope that stays with him. So don't you go spoiling your grandparents.

I could put an eye on you. I could only help. My tracker out. I could only help. Right, are you going to do the whole podcast with the visor on? Yeah. Or is it one of those weird things when you take it off you can't talk about it anymore? I don't know what that says. No, it's staying on all all week. Okay thank you to everybody who's contributing to our playlist. I listened to it on the way into work this morning and it's a work in progress. I think there are about six or seven

tracks at the moment and it is glorious. It's more of a conceptual playlist at the moment than an actual one. We're doing very well actually because we've got about 20 tracks in the email inbox that we will add in and I believe that our executive producer Rosie has promised to do it every Tuesday. Well, I'm going to say that here because then it's on record that our executive producer is going to do it every Tuesday. So we have got about seven or eight tracks on the go at the moment and we're going to add Donna Summer's I Feel Love courtesy of Debbie and there are loads more that are pouring in so it'll be a beautiful thing for us all to take to our sun loungers or when we're just stuck in a lounge sometime later over the summer. I'll do a little bit of exercise too. Sorry? Yeah sorry, sorry ridiculous idea I'll move on little bit of exercise too. Do some, sorry? Yes, sorry, sorry,

ridiculous idea. I'll move on. What kind of holiday are you taking? Let's go to lie down love. Maybe those of us who aren't taking holidays because they're presenting a radio show on Times Radio all summer. Okay. That was a good segue wasn't it? Yes, that was a very good segue. Well I hope that goes very well for you. We discovered this week, so I'm off next week, so it's make the most of off air with whichever Jane and Fee this week, because we're all away next week. We have's make the most of our fare with whichever Jane and Fee this week because we're all away next week. We have booked a house, we're going to France. You and Jane. You did make it sound like you were going on holiday together. I wasn't invited.

No, don't worry. Oh yeah, you were. Okay, it's just me. We've booked a very lovely house and it's got a pool but there are more people coming than there are lounges by the pool. It's gonna be a good game. Recipe for disaster. First world problems with Jane and Fee. I'll keep you posted.

Can I read this lovely, which sounds ironic, a lovely Times Death notice? Yes you can. From Marina who says, Dear Jane Fee, even Jamal, hello, Jamal is in the house all week. Perusing the Times Death announcements on Saturday, I came across a lovely notice. I'd like to share with you lest you missed it. Marina, you haven't actually said who this is about, but perhaps you could email again and just let us know. Or maybe people can guess. It reads as follows. As a former newspaper editor,

you can tell why I like this email particularly, she vetoed the words brave, battle or fight, but it was a characteristically and heroically determined defiance. She loved her family, her many friends, dogs, hens, house, garden, books, crosswords, tennis, bridge, Australia, fantasy premier league, two-time family winner, the arches, the arches the rest is politics and the 1000 greenwood she planted. Marina says what a wonderful life and such a lovely tribute to a woman who enjoyed so many passions and interests

she sounds to me like the perfect match for your average off-air listener. I love this because I love banned words I love banning words I've done it myselfy. Eatery, that's a good one to ban. Nobody ever goes to an eatery. You don't go to an eatery. Would you like to come out the scene and join me in an eatery? Yeah, you're right. The word restaurant has no synonym, so use the word restaurant. Yeah, okay. And so presumably this editor had died from the illness that is always referred to as somebody having a battle with and I'm, it's a very strange one isn't it because it implies that somehow you have lost as well. I'm not sure about that.

I'd like to know what else, what other words you would all ban please. I probably mentioned this before, I'm allergic to exclamation marks. I haven't used one since about 1994. And if it was up to me, you'd be allowed to a year. Use them judiciously people. And would you be able to use them for humorous events or for dynamic events? That would be a matter for you. Okay. Do you like an emoji?

Yeah, they've grown on me. A decade ago, also allergic to emojis, they've just kind of won me over. But still, my friends now go through and edit their text messages and take out their exclamation marks before they press send because they know that they will send me off. I might have a small stroke. Okay. And if anybody uses three exclamation marks, they'll never hear back from me ever again. Well, I know what I'm doing later. And a former editor of The Times used to have a list of people that were banned.

Oh, well, that's even better. Can we know? So the Gallagher's, they were banned. I don't know what we'd have done if he was still in charge, you know, in this summer of Oasis. No reviews, absolutely no stories. The Gallagher's we weren't allowed to interview. Kate Moss was on the banned list. Oh, there was a long list. This is fantastic. I'll have to try and list. Oh, there was a long list. This is fantastic.

