Off Air... with Jane and Fi - Your resting face is a little off-putting...

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Jane's received some criticism in the inbox and she's ready to tackle it head on! Don't say we're not fair... After that, they chat surgical stockings, cacao nibs and latex cat-suits. Plus, Fi speaks to the executive editor of Loaded World Danni Levy about the resurgence of the magazine. 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/663601 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: Eve SalusburyTimes Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fia and I would not have got into the SAS. No, mainly because I have slightly fallen arches, as we know. Yes, you've got fallen arches. And I've got the issue with my sight, which means that I just can't see very well. Otherwise, we would have been raring to go. VoiceOver describes what's happening on your iPhone screen. VoiceOver on. Settings.

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There's more to iPhone. It's just so much food, Jane. That's like a whole feta cheese. I'll be awake until next Thursday. Well, that is more than a brick of feta they put on a restaurant. I know. It's parish notices. Parish notices.

We talked about this, me and Jane Mulkerrans. Do you remember parishish Notices? Yes. The vicar, well, takes you through some of the events of the week. Very much so. Terrifically exciting. Yeah, well. Best bit of the service.

Flower-ranging rota. Yeah. But if you were at Sunday school, you only got to leave after about 20 minutes of the service. You all trooped out, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah, we sung in the choir so we didn't do the Sunday school thing

favourite hymn oh gosh I think Abide With Me dear lord and father of mankind forgive our foolish ways I love that actually really really love that

and most annoying hymn for me Lord of the Dance All our foolish ways. All our foolish ways. I love that, actually. Really, really love that. And most annoying him for me, Lord of the Dance. Oh, God. What, literally? No, you're doing Paris Notice, because you're doing the announcement of the tote bags. Tote bag winners, Rachel Gerrard and Nella. Congratulations to you both.

And, yeah, there's more, Amanda Perkins and Kate. So, Rachel, Nella, Amanda and Kate, thank you so much for your emails. Congratulations and may you strut to the store with your tote bag forevermore. It's exciting. It is exciting, isn't it? And I've said before, I'll say it again, they're good bags. They're very good bags. Very high quality. Yeah, they're high quality. They're quite stiff. They could take quite a lot of, well, provisions, I'm going to say.

I was grabbing for the word there. I think provisions will do. You could probably fit in enough for a couple of days in one of those tote bags. And there'll be more tote bags i'm understanding uh to be uh one or at least got hold of in sheffield tomorrow at it's tomorrow i know it's tomorrow is it tomorrow it is tomorrow it's tomorrow i can't wait eve's going up tonight you're going up tonight lovely are you having to dust down all the chairs why are you going going tonight? I don't know. It's just sensible. No, get in situ. Because if we don't turn up, at least Eve's there.

So we're on a 2.30 train, aren't we? 2.30. 2.30. That's right. Yes. 2.32, I think it is. Anyway, we don't want people crowding into the train.

I don't think they will be. I'm just trying to work out whether or not I have a very, very, very large breakfast and a snack on the train or nothing for breakfast and an enormous snack on the train or nothing for breakfast and an enormous lunch on the train. Is it one of those Pendolino fast Zoomy things?

Well, you don't like the Pendolinos because of the bending. Oh, I don't want to be sick. I think it's LNER. What does that mean? It's the train up to Newcastle, Edinburgh, that one. Is it super enclosed or a bit old-fashioned? Oh, it's rather nice. Okay, good.

Right, if anyone's still listening, congratulations. Now, have you ever come across a film called The Paper? Because me and Jane Too, Intermittent Jane, as we're now calling her, we were talking about really good films about newsrooms and newspapers and news. Oh, that's not the one with Meryl Streep and playing the part of the owner.

