That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Dame Prue Leith

Episode Date: October 10, 2022

In this episode of the podcast, Gaby chats with Dame Prue Leith. They of course talk about The Great British Bake Off, discuss the ongoing success of Leith's Cookery School and how she first started out on television. Prue also talks about her first ever stage show tour at the age of 82, called 'Nothing in Moderation' kicking off in February 2023 - tickets on sale now! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And welcome to that Gabby Roslin podcast, part of the A-Cast Creator Network. This week, my guest is the utterly delightful Dame Prue Leith. She turned up to the podcast, brightly dressed with all of her gorgeous jewellery. We discussed the Great British Bake-off. We discussed how she started out in the food industry when she first started on television. And her lovely husband, John, came to, and he shared some photographs. Don't forget, you can keep up to date by following and subscribing, please, to the podcast, where a new episode is released every Monday.

Leave us a rating on the Apple Podcast app. And whilst you're there, why not leave us a review? We love to hear your thoughts. Now, on with the show. Peru, what's so lovely about getting a chance to have a proper long chat with you is, because we've met so many times, I thought I knew everything about you until I delved deeper. I've lived a long time, Gabby, so I managed to pack in quite a lot. Yes, but I did.

So this orgy, I want to find out more about the orgy before we go to bake off. Before we go, I love the fact that your husband, John, is in the room. He's not going to speak, but he's giggling away and blushing. Did you know about the orgy? Oh, he knows about the orgy. Well, everybody does because I wrote about it in my autobiography. But I meant, does he know, did you know about it before you? you wrote about it.

Oh, he did? Oh, did you? Well, I probably told you. So, for you, I mean, this is typical sort of daily mail of sun stuff, isn't it? What happens is you write something perfectly innocent and it's, and they take a little bit of it right out of context. Of course. And what, in fact, happened, I was in Paris and a friend of mine, I was very young, I was 20

or something. And a friend of mine, not a boyfriend, just a friend. said, look, I can get us into this party, and I believe it was fantastic fun, so do you want to come? And, of course, I was always up for a party. So I said, of course I did. So we went along and we did get into this party. And honestly, Gabby, when I went in, there was just three rooms full of naked, bouncing bottoms up and down on beanbags. Because it turned out to be the most, I mean, it was an widgee.

Well, I mean, my friend just disappeared. I mean, he thought this was paradise. So he went off and presumably stripped off and had a lovely time. And then I stood by the bar trying to look as if I, you know, was, you know, I couldn't, everybody came, all the men came up to me and said, get your stuff off. Well, you know, this is a, you know, this is a gang bang you should have no clothes on. and I realised that if I didn't take my clothes off I would be the most visible person in the room

so in order actually to be invisible I took my clothes off and so I then walked for an hour completely naked yes I was starkers so then I walked around for an hour and a half trying to pretend that I was on the way to the loo you know that thing when you go to a party and you know nobody and nobody's taking it's just so awful no I hate it it makes me shy

It makes you absolutely so. Well, it was it like that, but with no clothes on, because I was trying to pretend that I was on the way to the loo, that I was going to get a drink from the bar, that I was looking for a friend, that I was just very busy doing something. For an hour and a half, I walked around at this party, embarrassed and then finally my friend turned up,

presumably happily satisfied. And we went home, and that was my orgy. I mean, I had no participation, whatever. You had no orgy, but you were naked and shy. I was naked and shy in the middle of a whole bunch of strangers. Actually makes for a better story. Well, that's the true. That's the true story.

And that's what I told in my autobiography. But needless to say, the sun ran it as, you know, Prue Leith goes to orgy. Sex, drugs and rock and roll is what I'm known for. Unfortunately, I haven't done really. Isn't it funny? I mean, our newspapers, we won't name and shame any, although you may just have. You can't shame them.

No. They just like, there's a story that you've said recently. I'm not going to go into it. It's something that happened when you were a child. But that's it. They've run with it and they're not going to let go of this one. I'm going to keep going. But what's lovely is you do keep going.

You have kept going. Well, I mean, I think what is the trouble with social media is it does tend to stifle writing or anything because you have to always be thinking what will they make of this, what will the headline be, instead of just writing what's in your heart or what is true or what you really want to write.

