Oh What A Time... - #117 Your Letters (May 2025) [Bonus Episode]

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

** We're 'off' this week due to half term, so please enjoy these old subscriber episodes in the mean time! And for more bonus episodes (and next week's episode) head to: patreon.com/ohwhatatime **Once again, you’ve been hitting up our inbox with all your fantastic correspondence; so here we are, another special to clear up and correct as much as we can.If you want to send us a letter you can do so via: [e-mail] thank you so much for being a Full Timer, we couldn’t make the show without you.You can also follow us on: X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepodAnd Instagram at @ohwhatatimepodAaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice?Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).Chris, Elis and Tom x Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh Water Time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access to live show tickets and access to the O Watertime Group chat. Plus if you become an O Watertime All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis will riff on your name to postulate

where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash O Watertime. Hello and welcome to Oh What a Time and I have to say due to half term we've taken this week off. However, we do have these two subscriber episodes for you to enjoy which our subscribers over at Patreon have had access to for over a year but they're still very good. Enjoy this. Welcome to Oh What a Time, the history podcast that asks vital questions like this one I had earlier today. And there will be points on offer for who out of you two has the best guess at the this question that I thought of.

I was just cycling around because I cycle now. Yes. Yes. I inspire. I thought to myself. Yeah. You've inspired me not to cycle at this. That's pathetic.

So you inspire ways with people in different ways. You think that's a funny joke, but I think that's absolutely scandalous. I do. Well, we've discussed it before. I cycle on a line bike. Whether you class that as cycling, I don't know. Or maybe the bike's doing the cycling at that point because I don't know. Well, is that cycling?

Is it partly electric? A line bike's part of the electric? No, very much electric. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. As in the first time you go on a line bike, I don't think you're quite prepared for how quick it was. Your balance is good. Okay.

You get to practice balancing every couple of, you know, a couple of times a week. Okay, so I'm not cycling. We'll take that as the answer. Go on, Chris. What's your question? The question I thought to myself was, who invented the second? Where did that come from?

Interesting. Who do you? And so I did some research. And do you have any guesses as to where the second came from? Is your question, as in for a start, what is named, or secondly, or how long a second is? Are you imagining someone's going, bum, bum, but yeah, that's a bit longer. That sounds a bit too far. What are you asking here?

How are you picturing this thing? Why do we have 60 seconds in a minute? Yes, okay. Why do we have 60 minutes in an hour? How did they figure out how long a second was? These are the fundamentals around what a second is. Do you have an answer, Al? Did it happen in Greenwich?

By an English scientist. I'm going to say no. Okay. Just because of Greenwich mean, time. I thought they sorted out hours and, you know, how far the Europeans are ahead of us and how far the Australians are ahead of us, and how far the Australians are ahead of it.

I thought they'd sort out seconds at the same time. The answer is it, well, actually began with the ancient Babylonians. Did it? They divide, they used to. a base 60 number system. They divided the hour into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds. But this is what I couldn't really understand. Like where the measurement of a second, the Babylonians didn't know. They just, they were just like, well, there's 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. But they didn't know how long they were. They just kind of decided that's what it was.

Do you know whose job they made difficult? Go on. Broadcast assistance on live TV shows. A friend of mine was a broad. A broad podcast assistant on the news. And what is so tricky about it is the director will say, okay, you're 40 seconds into this three minute, 10 second package. So how many seconds? And you're like, okay, 60, 120, 180 plus 10 is 190, 190,000, 90, 40, 60, minus 150.

And because it's not decimal, working in 60s is actually quite tricky. Yeah. In the same way that money in the pre-decimal age, can you imagine working in a shop? before 1971 when there's farthings and guinea is at one pound five or something you know oh Jesus Christ do you know I think one issue I have with the 60 minute thing is that like if a game kicks off at 3pm I'm never quite sure when it will end yes hour and a half plus quarter an hour that's why I have to I always work out in that way hour and a half plus half time so that's but I can't I don't have the

answer so it's 445 isn't that's when it ends well 445 is when the final scores of men to come in, but the games are never over by then. No, and if you start the second half like a little bit, if there's injury in the first half, there's a 15 minute break, there's a lot of maths involved here, that the Babylonians have made so difficult for us. I always think if football ends at 445, nothing has happened. If football ends at five, there's been incident.

It's a good, good rule of thumb. Yeah. In terms of sporting things, the early 100 metre sprints in the Olympics must have been quite vague before seconds. Yes. So you were pretty fast, and that guy was really, really fast, but I can't get an exact measurement on that. I tell you what was vague before tenths of seconds.