No, that's The Post, isn't it? Oh, The Post. Yeah. So we were talking about The Post and about broadcast news and Caroline recommends The Paper, which is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard, was of course the star of Happy Days

and starring Michael Keaton Glenn Close Marisa Tomei Randy Quaid and Robert Duvall I've never heard of it but what a cast list

so that is my Saturday Sorted or I might download it and watch it on the train tomorrow so I don't have to talk to anybody that's nice

I want that phone as well but let's hear it for people called randy i always think it's a bold choice it is well i mean just just for a child i mean but it's randolph isn't it but if you're naming a lovely little baby boy oh there he is and you think oh randy do you why yeah it's true does anyone anyone who's called Randolph get shortened to Dolph? Well, there are. Dolph Lundgren. Was he a Randolph?

Presumably. I don't know. We've gone off on one. Now, do you want to be in trouble with Jude? Oh, well, I've just been discussing this with Eve. Now, I mean, the facts of this case are, Mlud, that this is a resident who lives in the same part of East West Kensington as my good self and claims and we only have her word for it,

that she saw me the other day whilst attempting to park her vehicle and that I, she smiled at me and she had a dog on her lap and I apparently gave her the old hefo. Well, can I just use Jude's words? Yeah. Only to be met with

an eye to eye stare of disgust and challenge I know that well a lot of people do I'm quite short sighted unless I've got my very focals on and I wouldn't have been wearing them so it may well be Jude that I just didn't

see it I'm really sorry I mean by the way shout shout at me. Just shout. That's better. You'll get a reaction that way. I mean, not abuse. Actually, you would get a reaction. I think your resting face is a little bit off-putting. I was probably a bit determined because I was

almost certainly on my way to that well-known food shop. Good for the discounts. But look, in better news, Kate is delighted that you're back. She listens to every single episode in capital letters, even with the substitutes. But the fun and joy factor

shoots up back to ten when it's just the two of you because Jane G is the funniest woman in the world. Oh, well, there you go. Kate loves you. Swings and roundabouts. But we are in trouble with Jay because we were joking about the charity shop photo and Jay says there was

a stretch when talking and laughing meant whatever was being shared was inaudible. It's great to hear you really enjoying the chat but it can't be heard by listeners. That's difficult. Well, we were laughing about Asia and Charles' surgical stockings, just to repeat it clearly for you, Jay.

There we are. I was going to say you can Google them, but you can't. So don't even attempt to do that. And he's not the one, you know, I feel a bit, do I feel, yeah, I feel a bit sorry for him. I mean, surgical stockings are,

they are worn by quite a lot of people. And a lot of people wear them on planes, don't they, for DVT-related reasons. Very sensible. I'm out of my depth here, Doctor. I'm not knocking it at all. It was just the vision. I'm just trying to offer balance.

Of short, white shorts. Yes, don't bring it back to me! OK? This is a very, very long time ago. Very, very long time ago. Very, very long time ago. Yeah, but no, you're right. And there's an argument that they should give everybody on a plane surgical stockings if they're useful, shouldn't they?

Yes. I wonder whether, does it vary depending on, obviously it would do on the length of flight. I mean, I was in Greece last week and I do find that additional couple of hours on the end of a Greek flight quite hard to bear. What do you mean couple of extra hours on the end of a Greek flight quite hard to bear. What do you mean couple of extra hours on the end of a Greek flight? Well, because it's four hours.

If they put the islands a bit further away. I think that Greeks were selfish in putting their islands where they did. Move them closer to the rest of us, please. It would be so much more convenient for me. It really would be. So much more convenient.

Why don't you just holiday in the UK? Well, I've tried that for you. It comes with a certain amount of risk. Have you seen outside? I have. It's not pretty. I put the heating on for half an hour last night because it was just so drizzly and dismal and cold again.

It's an issue with drying towels, isn't it? You know when you've had a hot bath and the heating's not on because it's not actually that cold and so you haven't got heated towel racks. I know there's an independent way of putting your towel rack on, is there? Depending on your household.

