Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Stripped naked at the brow place (with Liz Hurley)

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Jane and Fi have some BIG Crossed Wires news so listen out for that! They also chat window tax, bank robbery and Raymondo. Plus, Fi speaks to actress and model Elizabeth Hurley about her son's new film 'Strictly Confidential'. 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/663601If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] us on Instagram! @janeandfiAssistant Producer: Eve SalusburyTimes Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She's just got a perfectly symmetrical face. So that's a very weird thing to say, isn't it? Sorry. You've got a beautiful... I'm looking for someone with a symmetrical face. Oh, no, sorry. You must... She really, really must name your staff.

I started the day with Gary Windows, so to speak. OK. I've got a lovely window cleaner called Gary. Well, no, Sandy, isn't it? I always do that. Sandy, yours is called. No. I was going to say it's handy. Oh, I see.

Sorry. To put people's profession, you know, when you put it in your phone. Yeah. Well, I've got him in as Gary Windows. Exactly. And he won't mind. I think he knows that that's what people call him. That's not his name.

It would be very funny if you... Is there a surname Windows? There must be. I don't think there is. I'm sure there's a Mr. Windows, Mrs. Windows. Well, there was a window tax, wasn't there? Do you remember who brought that in? No, who brought that in?

I think it was... Professor Garvey. It was Pitt the Younger. Was it? I think, if I can be wrong. Oh, no, Peter the Great. Oh, gosh. Spot the difference.

It was an easy slip. They all look the same to me. Or was it both of them? Anyway, historians will have lost the will to live. But who's our guest? Our guest is Elizabeth Hurley. They don't come much bigger. They don't come much bigger. And is it fair to say, and there's quite a lot to hear from Liz, so we won't talk a lot tonight, people will be relieved to hear, but you didn't know what to expect and you actually rather liked

her, didn't know what to expect and you actually rather liked it i really enjoyed chatting to her and i thought she would be much more guarded and uh not really answer the questions that i wanted to ask of her but she really did and she was thoughtful and she didn't say no you know i'm not going to talk about that kind of relevance to my personal life and stuff so i thought she was great and she is mesmerizingly beautiful jane I mean really astonishingly so and I suppose we get used to seeing very beautiful people don't we we see so much imagery now times radio of people there are a lot of very beautiful Jane darling just the nameless people out there who work for you just all of them uh don't dog me no but do you know what I mean we we, we just have images thrown at us more than any generation before.

And the beautiful people are all out there. So you kind of get used to seeing beauty on your screens. But in real life, I mean, she just is a person. You would just kind of stare at her, really. She's just got, she's just got a perfectly symmetrical face so that's a very weird thing to say isn't it sorry you've got a beauty you've got i'm looking for someone with a symmetrical face right but you're right though that is actually how beauty is judged it is and it's not changed scientifically that would be yeah it's not changed

since the Egyptian times. Right. When there was almost certainly a window tax. That's why the pyramids don't have windows. Right. Emma has emailed with reference to Liz Hurley. Yes. I am now really angry.

Would you mind Googling window tax, please? Young assistant. I don't know the name of that one. Yes, I do. In my 20s, says Emma, I'm now 50, I was walking through South Kensington having left work when suddenly I had a wall of paparazzi in front of me with the click and the flash of multiple cameras all on me. A moment of thinking, have I done something bad and am I famous?

When one of the journalists shouted, so Liz, what's life like after Hugh? It was then I realised that Liz Hurley was crouching down behind me, clinging onto me to avoid the cameras. It was the day after she split from Hugh Grant, and I got a real sense in that moment of what it was like to be famous. Glad to have been of assistance, and she did thank me as she ran off. Emma, that's rather a nice story, isn't it? And also a rather grim illustration of what life can be like when you're in the eye of any kind of so-called media storm, particularly for women. It can be quite spectacularly grim.

So, Emma, thank you very much for emailing and I'm glad you were able to be of assistance. So there was that story, wasn't there, from one of the awards ceremonies of Hannah Waddingham when she was standing there doing her pose for the photographers and they were shouting out things like, shout us a bit of your legs, shout us your legs. And she just walked up to one of them and said, you just wouldn't say that to a bloke and just basically sod off. That's no way to talk to anybody. And you do think, imagine being on the receiving end of that. Do you remember when we were photographing?