And, you know, it's just crazy. But you know how to play that game. As you say, you've been alive a lot of... A long while. Long while. And you've written multiple... You've written your novels, you've written your recipe books, you've written your own book, you've got a new recipe book out, and everything does taste better on toast. Come on, let's put it out. We'll talk about that in a moment.

But it's as if you haven't let any of it get in the way of carrying on doing what you want to do. Well, I do sort of feel that, I mean, especially on an autobiography, if you're going to write it at all, you have to write the truth. You have to write what is interesting. I mean, of course I left out of lots of things that were boring, you know, lots of. some autobiography, especially from business people, are just long lists of how brilliant they've been at business deals, and it's very boring to read. So I left out a lot of the business,

and I left out of a lot of stuff that I just did not think was interesting to read. But frankly, a funny story about going to an orgy or some traumatic thing that happened in your childhood, you do want to write about it, because it's also quite cathartic, right? Of course it is. But it's the way that the press, then get hold of it and don't let you.

You go, I know, I know, I know. Well, you know what, I'm sort of too old and too, you know, my dad used to say, you know, I'm too old and too ugly to care. And I sort of feel that, you know, I do care. I do, I am hurt when I get, you know, somebody says something awful on Twitter. But then I think I'm not going to let them beat me. Yes. Yes.

Good for you. That's what I like to hear. I mean, so what's so fascinating, you and I have spoken privately about this, but my family are from Zimbabwe. You're from South Africa. What's a beautiful part of the world it is. I know, it's so lovely. And so sad at the moment.

I mean, the South Africa is, you know, the government, the whole systems are so corrupt that what had been, you remember when Mandela came out of prison? It was the most. Wonderful day. I don't think there was a South African alive who didn't feel this is a new beginning and this is the most wonderful man who's going to, you know, get it all right. He and Tutu and Susulu and all those great, great politicians. They were the sort of, they were the Robin Island graduates because they had been in prison with Mandela on Robin Island and they had all, for 25 years, they had been, discussing how the new South Africa would one day work. And it was all about democracy and a rainbow nation, and it would be honest and open and non-racial.

Well, now it's, you know, the schools in South Africa get practically no money because everybody in the government from the top to the bottom takes a bit of the budget off and puts it in their pockets. Until you get down to the teachers, don't get paid. And then, of course, they have to charge the children because they have to get money from somewhere. I mean, not in every school and not in every province, but that's pretty well. And there are charities now who will not support South African schools' education because they know that their money won't get to the schools.

And it has to go through the department. You still have your business. I have a chef school there. But it's a private chef school. I don't have to have anything to do with the government. What a relief. So you did go over there? Yes, I go over there.

I'm going to January again. I go, obviously COVID interrupted it, but I've always been there at least once a year. And it's wonderful. And now our students are about half black students, half white students there. Honestly, Gabby, it is such a source of pleasure and pride because I'll go into a top South African restaurant.

half the chefs will have been trained at my college and they'll be wearing their jackets with, you know, Pruelly's Culinary Institute written on their backs and I'm such a negatist. I love my name being on the back of all these chef's jackets. How wonderful. You're allowed to be, you know, when you've done that for people. I'm really proud of that. It's fantastic.

I mean, if you go back to how it all started for you, and I know it was when you went to Paris that you suddenly realized that food was so interesting. You could never have imagined then what's happened now, surely? Did you think of the schools and the TV shows? And I know they were all slightly accidental and the way you started in telly was accidental, really, wasn't it?

You meant to be with somebody else and they suddenly weren't going to do it. Yes, yeah. I was going to do a four-minute slot in an afternoon program for Tine T's. And then the presenter, who was old Jack de Manio, well, he went away. I mean, I don't know whether he got pushed or whether he decided not to do it.

But so a week before we went on it, before we started filming, they offered me the job to be the presenter. And I'm such an idiot. Instead of saying, I've never been on telly, I don't know how to do this, I said, oh, yes, I'd love that. Why does that make you an idiot?

I see that you always say I'm such an idiot that I said yes. I don't think that makes you very wise and switched on. Well, it's fools rush in, isn't it? It's fools rush in. Well, why not? And you did it? Yeah, exactly. And I did not enjoy it.

