The Phonebox Podcast With Emma Conway - The Joy Of 90s Summers!: Claire Wetton

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Today top children's writer and my baby sister Claire Wetton and I chat about the CRACKING TV we enjoyed in the summers of the 90s. The Phonebox Podcast discusses what was better Cocktail or Top Gun? Pugwall or California Dreams? And if Emma's Mr Belding impression really is as good as she thinks it is!Sign up for your FREE Reading Eggs 30 day-trial here www.readingeggs.co.uk.For more of me follow @brummymummyof2 on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and TikTok and follow the @phoneboxpodcast account on Instagram for polls and nostalgic fun.If you have any guest suggestions, topics you would like me to cover email [e-mail] and be sure to tag so I can see where you are listening!#90s #90smusic #90stv #1999 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Phone Box Podcast and I am really excited to have partnered with Read and Eggs for this episode. Read and Eggs is a great educational app that my kids use loads when they were little. It's super easy to use and makes learning to read fun. With self-paced lessons and exciting games, it's designed by experienced educators and proven to boost reading levels in just 15 minutes a day. You'll also find over 4,000 e-books in the Reading Eggs library

for your child to enjoy, as well as 500-plus printable worksheets to practice their reading and math skills. And imagine how much our parents would have loved this back in the 80s sign up for your free 30-day trial at www.readingeggs.co.uk it really is fab we have um an icon a legend on my t-shirt, Britney Spears. Unfortunately, on the podcast. Oh, she's a laugh. Unfortunately, on the podcast, we have top children's writer, Claire Michelle Whetton, a.k.a. Clara Bella.

Claire, what are you working on at the moment? Can you tell us? Anything? Yeah, working on lots of things. I don't know whether doing, am I allowed to say? I don't know. I think doing, am I allowed to say? I don't know. I think so. We're doing horrible science,

so it'd be horrible history's but to do with science. And then I'm working on a new just like nature animation for Channel 5 and I'm working on a show

with Aardman. And what else am I doing? Doing loads of stuff at the moment. She's got loads of children. Series two of Super Tato. Get your tatos out. I don't even know what that means. Get your tatos out.

So she's doing lots. So she's a children's writer. She's also my sister, a younger sister by two years. She's 23 and I am 21. So I don't know why you're even on. Oh, no, hang on. She's 21. I'm 23.

Didn't even know why we were on a 90s podcast because we weren't even born then. Okay. So we took to Instagram. It's famously summer holidays at the moment, school holidays, and I took to Instagram on the Phone Box Podcast Instagram account to ask people what they liked most on the telly and in the movies for summertime in the 90s. And they sent some ones through. Claire, I just want you to pick straight off the top of your head

one great summer song from the 90s, just a song. Oh. Ooh, baby, i love you way every day yeah yeah that always makes me think of summer in birmingham that makes me feel physically sick oh really i hate that song i always when i lived in london whenever i heard that song it made me think of birmingham and it's like when i hear that song blasting out of someone's car i think summer's here it's come i think real br and b who sang it big mountain oh my god i hate it yeah we do yeah yeah oh but do you know what? The sun would peek out behind a cloud and Les Ross straight on, Baby, I Love You, Aye. I'm going to say a song I'm not sure is 90s.

How Bizarre. How Bizarre. How Bizarre. That's not summery. It's ooh, baby. Ooh, baby. It's a good song. Yeah, that is definitely summer summer i seem to remember walking around

or maybe blackpool pleasure beach i went to blackpool pleasure beach when i was 18 and we went um and visited like coronation street and stuff one how did i get there two where did i get my money from i don't know that whole lot of us went did we get a coach unsure right okay we're gonna crack through the programs and films and we're just gonna discuss what we think about them hopefully people at home listening it'll spark a little memory if you watch one of these programs definitely direct message me on the phone box podcast if you've got any fun summer memories relating to these programmes, like we spent a lot of summer just watching telly in the morning,