I do, actually. So it was at an awards ceremony on a red carpet. It was almost like we're always going to awards ceremonies. We're really not, I can, actually. So it wasn't an awards ceremony on a red carpet. It was almost like we're always going to awards ceremonies. We're really not, I can assure you. But this particular group of... I mean, the thing about the photographers is they're usually a clutch of slightly sweaty middle-aged blokes in unforgiving garments.

I mean, you know, they're not. And they were taking photographs of us. We heard them say, Who are they? What are them saying who are they? what are they? who are they? and one of the blokes went oh I think it's from the woman's hours yeah

more or less right I suppose anyway so Liz Hurley coming up coming up have we got history news? hang on Swift just wait a sec get back in your box King William III in 1696. That's him of William and Mary.

I think you'd be right. Well, I mean, just keep saying random names because we've had Peter the Great, Pliny the Younger. Peter the Younger. It was Pliny the Elder anyway, wasn't it? Sorry, my bad. Swifts in Sutton in brackets and robbing a bank.

Have we done with the history? Well, yeah, we have. But the thing about window taxes is it's quite a good idea, isn't it? And the way things are going, Fee, I wouldn't put it past them. There'll be a door tax and then we'll all be completely unable to get out of our own houses unless we're prepared to pay it. OK. Hi, F Fi and Jane.

The Swifts have arrived in Sutton, says Mary Buckton. When we were little, me and my sister would look out for the Swifts each year with great anticipation, and as soon as we saw or heard them, we'd run out into the garden and dance around, shouting, the Swifts are here! We still both live in Sutton and look out for the Swifts, hoping to be the first to spot them, although we are all grown up and live in Sutton and look out for the Swifts, hoping to be the first to

spot them. Although we are all grown up and live in our own houses now. So we text to share the news and no longer run out to dance. It gives me so much joy to hear them and know that summer is finally here. It is such a beautiful thing, Mary. And do you know what? Now that, so the Swifts are in the Swift box up just below the eaves in my house and the box is just outside my bedroom. So I open my window in the morning and I think you're probably the same. I'm waking up so early. Yeah, it was about five o'clock this morning.

Oh gosh, exactly. Why is it? I'm on 5.17 at the moment. I don't know, I suppose changing the light, just changing our bio rhythms or circadian rhythms or something but the swifts they there must be little chicks in there they are chirping away from sunrise and it's just beautiful it's so so beautiful p.s it was a revelation when i heard your email special and the email about women running banks because i always thought you were saying robbing a bank

lots of people do which made me laugh each time and i wonder if ladies do ever rob banks although does anyone rob banks anymore stream of consciousness from mary i'm probably behind the times well i mean they they they're robbing more banks than ever aren't they because they can just rob us on the scans so nobody's going to bother to get a sawn-off shotgun and a balaclava and make somebody wait outside in a souped-up four-cortina. They are just dipping into our algorithms, aren't they? I'm afraid they are.

I don't know whether algorithms is quite right in this. What are they dipping into? They're scamming us, aren't they? They're skimming and scamming. Jenny finds herself in Auckland. A good morning, she says. Because time is different in Auckland. Good morning, she says. I mean, because time is different in Auckland, I have no idea when Jenny wrote this, what day it was, what year it was even, and whether or not she is currently subject to the window tax. We will never know. But she says,

I found your guest Tina Brown's contribution interesting. I've been trying to instill in my children the importance of not believing everything that you hear or see online. However, it did backfire on me a couple of weeks ago. Charlotte, 14, was telling me with authority that Italians eat horse meat. I'm not sure if they do or don't. But I said, well, you can't believe everything you read online. What were the sources? She replied without humour, well, I think they have it with tomato sauce. I'm not sure my lesson has really got through. Love the podcast. Keep up the good work, says Jenny in New Zealand.

Jenny, thank you so much for listening. We really appreciate it. Because I think people, if they're listening that far away, I think of them as making an additional effort. Do you? Yeah. Okay. Can they hear us? Jane, I'm not going to. Ask Alexa. How's that going?

Actually, I said thank you and she did say the other day it's a pleasure. Did she? Yeah. Good. I can see us getting married. This comes in from George, who says, I would completely disagree on the point about sisterhood. Now, shall we just explain this story?

