Off Air... with Jane and Fi - That can be our safe word (with Ed Gamble)

Episode Date: October 26, 2023

Jane and Jane discuss the pros and cons of a fancy bagel, treating yourself on a Thursday and encounters of the other worldly kind.Comedian Ed Gamble joins to talk about his memoir 'Glutton', which is available now.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 LeeTimes Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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That'll be our safe word. Yes, actually, it's not a bad thought. OK. I don't know why I'm sounding like that. Welcome to Off Air. I think it's just all the kind of well just not highfalutin but you've been very sort of free and easy with your chat jane markerians this week on off air i think feed lover and i are going to go back to just easier territory i think next week button yourselves back up yeah i think so i'll definitely have some really really restrictive restrictive garments on Monday.

We'll be right back where we started. Back to corsets. Back to the corsets and the full bodied. And our all corsets. Yes, I think so. That's just my view. Now, we were just talking about bagels because I was about to tell you that I have started pretty much every day of my life with a bagel uh toasted bagel since

i first discovered them and uh what i don't like is fancy bagels of any kind but you are can i just get plain i like the single ones they cannot be in packets wow no not in packets i buy single bagel from the bakery no sainsbury's local um so I'm a cinnamon and raisin probably top of the top of the bagel charts for me is a cinnamon and raisin I like a sesame seed bagel I like a poppy seed bagel

but my teeth don't you have to take a toothpick around if you're going to have a poppy seed bagel cream cheese or butter? just butter with honey oh

yeah okay if you want a body like mine that's how you start the day you put that in the DVD yes my cute fit DVD

well I'm never ill you should never say that should you now and that scarf you were wearing yesterday stopped you getting the COVID that you were worried about

but it has though it has you're fine I'm not in any way mocking COVID because I think it can be horrible when you get it but I am I think it's all about the timing I'm really worried any way mocking Covid because I think it can be horrible when you get it but I think it's all about the timing

and I'm really worried that because I haven't, I've only had it once that I'm going to succumb at a really inconvenient time, so I'd much rather I don't want time off work but if in the nicest possible way I don't think you get time off work anymore don't you? I think you're meant to come in aren't you?

no, nobody would want me coughing and spluttering over everybody, so timing is everything everything if i could just get it before christmas i'd be very grateful well i'm just around the time when you're meant to be doing mary berry's countdown i'm starting to sorry sorry i got the covid oh can't come sorry pigs and blankets i'll have to wait oh no so i anyway it hasn't happened but get a chinese briefly back to bagels because you were saying that there's this thing you can get in america called everything what everything bagel uh seasoning so it's you get everything bagels which do have everything in them so they've got uh sesame seeds poppy seeds onion the onion flavoring and in trader

joe's which is a sort of brilliant supermarket I'm trying to think where you'd position it it's sort of a cross between Sainsbury's and Waitrose but is very they have all their own brand stuff and it's very reasonably priced but brilliant produce so they have an everything bagel seasoning that you put in everything people just put in it and you just shake it shake it around yeah yeah yeah it's very salty which i think is why it's delicious yeah it's great it's probably really bad for you part of the reason I was talking about bagels was because the guest today is Ed Gamble and he's written this memoir called glutton he's also one of the hosts of Great British

Menu and he does off menu the podcast with James Acaster and he's a comedian but he does have he was at one point he was very very overweight I mean I think it is okay to say he was obese I think he was 19 stone and he's I think six foot tall perhaps a tiny bit taller than that so he was he was very big um and we in the course of the interview we just talk about all sorts of things including those people who honestly say that food is just a fuel and they'd be just as happy with a tablet and I those are not my people no they're not my people either they're definitely not my people and I think I'm trying to think I just I think we've all got a weird relationship with food I think all of us have really peculiar I mean my fixation on this breakfast is nonsensical it certainly isn't healthy i do know that really i just bumped

into one of the news editors of the times in the kitchen and he was making some sort of horrid looking protein shake and the way he was looking at it was so disgusted and i did say what are you doing and he said i don't know body dysmorphia i just thought poor man oh so he's he's prepared to admit i mean i think he was being slightly slightly jovial but but i think he was saying it's not even working i just thought oh just pour it away and get a kit kat yes four fingers as well four fingers um it's a thursday afternoon treat yourself it's not just thursday afternoon it's nearly Halloween. And I just want to say that Kate McCann, whose Times Radio is incredibly hardworking, uber intelligent, well-informed political editor,

has in the very recent past had what she believes was an encounter with something ghostly at her parents' old barn. She was sleeping there for the night. She heard a bump in the night, something to do with a bedroom that had always been occupied by her grandfather, no longer with us, so there wouldn't normally be anybody in that bedroom. And she heard some movements in the night. And she thought it might be her dad dad who's got shaky leg at night and her mom this is very intricate explanation but she is sometimes concerned what it's a fact

that her mom will kick her dad out of bed because of his shaky leg thing he's you know when you involuntarily starts twitching in the night is annoying uh so um mrs kate mccann senior kicks out mr mccann and uh But this wasn't what happened that night. So what was that noise in the McCann barn conversion? Is she doing a special spooky show on this? Well, she's interested in collecting experiences. And anything she can do, we can do on off-air. So I just want, in the spirit, ho-ho.

