That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - JJ Chalmers

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

JJ Chalmers (former Royal Marines Commando and Invictus Games Medalist) joins Gaby for a natter about all things joy! They chat about JJ's incredible career and life - and the amazing things he has achieved. Both Gaby and JJ share a love of TV - and presenting in particular - so enjoy a good ole natter about that, and of course The Invictus Games. JJ also reveals his Show n Tell item (an object that brings him joy and makes him smile) which Gaby loved so much, she had to try it for herself! Listen to find out what it is......and if you want to see JJ showing it off to Gaby, head over to our YouTube channel, where you can watch all of our episodes! Remember to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an ep - and - follow Gaby and JJ via Instagram

JJ, do you know I looked up what your real name was because I only think of you as JJ? And what is it? Well, you're John James. Yeah, my dad's, my dad's John. Yeah. So I'm kind of a John Jr., really. So you're JJ, Jay. Yeah, but I'm John James, but I've never been called that.

Even when you were little? When I was little, yeah, no, I became JJ really quickly. But John James when I was in trouble. That's the only time I ever hear. And I still, if anyone, you know, for a reception, it says, is it John James? I still get this like shudder of my mum saying it really sternly. But it's, I was always JJ. And then I always thought a day would come that would have to be John or John James, something like that.

But a couple of things happened. One, there was a teacher at my school who went by JJ, as in with the other teacher. Oh, how funny. And so I was like, oh, maybe. Maybe a grown-up can be called that. And then I joined the Marines. And everybody gets a nickname in the Marines. It's usually the first thing you mess up that gets.

stuck to you for the rest of your life. But JJ's kind of already a nickname in itself. So they all called you JJ? Yeah, everyone's always JJ. And then it kind of works in telly. Yeah, it does. It works perfectly in telly. But when you were a teacher, though,

surely that your students knew you. I was Mr. Charmers. Mr. Charmers. Mr. Charmers. Such a funny thing, no? So those students, do they, have any of them contacted you since you were famous? Yeah.

I've not bumped into a few of them. You've not bumped into them. Yeah, I've bumped into a few. few in the street. I remember bumping into one of them and he's one of my favorite pupils, his name's Gareth. He was like, he'd probably be like 14. I taught in graphic communication. And I bumped into him. And he's like a lawyer now. You know what I mean? Like it's, it's been over 15 years since I was a teacher. And the rest. So the decision was, because I mean, looking at your life, because a lot of people know bits of your life. They don't know

all of your life. And your life has been extraordinary. You, You've lived sort of three lifetimes and you're still very young. In those years, you've had three different lifetimes, haven't you? Yeah. And like, I think if you look at it. And I mean, you're adult life. I don't mean as a child. Yeah, totally that as well.

I think, I think first of all, it's because we sometimes think of adult lives and lifetimes within a profession. Yeah. You're like, well, if you, you know, you did a career in the Marines, you were a teacher. You're now in TV. So those are like three different lives. Yeah. But there was times where they kind of overlapped.

There were times where, you know, a time. When did they overlap then in the beginning? So basically. I joined the Marines to begin with, and then the Marines allowed me to basically switch to being in the reserves. So I continued part-time in the Marines whilst I went to university, studied to be a teacher, ticked all those boxes and became a teacher. I then had a, and throughout that time when I was studying, you were always in schools, you are a teacher for the best part of it. And then basically, once I was fully qualified as a teacher, I remember looking at like having achieved all that. And I thought if I start working now as a teacher, you know, through to retirement age, it was like 46 years.

I was like, I think I can go off and do something else, you know. And so I decided to go back to the Marines full time, you know, began in that part of it, expecting to, you know, do 20 years in the Marines at that point, you know. and then still retire and have a 26-year teaching career, you know? That was the plan. That's how you planned it out. That was pretty much the plan. I mean, there are two extremes. Let's be honest.

A teacher to the Marines, I mean, it is, they're polar opposites. Yeah. Aren't there? I mean, I've never been a Marines. There's things that carry across because one of the roles that you'll do is in the Marines is you are a leader and you are a teacher and you are a thing. And that type of responsibility is put into you almost immediately in the Marines, but obviously the higher up, the rank system you go, the more responsibility, the more teaching, the more instructing you do. And so those are classroom skills, really, and people skills.

