That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Show n Tell with Gareth Malone

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Gareth Malone shares the thing that brings him joy - and no, it isn't a piano (or in fact, anything musical!) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, Gareth Malone, we sung. Bob's got ahead like a ping-bong ball. I've been singing it the whole time. But now, this is your Friday. It's the extra nugget. It's the show-and-tell. It's the thing that brings you most joy. Now, you could have brought it in,

or you might just have a picture, or you can just explain. The thing that brings me most joy. I mean, there are so many things, aren't there? And one should be careful to just say, obviously my wife and children. bring me a lot of joy. We're done with that. That's fine.

I think, actually, I'm going to go for DIY. Oh, well, you did that was, did you see my reaction? I didn't believe it. I thought you were going to say the bass or the piano or the... All those things, of course bring me joy, but I feel like that would be obvious. But the thing that at the moment is giving me the greatest pleasure is that feeling of satisfaction of ripping a room completely back, bashing it. I've got a fantastic sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel, ringing through my head, smashing it.

Currently, my downstairs, we've got a little laundry room where the washing machine lives, and I have smashed it to bits, and then rebuilding it. On your own? On my own. Okay. I mean, it's just... So you get your hands dirty, right in there? Absolutely filthy. And I have to, you know, just...

I have to shower about six times a day. It's so bad. And then the rebuilding. That gives me a lot of joy. I really like the attention to detail. You know, the corking. Oh, I love corking. Do you like corking?

I've never corked. Corking is where you run, you put this, you kind of squirt this stuff into the corners, and you run your finger down, and it creates a kind of smooth, isn't that like the thing you do with tiles? A bit like that.

It's a bit like grouting, yeah. It's just a different. See, I like a paint, I like a paint, a good, getting a really big paintbrush, a nice roller. I like that, but that's the treat at the end. The bit that's, so the delay,

the very sort of delayed gratification, aspect of this is that you start and it looks awful for ages and ages and ages and you're and you're but you have to be very strict and not paint until all the preparation is done the room is clear that every you know and then you slather it in I like the filling it I do like the filling in the cracks I love yeah I like that I like the painting but your face says it all that you really brings you joy it does when you walk into so sometimes when I've just done a room and I've done I think seven of the rooms of house oh my go yeah How many rooms have you got? Don't tell me.

It's not huge. We've got multiple children. We've got bedroom. 2,000 children. Yeah, 2000. I, sometimes at night, I'll just go in and just switch the light on and have a little look and kind of just go. Oh, how lovely. And then I'll switch the light off and go to bed.

Safe in the knowledge that I have made something, yeah. And I'd much rather do that. Because when somebody else does it, I don't know, there's not, you don't get the, it's great. It's great, and they might even do a better job, but now I'm quite fastidious about it. I'm quite sort of... I'm not surprised. With how immaculate you are, I'm not surprised.

I don't like rough hedges and, you know, I can't bear it. You know, if there's a bit of paint that you've accidentally got... I have to go back and do it again. Do you know, I quite like, you know, when you get a bit on a glass when you've been doing... I love that. And then scrape it off. With a...

That's quite satisfying. My dad left, did that, and left... the thing on for like years and I when I was down in the summer in the house I was like right where's the roseboats did you do it I was like I can't I can't bear it anymore I love that I also did my our front steps that was a very exciting job red it was that well yes it that red you know that red whatever that's called red like that red concrete unfortunately it was so chipped that it was it wasn't going to work as red but and they painted over it this sort of um this is really boring but that kind of plasticy paint

that chipped off. It looked absolutely awful. And to get that off was an absolute nightmare. So I got the old rotary thing out. Yeah. Got it all off. And then painted it with a very, very pleasing, slightly sort of rubber-eyes to paint, all black and matte.

Ah, so nice. And I just stand and I look at my steps. It's so ridiculous, isn't it? I'm so boring. No, you're not. You're a joy. No, I am. My kids.

like, oh, will you shut up? Well, that's their job. That's your job to make your kids say, shut up, dad. That's part of the job. One day, they'll look back and then they'll look at their own steps and they'll go, I need to do something about this. What would my father have said?

Hopefully they're not going to be as obsessed with their front steps as you are. I mean, it might be something you've given them. There'll be something, yeah, yeah. They can carry on a life. What a legacy. Yeah. Bless you, Gareth. It's always such a joy to be with you.

Thank you. May your steps always be clean. Not a euphemus. A nicely named too.