Oh, yes. How fast did you run that then? 11. Who won? I don't know, they were all about 11. Apart from a guy who fell over who was about 13. Who hadn't done his shoelaces up. That's really interesting.

What I'm surprised by that is that it's so early. Yes. Yes. as early as the ancient Babylonians. I would imagine it was much later than that. Did you know that the second wasn't defined scientifically until 1967? Right. Wow. Now that surprised me that it's sort of late. And it was defined as 9 billion 192 million, 631,770 vibrations of ecesium 133 atom. Thoughts, as defined by the international system of units.

That's what I thought. Yeah, of course. Because that's what I've got on my wall is one of those atoms vibrating. We don't have a clock, actually. We're quite hipster. Also. And when that's vibrated 60 times. I've often wondered, prior to the media. Yes.

And radio in particular, how did they know that five past six was five past six in Bristol and the same as it was in Edinburgh and the same as it was in London and the same as it was in Swansea? There must have been an awful lot of... It must have been quite vague And there must have been an awful lot of Vibing it, isn't there? Yeah Yeah

Like the whole of society Was vibe based Until about 50 years ago But I think that Analog watches Lend themselves To being quite vibe based Because you sort of round up

And round down Don't you on an analogue watch Explain what you mean by that So In a sense that sort of Like I'm looking at my I'm looking at my phone now Yeah

So it's 314 PM That's very exact. Whereas if someone's got like an old-fashioned analogue watch, to work out if it's 3-14, you've got to really sort of stare, especially if it's a small face. So you would say, oh, coming up to quarter past, but that could be anything really from 312, couldn't it?

Can I tell me what you think about this, Elle? In my parents' house, my mum still does this a day, every clock is set 15 minutes fast. So you have to look at it and then go, wait a second, actually it's not that time. It's a case. So basically what happens, it means now, over time, if you're in my mum's house, you don't leave early,

you just wait an extra 50 minutes and then go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what happens. It just, I remember someone suggesting that to me. Yeah. And saying, I'll just say you watch five minutes fast. But I did, but then I knew. So I would just do some, it just meant I was doing maths all the time.

It's a functioning brain. Exactly. How about this as a service? You pay for someone to enormously turn up at your house and turn all the clocks forward. And you don't know they've done. done it. That's the service. And you have to check with the talking

clock. If that's still knocking around, I don't know if it is. That was a weird old thing, wasn't the talking clock? In terms of recent history. I used to ask my mum if I could call the talking clock. I'd sit there and just listen to it, speak. But that was your dad, wasn't it? Your dad was the voice of the talking clock and you missed it. And then I'd synchronise my watch to the talking clock.

Obviously, I was going to all those really important meetings, aged eight. How little was there to do in mid Wales in the AC? So little. But my kids will never know that kind of boredom. Do you know, the talking clock guy had a very famous voice, didn't he? The time sponsored by Accurist will be 11, 37 and 10 seconds. Very good. The time.

After the third beep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was done live as well, do you know that? It's sad, exhausted by the end of the shift. I heard this, I read this story about there was an under, the guy, did the voiceover on the underground, like mind the gap. Oh yeah? Yeah. He did the voiceover for like the whole of London underground. And then when he died, his wife would continue to go to the train station to hear him speak. Have you heard this

story? Yeah. And then eventually they replaced the voiceover across the line. But she requested at her local station that he was kept on as the voiceover for that station. She would go there every day to hear his voice. That is absolutely heartbreaking, isn't it? Yeah, thanks. Also. Is that the kind of tone of there? relationship. Mind the gap. Mind the gap. What she'd been spoken to by husband. Mind the gap. I love you. Take down the knitted curtains and give them a wash. There is an interesting point on that, which I was thinking about this week, which is the fact that our children's generation, we live in a time now where there are a thousand

photos taking of them a month. Everything is filmed and recorded. I even look back to... I mean, I'm taking a thousand photos of your kids a month. Of course. And I appreciate it. You've got such a good camera. But look back to even when I was a child,

I think there's probably about eight photos of me as a child that have been printed out. That's basically it. Do us terrible. There's quite a lot of me. There's a similar number of my middle sister, but slight less. They had really lost interest.

to my little sister. Exactly. I mean, at the time she comes around, there's probably, I think there's one of her being born. Yeah. You know,

just a couple of hours after she was born and then 18th birthday. That's it. Whereas now, our children, when they're older, and their kids say to them, what was it like as a child for you?