I didn't enjoy it. I didn't really enjoy television. Then I didn't do any telly for 20 years because I just, I wasn't asked very often. But when I was, I said no, because I hated it. But then the great British menu came along. And I thought I can do that because I understand about, by then I had had had Leiths for a long time, I had a Michelin Star, and I had eaten an enormous lot of very good food. I love that. I'd eat lots of good food, so yes, I'll do tell you.

And I knew about judging food because so many of our students had, you know, Leith's School of Food and Wine, I must have judged thousands of students' food. So I reckoned I had good taste buds. and I thought, well, what, and I like Matthew Fawton, Oliver Payton, who were the other judges. So I said, yes, and I loved it, and I did it for 11 years. And then I, of course, Beacoff came along. Do you enjoy food? I love it. I'm just desperately greedy.

You know, my problem with food is that I, you know, have to not eat too much of it. No, but there's a different, my husband always says that, because I don't, I'm not, I don't like big, huge helpings of food. day my husband does but I appreciate tastes and layers of flavors and all of that whereas he likes his food. Do you know what I'm? Yeah. So are you about

both? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Definitely I do like, I mean I love nothing better than a simple you know bangers and mash with a bit of mustard in the mash and the onions a bit crispy on top. You know, that's wonderful. I like that sort of wholesome

you know, food. And I like a cheese toasty or, you know, pretty well anything. But I do also like the flavours. I mean, one of the things that's been fun about writing Bliss on Toast was it sort of started with this idea that, as you said, that if, you know, almost everything tastes better on toast. I mean, toast provides a bit of texture. It provides the carbohydrate you need in any balanced dish, you know. But it also means you can put almost anything on toast.

For example, there's a recipe in that little book, which is a Caesar salad made with seared scallops on top of fukaccia. And you wouldn't think of putting a salad on top of a piece of toast, but actually with hot scallops on top. And it's just delicious. I'm looking at your husband. He's nodding. Did you get to taste test at all, John?

Quite a bit. Quite a bed, yeah. Well, it really started because cooking for two in lockdown, I mean, the whole nation knows cooking for two is pretty boring, really. And I can never cook for two because I always cook too much. And if I have a, so make a chicken casserole, it's not going to be made with two drumsticks, is it? So you use the whole chicken and I make a chicken cassero. And then we've got all this leftovers.

So what I do with it, so I take the bones out of it, stick it on top of toast. would be absolutely. And this is actually better than the original. And it's better than the first time around. Well, leftovers always taste better. I know. And I love, and I much do mean to throw away a single leftover. And the trick with leftovers is to eat them the next day.

Don't put them in the fridge and let them go moldy, you know. Just eat them as quickly as possible. So, you know, day. But it's also money saving for families at the moment. Life is really tough, really tough. Exactly. And you just make batch cook, isn't it batch cooking? Yes, or batch cooking or...

Put it on toast. Or put it on toast. Easy. And that, you know, halves the food bill immediately because you've got... I mean, we throw away in this country something like 40% of the food we buy. 40%. That's a shocking statistic. It is absolutely terrifying.

And that gets thrown away at various stages. It's either that because people buy too much and so it never even touches the... You don't even open the packets. They go into landfill just as they came off the supermarket shelves because people buy too much. And then because they don't know what to do with the leftovers or because the children don't eat it. Or because hospitals, hospitals used to, I'm happy to say it's getting better now. Well, you've worked in that area as well. God, have we worked on that?

But anyway, I mean, that effort to improve hospital food is really working. But certainly when we started something like 60% of hospital food was not eat. And it's sort of under... I know this is that people can't see my face, but that I didn't know that it was as much as that. Well, it is. And the reason is used to be, anyway,

that it's not so much... I mean, first of all, people have no appetite in hospital. So you think, you know, you've got to order something, so you tick something. But when it comes, you've still got no appetite, so you just don't even... You just push the tray away. And then often, it turns out of,

be something you don't like. Or occasionally, I'm sorry to say, we used to have this situation that people would be given something which is totally unsuitable for them. They've just had a heart attack. And the menu says, fry up, you know, which obviously is not very suitable for somebody with a heart attack. So, you know, there was a lot of work to be done. But I'm very pleased with that hospital food thing because we made eight recommendations and the government accepted them all and they're all being worked on. Good. Congratulations on that. And the food waste thing as well is so important, as you say.