Well, yes. This was the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Maloney, who, I don't know whether she was making a speech or at a conference or something, she said she believes it's only if a woman becomes a mother that she fully appreciates the sisterhood and starts working on behalf of and in conjunction with other women, which, as you said, is unfair on women who, for whatever reason, are not mothers and suggest that they're not capable of being sisterly. Because what Maloney also said was that she believes that women before motherhood, if that is their situation, tend to compete with each other because they've let themselves believe

they could never compete with men. I think that was the gist of it. That is the gist of it, yep. It was an explainer. It was an explainer. You did very well. And it's caused quite a bit of ferrari actually and this from george many of my closest friends are single and childless as am i and we've always been there for each other never more so now than when i'm very sick with long

covid and these women married and unmarried have been my backbone along with my older mum who's caring for me, as has your podcast. It's one of the only things that makes me smile during this all feels like what feels like an impossible time. Well, George, we are really sorry to hear that. I think long Covid, I mean, you will know this obviously much more than us. I think it's become something that we've stopped talking about. Not enough people are still interested, sympathetic, empathetic, etc. So we really wish you well, because I don't know whether it feels like the world has moved on and you're

just stuck in something. I don't know what your experience is. And we would like to hear a little bit more. And I think, as Jane said, you know, we did both immediately say that it is unfair, I think, to believe that it's only motherhood that allows a really true sisterly collective and certainly my experience was one where I really enjoyed the sense of a sisterhood within motherhood in a way that I hadn't been able to when I was at work because it did all just feel a little bit more sharp elbowed and but then i've heard so many women since saying it's completely the other way around that they found a real warmth from their female colleagues and bosses and then entered the world of motherhood oh god and the school gates you know were just a war zone all the time and

actually people weren't you know the milk of human kindness was really not running i mean full fat form so it's i don't think maloney's right i mean obviously that you know she must be speaking from her own experience and as we've kind of touched on maybe there are some things in italian society that we don't completely understand but i'm with you george. You know, I think that often, often in the world, it's women who haven't had children who end up being hugely empathetic, caring and called upon. You know, there's definitely a thing, isn't there, that if you haven't had kids, you must have all of the time in the world to help other people. So yeah,

we really hear you. George goes on to say, I'm really sorry, I don't understand the bag mechanism. Well, OK, you're not alone, George. Yes, I mean, quantum physics eludes many of us, and so does the tell a friend, get a tote campaign. But what we do know,

what we do know and can tell you now is that our event in Sheffield at the Crucible Theatre it is the Crossed Wires Podcast Festival May the 31st 7.15 kickstart what will be a boiling hot summer sensation

of a weekend last is the weekend after the bank holiday so you've got work on Monday to look forward to but you'll still want to kick off a wonderful sun-drenched weekend with a trip to the Crucible Theatre to hear us and see us. And then you can turn to your friends and say, oh dear. Yeah, all of that. And who's our special guest?

It's not only darling Dickie. It's darling Dickie Coles. Dear Dickie, who is both a reverend, although he's semi-retired from his reverendness, isn't he? He is. I said not only. I mean, not just. What did you mean? Well, that doesn't make sense. No, but it's lovely. It's lovely to hear you.

So, Richard Coles. We've already done one podcast and a show today. Can't do it anymore. No, but he's a really cracking booking for us because he makes us laugh. He's properly informed. He's had a hell of a life. And so much has gone on

and he's achieved so much to our fury. But we're really, really keen to have him with us. And I know that you'll enjoy his company. He's very, very entertaining. And I don't think we're going to have too much trouble talking to him, do you? I think we'll be absolutely fine I'm subtitling the evening one National Trinket and two regional baubles right okay come along can I just say George I'm going to hang on to your email and

and that will get sorted the bag mechanism I'm going to try and explain it you need to tell somebody who doesn't listen to the podcast about the podcast they need to fall in love with the podcast they get in touch with the yeah they can't dislike it they can't dislike it they've got to stay with us and be part of our audience and if they like it then they email us and say so and so told us about the podcast i'm part of your new audience and then we send you both a tote bag yeah i mean it's very simple when when i hear fee talk about it uh so that's jane and fee at times.radio. And these tote bags, you need to know, they're not rubbish, actually. They're quite sturdy.