They'll be able to say, well, just name a day and I'll be able to show you exactly what I did on that day. To the second, and the location. Whereas my child I'll say what was primary school like

I'll say well I've got two photos from 10 years I can show you Both against a pastel backdrop With me looking all with my school uniform That's all I got And some memories That all of my friends dispute So don't know

Actually Do you know The other one I was thinking recently It's like growing up My dad had a video camera And you'd have home movies It'd be like Christmas 1996 But now because there's so much content

on my phone, you don't have those big blockbuster videos. You know, like you can store... Oh, so your family filmed stuff, did it? So you had that. Yeah, when I was growing up, they filmed everything. I didn't. So this is different to my childhood. So I'm not joking, they probably are

maybe 20 photos of me, I think. But you didn't have a TV, so even if they had filmed it. Didn't have a TV, no. And there's maybe a handful of photos of me growing up, basically. I'm not through that. I had a very loving family, but it just wasn't, they didn't photograph stuff, didn't film stuff, this is what happened. And all those photos you grown up were in Sepia.

They are in seeping. And you don't have shoes or socks on and any of them. Dirty feet. A couple of etchings in sand. Unfortunately, the tides washed those away. Me chasing a wooden hoop down a cobbled. It's a lot of cave paintings of you as a kid, isn't it? But anyway, I thought it was an interesting thing to us and so today we should explain what we're doing.

Today is a subscriber special. You send us so much wonderful correspondence. We like to get through it. and give it the time and care and love that it deserves. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to go through some of your best emails from this month. Are you guys up for that? Yes, please.

Wonderful. Right, our first email is from Benjamin Painter. Lovely name. It says, early fruit adopter. Hi, guys, as usual, loving the podcast. I really enjoy the lion and the unicorn. So thanks for that tip. What's the lion in the unicorn again?

That was a book we recommend. It was a Georgia Well book, which is one of my favorite books. Well, there you go. Well, Benjamin Painter has bought that book. and he's very much enjoyed it. I'll be checking out more of the books on the subscriber specials soon. On a recent episode, you talked about not having eaten mangoes until your 20s. Now, that wasn't me, but I think that must have been one of you two.

Who was that? That was me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Both. That literally could fall either camp. I believe either of you hadn't tried a man to go until he mid-twenties. Yeah, yeah. Well, this is what Benjamin says.

As a child during the 80s, my dad worked at New Covent Garden, and he used to trade flowers from his stall with someone from the fruit and veg side. As a result, it meant that in my childhood, I was exposed to all sorts of exotic fruit, including mangoes. Wow. It was such a novelty that I took one to school, and my teacher organized. I love this. This is such a brilliant image. My teacher organized a tasting session for the whole class.

This would have been about 1985, and it blew the mind of most of the class, including one pupil who claimed it tasted of petrol. Most folks are pleased when they've introduced people to a band. TV, film artist. Yet I still regularly reminisce about that day when I was initially the only one in my room who'd eaten mangoes and then introduced 25 children and an adult to the delight of a mango. How great is that? The casual mention on this podcast did make me think of how much the world was shaped by new food discoveries. That's very true. And it would be great to hear about it, fruit, veg, spices, trading their impacts on some future episodes. That's a great idea for a podcast, actually. I was actually thinking about this either day. I've started reading a lot of those quite

broad general histories of the world or histories of Europe. Right, yeah. And what's so fascinating is the impact traders had on humanity, the movement of things. Like I went on a coffee tour, sort of the first coffee shop in London was in the 1600s. It was like a Turkish guy. And you don't think of there being a big Turkish community in London in 1600s. But, you know, certainly London and the port cities, there's been. far more movement of people than people think.

Yeah. And trade and commodities was, it was massive. Because if you had gold or sugar or pepper, people want, people really wanted that stuff. My grandmother, she bought kiwi fruit in the market. I don't know if I told you this in the sort of late 1960s. My mum came home from school and she was like, I'm going to make a fruit salad tonight. Right. She went, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I bought a kiwi fruit. God, it's this labor intensity.

it was hard work. Why? She had removed every single pip, which had taken in like two and a half hours or something. Just leaving a green pulp. She was like, it's quite nice and, you know, I'm not

sure it's worth it. I've been doing this since that's best one, but really looking forward to having this, Kiwi fruit. Her husband coming back from a day at the mines going, I'm knackard. Okay, that's nothing, love. How do you remember? move every single pip

about turning to mush. Yeah, yeah. She must have, I think she did very shathees? I also, I imagine

you've completely ret the remainder of the Kiwi fruit as well. Oh yeah, that's not looking appetising anymore. You've mush it to be too. My dad,

he was born in World War II and evacuated. So he would have been probably seven or eight, no, maybe six or seven at the end of the war. He remembers being given a banana for the first time

by the GI. So GI is, One of the phenomenums of American troops being here is they often had... Stuff, like chewing. Exactly, yeah. Chewing gum, bananas, all this sort of stuff. And he first tried a banana. It blew his mind.