When is Halloween? Monday? Next Tuesday. It's the spirit ho ho when is Halloween? Monday? Tuesday? Thursday Tuesday you've got time if you just want to contribute and they can be anonymous

your experiences of some sort of encounter with something from the other side and if I'm sounding deeply cynical and I'm going to take like I'm going to take the piss I just want to make it clear I don't actually

genuinely dismiss this stuff. You also believe in aliens. I do believe in aliens. And I say that with a very measured tone. Thank you for that measured tone. But there's got to be, on the basis that if the universe is infinite. Oh, I can't, don't.

When you say infinity, my brain falls out of my ear. I can't do that one. Okay. So let's never mind, never mind about the infinity in the vastness of space let's just focus on encounters of the otherworldly sort it could be anything at all fee is famous for having something really strange happen to her around the bromley area so she'll be back on She can expand on that if I remember to ask her. Can't wait. Yeah, I'm sure nobody can.

I don't think I've ever had any supernatural experiences. Except I did spend 14 years at Catholic school. So, you know, I watched a person be changed into bread, you know, weekly. Yes. Or the other way around. You have to remind me, what is the Catholic... Transubstantiation. Yeah, transubstantiation.

But what is the Catholic stance on ghosts and things? Well, there is a Holy Spirit. Ah, yes. Actually, this is very... So that's probably the only one we allow. Yeah, just spirits as long as they're holy. I mean, in all honesty, we are approaching the season in which the Virgin has a babby. Yeah. So,

you know, it's all approaching. Could it be magic? Well, I guess. Speaking of Robbie Williams earlier as we were. We were. Robbie Williams is the cover star of the Times magazine of which you are associate editor. And Robbie is at a good place in his life. He's also on a Zempic, which

we didn't get around to talking about earlier. Can we just talk briefly about that? Yes. So, Catlin says, so Catlin Moran has interviewed him for the cover of the magazine and it's a brilliant interview.

But she says when she turns up, he looks so thin, he almost looks gaunt. He's lost over two stone, I think, on a Zen pic. But as he says, he's got type two self-loathing.

Yeah. You you see there's another one i mean i think body dysmorphia all the way with robbie williams which isn't absolutely serious and yeah i feel for him i really do um back to the catholic church quick mention to glenn who says jane you said the other day that you missed kiss and tell newspaper stories what about this headline worthy in my opinion of of the Nobel Prize for Literature from The Times? Polish bishop resigns after sex worker faints at rectory orgy.

I mean, no, that was... To say that it caught my eye, Glyn, would be an understatement. We are the newspaper of record. Oh, indeed. So we've had an incredible week this week talking about sexuality yes press on with it and i i really do want to say again thank you to everyone who's

emailed in because the stories have just been absolutely fascinating and so honest and open and i think both of us have just been really touched by people's honesty and um and sharing and openness and sharing it with us um there's another great there's another great pile of them today um dear jane and jane here's another point about sexuality that nobody's brought up yet and it's to do with asexuality someone might be capable of being romantic with a particular gender but not sexual whereas someone else could be both or neither this opens the options out a bit for example i've known people to be bi-romantic but not bisexual could this be what some people are

exploring as a listener as for assuming that everyone is somewhat bi i should be clear that that's not something i'd go up and say to someone it's more that it's the most likely bet if they haven't said anything even if they're 97 percent straight and 3 percent gay. Absolutely no judgment if they're not, of course. So the listener says there's a spectrum for this, too. Have you heard of the Kinsey scale? So I did intend to print out the Kinsey scale and bring it up, but I didn't get back to the printer in time, I'm afraid. But the Kinsey scale is a scale of heterosexuality and homosexuality.

So I don't know. I don't know that. I mean, Kinsey was a long time ago. I think the world's moved on. But I don't know. Well, I think there's a spectrum. Whether you can mark yourself on a scale, I don't know. Surely it depends on the day.

Exactly. I would have thought so. Anyway, this listener says... Like all scales. Yes. Loving this topic. Yes. Especially because it's not often discussed in podcasts that aren't explicitly LGBT.