And putting things on toast, it does make it go that little bit further. We have to talk about bake-off. I mean, it's rude not to. It works so superbly with the four of you. And it's really lovely, isn't it? And I think this series is very fresh. It is sort of new. It's odd because obviously we've been doing exactly the same thing.

When I've been doing the same thing for six years, and Paul's been doing the same thing for however long it is. It's 5,580 years. Yeah, something like that. 13 years. 13 years. So to say it's fresh sounds odd, but I just think it is. I think it's something to do with the arrival of Matt,

who has made that very different. Precious, precious man. You know, Matt and Noel are just terrific together. And we're all having such a lot of fun. and this year's bakers are just terrific. And last week was Mexican week. I didn't know I was obsessed with Mexican food until I started eating Mexican food.

Does that make sense? I think one of the reasons the Mexican episode was so good is because Paul had just come back from Mexico. So he was absolutely fired up about Mexican food. He knows far more about it than I do. But it was just wonderful seeing the bakers tackle things. like trezletches, you know, which is the sort of, I mean, Mexicans love a bit of sugar in their

cakes, sweet cakes, and the sort of Panducci, which is a bread, but sweet bread. You know, it's really got a sweet feeling. And they were really imaginative and really good. You know, this is a weird thing to say, but I don't have a favourite because I love them all this year. Usually there's one and the family will, because we, watch it together as a family, which is such a rarity, and so thank you for that.

But we'll say, oh, don't know. And we've got a few ones that we like slightly more than the others, but we love them all, that we don't want anyone ever to go. I know. And that increasingly happens because we get more and more fond of them as they go, you know. And it's nice that Rebs and Abdur are coming back because they were ill. Abdel is a delight. I know, isn't he lovely?

Oh, what a delight. So for you, I want to ask you, I love that your husband is sitting here. I'm going to say this very carefully. Do you take your dressing up outfits home? Oh, Johnson, yeah. I think he'd like you to take them home. It's great fun, all of that as well, and dressing up and... You know, the Prue backer costume I don't take home.

I don't take home the real fancy dress stuff. But I do get to keep a lot of the clothes. Oh, the clothes. Well, you choose those, don't you? Yeah, I choose those. And then I keep some of them. And some of them we keep for next year because we're quite hot on recycling on...

Good. Good. And colour. I love colour. I absolutely love colour, I think. And you epitomise that. As did our late, wonderful Queen. Can I...

Did you have a relationship with Her Majesty? Yeah. I had... I certainly didn't have a, I would not so bold as to say I had a relationship with her, but I certainly had met her a couple of times. And I had lunch once at Buckingham Palace with her, which is wonderful. They used to have, and I don't know if King Charles will continue with this, but they always had a, they would have a lunch once a month or something

where they just invite odd people. And they would always be, at the day I was there, certainly, they had six people from the palace and six people from, the rest of us. So it was very good fun. And so I'd find myself sitting next to a, you know, in between Prince Philip and an Olympic athlete or something that they wanted to meet

or that somebody thought they ought to meet. So that was terrific. I was a bit nervous because I sat next to Prince Philip and there were so many bits of cutlery and so many things on the table that I absolutely no idea what to do with. But you didn't know. Goodness, way.

I know. They had all sorts of fancy stuff. Did they give you that look to know what you thought of the food? No, Prince Philip just told me. He said, that's the mat, not the napkin. Oh, I love that. I love that. But the actual tasting of the food, did they wait to see? Did Her Majesty say? Dame Prue, tell me.