I'll have to try and remember tomorrow that it was quite a long list of people. Why was Kate Moss? I can slightly understand the Gallagher brothers because they were annoying. She didn't like her. Didn't like her? Okay. Wow. Could you find out some more? I'll come with as full a list as I possibly can. It was, it was, and some of the people were really curious. Yeah. Yeah, okay. But I guess that's the power to your paper.

I can't compete with this, but in a small way, there was a former controller of Radio 4 who had very similar thoughts about people. And I mean, the weird thing was, it was quite often just based on their voice. And there's not, I mean, you should, you know, you should be able to get past somebody's voice if you don't like their accent or, you know, whatever it is, to be able to listen to what they say, especially if you're in charge of something. But it was, it was quite funny. It was quite a narrow gauge as well that was going down there.

Yes, I can use my imagination. Unfortunately, under the terms of my agreement with the BBC, I can never speak of this. So we can't name names there. Politics Being Nasty comes in from Bea who says, it's good to hear your different views on the reaction to Rachel Reeves. I've just finished Jacinda Ardern's book and her whole approach was kindness. I do think it's possible and she has proved it. The more nasty it stays and gets, the more people will turn off. I wonder if the politicians went consistently higher and kinder whether those disengaged would start to come back. I've voted all my life but I'm increasingly

finding it hard to engage. Do I want to vote for polarisation, nastiness and dehumanising language for the cheap headline in any party? We did have quite a few emails about this. Jane and I were talking about, in particular, Kemmy Badenock's reaction to Rachel Reeves' distress in the Commons during PMQ's last Wednesday and Jane and I had a bit of a ding-dong about it really. to Rachel Reeves distress in the Commons during PMQ's last Wednesday. And Jay and I had a bit of a ding-dong about it really. That wasn't a real ding-dong. It wasn't a ding-dong but we definitely disagreed about it.

And it's just one of those, I mean, you know, it's all out there in the last episode. But I think Bea's point is a really, really good one and one that we're never going to know the answer to. Because I'm not sure that there will be a time when politicians decide to go, as B says, higher and kinder, because the whole direction of the wrecking ball at the moment has such force behind it. It is going to create a Trump-sized hole in politics that only a Trump sized person is going to be able to fill. Once the volume gets this high it is really really hard to see a time when a quieter calmer voice becomes the more beguiling and that point as well about how to get disengaged people back in if you disagree with some of the, and let's

exclude Trump from this description, but if you disagree with some of the, and let's exclude Trump from this description, but if you disagree with some of the more right-wing, far-right advocates that have entered the political arena, if you want to try and get their supporters to turn away, you've got to give those supporters permission to be wrong and it's really hard. That is really really hard to do. And I don't think that very kind, quiet voice is what's going to do it. What do you think will, Kerens? Well, I have so many thoughts about this. I think there is a fundamental problem with our politics,

which is set up by the geography of our parliament, which is very deliberate, that it's so oppositional. And PMQs is where that all comes out, because it is literally people just trying to point score and it's brutal and it's nasty. And I feel like parliament is not always that nasty but at 12 o'clock on a Wednesday, it really is. It's brutal. When it's not nasty, it's empty. Yeah, it's true. Because it's a spectacle and I think it's almost as if it's not to be taken seriously because it's so performatively brutal and nasty.

But I thought Wednesday was really, really interesting because I thought, yeah, I thought Kami Beidnot was unnecessarily cruel in pointing it out, but I was also a bit like, well well Keir Starmer's not addressing this so I don't know is it wrong that she's pointing out because maybe he should have in somehow in some way signalled it but obviously they had clearly had a bit of a to-do on the way in. I thought what's really interesting is do you think Rachel Reeves is stronger or weaker for having had a public display of emotion. And I was actually discussing this on, Ed Vasey was sitting in for Rod Liddell on Saturday, and he had Matthew Parris and I discussing it.

