THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.277 - SARA COX

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Adam talks with broadcaster and author Sara Cox about hair raising childhood farm injuries, being a Daddy's girl, cringey memories of The Girlie Show, whether she feels she needs to watch what she says at the Big British Castle, the challenges of parenting teenagers in the digital age and the physical toll exacted upon her by Pudsey Bear.Conversation recorded face-to-face in London on 10 June, 2026Thanks to Diggory Waite and Claire Broughton at Hattrick and Séamus Murphy Mitchell for production support.Podcast illustration by Helen GreenPEOPLE'S EMERGENCY BRIEFING ON CLIMATE Information about where to see the film and how to organise a screening.Sign Chris Packham's petition HERE“The UK faces growing risks from climate and nature breakdown – from extreme weather to economic disruption and national security threats. Yet the public has never been given a clear national briefing on the scale of these risks. Government should hold an emergency briefing from leading experts. These risks could have serious consequences across UK society, with threats to health and food supply – which could become irreversible without urgent action. Many people are unclear how these risks may affect them, and information in the public domain is often misleading. A credible national briefing from independent experts would give people clear, trusted guidance on what these risks mean in practice, and what we can do – both together and individually – to prepare and respond.” Chris Packham.ADAM BUXTON PODCAST LIVE WITH MAWAAN RIZWAAN @ Roundhouse, London, 5 August, 2026 (Roundhouse)THE TRUTH OF US by Sara Cox - 2026 (Hachette)THE TEEN COMMANDMENTS PODCAST (YouTube)THE TEEN COMMANDMENTS PODCAST (Apple Podcasts) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening. I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buxton. I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this. That's the plan. Hey, how are you doing, Podcats? It's Adam Buxton here.

I'm back on... Well, it's not a crunchy Norfolk farm track this bit. This is the side of a field. It's a crunchy field. Because the sun's been drying the heck out of it. And I'm walking past some new fencing. That's the big news from around this part of the world. They've been hammering in new fence posts.

They've got a very particular... smell they coat them in creosote to waterproof the wood. Ooh, Atari. Atari Fence Post. One of my favorite video games back in the 80s. Now, although I am back in Norfolk, I'm still without my best dog friend, Rosie Buxton, because she's perfectly fine.

We had a walk earlier today. Because I had the opportunity to go for a walk with one of my children. it, even though I wasn't ready to record my intro at that point. And at her advanced age, double walk on a hot day is not really what she's after, I don't think. Anyway, she made a point of asking me to send you her love. It's like, really? She's like, yes, yes, I do, because it's been a couple of weeks and I really miss them. That's my impression of Rosie.

It's quite accurate, isn't it? Oh no, look, there's the fence post team up there. I'm going to go a different route. Last thing I want to do is bump into the FPT. Now, since uploading the last episode of this podcast with Louis Theroux, I have played the last couple of shows from the Adam Buxton Band Tour, which took place at Hoxton Hall, East London. What a great venue.

Haven't been there before. Thank you so much to everyone who came along. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as the band and I did. But oh boy, it was hot. It was two of the hottest days of last week's heat wave. So it was intense. Speaking of the weather, thank you very much to everyone who came along to the Norwich Arts Centre

the other night as I speak for the screening of the People's Emergency Briefing Climate Film, which is presented by Chris Packham. It's part of an initiative calling for the government to hold a UK-wide televised briefing on climate and nature risks. You know, like one of the emergency briefings from COVID times that we all loved watching so much.

Maybe they could get Chris Whitty along. The Norwich Arts Centre event was sold out in the end, which is fantastic. I was seeing the film for the first time along with the audience. and afterwards myself and Guardian journalist and acclaimed nature writer Patrick Barkham talked with each other and with the audience about our responses to the information in the film

and most importantly what's next one audience member there that night asked why the film isn't available to watch in full on the internet at the moment and as far as I'm aware that is a conscious decision by the organisers who wanted the first wave of engagement with the film to take place in a physical space,

in rooms full of people who could talk about it amongst each other afterwards, rather than having people watch the film in isolation online. Incidentally, you can find out where a screening close to you is happening or arrange your own screening, indeed, that's what I did, by following the link in the description. And that link will also take you to the talks delivered in Westminster in November 2025 at the event which kickstarted all this.

So in other words, if you can't get to a screening for whatever reason, you can still take a look at the information in there. And very importantly, you can sign the petition. There is a link in the description of today's episode to Chris Packham's non-partisan petition to the government, calling for a UK-wide briefing on climate and nature risks. and I'd like to encourage all of you to sign in. Chris Packham says, the UK faces growing risks from climate and nature breakdown, from extreme weather to economic disruption and national security threats.

Yet the public has never been given a clear national briefing on the scale of these risks. Government should hold an emergency briefing from leading experts. These risks could have serious consequences across the UK society with threats to health and food supply. which could become irreversible without urgent action. Many people are unclear how these risks may affect them, and information in the public domain is often misleading. A credible national briefing from independent experts

would give people clear, trusted guidance on what these risks mean in practice and what we can do, both together and individually, to prepare and respond. So that's the point of the People's Emergency Briefing film and of the petition. If the petition gets more than 100,000 signatures, as I speak, it is just under 30,000, the issue will be discussed publicly by MPs and addressed by the government.

Hope you can help. Thank you, if so. Okay, let me tell you a bit about podcast number 277, which features a rambling conversation with English broadcaster and author Sarah Cox. Oh, it's lovely and breezy here. I'm going to stop by this here gate and enjoy the cool wind. Coxfax. Sarah was born in 1974 and grew up in Bolton, Lancashire. After working as a model for a period in her late teens and early 20s, she was chosen to be one of the presenters of Channel 4's post-pub ladylads program, The Girlie Show, in 1996. In 2000, she took over BBC Radio One's breakfast show, hosting for three years before moving through drive-time and weekend slots until leaving Radio One for good in February 2014.

She'd already joined Radio 2 in 2011, later taking over its drive-time show in January 2019. On television, Sarah has presented the Great Pottery Throwdown, Too Much TV, and Back in Time For. as well as BBC 2's between the covers since 2020 and since 2025, the miniature series The Marvelous Miniature Workshop. Having recently entered her fifth decade, Sarah has described her 50s as a golden time. She's certainly busy enough. Last year, Sarah and her modelling friend, Claire Hamilton,

started the Teen Commandments podcast, initially recorded in Sarah's Garden Shed. The show features the pair talking about the experience, of parenting teenage children, having been boundary-pushing teenagers themselves, and includes hilarious and sometimes shocking contributions from their listeners. Meanwhile, from Monday the 6th of July, Sarah takes over as the host of the Radio 2 breakfast show, broadcast live from the Big British Castle every weekday morning from 6.30 to 9.30 a.m. As if all that wasn't enough, Sarah is also a best-end.

selling author. Her memoir, till the cows come home, which fondly describes growing up on her father's cattle farm in the 1980s, was published in 2019. And since then, she's written two hugely popular novels with a third, The Truth of Us, out on July the 16th. Oh yeah, and towards the end of 2025, Sarah ran a 135-mile ultramarathon for children in need. My conversation with Sarah was recorded face-to-face in London at the beginning of June 26. And we spoke about life on the farm, hair-raising farm injuries, being a daddy's girl, how Sarah got into modelling, cringy memories of the girly show, whether she feels the need to watch what she says at the big British castle, the challenges of parenting teenagers in the digital age and the physical toll exacted upon her

by Pudsy Bear. But we began with me asking Sarah about the incredible level of detail in her memoir back at the end to say goodbye but right now with sarah cox here we go well you were saying it's easy to write a memoir because you just have to remember some stuff yeah but the detail of the stuff you were remembering was extraordinary until the cows come home it's really about the experience of your childhood growing up on a farm there's quite a lot of good injury stories, farmer drama on there of falling down holes and gashing your leg on bricks in the middle of thunderstorms while you're carrying heavy chickens. And then also there's just stories about little moments, like lovely moments of being

with animals or all that sort of stuff. How did you remember that? Is that all just family legend or? Not really. I mean, I just, my brother was really helpful. Robert, my eldest brother. I mean, he was great with the details of what year things would have been and because, you know, my dad couldn't really, I mean, I'd ring my dad and ask him what the name of a certain bull was or whatever.