And I would say you could fit the best part of about a third of your weekly shop into one of these bags if you're strong or feisty, as women can be these days. Yeah, but if you've got a lot of liquid in there, you'll be fine. Actually, we're on to the subject of Italy and Italian men, because we have been talking about them a bit. You brought back a couple of male memories, says Roz, when talking about Italian men today and when they leave home, etc. My daughter's Italian boyfriend came to Australia for a two-week holiday

carrying three suitcases and carry-on bagage. Immigration interviewed him as they thought he was intending to move to here, to Australia, illegally. As the holiday went on, we certainly found out what was in those cases. He never wore the same outfit twice, nor did he wash or clean them. Eating a hot curry in his three-piece suit on his last night here was a real challenge. It was summer and he perspired constantly, wiping his brow with his last remaining clean handkerchief. Mama was going to be very busy when he got back.

But in fairness, I had an English boyfriend who put all his used clothing in a suitcase in London, and as we returned to Sussex each weekend, it will be washed, ironed, and repackaged for our Sunday night return to London. No, says Ross, I didn't marry him. Well, actually, shortly after my mum married my dad, my gran my dad's mum rang my mother and said that she'd found out that he'd

been given foreign food and that she disapproved of that and wanted my mum to know that spaghetti was not something her Raymond would be requiring. God, I would want a recording of that conversation. What did Maureen say? Maureen was a multi-part.

And I wouldn't say she talked about it regularly, but it is an anecdote that gets an airing more often than not. Gosh, I'm not surprised. Even spaghetti in a tin? It wasn't in a tin. No, no, but would spaghetti in a tin have been acceptable? Oh, no, I don't think, no, none of that. No, no.

Because I think my mum, because back in those days, I mean, women didn't work upon marriage, did they? No, my mum didn't, not for a couple of years. She went back to work when I was about seven or eight. But no, she would spend her days just titivating the house and no doubt herself, and then conjure up something special. Oh, yes. When Raimondo got back from the office okay all five

four six of him okay we do need to talk a little bit more about raymondo we might have a raymondo special uh this comes from becca um the same one who was called mildly attractive by cambridge cat caller we remember you becca further to your conversation about the universally sized spa flip-flop, I wonder if your listeners would be able to weigh in on a conundrum that still haunts me almost a decade on from my first and last spa treatment. My then quite new and lovely boyfriend, now long-term husband, I love that term, I wonder whether anyone would write it and say,

my short-term husband. Or my current partner. I always think, didn't Terry Wogan always say the current Mrs Wogan? Yeah. Keeps them on their toes. And bought me a facial in quite a posh department store spa. On being ushered into the candlelit room, well, music on medium low,

the lovely therapist gestured towards the treatment bed and said, I'll leave you to get ready, and then slipped out. The bed was complete with sheets, a duvet and pillow, but I was wearing outside clothes. I understood that my jumper and T-shirt should come off for access to neck and shoulders, but where was I meant to stop? I panicked and took my trousers off

and then slipped into the lovely cosy bed and hoped the therapist wouldn't notice my neatly folded up jeans. I then spent the next 45 minutes not enjoying the face mask and blackhead squeezing, but instead acutely aware that I was in my pants. The treatment ended about 15 minutes before the allotted hour and to this day I wonder whether it was because the therapist realised I didn't have any trousers on. For the full context, I was at the time a five foot something 25 year 25-year-old girl, so not threatening in the traditional sense. What would others have done? Most of my friends have been baffled by my actions.

I just couldn't face getting under a clean duvet, wearing clothes that had been on the London Underground. Oh, Lord. Will this decision haunt me forever? Well, it won't, Becca, because you got it out into the open. And actually, I think that's fine. I think it would have been a bit weird if you'd taken your pants off too but I think they might be expecting you to just be in your pants I always think I need a clear direction when I'm in that situation so I really feel for her

because I you know when you have a medical examination they sometimes say well get on the bed and and then they they close the curtain and you think well what really there's no point because there's only you in the room and you're going to be seeing every fandango I've got to offer in a couple of seconds. So why are we bothering with this? But they still do, don't they? They do. And so do you find, have you kind of over undressed in those situations? That's what I mean. It's slightly bringing me out in hives because I think I probably have. And obviously you've got to, I mean, if you're having any kind of gynecological examination then everything does have to come yeah I'm with you I like a therapist who says

just be clear keep your underwear on yeah please God keep your underwear there's only a pedicure yeah and then when they go and we're live face down first I like that I mean I stripped off completely naked at the brow place. They did look startled. I'm banned from there now. Right, bring in Liz Hurley. Right, let's bring in Elizabeth Hurley. Eve, named staff of the day.