Best wishes from a loyal lesbian listener, says our anonymous correspondent there. Well, I think that's, I mean, you're right. That's the beauty of this podcast, actually, because Fee and I have always said that this is a safe space to talk about and to say anything, obviously with some clear exceptions, and there just won't be any judgment. So keep your thoughts coming janeandfee at times.radio have you got another one there? Yeah I've got another one which really touched me actually

Hi Jane and Jane listening to the discussion of sexuality on the podcast this week has made me review my own feelings on the topic I'm a gay woman about to turn 30 I suppose you could say I'm on the cusp of the more sexually fluid generation. But my experience has not been one of fluidity. And if I'm really honest, I think I struggle with the ease that people are starting to talk about just trying out dating women. It was really difficult to come to terms with my sexuality in my early 20s. And coming out,

it can be so hard to admit, you don't have the same feelings as everyone else. And that doesn't make you seem less than or broken in some way. Happy to report that I married my gorgeous wife a few months ago but it wasn't an entirely smooth road. I have female friends who are now starting to explore their sexuality and try dating women. While I obviously advocate for the joy of a relationship with another woman, going back to what we were saying earlier this week, the connection, the conversation and the understanding, says our listener, is miles better. I am slightly ashamed to admit that I find it a little hard to see them exploring this side of themselves without the burden of shame or pressure to define their actions. Maybe it's just jealousy. But I do

think that although sexuality can be fluid, we should remember that a gay relationship isn't necessarily something you can just try on for a few weeks without any consequences for you or the person you're dating. It can be a very emotionally intense experience. But she says, I've loved hearing this topic discussed and it's great to hear so many stories. Just wanted to weigh in with some good old fashioned other place balance. Yeah, and I'm glad we've had that.

Yeah, me too. Because I do think there's the slight sense that some people are tourists in that world. Absolutely. And they know they can go back. And I've got, you know, without invading the privacy of some of my very old friends, coming out back in the 70s and 80s was no mean feat. It was tough tough properly tough and i think for some people um in the world in the rest of the world let's forget yeah it's impossible it's illegal in some places indeed indeed illegal so um yes i think this really is such an interesting area so please

do feel free to keep uh chipping in with your own perspectives um bedtimetime bras. Dear James, I've always had huge boobs. That was my favourite opening line of an email today. Yes, it's not a bad opening, it has to be said. I've always had huge boobs. I'll do it again. By 12, I was wearing a double D cup and now at 50, I'm a 34 double G. I have three categories of bra.

Daytime, dressy, which are underwired and only come out a few times a year and bedtime my bedtime bras are more gently supportive than the other categories and are mostly former daytime bras i love this which have lost their robustness i love that they have a second life i love i'd like to picture the time which our correspondent confronts her daytime bra and says... It's time to transition. Yeah. Thank you for your service, but you are now a bedtime bra. I don't understand why Jane is sceptical about the hygiene of wearing a bra to bed.

I always shower last thing at night and wash my bedtime bras as frequently as my pyjamas. My boobs have stood the test of time pretty well. I think I'm perkier than most of my friends. And the highlight of a recent routine mammogram was an observation that my breasts were very dense for someone of my age. Bravo. Congratulations to

that correspondent. I'm completely confident, she says, that my bedtime bra habit has saved my boobs from the fate which claimed my jowls. Which brings me to what i have i need to get a face bra yes let's go who can someone out there invent a face bra male breastfeeding i do can i just say i get paid for this it's actually remarkable. What a way to earn your living.

But thank you all so much for just taking part in our fair, because honestly, it's good stuff. This is from Lynn. This Jane and Jane. I enjoyed the speculation about whether men can breastfeed. This is off the back of our conversation with Kat Burr-Hannon, who's the American academic who's written that remarkable book about the female body. It's called Eve. who's written that remarkable book about the female body it's called eve how the female it was how the female body drove 200 million years of civilization no of evolution that's it anyway look it up cat bohan and eve i enjoyed the speculation about whether men can breastfeed

about 40 years ago my late brother-in-law was left in charge of an infant nephew while the baby's parents went out to celebrate a wedding anniversary. The baby had been solely breastfed and resolutely refused his mother's milk when presented in a bottle. The babysitter eventually stopped the hungry cries by dipping the corner of a clean handkerchief in the milk and draping it over his naked chest. The baby happily suckled on the milk, apparently coming from his uncle's nipple, and latched back on each time the handkerchief had been re-soaked. Wow. How did this man know to do that?

I don't know. On changing boobs, says Lynn. They certainly do change over time. A niece, aged three or four, managed to get into the room as my super modest mother was having a bath. She stood, staring hard at her grandmother's breasts and then commented that her mother has some of them, but hers aren't as long as yours.

Don't you love kiddies? Aren't they a blessing? Yeah. They really are. Dear Jane and Jane, a loyal listener from NYC here, I just want to say it doesn't work on radio but i'm wearing my new york or nowhere sweatshirt today oh yeah um we too have been overrun by european tourists both adult and teenage lately and it isn't even marathon sunday

i have to say when i was there last week it was packed full of tourists that city is absolutely brimming with tourists and is that that's not No, it's not unusual. Even though it costs about a tenner to cough at the moment in that city. But yes, I mean, we have a lot of Americans here at the moment because I think the exchange rate

works in their favour. But yeah, New York was absolutely thrumming. I mean, it used to be a good value place for the Britons to swap, to shop, but it isn't at the moment.

I was telling some young people sort of Kate's age, the other day about how when I first started work here 22 years ago, I went away for a long time, by the way. I haven't been stuck here ever since. I remember my editor used to go shopping for the weekend in New York. People used to go for the weekend because it was so cheap. It was so cheap.

