The Rest Is Entertainment - Are Celebrities Being Cloned?

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Is there more than one Jim Carrey? What length do the production team on Would I Like To You go to track down a panelists mystery guest? Just how do you keep cameras out of shots that feature mirrors? Richard and Marina tackle some of your questions from The Rest Is Entertainment inbox. The Rest is Entertainment is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's most awarded energy supplier. Join The Rest Is Entertainment Club: Unlock the full experience of the show – with exclusive bonus content, ad-free listening, early access to Q&A episodes, access to our newsletter archive, discounted book prices with our partners at Coles Books, early ticket access to live events, and access to our chat community. Sign up directly at therestisentertainment.com For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com Video Editor: Max Archer Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Senior Producer: Joey McCarthy Social Producer: Bex Tyrrell Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The rest is entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy. Now, can I tell you something cool that Octopus Energy do if you ring them and you have to be put on hold? Because they know who you are. They know your birthday. The hold music is the best-selling single from the year that you were 14. That's quite cool, isn't it? Yes. I love this.

Exactly. I've looked into it for you. Do you want to know the best-selling single in the year that you turned 14? So this would be your hold music on Octopus Energy. It is Yaz, the only way is up. What do we think to that? Well, yes, and the plastic population. Yes, and the plastic population.

Oh, of course. Do you know what? I sometimes think the plastic population do not get their due. They don't get there. They don't get their credit, do they? You know, I need to ring it to octopists now and just listen to it. You can choose to say, oh, I don't want to have any whole music at all. Absolutely, yeah, you can do whatever you want.

Okay, what animals, what monster? Okay, it might be a really bad song, but what monsters don't choose to listen. I have to say. To the song. Yeah. I love that they do now. I hope we're going to do this for me in another episode. But then we find out if I, yeah, I can.

I think I'm considerably older than you, aren't I? Not that much. What? It's like two, three years. Yeah, you'll be saying, and the best-selling single in the year that you were 14, Richard. It's Cumberland Gap by Lonnie Donegan. Hello, and welcome to this episode of The Resters Entertainment, Questions and Answers Edition. I'm Marina. And I'm Richard Osmond. Hello, Marina. Hello, Richard. How are you?

Yeah, I'm not too bad. You know, enjoying post-Oskers week, as always. It's on that. Planning my campaign for next year. Never know. you'd have to really go at some to like start now and win an Oscar next year. Oh my God, don't set yourself the challenge. Do you know what? I might. Scene one, int, the Pentagon.

Speaking of which we have had an email, I believe, from a filmmaker. Oh, yes, we've spoken a little bit in our Top Gun episode and various other things about military hardware and, you know, when you team up with the Pentagon. And it's very nice to hear from someone who's actually done it. Yeah. And John Moore. To make a film rather than to, you know. Bomber Petro State. Yes, exactly.

Although he may have done both. He may have done that. He doesn't say. He doesn't deny it here, certainly. John Moore, thank you, John, who's the director of behind enemy lines, also did a good day to die hard. That's cool. John, we're fanboying.

He says, hi, Marina. Hi, Richard, says your name first. Because that occurs, he's a class act. It's a class act. He said, I directed the 2001 military movie behind enemy lies, we know, starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman, which did use a lot of hardware, including F-18 Super Hornets. I really hope that's a plane and not an insect.

Aircraft carriers, helicopters, etc., etc. You know you're a call director when you can go helicopters, etc., etc. Your analysis was spot on. The Pentagon handles all of it on a case-by-case basis, but the good news is when they do commit, you have a pretty broad access. And though, yes, if there is a real-life emergency, you do have to quickly adapt,

there are moments where you are truly in charge of an aircraft carrier. He says, if, for example, you need the boat to turn left or right to capture the light where you want it. Oh my God, you get to command. Could we just turn the aircraft carrier right just for a minute, please? That's my ambition for the year to get the Oscars. I literally just want to say, Heave Starboard or something like that, whatever that.