He couldn't believe the flavor of this fruit. Yeah. So I completely get this idea of these children gathering around a mango and having their minds blown. It's quite sweet, isn't it? I read about mangoes in like FHM or men's health. Right. Someone written an article about, like, in terms of getting bang for your buck, it was the most, it was the fruit that had most vitamins in it.

Wow. And mango was in it number one. Yeah. And so the apples, things like these sort of apples and the kind of fruit I was eating that was sort of, you know, seven, eight, nine and ten. Yeah. Like a papaya was number two. I was like, what the fuck is a papaya?

But I, and then I went to test school as a mangan, and my friend had gone to private school to show me how to eat it. When you said earlier, Al, that your life as a child was you calling up the talking clock. I didn't think he could get any bleaker. But now, I know as an adult, you're really reading articles about nutrient content in different fruit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's got worse. It's got worse. My fruit, the thing that blows my mind, who are the people who are buying full watermelons from corner shops? Yeah.

Are they rolling, how are they getting them home as well? Are they rolling them? Are they dribbling it like a football? What are you doing? I also... I love that with the Sharon Fruit, such an exotic... Great fruit. It's got such an unexotic name. What's a Sharon Fruit? I've never heard of...

Sharon Fruit is superb. I don't have a valiant. Sharon fruit? It's absolutely delicious. Sharon Fruit? It's one of my... One of the characters from Birds of a Feather? It's in my top five fruit.

Top five fruit, Sharon Fruit. I love it. I have... I'm not joking. I have never seen a Sharon fruit before in my... It's really good. I like, I think to try it. It's an unusual flavour. What does it taste like? It's like a cross-puccino tomato and an orange.

No, it's sweet, but it has a sort of slightly... It's almost slightly rough to the bite, which doesn't sound very nice, does it? If it's quite textured, it's the best way of describing it. It's not really smooth and wet. It has a sort of heft to it. There's a bit of grist. But I like it. I really, really like a Sharon Fruit.

Big fan. Yeah, big fan. Sharon Fruit is not its real name. It's called a... Persimmon. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Why are we calling them Sharon fruits then?

I don't know. I don't know. They're climatising to Britain. That's what it is. They changed their name. They felt pressure since it's moving to Britain. Just let them be who they are. Exactly.

Right. Thank you, Ben Painter from that. What a lovely image of 25 children gathering around a mango and having their mind blown. I love that. Our next email is from Claire Scott. Hello, boys. Now this is a big moment, Chris and Elle, because Claire has said this is the first time I've ever emailed a podcast. Oh, huge.

Thank you very much, Claire. We're very touch. So Claire has an air email here. What I would say, confidently, is one of the most remarkable turns of fate that I've ever read about. Okay. It's a remarkable historical sort of charms this. I want to share with you a story about my great gran. Okay, it says my great grand and her family had tickets for the time. Titanic. However, get this, this is incredible. As her dad couldn't get work, the day before they were due to board the ship, her dad was offered a job so they never went and they stayed in England. So the whole family of her great grand were going to get on the Titanic and set off. My nanny, who is turning 100 next month, told me her dad ripped up the tickets, not realizing they'd be worth a small fortune only four days later.

Bloody hell Maybe that could be a topic You could get into Near misses or changed minds That could have changed history That is a fantastic suggestion, Claire Thank you for your first email So they had tickets to the Titanic

The whole family were going on Zad gets a new job They don't get on board Isn't that incredible That would stay with you forever That's exactly my question How do you think you'd deal with something As monumental as that

As in that It's that little change of fate It'd be so hard to get past that and like the lottery of it all. Also, in terms of, I mean, taking this conversation down a sea, very serious route, in terms of survivor guilt, if you didn't pass the tickets on, that's going to, you would think, reduce the impact of survivor guilt possibly. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

I think you'd just think, oh, that is lucky. It's just then a stroke of, enormous stroke of, but that could define your family forever, couldn't it? Absolutely. Bloody hell, that's absolutely extraordinary. Have you ever heard this, you know, Seth MacFarlane who invented family guy? Yeah. He was meant to be on one of the flights at 9-11.