Would you like me to read the queue? No. God, how unprofessional. Okay, right, so I need to read it again. Right. Do it properly. Make a make a note of this? It's extra money. Elizabeth Hurley has been in the public eye for 40 years now

as an actress and model. She's also been an organic farmer and film producer, one-time partner of Hugh Grant and also Shane Warne, and that's relevant because we talk about loss in this interview. She's mum to Damien, whose biological father, Steve Bing, took his own life in 2020. He had played very little part in Damien's life after his relationship with Elizabeth had ended. And that's relevant too, because suicide is a theme in Damien's first film, which he's written and directed at the age of 22. It's out

now, it's called Strictly Confidential and as well as a raft of thoroughly beautiful young actors, it stars his thoroughly beautiful mum, Elizabeth. I started by asking her to explain Strictly Confidential's plot and the part she plays in it. Yeah, well Strictly Confidential, which was written and directed by my son Damien, tells a story of a haunted young girl who can't accept that her best friend killed herself the year before. It just doesn't make sense to her. So when my character,

the mother of the dead girl, invites all Rebecca's friends to the island on which she lives to commemorate the death of her daughter and to remember her. When Mia, our protagonist, arrives, she just thinks there was more to this than meets the eye. And she starts to uncover a whole load of secrets and lies and betrayals. And she sort of sleuths her way across this beautiful Caribbean island

to try to find out why her best friend Rebecca did what she did. It's a lush movie, isn't it, in terms of the setting and the shots of the sea and all of the amazing dresses that you're wearing all of the time. Well, I think my son's idea was to have beautiful people in a beautiful place and gradually let the darkness sort of weave its way up. And, you know, it's just one of those things where I think when something looks like paradise, there's always dark things underneath. A bit like White Lotus in a way, I think,

where everything looks fabulous, but it's underneath the underbelly is not so pretty. How did the negotiations go between you and your son about you starring in the movie? Well, even in the final movie, I don't really star in it. I've got a supporting role. It really is a movie for young adults, starring young adults.

Well, actually, when I originally signed on, my part was very tiny. When he first wrote the script, it was the father who hosted the week for the Friends. So you would have been the one tipped off the cliff? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, interestingly, I would have been.

I would have just been sort of flashbacks. And in interestingly, I would have been. I would have just been sort of flashbacks. And in fact, it would have been the father that it would be discovered was having an affair with one of Rebecca's friends. And then Damien just thought, we've seen that before. It's slightly unpleasant. Who wants to see, you know, a middle-aged man

with a young girl, yawn, yawn? And he said, what if I switch the genders? And what if it was the dad that died and the mum that's still alive? And we realized it was much more shocking in a way and much probably harder to deal with and get your head around if you find out that it was a woman who was the betrayer um which is quite interesting really when you think about why is that more shocking but in fact it was yeah it's a good role reversal actually gender reversal and also how refreshing not to um automatically see a woman the victim of violence at the you know

at the bottom of a cliff it does also mean that you have a super sexy sapphic scene in the movie because it is the mum who is revealed to be having an affair with one of her daughter's friends. Now, I know that you've been asked about this a lot, Elizabeth Hurley, so it will be an absolutely pitch-perfect reply. But filming that when your son is behind the camera and directing all of the moves, it's got to be a little bit uncomfortable, hasn't it? It wasn't remotely uncomfortable for me. I think I found it more comfortable because it was Damien.

But that's not so much in a mother-son role. It's more in a trusting role, I think. Because, you know, whenever you have to do intimate scenes, of which I've done hundreds since I started, you know, working professionally when I was 21, which I've done hundreds since I started you know working professionally when I was 21 which I'm afraid says rather a long time ago now um there's there's a huge element of trust there you know not only with the person you're acting in front of but with your director with the cameraman with all the crew with everybody you know you're trusting everybody you're trusting them in post-production. You're trusting the marketing. You're trusting everything because it's completely outside your control as an actor. So I think for me, having Damien at the helm and knowing that Damien would be controlling the edit, we'd have a big say in