But our rob was helpful with all that. But yeah, the other stuff, just stuff I'll never forget. I mean, there was sort of old railway. What do they call it? Sleepers. Like sleepers, yeah. And great fun to sort of skip along. And I kept getting told not to do that.

And then, of course, went flying and stuck a big night. three inch nail or whatever through the fleshy bit at the bottom of my thumb I had to stop walking when that bit came up on the audio book and a chill went through me oh god how old were you

I reckon I must have been maybe four five and you describe very well the response that every parent has really after something like that that's so shocking and it's just rage

yeah you get absolutely bullocked for It's my main memory of child as he's hurting myself and getting bollocks for it. You're just so shocked as a parent, but also relieved that it's maybe not worse or very shocked because it is really bad or whatever. But your first response is often not to say, hey, it's okay, I love you. It's just to go, Jesus Christ, I told you not to do that. Now you've got a nail through your hand. Now we're going to have to go to the hospital. Well, that's it as well.

When you're busy, you're like, geez, that's why I said, because you were instantly. map out how many hours it's going to be of dealing with this, like driving to Bolton General or whatever and sitting in A&E for hours, you just already go, well, that's the rest of my day gone. Yeah. I think there's something about being raised on a farm where you just don't want to make a fuss. My dad always had like a black thumbnail or fingernail where he just thwacked it with a lump hammer or, you know, a coward run into a gate and he trapped his thumb or, you know, it was always that just be all right.

give it a rinse and carry on. Yeah. And I think it feels like you're failing a bit if you don't keep up that kind of like, oh, it'd be all right. You know, I remember, like, I used to plunge my hands into, like, freezing cold water when I'd mix up sugar beet and, like, the arsees feed from my little pony gus. And I just used to think, oh, I can't wait till I've got sort of big sort of wrinkly, calloused,

scarred hands like my dad. Yeah. I was like, 12. Obviously, now I'm like, oh, where's the hand cream? I'm like, what was wrong with me? I was such an unbelievable daddy's girl. It's just pathetic, really. Well, that's very touching your love of your dad comes across in that book.

And I mean, it sounds like a kind of idyllic childhood you had in a way, really. There was some amazing bits of being on the farm. But for a lot of it, I was living down the road in a little council house with my mom and stepdad. After they separated? Yeah, from sort of the age of like seven or eight. But it was really close, like a sort of like seven or eight minute walk. I'm just smiling because my husband goes mad at me because I can never say five minutes or ten minutes.

I'm always like seven. He's like, do you mean ten? No, seven. It's not as much as ten. It's not as little as five. So yeah, it was like a seven or eight minute walk up to the farm. So I'd always, you know, I'd always be up there. And amazing things.

I mean, going to like shows, you know, go into the Great Yorkshire show and the Royal Welsh or whatever. You'd just pack up a truck where you'd have the cows in the back and you'd have this big showbox. It was amazing. And what were you showing? You were showing bulls and things like that way. Yeah, so pedigree, polled heriferset.

So polled just means they've not got horns, brown and white cows, basically. Lovely sort of deep chestnut brown and white faces and a little white on the neck at the back and the white socks and then the end of the tail is white. Like gorgeous, gorgeous animals. And I'd get to like hold like the calf. and just get dragged along at the back with the calf and dad would be showing like the big bull.

It was a big sort of family affair going to. It was lovely. I mean, you do talk about the fact that you really fell in love with a lot of these animals and yet you were aware of what happened to them and what the system was, what you were doing there. When I was really little, I didn't really know where they were going off. You see, when I was tiny, when I was like four or five, I had no idea whether the pigs would be getting bigger and going off.

But yeah, then I guess I, I became more aware of it. But it was all very like, I don't know, just kind of like a fact of life, really, that these animals had go off. And, you know, we had two lambs called freezer one and freezer two. Because we never had sheep, but my dad had mates who had sheep,

some other family friends. And if they were, they'd been orphaned or whatever. So they'd been like a cardboard box next to the fire. So, you know, obviously when you're a little girl, that's incredible that you get to bottle feed a lamb. I mean, it's so amazing. And so it was always, with nicknames like that, you'd always sort of understand the deal. It wouldn't be around forever.

Right. But they had a great life when they were on my dad's farm. Yeah. As much as 70s and 80s farming allowed, I guess. Uh-huh. Did you ever see that film, Okja? No. Oh, maybe you shouldn't see that film.

Oh, no. What is it? I've seen Simon Amstall's film. Oh, yeah. What did you make of that? That was ages ago. Yeah, I thought it was interesting and it really didn't make me think. And I was kind of like, I've been,

flexitarian over the years and I was sort of I was vegan for quite a few months after watching that I think a lot of people probably do that it's a real contradiction I think as a farmer's daughter and trying to support British farmers to then be a vegan just feels kind of wrong do you have conversations about George Mombio in your family house no well my daughter more she's doing GCSEs right now and she's really aware the climate and meat production on the climate and we're having like meat-free Monday type. Listeners, George Monbeau. I mean, his thing, as far as I'm aware,

is not so much about the ethics of eating meat as the, well, I suppose it is, but his angle is about the damage that it does to the environment, especially sheep. Like he hates sheep, or at least he doesn't hate sheep. He hates sheep farming. And he hates the ravenous destruction that is wrought by sheep. on the environment.

So that's his thing. But we live out in the middle of farms out in Norfolk. And so we're surrounded by people who don't like George Monbio and feel like he doesn't understand. Can I do my dad back really quickly? Of course. Did he overhear what I said about George Mombia? Yeah, he's on there like, you tell.

He's like, let me tell you about George Mombia. That was your dad calling you there. Yes, Len. and it's uh yeah lens getting on a little bit now i think he'd be the first to admit that and it's tough you know he's still on the farm and it's tough because you know you see this man that you just have idolized all your life he was just so strong i remember i only i think he only took two boyfriends up there and you know i think he just used to do a handshake and just his hand or just then vell up their entire hand and forearm like big sort of you know big strong guy so it's hard when

they you know when they're not in as good nick anymore sure and it's hard being far away you know because it's up in bolton so my brother you know goes up and helps him out and looks after him but my sister's in oxford i'm in london and then i've got two siblings who are close by who are popping up So I just feel bad that they're taking the brunt of it, you know. It's an intense time when your parents are still around, but they're older. You know, you moved yours in with you, didn't you? Yeah, I did for a while with my dad towards the end of his life for a few months. You know, it wasn't like, it was like seven months or something in the end.

And with my mum, that was the plan. But then she decided that she would rather die and live with us for any long period. I mean, I'm joking, obviously. But I think there was a little part of her, which was so determined not to cause a fuss. Wow. And so determined that she should not interrupt our lives. That was her whole plan. It was like every time we talked about, why don't you just come and live with us?

You know, she was like, no, no, I'm not going to do that. You know, you've got your own life. You've got your kids there and everything. And that just seemed to her like a defeat that she would do that, which I really. really, on the one hand, that's nice of her, but I really wish she hadn't felt like that, because it would have been fine, you know, I mean, we would have, of course, they would have been trying moments. Yeah, but it could have been lovely overall.

It could have been, possibly, I mean, it was, it wasn't, I wouldn't describe it as lovely with my dad. No, it was, were you like hoping that'd be, yeah, yeah, definitely. Those moments of, oh, man, totally. I, I was completely deluded. just thought that suddenly he would turn into a different person in the way that sometimes happens, especially if people have dementia, not always, but sometimes there can be a real softening of their personality.