And I actually think it didn't do Rachel Reeves any harm, because I think she looked human, she looked relatable. I think everybody felt an enormous, you'd have to be dead inside not to feel some level of sympathy for her. And actually I think what we want in leadership these days is something different to maybe what we wanted 50 years ago. I think the royal family, I think politicians do better when they relate to people and look human. Yeah I agree I think that vulnerability is a way to really connect with people and I agree with that I think it's her bounce back for me

as well that I hugely admired because of course she didn't need to turn up for work the next day and I think everybody would have understood if she didn't but she went out to Stratford she did she did the most extraordinary kind of we're all right Jack routine and it really was you know like the band that's been pushed back on stage you know going before. Dust yourself off, fuck you go. I'll credit Marina Hyde for making that point as well and she did it brilliantly but I just thought okay well I'm going to go with you on this one. We could all see what they were trying to do, whereas Keir and Rachel with the happy smiley clappiers and it all fine you know routine but it's just like yeah well good on you for doing that love so

I'm there with you. Yeah and because I think that is sort of we've all cried at work I mean some of us spent a brief tenure at the Daily Mail so we've definitely all cried at work. But it is about the recovery. It's about, I think that that's true of all things in life. You have a rough old time and it doesn't matter that people know it but it's about how you bounce back. Yeah and also because the markets wobbled. Well yeah also that's helpful. I mean nothing, nothing. It says we're in your corner Rachel, quite like a market wobble with the idea that you would have gone. So thank you to everybody for their correspondence on this.

Shall we do... Oh, this is an extraordinary email and we really, really want to send our community vibe to Sasha, who says, good morning lovely ladies from Wintry Perth, and I'm not going to do the accent because your email is so serious. The way that you write it is a bit lighter than I think your reality is at the moment, Sasha. So well done you for managing to do that. I usually listen to you as I deal with normal life, cooking, walking the dogs, cleaning, same old, same old. But this past week you've kept me company during the worst time of my life.

I've been listening to you in the car as I drive to and from the hospital to visit my 20-year-old son. He was rushed in, having suffered a spontaneous gastric bleed and ended up incredibly poorly in intensive care. It's so humbling to be surrounded by medical staff who literally saved his life. I cannot talk about them and my gratitude without sobbing as I've been sat here by his bed, I've been thinking. When we walk out of here, our hospital bill will be zero. Imagine going through all of this and you get an invoice running into potentially millions for what he's had done. My husband works abroad a lot but luckily he had arrived back that morning. This means that there's someone at home with the younger three, so I can spend the whole time here.

And how do you do it without that? All my family are back in the UK, although I have incredible friends who would step in. And Sasha goes on to say, my biggest bugbear, car parking, $27 a day. As we have private health insurance, we actually qualify for free parking, so this doesn't apply to us. But who the hell is going to hospital for a fun day out? Who can afford to pay so much money for a long-term hospital stay? I've decided that if I'm ever a billionaire I'm buying all of the hospital car parks and making them free. Maybe you can add it to the list of things to do in retirement alongside school uniforms. So a

long rambling email, things are definitely improving and I'm forever grateful to everyone working in healthcare. Well Sasha, we send you so much love, that must be so devastating for your family, we are really glad that your son is okay. Your gratitude towards the people for looking after him is obviously going to be echoed by so many people listening. What a good egg you are to look at car parking and actually think one day I'm going to try and make that better. We will happily add it to the list alongside school uniforms. We've got a lot to do in our third age. And it's the same over here. Car parking next door to hospitals has become such a real cowboy business. It's a horrible cowboy business.

And $27 a day is just way too much. But mostly, Sasha, we send you lots of love and hope that your son continues to get better. We've got a warning about North Berwick, which is coming from Sandra. Dear Jane, Fee, Eve, Jamal and the gang, greetings from a longtime listener, first time emailer. Have to say I was not convinced, says Sandra, about the jingle idea during the concept stage, but now it's been created, find it strangely uplifting and I've

already caught myself humming your tune while out walking the dog. As a recovering civil servant I've wondered for a while now how you've managed to avoid it becoming an acronym. This is a very good question. No phrase can be said more than twice in the civil service without attaining capital letters and official designation status. I did once have to raise a formal complaint when a colleague tried to make us call the photocopier an MFD, multifunctional device, because it also did scanning and printing. Oh, you've got a fancier one than ours. I wouldn't do anything. Anyway, says Sandra, I suspect it's only me who thinks, ah, another little fitty, if pronounced little Oh you've got a fancier one than ours. Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo o I came across an old newspaper cutting from the East Lothian Courier and I know you enjoy news from the nations and regions. This is particularly relevant as it's a crime report from North Berwick and I think it's important that you understand the sort of place you'll