Is there a plumber out there? I suppose if you just turn all the other radiators off the only thing that will come on is your towel rail. Oh, thanks, Fee. Do you want to come and live with me? No. Breathe deeply. Now, we, Fi. Do you want to come and live with me? No. Breathe deeply. Now, we did actually have an email,

I think it might have been a part of one of the emails you've already read out, saying that we didn't react with sufficient horror to the last thing Frank Gardner said in the conversation we had with the BBC security correspondent and novelist yesterday. And I absolutely understand that. That's for various technical reasons.

I'm not going to bore you with how the podcast was put together yesterday. But he ended his conversation about his new book, Invasion, with a question I'd asked about an element of the content in the book that I thought was fiction. And he says it isn't fiction, it's real, which is that the Chinese have started to effectively genetically modify some of their troops

to make them closer to superhuman than we're used to. So that's just, it is terrifying. And obviously we are both horrified at that. I think that's fair to say, isn't it? It is, but it did make me wonder as well, just about how many other states run by bad actors have done very similar things that we just have either consigned to the dustbin of history, because, you know, we believe that nobody could be that evil again. Yeah.

Or we kind of don't really believe that other people would try and modify their humans i mean if you think about the you know the the drug taking that was forced on athletes uh by yeah quite a few countries and it still goes on and there are plenty plenty of uh more than anecdotes to suggest that troops were made to take amphetamines exactly. And all of those things. So in a way, our surprise should be muted by reality. It's not a new thing, is it? Also, there's an element of selection here. I hate to break it to regular listeners, but Fee and I would not have got into the SAS.

No, mainly because I have slightly fallen arches, as we know. Yes, you've got fallen arches. And I've got the issue with my sight, which means that I just can't see very well. Otherwise, we would have been raring to go. Absolutely would have made it. I think you have to be superhuman. You have to be, or at least have the potential to be,

let's face it, considerably tougher than I suspect either of us are. You need to be like Matt Hancock. Yes, you do. Celebrity, I suppose.. You need to be like Matt Hancock. Yes, you do. He did Celebrity Essays, didn't he? You do have to be like Matt Hancock. But we are keeping this a politics-free area for the time being. Well, he's politics-free now, isn't he? Yes, that's true.

Let him go. He was the first... He was the early adopter of technology in the sense that he had the Matt Hancock app, didn't he? He did. It's hard to say. And it was quite hard to have in your life. But anyway, it's departed largely. Now, one of many things I got wrong in the last couple of weeks is that I said cheers when I had a cup of coffee in Greece. And we have an email on the subject. Coffee and money in Greecereece says uh claire they used to say that coffee offers a good company

and it needs the same what even i don't know what that means it's all greek to me anyway even so there are many superstitions which are connected with the rituals of coffee time some of them are connected with greek coffee others are more general as coffee is in greece something offered at funerals nicely i didn see I didn't know that, and at memorial services, we do not toast holding a cup of coffee, nor would we ever say cheers. For the same reason, many do not offer coffee at the house of a newlywed couple. Good Lord, honestly. However, if coffee is spilled from the cup, it's great,

because that's an indication that you'll get money. What? So you can't, you wouldn't offer coffee at the house of a newlywed couple, but were you to enter the home of a newlywed couple with a cup of coffee you already had and you spilt it all over their new shag pile, that would be good because they're going to get some cash. All right. That is a very narrow gauge, isn isn't it there's a lot to take on board there isn't it but that's really interesting that's that's thank you so that's why you would that's well i mean i'm congratulating the correspondence yes not miss you didn't know

yeah so thank you claire um there's obviously a lot more to this. Yes, thank you, Claire. So you will never go cheers again with your coffee cup in Greece. I'll never have another cup of Greek coffee. Honestly, that... I also got into the... Have you ever had... I bet you have. Is it cacao nibs?