You'd buy jeans, you would buy jewellery. And this person I was telling, she was like, no, they didn't. No, they didn't. She genuinely thought it was a tall tale right because the idea that you would ever go to new york and go shopping is just wild well can i just say i mean i'm no financial expert but i do know that you shouldn't go from britain to america hoping for a bargain at the moment you will not get one you will not get one no absolutely anyway sorry back to the email yeah um our listener says i take the subway back and forth to work every day without incident this is we were talking the other day about um how the subway's got pretty grimy in new york i mean

it was always a bit grimy but it's got much worse and my friends are telling me yeah be careful late at night so our listener says to me the most notable change since the pandemic has been the low level of ridership on mondays and Fridays. It seems like those days have become universal work from home days. There are so few people on the platform and in the cars on those days that I wonder if I've forgotten a day off for a holiday. But no, my employer just has a less flexible work from home policy than others. Thank you for that, Sarah. I think that's actually the case in London as well, that fewer people work on Mondays and fridays and offices definitely trains and tubes are a bit quieter but not much i mean it's still it's still pretty busy on the old jubilee line every day

isn't it well you always have to stand on that you do always have to stand oh you're so horrible to me yesterday accusing me of not coming to work until lunch i don't think i forgot that i'm glad you're not bearing a grudge, Jane Garvey. I'm just going to do a couple of parish notices. First of all, say hello. I need to say hello to Melanie. Melanie, it is true that I do know your sister, Melissa, and I met her for a coffee yesterday.

OK, so you have to believe her when she says that she knows me. She does know me, right? I want to say hello to Barbara as well, because Barbara is a listener in Liverpool. Her husband is Palestinian. Barbara says we've been married for 47 years. I know the suffering he's been through back in the day. And indeed, I know things are difficult for people at the moment. Keep doing what you're doing. It's like having friends who lift your spirits up, says Barbara. So, Barbara, thank you very much, and best

of thoughts and good things to happen to you and your husband. But I imagine at the moment it's tough. I mean, it's tough for a lot of people, isn't it? Thank you very much indeed for writing. And quick mention as well to Leslie, who says that she's taken a while to catch up with Off Air.

She has now done it. Listened to Thea and I in our old life for a number of years. Couldn't find out where we'd gone. But anyway, has now got round to it and she's enjoying the company. And like me, she's missing dark chocolate bounties. Leslie, you sound like a quality

listener. Stick with us. And if you have a ghostly experience to share for next week, I know it's not the most original idea for Halloween. Every single it's not the most original idea for Halloween. Every single media outlet in the world will be doing this. But I like to think it's something only I could have thought of. Yeah, it's pathetic really, isn't it? So to the guest, Ed Gamble, who is a comedian,

the co-host of Off Air, the podcast with James. What are you looking at me like that for? You just said the co-host of Off Air. I mean, he might be because I'm never coming back after yesterday's comment. That's true, you're not. And so to our guest, Ed Gamble, who's a comedian, the co-host of the successful podcast

Off Menu with James Acaster, a judge on the BBC Two show Great British Menu, and the author of a very, very honest but funny memoir called Glutton. Now, Ed was a big baby who loved his grub, didn't like child menus at all, couldn't bear them, then became a chubby teen who was funny, basically to make sure that he wasn't bullied too much.

Then when TV fame came his way, he decided he really did need to lose weight and he lost seven stone. I pointed out to Ed that the problem with food as your drug of choice is that unlike some other things it is unavoidable. It is and I'm very happy about that it's by far my favourite drug. Yes and it has been all your life. Yeah. But because it's something that actually we all need giving it up or changing your relationship with it is a colossal undertaking

isn't it it is i mean yeah that's definitely something that i've been through in my life and i had to shift my lifestyle from being a very greedy uh teenager and especially student after i graduated from university making a bit of a lifestyle change and sort of thinking about what i ate a little bit more and yeah it took a lot of willpower that I didn't know that I had. But I managed it and now have a great relationship with food and love it. It's always been my theory, for what it's worth, that every single one of us has a relationship with food. And we go through phases and we have foibles.

And there are times in our lives when we want one thing and not something else. foibles and there are times in our lives when we want one thing and not something else um have you ever met someone who honestly you don't believe has a relationship with food yeah for sure i mean i've met people who do just see food as a as a fuel yeah and are quite i mean they do have a relationship with food but they're just quite annoyed that they have to eat um and these tend to be people that i don't uh extend my relationship with because i can't i can't understand them but you know i'm sort of jealous of them in a way these are people who you know they're so busy they just got to get on with their life and they you know they trot out that old thing of well if food was a pill i'd just take the pill

and you're like okay well where's the joy in your life i'm also baffled by people who make the claim that they have quotes forgotten to eat. Yeah. I've never forgotten. No I've never forgotten to eat. I've forgotten to do everything else in my day but the eating will remain because I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat

from the moment I get up. That's the thing I'm looking forward to. But what we need to say for those people who can't see you right now is that you are very svelte. I'm svelte than I was. Well yes that's true and you say very clearly in

glutton that you were a well you say a giant baby yeah and yeah very and a you know round little toddler and just a very i gleefully ate i think yeah yeah but other people encouraged you in doing that didn't they oh of course yeah i think certainly when you're when you're a little kid as well i think you know i think the stereotype often with kids is they're very fussy eaters. So I think if you happen to have a kid who enjoys all foods, you probably do think, great, we've lucked out here. Well, I love the bit where you just say that as a kid, you were a passionate campaigner against the idea of a kid's menu.