Yeah. And it's really hard all that because it can also bring out the absolute worst of them. But anyway, he didn't have dementia. No. But he was just determined to carry on being the same bloke that he always had been, which did not accommodate sitting down and having deep heart to hearts with his son. Yeah, there was zero softening. I wouldn't say zero.

There was a couple of moments. Yeah. And it was worth it for those moments of tenderness and contact. Yeah. But I could have handled a few more. Yeah. It would have been open. Yeah.

Also, they were counterbalanced by moments of real hardness and real kind of a little bit more like the sort of very brutal, direct, unfiltered version of people that you sometimes get when they are older and when, if maybe they have dementia, sometimes you just get the total. Yeah. And they just say exactly what they mean. Yeah, real zinger. Yeah. You want some ice for that bird. You know, things like, which I've heard from a few people actually, like, like, I know that older parents.

have said maybe towards the end of their lives things to their children about where they are on the pecking order. You know what I mean? And that's brutal. Yeah. I mean, my dad, like, my dad is a different person. Like, we all are to an extent, but he's very different to each of his children. I guess it's a little bit like, it's sort of a weird similarity or kind of when I was living with my mom and stepdad and down the road. The farm was the place where I went and I saw my pony and there was not really

any rules and dad was sort of relaxed and dad's kind of quite quiet and he's always like still waters run deep kind of thing and women have always liked my dad. He was really handsome and rugged and people thought that there was this depth to him because he was quite quiet and women just loved if they could make Len laugh or if they could charm him. You know he had this sort of magnetic quality women loved him. Perhaps a bit too much. And he'd be playing him. might have loved women too much. And so my mum was like, you know, homework, clear up after yourself, eat your vegetables, be polite. You know, she was doing all the boring drudgery stuff. And then I'd go up to the farm and be like, la, la, you know what I mean? And everything's great

up here. And there was, you know, no boundaries or rules are boring stuff. And now I think it's kind of weird where when he speaks to me, like he really lights up. And when we get off the, you know, And I think because maybe he doesn't see me that often, and I'm just sort of the fun stuff, I'll ring up and pull his leg about the fact that, you know, if he's falling or something, I'll be like, oh, you've been practicing your break dancing again. You know, I'll try and make him laugh.

And he'll be like, oh, Sarah. Whereas actually, it's my siblings who are doing all the donkey work. You know, my brother's fixing stuff, climbing up ladders to see how much oils left in the tank for his heating or whatever, fixing a gate, trying to organise a roof for the cattle sheds or whatever. My brother's doing everything. And so I think when I speak to him, you know,

I'm just sort of like the light relief because I'm a big chicken and I don't want to talk about anything scary. You know, I've had to a couple of times and he'll kind of listen to me then, but I'm his little girl, you know. I don't really want to be telling him stuff that he needs to do or that he needs to be careful with because I'm his little girl, so how bad is that for him, you know, just try.

And then we get off the phone to each other. Love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, love you, dad. You know, it's kind of like... Yeah, it's a bit like that with my dad. God, but I've made it up to my mum for all the years of being, you know, a complete madam and sashaying off to the farm and thinking my dad's the bees, knees, I've since made it up to mum. Okay.

I look after my little mom. We're close now. I mean, until the cows come home, you seem like a nice person. Did you go off the rails massively? I don't know much about your history, your sort of more tabloidy history, like when you started entering the public eye in your modelling years. And I don't know if you don't like talking about that sort of stuff. Have you, because you sort of deliberately don't talk about that stuff in the first book.

Are you going to write another book where it's hardcore wild years? No. Okay. Definitely not. The book ends when I get the girly show. Right. That's 1996. Yes.

Yeah. I think I signed the contract, yeah, just December 95 and we were on air. I think, 96. And what was the run up to that? So you started modelling when? I started modelling just straight after my A levels. I hadn't applied for uni. I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

And then I ended up modelling because I went to Paris to see my sister who was at uni doing law with French. And as part of her degree, she was working at like, I think it was the electricity board in Paris. And I just went over there and I got scouted like in a boutique in a French boutique by some guy who was like, oh, your lookie's very strong at the moment. And I was like, you're an axe murderer.

You're going to put me in a van and take me off to somewhere and kill me. But he didn't. He sort of got in touch with like a Manchester modelling agency. So I came back from Paris, started work with them. But, you know, I didn't. I made about 10p over the next couple of years. But I had a great time.

I met the woman who's still my bestest friend in the world. Who's that? Claire Hamilton. Right, who you do your podcast with. Who I do my podcast with. Team Commandments. Yes. So I met Claire and then, you know, so that was a good thing to come out of it.

And then the girly show was just another modelling casting. Nearly didn't go into town because to get from Bolton to Manchester was like three quid or whatever. And I didn't have any money. I was also working behind the bar at my mum's pub at the pineapple. And I'm hanging out with a bunch of lads who were like my best mates, a mate of ours. Their mum ran a nursery. a preschool nursery, but they had this big attic, and we would just be up in the attic with, like, smoke billowing out of the windows as we played Street Fighter 3 and listen to the orb and the kinks. Wow, good combo.

Yeah. But nothing more extreme. No, not really. I mean, I used to, when I was like 15 or 16, I'd go out raving and go to, like, Blackpool and the sort of clubs where you go in and you just can't see your hand in front of your face because of the dry ice. Like, I loved all of that for a couple of years. years just getting lifts off unsuitable boys in their XR2s and going raving just loved that rave culture for a couple of years right must be when I was like I started going out when I was 15 and underage underage drinking and going to local bars and stuff so that's at the end of the

80s early 90s yeah so that would be at 89 90 and going out then sort of 91 92 and going to like flesh at hacienda which was the gay night because it was just felt the most inclusive fun one you know but back of then they were very much bounces on the hacienda and you'd have to do a twirl for them before they'd let you win oh really okay or it kind of like yeah but that's what clubs were always i mean clubs must still be like that a bit right if they've got door policies then they sort of screen for cool people a door policy the first time i heard about a door policy it's like are you joking you're not allowed to go in unless they think you look cool enough yeah that was always weird the kind of with a clipboard

Right, or just some guy coming out and going, yeah, no, no, no, yes, okay, yes, you're coming. No, no way, no. I mean, how's the end it was more like creepy bones as wanting to look at your body whilst you did a little twirl for them, you know. That wasn't so much like the door person. But yeah, the door, the tyrant with the clipboard who'd make you do the walk a shame if you weren't on the list and you'd like try to go, I should be on the guest list. And so then you transition into the world of television. The world of TV. Having not done anything in between, like no radio or no kind of...

Nothing. Right. I mean, nothing. And you can tell. You can tell. I was so thrown to the Lions. I didn't know what the hell was doing. I was so nervous.

What was the company? Was it Planet 24 or something? It was Rapido. Oh, Rapido. Yeah, who made with Jean-Paul Gaultier made... Yeah, Euro Trash. Euro Trash. And Rapido itself, which was just one of the greatest music shows.

Yeah. About Leftfield Music. hosted by Antoine de Cone who wore a snappy suit and once I saw him at the Edinburgh TV festival towards the end of the 90s and everyone was swooning

because he smelled so good Yeah, I bet. He looked like he smelled good. He smelled incredible. But he was also funny and cool and weird and he had this over-the-top French accent. Yes.