didn't we, at home? Yeah, get up in the morning. One of our neighbours would come over and then we'd just sit and watch the telly till about 11, eating biscuits. They were children. They were children. It wasn't Stan. Stan from number 74 came round you're right Stan

he's a man in his 50s he had a big cigar and we watched telly with him yeah we had we we had like Louise and Sarah Jane and who else would have come that would have been it really wouldn't it it was mostly Louise I think in the mornings and we'd just sit and eat chocolate fingers, watch the telly until we got bored and then we'd go out for the day. Okay, right. Starting off with a classic, bring it back, best theme tune in the world, California Dreams. Don't wake me up, don't wake me up because I'm dreaming. Absolute, literally one of the best theme tunes of all time. Literally one of the best theme tunes of all time.

Literally one of the best theme tunes of all time. And the girls, I wanted to be the girls. They had really good, there was a good Bob, wasn't there? One of them had a good Bob. I can't remember the plot of it. Well, they were just a band who lived in California and they played in the local diner. But I actually Googled before this because in my head I was thinking,

I'm sure I really had a massive crush on one of them. And then I looked at the picture and really laughed because I was like, which one? But then I was like, I think he was in like the second cast because after a bit, some of them left and some new people came. So I looked it up and it was the keyboardist who joined a few series in.

And literally, he just had floppy hair. And as we know, in the 90s, that's all you needed. He was not a particularly handsome boy. He had floppy hair. He was in. that's all you needed he was not a particularly handsome boy he had floppy hair he was in it's all you needed and I just remember being living in Birmingham I'd say Birmingham is one of the furthest points from California not necessarily like like lengthwise but a teenager in Birmingham is is fairly opposite to a teenager in California playing in the diner I mean yeah you, you just,

one of your highlighted memories was a day at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Loved it. Loved it in The Rover's Return. It was a great programme. One of the best theme tunes of the, have we actually done? Oh, maybe we should do an episode. Maybe I need to work out if I would get copyrighted and then we should do a top 10 best theme tunes episode

and just put a little snippet in. Or do you know what? We could sing them. We could sing it. I know all the words to California Dreams. We could sing it and then nobody would listen apart from our dads. That's all right.

That's all right. Or we could just go around dad's house and sing it at him. Or let's just do that then. Let's scrap the whole idea. Okay, California Dreams. Now I'm'm gonna do these two films together Top Gun and Cocktail do they scream summer to you um well I don't think I've ever seen Cocktail and I saw Top Gun for the first time about three months ago thoughts terrible i feel like the main draw of top gun is the fact that people fancied tom cruise

but we know too much about tom cruise now don't we unfortunately we do don't we if for me the bit when he jumped on the couch about being in love with katie holmes was the it gave me the it and i can't i can't get past it the scientology also is actually for me it's the jumping on the couch to katie holmes oh god no i can't get over it it's you've seen the picture of nicole kid she got a divorce, finally. And she's like this. And she's so happy that you think, oh, he's not a good man. No, I know. But saying that, if I saw him in the street,

I think I'd be excited because he's Tom Cruise. Oh, yeah. Would you get a selfie? I was, do you remember when he was filming? A time? In Birmingham. And loads of people saw him and he was like five minutes walk from my house. And I missed him by like half an hour because I had no idea.

And then like four hours later, loads of my friends messaged me saying, did you see Tom Cruise? And I was like, what are you talking about? And they're like, oh, we didn't tell you because we thought you'd know. Well, I didn't. You haven't got a time for this hotline? I definitely get a selfie. I've heard from people that I don't know, but just other people speaking, that he's supposed to be, like, very charismatic.

Oh, yes, I can imagine. Oh, yes. I think he'd hold your hand or maybe touch your arm or maybe put his hand in the bit of your back. And look you in the eyes if he's a little bit in love with you. Oh, one.