Well, I wasn't Dame then. Oh, you weren't? Okay, so did you say Prue? What do you think of the food? No, the only conversation I had with her, which I was really, It was so nice because it was a proper conversation. I had forgotten, although we had been told, that the proper etiquette with the royals is you don't initiate the conversation,

you have to wait for them to do so, which tends to make the conversation a bit boring, because what can they say? They don't know anything about you, really. And so they're likely to say, you know, have you come from far? And, you know, yes, yeah. So I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to. And she came into the room with a whole lot of little corgoy.

around her. So I said, something immediately like, you know, these are the famous corgis. And she said, they're not corgis. She said, they're doggies. And I said, what? And so she said, no, she said, they're crossbreeds. They're half corgi and half dashant. And she told me that Princess Anne had a dashant bitch. And she had a, anyhow, she had bred a corgi with this dashant. And they, she was very excited because the Kennel Club had just agreed that the the doggies could be an official breed. And she just learned that the kennel crumb had accepted her dogies. And she's a great dog.

She was. It's very difficult to talk in the past. It is. Of course, it is. She was a great dog breeder. And of course, knew all about the bloodlines of race horses. And bred horses, too.

So she was talking about something she was really interested in. And so it was wonderful. Instead of a stilted conversation when she's asking, trying to make you feel at home and trying to... I love that you started the conversation. But also, can you imagine if the Kennel Club had said, no? Hello, Your Majesty. No. That wasn't going to happen.

So let's go. So we've talked a bit about Bake-Off. And I think I want to talk a bit more, if we may, because that show works on so many levels. And as somebody who has never baked in my life, I've watched it from day one. And I've never baked. I know, I should. I've never baked a cake. And I can't believe I'm looking at you and saying that, I'm slightly embarrassed.

But, but I haven't. And yet that show captivates me and captivated from the beginning. I love you on it. I've said that to your face and you know that. It's completely true because I think you bring, you're that the four of you now there's you each have an element that you bring and then together you all just create this whole person of a kindness person because I think Paul's kind really he is he is very kind really he's absolutely soft in the

middle he is but but it's a phenomenon I mean it's a worldwide phenomenon isn't that extraordinary work so well do you know I think it's extraordinary because it was an absolute accident. I mean, when they started Bake Off, they thought it was going to be a little, a nice little program that would go on in the afternoon and it would appeal to the sort of village women who are neglected by television, the sort of housewives who bake as a hobby and enter their cakes in the local fate competition and so on. And they just felt that that section of society was neglected on television. So there'd be an audience for watching cakes. And then they found they had this phenomenon.

Children were watching it and husbands were watching it and so on and so on. And it's grown to what it is. And I think it's partly because it is so kind, as you said. It's a relief from the rest of telly, which is all about thrillers and tense. And we live really stressful lives. And then to be stressed even more. I mean, John will not watch anything that makes him. It was just too emotional because he cries.

He can't always watch Bake-off because that can make you cry. He can't watch anything that is scary. And I hate to watch anything that's got blood in it and shouting and so on. So I think we all need a rest, you know, a rest from that kind of telly. And it's warm-hearted and you're safe with Bake-off. Nobody's going to be beastly to anybody. So it was an easy yes when they are. asked you then. Oh, indeed it was. But in fact, the joke was that I, I, when I heard that Mary was

going to, not going to stay with Bake Off, it did cross my mind, you know, I'd like that job. But I thought they weren't, they won't have another sort of white old lady. They'll have some, the Channel 4, it would be all trendy and a sort of a young, cool dude would be in a replace her. But anyway, they obviously stuck with the full formula. It worked with Mary. So, they looked for another. Old lady. And that's me. You and Mary know each other for years.

I rang her up before I took the job. Oh, did you? Yeah, I wanted to know what Paul was like. Oh, see? I thought you were saying. That's very sweet. And what did she say? She said, he's lovely.

He really knows his stuff. He's an absolute pro. He's terrific. He said, but you have to hold your own because he's so good at it that, you know, if you don't muscle in, he could do the whole show without you. And that's perfectly true.

Who would win in a bake-off between you and Mary? Oh, Mary. Any day. Mary's a proper cake maker. I'm a cook. I mean, I was a caterer and a chef. All right. Okay.

Who would win in a chicken casserole on toast? Oh, me. Of course. Of course. There we go. John, your husband, is sharing a photo, as I'm going to say exactly what I can see now. I'm popping my glasses on.