I don't think I have, no. No, those little nibblets of pure yeah cacao which some of my fellow holiday makers

were just rather gleefully just littering their Greek yoghurt with so I sort of got on board a bit with this and there is

a sort of hint of chocolate there but I've tried to recreate it in the comfort of my own home this week and it's all

gone a bit belly up is it the same as a cocoa nib yes well that's what i'm talking about okay nibs but you're calling it cacao cacao because that's what it says on the packet okay no i i just genuinely forgive my ignorance on this is cacao different to cocoa someone will know claire coming claire claire get back on google we need you back love yeah yeah jay devere times oh lordy lordy they're apparently very good for you yeah our guest on the podcast today is going to be the executive editor of loaded world danny levy so loaded is back we've got thoughts haven't we well it's funny because you know magazines used to be such a big part of my life. You know, what was your first magazine that you got? Well, we weren't allowed to have the...

Jackie was considered racy. Well, it was. Yep, and Smash Hits was considered a little bit too febrile. So my first magazine subscription, this is not a joke, we had National Geographic, which came into the house for my mum. And then I think I took out a highly pretentious subscription to Time magazine when I was only about 14. Bloody hell.

Yep, I know. Okay. Yeah. So while I was desperate to work for Smash Hits, you were leafing through Time magazine. Something like that, yeah. Well, it's all evened out in the end, hasn't it, everybody? So did you not ever read Bunty, for example?

Nope. So you didn't have your pre-Jackie Bunty phase? Nope. You're not familiar with The Four Marys? Nope. OK. They were at school together, The Four Marys. I hope they're still in touch.

I suspect they're not. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay, someone... But my lovely, lovely best friend Susie, she had Jackie magazine, so I used to leaf through her copy, like contraband, after she'd finished with it.

It was highly exciting. I learned a lot about the facts of life from the advice column in She magazine, which my mother got. And they had, by the standards of the 70s, a pretty explicit advice column. National Geographic didn't have that. Didn't it? You couldn't write international. But it must have had images of folk with very few clothes on in their natural habitat.

It did. Did that shock the young Fiona? It didn't teach you very much. It wasn't. A bit like the men modelling the wire fronts in Kay's catalogue, which we used to pour over in my car. I know, see? I was at an all-girls school as well,

so there was very, very little information available. Very little information. Yeah, but didn't... So my school used to be able to get parry match in the library. Oh, yeah, no, we did. Yeah, now, that was an odd one. Yeah, you're right. Because what they did, parry match,

they paid no heed to our privacy laws here. So they'd have lots of quite blurry photographs of members of the royal family getting up to all sorts of hijinks. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And they would have a long lens on a topless sunbather in all manner of places. So you're right. So we could see proper teeth on its holidays.

Probably what spurred me on with my lacklustre knowledge of French. I certainly always, I would steer a pretty steady course towards parry match when I knew it was coming in for all of those reasons. Yeah, but you're right, it was a very well-thumbed edition. So this was my roundabout way of saying that in a way, there is a part of me that's

glad that Loaded's back would be an overstatement, but I used to love magazines and they have more or less gone from my life. And I, because I read everything. I read Q Magazine, I read all the teen magazines, we used to get blue jeans at home. That's when I graduated from Jackie.

There was Fab 208. I read Cosmopolitan. I read the music. Yeah, okay, we get the idea. I read the music mags. I absolutely devoured them. And now I couldn't care less. And I feel sorry because they were things of beauty magazines, really.

Not limited. Yeah. Not landed. Good. So as soon as I could buy my own magazines, I bought the whole shelf, the whole shelf of beauty magazines because it was just such an exciting arena. And I remember pasting my bedroom wall with pictures from Vogue, which I don't think... Do teenagers do that now?

My two have not done that. But I wanted my world to be covered with all of those really beautiful images. And that was the mid-1980s, so it was the full supermodel thing. Right. And the world, yes, the world kind of opened up immediately but I really didn't do the music magazines.

I really missed the opportunity to do that and probably went straight into The Face which was many things but highly pretentious. Oh, but I love that too. Magazine. But it didn't do all of the kind of gossip that actually I would have loved but always felt that I shouldn't indulge in that

because that's kind of what had been frowned upon before. The face was, I mean, there was some cracking of photography. Oh, I mean, it was a work of art, wasn't it? Yeah, it really was. I used to look forward to it. I had a letter printed in the face. But it definitely encouraged that esoteric... Ask me more about it.