the marketing. We'd have a big say in everything. Actually actually it was incredibly liberating so um uncomfortable zero comfortable right up there were any of those other intimate scenes that you filmed through your career uncomfortable now you have the benefit of being able to look back on them through the eyes of a more mature woman do you think that you were in positions which were difficult and just shouldn't have been asked of you? To be honest, I never felt uncomfortable on a set, ever. I just didn't. I don't know if that's because I was lucky with the directors I worked with,

the cast I worked with, the cast I worked with, the crew I worked with. Movie crews on the whole are, to me, unbelievably special people. And, you know, every crew member to me is as important as any cast member and any of the people who you could perhaps say were in the more important positions because they just mean everything to you because, you know, there's whatever scene you're doing, whether it's an intimate scene or any scene,

there's so many people on top of you. There's so many props people, lighting people, people wafting air at you, powdering your nose, fiddling with you, sound people. There's so many people with you. You really have to trust them and i've very very rarely met a crew member in you know however many years it is now nearly nearly 40 who don't just really want to make the best show they can they just all do very

occasionally there's a bad egg and they get kicked out by their heads of department really early on in the they're just good people and they just want every scene and every shot to be as good as they can make that shot so actually you feel part of a team and i've never really felt uncomfortable but i think maybe i've been lucky you and your son damien know all about the true pain of suicide damien's biological father your former partner, died by suicide. And I wonder, when you first read his script, and particularly as his mum, undoubtedly it's a storyline, isn't it, that wishes away the pain of suicide.

What did you think? I think it's also knowing that, I think when you lose someone to suicide, there's always unanswered questions. And I think in's also knowing that I think when you lose someone to suicide, there's always unanswered questions. And I think in this film, he has his protagonist who had a whole heap of unanswered questions and she finds answers. Whereas, of course, in real life, I don't think you always do find answers. And you're always in that position of just not knowing of somebody's mindset not

knowing how you could have contributed differently you just don't know this was actually sparked initially he first wrote this treatment when at about i think he's about 16 or 17 and one of their peer groups committed suicide a young girl and you, they were obviously kids themselves. And they found it very hard to process. And they had a lot of unanswered questions, which of course remain unanswered to this day. So yes, I think I could see how he would like to be able to tidy things up in his own life. And also know that he can't. Yeah, you've had to be so protective of him, I know, because so many things have happened along the way and I know that losing Shane Warne as well

must have been incredibly painful for both you and him. But also you've got that added whammy, haven't you, of the public gaze being upon you. And I wonder how you are trying to prepare him for an inevitable life in the public eye where I mean like like today I can ask you these questions it's an extraordinary position to be in their personal questions about your personal life so what's the wisdom that you try and pass down to him to be able to cope with all of that well that would be suggesting i have any wisdom and i'm probably a complete idiot

no i bet you do so don't do yourself down here well i think he he is extraordinarily observant and as a single child of a single mother we've spent a great deal of time together which probably also explains more of our comfort level with each other, which might seem more strange to other parents with sons or daughters who might think that's just ridiculous that they could work and, for example, shoot those scenes we shot, which is the question you asked. And certainly if my mother or father had been directing me, it's mind boggling to think of of it so i completely get where those questions come from um we are extraordinarily close in some ways um and he's been involved in for at least 10 years in my professional life in that he's been on sets with me he's run lines with me he's run lines with

other actors he's been observing and watching the entire time and also because he's he's a pretty good photographer and videographer. He helps me out with my beachwear company all the time and takes pictures and takes photographs. And so it's unlike many parents. I can see it would be completely absurd if I've been photographing my dad in his swimming shorts. I mean, it's mind-boggling to think of,

but it isn't mind-boggling for me, for him. I want to see those pictures now. No, I get it. I get it. And it would have been absurd. So I totally understand where people come from. But because he's had a camera in his hands since he was still in single digits,

photographing everything, all my family, all my friends, always photographing, all through school, photographing, all through school, photographing his friends who in all his photographic projects for his A-levels and stuff. It's because I've really been able to separate him off as a professional. And I think he's also been able to separate me off as a professional. And because I've had my own company, and also produced films when I was much younger, and then didn't produce for a long time. I've always been able to completely disassociate myself as it happens from the images I'm seeing. So often, as an actress or a model, photographers don't like you to come behind