You know, I just want to do the technical thing. I don't think they do say that. Yeah, I'm on the bridge, again, what did you say, Heave Starboard? I think she meant turn left. Does he mean turn left? He says, takes months of prep, meetings after meetings, and a lot of very serious safety prep when there are aircraft involved, I bet.

Now, he says, the Pentagon are not as censorious as much. many believe. They do not encourage particularly negative views, of course, but are generally interested in reflecting reality. And I have to say, this is a good review for the Pentagon if the Pentagon are listening. Just not that they need one at the moment, but... Yeah, that's true. They can really catch a break, actually. Dear Pentagon, I have to say, if every producer could deliver what they promise at a level the Pentagon do, there would be a lot more happy directors out there. Wow. Thank you, John. Thank you ever so much for that. If anyone else has steered an aircraft carrier, do let us know. Yeah, and if everyone else could just like keep to those standards in terms

of when they make any form of a deal with the production, just turn up and do what you say you're going to do. Yeah, just like the Pentagon, like the people who make House Against Prizes and the Pentagon, they never let you down. Shall we have a question? Yes, let's have one. I have a question for you, Marina, from you and Fawc, thank you, and he says, in heated rivalry, Ilya and Shane sit beside a large mirror during the first time they truly see each other. The setting fits the scene perfectly, but feels like it would be challenging at least, or an absolute nightmare to film. When using mirrors in film, TV and photography, what balance is required for logistics and cinematography? Do you two have a favourite mirror scene on the screen? I was enjoying that question

until the end, because now I've got some work to do. Okay, I first of all, you had me from heated rivalry. I think the scene you're talking about is when they're in the gym. When we started with heated rivalry, though, I bet not many people knew where that question was going. Oh, you're talking about mirrors. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Yes. After they've had a sexually charged, like competitive workout on some exercise bikes, I think you're talking about that one, and they're each on either side, and they're going to get one of those mirrors that's against the back wall of a gym. That's fine, because if you notice in that, the camera, you know, these are the sort of things I noticed in Heathley, that's all I noticed is just the camera angles.

I just watched it as a technical exercise. That's a question, really. When you're filming or photographing a camera, where is the camera? When you're filming or photographing a mirror, where is the camera? It's quite black in the background. The camera is in the middle in a tripod. and it doesn't move. It's a fixed position in camera, therefore it's quite easy to have painted it out

after, say, what they must have done for that scene, right? But there are many different ways. Wow. Jacob Tierney, he wrote it and he directed it. He uses so many mirrors in that show and there's lots of reflective glass

and, as I say, you know, a lot of it's done in hotel rooms and hotel suites. He likes mirrors and, you know, by the way, if you want to get into some fan discourse and what it all means and the reflections of each other

and internalize homophobia, please, Get out there on that internet and you'll find plenty. I would call it heated mirrors. Yeah. A heated mirror, by the way. That is a game changer, a heated mirror. Yeah.

Anyway, listen, I digress. Yes. It is incredibly difficult, as you can imagine, to not have the camera show in a mirror scene. There's lots of different ways they do them and they vary in cost and ingenuity. So we'll go through them. Cheat mirrors.

They might just angle it in a slightly weird way so you don't see the camera. And maybe, certainly one of my shout-outs possibly one of my favorite movie scenes ever, the taxi, in taxi driver, when Robert De Niro is talking to himself in the mirror. Oh, that's a good motion I thought of that. Yeah, well, there we go.

That one, they tilt that mirror, and that's, so that's, you know, they didn't have much, huge amounts of Mali Martin Scorsese, and he does that, but it's great, and he improvises a lot of that scene. It limits the camera movement. You can't do a lot, but it doesn't, didn't matter there.

You can totally remove the mirror, so you're essentially filming through, so the thing that you're showing is actually the real person, and the camera, as it were, the shot is the mirror frame. And they do sometimes do that. So you would do that and then just put like a frame of a mirror on it in post so it looks like the mirror. And it looks like there's an incredible scene in contact where she's running up the stairs. And she runs into her house, runs all the way upstairs, runs along a corridor.