Tom, if you're listening, I know you are, can Scientologists listen to podcasts? Possibly not. Well, I presume they're allowed to watch films, so why wouldn't they

be allowed to watch Well, they're not, are they? They're not allowed to do loads of media stuff. It's quite, they're famously not allowed to so tom if you are listening um we won't tell we won't tell anybody okay you're going to be excited about this we have mentioned this before um because you think you look like one of the cast members i don't think

i look like her other people said that i look like her as we know in birmingham people stop claire in the street and say oh my god were you in pug wall when i was little people when i was like 15 people used to say you look like the girl at pug wall who used to say it everyone strangers in the street that's what i'm talking about you're going down the ice cream man boom go in the off license to's what I'm talking about. You're going down the off-license. Ice cream man. Boom. Going the off-license to get a pick and mix. Hang on, were you in Pugwall? No, it's me, Claire.

Traffic warden stopped me on the street. Excuse me, madam. Were you in the Orange Organics? No, I wasn't. Lollipop lady stops the traffic and goes, give us a song. And you're like, hang on, I wasn't in Pugwall. I still would have done the song. Yeah. Pugwall was a great programme program if you don't know what it is it was about a band called the orange

organics and it was just kind of like hijinks wasn't it was it him trying to start a band and make it successful i've forgotten yeah yeah that that was it in a nutshell he got a guitar and then he got all his friends together. Bass player, obviously, pumping. Bass player was pumping. Do you remember the songs? My friends are worried. What's wrong, they say. Is there something, what can I tell them?

I'm in love. Of course, I can't remember my husband's phone number, but I can remember that And there's no reason why No, no reason why There's no reason why You keep hurting me Oh, what?

Oh, a banger Pogwall had floppy hair but unfortunately it was a bit voluminous Oh no, he wasn't attractive No, he wasn't Apart from Jenny, obviously But P attractive. No, he wasn't. No, no. Apart from Jenny, obviously. Jenny, yeah.

But Pugwell was, I'd say, one of my top ten. Could it be one of my top five? Before we did this, I knew we'd talk about Pugwell. I looked up what, like, the synopsis were of the episodes. Yeah. And, like, literally nothing happened happened the first six episodes would just be like half of one episode it was nothing jenny didn't even join till episode three because they were looking for a singer but this episode made me laugh where is it now season two episode

five pug wall decides to install his own phone in his room, but fails to recognise the ills of modern communications. I bet he had like three phone calls and then was like, I can't cope. How would Pugwall cope in today's society? Pugwall would not cope with a... How would Pugwall cope with Instagram? How would Pugwall cope with TikTok? It would be too much for him.

It would be too... I feel like there maybe was an episode when somebody was injured. I feel like there was a broken arm at some point. That's how he met Jenny. Yeah. He fell off... He fell off his bike or something and he went to hospital

and met Jenny, who she'd fallen over as well it's great um loved it are you gonna say top 10 and also one oh go on what I loved about Pugwell and I think Pugwell really is summer school summer for me was that there wasn't that many episodes and it would get to the end of the series and you'd think, well, what's going to be on tomorrow? And what would be on tomorrow is episode one, just replayed, just on a loop for like five years. They're giving the people what they want. They're giving the people what they want. Do you just want football?

Do you just want football? Somewhere, it's probably on now. That was a lot of TV programmes, wasn't it? It would just start and just go round again. And sometimes I'd think, oh, I've not seen this one before. And then about seven minutes in, oh, no, I have seen this one before. Oh, we've seen every episode of Pug War about 500 times. Yeah.

And do you know what's sad, Claire? You never quite know when it's your last time watching an episode of Pug War. Oh, yeah. Isn't that that is sad I try not to think about it because one day we will have sat down and that would have been the last ever episode of Pug War we watched

and we didn't even know it well do you know what I'm going to go on YouTube later and watch it again and know that it's not the last time because I can always do it again or watch it now and be that, that be the last time you can can always do it again. Or watch it now and be that. That be the last time you can have like a party. Yeah, that's too sad.

Okay. Well, just bear that in mind. We've of course got Saved by the Bell, which is ironic really because it was set in a school. So if you're on your summer holiday, it's the opposite, but Saved by the Bell, classic summer holiday television. I wake up in the morning. Again, another great theme tune.