But it was all very ironic and the way it was filmed was super minimal, just him against a kind of white psych leaning towards the camera talking about all these cool indie bands cut to interview with like dinosaur junior or Sonic Youth or whoever it might be

that's so cool that's great man I loved all that so quite good company yes to be working with yeah the offices were on on Notting Hillgate and I remember just going in there for a meeting the casting had gone well

I'd gone last because not in any sort of I didn't plan it like that to be like I'll make a lasting impression, go out. But as it happened, I went out last. And there was a woman called Esther. She was a TV producer, and she had a little camcorder, and I just showed off, and she asked me about dating and stuff,

and boys, and I'd just try and crack a few jokes. You flawed her with your Northern charm. Yeah, a little bit must have been that. And who were your co-presenters again? So for the first series, it was Rachel and Claire. They were both great. There was an American. There was an American, Rachel, who was sort of,

build as this edgy cool. She had a piercing in a bottom lip. Oh, come on. She was... No need for that. Six foot. Rachel Williams. Rachel Williams.

Claire Gorham. And Sarah Kaywood. Sarah Kaywood for the later series. I think for series two and three are for sea. Yeah, I think. Claire, it really wasn't for Claire. And she said as much herself. She was like, what am I doing?

I think she was a magazine editor. I think she got carried along on a wave of excitement. God, I've got, like, we all were a bit like, okay, God, we're doing this TV show, fine. And Rachel was just sort of cool and edgy and kind of, that sort of slightly androgy and scary. Didn't she have more of a wild child past? Like, hadn't she been a real scene store or something? Yeah, I think so, like in New York. She was from New York.

And she had, her girlfriend at the time was, oh, egg. What's that band called? called egg is she called egg my memory is so shot this is why i'm not doing the memoir the 90s i like can't remember any bit and then there was a girl she used to be a model i think your girlfriend was in egg is there a band called egg there is a band called egg chapter three something in the egg or something i thought you'd know you know your cool music egg i don't i mean there is there's a band called egg and alice that's it really yeah oh okay it's a And Alice.

Ah. She might have been Alice. Right. I think she would. Yeah, I know. Egg is Egg White, who is a songwriter who has written some like really huge songs. There you go. You do know.

We got there. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. If I ever do write that 90s went well, I'm coming knocking at your door to help me. I'll fact check. So, yeah. So we were just suddenly on Friday night post pub TV.

Quaking. Now what happened with Adam and Joe? Is it just after, it must have been after the girl? show just was it same era definitely yeah same era but uh possibly just different seasons yeah yeah but we felt like we were in an entirely other universe to a show like the girly show you know i mean we were doing this DIY show from our nerdy man bedroom and meanwhile you know it felt like the word the girly show right yeah it was it it was a sort of post pub yeah lady lads situation is that fair? Yeah, I think so. My husband loved Adam and Joe. And I don't think he caught the

girlie show that much. So he's very much in the Adam and Joe. Like, he's a huge fan of that show and loves you. Sounds very clever. I was, yeah, and I was like, do you ever watch the show? And it was, yeah, off the back of the word, I think the word was more extreme. Yeah. Yeah, the word was like vomiting into a cup and drinking it. And snogging a grandma, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah. big French kissing with like, an eight-year-old or something, like mad. I think ours was cheeky and brash for sure. One week had been like waxing a fireman's chest and then he'd carry me off stage,

you know, fireman's lift whilst I looked up to camera for and went, we'll be back after the break, you know, oh my God. And we'd have guests on, a music guest. I saw a clip. There's not, I feel like there's not loads of clips, I'm not that I'm really searching for him. But there was one that came up on Instagram that somebody had tagged me in on.

So we'd have musical guests, and we had Lemmy. Oh, wow. On, who was... From motorhead. From motorhead. And we brought on three of his ex-girlfriends, and it must have been,

he hadn't probably seen them for 15 or 20 years, but they still had, like, the tight leather clothes on. They were still like rock chick kind of cool girls. And they sort of... But by this time, probably someone's Mormon and stuff, and they just came out onto the girly show and like, you know, one on each knee and one just, I was like, oh my God. He was legendarily and surprisingly personable, wasn't he, Lemmy? Yeah, he was friendly.

He was kind of, yeah, I mean, I don't want to say he was doing, he was doing speed off a 50 pence piece in the dressing room. He probably was, wasn't he? No idea. He would hoover up anything, I think. And yeah, it was just the maddest, the maddest show. Was it live? No, recorded as live on, I think on a Thursday, then out on a Friday. Okay.

But it was, yeah, it was, it was full on. I think when Joanna Lumley on the first episode and I was just so nervous. Like, I panicked and asked her if she ever bought big soups on her shop. Do you remember that? Big soup. That's a good question. Watch out Paxman. God.

What did she say? She was like, what's a big soup, darling? I was so multifiled. I don't know. Okay. Whanker of the week, I remember. I can't. Honest.

I mean, it was so mean. It was so mean. Everyone was so mean in those days. Everyone was so mean in those days. It was horrible. It was really like everyone was just trying to ratchet up the horribleness levels. Yeah, like it was like anyone was fair game. Just if you were in the public eye, just.

And I used to, it was the first bit of. writing that I did and I used to present them like in the production meeting quite proly. Here's this week's wanker and the producers would be like, that's great. And I was like absolutely buzzing that they like my writing that they'd let me do that. You know, let me take charge of that bit. For our younger listeners who may not have seen the girly show, this was a segment called Wanker of the Week in which you would, well, you sort of took turns, didn't you?

Or was it always you? It was always me. It was always you. I don't know why I've suddenly got a flash of Sarah Cawood doing one. And it would be perhaps a sort of minute, minute and a half maybe, please God, it's not any longer. Take down of someone in the public eye, be like Chris Evans or Liam Gallagher. And then I did Patsy Kensett. Did you ever run into her?

I did. I ran into Liam first backstage at top of the pops. So I had to pause there while I just put my head in my hands. I don't know why I went over. I went over to chat to him. I'd called his wife a wanker on the telly, like the week before. You know, you're just fearless, aren't you? You're 21, you're 22.

I was just completely fearless. Like, oh, I'll go and sell autumn and we like his music. So I go over to him, and we have a short exchange, which ends with him calling me a slag. Which was like, you know, if you're raised in the 80s and 90s, like the S word is the worst word you can be called. And he was, you know, quite rightly miffed at me. He was like...

So he knew who you were... He knew who I was. He knew what I'd done. And, you know, he was like, yeah, you can fuck off your slag or whatever he said to me. I can't remember how the exchange happened. I just know that he caught me at slack. I was like, I don't know what else I was expecting. I'm not a slag.

I probably am not a slag. And then obviously I couldn't listen to Oasis for ages. I mean, they were huge. But I was like, well, that's ruined definitely maybe for the foreseeable. And I could listen to them again now. Have you bumped into him since? I don't think I have. I've interviewed Nol's sense. No, I've definitely said hello to him at stuff.

There's no like, I don't think there's any ill feeling there now. It was a different time. It was a different time. And I saw Patsy Kanzit. I mean, this is really timestamping it for the 90s. I saw Patsy Kanzet in Nobu on Park Lane. And she kind of waved and smiled. And I sort of went over again, like potentially throwing myself into the jaws.

Oh, God. And I went off to Patsy Kenzie and she was really gracious and really friendly and kind and really nice to me. Which put me on the back fox. I thought I was going to get a bollicking over like a plate of sashimi or whatever. I was just like, oh, hi. And she was really lovely to me. And whenever I've seen her, she's been lovely. So I'm like, did she not know or did she know, but she was just much wiser than me and a little bit older and was just like, this idiot.

I'm telling us saying this stuff. Who cares? I mean, to be fair, there was probably quite a long list of anxious making things that happened to her at that point in her life. Yeah, probably. Don't make me feel even worse. As far as the radio goes, though, was that a steep learning curve? Did you have to watch what you were saying? Did you have moments when you misspoke and you were pulled up either by your bosses or by the listeners?

I remember when me and Joe were on the radio, you would say things totally. innocently and then you would be informed by a wave of communication that actually that was not okay yeah it's interesting because for me radio was just like oh I'm home this is like live radio is just it just feels like the love of my life I love everything about live radio and I felt like it was a really natural home for me like right away I was just I loved the immediacy of it and just kind of being able to communicate with listeners like that and and the sort of watching you I've certainly with language, you know, obviously I never would have sworn in front of my nana. So it was that kind of little, you know, instinct that would stop you ever from obviously accidentally swearing.