And there's a really small bathroom mirror. And then she opens and opens a bathroom cabinet. And that is done in a very clever way. And you can watch whole tutorials about how they did that. one of the famous movie scenes because it's just not at all clear how you could achieve that in such a small space and not have basically it all be camera. Yeah, so as I said, you can totally remove the mirror and sometimes what they have is a body double as the person looking in the mirror, as it were. So you've got the real actor pretending to be themselves in the mirror and then someone

mimicking their actions for the reflection. No way. That seems very low-fying. Well, no, it looks good. You can obviously just do it with digital and CGI and so in something like Dr. Strange, they've got tons of mirror stuff. Two-way mirrors, which are helpful. You often see that, obviously, in police procedures. And then the camera just films from the dark side, and it looks good, that way of framing it. And then it's a mirror when you look from the other side. So that makes things quite easy.

Needless to say, this is something that is famously used by James Cameron, the mirror room technique, where you create an entire identical room through the mirror. And so you can do anything there. You can have lots of movement in the camera. so you can get that that will deliver the best thing. It's obviously the most difficult and the most sort of more expensive. In Terminator 2,

there's a famous scene where Linda Hamilton is operating on the Terminator model and this is amazing how they did this. She is doing on Schwarzenegger, as it were, her twin sister Leslie. Come on. It's true. It's true, James Cameron. Her twin sister Leslie is doing it

with a working prosthetic head that can actually like grimace and stuff of Schwarzenegger on, the other side of a non-mirror because they've created. It's very, very expensive. It involves an enormous amount of choreography. It's really helpful if you've got a twin. Wow. Well, that's like being a magician's assistant. Almost all magicians assistant are identical twins. Yes. Are they not? Yes. Yes. Yes. That's just, yes. You're not supposed to say that on the podcast. It's not, you're not going to that behind the scenes. I'm not a member of the

magic circle, though. My identical twin brother is. Yeah. But anyway, so that's, so there's all sorts of different ways. And it's, I think that the body, the twin, but Yeah, so those, I suppose those are three of my favourite scenes. But honestly, every time I see it, I'm trying to work out which one they've done. Now I just want to hear John Moore telling us how he shoots mirror scenes. Yes. John Boyin again? Yeah, right.

Guys, I cannot do this every week. I am busy. Was there a point of which Gene Hatman met his reflection in the bathroom mirror and thought, why am I doing this? Not the film, but like, why am I doing whatever it is he's doing? Maybe there was. My favourite mirror things, well, a couple of things, I'll say, I don't like it. I do not like it if a scene starts in a bathroom and the bathroom cabinet is open.

So they're in a bathroom, they're over the sink, and you're seeing into the bathroom cabinet and there's, you know, tablets and whatever, because you know. America. They always have so much better stuff in their cabinets and us. But you know the second that that starts, that at some point they're going to close that cabinet, there's going to be a mirror and there's going to be a murderer just appears behind them. Yes. So that I don't like.

The just, honestly, the second that's, I just, you know what, I'm just going to not look until, is the murderer there yet? The best ever mirror thing, because you said two-way mirror, so I'm allowed two-way mirror, is the cold open of Brooklyn 9-9 when their line-up sings Backstreet Boys. That's the best ever. That's the best ever use of a two-way mirror. That's correct. That's correct. There's no further questions. Yes, excellent.

I did it. I also love that the Instagram account, which is people selling mirrors. Have you seen that? No. Oh, it's amazing. Okay, great. Which is, because anyone's ever tried to set a mirror and you put them up on gum tree or whatever it is, you have to take a photo of the mirror that makes it look good, but without you being in it. Yes, I see.