He over slept. Oh, wow. Yeah, and he missed his flight. And then I've heard him interviewed about it, and he says, he doesn't really think about it that much because he had a habit of missing a lot of flights. Right, okay. Do what Claire's email reminds me of, though? You know, the fact that the ticket became...

valuable a few days later. Yes. When Kurt Cobain died, he was meant, Navano men to play at Brickston Academy about a month later. And Brickson Academy, obviously we're going to lose a fortune

in refunds because the gig had sold out. So what they said was, listen, if you've got a ticket, obviously we'll refund it, but it might be worth a few quid if you can put it. Wow. Because he's an icon, yeah. Yeah.

That's amazing. That's what Michael Jackson did as well when he, yeah. His sellout shows at the O'D. two obviously didn't happen because he died. They said, well, it's a souvenir ticket now. Yeah, a friend of mine had a ticket, because Navarna were going to play the CIA in Cardiff,

and a friend of mine had a ticket for that show and kept it for that reason. As we've talked before, there is a sort of slightly morbid fascination, isn't there, in culture for death, fame, all this sort of stuff. We've talked about Bonnie and Clyde in the past, how their bullet-riddled car is now this massive tourist attraction in Las Vegas. people flock to see it, any sort of ticket. To me honest, like, when I went to the Maritime Museum quite recently, they had different items from the Titanic that had been rescued.

Yeah. Like, watches had stopped as soon as they'd hit the water and was stained by the sea. It's quite dark, but it's, there is a, they are endlessly fascinating those things, aren't they? Also, what happens is with time, you look at those artifacts in a completely different way. Yes. It's no different. But for instance, if there were artefacts from the Twin Towers, it would appear really crass. Yes.

Because it's 20 years ago. Yeah. But there's something about the fact that, you know, Titanic with 1912, it allows them to be museum pieces. Yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. And yeah, absolutely right. One thing, one said that once an object gets to a certain age, it's fine to kind of, I don't know, look at it and not feel that guilt.

Yeah, it's a bit like, and I'm always talking about them. And so I apologise. and that also goes, not just the listeners of this podcast, but to friends of mine, because I will try and find an excuse to bring these things into any conversation I can. Bog bodies. Where do you see a bodbody in a museum?

That's a bloke. Or like a young girl or a sort of, you know, a middle-aged woman. But because they're 2,000 years old, you're like, oh, look at all. Oh, isn't it well preserved? It's wrong. Yeah.

I Google Boggs. bodies all the time. Your internet search history is 95% How do I become a bog body? Is it all right to fancy a bog body? How do I get bog body ready? I can't wait to you, go to your funeral, which will be just burying you and peat.

How do you get bog body ready? I think they're all quite lean and fit, aren't they? So they're probably getting quite good looking. The bog does wonders for the skin. It really does. I was reading about the Battle of Hastings actually recently I became fascinated with the Battle of Hastings and one thing they say there is that

they buried a lot of the English and the Normans who died there but the soil is so acidic it's the opposite of bog bodies where the soil is acidic and basically just vaporised all the bodies that were there they think yeah, yes, it's funny isn't it? I mean I want to be buried in peat and then in 5,000 years' time

like a classic bog body I can be exhumed and people can be like, wow, so his last meal was Sharon Fruit and Mango. He was buried with his headphones on, so he was clearly one of the great podcasters. And in his back pocket of his jeans, he's a ticket to Swansea v. Millwall. Right, on to our next email.

This is from Sophie Harries. Sophie Harries is emailed with the title Footballer's Diet. Hi, all, says Sophie. after your discussion about mate or mat matter do we decide how that's pronounced it says matter in brackets here matta i'm okay so we'll go with that and caffeine gum i thought i'd email in to let you know

what the professional footballers i work with each great start on email great fantastic Sophie immediately one of our favourite listeners that's fantastic yes red ball is common on a match day that's how the email starts That blows my mind. That is odd.

It's disgusting. Red Bull gives you winners. Is that a phrase? Obviously, if they choose to sponsor this podcast, welcome. Yes, Red Bull is common on a match day, along with this is even more remarkable. Caffeine gum. Yeah, I knew about that. But I think, well, I've given up caffeine because it makes me feel anxious.

The idea of having to play professional football feeling anxious, feels like a horrible conversation. Well, I was watching a weird. Wales game and David Brooks was chewing mid-match. I thought to myself, come on mate, I mean, surely chew gum in your own time. Who likes gum that much? Was he blowing bubbles? Yeah, well, that was the thing.

And then I mentioned it to, I was interviewing an ex-player. He said, oh, that'll be caffeine gum. He's not just, he's not a bububba. Like, it serves a purpose. So they have caffeine gum, that's correct. And they also have caffeine shots as well. if caffeine gum's not enough. There's also a few other supplements we use,

but it's very common for the players to use either snus. Yes, I knew about that. Or nicotine pouches to help them relax. In fact, my PhD is looking at the impact of this on their recovery. Thought it would be an interesting insight for you all, particularly Ellis, as I work for a rival championship team. Oh, it does not say. Sophie, if you could email the pod again and tell us which rival championship team you play for.