So there's some things which can cross over. But yeah, absolutely, there's another part of it where you just go like, especially once I got to Afghanistan. I remember once we're just about to go on patrol and I just turned to my corporal and I was like, Murph, there's been a mistake. And he was like, what? And I was like, I'm a designing technology teacher. I don't know why I'm here. I see that. But also it wasn't, you know, I was pleased to hear that.

Because that's what I imagine you waking up then and thinking, what if I don't? But was it something that you always, obviously, because you said you went to university, but you were a reserve. But where did that come from wanting to be a Marine? So I was a cadet when I was at school. And it was a Marine cadet in particular. There was not many of those in existence. in the country. And so the Marines was, it wasn't that I wanted to join the military. It's that I wanted to join the Marines. It went to become a commando. But I did know that I wanted to serve in some way. Like, hence teaching. You know, my brother's a teacher, my sister's a nurse. My dad was a minister. Yeah. So like service was a thing. You're part of something bigger than yourself. And you can do that in a whole heap of different ways. So I knew I wanted to give something to society. But you can do that in your own way. And the Marines was the thing which like appealed to me. And then, so then, I mean, I suppose we're going to, let's cut to you saying in Afghanistan that moment where you wake up and think, well, I'm a teacher.

But then, you know, you face the most horrific things and you lost friends. And that, obviously, that moment changed your life and it wasn't a life choice, whereas the other ones had been life choices. This was not a life choice. Yes, in that moment it's not a life choice. but actually the life choice happened when I was 17 and I joined the Marines. You've got to accept in that moment that you're signing up for that possibility. But do you really? I know this is a, I've spoken to other soldiers.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always say, do you really think that it may happen to you? You do. And throughout that time, whether I was in the reserves, whether I was full time in the Marines, whether I was teaching, I was still in the Marines, and it was still during a period of intense conflict, where everybody you knew in the military

was either in Afghanistan, preparing for Afghanistan or just back from Afghanistan. It was a huge chunk of my life. And I was really aware of it was a proper war and I was going there one day. I knew that for a long time. Like it would be my turn.

So there's a little bit of it in your brain that throughout all that time thinks, buddy, you can be dead this time next year. Absolutely. You think that. Was it not fair? It's not like it's fear, I'd certainly, there was a period in my life where I was living a very extreme life, see, you know, in a good and bad way, you know, I was living, I was living, I was living,

because you just thought, this could all be over, you know, very soon. So I better make the most of it. And I lived like that for a long time, and then I went to Afghanistan. And we knew statistically doing the job I was doing is about one and eight chance of being killed or injured. One and eight? Yeah, yeah. It was pretty, you know, like, don't be wrong. The majority of people who go to Afghanistan, I went to Afghanistan weren't even in a combat role. So they're not in a, anyone can get hurt there, sure. But there are safer jobs to be done.

Where I was, I was bang on the front line, you know, right up against it. So it was one and eight. But that, but you still look to that and went, it was a seven, eight chance, you'll be fine. Still statistically, you're going to, you've got more chance of being fine. So when it then happens, there's a bit of shock. You know, it's a shocking thing when it's happening for sure. you're like, oh. But you are like, ah, it's just my turn.

It's like literally just my turn. I've never heard you say that. Yeah, yeah. It's like just, they've called my number and now I've just got to get on with it. But were you saying when it happened, were you aware when it happened of it happening? Yeah, so I can remember little fragments, little split seconds of, from, from, in fact, the whole day. Because your memory doesn't necessarily save the day. It's like

It's sort of like You know you're doing like your A word document and it The computer shuts down before it's saved You try and get it back And some of the file is missing That's what you're That's what my day looks like

Big chunks of it are missing But just enough of it is there And so I can remember waking up in the morning I can remember what the brief was for that day Where we were going what we were doing I can remember an hour before having lunch And then I can remember pretty much the moment of the bang has gone off.

You remember that? Yeah. Interestingly, and I think we'll probably get onto this, when I say I remember it, so I've just gone through a year's worth of EMDR therapy, specific type of therapy where you relive these moments. You don't necessarily see them, but what you do is you feel them again,

and you remember your thought process in that. So when I'm talking about something that happened 15 years ago, And I'm trying to recall, like, to you now, that memory from 15 years ago. Actually, it's not from 15 years ago. I'm recalling it. It's from six months ago when I sat in my living room with a therapist and recalled this thing almost as clear as day. And so I can remember that I remember, like, my ears were ringing. The dust was settling.