But lots of people don't quite manage it or haven't realized they've sort of caught themselves. And, you know, they're in like very, very unusual positions. It's really genuinely hilarious. How good. I'll go and have a look at that. People selling mirrors. Question from Susie, who says, I absolutely love the podcast. Oh, thank you, Susie.

That's very kind. Thank you both for sharing your insight into such a fascinating industry. I have a question. When a new format TV show is filmed, is the episode that was filmed first, always shown first, or do they hide it halfway through the run? Oh, God, that is generally, it's a blast from the past. There are certain shows where you have to go from episode one. So if you have something like, pointless, for example, where the winner stays on, then you have to continue from episode one.

You do anything with a reality element to it, you have to work from episode one. If you have a show where they are capsule episodes, beginning and middle and end, and tomorrow a whole new group of people turn up, then you can do whatever you want. And then, yes, normally, if you're shooting a series of six,

you might put episode four out first when you hit the ground running and little kind of tweaks that you made, you've got stuff wrong in the first episode, you might put that out first. or if it's sort of a big... Did you do that with House of Games? Like was the first week you shot?

First week you aired? That's a good question. I think so because I think we aired... We sort of did a kind of pilot week. Funny enough thinking about doing my last ever one that pilot week because Rick Edwards was on it and I was saying I'd love someone from that first week to be on the final one.

So it was Rick Edwards, Angela Scanlon, Clara Ampho and Charlie Higson. And yes, I think we always knew that was going to be our first week. So, yeah, I think we couldn't hide anything there. but if you're watching House of Games now, we don't do that in order. You know, we will put out stuff at various points. You know, occasionally someone will say, oh, by the way, you know, could this go on after Strictly

because I'm on Strictly, so you'll put that after? And you can move things about a little bit. You know where Christmas is going to go, but apart from that you don't. And yeah, you will often front load episodes, so you've got good ones. If you're doing a show, you know, if you've got something that has a big jackpot,

if you've got something like The Wheel, for example, which doesn't roll over at all. So who wants to be a millionaire? You have to do the first one. Million pound drop, you have to do the first one. You know, most shows have some sort of recurring thing where it means you can't put them out of order. But the wheel, you can record 10 of them. And in episode 8, somebody wins $85,000 or just misses $85,000.

It's a great ending. You might put that first. You might kind of think, you know what, let's absolutely lead with that. And certainly if you've got a brand new format that you want to show off. And there's something about that format. If you've got, you know, there's something about the format that you know is going to hook people in. But occasionally it doesn't happen in a particular episode. You would search for the episode that shows the viewer exactly what this show is, how it can work, what mad things can happen in your show.

And put that first and then, you know, by episode seven or something, you can put out the more regular ones. But what you get all the time, you know, I did a show called Two Tribes, which we absolutely could put out of order. And we did. And I remember a good friend of me saying after about three weeks of that saying, it was really, really interesting because at first I wasn't sure about this show, but you've really worked out what it is now. And I said, you are watching it completely out of order.

The person who's worked out what it is is you. Okay, we worked out what it was by episode 17, which is why that was episode one. You are watching episode two where we had no idea what it was, but you have worked out what it is. So yeah, it is with sitcoms, of course, by and large, you have to put them all in order, but occasionally again, you'll get a sitcom that is, you know, like porridge or Steptoen sign or, you know,

some of the old stuff. You'll have things that you can put out of order. But if you can put stuff out of order, you do. Definitely. If you can put out the first one, that's great. But usually it's not quite where it needs to be, and you will work something out. And definitely, definitely, definitely,

If you've got something that really shows off your format and it's a new format, you really want to hit the ground running. That's when every reviewer only ever review the first episode of something, which I do think is crazy. You know, even dramas, they'll do the first episode of something. And you go, you know there's five more episodes of this that you could review. But yeah, you definitely want to put your best foot forward. And it is scary when you do a show that has a rolling jackpot or has a returning cast where you cannot do that. And then you just, you know, it probably doesn't make any different. in the end. But as a producer, if there's something you can control, you do try to. Yeah, if you

see a show where it could be put out in any order, then by and large it will be put out in any order. Right. Shall we now go to a break? I'm going to be giving away a little, would I like to you, secret after the break as well. I've had an amazing answer from the brilliant Peter Holmes who produces what I like to for a great question as well. So I want you to ask me that after the break. I will do that. This episode is brought to you by Monzo. Marina, what's your attitude to things like stocks, shares, investing, all of that? I think most people feel daunted and like it's not for them.