That would be ridiculous. Sometimes you would get carried away and then you'd get in trouble, you know, saying, just trying to push the envelope a little bit. Being smutty. Being smutty, Sarah. I don't know if it was. I don't think it was smutty. I remember listening to you all that. No, I don't.

Have you got a clip now? Well, here we go. Evidence A. I do remember you saying, instead of the phrase, fair enough, you would say furry much. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's still funny. I do remember thinking, I was kind of pushing it for like,

BBC. For BBC in the morning. Yeah. I mean, I try and push it now a little bit even on, on Radio 2, because I feel like Radio 2 listeners, you've got to be, I don't, I'm not remotely fruity now. I've obviously grown out of that. I think you go through stages of your career. well, you know, there was innuendo.

And there's, I do, I do sort of fun innuendo now, but kind of, it's much more like where I'll say, not a euphemism, you know, I just can't still resist that sometimes if, you know, my Pilates teacher got rear-ended this morning, which was actually a true story from last week, you know, not a euphemism, just being silly like that. You know, I feel like there's a misconception sometimes with Radio 2 listens where they, you know, they don't want cozy. They want you to be warm and friendly, but they also want you to be funny as well and to be a little a bit irreverent as well.

So I try and I'm a frustrated stand-up. I'll forever be that youngest of five trying to get a laugh out of get a bit of attention. And what was the first time you were on the radio then? It would have been for maybe the second series of the girly show, maybe. I was interviewed by Simon Mayo on daytime Radio One. And I remember feeling really comfortable being on the radio thinking, God, this is nice. No one can see you.

Obviously, everyone can see you now because radio's changed. but then they couldn't. And I was like, God, especially as an ex-model and being on telly. I'm like, I can slump a bit and I've told my belly in. I can just try and be funny and not worry about how I look. Silver Farmer's daughter not wanting to put makeup on and I'm much happy when I'm sort of slovenly. And so I was really relaxed chatting to Simon, and I thought,

this is really nice. And then I managed to get a foot in the door at Radio One. And I got the Saturday afternoon show with Emma B. Oh, yeah. A co-host of Emma B. And then Sunday evening, we did. the Sunday surgery, which was a new show that was taken over from Dave Pierce's dance anthems. I had a doctor there, Dr. Mark Hamilton, and we'd do this Sunday surgery.

The rave kids were not happy. They were like, where the hell is Dave Pierce gone and his dance anthems? So for the first couple of weeks, we'd just get crank calls of people being like, hello, I've got a spot on my bottom. And then they were like, bring back Dave Pierce. That's where I started and then worked my way up, kind of like just, I, just loved it. I loved the Saturday afternoon one, you know, straight away. Just, I just felt like bits of my upbringing was just so helpful for the radio. Creatively, I felt they just gave me

completely free reign. But before that, I'd done MTV and I'd done MTV hot. And that was just me with a little fish eye lens camera, talking to camera and just on my own with a completely white background. And I loved that because it was kind of, I could take the Mickey out of things. I'd be introducing pop videos, but it'd be kind of like my own version of comedy, just trying to make people laugh. Yeah. Well, that's quite rapido-ish. Yeah. Just, yeah, I really like things. I think TV's so good for that. MTV was a real, like, great training ground for people. That's when they used to show actual music videos on MTV, isn't it? It's all the reality.

How many kids have you got now? Three. Yeah. Stuck at three for quite a while. I always started to have four. Well, you were from a family of five? Five, yes. Yes.

So I think people from larger families, I would call that a larger family. Yeah. Tend to think that they'll probably have that many kids themselves. That's been my experience. Yeah. So I understand that. How many are you? How many are you?

We are three. we have three plus dog. Yes. That is a surprise to me because when I was a teenager and into my 20s, if you'd asked me, I would have said, no, I'm not going to have kids. Really? Yeah. Wow. And then that changed, obviously.

But then after we had the first one, I was thinking, this is nice, but it's a lot of work and it's quite a change. Yeah. And then we had the second one. I was thinking, that's enough. we are done now that's quite enough they're great but now we have two of them and that's all anyone really needs isn't it and we can all fit comfortably yeah exactly around a table and it's all much much more manageable then my wife held me to ransom and blackmailed me emotionally and said that we had to have another one and i strongly resisted but i negotiated i got some stuff in return

And she got another child. What did you get? I got to move out of London. Yeah, nice. Yeah, I said if we have another one, then let's get out of here. Because by that time, it's like, well, there's no point in living in London. If we've got these young kids, because we don't go out, we don't do anything, we just go to the terrible park and stand around in the gloom and think about what fun we would have been having in the old days. This is my experience

No, of course There were many joyful times That I would never exchange But I must say I prefer it now Yeah, me too Lots more now Me too When they're little

I mean they're so cute And obviously with your phone now Just constantly sending your little Video clips of them When they were squeaky and little It's so cute You forget Like my eldest

My eldest was very nasal And very high You know, she's nearly 22. And, you know, she's now got a septum piercing, and she's really cool, but she was ever so squeaky. I had Lola, and then I got an upgrade on husbands. And then I had my son and my daughter. And I do feel that there's a lot of parenting,

which is obviously this, everybody knows this, but it's just, you know, the time you spend, it should be magical, but just like pushing a child on a swing. Mm-hmm. It gets boring, doesn't it? It's that horrible. It's quite hard. It's surprisingly bleak.

Yeah. The first two pushes, you're like, whee, and then you're just like, oh, God, like, we're here again. Yeah. I mean, I was just around London Zoo the whole time. Like, I know every inch of London, too. To the extent where we went on a school trip and I was on the parents volunteering, and I was, like, leading the way that Miss Martinez thought it was amazing. This way for the penguins.

Okay, don't hear. We've got the, you know, the anteater. Because I just knew it like the back of my hand. Once your members there, they've got you. They've got you, man. I was there the whole time with the three kids. Was that the best place? Where were your other go-to locations?

It was the zoo. It was Primrose Hill. We'd spend a bit of time on, which was funny because that's where I used to go yomping around when I had Snoop D-O-G, my Basset hound. In my wilder days, where I'd be snapped for Heat magazine, You know, and instead I'd just be there having a little picnic with the kids and that.

And I never lived around there. I'd always travel to Prune Roesale, people who were like, do you live around here? I'm like, no, I can't afford to live around here. But, yeah, it was largely the zoo, it feels like. And obviously swimming, you know, our bloody hell. Oh, swimming. Swimming. I mean, the changing rooms, just try not to brain your child by dropping it on a, you know,

a slippery child that you've got in the shower with you while another one's toddling around and on a tiled, a sleepy tiled floor with discarded plasters. My memories of going swimming with them, which didn't happen very often, I always feel as if I have to add the disclaimer that my wife just did so much more than I did in those days. But I would go with them to the Clapham swimming baths every now and again. And it was terrible. And just the worst thing that would happen is you bump into, someone you know.

Oh God, it's the worst. And I just want to, as soon as you get in the pool, actually my wife was talking about this the other day, she was making me laugh, just her memories of being in the pool and just immediately sinking into the, like, under the water as far as you could, just hiding yourself and wanting to hide. Sort of hippo style or, yeah, the old crocodile. Just your eyes keep in out. Well, more like kind of Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now.

That's good. His head's poking above the water. and he's waiting to terminate someone with extreme prejudice. Have you been recognised in the pool? I've been like, I've been recognised a couple of times. No, I haven't been there since that was a possibility. I mean. Yeah, how does that go?

Terribly, of course, you know, because you come up for air, you've got your goggles on and you've got the inevitable snot coming early on. And someone's like, is it Sarah? Yeah. Hi. Hello. Hello. And off a go again.