There was chaos all around. And then I almost, this was almost as if I heard the bang after, like, I just, this kind of echoing deep thud. and then yes those split seconds continue on across the space of the half hour it took for the helicopter to get to me the first time somebody got on top of me started giving me first aid the first time I heard that a helicopter was on its way

the first I heard a helicopter circling these little fragments that got me to basically the last moment I remember was the helicopter just landed I could hear the rotas going my friend was sort of on top of me because my eyes had been crushed and my eye socket had been crushed.

I had my eyes closed and I just opened my one eye and I looked up at my mate and I said, thank you mate. Thanks for saving my life. And he chucked me on the back of the helicopter. And then I just remember the whirring and then this rush of them pumping ketamine into me. And whilst it didn't put me to sleep, it put me into a state that I from that moment didn't remember anything else. And how long were you?

I was so from the ban going off to being in a hospital. was one hour, conscious for that whole thing. That's incredible. Yeah, incredible the time. I mean, can you imagine, like, one hour to being stabilized and amazing. They stabilise you for about 24 hours, and then they can fly you back to the UK. So I was back in Birmingham within 40 hours of the blast going off. Wow.

Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. Back then, they just wanted to, they could do a huge amount for you in Afghanistan, but they wanted to get you back to Birmingham. More hands, more knowledge, more people. more space to begin that thing so then I was in a coma for about a week

and then I woke up and then I was in hospital for nine weeks and full-time rehab for a year recovery for five years and that's kind of the nuts and bolts of it and I think I've read a lot and I've heard you talking before about the coma and I think everybody

that's the thing that everybody is I'm going to say intrigued I'm going to use it. Oh no it's an intriguing thing because you were there but you weren't there and yet we see the films we read the books, we hear the podcast

whatever those are, that's a time that you will never get back but you were there what's so wild about it is like I blinked that's all that happened

like just you know as a listener just just blink your eyes and where I'm sat right now wherever you're sat imagine when you open your eyes you're now two and a half thousand miles away a week of your life is gone and because you're now in hospital and being, you're now a disabled person, for example.

Did you know your injuries then? Not really, because I was basically, I'd broken my neck as well, so I was on a spinal board, and so I was just kind of looking up at the sky, you know, looking up at the roof of the hospital. And so I couldn't really see or feel what was going on around me. They came and then described what had happened to.

They told you. Yeah, and they kind of basically, Well, they started from the bottom. They did the same thing when they were telling my family. They kind of started from the bottom and worked their way up. But my understanding at the time, really,

was that what happened when you got wounded in Afghanistan if you survived was you lost your legs. Like, that's what, that's mainly what was happening to people. And so when they told me, you still got your legs,

albeit they were torn up and things like that, I genuinely thought, well, if I've still got my legs, then you'll fix me in a week and send me back. Oh, you really? You wanted to get back?

Oh, my God, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. you get back straight. So it took them a long time, you know, of telling me. And then eventually I could then begin to see what it was happening to me and appreciate like the enormity of the internal damage and the nerve damage and all that sort of stuff that like, oh, no, this is going to take years,

years and years to recover from. But when was the moment? I know, and you've been open about that you have crashes quite, quite understandably. And we'll talk about PTSD because it's sort of overused and we will break that down. But when was the time that you suddenly reemerged and you found you again? Because I don't want to talk about that, the traumatic time, because that's your time. And I think that's not what we're here. We're talking about the joy.

And you are a joy spreader. And I love working with you. And I love being around you. You're an incredible person. I really mean that. I can look to your face and say it. But where did the rebirth of JJ happen again? It's a good question.

You can point at a lot of different, like, great moments within my recovery, and you could point at a lot of kind of joyful moments where you got your independence back or you were able to get home for the first time. Oh, that must have been incredible. Loads of great things like that. But, like, in many ways, the big one was the Invictus Games. Like, back here in 2014 in London, this big sports competition for wounded injured and sick, the first one of its kind.