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Tax depends on your circumstances and could change in the future. UK residents 18 plus Tise and Cs apply. Now, if you didn't know it yet, Gollhanger, which is the company that makes Restors Entertainment, payment, rest is politics, rest is history, are putting together a huge festival at the South Bank this September with loads and loads of different live shows. History, politics, science, sports. All of Goldhanger's hosts in one place for the first time. So many streams being crossed, I can't tell you the danger of it all.

And it made me think, well, if they're all going to be there anyway, why don't I do a quiz with all of them in their different areas, testing them on their own area, testing them on other people's areas and we make it a little bit competitive and just essentially saying who is the best out of all the goalhanger podcast. We will be putting goal hangers finest minds to the test and we're very, very excited about this one. We're going to host it together. I'm going to be the Alexander Armstrong to your Richard Osman. I think that's the way that's going to work. I genuinely, I think this will be an absolute last. It will be a brilliant. It'll be a brilliant event. The Restis Fest is running between the 4th and the 6th of September at the London South Bank

Centre, members can get tickets for this on the 19th of March at 10am. And general sale, by the way, goes live on the 26th of March at 10am. But 19th of March at 10am for members and then the 26th for non-members. Yeah. Visit southbank centre.com.com.combe.com to find out more. Can I tell you something? Yes. I'm going to take absolutely no nonsense from any of them. Oh my God. It's going to be run properly.

There's going to be no kind of, oh, come on, give us a point for that. Now they're playing on your territory. Exactly. It's going to be funny as well. It's going to be hilarious. At Desjardin, our business is helping yours. We are here to support your business through every stage of growth, from your first pitch to your first acquisition. Whether it's improving cash flow or exploring investment banking solutions,

with Desjardin business, it's all under one roof. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. Business. Welcome back, everybody. Marina. Chris Herbert has a question for you.

It's a topical one. Chris says, My question follows on for your recent episode regarding the Harry Stiles conspiracy and the internet losing its mind over Jim Carrey's appearance at the Cesar Award.

What have been the most outlandish celebrity conspiracy theories in history and have any of them proved to be true, I really want your take on the Jim Carrey thing. We almost did it in the regular episode, but it's an amazing story. By background, Jim Carrey, who doesn't do a lot in front of the camera nowadays, accepted a few weeks ago an Honorary Cesar, which is a film award,

and he went to Paris and he did his whole acceptance speech in French. It was that coupled with the fact that people thought he'd had so much work done on his face. By the way, I thought it was slightly exaggerated. I looked at the pictures. I mean, okay, fine, his second mention was always the rubber face funny man. and maybe it's not so rubbery now. Maybe it doesn't, maybe the rubber has gone a bit hard. It's a bit more epoxy resin, isn't it now?

And so people said, oh no, he's been cloned. And I think it wasn't hugely. There was a drag queen who said that she'd played him for the... Yes, that she'd put on a mask. Yeah, but I mean, I think she was just sort of joking and trying to get in on it all. None of these are ever true, by the way, that I don't think. None of them are ever true. But the interesting thing with Jim Carrey that made it a tiny bit more believable is that he

played Andy Kaufman, who did do this sort of thing, who was one of the few people in history who actually did do that kind of stuff. And so you could imagine that as a performance piece, Jim Carrey, who is, this is why I think it caught light, Jim Carrey, who is quite reclusive and doesn't really do very much and is suddenly speaking in a different language and has had some work done. It's clearly, you can still see it's him, but you could imagine that that might be a performance piece. I don't imagine he's been cloned because I feel that medically that would be, the huge advances would be needed to do that. But certainly, They've done it with Barry Diller's dogs. Why can't they do it? We didn't carry. That's true, I suppose so. But it certainly could have been someone wearing a mask. You think that wouldn't be impossible. It'd be a long way to go to some French film award.