Yeah, I still stand against kids' menus. I think if we weren't offering kids' menus, then they'd have to eat. You could probably give them something a bit more adventurous. And I say this as someone who doesn't have children or understand how difficult it is. No, but all the best childcare experts are people who've not got kids. Yes, I think so. It's actually been the case throughout history, I think.

So I wouldn't worry about that. Because we've all had some sleep, you know. Yeah, exactly. So when you went out with a... Did you go out on family meals when you when you were young yeah yeah yeah so where did you go well we go to the same places that everyone else went to really but you know go to sort of normal restaurants where families were welcomed but i was just always always against the kids menu i always wanted to join in with what the adults were doing i think so it was the things like onion rings and, you know, the fish fingers.

And I was just like, no, that's not for me. Now, I quite like all that stuff. But not then. Not then. And I think your dad, was he a war baby or he'd grown up just after the war? Yeah, this is what he puts his sort of finishing all of his meals and cleaning the plate and, you know, licking the gravy off the plate and all this sort of stuff that I do get up to

and get told off for every time. He would put that down to the end of rationing and he was a kid in, you know, the 50s and he was like, well, we had to eat everything, but I think we're just genetically greedy as a family, to be honest. Was he a big man, your dad? No, he's stocky, I'd say. He's a lot shorter than me.

I think I get my height from my mother, so he's gutted about that. But yeah, he's been through various body shapes in his life as well. I think that's probably fair to say. So what does he make of the new you? I think, well, you know, people never want to say anything at the time, do they? They don't want to go,

maybe you should think about losing a bit of weight or whatever, or at least, you know, go for a walk during the day. It actually brings some activity into your life. But I think he's, I guess he's proud of me, you know. He's never said that particularly about losing weight. Right. Yeah, I think he's impressed that I managed to do it. To do it, okay.

And go back to school, you were, well, you were the kid, I think you had a packed lunch and school lunch, didn't you? Yes. On the whole. I wasn't supposed to, obviously. I got, you know, a lovely packed lunch from my mum and then would sneak into school lunch. Yeah.

Right. I mean, that really is illegal. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was nicking lunch. You were taking lunch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what was the highlight?

What was the great British school dinner classic I look back on it now and I think why was I stealing this food because it was dreadful I mean I talk about it in the book they would do these ribs they'd call them ribs but they'd spell them differently

so they couldn't get into any sort of legal issues and it's just like reconstituted meat into a sort of vague rib shape and then cover it in a horrible barbecue sauce I used to love it the old scrapings of the abattoir carpet thing yeah yeah i think well you should have tried the 70s i mean honestly you don't know you don't know how lucky you were to be perfectly honest uh and you were were you were you funny because you were bigger than the other kids or were you bigger than the other kids and therefore you decided to be funny what what

I don't really know I mean it's the old thing isn't it like the people will say that they had to become funny to stop people bullying them for whatever reason but I think I'm just I think I was just a naturally funny kid uh who happened to be bigger and I lent into it and realized that I could make jokes about about that and my size and that would be my sort of social position within the school. So you may as well sort of make comedy hay out of it, really. And you were happy with that, were you? Yeah, I think so, largely. I mean, I probably would have rather, you know,

had some other things to make comedy out of, but I don't think it ever necessarily got me down too much. So was being big, was that, that was your personality? By the time you became a student yes you were i think you i've just written this down actually the fully the university fully formed funny fat guy yes absolutely yeah because i think i think especially doing comedy and i found this out you know when i started doing stand-up as well people's first impressions of you you do have to mention stuff like that straight away you you almost have to relax people

to make them aware sort of like i know yes i know i'm probably i'm bigger than you are just because otherwise people get weirdly tense they're like does he know um so but how i mean i i suppose i'm very conscious of not wanting to be sizist here but just for the purposes of the interview tell us your your height and then your weight when you went to uni so when i i think when i didn't really know it when i went to uni but certainly when i started trying to lose weight which was after uh uni i think i was a 19 stone maybe and i'm just over six foot so you're tall yeah i'm tall as well yeah i'm a broad like i'm i'm a naturally sort of broad guy anyway and bigger guy uh but But yeah, I'd probably, yeah, 19 stone, I'd say, yeah.

Did you play rugby or anything like that? I played rugby, but I was terrible at it because I didn't enjoy it. And if I don't enjoy things, I don't invest any time or effort into them. So that was the end of your rugby career? Yes, absolutely. So at school, I was on the B team for rugby, which was literally just, I wouldn't really run around, but they could just plonk me on the field in the way of people. And you probably did look intimidating.

