That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Show n Tell with Tom Chaplin

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Keane's Tom Chaplin brings in an object that brings him joy. He also tells Gaby about his fishing van. Yes, he has a fishing van! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So, Tom, our extra nugget, we do a show and tell. A joyful show and tell. So you brought with you, you're unzipping your pocket. Oh, no, that's my car key. Oh, okay. Your car key brings you joy. Do you know what? I feel this is a bit of a crap effort from me.

No, no, no, it's okay. But because I had to drop the kids and then get the train up, I sort of thought I need something that's really small and lightweight. and so as I was leaving the garage at home, I saw, I've got a fishing van. Can you believe? You've got a fishing van? It's like a cupboard on wheels because I've got,

so I go carp fishing, right? It's a very niche world. Okay, you fish just for carp. Yeah. Do you eat them after? No, no, no, no. Oh, you're kind to them. You pick them up and you have pictures of...

Do you talk to them nicely and then let them go kindly? Some people kiss them. Okay, you kiss the carp. You don't kiss the carp. No, I'm not into kissing me. Have you ever kissed the car? No. No, no, no, no. But a lot, a lot do. But I go to France every year for a week and I camp. You camp for carp. I camp by a lake for a whole week with a bunch of lads from Rye. Yes.

And generally speaking, I don't catch anything. Oh, I'm pleased, because I want the fish to swim free. The thing about France, you're loving this, aren't you? The thing about France is the fish grow much bigger. The French carp are much bigger than the English carp. So every Saturday morning, like six in the morning, if you go to Dover or Folkston and wait at the, you know, wait at the terminal at the port, you'll see all these guys wearing...

camouflage coats and trousers. Camouflage hats. Yeah. And they're all off to France on this mad dream. They're all going for a week to try and catch the biggest carp they can. I mean. Does everybody let their carp go? Yeah.

They'll see. They just kiss the carp and say goodbye. That's it. And you can see them on a Saturday. morning, they're all like bright-eyed and full of dreams. They're on a French ferry with their camouflage for the carp. It's totally pointless. You don't need to wear camouflage gear, but they still, everything is camouflaged.

Everything is, I mean, honestly, all of us who go fishing in France are complete mugs. That's why I've got a van. It's completely packed to the rafters with stuff I don't need. Literally, it's ridiculous. And I keep by, I've even got a radio control boat that takes my bait out to the fish. Oh, you have not. Oh, no. And it's got these drops.

You load it up with bait, and you can even put your line in. So you can ride the boat out. And the carp like to go under trees and stuff. So you can sort of drop it under a tree. So you don't actually fish. The little boat goes out and catches the carp. So you could go, oh, I didn't catch the carp.

But I'm pretending I caught the carp. It's the most sedent tree. of fishing as well. You spend 99% of the time that you're there sat on your ass. And in fact, well, because you're sleeping by the lake. And you also have, so the rods are resting on these alarms as well. So you don't even have to watch. So when a fish takes the line off, it just sets the alarm off.

So it's sort of three in the morning. You could be awoken from a deep slumber and have to go and haul in a fish. Anyway, I don't know why I'm so obsessed with carp fishing. But now I am. But anyway, this, talking of catching them in the night, this... What have you brought? This is the smallest eye to my own. It's a cap light.

So it clits onto the end of your cap. Because in the middle of the night... You have a cap light for catching the carp. Yeah, so in the middle of the night... That you're not really catching. When the carp zips off and your alarm's going off and you're in a deep sleep and you get, I mean, it truly is rudely awoken. It's, suddenly your heart rate goes up because I, oh, got a fish, I've got a fish, I've got a fish.

But you also, you just don't know where you are and what you're doing, and you're zipped up into a bivvy. And so what I have is I have a cap that rests on the table next to me, and with the cap light. And so I pick up my hat on it goes. and then I can switch lights and I can see what I'm doing. Have you any idea

what you sound like? But I think it's important. With your camouflage and your camp and you have a cap light for your carp. Yeah. Oh yeah. Does it act? Oh, it's very bright.

Oh, it's very bright, yes. It's very hard to turn off. It's also, see, it's got a red setting on it as well. The red setting is because if you go out at night when it's hot in France and you're reeling in a fish if you've got your light on you get the mozzies come in

and start chewing your face off so you have to switch it to the red light so you can still see have a net over your face trying to get that on at night would be virtually impossible why don't you go to sleep with a cap on that's a good idea

so you're Your red light, white light for your carp camping, catching the carp that you don't actually catch in France off the ferry with a camouflage outfit is the thing that brings you for. Well, it's brought you a lot of joy. So that's the main thing. Please, please. All jokes aside, and I know that Bob Mortimer does the fishing program,

you please, please, please. I'm going to get you in touch with the person. You have to do this as a... Bob's a terrible... I mean, I love that show, but he is a terrible fisherman. But you can see... I mean, when you see that show,

his excitement when he catches a fish, that's what we feel when we go to France and do our fishing. Tom, Chaplin, in every single way, you have brought me utter joy and I need to go to the loo now because I don't think I've laughed so hard in ages. Please make that TV show. Well, yeah.

But the thing is about making a TV show about carp fishing, it would be the longest and most boring TV show that you've ever seen. We'll do the five-minute edit, just as you just said, there. Tom, thank you so much.