No one cares about. I know, but sometimes, you know, like on a Friday evening, you don't want to go to the other side of, you know, the town where you live. No. He might not want to go to France. It's such a long way to go in a metaphorical sense as opposed to just to getting on a plane. We've got to go back to the culture here because we're now going through another conspiracies moment and there are all kinds of ones bubbling under, you know, Michelle Obama's a man,

a Brigitte Macron's a man. I think Selena Gomez, she's another one they think has been cloned because her appearance has changed a bit in, you know, there's a really simple explanation for this, by the way, and everyone in Hollywood's on it. Princess Kate, do you remember last year? They thought that, you know, during the cancer scare, there was some fake video of made of her, of a garden centre, it was completely, we are in a cultural moment where for reasons that we keep saying is that people feel they're being lied to about all sorts of things. And there is a sort of groundswell of conspiracy. Cloning or complete misrepresentation is a part of that.

So we're going through one of those. By the way, this is pretty sick. And it happens a lot. In the early 2010s, people were like, oh, Britney's been, you know, Britney's got body doubles. Avril Levine has been replaced because she's difficult or whatever and she's been replaced with someone applying. All the fake pregnancy stories that I can't even remember them all. You know, Beyonce, all of those ones. Melania is faked.

Well, this is what I am so ashamed of because literally on my way here, I thought, oh my God, I forgot, I started one of these. You started the Melania one. Okay, in 2017, it's a Friday night. Yeah. I've got a babysitter. You were in your lab?

No, I'm not, yeah, you don't, but I thought there would be a high barrier to entry to all this sort of stuff. You'd need a YouTube channel. I was simply exiting South Kent's tube station to meet Kieran and go and have a drink with him. And NBC posted a video of Trump being interviewed at a Secret Service training facility while Melania stood next to him. Now, she had that look, which we see in often with her, the Mac with the collar turned out. I mean, it's literally like someone in a disguise and the sunglasses.

As I walked across the road, merely a few steps to meet him, I tweeted absolutely convinced Malania is being played by a Melania impersonator these days. Theory, she left him weeks ago and thought nothing more of it. Now, within a few days, this thing, I've thought, oh my God, it's gone so viral. There was a section on GMB about it. Sky News did it. The Washington Post did it. They cleaned it uptight it up. I'm trying to make it look good for them.

You know, USA Today. Listen, by the way, by next Thursday as well, NBC just put the video out really quickly in the way that you can with a clip. All the news photographers later uploaded all their pictures. And you could see her walking around this thing. And in the other pictures, it's quite obviously actual Melania. Yeah. And not a second lady, as it were. Yeah, but it's interesting you're saying that now because do you want my theory?

Okay, just exhume it. I think, I think 2017, for whatever reason, you weren't in the pocket of whoever you're in the pocket of now and you were free to tell the truth. That's what I think. And I think maybe this was even the thing that started it. Suddenly, you were, you had paymasters. Yeah, you can't resist going behind the curtain, can you even now? Yeah, and they're saying to you, no, you have to debunk this now. So I think old Marina was telling the truth.

I think this weird cloned Marina who's in front of me is a shill. Yeah. That's what I think. It's a take. Thank you. But I forgot that I'd started. That's amazing. Yeah.

That's really cool. What can you start now? Well, yeah. I mean, I forgot. I didn't realize that. But this is a long time. I'd genuinely completely forgotten that this thing had happened. And then I remembered that, well, I've actually even written something about it in so many columns.