be visiting next month. I come from North Berwick and kept this on a visit home a while back as a reminder of why I moved to South East London. She says I'm sure you will have an absolute blast in beautiful MB and don't forget your sunblock. I burnt my ears last year lounging in the lodge grounds. Now this is a very intriguing message because I actually can't read the attachment because it's too small. So we can only imagine the crimes or Eve might be able to blow it up. I did read it this morning. I clicked to it this morning and it's absolutely brilliant because it basically says two youths were caught, no, two youths were reported to be dancing on some garage rooftops. The police arrived there, disappeared. Some other youths had made a bonfire on the beach. When the police arrived, the bonfire

had died down. Some other youths had played loud music. The police were called when they arrived. It was quiet and literally everything had just been solved by the time the police arrived, or was just deliciously, I mean deliciously low level. Who wouldn't want a crime report of that kind of non-violent... Dancing on roofs. Yeah, yeah. So we're looking forward to going to North Berwick. We may never come back.

You might not come back. What day is it again? It is Friday. Thank you for asking. It is Friday the 8th. Would you like to know what time it is and where people can get tickets? I'd love to get tickets. They were my next questions.

It is Friday the 8th. I think it's 11.30 in the morning, somebody said. Fringe by the Sea is where you go to get tickets. Our guest is going to be Judy Murray, but it's all the usual schtick. We'll do emails and I'll tell you what, we might take a glockenspiel with us because we won't be able to play in Hillary's remarkable jingle. So we might have to do ding dong ding instead if we've got any long time listener first time emailers. Have you got a glockenspiel? I've got a little, well I've got a little kiddie one at home for, you know, for... A travel glockenspiel, as it's known.

Of course! That's what I meant. Or we might try, maybe we could get somebody on stage. It would have to be with bagpipes, wouldn't it, because we're visiting Scotland. I don't like the bagpipes. I've got a lot of Scottish blood in me. I just find them screechy, sour. They make me feel sour inside. So I'm sorry about that Scotland. The Holt Renfrew beauty refresh offer starts soon. Enjoy up to 20% off select beauty and grooming so that you can shop brands you love and ones you've always wanted to try. July 10 to 13, in-store and online.

Terms and conditions apply. Don't miss it. Anonymous says, and just so you know, Eve has had to put three clicks down on her board there because I said your name three times instead of saying anonymous, I'm so sorry. Please keep me anonymous as I don't want to appear thick. It's never stopped us.

I struggle to grasp the basics in some of the news stories, for example, the issues in the Middle East and the government's welfare U-turn. I used to love BBC's news round for this reason. Even when my kids no longer watched it, I'd go and look at its website. Now it doesn't seem to exist. Is there a website or app replacement for young people to get news in more basic fundamental ways, which means they have a grasp of what's going on? I don't know if it's my brain fog or how I process things, but I feel slightly out of touch because I find normal news channels too detailed.

They don't and shouldn't need to explain the background each time they report a development. Well, anonymous person, I'm absolutely with you on that and I think actually you're doing yourself down a bit. I think at the moment it would be incredibly helpful if sometimes the great big news websites and programs did go back and explain especially the Middle East, especially the Middle East, because people are picking up a story at that kind of high octane of news level without knowing the background and it's important. I mean, you know, never more so actually. And the government welfare U-turn with all the point systems in PIP is really important to understand as well. So I completely get it.

Yeah, we need explainers and a sidebar. Yes. More sidebars please. Well like today, you know, tonight Trump and Netanyahu are meeting in the White House, you know, and what you would love is a sidebar to explain like what's their relationship, you know, how much intervention has he had, do you know what I mean, just to understand the significance of tonight's meeting, it would be really, really good to understand like, you know, what's warm-up to this. Yes so we're with you on that and I'm sure that other people

will have places that they go to to find the basics of news but I think that point as well about trying to find a place for young people to go where it's so important for them to feel that they really are getting an unbiased version of the news and you know even the BBC at the moment is really struggling to present itself as that it's getting it from all sides so suggestions would be absolutely fantastic. Hobby of the week brackets clap a man this is comes in from Connie. I'm not sure I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure. I'm not sure about this.