Yeah, I think so. But I just, I'm always smiling as well, so I don't look intimidating at all. But I could just act as sort of an obstacle. So one of the highlights of your adolescence, I think we can call it a highlight, was the day you had four pizzas. Yes, that was at uni, yeah. Yeah, at uni, okay. I need to say, they weren't consecutive, were they?

There were gaps in between. There were gaps, but it was, yeah, it was in one day, which I, you know, I'm still vaguely proud of in a weird way. Well, I'll let you take a sip of tea, and then we'll just go through each pizza if you don't mind. Yeah, let's do it, yeah. So, beginning with the first one. Well, yeah, I mean, I would quite often have pizza

as the first thing I ate when I was at Durham, but at Durham uh but I think the so you get the order of them right because we had I had uh yeah a lunch uh with some friends before a show and had a hoisin uh hoisin and duck pizza that well-known Italian classic yeah absolutely just like mummy used to make um uh but yeah the at the time I was like I didn't care about quality or anything in food I'd just go like that sounds nice and secretly really I wish I could have that pizza again because it was it was wrong but it was good

then pizza for dinner obviously and then one of three pizza at the takeaway I've not seen it before and I've not seen it since they had a wheel behind the till like a wheel At the takeaway. Yeah. I've not seen it before and I've not seen it since. They had a wheel behind the till, like a Wheel of Fortune style wheel.

And you could spin it and win a prize. And I won a free margarita pizza. Right. Just to top off the day. Yeah. So I was nibbling that throughout the show and after the show as well. So you were already performing. Yes. And the courage required to be a stand-up comedian,

I've always thought it was a huge thing to be able to do. Can you take us to the... Well, do you see it as a courageous thing to do? Not when I started doing it. I think the reason why quite a lot of stand-ups start young is I don't think you think about the courage it takes. I think you are blessed with the arrogance of youth.

So you're just like, yeah, I'll give that a go. And you're just a bit more gung-ho about things. I think if I was to decide to do it now, I think that would take a hell of a lot more courage, to be honest. And also, I started doing comedy at university and it feels like a safe

environment. You're sort of wrapped in cotton wool and your friends are in the audience. And I think there are people there who are like, that's so brave, that's amazing. So I think you get away with a lot more at uni. And you're bad, but students will laugh at bad comedy. What were your opening lines, your hit opening lines back in the day?

Well, so when I started, because I was doing sketch comedy at university as well, that was sort of my first comic performance was that was doing sketch comedy and honestly i don't think i can remember i think i must have brain dumped my first stand-up set because it was so bad but were you um one of those woke comedians that we hear about today that wasn't even that wasn't even a discussion point. It was yet a thing. That was yet to be a media buzzword back then. So were you a sexist old fart then? No, neither.

It's amazing. I seem to operate within the grey area that people just used to call comedy. Had you been, at the time, an average-sized bloke, do you think you'd have been as funny? Interesting. I mean, you know we never know you know if any if one small thing was different in our lives uh who knows where we'd be but i think it probably gave me more of an impetus it certainly gave me more material it's certainly probably made me think right i'm i'm a funny guy this this is my

thing rather than being sporty or you know chatting up women or anything like that I was like my confidence comes from being funny so that's probably why I started doing comedy certainly voiceover describes what's happening on your iphone screen voiceover on settings so you can navigate it just by listening books contacts calendar double tap to open breakfast with anna from 10 to 11 and get on with your day accessibility there's more to iphone ed gamble is our guest he told me about being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 13. It can be genetic type 1 diabetes,

but I think we found out my grandad's cousin had it or something. But it's an autoimmune condition, so I think I got a really bad cold when I was a teenager and it shuts down that cold or whatever, but then it keeps it keeps basically destroying stuff my immune system so then it basically destroyed my pancreas's ability to produce insulin so I think bad luck is probably you know bad luck within science is probably the way to put it yeah but did nobody at that point in your life intervene and say

you have really got to start thinking about what you eat yeah definitely um like certainly uh you know i went to the hospital i had a chat with the the brilliant team at the hospital i went to the in the youth department thing there uh and definitely yeah definitely i mean they they tell you to think about it but also i think it's really important when people are diagnosed to let them know that it's not a total, it's not a death sentence and it's not going to radically change their life to the extent they can't do anything they weren't doing before, especially when you're diagnosed as a young teenager.

So there's only so much you can be told and especially you know how sort of bullheaded teenagers are, they will just do their own thing anyway. And I did do the the bare minimum needed with with type one but my control wasn't good enough for a few years and then I in time I came to my own decisions about it and got on top of it but you only really decided to take on the issue of your weight when you started getting jobs on telly well that was the first time I decided to try and lose a bit of weight

just because, you know, we were told we were doing this TV show and I was like, OK, I might see if I can never really try to lose weight before, particularly in a concerted way. And then, you know, I just started thinking a little bit more about what I was eating and doing some exercise and I was like, oh, it actually works, everything that people say. Yeah, the dispiriting thing for anybody reading the book and wanting a really easy way to lose weight.