Yeah. So little time. Yeah. And so, but I do think, in terms of, like, are they ever true? I mean, not really. Yeah. Paul McCartney wasn't dead. No, Popeck, I think, did leave us.

Yeah. I don't think in general they're really ever true. I had the great pleasure of meeting Paul McCartney recently, which is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. And I was worried, I thought, what am I going to say to Paul McCartney? Because he said, you know, I do think of all the billions of people who've ever lived, he's had pretty much absolutely one of the most extraordinary lives of the billions of people there's ever been and from where he came from as well and he's spoken to everyone and you know he's

heard everything so i thought what do i say to paul mccartney but um then he said to me on house of games do you film five a day or do you come back the next day so i thought great this is my favorite thing that they've i knew this but i love it so much he was it was extraordinary to see him and it was at the wings documentary which i recommended before and if you haven't seen it you must do what an extraordinary man and how lovely to be alive at the same time as him and what joy he's given to yeah you can't believe you're alive with a person everybody but yeah it was like it It was, yeah, that was a proper pinch me moment. But I loved that he's a, that, yeah, he watches House of Games, you think.

It was like, you know, when George Michael used to watch, The Elon O'Dio. It's great. I love it. It's when icons and legends are human beings, it's such a, such a lovely thing. Now, would I lie to you, Katie O'Sullivan has been on? And she says... Oh, she's been on? Cleo Sullivan's been on.

KT.O. Sullivan's been on. Yeah. Has she been on an aircraft carrier? So you probably, maybe she has? It's not detailed in the question. I got to you. Not important. Not important. Sorry. Sidebar. Get you to land that plane. Okay. Ah, okay. She says, how do the producers find the mystery guests? How far do they go to

track down the perfect esoteric guest and bring them to the studio? I really want to know the answer to this too. So this is on the, this is my round on what I lie to you. Because often when you're playing it, that does actually go through your head. And I think when you're watching at home as well, you think, yeah, but surely they wouldn't be able to track that person down. So, you know, If it's like this is my next door neighbour who, you know, blah, blah, blah. But if it's like, this is someone I knew when I was 17, you're like, yeah, or this is someone I met on holiday. So I asked your question to Peter Holmes, who created What I Lie to You and still runs and it, produces it. We must do like a whole.

Please can we do a special? We get so many questions about what I lie to you. With Peter and his lovely wife, Rachel, who accepts it as well. They would answer everything. Peter and Rachel, please come on the show. Come on, Peter and Rachel. But for now, Peter has asked this one. And I apologize, I'm reading this out, by the way, but Peter has told it beautifully,

so I want to tell it exactly how he's told it. Over 19 years on what I invite to you, yeah, we've booked 171. This is my guess, and we probably tracked down about three times as many. We've spoken before about how this show works, is that when you're on it, you will do a research chat with one of the researchers and talk about your life, and they'll note down any funny stories. But in that, it might be one of those is like a, this is my. It's like a person who they could find. And Peter says, look, some of them, you know, a guest can give us a direct contact. and that's super easy.

But many, many of them require quite a bit of detective work. We have found people in Australia, America. We have found random flight attendants, builders, hotel receptionist, tour guys, Bickers. We even found a bus driver from Barry Cryer. I'm going to give you one that stands out. It's, you know, what's the furthest they've gone. But it's interesting, they really can go and do a lot of detective work.

So you can't just think, yeah, but there's no way they'd remember like they'd be able to find this bus driver from 10 years ago. It's so incredible. We'll go out and do that. One that stands out both as a great bit of detective work and a lovely moment on the show was finding that this is my for Rob Rinder. Now, this was an episode I was on. This is an episode I was on, and I'm sure when I was on, I thought there's no way you'd be able to find that person.

So during his research chat, he told us that he had a secret crush on a school friend and that for the past 20 years he'd use his crush's name as the basis for all his internet passwords. So I remember sitting there and that you think, okay. And then he was saying, oh, I didn't really know this guy particularly though. I'd just say the guy who would never know. And I was thinking, what if you don't know the guy particularly? There's no way. There's no way they've tracked this person down.