Classic. Zach was an absolute 90s hottie, wasn't he? He didn't even have floppy hair. No, he had blonde, spiky hair, didn't he? He transcended the floppy hair trend. He was so handsome, he didn't even need floppy hair. Do you remember when everybody thought he was dead? It happens every few years.

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Hey, hey, hey, you guys! That's a good Mr. Belding. Hey, hey, hey. I'll tell you what, Emery. If you did that walking down the street, good mr balden i don't know i'll tell you what emery if you did that walking down the street traffic wardens lollipop ladies they'd all be stopping you no it's not mr balden it's me whilst i'm standing behind you going there's no reason why no no reason why uh saved by the bell was a brilliant um i love tiffany von thesen or is it tiffany von amber or amber von thesen no tiffany was played by amber oh god i'm so confused

put me out my misery i don't know tiffany amber was played by tiffany von thesen that's what i feel like to write and ac AC Slater, Mario Lopez. Lopez, yeah. Who will just be like... Elizabeth Berkley. What was her character called? Oh, God, I'm drawing... I'm drawing a...

I'm drawing a blank. People at home will be shouting... We're not going to Google it. Just message me. I saw, like, a meme the other day on instagram of like a picture of her crying with her arms around zach like in the show not in real life and they're saying why don't we talk about the dangers of caffeine anymore and it really made me laugh i saw that as well today that's so weird i saw that other day. And then in the comments it said because it was supposed,

they were supposed to be talking about speed, I think. And then when it got to the episode, the, like, the company who runs it, whatever, like, no, you can't do that. You have to talk about caffeine. Sounds like my job all the time. No, yeah. And then he sneezed and they're like, can you hiccup instead? Yeah, the network are like, can't talk about that, guys.

Okay, Saved by the Bells, amazing. Now, I am wondering if maybe I am a bit too old for this, but okay. I like the Parent Trap, but the original Parent Trap, not the ones with Lindsay Lohan in. Oh, yeah. We used to watch Hayley, what was her name? Hayley Mills.

Hayley Mills, famously Pollyanna. Yeah. But I think they're talking about the Lindsay Lohan version. No, I do think that Parent Trap with Hayley Mills was a real summer film, though.

I feel like that was one of the films that was always beyond in the summer holidays Parent Trap It was a great film and Pollyanna and Summer Holiday with Cliff Richard

Yeah Pollyanna was a good film as well wasn't it I can't remember did she fall out of a window and end up in a wheelchair and then unites the neighbourhood She's really really happy all the time and then she falls out of a tree and she's like wow being happy all the time was

a load of rubbish wasn't it now i'm really sad and then the whole town turns up with like presents for her and then she's happy again but there was a lot of puppies i remember that because i remember even as a child thinking what's she gonna do with that many puppies i i am i am saying if you nominated parent trap please could you clarify is it the hayley mills version good though i've seen both they're both good i've not got much to say about the lindsey lohan version i think i'm going to watch it with erin i think she'd like that yeah Oh, yeah, it's good. Lindsay Lohan, she is cracking, isn't she, Lindsay Lohan? She is really good. Freaky Friday was really good. And they're doing another Freaky Friday.

Yeah. They're doing another Freaky Friday. She's looking great at the moment, Lindsay Lohan. Oh, she's looking great. She really is. Considering she's partied hard, she's recovered. She's thriving. She's on so many Netflix films, which is just like,

every film which is something like Love in the Snow, Love Behind a Table, Love at a Bus Stop. Hundreds of them. She was making a fortune. Irish Love. Yeah, Irish Love. Love in Butlin Skagness oh do you imagine oh i'd like to see that loving black paul pleasure beach that's what i was gonna say

your life story um no it's parent traps good and it is a good summer film because of them being at summer camp stuff oh didn't you really want to go to summer camp when you were younger? There's a Bat in Bunk 5 by Paula Danziger. I read that 4,000 times. And that was about summer camp, about a girl that goes to summer camp, but it was close to like Greenwich in New York. So like she'd be at the summer camp during the day. And then on the nighttime, she'd like go around little bookshops with like a 16-year-old boy who definitely would have had floppy hair and thought oh my god