It doesn't exist. No, there isn't one. I mean, you basically ate less, moved more. Yes. And it was a gradual thing. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then, unfortunately, turned myself into one of those people who enjoys exercise.

I'm one of the boring people now. Yeah, well, you said it. I haven't got any more questions about that. But you ran the marathon, I think it was 2017. Have you done it since? I've done it twice. Yeah. So that you are you are to all intents and purposes a changed man. Yeah, I think so. I think people would be people who knew me, you know, in the in the early 2010s. Up until then, I would be very surprised that I've run two marathons since then. Do you think some people preferred the old you then? I think I'm essentially the same person, you know, personality-wise,

but, yeah, I get that I was probably a bit more relaxed. Like, I was a bit more fun, maybe. But also, I was just tired all the time. So, you know, I can be more fun. I can stay up a bit more fun maybe um but also i was just tired all the time so i can't you know i can be more fun i can stay up a bit later now but i probably won't have a doner kebab pizza at the end of the night yeah so you've got more energy to do more boring things for sure exactly yeah yeah when you first take up running uh you have a um how are we going to a lavatory based accident accident. Yes, yes. Which I knew could happen. Yeah. But if I'm honest, Ed, I didn't think it actually did.

It does happen, yeah. Because, yeah, it felt like my body went into shock that I was running. And reacted accordingly. And reacted accordingly, yeah. It was a real surprise. And I cannot believe as I sat down to write the book, I did not realise I would go into it in so much detail i learned a lot i mean interestingly i suspect there'll be lots of

women who relate to that because you know periods can just start when you don't really expect them to and you where most women are probably used to having to shovel off to try and find a loo but it's actually i found it quite gratifying to hear about a man waddling waddling off to a toilet um with something to deal with well if there was one angle i didn't expect to hear about a man waddling waddling off to a toilet um with something to deal with well if there was one angle i didn't expect to hear on the book that that story was somehow allyship well i could i just say it you had me there up until then i wasn't really sure about you but um i mean there are serious points to this book and i wonder i mean what is if you had a message for somebody who was struggling because what I didn't take from this that you had huge struggles of your own.

No. I mean, you can correct me. But what would you say to someone who, I don't know, is a 19 year old lad at university or anywhere else in their life and just thinks, you know, I don't want this isn't really me. I don't want to be like this. I don't want to be identified as that funny, funny fat guy. Yeah, I mean, firstly, I would say never take advice from a comedian, but I'll give you some anyway. Yeah, do it. Just, you've got, they've got so much time in their lives and you may as well give something a go and you've probably got more willpower than you thought you did.

That's certainly what I found out about myself. I thought, I can't, you know, I'll never be that, I'll never exercise, I'll never sort of eat healthily. But if you just give something a go, take things one day at a time, it actually turns out all right. You have a job that, I mean, you are surrounded by food. Yeah. The Great British Menu, Off Menu, your podcast with James. Why have you done this? I suppose I'm just a bit boggled by why you've chosen to stay in a world that has presented you with some challenges, even if they haven't been colossal. Well, I'd say it's not the same world. So when I was bigger and when I was at university and

before then, I was doing a lot of just mindlessly eating and didn't really matter what it was and it was actually after I lost weight that I really got into food because I started thinking about you know I want to eat nice things that I enjoy so what I started to do was seek out the best versions of those things and then I started getting into sort of restaurants and reading food blogs and reading you know reading recipe books and all of this just thinking of how I could get the best versions of food and how I could cook the best versions of food. And that's a really exciting thing. And then you start to realize it's not about quantity, it's about quality.

So then it became my passion and my hobby rather than something I used to do sort of emotionally. So now I get to do Great British Menu, which is like the best chefs in the country in the uk and then you know off menu i get to talk about food all the time so it's brilliant yeah um on the great british menu i think you're told just to have a tiny bite are you of every that's what andy oliver told me she because she was a judge before she came became the host yeah and she said just to let you know it's a lot of food so you're gonna have to have one i think she said two bites actually maybe you know one bite to see what

it's like first of all and then another bite to really start to think about the flavors and what you're gonna say always eat the whole thing i always eat the whole thing because then the that the old ed kicks in there i can't believe my luck So the old Ed hasn't gone completely. No, no, no, no, no, no. He's still there. I still have to, now and again, I have to sort of go, okay, you probably don't need to eat all of that.

You'll feel rubbish tomorrow. But I think that's getting older as well. Like now I get a hangover from food as well as booze. So yeah, actually booze is another thing that you've, you say you just don't, because I am that person who can go out and just have one drink.

One drink. That's amazing. Yes. Believe me, I'm keen on food, person who can go out and just have one drink. One drink, that's amazing. Yes, but believe me, I'm keen on food. Yeah. But I'm very happy with just one alcoholic drink. Yes. I'm not, and you, I am the kind of person you say you despise. So thanks for that.