That would be fantastic. Love the pod. Sophie. That's so interesting. So snuss and also nicotine pouches, the other thing. I was aware of chewing tobacco becoming increasingly popular in football. There's also that South American Central Midfielder who played for UVA quite recently. I can't remember his name.

He smokes still. I know that. He would smoke. Fagreets. Yeah, cigarettes. Yeah, he smokes. I think the name's Vidal or something. He would smoke before games.

It's Chilean, I think. Wow. But yeah. But I know that chewing tobacco is still popular in the game. So there you are. So that's caffeine gum, caffeine shops, red bull. Nuss and nicotine pouches. Let's go, let's quickly.

You've both got to choose one of those. You're playing a professional match next week. You've got to have one of those during the game, which you go with. Oh, caffeine gum. Although what would happen is I'd get crunched by some big cent and half and I'd swallow it and chew it. I'd be going into 50-50s. It's what a gingerly sort of fashion because I'm too scared of swallowing my caffeine

gum. Oh, sorry, sorry. Chris, what are you going with? I want to try chewing tobacco. Okay. You're not tempted to have a go? It looks so cool when like Westerns and Cowboys doing it when they're like spitting in the spittoon in a saloon.

No, it looks dirty, Chris. It looks like the make dirty people do. It's also hugely carcinogenic, but you enjoy that. Is it? Yeah, of course. Well, I thought because you're chewing it. Yeah, but yeah. No, it very much is. Now, the tobacco industry are not good people, Chris.

Spoiler. That said, if they choose to sponsor this podcast. Actually, have we got sponsored by chewing tobacco? Oh, What a Time, brought to you by Marlborough. So, our next email is from Otto. The email heading is an interesting family member. Dear Oh, What a Time Pod TM. That's nice.

He's trademarked it. My name is Otto, and I'm a long-time fan of the show. Thank you very much for listening, Otto. The reason I emailed in was to talk about my great, grandfather, who was an Australian balloonist on the Western Front in World War I. I was always told, as a child from my grandma, that he was a very brave man, awarded the French Medal of Bravery, the Quar de Guère in 1917, and he was nicknamed the Old Man of the Skies at 25,

because the life expectancy of these men was so low being in a static observational balloon in the sky. I didn't even know that was a thing. That's what the scary, in time jobs I've ever heard of. So I guess you're floating above enemy lines and trying to... taking notes and hoping. In a hot air balloon. Wow. With other tourists who paid for a day out.

It's some woman's birthday. Although it'd be quite a soft landing, wouldn't it? Yes. Well, not the bullet goes straight through the balloon. No, no, but then it's going to deflate it still. It's not going to deflate immediately. It depends where you land, though, isn't it? If you land on nomads land, do you?

Oh, God, yeah. Yeah. That's a nightmare. You can land in a German trench. Hi, guys. Desperately trying to learn German on the float down. Yeah. This is a dumb question.

But they can shoot at you, can't you? But a bullet would hit. If you're up in the air, you're going to get hit. Yes. I mean, famously, if you stick your head over the top or the trench you're getting your head blown off. So, like, to be up in the air and what is effectively a massive target. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I would also, I know what I'd be. I'd be the guy who was supposed to be holding the guy rope as it set off. and had forgotten to let go. And now it was just dangling beneath the hot air balloon as it floats over like... And then you'd get shot in the cock. Wouldn't have to be much on Marksman.

Pretty easy. So, now, what a brave man this is. Now, Otto goes on to say, now that I've reached the same age as him, I find myself unable to imagine what he must have faced. Sometimes my most stressful part of the day is what Netflix showed to put on with my tea, not being target practice for the enemy plane soldier

or soldiers. like one of those duck stands at the country fair. It's a bravery of that. It is absolutely incredible, isn't it? Wow. The part I find amusing, though, in this was that I was actually named after him. His full name being Otto Ludwig Vetta. Now, imagine yourself in an isolated observation post in the sky,

your only companion is an Australian bloke whose name is as German as Bratverse, saying he's managed to outlive most people on these things. I'm reminded of that episode of Blackadder goes forth, where they're looking for a spy when there's someone speaking English in the most outrageous German accent. going unnoticed. I often get asked where my name comes from, but for him it must have been an ending

and probably some lonely lunches in the cafeteria too. That is really interesting. That is really interesting to be a German name in that situation. Yeah. To wrap the story off, after the war, he went back to Australia and went on to set up one of the first General Motors stores in Australia in Perth. Apologies for the length of email.