Wasn't it fantastic? It was amazing. But again, none of us knew what it was good. We all just signed up for a sports day, really, you know. And none of us appreciated, one, how big it was going to be, how popular it would be, the sort of outreach of support and positivity that we experienced, let alone what we were able to share with people, by sharing our experiences, our stories, our lived experience, you know, like everything that we'd learned throughout our recovery.

but equally that ability to realize you know, what you were doing was taking a set of skills and values and stuff that the military taught you and applying it to something new. And that teaches you can apply it to lots of other things in life. But what it teaches you is that you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. Like not to worry so much

because you've got a proven track record of being okay. Like something awful happened and you've been okay. How wonderful. What a wonderful way to look at life. And actually other people through the Not Forgotten Association that I've spoken to that also talk about, many talk about the Invictors games, but also talk about that feeling of, I'm alive, I'm going to do this, I'm going to challenge myself, and it makes you feel like, because you need goals

because of, you've been in the military. That's a very different mindset than we have, you know, wandering down the street, being a, for me, being a TV presenter and a radio presenter. Okay, you know, you've gone through extraordinary things, not to talk about your injury, I'm talking about before. It's the way you train yourself. And to be honest, I didn't necessarily realize how different that was until all these years later looking back at it.

Actually, my new partner, because she doesn't come from that world, she doesn't come, Sophie doesn't come from the world. Sophie's rather lovely. I know Sophie very well. She doesn't come from the world of the military and all that sort of stuff. So she's never really been exposed to it. She's gone through her own stuff. Oh, because she's gone through her own trauma, of course.

Yeah. But she's never been exposed to the strangeness that is. Yeah. And when I say strange, it's just different to how most people have sort of come up in life. And like I said to you, everyone I knew was either in Afghanistan training for Afghanistan. All that stuff was totally normal. And I don't just mean that we would go to a war zone and we might see difficult things. So we'd go to a war zone, we would operate at the highest level.

And we would do this extraordinary job. But it would just feel normal. The whole thing is so super normal. You do everything at the highest level. So I've presented, you know, you present at the higher, you know, you don't want to get anything wrong. I, and when we watch you doing your commentaries, when we watch you doing all the different things, when you were a sportsman, you do it at the highest level? My thing is, I just wondered, when you get up in the morning and the kids are there, dad, daddy, daddy, do you go, no, down, give me five, you know, you? No, no, you want pancakes for breakfast?

No, make them yourself. I'll show you how, it's what's it like. I mean, first of all, I'm like, I'm a big soft girl dad for sure. Like, I knew you would be. Yeah, no, no. I knew you would be. Listen, I, being a parent, a fantastic thing because it's the greatest responsibility in privilege you can possibly have.

So, yeah, you do want well for them and all that sort of stuff. But there are moments where they've got me wrapped around a little finger and you can't help do lovely things for them because, you know, that's a joy. Yeah, I mean, we have a level of excellence that we aspire to and we have a lot. You mean for yourself? Yeah. And that applies to the work, it applies to life, all these things. But equally, and you know this from spending time with, you know,

organisations as you say, like not forgotten. Like, in amongst all that seriousness that the military has, like what we call cheerfulness in the face of adversity is ever present. The sense of humour is amazing. Very naughty. Yeah. And the sort of not being too serious when you don't have to be serious exists. Still have to do it.

It's a standard, stuff, turn up on time all that sort of stuff. But having, doing that job with a smile on your face, a lot of the time is a huge thing. So let's talk about all the TV work. We'll get on to because you said you want to talk about how life is for you at the moment. We'll come to that at the end. But TV work, you're doing more and more and more. Thank goodness.

Obviously, you came to a lot of people's living rooms, city rooms, wherever they're watching strictly. You know, that happened and that suddenly you were even more. You were everywhere. And people knew your story and you were very honest. God, you were good at dying. And you loved it. Yeah. Loved it.

Oh, I mean, it was, it's a big challenge and an absolute chaos and a privilege of a thing to get to do. But yeah, a really strange thing. You know, I'd been working in Telly for about five years at that point. And, you know, and by that point, I'd already worked on Paralympics and world championships and, you know, all the types of stuff, which I still do now. But strictly is of another level. Like, that is you, especially because we made the series during COVID. like 14 million people watching.

And yeah, it's just, it's, it's, it's all about the journey. It's all about the story. It's all about a thing. And, you know, we were living through a pretty, pretty, pretty. It was what it was. It was a wild extreme thing. It was great. So that, that definitely, um, that definitely was a thing I fully loved doing because

it's a joy. And Amy Dowden and my partner, for example, is an amazing person to get to be with. Isn't she lovely? But I'm also, I've kind of a fan of like what we, you might call type two fun, which is at the time. You might not kind of be enjoying it, but you know you're going to appreciate the fact you managed it after the fact. And Strictly was massively that. The whole thing is you are running at a brick wall and you're like, is a crack going to appear that I can actually get through here?