I'm jealous. I'd say I'm jealous. One drink, yeah, one drink I just can't do because I think I say in the book, it's like going to the cinema and leaving after the trailers. Like one drink is the one where you're like, whoa, something's going to happen here. And then the second drink is the really fun one. And then it's downhill from that point.

Yeah, I may actually have lied about saying I only ever had one drink. And also you flirted with veganism, but you now say you have an open relationship with cheese. Yes, I do. So, I mean, what is your status? You're not a vegan, are you? Not a vegan, you not a vegan no um certainly being i was vegan for not very long for maybe like eight or nine months uh and i

enjoyed it at the time but then i returned to the world of meat and dairy it welcomed me back with open arms uh the truth is we were going on holidays to japan and i looked into the potential uh veganism there, decided it absolutely wasn't worth it and I didn't want to miss out on all the treats that that place has to offer. So by the time I got back, I was just fully back in. But now I'd say I've got a slightly better attitude.

I won't look at every meal and go, well, it's got to have meat on it or it's got to have a dairy product. I really like vegan food, so I will regularly eat dishes that are completely vegan. All right, best British cheese? I mean, it's going to sound so boring, but like a super mature cheddar is fantastic. Like every year my mother-in-law buys me a massive truckle of very, very mature cheddar. Oh, how lovely.

Which is, yeah, that's a real treat okay and genuinely the best vegan meal best vegan meal i mean there's some amazing restaurants around i see i i really got into scrambled tofu it's and people bulk at that but well like me yeah it's not i think people get weird about like oh, oh, vegan replacements. They're doing an impression of non-vegan food. But it's its own thing completely. So calling it scrambled tofu, it's not like scrambled egg at all. It's got its own texture,

but you can add so many spices to it and get loads of flavour in there. So, yeah, I got... I turned into quite the whiz in making scrambled tofu. OK, well, we'll let you get away with that. I don't think I've convinced you, have I? You haven't, but never mind. We're moving on seamlessly.

Is it significant that you and your wife got together before your weight loss or is it yeah is it irrelevant actually i don't think it's irrelevant but i think it's i think it's quite interesting like because she's never she never had any sort of she was never pushing me to lose weight or suggesting it might be a good thing she just let it happen and was very impressed that i managed to do something and she was supporting me. But a lot of people told me afterwards, they were like, God, she's lucked out, hasn't she? Like, she made a good investment early doors.

But I don't think she sees it like that. What? She took a punt on a chubby bloke? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who turned out to be really fit? Yeah. I wish I hadn't said that now, but never mind. You've said it now. Yeah, but she obviously thought I was attractive anyway but yeah it's worked out fine

but it certainly made me even more sure that she's the one for me because regardless of anything we're into each other's personalities because we're both hilarious yes okay well I feel a chuckle coming on.

Ed Gamble. And we had an interesting text, actually, Jane, a sweet one after that interview had gone out from someone saying that they loved the bit about his wife fancying him and wanting to be with him when he was larger, let's be honest about it. Well, he was honest about it. And apparently the listener said it reminded him

of the Smiths song, or was it a Morrissey song song you're the one for me fatty oh i love that song do you yeah i don't know i've quite i guess i would sing it for you but i've already marked my card with my comment about you know coming in early enough so i don't i don't want to ruin things entirely i'd like to come back one day i'm marking your card and i would give you four out of ten i mean your attendance been good, although you were quite late today, earlier on. And I think your commitment sometimes, I don't know, I think it's questionable. I think your attitude is all wrong at times. But never mind.

Have you been reading my old report cards? Actually, I'm the one to talk about those. Jane, it's been lovely. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. It's been a wonderful week. It's been really good fun, and thank you for sharing, and thanks to everybody else who shared so much this week. Hugely appreciated. Feedback on Monday, and our guest,

I mean, I may as well not turn up at all, never mind coming in late, it's Claire Balding, so I'm not going to be able to say anything. I mean, it's just pointless. Come and have a cup of tea with me downstairs. Yeah, I'll sneak down and come and find my real friend, Jane. Have a good couple of days. We're back next week. We're bringing the shutters down on another episode of the internationally acclaimed podcast Off Air

with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover. Our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler and the podcast executive producer is Henry Tribe. But don't forget that you can get another two hours of us every Monday to Thursday afternoon here on Times Radio. We start at 3pm and you can listen for free on your smart speaker. Just shout Play Times Radio at it. You can also get us on DAB Radio in the car or on the Times Radio app

whilst you're out and about being extremely busy. And you can follow all our tosh behind the mic and elsewhere on our Instagram account. Just go on to Insta and search for Jane and Fi and give us a follow. So in other words, we're everywhere, aren't we, Jane? Pretty much everywhere. Thank you for joining us. And we hope you can join us again on Off Air very soon. VoiceOver describes what's happening on your iphone screen voiceover on settings so you can

navigate it just by listening books contacts calendar double tap to open breakfast with from 10 to 11 and get on with your day accessibility there's more to iphone