Love the show. Keep doing what you're doing. Many thanks. Otto. Otto, no need to apologise for an email's length when an email is interesting as that. That is incredible. You're floating in a balloon.

balloon over enemy lines being shot out. I think that's one of the bravest things it's possible for a human to do. That is, I didn't even know that was something people had to do. I mean this, it's a proper sort of nutcase regiment, isn't it? Imagine go and drink it with them. Yeah. The floating balloon guys. Oh, man.

Could you claim you've been caught by a breeze? And then just float merrily across the sea back to England. What's there, what's there all? Oh, sorry, guys. Yeah, they go, it's a crosswind. I'd love to be going that way. I'm thinking about it now. Surely you're tethered, right? They're not going to put you up there and just let the wind take you wherever.

I guess, well, you can still control a hot air balloon by tilting the flame, can't you? No, you can. Yes, you can. I don't think it's completely due to the wind. Sure, surely you can. What, would you mean tilt the fire? It's the wind if you're in a 30 mile an hour gale? Well, no.

And you tilt the fire. But generally, you have some control. Surely there's some semblance of control, otherwise you'd never get back to point A, would you? But isn't that the whole point? On the right wind coming back. No, no, no, you don't get back to Point A. Do you not? No, no, my daughter's obsessed with hot air balloons.

It's her dream, but I don't like heights. So Izzy has said that she will do it. You're up there for a couple of hours, and you're not quite sure where you land. That is the worst form of transport ever, isn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't get on a bus if they said we're not quite sure where this will end up. Although I have been on the Valley Lines trains in South Wales,

and I'd say that they're probably worse, but yeah. AI, good old AI has just told me, while a hot air balloon doesn't have traditional steering controls like a car or plane, a skilled pilot can influence its direction by manipulating altitude and using knowledge of wind patterns. Influence.

When I'm driving, I'm not influencing the car. I can influence this within 30 miles of our intended destination. I'm going to influence my car to Bristol. We want to be in car if it's close enough. Well, thank you very much for that. Otto, fantastic email. and what an awesome grandad that is. Douglas Mariner has now emailed the show.

He says, Oscar-nominated listener, responding to rules-based order at 108. It might be about to happen, guys. We've talked many times on the show about how anyone can win an Emmy, but you never meet anyone who's won an Oscar. Could it be about to change? Hello, gentlemen, listening to episode 108

and a call for any Emmy-nominated listeners, does featuring in a film that recently got eight Oscars nominated, nominations count. Absolutely it does. Wow. Let's see your workings. I'm a London-born jazz drummer by trade and was recently cast.

This is awesome. That's so cool. As Johnny Cash's drummer, W.S. Holland, in the recent Bob Dylan movie, a complete unknown with Timberley-Shamele and Edward Norton, which I saw in the cinema and I absolutely loved. I thought it was fantastic. And you spotted him, didn't you? You were like, it's the jazz drummer.

I can keep my eyes off him. Is that okay? More of that drummer. Fun drumming fact, W.S. Holland, the father of of the drums, set up his drum kit like a left-handed drummer would, so in reverse from the more commonly seen right-handed drummer, but actually played right-handed on the snare drum whilst playing his bass drum left-footed, so I had to learn everything almost backwards for the film. That is so cool.

What attention to detail. P.S. You should do an episode on great jazz musicians. Thanks for the belly laughs in awkward places, often inappropriately on the New York subway to bewildered and angry onlookers. Ah, as an American listener. Best wishes to you all, Douglas Mariner. Douglas, that is so cool. I love that film. It's a fantastic film. And also, what a great thing to be a part of. You can play guitar, can't you, Tom? I can play guitar to a very basic level.

Have you ever tried playing it with your wrong hand? Yes, I have, and it's basically impossible. I struggle with my right hand, to be honest. But yeah, yeah. It's so hard. I'm so impressed with that. That's remarkable. So we set it up, I had to learn everything backwards.

Incredible. What a skilled man. Because Ringgo Starr's left-handed, but it's set up as a right-handed kit. So his fills sound weird because they're sort of backwards. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So it looks like a conventional kit, but he's left-handed. Do you play an instrument, Scal?

I can play piano to a very basic grade. Right, what grade? Knock out, old McDonald, twinkle, twinkle, little star. A couple of standard, like a waltz or something. I don't know what it's called. So you could rip it at a kid's party, basically. I'm not headlining Glastonbury anytime soon. Michael Rothermore Shore.