I'm not sure it's going to take off. Well, I don't know. I just I quite like this email from Connie because it's not her husband that she wants to clap. It's somebody else's husband to be, which I think is quite nice. Shout out to my best friend's husband to be brackets, fiance, Josh P. He came round to my flat alone. My best friend was busy wedding dress shopping three hours before a party I was hosting yesterday to

help me set up, cook, clean and prepare the barbecue before everyone else arrived. He then proceeded to man the barbecue all day meticulously with his meat thermometer, cook a delicious butterfly lamb for us all, about 15 to 20 people, so I could relax and enjoy the party with my friends. What a man! And in the words of Mr. Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, I could not part with my best friend for anyone less worthy. Connie says she loves Pod and in the last year she's been living alone for the first time after breaking up with my partner of four years who moved out of my flat where we were living together. It's been a tough year getting over the breakup. I'm 29 and when most of my friends are getting engaged or married

and getting used to the space on my own. This is incredibly brave by the way Connie. I also chose to quit my job and go travelling for a couple of months shortly after the breakup and have since started a new job. My god you've had quite the year Connie. So a lot of change in a short period of time. You two, unless we forget even Jamal, have been my constant in this year of change. Thank you and please never stop, especially the uncontrollable giggling fits and inappropriate jokes and terrible accents. I love this and I love that Connie has nominated her best friend's fiance, who obviously has been so brilliant in this, you know, stepping in and just being like, you know, I'll come round and help. It's great. I love that. My best friend's husband also comes round and does some things that I'm just not very good at.

And I love that. So they don't have to be your own husband. Somebody else's husband can come and help. Quite long list. How is the colander? The two colanders because you bought them. Oh, okay. There's a big one and a small one. Well, my mum enjoyed using it when they came to stay recently. You haven't used it. I've used it. Jane Mulcairons. I just don't do a lot of cooking for you, you know this. Yes I do. I've rinsed some berries in it. That's good. But my parents enjoyed it and

you were invocated many times in the kitchen. Okay. Because they were very, very excited about the two sizes of colander. I just don't do a lot of draining. It's not what I was. But I appreciate that it's there, should I ever need to do more draining. I think Conny's email is absolutely fantastic and of course there are some just really,

really, really lovely people who come round and help you out. I know, I know, and you know the clapper man, whatever it was, celebrator hubby thing. I mean it is complex. We don't necessarily have to say it's just it's nice to give some props to people who've been brilliant and supportive. Yes, very much so. And I have to say that just in some traumatic times in my own life, there have been a couple of my male friends who have stepped up so readily and actually without wanting or needing any kind of encouragement or applause afterwards or anything like that and they've been absolutely brilliant and sometimes in your life, it doesn't matter what flavour you are, you need the other gender's perspective in order to understand the pickle that you're in. So, you know, we don't want to go dismissing too many very, very, very nice men.

Exactly. I didn't mean that comment about draining. I know, because I'm so easily offended for you. I know, they say that about you too, Dumas. God, very, very sensitive. Oh, prickly as hell. Quick one from Sarah in South Woodford. Literally two lines. Dear Jane and Fee, I popped in to see my non-agenarian neighbours last week. Well, well done Sarah, that's a nice thing to do.

They were watching Carry On Up the Kiber. I was a bit taken aback that it was still being aired. It's just remarkable. On what broadcasting platform are they still showing Carry On Up the Kiber? I don't know. Unacceptable British films network. Particularly sexist, racist and regressive streaming network. I don't know. Hilarious. I mean, I say this as someone who actually is quite fond of a Carry On Film because it's just gobsmacking. But Carry On Up the Kiber is particularly regressive.

I just want to say hello to Jenny. Well, Jenny says this. Quick follow up from my earlier email. I can confirm that Bacon and State was indeed popular at Glastonbury. We took over £30,000 in sales. Sadly, I was not paid by the Bacon Butty. Regarding my name, I have, as you suspected, had many a jibe about my surname, Joint. Not least as I have a PhD which makes me sound more rapper than serious academic.

Dr. Joint is in the house. As a seg to your other discussion on heat, my research in the last few years has looked at extreme heat and its impact in cities. A key finding is the impact on poverty and heat vulnerability. The double whammy of less street trees, cooler leafy suburbs are the domain of the middle classes, combined with lower socio-economic groups being more likely to be in physical jobs such as labourers and cleaners, and higher numbers of renters that can neither adapt their properties nor pay extra to cool them. This creates real unequal impacts during heat

waves. All up, the increasing heat will have a much greater impact on those living in poverty, the worst of which will impact the poor elderly on fixed incomes who find it hard to regulate temperature. I just thought I'd share some nerdy insights as well as bacon facts. They're not nerdy at all, Jenny, and we just we just need to talk about this more because when we have we've got another heat wave coming haven't we in London it's going to be 31 degrees for the rest of the week and we do the moaning of oh my god it's so hot oh my god it's so hot but actually we've really got to start changing things and understanding what we're building and how we're expecting people to live. So maybe we

could tempt you on Jenny with a special Dr Joint slot. I think that would work for us. Dr Joint slot. Dr Joint slot. It gets worse doesn't it? No it's absolutely wonderful. I love Dr Joint. Progressive Switzerland? I think not says Jane in Dorset. Jane says I've just returned from an amazing holiday travelling around Switzerland despite some lowlife stealing our cases from our car. In Switzerland? I didn't expect that. I just thought it was all yodelling and low crime rates. Anyway, I'm catching up on all the off-air episodes I've missed while I've been away and I've just heard an email from a listener on holiday in Greece whose husband was given a bigger glass of wine than her in a taverna.