i want that to be me yeah it was summer camp just and i bet it's horrible when you're actually there but in if there's any american listeners let us know because i'm fascinated by the concept of summer camp even now as a grown-up i follow a lady on tiktok um who i feel is just called like new york mum and she sends both of her kids off for the whole of the summer like eight weeks of summer camp and she just like lives the best life and she's just like that's just what we do here everybody does it wouldn't do that here would we yeah my friend lives in america and i keep saying are you gonna send the kids to summer camp she says she says no. Do you have to be a certain amount of rich, though? I think there's different ones, though, aren't there?

There's like ones that are... There's like religious ones. I don't know. I did want to go to summer camp. Which one would you go to? What do you mean? I don't know. What do you mean?

There's like theatre camp. Oh, my God. There's like math camp. Well, definitely not math camp. Could probably be doing with going to fat camp. Sign me up for theatre camp. Yeah, definitely go to theatre camp. Sign me up.

Have you seen that film with Ben Platt in about theatre camp? I think it's just called like theatre camp. I feel like I have, but I might have just watched the trailer. It's really good. It's really cheesy. Anybody out there, you've got to watch it. It's really cheesy. It's Ben cheesy. Anybody out there, you've got to watch it. It's really cheesy. It's Ben Platt and his husband is in it.

It's just about people at a theatre camp. It's fun. Low stakes drama. Got to get the show up and running and all sorts of things go wrong. Okay, let's get back to the 90s. You did mention this when I said, oh, we're going to talk about the 90s.

You said, why don't you? Brilliant programme. No, it wasn't. It used to annoy me because it started off saying, why don't you get out from your television set, off your sofa and go and do this? And I used to think, well, now I want to watch telly. Why are you telling me not to watch telly? If I didn't want to watch telly, I wouldn't be watching watch telly I wouldn't be watching telly why don't you sod off

that's what you wanted to say yeah and famously I don't like I didn't like television that educated me I was like get Pugwall on I want a bit of drama I want some songs I don't want Ant McPartlin telling me how to make a pretend television out of a cardboard box. It was giving Tracy Ireland on Blue Peter, wasn't it? It was very, it was very Blue Peter. But it had a good theme tune. It did have a good, well, they all had good theme tunes, didn't they? We did use, I did use to watch the theme tune.

And also, let me just put this out there. If the producer had come and knocked on my door and said we want you to be the new presenter I would have said why don't you is my favorite program of all time yeah I'm glad 100% done it I was very jealous of the kids who presented it yeah it was there was it was a lot of child presenters wasn't it oh yeah a lot of activities what else was it was it just children showing us that was like why don't you write a postcard what was it i can't remember it was like the premise was why don't you do this instead of watching telly it's like well if i wanted to do that i wouldn't be watching telly get off the telly oh and i'm sad because i thought i liked it football i don't want to

that all sounds rubbish that sounds boring it was oh well i'm a little bit disappointed in that now if any why don't you present to listening i apologize okay how did you get the job uh this i don't look i think this is a rogue one. Overboard. I think it's rogue. Why is this on the list? Explain. I don't know.

I didn't put it there. But you had a good argument for it. Because they're on a boat. Rose and Jim are on a boat. What? Rose and Jim are on a boat. Yeah, but that's a barge. You can be on a barge anytime, can't you? But you wouldn't be on a yacht in the winter.