Yeah. And could you do it? Can you do that? Can you flip your hands? Let's just see. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Okay, very not.

Douglas Mariner, thank you very much for that. That's a fantastic email. And do you know what? Fair play. That's one of the most impressive things we've been sent so far. We've had a number of Emmy nominees get in contact with the show. But now we have someone who basically is an Oscar nominated actor slash musical performer. Great stuff.

Okay. On to our final email today. this says spy stuff at the top of the email Okay Hello Regarding your questions on the recent podcast about whether or not spies Can tell their spouses about their jobs I have some insight here at least from an American perspective

Oh Having read this email there's an argument This one's about to outdo the Oscar nominated email I want to just reiterate first That I am not a spy and have never been one That is what someone would say, isn't it? Yeah. That's exactly what you'd put at the top of all your emails.

I've heard that one before. Exactly. However, this is so cool. In 2012, I did apply to join the CIA, and I went quite far through the process before ultimately being rejected. Once again, I think you'd say you'd been rejected, wouldn't you? Is that great scene in Bond?

What do you do for a living then, Bond? Um, oh, uh, work in, uh, work in finance. And I'm a teacher as well. Yeah, yeah. I'm a teaching assistant. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But you would say that.

I'm not saying, you're not a smile. I'm just saying, if you were a spy, but you wanted to tell people you've been through the process, you'd say you went through the process and didn't make it. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, quite early on in the process, because we talked about whether you were able to tell your spouses and your loved ones about this.

Yeah. Quite early on in the process, they do tell you that you're actually required to tell your spouse what you do for a living, because they recognise it is pretty much impossible to keep a secret like that from your spouse.

They actually talk about how it's psychologically damaging to help to keep something like that and creates far more problems than if you would just be able to bring them in on the secret. I could definitely keep that secret from his own. She hasn't listened to a second

of any of my podcasts ever. It would be absolutely, it would be easy. She doesn't know where this one's called and she's got a very vague idea of what the social distance sports bar is. Although she is more aware. wear of Ellis and John. You could come into your house dragging the body of someone you've just been sent out to kill as a spy and she wouldn't ask you about it. No, no, no, no, no. It continues.

Although you're encouraged to tell your spouse, you are forbidden from telling anyone else, parents, children, siblings, anyone at all. Best, and then it says name redacted, just kidding, I'm Catherine. Lovely little bit of business. So it's not interesting. So you are actually encouraged if you went through the spy process to tell your partner that you are a spy, because otherwise it's not tenable is your life is going on car too surprised at that. Yeah, I'm surprised at that. Amazing. But I get it though. Yeah. Because it must be exhausting to keep coming home

and telling your partner what life was like at the accountancy firm that day. And you don't know that much about accountancy. I mean, if you're a spire, you're already living a double life before you even lie about at home. So you'd just be tying yourself in knots. That makes me feel quite good about the spy industry What you are doing in that situation though

Is you are forcing your partner To now have to create lies About what you do for a living at the school gates or whatever Yes You've sort of passed it on to them a little bit So Izzy's at school gates going Oh what does Ellis do? Also my wife

She bloody she tells her friends everything Really? Okay yeah Oh yeah So Josie Long knows I'm a spy in this scenario. If you told Izzy you're a spy, how quickly would it be out in the open, sort of in the general problem?

I think it would be on Chortle within a week. Yeah. No, she'd certainly tell Josie. God. And then Josie would do a cracking Edinburgh show about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get nominated. Which is raided by the Kremlin.

Last thing you need when you want to keep it quiet. And it's all out there. So there we are. Thank you very much, Catherine. If you are a spy, keep up the good work. If you're not, unlucky, I'm sure they missed out. Some fantastic emails there. Thank you very much.

If you want to get in contact with the show, there's many ways for doing it. You can DM us on Instagram. You can email us on email. And, well, that's basically it. Here's how. All right, you horrible look. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. you can email us at hello at oh what a time.com

and you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Oh What a Time pod now clear off. All right, well that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to this subscriber special. We've enjoyed your letters. Do send us some more, especially if you're a spy and especially if you have ambitions to become a bogbody one day. Hello, AllerTime.com.

See you very soon for another subscriber special. Until then. Bye. Goodbye. Bye. I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode. If you want more bonus episodes, you know what to do. Head to patreon.com forward slash oh water time. Oh, what a time is now on Patreon.

You can get main feed episodes before everyone else. Add free. Plus access to our full archive of bonus content. Two bonus episodes every month. Early access to live show tickets and access to the Oh, What a Time group chat. Plus if you become an Oh Water Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up. For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh what a time.