Jane says, I thought Switzerland would be a progressive country but in every hotel we stayed, despite the bookings being made by my friend Caroline and reservations being in her name, our husbands passports were asked for every time and only they could fill in the registration forms because obviously my friends and I are totally incompetent women. passports were asked for every time and only they could fill in the registration forms because obviously my friends and I are totally incompetent women. When we mentioned it in one hotel the receptionist just raised her eyebrows so we didn't bother anymore even though we were both furious at being dismissed to let our husbands take charge. Needless to say the husbands thought it was hilarious. Jane says I loved the episode about hedgehogs

when you couldn't speak for laughter I had tears running down my face and it was just what I needed after having to deal with insurance admin following our luggage theft. So huge thank you. I have had the same thing in a hotel and once even quite embarrassingly when I was certainly with someone who wasn't my husband. So being asked to move by foot was quite tricky and a little bit uncomfortable for everyone. Oh dear.

Okay. It is really weird though isn't it? Because also it just doesn't make logical sense because as our correspondent then tells us she's the one doing the admin in her house. So actually it would make more sense if you wanted to be really prejudiced to always ask the woman because she would have kept the passport safe. So have you got everyone's everything? Yes. kept the passport safe. Have you got everyone's everything? Yes, and quite often when you go through airports you see a woman who does have everything under control and a man busy buying very very expensive neck pillows in W. H. Smith's. Again, I've got one love, I've

already got one! But have you brought it with you? That's the thing, that's the thing about neck pillows, there's seven in the cupboard and not in your bag. I don't really, you got one! But have you brought it with you? That's the thing. That's the thing about neck pillows. There's seven in the cupboard and none in your bag. I don't really... You're a frequent flyer. Do you do a neck pillow? So the only neck pillows that really do anything are the ones that are made of the quite firm memory foam and they sort of have a toggle around your neck and it's basically like wearing

a sort of slightly cushioned neck brace. And when you take them off you do think, how do I hold my head up the rest of the time? It's so heavy. because they are quite effective but they work because whatever position you're sitting in your neck is supported and that's the thing you need but to be honest I don't really bother because I'm quite good at sleeping on planes and they are just a big fappy thing to carry and I like now I've got a new carry-on bag that I bought from Primark that goes under the seat and so I don't even have to pay for the little overhead lockery carry-on it's basically a bag that will do me for three nights and goes under the seat in front so minimal

packing. And Primark have made that specifically to go so they call it an under the seat in front of you but then where do you put your feet where are you pushing your legs? Well don't tell Ryanair but once you get on board you can put it upstairs in the over the thing because then nobody checks. Oh that's good. But you just don't have to pay for the you know whatever is 45 quid for a carry-on but you're still and also my feet aren't very big my legs aren't very long it's okay yeah you know it's all right as far as you know Berlin or Rome like you're okay it would be a bit annoying if you were going to LA but you know it's fine. It is where being a complete

short-ass really comes into its own actually on cheap airlines designed especially especially for me and for Jane the other one. Right Jane and Fiat Times.Radio remains the email address we're gonna try and dress appropriately and maybe similarly tomorrow. Yeah well as I said I'm going to be mainly dressing in Brigitte Macron cosplay all week because she is my fashion icon and she is here in London from tomorrow for several days on a state visit so I'll be bringing the visor just for this though just for the commentary box but the rest of me will be doing my First Lady impression. OK, just briefly, what does Bridget Macron cosplay look like?

You'll see tomorrow. Ooh tempting, can't wait. We'll meet at the same place, we'll meet at the same time. Enjoy your evening. 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, 2-4pm 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. This episode of Off Air is brought to you by Washington DC. The city? Yep, the one and only Washington DC is the city for sightseeing, museum going and even outdoor adventures. It has got a variety of nightlife, dining, art and theatre with over a hundred

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