I'm just going to get to the end of this sentence, if that's okay. It just really summed up that otherworldliness that nobody, I mean, apart from about 42 people in London, could get to. It was so top of the pinnacle, wasn't it? And I think one of the joys of now is that that doesn't exist. That just tiny little, this is cool.

And you're not. And you're not. And you're not in it. You can have every single different pinnacle of cool now you can find your tribe much easier what was your letter thank you no but no about what you raise an interesting point there because that's what my life was like i i was in very much in suburban respectability and i can remember standing in my marks and spencer's anorak in wh smith Southport, the world's, let's be honest,

not exactly cutting-edge location, and I spotted the new edition of The Face and I'd written in a couple of, about six weeks before, and I found my letter. That must have been amazing. But I was... What was it about? It was just a comment about,

I think it was a comment about REO Speedwagon. I hated all that pomp, American pomp rock. And I obviously thought that the face would be a safe haven from anything like that. Yeah, they would have welcomed that. Well, they did. They printed it. Although people who work in magazines have told me since

that they never got any letters. So actually they were pathetically grateful to get letters and they just stuck anything in. And have you mellowed towards Rio Speedwagon? I haven't, no. Have you not? Still can't stand anything like that. I love a big kind of banger of a ballad. No, not keen. Oh, interesting. Still not

keen. Still a little bit wild at heart. Okay. Tiny bit alternative I think you'll find. Have you ever had a letter published in the Times? Well, funnily enough, I have written to the Times. Have they not published it? No, they did. I have.

More later. Voice over describes what's happening on your iPhone screen. Voice over 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.

OK, but loaded. Perhaps you need to explain what loaded is on and now, well, was and now is. Gosh, OK, well, if you haven't recognised Loaded, then where were you in the 90s? Because I think it's, oh, it's a weird one actually, Jane, isn't it? I think its reputation far exceeded its circulation. It was a lads mag, probably the original lads mag.

It came very close to being porn, but it wasn't quite porn. It came very close to being offensive but it wasn't quite porn it came very close to being offensive i think sometimes it probably was but it would say that it wasn't uh it was uh it pushed a very odd double message of misogyny and female empowerment at the same time it was very weird but i think very influential yeah and it And it always had a beautiful woman, semi-draped in clothes, usually semi-draped across a man, somewhere either on the front cover

or as the big kind of centrefold. But it wasn't that there were no naked women in it? No, but it definitely celebrated, it celebrated music, sex bosoms music again football yeah and uh kind of bants that's what it was and alongside that there was the so-called ladette culture going on as well were you a part of that well i think it was very influential in my mid-20s early 20s mid-20s so and it's a I find it quite troubling looking back on it now because I think that I definitely felt that I needed to be in ladder culture without really wanting to be so I mean you know we've talked

about this before I was at GLR at the time I was doing the breakfast show with the lovely Gideon Co we were playing amazing music uh you know Britpop was having its moment I thought it was appropriate to go to work um I mean it was the time of towards the end of the decade obviously changing government it was a really it was a very exciting time and I thought it would be appropriate as a 27-year-old woman, journalist, to go to work in a PVC catsuit. So you can read into that the influence of the LADEC culture if you'd like to and you wouldn't be wrong. It's what happens when you have early access to National Geographic, I'm afraid. It's the inevitable result. Anyway, shall we bring in our guest today?