Because it's just like you've got to have this done by the weekend or else you are going to fall flat like face. So it's been announced who the new presenters are. No way. Yeah, it was announced 21 minutes ago. You are kidding me. No, and it's exactly what the papers have been said. Okay, okay, okay. So the new presenters of Strictly, Emma Willis,

Josh Whittickham and Johannes. Wow. Isn't that lovely? That's lovely. I mean, obviously, no Johannes very well for the show because he's like a total darling. Isn't he adorable? He's adorable.

And one of the things that took me by surprise, not just about him, but pretty much everybody that worked on the show, is that they're your rivals, they're your competition. but actually the advice everybody gave you throughout the process was really sprightly. I'll try this and I'll love that, a bit more of that. And you're like, why are you helping me? You're meant to be the competition. The reason they're helping you is actually they just want the show to be really good.

And they just want you to be really good. And they just want you to enjoy what you're doing. So loads of people were like that, but Johannes probably more than anybody would come up and just give you that encouragement and that stuff. It's great. I don't know I'm all that well, but obviously worked with her and things like the one show and things over the years. as you know, an absolute brilliant broadcaster. Absolutely.

Real pro. And Josh. Josh is hysterical. Unbelievable. Obviously, I worked with him on the last leg on the Paralympic several times. What, what amazing. I thought they were joking with that. No, it's all, it's been announced.

That's cool. Yeah. Jingzo. All right. Good luck to them. Good luck to them. And also, I hope the papers give them a nice ride. Don't be just.

Totally. Let them get on with it. Oh, and let them make it their own because nobody wants like there's nothing worse and you've done this long enough to know that like that comparison to somebody else is not it doesn't help because like the reason you're hiring someone different like that is because you want them to bring their sort of their energy to it and their brilliance to it that's a fun cast yeah that is fun it's great I think it's absolutely great um so you're presenting stuff that do you now I think I know the answer to this do you call yourself a

teacher who's now a presenter who was a Marine. Do you call yourself a Marine who's now a TV presenter and radio? Because you do what you do at all now. Yeah. Do you understand? You're a TV presenter? Hopefully that's what you call you. No, no, completely.

And I worked for a long time becoming comfortable with that for myself, but wanting people to know that to be the case, which is I am who I am now. Good. You know? Yes. And I am, you know, professionally speaking, absolutely. I'm a TV presenter. Former Royal Marine.

We never say X. Okay, sorry. Former. X means you're dead. Oh, does it? Yeah, we tend to. Former Royal Marine. Very pleased you're not an X.

And technically still a teacher. I still pay my subs to the General Teachers Council each year. Would you still go? You wouldn't do that. Well, the truth is, and you know this, presenters are teachers. Like, our job is to impart information and knowledge on people using the resources that we have available. Our classroom might be different, but it's the same skill. the same end goal.

That's your thing, is information. I mean, with all the commentaries that you do and the Paralympics, and then you've got your show on Channel 5. Yeah. Worship, yeah. And let's talk about your real. I mean, I want you to do more and more telly. I really do because I think you're a fantastic presenter,

and you've got the late Terry Wogan, who I worked with for many, many, many years. And Terry always had the twinkle, and he always goes, stop calling it the twinkle. It sounds rude. I go, no, it is. But you've got the twinkle. which I said to you when we were doing morning life.

But you in your private life, we don't talk about private lives than this, but you want to talk about this. Just you're in a really good place. Oh, yeah. You're so happy. Yeah, I think basically about a year ago, I found myself in a fairly dark place. And you've been open about that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And it's not to be of any surprise. You live through the sort of extremes that I have in my life. And that's where we're going to catch up with you. Exactly. And so about a year or so ago, that's when you're always living with PTSD and you're always living with trauma and all that sort of stuff. But it's when I was, I suppose, I was going to say forced to deal with it. But like I finally had time, space, energy and the presence to do the recovery that was required.

And having done a physical recovery before, I knew what that involved in so much as, you know, you need to set time aside for it. You need to set a time like a process to get through it and all that sort of stuff. And so I did like a weekly therapy in particular EMDR therapy, which, you know, it's very tailored toward trauma, PTSD and sort of rewiring your brain to put these memories in the right place. So they don't kind of plague you in the way that. Yeah, the nightmares. Yeah. Or just, you know, the truth is I did I went, I did 14 years of carrying that baggage with me. And I did pretty well in those 14 years.