Claire, we wouldn't be on a yacht anyway in 90s Birmingham. What are you talking about? We've got more chance of going on a barge because as we know, there's more canals in Birmingham than Venice. It's the only thing we've got going for us. And Pateau Banton and Alison Hammond. And more trees than

any other European city. Well, I'll add that to my list of fun facts. Add it to the list. Overboard was a good film. Goldie Hawn is gorgeous. Kurt Russell is gorgeous. They're still together. I have a real bugbear about films where the moral is

you're happier poor than you would be rich. I really hate that as a moral because I don't think it's true, but I'll let it slide with Dave because it's a cracker. Yeah, it is a good film, isn't it? But I mean, the morals are really bad, that he like makes this woman believe that she's a poor woman who looks after three, who's got three sons

and then makes the sons pretend that that's their mom. Just lies. And then she finds out that's not true. And then instead of being like, that's really out of order. I can't believe you did that. She's like, oh, well, I forgive you. And moves in with their, instead of going back to her rich husband. I'd move in with Kurt Russell.

Even if he, like, kidnapped you? Yeah, man. Even better. Even now, I'd be like, come on, Kurt. Yeah, it was a weird... Yeah, it's a good film. I wouldn't have had it, but, you know, they were on a boat.

That's a very tenuous link. Full Stockholm Syndrome. But it was... Anything with Goldie Hawn in, quacker. P Stockholm Syndrome. But it was... Anything with Goldie Hawn in, cracker. Parenthood. Again, anything with Steve Martin in, cracker. He was probably 30 in that film.

Oh God, I saw a thing the other day where it was like saying the father of the bride, the ages of them. I think Dan Keaton's supposed to be like 42 or something. Because she has a baby in the second one. Yeah. Parenthood is a really good film.

It's got Keanu Reeves in it, hasn't it? It's got... Has it got... It's not Macaulay Culkin. I think it's Kieran Culkin's in it. Oh, yeah. And doesn't he run into the... He's got things on his head and he runs into, like, a wall.

He's, like, clever. It's a good film. It is a good film. I don't think I've watched it since then. Yeah. Parenthood is a really good film. And Steve Martin is brilliant. Yeah.

Father Bride. Maybe we should do, like, an episode of this where we talk about, like, John Hughes kind of films and Father the Bride films and stuff like that because they're all they've got a big big old place in my heart those have yeah I'm not good at remembering films though or what or like I don't think I watched that many films when I was younger or even now so okay we'll scrap that episode then well maybe I just need to do some research I would quite like to watch them. Yeah, maybe we could.

Messages if you can think of any fun films we should talk about. But Father of the Bride. But make sure that I can access them on Netflix or Prime or whatever because I would need to watch them probably. I'd say Father of the Bride is more like an autumny film. And he has a wedding in the summer, isn't it? But yeah, Parenthood is a great film. We approve. We approve. Now, you said you didn't know this programme, but I watched

this programme quite a lot, Sweet Valley High. I know of it, but I don't remember watching it. I remember the girls who played the twins, or was it one girl who played the twins? No. Oh, my God. was it one girl and i know that she played um eve in dawson's creek who came in as if she's going to be a really big character and then they just forgot about her after like three episodes sweet belly sweet belly hi i don't think i did watch it. No, that's weird. I wonder why I was watching it and you weren't watching it. What was I doing?

I was practicing my music with Puggles. I like Sweet Valley High. I think that was another kind of summer holiday favorite, one that you just watch again. You'd be sitting there, you know, I've never seen this episode, and seven minutes in you'd be like, oh, no, I've seen seen it 40 times i've never read the books either what's it about just two twins literally just two two fit twins and shenanigans it's like a bit bit like clueless maybe but without the kind of because clueless is a bit tongue-in-cheek isn't it it's a bit like

just like i'd quite enjoy sweet yeah if I watched it now yeah yeah yeah you would any other ones you think we should we've missed that we should have been on the list um I think the main ones are Pugwall and Saved by the Bell in California Dreams for me in the summer holidays yeah and and like I say, Cliff Richard on Summer Holiday was a film that was always on repeat. Yeah, the Summer Holidays, we kind of had the same schedule every day, which was just get up, wash a bit of telly, knock about with our mates all afternoon, come in, bike a grove and maybe go back out again. Was Bike a Grove and that slot on in the summer holidays did they used to stop it for the summer holidays maybe they did

i know on a friday sometimes they'd put like a film on wouldn't they instead yeah i can only remember summer holiday tv in the morning but not in the evening well evening 3 30 but yeah maybe you're right do you know another film that always makes me think of like being bored and it being on the telly all the time do you remember tom thumb um this is my song my very own song yeah doobie doobie doobie used to be on all the time tom thumb did used to be on a lot. Why didn't they just put the same films on again? Do you think they were just... Ethan used to love Tom Thumb.