I got recognised Ian. urinal the other day. Horrible. And I was like that, come on, mate. Who thinks it's okay to, like I've got stage fright anyway, trying to do my wee-wee business. And now suddenly I've got to deal with you going, Oh, right.

What kind of monster would not go for the blank in that situation? You have to go for the blank. I mean, it's madness. Definitely. Who's been your best celebrity encounter? Oh, gosh. It's a hard one, isn't it, really? It's funny because with tea time, with Radio 2, T, the show that I've done for seven years, what I've loved is that I haven't had to deal with any celebrities.

And the listeners have been the VIPs. Yeah. And I've really enjoyed that. Now, I do feel ready for another challenge now and I'm moving up to breakfast. So I am actually quite looking forward to flexing my interview. muscle again. Are there guests every day on that show? Maybe three times a week, possibly, depending on who's knocking about. But I really want to keep the listeners the sort of focus of the show and of the fun because I think that's where the magic lies. Definitely. The problem

is with interviewing celebrities, I imagine, I don't know if this will be the case now, but back in the day I used to think, we'll probably become friends, you know, like the unlikely friendship that will blossom between little old me and this Hollywood super. Of course, it wouldn't happen. I heard Elizabeth Day saying exactly that about Emily Blunt. Oh, really? Yeah. I think she's the classic side of girls, want to be her kind of girl.

She just comes across as like somebody that you just want to be pali with, that you'd get on with really well. Yeah, yeah. See, also like Cameron Diaz, you know. Right, okay. She'd be like smoking a little bifter on a beach and then going surfing. Like, how cool to be mates with Cameron Diaz. But, yeah, I mean, there's been people who, like,

I will never forget that I got the chance to interview them, because it was just kind of iconic and very much of the time, which would be like in New York with Eminem, when, you know, when record companies had the money to just jet off a DJ. And Missy Elliott, I loved, I always loved Missy Elliott. And I interviewed quite a few times on breakfast. So they've, you know, the record company flew me to Miami.

It's going to perch on the bonnet of her Lamborghini and interview her, you know. And that kind of fun stuff, you know. Yeah. Well, when I am in the home for discombobulated DJs is one of the things I'll think about, I think. And then obviously you're a parent and, you know, some of Eminem's lyrics don't age that well. Right.

Some of the songs. Well, speaking of being a parent, I was listening to a couple of episodes of Teen Commandments. Oh, God, when from? This makes me so nervous. Quite recent. Oh, yeah. Is that good?

Possibly. I mean, whenever anyone goes to me, I've read your book, I instantly just get like, I just have a physiological reaction. and just start perspiring wildly in the armpit. Yeah. It's horrible. No, it was all good.

I was laughing at the story about someone had written in. And it was a woman who was working from home while her teen son was upstairs having a shaggathon. Yes. And I think maybe he didn't realize that his mum was in the house. Yeah, totally didn't realize. Horrible. And it was noisy. Yeah.

There was noise. I mean, I was hoping, because what we do, we have a Monday, which is the main episode where we'll cover a couple of topics and we'll have feedback from the listeners and stuff. And then on the Wednesday, it's called your turn. And that is all the stories from our listeners about either parenting teenagers or their own teenage years. And there's gold in them hills with teenage stories. I mean, that's great. Every Wednesday ep I really love because, and also it's over to the listeners, so I don't have to do as much work. I can just gasp along and be like, oh my God, with these stories.

And when this story about the banging and stuff coming from upstairs, a bit of me was like, is this leading to sort of it being an innocent, you know, they were moving the wardrobe or whatever. And it sounded like they were having sex. But it wasn't, no, they were banging away up there. It was full on. They were banging away noisely until she was so mortified that she just, all she could think of doing was standing at the bottom of the stairs

and just shouting the name of her son at the top of her voice until he was aware that she was down there. And there was no, like, at the end of the email, I remember, there wasn't even any sort of, like, snappy ending or, like, so be warned, parent, or whatever. There was no real moral to the tale. I think it was just quite cathartic for this poor woman to tell us about it, like, what fresh hell she just... Well, he came down and he apologised later, but their way of dealing with it was just ignoring it completely. He just couldn't look at each other in the eye for quite a while. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. And how are you physically

after your incredible running expedition for children in need? Fine, good. When was that? That was November last year, November 2025. Yeah. Five marathons in five days. Whoa. Final total, 11.7 million pounds.

That's fantastic. Thanks for the listeners of Radio 2. Pay a lot of money to see a middle-aged lady cry. Stumbling down a deserted road. I watched the program and I was, thinking like maybe the hardest thing is being filmed while you're, that's funny you say that. While you're trudging through the rain and you must be in physical pain and you must feel

like you want to cry and yet you have to smile and try and look sane. It's so funny you say that because I was exactly like that before I was like, I'm really going to struggle with being filmed. It's like, and I didn't want it to feel fake when I'm. like high-fiving children, but actually when you're doing it, there's nothing better than like a high-five from a slightly confused four-year-old who doesn't know why they've been taken to the side of the road and there's like, hello. But actually, I was just, I'm quite shy and I just thought the whole being filmed.

But it turns out when you're trying to run just over a marathon a day, it's the least of you were, is it being filmed. And it was quite, there was a lot, the actual documentary that they cut out. a lot of the crying. There was a lot more. There was a lot more crying. I think there would have been complaints. I mean, some of my friends were like ringing Ben up going, you know,

Annie Mack, his mate was like, Ben, they're going to break her. Because you've got to stop it. And it's like, I'm not laughing at you crying. Yeah, there was a lot more like birth breathing. But I think people, televiewers would have been like, you can't do this to people. And what kind of things were making you cry? the pain, the physical pain, no way was I ever going to stop.

And I had a huge amount of support. I mean, I was in the middle of like cavalcade of like eight vehicles or whatever. There was like a motor home that had like a little Lou on so I could just, you know, run in there and have a weave I really needed to. And there was a medic and obviously all the producers and the radio and just so much, you know,

a huge amount of support. But ultimately it was up to me to do it. I couldn't. Of course you want to raise as much money as possible for children in need and you want to raise awareness of all the amazing projects that they support. But also there's a bit of you like, you cannot forever more be the woman

who didn't complete the challenge. You just can't. And also a man would have took over as well. It would have been Vernon or Paddy. Because there's always a standing. I'm usually the standing for other ones and I don't do a bit of training because you think no one's going to stop.

You can't. You've just got to keep going. That's the maddest thing about them and you just do. And my trainer, the brilliant, Nick, the physiologist, was amazing and he was just like look what's good is that the pain is moving around your body if you get knee pain on day one and day two three four and you know then you're in trouble but if you get knee pain and then hip pain and then shin pain and then knee pain again you know

you're it's fine your body is coping with it and it's moving the pain around like what the hell is happening here hard core so you didn't get any kind of um pain blocking super injections or did you? No, I mean, there was certainly on day, it was only on day five, really, where I was like, can I have some codeine? They didn't keep that in the documentary. When's codeine? You know, the medic, it was obviously, it's BBC, you know, they're not going to dose me up

and push me out there. Just want to make that clear. But on the final day, I definitely needed some painkillers, you know, and he gave me like a half dose the first time. I was like, have you read about me in the 90s? I could dose me up, please. I can have a full, you know, I'm allowed. It was all, you know, over-the-counter stuff.

Nothing dodgy, obviously, but. And they kept, they kept just squeezing my shins. I didn't know what they were doing, but they were checking for stress fractures. And the physio and the medic kept giving a little look at each other, having a feel in my leg. I don't know what they're doing. Just checking that, I've not broke, actually broken my legs running,

because then they would have had to stop it and I would have been devastated. Yeah. The day five was amazing. I was just absolutely buzzing. I knew two of my kids were there at the end and Ben and my best friends. It's really emotional. God, I'll go now.