the monitor and see the unfinished, the raw stuff because they think you'll go, oh my God, Jesus Christ. And they always want to say, no, no, no, no, we'll fix that. We'll fix that. I'm fine to see it. I know what I look like. And I'm'm always fine i know they're going to tidy stuff up damien knows that so i just we just there's just a level gone we're not in cloud cuckoo land we know how we look we know how we are and we just want to make the best thing we can for whatever basically we're selling. And so it's just it is just a different thing. So as far as him, learning from me, how to keep what you need to keep private, but how to understand that there's certain things you need to share. If you're asking people to buy your, your book or watch your film or buy your makeup or your swimsuits or whatever, we know you have to share something. And I'm happy

to share quite a lot. But of course, there is a cut-off point and I think he's learned also that I that maybe it is an art of sharing without regretting what you're sharing um gosh that's a tricky one it is it's a tricky one and you have to navigate it and there are gray areas and you make mistakes but I think um you know you I've always been very protective of people who aren't in the business in my family and I feel really incensed when their privacy is invaded because they're not in the public eye. But he loves my business and he wants to be in the business

and he gets that you share. He gets it. You are astonishingly beautiful uh and can i just say with an age defying cleavage but i wonder as you get older as all of us do uh we change there can be a sense of losing something i think especially uh for for women and women in the public eye and so i wonder what you think. Are your wrinkles little enemies? Are they little friends? Do you worry about your looks changing as you age? You know, it's an interesting thing because sometimes I realise that I think much more

about changes below the face, body changes, more than the face. So I actually know I don't worry about wrinkles. I completely accept that. But, and obviously we don't cover our faces up, but look how covered I am today. You're very covered. I always am. I only show very small bits of me now. Because, you know, it is obviously when you're older,

your skin isn't so good on your body. And I do find myself covering up quite a lot when I'm in public because unfortunately you know cameras now are high def and they're really unflattering but also newspapers do that unbelievable thing still up in the contrast where they do before and after and the before and after is aging that's what it is it is and and because we manipulate pictures because we're in the business they're very easy to manipulate and and hi it's interesting because we just went on vacation it was the first time we'd had a break since we started this movie the whole process so

for 18 months we've worked pretty much 23 hours a day and we just took a 10-day break and i found my little leica camera not film it's not a film camera it's digital but it's from the early 2000s and as you know now everybody takes photographs of themselves on their phone the whole time they're so high def they're absolutely hideous so you know you know you can look at your friend and they look great you take a picture on your camera and everyone goes what and you say no you don you don't look like that. And it is the camera. It's high def and it's really unflattering and it's not fair. So we took our Leica with us

and suddenly we looked like the photographs. We actually look like how we do look when you look at someone where it's not hideous high def, but it's very hard for people in the public eye when you're photographed in really unflattering high def and then they turn the contrast up again and it's really hard. know we used to be shot on film to make a movie film is beautiful you could still have bad lighting on film but film is very beautiful the high def we shoot on now is not beautiful it's raw and it's open and you know a 16 year old can they're quite challenging shops sometimes which

is why now even in tv and films everything's retouched because you have to counteract the horror of high def so it's a it's a completely different it's a different aesthetic and it's a different business now and in real life you know people are tended to cover up if you look at the red carpet now people are covered they their arms, they cover their legs. They just show little bits because it's deeply unflattering, no matter how old you are. And people don't like it. Why would they? No one likes it.

That's a very interesting point, actually. And I was going to ask you about some of the women who went to the Met Gala. There's been quite a furore about very, very small waists. Have people had their ribs removed in order to get tiny wasp wastes and all of that kind of stuff going on? But at the same time, when you look at that red carpet, that is a red carpet full of female empowerment.

Unbelievable women who've done unbelievable things, made fortunes, been in control of their entire lives. So when do those two things actually meet in the middle where a woman can be the woman she wants to be without it being about a very specific image of the female body? Will we ever get there? Golly, well, I'm not sure. I mean, I think most people I know are relatively comfortable with who they are and where they are at their stage in life. Everybody, in the public eye or not,

most of us try to make the best of ourselves, you know, eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive, do what we can, keep our hair clean and glossy, you know, not, you know, do our nails after we've done the gardening. I had to do mine yesterday. Mine was shocking. Every single broken nail full of mud. But, you know, most people do the best they can. But I think most people also, and I'm definitely in that camp, I accept the inevitable of, you know,

the changes we go through, through life. And I think having that kind of acceptance is pretty important. You could be pretty miserable. In fact, I'm very much looking forward to reading a book. I just read a review of it yesterday. It's written, you might enjoy it. It's written by a lady called Bonnie Hammer. Great name. She was a force to be reckoned with. When I did the Royals,

she was running a whole slew of NBC, Bravo, E, a whole lot of channels were completely under her control. She was a tiny little woman. She was brilliant, absolutely brilliant at her job. She's just published a book for women about how women navigate through the workplace. Now, she was a rocket. She was a little bit frightening.