Loaded magazine is back, The Ultimate Lads Mag, and is now being edited by a 39-year-old woman, Dani Levy. Writing in the front of the first new edition, she says, as I survey my world, I see a place decimated by the culture wars,

a landscape dominated by the dopamine hungry, craving the gratification so cheaply given by the appearance of a red splodge on social media saying you've been validated by your peers and she's not wrong in any of those things the new loaded will give you the journalistic equivalent she says of a night out, a most excellent feast of cultural meats that would shame the most bacchanalian of buffets. What a promise. I spoke to Dani earlier. We started by talking about why the world needs Loaded again. The world needs nostalgia. The world needs fun. The world needs to bin the safety net and let men be men again um i think that we've come a long way towards female rights and the feminists are going strong we've gone a long way towards

transgender rights and we're making moves in the right direction when it comes to racism. But I think that men are actually becoming less and less empowered to the point that they've been completely boxed off in society and don't have a voice anymore. That's a very interesting statement, Dani. And I would like to challenge you immediately on just some of those points. So men still earn more than women. It is undoubtedly women who are more often the victims of assault, whether that's domestic or otherwise. A lot of women in the workplace still believe there to be a glass ceiling. There are not as many CEOs in the FTSE 100 who are women. I think

there are still more men called John than there are women running those companies. It is an imbalanced world so it's very interesting to hear somebody say that men are struggling to find themselves yeah and I think it's particularly interesting because I'm female so obviously the media have found that of interest. And one may presume that I have never been subjected to physical violence by a man or anything like that. In fact, I have quite severely. And my husband is a policeman and deals with domestic violence cases on a daily basis. And you are right, the vast majority of the time, they are as a result of male violence towards a woman. That said, I think that men deserve equal rights when it comes to just having good old fashioned fun. I think there is a lot of material out there for us women in terms of websites and magazines whereby we can we can look at men,

hen parties, male strippers, et cetera, et cetera, and say, oh, he's fit or whatever women will say. And yet if a man says, oh, that's a nice piece of ass, isn't it? Or however they would phrase it, they will immediately be labelled a pervert. What is wrong with that middle ground that we used to have? And in actual fact, Loaded is not full of bare nipples and girls with lollipops hanging out of their mouths anymore. There won't be any of that. But what is wrong with that middle ground? What is wrong with saying, of course, she's a bit of all right, without having to turn to, I'm afraid to say, Twitter and see full on inappropriate hardcore pornography?

Okay, so that's a very interesting argument. And first of all, I'd like to say I'm really sorry to hear that you've been the victim of nasty male aggression, because it just leaves its mark on a life, doesn't it? So I'm sad to hear that for you, Danny. So let's talk about what a man might find reading your new Loaded magazine that he genuinely wouldn't be able to find elsewhere. I take your point about porn, you know, how dreadful to feel that that's the only place that you would be able to go to if you want to look at beautiful bodies doing sometimes natural things, sometimes not. But genuinely, what is it in your magazine that you believe a man can't find at the moment? And we can talk about specific articles, that would be very helpful so we have revived certain nostalgic um verticals from the original loaded which we believe men will love and remember such as platinum rogues um you'll see an article with nick leeson who we love love him or hate him we love a

bit of nick leeson um they had things like the crisps world cup we've done the confectionery world cup um very british it's very kind of best of british we are targeting the original loaded audience and a british audience um you'll also see a lot of articles use what would normally be deemed as inappropriate swear words in today's media, which we still find appropriately placed in certain sentences, you know. That kind of colloquial language that you wouldn't find elsewhere and wouldn't be allowed on social media is allowed on Loaded World. Right. And quite a few people who were around and involved with Loaded or read Loaded or actually, you know, employed by Loaded back in the day, don't seem to be incredibly happy that it's back,

Dani. So just one quote, which comes from James Brown, who was the editor of Loaded at one stage, he says, bring back Loaded magazine for men like me, no thanks. Now, when you've seen that kind of reaction to it, does your heart sink a bit or do you genuinely not really care? sink a bit or do you genuinely not really care? Initially it did I have read James Brown's book I loved it I love what he did with Loaded and then I received an email from him saying how supportive he was and how angry he was that his article had been heavily edited and he was so kind as to send me the original article that he wrote which was far more complimentary and keen to be involved so I think it's a case of you can't always believe what you read and I try not to take things personally. We have involved a couple of the original Loaded writers.