Yeah. And I did what was necessary to survive the physical wounds. I did what was necessary to start a new career and just get on with life. And did amazing things in that time. But I did it carrying a lot of baggage, whereas I have now actually processed a lot of that trauma. I'm carrying less baggage. Yes, I'm still going to live with PTSD for the rest of my life. But I now have coping strategies.

I now have a much more healthy relationship with it. And I just know I'm going to be okay, you know? That's fantastic. And I feel good for it. And your babies, you know, your beautiful babies and your partner as well, that they all, it's not like you keep anything hidden. No, absolutely not. Like, you know, so I co-parent my kids with their mum, who I was with in Afghanistan and went through rehab with me. And listen, that's her story to tell.

But she was, you know, she has her own effects of living through that stuff. But equally, we have our own normality of what it is to live with a disability, what it is to live with a disability, what it's. is to live with a mental health issue, all of those sorts of things. And we don't hide that from our kids. Rather, they're growing up the benefit of being exposed to that in a positive way, I would like to think and hope, and they are going to be better for it. And actually, isn't that that that's the massive difference in these days, that if, you know, if this had happened maybe 40 years ago, it wouldn't, the mental health side

wouldn't have been discussed and keep it from the kids and all of that. And now your kids are aware and they know and that's wonderful. Yeah. And I mean, I think a big part of it started because I live with a physical disability. So, you know, the day that my kids sort of noticed that my hands were different, for example. And that doesn't happen right away. Oh, yes, I suppose. No, why would it?

Yeah. That's daddy. Yeah, totally. And then so one day they do realize and then they ask what happened and then you explain. And then with all kids, you answer a question. And the next thing is why. The next thing is why, why, why, why, why? And so you've started with what happened to your hand, and then the next thing you're explaining the Middle East peace process.

You know, like, what is this? So they've been exposed to all of that stuff to the right degree. You have to make some judgment and protect their innocence in some way. But equally, their life is so much more rich for growing up with Uncle Dave, who's got the robot legs and, you know, understanding that daddy's, you know, good at something, bad at them things, you know, hurts in certain ways. like just yeah they have a much richer more inclusive empathetic life which is what we want for our kids we want them to grow up to be better than us don't we basically and they've got all the benefit of that and also I'm sure that they're very you know dad do you need help with I can imagine because you're not you're not keeping it secret from them no can I help you do that dad

you know that sort of thing yeah they're lovely in that way in that sort of like what you'll see as like any kid in particular, they'll have their sort of like silly moments where like you cannot get in to help you with some mundane task. As soon as they see me struggle, the wall goes down and they step in. They can stop there. Can almost stop being sort of a kid for a second

and just become this human being that's there to help you. And that's a really, really lovely thing. How wonderful. Yeah. Doesn't one of your children have the name? Isn't that right? Yeah, so both my kids, their middle names are after Sam and Ollie.

Sam and Olivia, that were my friends that were killed in the blast. That's such a beautiful thing to do. Yeah, amazing. And those guys as well, like, you know, again, that's a hard thing to explain to a kid, but a beautiful thing to explain to a kid because Sam and Ollie were exceptional human beings. Like, I was so grateful to know them. Ollie was my boss in Afghanistan. He was the same age as me, but he was our troop commander, you know,

and he was such an amazing leader. And, like, what an amazing and difficult job he had to do. take this sort of rabble of amazing human beings and be in charge of them, while some of them were older, some of them were more experienced, all sorts of stuff. So he was amazing in that sense and just a great, solid human being. And then Sam, who was like one of the senior Marines, he'd won a military cross in Afghanistan before. He was just an unbelievable Marine. Just like, God, you just felt invincible when you were next to him.

You know, he was just amazing. So, yeah, lost those two guys, but they live on in their names. I love that. you know, I just want them to know that, like, those were amazing people, amazing human beings. And the soldier who, when you opened your eye and said, thank you. Yeah, Louis, yeah, my mate Nevs. Yeah, so, you know, he went on to have quite a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder himself quite early on, recovered through that.

I mean, basically, there was 10 people on the ground sort of in that incident. Half of them were killed or injured. The other half walked away with some form of trauma from it, let's be honest. surprisingly. Yeah. And I think only maybe one of them is still in the Marines to this day. But I mean it's 15 years. Like, we're all grown up now, you know?