It was amazing. Everyone was just like coming out in the driving rain and wind. Like the weather was filthy, holding up little signs that were like ripping in the rain. The old felt tip pen coloring on, you know. And hugging. It's just hugging women. Like I had a real connection with women my age.

Yeah. I saw you stop at one point and just hug some rando. I'm really hold on to her for ages. Yeah, it was really like someone, it was often someone like my mom's age or someone like my big sister's age. I'm like, you know, I'd just be like, you'll do.

Come here, can I have a hug? I love you. It really was. It was like a minute, like a little power up, just that feeling. Because obviously I wasn't with my husband. I wasn't with my kids.

You know, I needed physical touch, like just to squirrel. wheeze, you know. Yeah. And I couldn't ask that off the physio. It'd be like, no. Needed a bit of love to power me on. Sure. But when I run now sometimes, I'll have the same playlist on,

but there'll be no fuck I stood there at the side of the road. You know, I'm still running through Kilburn, like, whoo! Pointing at people listening to, like, chasing status. And, yeah, no one cares. Quite right. But I'll get like a good flashback, you know, like to that. It still gets out of goosebumps.

Huge respect. I was very impressed. Looking back on it now, it's only just sunk in recently, really. You know, it was the longest one anyone's ever done, isn't it? Yeah. For that day. And the hills. Oh, my God, I had no idea that the hills.

Where can they go next? I don't know. What will Vernon Kay have to do? I don't know who it's going to be. Cut off parts of his body with a rusty sore. Greg was telling me, Professor Greg White, this is his 40th of these challenges. So he was the one who'd be with Greg. when he was cycling the three peaks in the, you know, the beast from the east.

And he was the one with Davina. And David Walliams, I think was the first one when he swam the Thames and got like 18 different waterborne diseases. Not that that's funny. What, that's quite funny. Kind of is. And Greg obviously got all these great stories about all these challenges. And he said his best headline about Greg was, when will this man kill somebody?

And there was a picture of like Davina being. pulled semi-conscious from like an icy lake, you know, on her massive, because she did really hardcore ones for comic relief and sport relief and that. It's a good way to go though. Mad, yeah, what would the world's press snapping away as you're pulled from a lake? You would be, you'd be golden. I think she was all right for that. I think she's quite happy to have survived it.

God. Now it's time for the part of the conversation when I said, what time you in bed. What? I said, what time are you in bed? Oh, I mean, the dream, we put the dogs to bed at nine, and the dream is to be, you know, in bed. And that's when I'm going to getting up at six-ish at the moment, quarter to six.

So when I'm on breakfast, I will definitely be in bed for nine. But I would have had more of an evening. It's quite hard getting home at quarter to eight. You've got to feed people, walk dogs, all that, and then still get to bed for nine. It's quite a challenge. So you're asleep by 9.30 latest. I'm hoping.

Ideally, by 10, I'll be asleep, yeah, for sure. And then when you start doing the breakfast show? I'll be getting up at five, which isn't that bad. People ask me, I forgot about, I forgot. And I was, I'm good mates with Greg James. He does radio one breakfast, obviously, and I message him, Quain. I forgot the worst thing about doing a breakfast show is people asking you what time you have to get up. And like, everybody does, you know, cabies, everybody, everybody.

Because everyone's fascinating. And I think there's a little bit of shard and fraud. And I think, poor fucker, what time you get up? Is it three o'clock, four o'clock? so they're quite disappointed with it. I'm like, five. And I've worked out, you know, I can be definitely out of the house easily for half-past five. I've worked out.

I've timed myself. I can put makeup on in eight minutes because obviously there's cameras now. So this wasn't a problem back when I did Radio One breakfast show. So yeah, I can do my makeup in eight minutes. I've already practiced making my filter coffee the night before and putting it in the fridge with the milk in it. And I will zap it in the morning. My son caught me.

What are you doing? Why are you making coffee at nine o'clock? I'm just practicing. And so will you still be going to bed around? round nine? Yeah. Okay. Definitely.

Right, so that's not too catastrophic. No. And also I've got zero social life. Like, we have no social life. Okay, good. Really. I mean, do you and your wife? Like, we can't.

Not really. I mean, when people, there's no feeling like it than when people cancel on you for social engagement and you still get the points because you've not cancelled. It's like canceled. It's like, who's going to go first. Ha-ha, they've cancelled. Yes. It's amazing. We're real home bodies.

We just love. And to the point what, where I'm like. no we need to start doing stuff more we need to because armando ian uche did a great thing on radio four that got obsessed with the thought of it a program about the brain and brain function and aging and he said time goes quicker as you get older because there's less markers being dropped in your brain for trying something new whereas when you're little you try a pair for the first time that's new ding little marker you know you have gone someone's tricycle ding etc etc throughout your younger years and then when you get older, there's just no dings anymore. There's no new things. There's no new experiences.

So that's why time just flies by because your brain's just not having all these little learning or little moments of like, oh, what's this? So I try to like get us out of the habit of just being complete hermits. Yes. The thing that is satisfying, I find, at this age, is trying to nail the routine, trying to perfect everything. One of the tragedies of life is that when you do start to get really good at life, you then get old and knackered and then it fucks up and then you die. Exactly. A whole raft of new, very annoying problems come along that you can't really do that much about. Yeah, because when you're at the state, I often think it were, when I'm showing my 18 year old old to do something, you know, you forget that you're just like, you're just like,

I never lose my keys anymore because I put them in a certain pocket, you know, and sometimes when I can just, I can just get the lid off things and I can, you know, just tiny minor little things each day as you go through life to your point where you're nailing it and you've got it and it's great and then it all buggers up again at the other end. I even have a little phrase that I say in my head which is the system works. The system. And suddenly like if I... Oh my God, you'd get on with my husband so well.

He's like, I've come up with the system. I'd like to put a meeting in the diary with you in the front room at 4pm. I have these little things like talking about putting the keys in the right place in that same time. Because my wife, I love you so much, but she does have some stressful times where she can't find her phone and she can't find her keys. And I'm like, I mean, you just literally have to put them in the same place every single time, but every single time. That's the way the system works. And then that whole problem will have vanished from your life. I'm just saying, anyway, she doesn't like that advice. But I have all these other little systems of putting things in

the same place. And then when that moment comes where you're stressed. out and suddenly it's like, ah, where's the thing? There it is. And I say in my head, the system working. The system is getting. The system is working. But then, of course, as you say, like, there's all these other things like, oh, that is twinging in a weird way physically that I have not experienced before and I don't know how to deal with. And oh, that other ailment is giving me a problem. And oh, there's still the complicated situation about growing older and falling out with friends or pissing off family members or I don't know what stuff that you have never dealt with before and suddenly you're back to square one I know it's so annoying and touchwood I'm

sort of in a sweet spot at the moment where like things are good I'm kind of braced I've always been a bit like that I've sort of like this is good what's gonna go wrong I'm kind of a mixture of that and glass half full but I mean with my radio brain as well I like back time my day I'm like if I leave now, I'll get to the yard in 28 minutes. Maybe that's why I'm obsessed with the minute thing. It might be the radio thing. It's never five or ten. I'm like 28 minutes.

You know, I can be on the horse. I'll be on the horse in 12 minutes. If I'm good, ride for 40. Wash the dog because she's rolled in 15 types of shirts and a dead badger. And, you know, I can be back in the car this time. Another 20 minute, eight minutes home. If I don't dick about and go and eat yogurt standing at the fridge, I can be in the shower.

You know what I mean? I'll be out of the show of for this time. Yeah. Back time just to make the most of my day. And I think that's, I've never had therapy, but that would be the one thing I'd want to unpick would be, why do I always feel like I'm failing if I'm wasting time? Do you know what I mean?