I'm completely open to involving more of them. I'm definitely not trying to compete with them. I'm definitely not trying to say that it's more appropriate or less appropriate. This is run by a female. I am the only female editorial influence which some people find inappropriate um but yeah I'm not trying to be better worse I'm just trying to have fun with this and create something fun and upbeat that doesn't tear people down. Okay, so do you worry at all though, Dani, that it is still presenting really only one way of looking at women?

No, because it's definitely not presenting only one way of looking at women. In fact, there are only two women, bar a a real life story featured in the first issue and I hate to disappoint anyone who thinks it's like the resurgence of a lads mag because in actual fact it's not you won't really find many women in Loaded and if you do it will be attached to something about them being a sportswoman or a movie star or something of that ilk so the women featured in Loaded yes will be beautiful but will absolutely be painted in a completely different light to the original Loaded why not because I deem that inappropriate. I think if a woman wants to put herself out there in that way, that's her choice. But because that is readily available all over the internet and more,

and that is not what Loaded needs to be about anymore. Our audience have grown up. They're bored of that kind of thing. As James Brown pointed out, maybe some of them would rather have a flask of tea and a warm blanket and I said thank goodness you've just emailed me James because I was about to send Katie Price round your house with a flask of tea and a warm blanket and you've just saved yourself um so we're trying to capture the middle ground here sure we're not we're not offensively sexually explicit in any way how old would you have been when loaded was in its heyday first time around

oh I was young I would have been in its heyday say 16 um but I remember it do you remember it and was it did it did it influence you at all it influenced me to have fun yes because I think it influenced a lot of other media outlets at that time um it had a huge impact on the media and as James himself said to me um they were not supportive of it when he launched it. And they were not supportive when he made a success of it either. Some people just don't want to be supportive. But I will continue to be so. And I hope that anyone that jumps on board for the new adventure will embrace the new loaded whilst enjoying the nostalgic elements of it as well.

Sure. If that is what we're meant to feel when we looked at it online or, you know, if we got the special printed versions, why put somebody like Mike Tyson in, which is in this first edition? I mean, that is a man who has been convicted of rape, who has served prison time. Isn't that where all of the arguments about choice and empowerment and a little bit of fun and stuff like that actually don't make sense? First of all, I think that everybody deserves a second chance. And I think that everybody deserves to be appreciated as a great sportsman

or a great movie star or whatever they are. If they have served their their time overcome that I don't believe that you should be tarnished forever if you are not necessarily that person anymore now I wasn't there I don't know what Mike Tyson may or may not have done but I made a personal editorial decision because I know Mike on a personal basis and I know him to be a very nice person now I don't know whether he was then but he's definitely a very nice person now and I think that he's a good representative for boxing and for the sport and I know him to be very respectful towards women um so Loaded is not about me it's about way more than the individual and I never did want this to be about me hence I wrote the editor's letter from the Wolf of Wardour Street

but that said there are personal decisions to be made as editor. And that was my personal decision. And if certain, probably women, find that inappropriate, I completely understand. And I completely respect their views on that. Absolutely. In this conversation with me, I'm 55 years old, Dani. me. I'm 55 years old, Danny, and Loaded was very much a part of my world in my late 20s. It felt like a force that summed up something that was in the ether at the time. My younger self believed it to be about female empowerment. I kind of felt that I was allowed to join in with a lad's world. You know, the LADEC culture was there and that that put me absolutely on a par with men.

And my older self has realized, actually, Danny, that that wasn't the case. And I am by no means blaming you for, you know, for any of that. That's a position that I've come to. So I'll just ask you this very honestly. When you hear me being quite disparaging, maybe a little bit cynical about Loaded coming back, do you look at me and just think, oh, that's a kind of po-faced older woman who just doesn't get it anymore?