Oh, look. So there's a photograph of you and Mary and you're wearing an apron that says, what would Mary do? And she's wearing an apron and says, what would Prude do? What were you doing in that photo? What was that for? Well, somebody that has started selling these aprons. You could get what will Paul do, what will, you know, they're just aprons that, you know how you, when you don't know what to do with the recipe or thing, you think, oh, what would so and so do.

So somebody brought me what would Prude do. and then I saw that there was what would Mary do? And so just for fun, on the very first bake-off final that I was in and I'd obviously just taken over from Mary, when we walked on for the final announcement about who was going to win, who'd won,

I put on this apron that said, what would Mary do? What would Mary do? Just for a laugh. And so, of course, it took a second or two before the crew noticed and then everybody roared with laughter. And they didn't use the shot, of course.

It was just a joke. And then we were both at a party once. And we knew Mary was going to be there. So John took the aprons along and took a picture of us both. I love that. Absolutely love that. And I love that. So she'd win the cake.

So actually, you've got a perfect meal. So you've got the chicken casserole on toast. She's made the cake. Would you invite Paul? Would Paul make the toast? He could make the bread for the toast. He is a bread maker. He is such a good breadmaker.

Three of you sit down as a meal. Well, they're still, Paul and Mary are still friends. And I don't see a lot of her, but I really admire her. And I think she's still a great career. And she's just, you know, she's five years older than me. And she's still absolutely, I mean, people think I'm energetic. You look at Mary, Barry. Well, both of you.

And actually, isn't it weird? I'm not going to mention your age, because I think this country, more than anywhere else. Whenever you read about a woman, not a man, if you read about a woman, it always says their name and then their age.

Yeah, always. Always. Why is it? Especially mine now. I mean, it is. But then, you know, I sort of understand it. Really?

Doesn't we say that about a man? I don't agree with you that they do it far more to women than men and that's because, I mean, but that's true of everything. You know, they always talk about. women's clothes and women's how fat they are and they never do about men really.

But I think it's pretty obvious that you'd say, you mentioned my age, because I am quite old to be doing all these things. I'm ready too. And you look amazing. You look ridiculously amazing. But you have, it's about what's in here and how you feel about life. And I feel that, you know, reading your autobiography, reading everything that I have about you and knowing you, is that you have a great attitude to life. And it's more about attitude. Nobody's going to stop you.

I mean, they didn't in when you started out in your business and things weren't going very well. And you had, was it Al Baru? Yes. You said to tell me why I was losing money. Why you were losing money. And the chef was ripping you off and all sorts of things. But you didn't let these things. stop you?

No. I think it is a little bit about personality because I'm very optimistic generally. And I tend to think about the future, not the past. I mean, interestingly, I'm not a scrap interested in genealogy or my history or anything else. John is fascinated by all that. So he goes around, digging around and telling me where my leaf great-grandparents came from and where my mother's family are buried in Douglas in Scotland. and all sorts of stuff, I would never go in for all that

because I'm genuinely much more interested in the future. Yes. And if things go wrong in my life, my attitude's been much more, well, that was a good idea, so I'm going to have another go at it, or that was a rotten idea. I'll have to think of another one. It's always about the future,

not about dwelling on the disasters, and there've been plenty of disasters. And in fact, I was talking to an American the other day because I've republished my autobiography, but all updated and rewritten. And it's now called I'll try anything once because the Americans didn't understand the word relish. Because for them, it was called relish.

Yes. And by which I meant relish for life and relish for food. But the Americans only use the word relish for stuff you put on burgers, you know, for a sort of like chutney, you know, relish. So we couldn't call it relish. It's called I'll try anything once. So also, on top of everything else, you're on tour next year in 2023. Peru does tour.

I know. It's absolutely crazy. I'm not cooking. You're just chatting. I'm just chatting and telling funny stories. And I think it'll be a lot of fun. I've done four tryouts, and I was terrified with the first one. But by the fourth one, I was so loving it.

I thought, why didn't I do this years ago? It was terrific fun. And people can get, they can actually buy tickets now. Yeah, we're going to go all, it's for next spring. Yeah. From February on. And I'm going all over the UK. So I think it'll be pretty exhausting.