He used to watch Tom Thumb all the time. But that was just me putting it on. The Skeptics didn't really have much imagination, though, did they? They were just like, oh, just stick the same thing on again. Oh, just put Tom Thumb on. I also liked that you said this was a saturday morning program whack a day yeah wide awake club but i feel like that was on every day in the summer maybe but then again the theme tunes it's saturday you're wide awake so what you gonna do there's no excuse to stay in bed we're waiting here for you

why do i know all this shit in my head um my i always think of when when we were younger my best friend at school her brother said to his mom i'm really excited for tomorrow and she said why and he said well i'm gonna be on the telly and she was like what are you talking about he's like i'm gonna be on the telly she's like what are you talking about and he said i'm gonna be on wackaday she's like no you're not and then he got out a letter and he was going to be one of the kids on wackaday he'd forgotten to tell his mom none of the producers had contacted his mom they just sent him a letter saying come in on this day so in the middle like it was like eight o'clock at night they had to drive down to london find a hotel so that he could be on wakadai the next day

i tell you what they won't they wouldn't they they did contact them they sent a letter that was all you would have got it was a letter letter. No one was phoning nobody. But he hadn't thought to share that information with his parents. He just presumed that they knew and then was just thought he was just going to wake up in the morning and be on the telly. Oh, my God. I love kids telly. So, Stephen, this is not to do with the 90s. This is to do with Stephen. Blue Peter.

Was it Blue Peter or CBBC ran a competition where you had to draw a footballer and Ethan drew this footballer, sent it in, whatever. We watched the television, Ethan's picture came up. But instead of saying Ethan Conway, it said Stephen Conway because he put his own name and not Ethan so Ethan was waiting for his big like shining moment Stephen Conway I wish it said Stephen Conway age 42 and don't get me started any of you out there who are parents who've tried to get your bloody kids card on television I just want to say I did get a card on the television.

I feel like I might have got two on the television, but that was hard work, that was. Why is it hard work? Don't you just do it and send it in? Yeah, but then on the day, you just got to, they don't tell you. They don't tell you. You just got to sit there watching Milkshake,

hoping that your Peppa Pig card with Peppa on a bus mixed it on the telly. You can't go nowhere. Oh, you want to go to the park for your birthday? No, we've got to watch eight hours of telly to see if your card pops up. And they don't give a shit, I guess. But I did get a Peppa Pig card on there,

it was on Milkshake, and they were all on a bus. I feel like they were all on a bus and maybe I'd cut out Erin's head and she was on milkshake um and they were all on a bus i feel like they're all on a bus and maybe i'd cut out erin's head and she was on on a bus and i think i did one for ethan but i can't i think that might have got a milkshake but i can't recall what i did it i think i felt milkshake was an easier one to get on than um yeah bb's i felt like i stood more chance of getting that on but what other tv programs could you use to write? Blue Peter, you get Blue Peter badges. What else was there?

Tony Hart. What could I? You used to have the Hart Gallery, was it, or something? Oh, yeah, on Tony Hart. And it was like, do, do, do. And there was, like, music in it. It would go fast. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Every week, I would think, I'm going to do a really good picture. And there's like music in it and it'd go past.

And every week I would think, I'm going to do a really good picture. A morph. And I never did. I'd set them up, I'm going to draw a picture of a morph that's so good. I'm going to put it on the telly. And I never did. I don't think I ever wrote in TV programmes. I used to send famous people birthday cards, but that's about it.