Or might there be a little bit of you that just thinks younger women might get it but when you grow up and change you just won't I completely agree with you I think um when we were younger and part of that LADEC culture um we convinced ourselves that it was also for us and wasn't degrading towards women, which some of the issues back then were. The future issues will not be in any way degrading towards women. That said, they're not intended for women, just like women's own is not intended for men. And I might pick up a woman's magazine. I don't actually read women's magazines. And I might pick up a women's magazine.

I don't actually read women's magazines, but if I did, and my husband came to pick it up, I might say, Oi, go away, you know, that's a women's magazine, that's mine. And I think that women are entitled to their own space in the media world and men are entitled to theirs too. And as long as that's not disrespectful or degrading to anyone, then who are we harming and who are they harming? That was the executive editor of Loaded World, Danny Levy. So you can get hold of a copy, you can make up your own minds about it. And as Jane pointed out, the National Geographic

is also available. What about your subscription to Time? Is that ongoing? No, it's not. I don't think I ever read an edition, but I've felt that I kind of, that's what I should be into. Yes. My original degree, which I didn't get the A-levels in order to go, was to study local government at the LSE. Good Lord.

Yeah. So that's where I was. OK. And that may explain why the LADEC culture of Loaded really really beckoned can I just say what a loss to local government you have been

imagined well I do imagine because actually there's an incredible power and influence wielded by people high up in local government I mean I was interested I was genuinely really interested in it I was really interested in it. I was really interested in what made things work and who made things work.

But I failed. I didn't get in, so it was not to be. Well, there's, I mean, you've heard of the University of the Third Age and our lives, if we're fortunate these days, can be very long. So coming to a local government position near you and then no i'm not knocking it you could become a councillor i could yeah so could you yes i know

that you've been uh vaguely interested in sitting as a magistrate well it's because it fits in with my long-held dream of being in a role where I could be addressed as ma'am. So that's what it is. Anyway, this is your new trendy Lady Vicar speaking with more parish notices. This is the bit I forgot to do. The creche will be blah, blah, blah. What other things do they do in parish notices? Well, there's a cake bake sale and there's mums and toddlers groups and hopefully there's men's health groups as well.

Oh, yes. And the Churchill is very busy but it will be shut on Wednesday afternoon for window cleaning and drain cleaning. Okay,

the ample car parking at the rear. So, we need to also make clear that we do have a new book club announcement and it is, I know this is a real

favourite of Fee's, Susie Steiner's book Missing Presumed. You do love this book,'t you i do i love everything by suzy steiner can uh can we just point out though that this isn't it hasn't been chosen because i love it it was an eve's pile it was in eve's pile and recommended very warmly by pauline in melbourne um which i believe is down under so pauline welcome thank you so much for taking part in this we We really appreciate your interest.

And Susie Steiner's Missing Presumed will be our book club choice. And we'll get round to podcasting it thoroughly, giving it a good podcasting going over in, what, six, seven weeks' time? Well, I think we should definitely go the other side of the election. Yes.

We should, please, God. And we should give people a chance to have gone on their holidays. So I'm thinking that we probably shouldn't tackle it until August. Right, so you go off on your jollies if you're fortunate enough to have one upcoming

and secure a copy of Susie Steiner's Missing Presumed. It's in paperback. It shouldn't be at all difficult to get hold of. Libraries will certainly be able to get hold of a copy, won't they? Yeah.

Now we've got to go because Fee has more fetter in her polystyrene takeaway lunch pot than I have. You are no way are you going to eat all that. No. And I can't even see feta after the last... Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. Is this triggering for you? It's a little triggering.

I'm going to have to be reminded not to say cheers. No. But I tell you what, let's make a note to retell the anecdote about the bloke who nearly fell into his infinity swimming pool on realising who you were on holiday. Let's save that for Monday. Yeah, right.

Well, that's one to look forward to, certainly. And in a couple of weeks' time, I'm off on my travels in the Times Radio election bus. Fee, unfortunately, unable to join me, so I'll just have to make the best of it. Good luck. 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 don't do that.

A lady listener? I know, sorry. Voice Over 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