It'll be fun. And tickets are on sale now. It's called nothing in moderation because I do seem to do nothing in moderation. If I want to do something, I really go for it. But that's great. I love that attitude to life. That's kept you doing what you do, top of your game, but enjoying life.

Because every time I see you, you're smiling. I mean, John might disagree. I'm waiting to see. Oh, no. No, no. That you enjoy life. I mean, you know, you talk so openly about the adoption of your daughter. You talk about when things went wrong with your business.

You talk about things that have gone right. Your face, when you mention the Michelin Star and talking about Begoth and whatever it is. you give it your all. Well, I don't think there's any point of doing anything if you're not going to enjoy it. And I really think you have to enjoy your life and you only get one of them.

So to go around being miserable is not a good idea. Of course, I am hugely sympathetic to people who are, if you're not well or you are depressive, it's not your fault, you're miserable. It's the chemicals in your brain. So I'm really sympathetic to people with depression

or illness because pain is exhausting and if you're ill all the time. But I'm lucky enough to be fairly healthy and of an optimistic nature and to have lived a long time. So I've managed to do a lot of stuff and have a great time. And to be honest, Gabby, I really believe that if I drop down dead tomorrow or was run over by a bus tomorrow, it would be a fair cop. I mean, I've had such a great life. I mean, I'm hoping to have a bit more.

Yeah, all buses keep away from this woman. John, do everything you can, not to let any bus do that. He does, he says he's my bag carrier, but I must say he is, he does also, you know, step there. He knows, because I do fall down a lot. Oh, no, do you? Well, yeah, quite usually because I'm not looking where I'm going. It's because she's thinking of the next thing to do.

That's what it is. John's laughing. So last time I saw you, you're heading off to a boat in Scotland. Weren't you going off on a boat in Scotland? How was it? It was absolute heaven. We had two weeks in Scotland. It was the first holiday we've had for a long time.

And we went to Scotland. We had beautiful weather. And we had a weak fishing on the spay, which is the most beautiful river you have ever stood in. I've ever stood in. And I love fishing. I didn't catch anything. It was just heaven. And we took 10 friends, Fisher Friends, which was heaven.

We thought this was all to celebrate my 80th birthday, which we never did because of lockdown. And I thought, rather than have a party, let's have 10 friends and do what we really want. And so we did that. And then we went for the next week, we went on a little puffer boat. It's a tiny little ship that goes through. John is now giving her a full. photograph of the puffer. That's like an old

fashion. It looks like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah, it looks exactly like something out of your children's bathtub. It's a little boat with a steam engine. And it's the last remaining puffer. And they used to be

hundreds of these boats. And they went all around the Western Isles and up the canals and through the Caledonia Canal through Loch Ness. And they'd puff away. I'm sorry to say belching out black smoke, which is probably not good. We, John, stop. I like looking at photographs.

I know, but not in the middle of your podcast. No, I like it, shush. But we can't show them to everybody. There's a nice picture of you in a yellow anorak and some rolled up jeans and with a very young man. Who was the really young man? Probably the skipper of the boat. Was he the skipper? He's the skipper.

Very friendly. He was the skipper of the boat. Anyway, so we took this last one, the puffer. It's called the puffer. You can look it up. And it's been converted so you can take 10 people. It's a bit like boarding school. It's not exactly high luxury.

But it is so beautifully fitted out. And it's so nice. And the food is delicious. Really good cook called Bumble does the cookie. Bumble on the puffer. This sounds like something out of Enid Blyton. It does. And it looks like Enid Blyton.

Yes, it does. And we had lovely weather. And we went through the Caledonian Canal and right through Loch Ness. and it took four days to go about 60 miles or maybe 120 miles. And it was heaven. Well, I hope that you go and you celebrate many, many, many more 80th birthdays. Prue, it's always such a delight to see you. You do spread this incredible aura of be kind.

And I think that's what we all need. So thank you very much. Gabby, thank you so much. It's always such fun. Thank you so much for listening and coming up next week we have the cast of ghosts. Yes, they came in here, they haunted me and they left through the walls. That Gabby Roslin podcast is proudly presented to you by Cameo Productions with music by Beth Macari. If you wouldn't mind, could you give us a like, a follow, a subscribe and please leave a review?

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