She was very nice to me, but she was a very fierce lady, and she was brilliant in the job that she did. She had some excellent advice. Just in the little piece I read lifted from that, it could be a book that's really worth reading, I think, for women navigating their course through the workplace, like Bonnie did. Nice recommendation. Thank you for that.

Can we just talk politics before we let you go? I know that, well, you've been... I haven't had time to read the papers and watch the news for 18 months. I'm going to be behind. Don't worry, it's not a quiz. It's not a quiz. No traps here at all. I have read, though, that you have been,

in the past, a pro-Tory Brexit supporter. And I wonder whether that has changed at all, not least because as a farmer, the owner of land, I know that you sold your farm 10 years ago, an awful lot of farmers have come to a different position actually because what they've been trying to navigate after Brexit has been very complicated and perhaps not what was foreseen.

So it's a very open question. I'm not testing you on regulations here at all but I suppose I'm asking if testing you on regulations here at all. But I suppose I'm asking if you've changed your mind at all. Well, I'd be very happy to talk about the plight of British farmer. So what was interesting when I obviously was not a big landowner, but I had an organic farm, I had 400 acres. We were part of the EU at that time. All I can say at that time is that the paperwork was absolutely astonishing. I don't think any farmer could fill it out by himself everybody had to hire people to do it it was the most confusing

system I'd ever seen I remember sitting there with my then husband and just thinking we can't cope with this paperwork it's unbelievable so you're right everything did change for landowners or has half changed or not really changed and nobody really understands it so every farmer i speak to and i could not be a bigger supporter of british farmers i think they are astonishing we moved heaven and earth to buy as much british farm product as we physically can milk meat vegetables ireland included but we we try incredibly hard to eat as little as we can that's imported, plus we grow as much as we can. And I know now that on the smaller amount of land that I now have, it's so confusing. And I don't know why. I don't know why it can't just be easy. The rules on set aside, the rules on what you can plant and what you can't plant and what grants

you may or may not get anymore, because most of them they were changed and taken away. But it was a useless system before and I think it's pretty useless now too. So the plight of the British farmer is not over. Has it changed the way that you'd vote? No. Liz Hurley, thank you very much. And also, can I just thank you for using the word golly in this interview?

I haven't heard that for years. That's brilliant. Yes, it was lovely. It the word golly in this interview. I haven't heard that for years. That's brilliant. Yes, it was lovely. It was a golly. Elizabeth Hurley. And it was a delight to meet her, actually. I'm sure we'll keep in touch. Are you?

No. You really made me laugh. If I said to you, oh, Fee, would you like to come for lunch? And you said, oh, no, I can't because I'm up the King's Road with Liz Hurley. No, have you ever made friends with an interviewee? You'd be amazed to hear the answer.

The question is no. No, I don't. I don't do that either. I think it crosses a line. I tend to just marry them. Oh, God. Right. I've realised I'm supposed to be providing a meal in an hour

some distance from where I currently am. Yes, OK. So, look, it's not that we're too busy to do this. We never are. And we're never too busy to read all your emails. And the email address is janeandfee at times.radio. We are going to stop banging on about the Crosswires Festival in Sheffield just as soon as all the tickets are sold.

So, there's an incentive for you. Sometimes we're just too honest. So, if you just search Crosswires, it'd be lovely to see you there. We'll have a right old love with darling, darling Dickie. Yes. Join in, for God's sake. Well done for getting to the end of another episode of Off Air with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover. Our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler

and the podcast executive producer is Henry Tribe. And don't forget, there is even more of us every afternoon on Times Radio. It's Monday to Thursday, three till five. You can pop us on when you're pottering around the house or heading out in the car on the school run. Or running a bank. Thank you for joining us.

And we hope you can join us again on Off Air very soon. Don't be so silly. Running a bank? I know, ladies. A lady listener. I know, sorry.