Did you? Oh, Robert Williams, Mark Owen. I'd always send them little birthday cards but that's about it oh Robbie Williams might go in I'd always send him a little birthday card you loser well you you're a loser what are you talking about man do you know what Robbie Williams probably woke up on his birthday every and Robbie Williams never knew when it was the last year he wasn't going to get a card. He never knew that one year when he opened it, he never knew, oh, I'm never going to get a card from Emma or Wetten ever again because she doesn't like me anymore. He never knew when his last card was coming. You should have done one that had like a voice thing in it, you know,

when it's like a voice message and then he would have opened it and gone, was that Mr. Belding? Hey, hey, hey robbie i didn't have that much money but i did used to send i used to send famous people birthday cards i feel like it was just mark and robbie i don't know why i didn't do gary i don't know just did it man did you send do you send valent? I don't think I've sent... Maybe I probably did send Valentine's cards as well to you then. No. I didn't know you could do that. Yeah, Matthew Pateman.

I sent a self-addressed envelope and he sent me a letter back in the envelope. I remember that. Yeah. I remember you writing letters to them. I don't remember you sending them birthday cards. You just weren't as cool as me. True. Very very very true robbie still thinks about it to this day um okay well there we go we've covered summer we loved our summer i loved summer in the 90s in the 80s yeah we just used to go out in the garden get the sprinkler out run around in our

swimming costumes go down the park go in the stream without any adult supervision. Yeah. Mum says we did not do that, but we definitely used to go to Pipe's Park and just frolic in a stream. Get the bus to the shops without any adult supervision. And go and buy tiny clay teddy bears. Yeah, and like Fimo and hammer beads fimo hammer beads tiny ceramic teddy bears maybe get a small french fries back on the bus and then like sometimes drop them when you were halfway through and go oh drop my fries and see

whether you get another back or when you used to be able to get the free when you were halfway through and go, oh, I'll drop my fries and see whether you get another back. Or when you used to be able to get the free, when you used to, because now you peel it off, don't you, and you might get an apple pie. But in them days, it was really easy to get free stuff. You did the scratching, wouldn't you? Yeah, you'd just get a card. You didn't have to buy anything. No, you didn't have to buy.

No, we didn't need to go, oh, can we have some cards? I wonder why that was no purchase necessary weird competition. And you'd have to answer like a question, wouldn't you? Yeah, and then just get free food. Oh, those were the days. You couldn't do that now because everyone would just Google the answer, wouldn't they? I take it they were hard questions, were they?

Maybe for some people they were hard. You wouldn't Google it, Pugwall, because he'd be overwhelmed by modern day communication. Pugwall would just be shaking. I can't do it. With his broken arm. I can't do it. Jenny.

Jenny, help me. Oh, it's not Jenny. It's Claire. Oh, God. We've kept that joke. We really have. We really, really have buried that joke. Right, guys.

Thanks so much for listening to another episode of the Phone Box Podcast. I will be back next week. Do go and follow me on Brumham EF2 to see what I'm up to, you know, up to in the summer holidays with the kids, probably making us some Tom Thun. And Pugwall. If I could find Pugwall. I reckon it'll be on YouTube.

Yeah, I bet it's terrible. And also the Phone Box Podcast, we will always have fun polls. I think what I will do with this poll is just pick eight of those that we've talked about and just be like, what was the best summer 90s thing that we liked? I feel like unless you're very much our age, some of those people won't know. Do you think anybody who's listened to this podcast who is not our age

what are you talking about Tom Cruise do you think apart from Tom Cruise who's in his 50s wouldn't have seen any of them anyway because they're Scientologists nobody has listened to this podcast unless they're in the age range of us I ain't got no 20-year-olds tuning in. Unless it's for, like, I don't know, to write a thesis on old Gen X people and the crap they used to get up to. Let us know if you are our age range, because you all will be. Right, thanks very much, Claire.

Good luck with your life. Are we never seeing each other again? Is this it? No, that's it, actually. Do you know, this is the last moment. other again is this it no that's it actually do you know this is the last moment yeah this is it soak it in

I'll always have Puggle but I'll never have you you'll never have me it's been really nice knowing you see you later bye see you later

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