Like, I would be, I'd be retiring next year. I would have done my 22 years in the Marines, you know? You were still, you still would have ended up doing TV because I think it's, yeah, because it was, you're just a natural, don't get embarrassed, but you are a natural. Nobody, you know, you didn't go, you just do it. Yeah. Listen, like you You talk, you're you.

Yeah, and listen, 10 years of doing it, more experience, getting more comfortable in your own skin, the mechanics of it, all that stuff becomes second nature. And once that becomes second nature, then you really can be yourself, as you know. And that's a lovely place to be now. Like I love pitching up at whatever job it might be from the Olympics to the Chelsea Flower Show,

whatever it is, and going, not thinking to myself, oh, how does Monty present this? How does Claire present this? Go, how do I present this? What's my style? And seeing people respond to that. My big thing is I'm enthusiast.

So I can turn up at just about anything because I'm going to show enthusiasm for it. That's fantastic. I also think like it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what the thing is, particularly when it involves people who are passionate about that thing. If that's their thing,

and they want to talk about it and it gets them excited, real people's real voice. They deserve their five minutes of five minutes. of five minutes of fame or what we want to call. But there are five minutes to talk about it and tell people why this thing's special, amazing, unique, whatever it is. That's what things like Morning Live do so well, like just bringing lots of different.

So what would you like to do? Because you know, you can do anything. You can't do anything, JJ. You know it because of all the things you've done. What's the sort of, there you were as a young man wanting to be in the Marines. Yeah. What is the, I really want to now? I think I'm very lucky.

I work on a lot of different. different programmes and the simple fact is, the simple thing is I would like to keep doing them forever. Like I want to present the Olympics and the Paralympics forever. I want to be able to... Maybe in 2040 when we get it... Oh yeah. Come back here. I mean, I would adore... I would adore to still... But I don't for one second take for granted that I will still be doing this in... Well, I hope so. I hope so, but we know what it's like. But that would be amazing. That would be amazing to get to do that. So keep doing those things.

The thing I really kind of, I love doing, if I'm being honest, is just pottering around at home. And I'd love to basically have a program that's just pottering with JJ Chalmers. Just like me. That's nice. Just me in my shed fixing things. But you do the show. Yeah. Well, I do traveling auctioneers and things that.

And I love them. Fantastic. But I just kind of want to do it in my own backyard. I just want a camera in my shed. And I just want to kind of top away to myself. Have you told anybody you want to do that? Do you know what? I've never really said this out loud.

But I put it on the ledger. That's what I want to do. Don't you just do it? I mean, I'm going to. Basically, I'm about to hopefully build a house in the new year. You're going to build a house? Yeah, yeah. You don't mean you'll physically.

I'll do some of it myself for sure. But crucially, I'll build a workshop and then that will be my happy place where I just go and tinker away and pot her away. Oh, I'm going to watch it. Yeah. On YouTube. Just do it. I think so. Just make it.

Yeah. So you said you wanted to talk about your private. life and how things are good at the moment. Yeah, like I say, I'm just in a very, like, I'm a very nice place and I think it's funny that we've come in and we've chatted about work. And I would have always done that as the thing that sort of defines who I am. But actually, it's a part of who I am and I adore what I get to do for a living. But like, even your question about like, I'm, what are you know, are you TV presenter for a Marine? No, I'm just JJ. And your daddy. One of the things I do is be a TV presenter. A massive thing I do is be a dad. Yeah. And, but

Like, I've got to a place where, particularly because of the work I've done in the last year, where I'm just far more comfortable being, just being me. And I think a big part of it is, is, like, that drive that made me survive, that drive that got me through that trauma, that sort of stuff, is a wonderful thing. But you need to be the one driving it. Like, there have been periods in the last 15 years where, where basically, I went into fight or flight mode and I chose fight. And that fight was necessary to make me survive.

It was necessary to get me through my recovery. It was necessary to find a new profession. But there came a day where it just kind of got exhausting. And it was also like, why am I still fighting? Like, do some living, do some chilling. Do some, like, just being present. And I'm doing so much more of that, particularly with my kids. And I just bloody adore it.

Yeah. And Sophie as well. You and Sophie. Yeah. Like I say, I co-parent with, with their mom and Sophie's, you know, now a part of their life. And we've got this wonderful sort of blended family, I suppose.