If I do stand at the fridge eat in yogurt for a minute, and then I look at my phone a little bit, and then I'm just like, I thought I had all the time in the world. I thought I had so much time before I had to go into work. And it's just all gone and I've wasted it. it, I could have been, you know, I could have used it much more efficiently. You could have been maxing.

Yeah, is that what maxing is? I don't know. Maybe it's some form of maxing. But it is optimization, right? It's this obsession with optimising. Yeah. It's this obsession with ringing every single droplet of value out of every situation you're in. But I don't think like I've picked that up off anything.

I don't feel like I've got that from like social media or from listening to success podcasts or anything. Yeah. I think I'm just, it's, I feel like I'm just aware of like an egg time and just the sounds of time.

Sure. Sure. You know, it's just, it's all dropping through. And obviously when you're young, you're just like, you haven't, let it drop.

Yeah. Bring it on. Faster, go faster. Boring. I'm bored. And now you're like, whoa. Oh, to be bored.

I dream of being bored. The idea of going on a holiday and just being so bored, wouldn't that be amazing? But then as soon as it happens, you're like, God, I'm bored. Yeah. This is awful. Does the BBC expect you to be a kind of BBC employee whenever you are in public? So a bit like at school where it's like when you're wearing the uniform and you've got the blazer on, you are representing the school, even if you're not on school property. To an extent, I suppose.

but I think it's within me anyway because I really like my job and I don't want to get in trouble so it's as simple as that but it's pretty easy to do it's pretty you know they let me be myself on air so you know I never I'm like oh I've always been really proud

I'm so sort of BBC hatched and nurtured and reared by the BBC because I just think it's It's one of the best institutions in the world. I genuinely do. I just feel like at Radio 2, there's just so many music geeks there. It's love radio and love music.

And there's so many brilliant people work there, off-air people, you know. Yeah. And I've always loved that wherever you go in the world on holiday, you know, you'll get chatting to whoever, wherever they're from. Or if you travel, they'll be like, oh, the BBC. They'll kind of respect it and get it and admire it. So, yeah, of course, I want to hold that and not get in trouble. Sure. Have you ever come across and engaged with extreme opinions that people have about the BBC online?

Sometimes they express like either people are convinced that the BBC's this kind of far right organization or they think it's so far left. I know. Well, to quote Jeremy Vine, if they think you're far right and far left, then you're doing your job right. You're probably just about in the middle, I guess. I'm in a lucky position because the show that I do. is playing music and trying to make people chuckle as they make their tea or make their toast in the morning or whatever. So I don't have to tackle any thornier issues and navigate those choppy waters. You know, there was a chap who hung about a bit outside of radio too. And he just

chatted to me really amicably for a minute. And it was a bit odd. It was like, and it was funny because I was with my agent Mel, who I've been with since the girly show, I've been with for 30 years. and we were just chatting about the challenge I don't know why there was something about it and in my head I thought he was going to then say something about the challenge but instead he was like do you talk about Palestine on your show and I was like have you heard my show like that would be so that you know

luckily it's not my job to have to talk about any kind of politics or anything important and I think that's why people come to me on the radio because they don't want to think about anything back Yeah. They want a shiny, shiny distraction. Look at this nice thing. La la. Here's to Powell.

Do you ever worry about that? Do you ever sort of think, oh, dear, I shouldn't be doing that? What with the... Being a shiny, shiny distraction. No, no, I love being a shiny, shiny distraction. It's great. It's good. I'm really good at compartmentalising things as well.

And I have phone radio really helpful myself. You know, if I'm grieving, if we've lost, you know, a family member or a friend, or whatever, I'm frighteningly good at putting all of that in a box, tying a big bow around it, and then going on air and saying, look at this shiny thing. So I think radio's helped me tremendously over the years. Definitely. And it's a lovely escape.

Wait. Continue. Hey, welcome back, podcats. I'm going to give you some authentic walking through gate effects here right now. That's fine. You're welcome. That was Sarah Cox, of course, talking to me. and I'm very grateful indeed to Sarah for making the time to come and waffle with me.

A reminder that her third novel, The Truth of Us, is published on the 16th of Julie. How are you doing podcasts? Hope you're well. Hope you've been coping okay with the heat. That's what you've got to say in the emails, isn't it? Hello, hope you're managing to stay cool. Hello, hope you're in a nice shady spot. Hello, hope you're not sweating too badly.

Something like that. If you don't address the heat when it's a heat wave in an email, you're a kind of monster who just doesn't really care about your fellow human. I'm going to keep this brief today. I'm going to keep this brief today. I'm going to keep this brief today. Yeah, I'm going to keep it brief. So far, it's going badly, isn't it?

singing about keeping it brief, which is extending it, not briefening it. And now I'm looking for my notes. Speaking of reminders, if you're going to be at the Latitude Festival this year, then come and say hello. Myself in the Adam Buxton band, we'll be playing on the afternoon of the Friday. We'll be the first act in the second stage tent. I think we start at 1230 that Friday. Come and say hello. Later that afternoon, I believe I am going to be doing an event at the listening post. Around about five, sorry not to be specific with the timings, but it's Friday afternoon.

Myself and Ivo Graham, the comedian, are going to be waffling about our love of David Burn and Talking Heads. For a bug-style presentation, I'll be showing a few clips, I think. If the technology permits, And we will generally be getting ourselves in the right frame of mind to enjoy David Burns' headline set that night at the Latitude Festival, the Friday night. Another gate. So, yeah, I hope you can come along to that. I think I might even be singing a Talking Heads cover that night at the Latitude Festival for Burns Night,

which is an event that happens annually on Burns Night, generally, in London venues. It's been happening for the last few years. I did it this year. And they get lots of members of different bands together to form supergroups and get guest vocalists along to do burn and Talking Heads covers. It's really good fun. And I think they're doing it at latitude

after David Byrne comes off stage that Friday night. I might be popping up there. And maybe even, The following night, Saturday night, I think the horn section, minus Alex horn, are going to be there. Alex is otherwise occupied, but the mighty horn section will be rattling through a few covers with guest vocalists, possibly including A. Buckles. And if you're at the Deer Shed Festival up in Yorkshire on the Sunday night that weekend, the Adam Buxton band will be there too. that I think is, well, that's our last scheduled appearance this year. Who knows, maybe ever.

We're on Sunday evening. I think around 7.30 at the Deershed Festival. There's details in the event section of my website, or if you prefer, blog. Someone was asking in the Q&A the other day, why I never did the blog song anymore. The Q&A episode, by the way, should be available. The Q&A episode, by the way, should be available towards the end of next week or early the week after. Anyway, for that person, here's the jingle. I've got a blog, I've got a blog. Routy, rootish, putty, ruddy, blog, blog, blog, blog. I've got a blog.

He's the address, he's the address. It's Adam dash buxton.comco. So check it out. And final reminder, live podcast, August the 5th, in London at the Roundhouse in Camden, myself, talking to comedian, musician, all-round talented guy, Mawan Rizwan. Hope you can come along to that. It's going to be fun.

All right, that's it for this week. Thank you very much to Claire Broughton and Diggery Waite at Hatrick for editing and production support on this episode. And thank you as well to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for his ongoing production support. Thanks to Helen Green. She does the artwork for the podcast. Thank you to everyone at ACAST for their hard work. Leasing with my sponsors, but thank you, most of all, for coming back and listening right to the end.

Come here, hey, how you doing? Good to see you. Thanks for coming along. Yeah, I am a little sweaty. But it's the sweet smell of honest labour. and a bit of Mitchum. Until next time, we share the same sonic space.

I'm just suggesting that you go carefully out there. You do what you want. Free country, but if I was you, I'd go carefully because it's nuts out there. Stomp about if you want, get up in people's grills. That's what you like. But it will invalidate your existing policy with me. That's what I'm saying. What won't change, what will never change, is that I love you.

Bye!