But they had. So he said, Robert said to them that he hadn't seen this guy since school. He had no idea where he lived, but he had heard somewhere in the dim and distant past that he now had a job that was, and I quote Peter Holmes, something to do with meat. Okay? So this is the info they had. They knew his name was Edward and he had a fairly common surname. That's all they had. He did something to do with meat.

He went to school with Rob Rinder. He was called Edward. He had a fairly common surname. Peter says, This is My Booker for that series. Kimberly Boke gets on the case, right? So she knows that he's gone to high school in the High Barnet area. So Kimberly begins contacting anyone she could find with his name in that locale,

asking him if they've been to school with Judge Rinder. None of them had. A thought occurred in the production office. If he had something to do with meat, he might be a butcher. So we took to Google Earth to stroll around the High Barnet area, looking at Butcher's shop fronts to see if Edward's name made an appearance in any of the signage. It didn't. The search for other Edwards further afield began in earnest.

And after lots of... This is what goes into... That's why this show is one of the best on TV. Is, you know, they don't muck about. The search for other Edwards further afield began in earnest, and after lots of dead ends, one in Milton Keynes caught Kimberley's eye. A searching company's house revealed that this Edward ran a catering business called Porky and Best. Could this be Rinder's meat vending school crush?

Email contact was made with Edward. Did you buy any chance to go to school with Judge Rinder? He did. Were you a poll, Volta? This was other information that he even had given. That wasn't random. Then it always decides that. He was.

Can we call you? You can. So Kimmley calls Edward. Ask for his recollections of being at school with Judge Rinder. By the way, I'm not giving his very common surname because that would give away Judge Rinder's passwords. I'm sure he's changed them. Edward was aware of Judge Rinder, but they hadn't really spoken much. He had no idea.

idea that Robert had a crush on him or that he'd been the basis for his passers for the last 20 years. And yes, he would love to appear on the show. Once in the studio, the three panellists each made their claim as to how they knew him. Denise Lewis said that Robert had helped him to pick up and move his car after she'd been blocked him by Daly Thompson. I think I went for that one. Because it just sounds a sort of thing. Leam-a-Mack said he had dressed at Edward's wife to fall his son into thinking his mum has attended his school play and Judge Wendornda told the truth. Davis team interrogated each story before landing on the genuine connection. The other two members of that team, Catherine Ryan and some bloke called Richard Osman. It was a very funny and warm

moment in the studio to see Robert lost for words as he came face to face with his school crush. After the show, the two of them sat together in the warty green room, sharing a drink or two and catching up on life since school. Edward's picture was unpinned from the production office wall and replaced with that this is my guest for the next show. And the team headed home, satisfied that the case of Edward the Meatman had been well and truly solved. That is art. It's unbelievable. I mean, they should all work for the FBI or something. Shouldn't they just? Amazing when you think how long the Met take to bring them certain people, isn't it? I mean, they should go and work there. But I think that is just complete poetry. Isn't that great?

And for a show that feels like it has such a light touch and feel, and when you're on it does have a light touch. It's like you're walking on air when you're on that show. But as so often in television, that's because there are people behind the scenes who have done every, single thing to make sure that show is going to run beautifully and be funny and charming and warm. It's a real testament to production teams art. Okay, it's decided we are doing a special Q&A. With Peter and Rachel. Not least my family, we've got about 30 questions we want to ask, so I'll try and sneak one of those in. Thank you so much for that question, Katie. And listen, honestly, I genuinely don't care now if you've been on an aircraft carrier. That was a great question. Brilliant. If you do that question and you've been on an aircraft carrier, you're our MVP, but currently

that's still John. Right. That, I think, wraps us up for today. We are back tomorrow with the second part of our deranged village people special, bonus special. If you want to join, it's the rest isentertainment.com. Otherwise, see you next Tuesday. See you next Tuesday.