Lovely. It's what you kind of call it. And their life is richer for me being in a better place, I think. That's so fantastic. It's just always, it really, I really mean it. You and I were backwards and forward trying to get a date into this. Oh my God, we've been trying to do this forever.

I know. I know. And the thing is, if I'd done this with you like two years ago when you first reached out, it would have probably been a different interview. Yeah. I think, um. Well, things happened for a reason. Yeah, totally. And I think there is like, I love what you do. I love you. And I love this unapologetically positive thing, you know, because there is a lot of darkness in this world and there's a lot of stuff. And it's not about brushing it under the carpet. It's not about looking away from it. It's about allowing other people to do that, but creating a counterbalance in that stuff.

And we're totally aware that all that negative stuff is out there and the very bleak and dark news. But I think we all need to remember. that there are many, many good people. We keep hearing on the news about all the bad things. We just need to keep hearing more and more about the good people, the good things, and the silliness and fun, because it's still there. Like you said, you're all facing the most horrific, frightening, in our eyes, awful things. And yet you had this crazy humour and you'd laugh about it. And I think we all need it.

Yeah, I mean, one of the things I love working on each year, we just did a last month, obviously, was the London Marathon. That's always an amazing reminder of how much good there is in the world. Look how much money's raised. Huge amount of money raised and tens of thousands of thousands of people coming out to do it and every single one of them doing it for a reason bigger than themselves, basically. And it's such a privilege to put a microphone in someone's face when they're running it. When their emotions are high, their emotions are low, whatever it might be.

And equally, you've just picked a random out of the crowd is how it kind of works. But you find the most extraordinary, and harrowing sometimes stories. Because to be able to achieve something like that, you've got to have something driving you, basically. Well, look at Jordan, the FTT brothers. Oh, my Lord. Incredible.

Jordan came on the podcast, I think it was about five weeks before. Amazing. And I adore them. I think what he's doing is fantastic. But people like that everyone's got their story. Like you said before, and I want you to get all those stories out of people

because that's what you're so brilliant at. Now, we always ask everybody, when they do this podcast, either you can bring something or just tell us about something that brings you huge joy. So what brings you, what brings you personally? Now, family aside, we know obviously that, what brings you joy? Oh, that's such a great question. And I told you, I'm an enthusiast, so I can pretty much find joy in just about everything. I think the thing which I like the most is silliness. And it's one of the things which I don't actually get to do. People, probably at home don't know me for it because a lot of things I do can be a bit serious, you know,

when you're presenting the Olympics or the Queen's funeral or whatever it might be. There's a serious tone. And people know me from the Marines, for example. So they presume he's a fairly serious person. And I am. But I'm also a love silliness. Okay, how silly? I love silly too.

For example, my favourite jokes and stuff in the world are those sort of long running jokes that have run for so long that they've gone to be unfunny to the point where they've run so long they're funny. again. And it's just a consistency to a dumb thing. Like, I have a bit of a phrase in life which is, don't muck about when it comes to mucking about. So it's like, if you're going to do something silly or muck around, do it really, really well. Do it to the absolute n's degree. And it's just that's why I love shows like Taskmaster's a perfect example of it. Like the whole thing is about the premise of like, imagine we were like industrial, industrial scale skill. silliness and like just having that level of resource time freedom and creativity to just do something done. That's that that that's a bit of me. I'm obsessed about I want I think you're the

person to do it with me. I've just realized what's that I'll tell you off this because I think we need to do it together. Okay great. Just randomly we're going to do this thing together. Fantastic. I've got it. Yes. Watch the space. Yes. Watch this space. But you like say every time I've presented morning live with you for example, you're always like let's just do something. silly. Record it quickly, just put it out. And again, it's that I love when in Morning Lives a perfect example, you've got like five or six people and everyone buys into that idea and you just do something

random and stupid and silly. And because it's with this ensemble cast, it's brilliant. It's so much more of it. So yeah, silliness is my joy. Okay. I'm going to make your silliness dream come true. You might look at me afterwards and just go, you want me to do that. I know you'll say yes.

No, great. Okay. Yay! JJ, an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. Always a joy. And I will, I'm your biggest cheerleader. Oh, you absolutely are. No, I think you're wonderful. Thank you for that. And I'm glad we finally got to do this. We did. Thank you.